This took me a while to articulate this topic and I don’t think it’s the best but let’s just right into this because this deserves no introduction.
The biggest reason why 80% of creators quit: burnout.
I’ve known many creators and other clients that struggle with fulfillment and enjoyment when it comes to building their brand.
And also seen other creators completely disappear and never to be seen again.
These were the type of people that:
would build their brand just for the sake of a result and an outcome. would blindly follow the content and branding advice a creator-guru would tell them to follow would have absolutely no direction or higher-purpose behind their brand And then one day, they end up needing to take a long quote-on-quote “break.”
Or for some, their entire brand completely dissolves, left in a graveyard of other dead brands.
Because why? They’ve lost enjoyment and fulfillment behind what they were pursuing. The felt “done with it” and utterly felt completely burnt-out.
And no I don’t want to generalize this because some creators quit temporarily or fully for other reasons—sometimes there are more important matters to be taken care of in their lives first (bless them well).
But the reality is:
Every creator was attracted with the promise of this “new-rich”—a promise of 5-10k/months.
Every creator was given a new way out of the conventional and regular systems of society.
Every creator was taught to commercialize themselves, rather than truly express themselves.
For some they were instantly led to a great path of fulfillment.
But for others, they were led to what was thought as the new paradise of entrepreneurship are sick and fucking tired. Tired of the generic-methods, tired of the joylessness, and tired of the purposelessness.
For that, the current paradigm for brand building and the creator economy has to change.
And this is why I’m writing this article: to prevent you from going too far into the deep-end and having you burn the hell out as a creator.
Because the last thing I want to see is young and budding creators (like myself) full of vitality and intensity to dissolve in my hands.
I don’t want young and budding creators not be able to reach to the point to make money doing what they love.
(And yes I am being selfish).
So this is what we’ll be doing :)
Reviving your love for being a creator So if you are:
feeling like you need to force yourself to create content. feeling trapped and limited to how you are building your brand feeling like you are lost and directionless with where you’re going Or EVERYTHING feels goddamn sterile and low-energy, keep reading because you’re on the brink of burning out.
So here’s what to expect from this newsletter:
Practicing self-expression over self-commercialization Build your brand your own way - Create your own game Understanding your values, aspirations & mission You’ll no longer feel the need to play the social-media and metrics game.
You’ll no longer need to force yourself to do things what other people are doing.
You’ll no longer be lost, directionless, and goddamn meaningless.
Let’s decimate your lack of passion and revive your love for being a creator again 😸
Practicing self-expression over self-commercialization This honestly took me a while to articulate and this will be contradictory to you and most people view branding… but so be it.
Somebody needs to shine the light in the darkness after all and I’ll start first.
The reason why building your brand and creating content feels like a to you drag is because:
you overly care about results and “what works” you pressure yourself to create and brand for others you mindlessly follow what other creators and authorities do But for you to let this dictate how you are working and building your brand is the reason why you feel burnt out.
Instead of trying to enjoy what you are doing, you are trying to commercialize what you are doing.
And for that, there needs to be a change.
So for now, put your desire to care about results or to create for other people.
Instead of prioritizing self-commercialization, prioritize your self-expression.
As weird and woo-woo as it sounds 🤣 this is where true fulfillment and passion comes through within your work.
You start to treat branding and content-creation as a pure form of creativity, self-exploration, and enjoyment. Without the expectation of results, doing what “works,” or doing what other people are doing. You are creating just for the sake of creating.
Such is the act of self-expression—here’s some ways to enable yourself to do this as a creator:
NO-NICHE yourself - build your brand based on your passions, curiosities, and what you’re learning Post whatever you want - opinions, thoughts, ideas, even if they seem “unpopular” Build products & create an offer that you actually want to sell and deliver—not what makes money the easiest Brand yourself however you want: have your own brand-aesthetic, content-style, and vibe Allow yourself to break these goddamn imaginary rules.
Even the business-side of things should be an act of pure self-expression—because the business is an extension of who you are.
You might lose results, you might lose your grip with some people in your audience, and you might not attract as much people to your offers.
But who cares?
At the end of the day, you prioritizing your self-expression over everything will be the thing that will BUILD your brand and business. Along with that, you’ll revive your fulfillment, enjoyment, and love for building your brand.
And to preface here, there isn’t anything wrong having self-commercialization aspects to your brand. Because you need to:
capture attention grow & expand your brand & business build projects and share products attract leads, clients, and make more money We’re also building a business here so we can’t get dogmatic.
But once it gets in the way of self-expression, that’s when it can feel like you’re building for someone (or something) else and not truly yourself.
But through prioritizing self-expression first, that’s where self-commercialization will come as a byproduct.
You’ll be so passionate with your work:
you become magnetic and attract more people to your brand & business you start inspiring and captivating more people because of your work and social-media presence you start to be more passionate in what you offer and you’ll start making money doing what you love All your growth and expansion will become a byproduct of your prioritization of your enjoyment, love, and self-expression of your work.
That’s when you start touching people’s hearts.
That’s when you start creating a staggering amount of impact.
So allow your self-expression to prevail and you’ll start flourishing in your work again.
You’ll start loving your work again.
Build your brand your own way - Create your own game When everyone zigs, zag - Alexa Von Tobel This might seem like an extension of the previous step but this needs to be talked about as well.
The act of self-expression through branding will profoundly help you enjoy and thrive in being a creator.
But if you are still mindlessly following the blueprint of social-media growth and brand-strategy advice, this is what makes people burnout… seriously.
What do I mean by the blueprint?:
needing to post 3x/day, optimize for persuasion & virality needing to engage 40x a day, reply to all comments needing to follow a 3 pillar content strategy needing to choose a niche, talk about 1 thing And the point of all this advice is to:
to get you the most results to earn you the most authority in your niche to do what most people are doing and what works Yes you’ll need to do an aspect to this for your brand and business.
But a flaw or shadow that I see in people have more pragmatic personality-types is they over-preach what works, but hardly preach how to make it work for you (which is the goal of this section).
It’s good to teach beginners advice but even beginners need to be empowered to actually follow through with their own advice —not just follow others blindly just because it’ll get them from point A to B the fastest.
It’s even worse where the emphasis on growth and metrics is overblown on this platform—the way of self-commercialization is spread more than the way of self-expression. No wonder people are getting sick and tired with personal-branding.
So if you’re not enjoying the way you’re building your brand or if certain advice isn’t working for you, something needs to change.
Especially:
When you need to develop and build your skill & business? When you don’t have the time in your season right now? When it doesn’t fit you, your values, & your personality? When it doesn’t resonate with you? We’ll need to still have a brand-strategy but we need to draw a line on the sand
Instead of playing the game most creators want us to play, we’ve got to create our own game.
To start, let me give you some examples:
Don’t want to post 3x/day? Post 2x Don’t want to write 1 newsletter/week? Write 1 bi-weekly Don’t want to engage for 1h/day? Engage 30m Don’t want to write 3 long-forms/week? Write 2 Don’t want to follow a normal content strategy? Experiment & create your own These are some examples but you can think of any piece of advice you’ve seen and you can challenge it with your own.
This will empower you to make your own decision for how you’ll build your brand.
And also I empower you to be open minded and push yourself with your strategy if you can. But it depends on how satisfied you are with your results, what goals you have, and your current season in life.
Just do whatever works for you .
Now if you want to see my own brand & content strategy that works for me now?:
I mostly post 3x/day but not all the time I don’t write a newsletter 1x/week, I do bi-weekly instead because I need to focus on my paid offer (I’ll repurpose these as long-authority posts on X) I aim towards sending at least 2 small emails/week (I’ll repurpose these as long-posts on X) I engage max 45m/day and I’m not going to push it further if I don’t want to I stick to posting max 2-3 tweet/long-posts/week I follow a 2 pillar content strategy: business content & creativity content for authority, self-expression, and flexibility This is just what’s sustainable for me, get’s me results, and I love it. And I plan on making a few changes to my strategy (more long-posts)—but I like where it’s going.
Choose what works for you, get rid of what doesn’t.
You’ll be able to navigate the creator economy intuitively and seamlessly.
You’ll be able to enjoy and love building your brand.
And you’ll stand out and people will stand with you, just because you’re showing that you’re playing your game.
The Philosophy of The Creator: Understanding your values, aspirations & mission Now you understand how to pursue building your brand in a more enjoyable and passionate way.
What’s left of this is to discovery new clarity to create your unique path as a creator. Aka what your values, aspirations, and mission are as a creator.
This will ensure you you’ll be going towards something meaningful and fulfilling as a creator—no need to worry about feeling purposeless anymore.
You’lll be doing this through your creator philosophy.
And no I’m not asking you your entire life’s purpose because who the hell knows? This whole life we’re living in the first place feels like an entire mystery unto itself.
But I am asking you of the current philosophy you want to embody as a creator and that also aligns with who you are as a person.
I’ll keep this section short and practical for you (i go into more depth in this free-guide) but still will equip you with your own unique path as a creator :)
What values do you want to practice?
think of the values you already practice in your day-to-day life think of what you don’t value (anti-values) think of values you want to embody that will help you go towards your desired life This will help keep you abide by your own morals and principles as a creator and will help you attract like-minded people with the same values.
What are your aspirations?
what do you aspire towards as an individual? create both goals that are personal (for you), and are transpersonal (beyond you). think of your oppositions - what you don’t fucking want to pursue or become 🤣 And once you understand them, you can break these down into smaller goals and lever-moving actions that you’ll need to execute towards your aspirations.
One of mine is “helping myself and others make money through pursuing their passions and curiosities.”
What is your higher-mission?
you can take your values and aspirations and conjuct both of them together into what you think would be your mission create yourself a short or medium-length mission statement for you to remember it easier Even if you don’t know your mission just yet, at least create one that feels right to you or that matches with your aspiration. Because who the hell knows what true mission we have on this cosmic path we embark on?
Concluding
Answering these 3 questions will give you a higher-function and aim towards your pursuit as a creator.
You’ve practically annihilated and decimated any way you would “burn-out” or feel “un-fulfilled”—because you’re now aligned with something meaningful and greater than your entire self.
So good job 😛
Finding joy in creation once again Now for a lil recap…
We’ve got you to embrace self-expression over self-commercialization… prioritizing your enjoyment, creativity, and curiosity when it comes to creating. We’ve got you to create your own personal and unique brand-building strategy so you can build your brand in your own way. And we’ve got you to create your own creator philosophy to ensure you’ll stay on a meaningful and fulfilling path. Your right as a creator isn’t to feel directionless, lost, and feel burnt out.
Your right as a creator is to truly enjoy, love, and relish the fact that you are creating something bigger than yourself.
All the while you’ll be able to express yourself and be your most authentic-self.
And for that, I hope this newsletter did just that for you :)
If you like this newsletter, you’ll enjoy my other newsletter on “Be YOU-NIQUE: Stand-out as a personal-brand by being you”
And make sure to pick up “The Path to You-niqueness” free-guide that will help you find clarity to build an impactful brand through your interests, values, and personality.
Go express yourself and go forward.
I’ll see ya soon :)
Be You-nique - WIN
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