No. It's the creator space. Do you consider yourself a creator?
Yes, I do consider myself as a creator. What do you create? I create two types of content, um, or writing a blog posts. So written format I use. Tweet. So I think that's also a type of content. So I think any type of content that you make online, I would consider yourself as a creator. And I also had the app into Instagram videos, YouTube videos, but right now my focus is really written format. And so
how long have you
been writing? So I've been writing online since October or November, but I really only started taking it seriously around December. So I would estimate around six to seven months.
And what have been the effects so far?
It's been a lot of effects. To be honest, I initially wrote to express my anger and frustration towards my nursing job and the online course that I felt like I really wasted my money on because originally I wanted to start an online business, but I didn't really know how to do that. So I bought a course, did not like the course and I just shut the whole thing down. When I started writing, doing a lot of self discovery, a lot of self-reflection.
So as I got better, I wanted to share what I did to do that. And I just became better emotionally. And that's when I started thinking, okay, how can I do better writing? How can I grow as a writer? So it was a little bit. From self-reflection to, how can I provide value to others?
So tell me, when did the shift occur?
I think it occurred around ship 30 for 30, because at that time I was still discovering what to do online. I knew I wanted to write well, and I knew I wanted to build an audience slash community, but I didn't know how to. So when I joined ship 30 for 30, I gave them a. That time to experiment to be really true to what I want to say out there. And since then, really, I feel like it gave me the boost, the confidence to be true to myself.
And I think that's my content resonated with a lot of people because I just talked my true message. So I talked about how being lost in the online world as well as in real life. And so a lot of my content revolved around. Yeah. Type of topics.
So, how do you build your audience now? Do you build an
audience right now, actively doing it strategically? Because I said, mentioned before, I would want it to really learn how to get paid writing. So I'm starting my freelancing journey and the minimum amount I do for building my audience is writing on medium. Like. Once a week and tweeting whenever I feel like it, it's not very strategic, but because my focus is somewhere else and a weekly newsletter where it just helps me build relationships with other people throughout my journey. So tell
me about that. How does the newsletter create relationships throughout your journey?
So I use my newsletter to reflect on the things that I've struggled throughout the week and how I've overcome them. So that forced me to be intentional about my actions throughout the week and figure out, okay, what problems am I having as a creator? And then once I solve it, I shared those struggles and how I overcame them to the people who are. To my newsletter. So it's like it's for myself, but also for other people, it doesn't feel like
work. That makes a lot of sense. And was there a time when you were more focused on audience building?
So after ship 30 for 30 mid February to March is when I learned about the whole. You know, oh, my content is really resonating. Let me continue the songs. So what I did was I put a lot of essays, but not as much as the first cohort. And I engaged with a lot of people. So my focus on the first cohort was putting my content out there and building relationships with other people through commenting on their content. DM-ing them hopping on zoom calls.
And then during the second cohort, but I stopped doing the daily essays because it was becoming a lot. Yeah. And I've been coming up with different ideas on how to build my presence. So I stopped doing my daily essays. I would still go out different types of content, but I was more focused on developing relationships online because that's when I launched crater sandbox, which is accountability group that I'm building. Tell me about that.
Yeah. So creator sandbox, basically, I got the idea because I was in multiple accountability groups with five different people. And so I noticed it was taking a lot of my time and we were talking about the exact same thing because I've built the relationship with multiple individual creators. And I pitched the idea to them asking, Hey, would you want to do this with maybe 10, 15 other people? And we're going.
Biweekly so that we can still catch up and talk about our struggles, our wins during this journey. And I asked them whether they would pay for it. And they said, yes, if you launch it, I'll join. So I gathered some data before I launch or did anything. And so how's it going? It's going great. It's small right now. Invitation only it's paid so that not everybody can it. Just so that it's a little bit high quality and
is a great way to create a bar. You've got the community is one way you're monetizing. And you mentioned you got your first freelancing.
Yeah else I get paid through writing on medium. Well, that's not very consistent because you're dependent on the algorithm of how your article does. So that's one way. It's also very hard to monetize. Only top 5% of the writers actually make the a hundred dollar club is what they call it. Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah. I think I've got 12 cents. That's still good to me.
Medium is an amazing platform because the fact that you're writing about your experience, your stories, and you're getting paid for it, that's really mind blowing to me. So I use it not to strategically make an income, but more for this is where I get to my stories with other people, because they already have such a audiences. Makes sense.
So you've got the combination approach where you've got some guessing the creator sandboxes subscription. Yes.
Right now this is a subscription. Awesome.
So then you've got a subscription, you've got a higher tier one-off package. You've got just an ad sales basis based on reach with medium. I think if I'm thinking. Dickie and Cole, or like the guys from the prior generation who called the same thing, product ladders, you need a low tier
offer. Yeah, exactly. And that's like my community right now, which I'm not actively promoting because it's more of a hub on hop of community. That is what I call it. It's when people need zoom calls, they want to meet new creators. This is the place. If they want to leave, then it's not a big deal either. So it's more for other people than it is for me. And I don't expect to make money off of it. It's just something that I was already doing.
And I just wanted to put it all in one place in one time. Yeah. So then
you don't see the community as part of your monetization, really that much. Really just the bar to make sure they're serious.
Yeah, exactly. And there is a private discord chat. So then it's also a direct access. If they have any questions regarding the creator economy than Ella, be happy to answer that because writing on medium or writing on its own mindset stuff, those are the things that I'm really comfortable in sharing. If they have any questions or difficulties around those topics. Yeah. Having that direct chat with me is going to be much easier to do. Yeah. Makes a lot of sense.
So what exactly is a multi-passionate creator?
Yeah, basically the way I define multi-passionate creator is you're a content creator and you have multiple interests. Whether that's topics, life experiences, and based on those things, you are able to express yourself online, hopefully. So you're not really constrained by, I'm only going to talk about writing, or I'm only going to talk about marketing. It's almost like you are embracing your multidimensionality as a human and through your creation. You're expressing all of that. I think it's
a much better way to say what people mean when they say BR.
Exactly. And I think the authentic is really hard to follow or even the advice of be yourself. And then you're telling me too, oh, you have to niche down. And it's like that contradicts with who I am. Yeah. That's not who I am. So it's almost like I'm advocating for people or creators to get to know themselves so that they can figure out how to show up online, because yeah, because only then when I shifted to, okay, who am I and why am I struggling to show up online?
It's because I was listening to the external advice that everybody's telling. And I think ironically, it's the people who I think that generalists aren't as vocal. Would their opinions. That's why I didn't find any other creator who was doing this thing. No. Embrace all your life experiences and use that to fuel your creativity.
I like it. I like it a lot. I think I might be a multi-passionate creator.
I'm happy to know that because I think all of us are to be honest with you. If people miss understand, when I say multi-passionate to not niching down, but. So important and relevant when you're actually selling something when you're a business owner, but you're when you're a creator, you're not technically selling all the time.
You're here to showcase your craft through writing through video and understanding who you're talking to is important, but at the same time, using your experiences, your stories, embracing all of those and making them all intertwined together so that the people actually remembered you and get to know you as a human. Versus being the topic and that's what most people are struggling with, or that's why I struggled at the big.
So I'm interested. What's your north star metric for success?
My north star metric for success. Is freedom or I think really being able to be work wherever I want and when I want, and when I'm working on something, it's has to be something that I'm enjoying. So in my first year of my creative journey, I shifted off like, this is what I have to do to what do I enjoy doing? And then how can I make money off of that? So that's how I monetize greater sandbox because I was doing it. Assume calls with different people, meeting them on a weekly basis.
And I knew I enjoyed that, but then I just had to make it strategic. And now I'm writing different articles online and I do enjoy that. So now I'm using freelancing to help me monetize that. Yeah. It's a lot of try and fail almost, or see what you like and don't like, and then keep moving forward from there.
Have you considered what your current goal as a creator is, try to get really specific.
Um, what do you mean what I'm doing or my
direction? So going beyond like the metric for success beyond the north star, but a specific next way, point or goal, are you working on building up enough freelance income to go full-time as a creator? Or are you reaching for a specific number there? Are you trying to build up a certain consistency on media? That
sort of thing. Yeah. I think I'm in the stage where I'm trying to figure out how can I make a sustainable income from writing, because I hope to hopefully be able to not have my nursing job anymore. I want it to be my choice to go to my nursing job versus I have to. So that's what I'm doing. And after that, when I have my workflow, my like, if I can create it, create the workflow or have a sustainable income regularly, then I'm hoping to build a community.
So. I think my favorite Mrs. Model that I'm really inspired by is again by nest labs, where she just spilled a whole community and she'd dumped all of her good stuff inside the community. So I really liked that idea because that way they're not constantly having to advertise or launch products offers it's more like her low tier thing is her community. And then she does have consultation.
That you have to pay extra for, but it's a choice for other people, but she has that accessibility, her target audience, which I really like. So I'm hoping to do that, but that would require a lot of work. So in the meantime, figuring out how freelancing works and slowly building an email list through my newsletter and then create a bunch of fun things. When I had income,
if you could send it to me, To your start, what would it be? And when would it be,
it would be start with what you know, and with what you have. Could you explain that a bit more? A lot of people, or at least for myself, I went to buy an online course because I didn't know what, I didn't know. And I got a lot of imposter syndrome because I was teaching something to teach other people that I didn't really have any experience on. So I didn't realize that back then, I only knew about traveling so I could just start talking about traveling.
And then as I grew more as a content creator, then I would talk about how to create content. That's my advice to someone is whatever journey or situation you are in right now, there is somebody out there who is one step behind you. So whether you only have a phone to internet, which is what you need in order to spread your message, you have, and not like what you know right now is good enough. So that's what I mean, that would start with what you know, would what you have.