Building a business from the ground up as a creator is no easy feat. Your success depends on a number of different things including your leadership, your team, and your strategy. Often, creators start without a blueprint and fail before they soar. Consultant and Creator of the online course, Notion Mastery, Marie Poulin, always considered her work style to be chaotic. But whatever she thought she lacked, she looked for those capabilities in her team. Marie was recently diagnosed with ADHD, which...
Sep 14, 2022•43 min
The greatest form of flattery you can get as a content creator is when your audience consistently engages with your content. The 2022 ConvertKit study showed that the average email open rate is only 33%, so how do you break through the noise to get people begging for more? Blogger, content creator, and educator Khe Hy, blows that statistic out of the water with a 50% open rate on his newsletter. Khe quit a cushy desk job on Wall Street to dive into the uncertainty of being a creator and entrepre...
Sep 07, 2022•48 min
Creators strive to be authentic, but it’s not easy navigating the nuances of your second language while being yourself. Content creator, mentor, and Meta product designer Sara Brunettini realized that if she wanted to grow her audience she had to shake off the fear of looking “silly”. Sara is from Italy and she put off learning English until she moved to the UK. She quickly learned that if she wanted to tap into the opportunities in the English-speaking creator economy she needed to take the lea...
Aug 24, 2022•48 min
As creators, an entrepreneurial spirit often lends itself to fantastic work. Unfortunately, that entrepreneurial energy also makes it difficult for us to justify taking time off. And regardless of your job title, profession, or proclivity for side hustles, it’s no secret that the hustle culture instilled in us by today’s world means taking time off can feel like a step backward rather than a productive step forward. Both back from month-long sabbaticals, Charli and Haley can speak to the “produc...
Aug 17, 2022•38 min
When you’re launching a business, it’s easy to leave SEO on the backburner. But if you ever want your audience to actually find the content you’re working so hard to create, mastering SEO (or at least understanding the basics) is a must. If you’re confused about SEO, think about the first page of a Google search results page as Main Street: the block shoppers frequently find themselves on every time they’re looking for a new product, service, or solution. The lower your website ranks, the more l...
Aug 03, 2022•43 min
For those of us without a natural artistic gene, designing our brand from scratch can feel incredibly daunting. Even professional designers work tirelessly to perfect a brand’s launch or relaunch. Luckily, designers say it’s not worth overthinking the details, especially at the start. Taking small steps forward while continuing to focus on what’s most important, creating content, will get you to your destination in one well-designed piece. Take it from David Preston, a Senior Marketing Designer ...
Jul 27, 2022•39 min
Income from Adsense and digital products may pay a bill or two. But most creators take their dreams full-time with the help of paid sponsorships. Thankfully, brands are finally seeing the value in creator services and they’re paying accordingly. As a creator, ignoring sponsored opportunities now means ignoring major revenue. But spending hours searching for brand partners, negotiating rates, and cutting deals aren’t the things you dreamed of doing as a full-time creator. Eager to help creators e...
Jul 20, 2022•38 min
Every action changes the biochemistry of your brain. Not many of us think about that when running errands, slogging through a 9-5, or scrolling mindlessly on social media. But as creators, the way we work and manage our mental health can mean the difference between a thriving side hustle and another creative project left by the wayside. ConvertKit team members Ben Schoeffler and Caitlin Zarrella are both passionate about mental health and pursuing creative endeavors. As they can attest, without ...
Jul 13, 2022•41 min
For many people, budgeting is simple. You take your income, subtract your expenses, and figure out what to do with the rest. Do you save? Invest? Splurge? As a creator, your life is your business. And that makes budgeting, investing, and managing your money more complicated. The questions you ask yourself aren’t simply, “can I pay my bills and save for retirement this month?” But also, “how much will I owe in taxes?”, “how do I scale my operation?” and “is this a smart business investment?” Whil...
Jun 29, 2022•44 min
It’s not where you are or who you’re with, but what you create. If you’ve ever felt like success as a creator is limited to the humdrum town you’re in, miles from a traditionally “creative” city, meet Fashion Designer Whitney Manney. Kansas City, Missouri may not be the fashion capital of the world, but it’s a place where Whitney has taken root. And if you ask Whitney, the humble surroundings of her hometown have led to more opportunities than obstacles. She’s built a community in Kansas City, h...
Jun 22, 2022•37 min
Do you consider yourself a creator? If the answer is yes, you’re not alone. According to a recent Vox article , more people than ever are referring to themselves as “content creators.” From social media influencers to fashion designers, that term encompasses a wide breadth of professions. Regardless of their specialty, the most successful content creators of our generation can teach job-seekers and corporations a thing or two about digital marketing. But what does it actually mean to be a conten...
Jun 15, 2022•33 min
Life moves quickly. Sometimes it’s necessary to take a breath and reflect. After more than two years of unprecedented times and a creator economy that feels stronger than ever, ConvertKit has decided it’s time for a temperature check on the creator economy. The State of the Creator Economy Report for 2022 has officially been released and what better time than now to break down the most interesting, discouraging, and surprising takeaways from this year’s report. In this episode, Charli, Haley, an...
Jun 01, 2022•42 min
Creator or not, we’ve all experienced burnout to some degree. You throw yourself into a side passion or new business and before you know it, you’re struggling to stay motivated and downright exhausted. While the feeling is familiar, many of us are less familiar with what leads to burnout besides simply “overworking”, how long it takes to bounce back from burnout, and the best ways to rest and recover. As creators, burnout is often exacerbated by the constant feedback we receive, positive or othe...
May 25, 2022•36 min
Whether you’re an emerging creator, established TikToker, or you’re just hoping to scale an expanding side hustle, we could all use a little support. Thankfully, as the creator economy expands, so do businesses looking to elevate creators through focusing tools, monetization apps, and even hubs for influencer pay transparency. While they’re moving mountains for today’s creators, these incredible apps may not be tools you’ve ever heard of. So let’s change that. In this episode, Charli and Miguel ...
May 11, 2022•36 min
In 10th grade, Henry Thong took media studies, thinking it’d be a chance for him to slack off. Instead, he discovered a passion for videography that transformed his career aspirations and redefined his future. Henry pursued film seriously from that point on, entering festivals at every chance he got and following the Casey Neistat philosophy of constantly creating content and sharing as much of it with the world as possible. That content push paid off once professionals started spotting Henry’s ...
May 04, 2022•46 min
What’s your platform of choice? TikTok? YouTube? Twitter? After setting a simple goal to grow, ConvertKit CEO Nathan Barry decided to shift his efforts to one medium rather than spreading himself thin everywhere. The result was a dramatic increase in Twitter followers and high levels of engagement across his posts. So what was the secret to Nathan’s retweet increase? The truth is, you don’t have to get lucky with a viral tweet or achieve that coveted blue checkmark to grow on Twitter. Tweets tha...
Apr 20, 2022•43 min
If you’ve noticed that your attention span feels nonexistent, you’re certainly not alone. A recent Guardian piece, Your Attention Didn’t Collapse. It Was Stolen. , paints a grim picture of society’s frightening struggle to focus. In a world where technology and social media continue to invade our lives, there’s always an algorithm ready to suck us in. The attention suck is especially hard to escape when not having an iPhone can sometimes mean not having a social life. But what role do creators h...
Apr 13, 2022•37 min
With practice, anyone can write. But can anyone transform a blog into a full-blown online publication? There’s a big difference between the two, and how you navigate the transition from blog to publication can determine whether your brand develops or your blog stays stagnant. Dani Stewart, helmer of ConvertKit's blog Tradecraft, knows what it’s like to write, edit, and make that tricky transition. She began her career writing articles but successfully transformed that traffic-generating blog int...
Mar 30, 2022•34 min
There is lots of advice out there for aspiring creators. Just remember, the best advice doesn’t always come from entrepreneurs with millions of followers and millions in the bank. In fact, the most valuable advice can sometimes stem from the products, platforms, and ideas that never reached the masses. No stranger to The Future Belongs to Creators podcast, Support Operations Lead at ConvertKit and former full-time creator Ben Schoeffler wouldn’t exactly consider himself a “success story”. Sellin...
Mar 23, 2022•39 min
Not all of us have the guts to chase our dreams. Despite family disapproval and peers all around him taking the safe route, Thomas Dulin knew he could make music for a living. Fortunately, he was correct, and today, Thomas is a music producer and sound engineer in Nashville, Tennessee living his dream. He splits his time touring with popular and emerging artists and making records of his own. While earning a living as a music producer sounds glamorous, an email list is what tipped Thomas off to ...
Mar 16, 2022•34 min
There’s truly no such thing as an overnight success. Mandi Gubler spent years working on her first blog, Vintage Revivals. Her site launched when blogging was still an emerging industry and unlike her competitors, Mandi refused to accept every sponsorship offer that came her way, holding out for a few brands on her dream list. Eventually, as the success of her blog grew, those dream brands came knocking. And her fan base, impressed with Mandi’s commitment to authenticity, expanded. But every goo...
Mar 09, 2022•49 min
ConvertKit Storyteller Isa Adney has always loved to learn. Although she aced high school, Isa’s family couldn’t afford a traditional four-year university, so Isa dove into community college and later snagged a scholarship to complete her Bachelor’s and earn a Master’s in Education. With a higher degree in learning, Isa’s passion for education is obvious. But now that she’s an established writer, telling stories at ConvertKit full-time with a few published books under her belt, why pursue any fu...
Mar 02, 2022•42 min
Creators come to ConvertKit with dreams of doing what they love for a living. That usually means sacrificing 9-5s for passion and creativity. But often creators forget that a lifestyle doing what you love only comes when you learn to monetize that passion and think like a businessperson. While skills like negotiation rarely come naturally, all it takes is a little education to increase your income and experience real creative freedom. Sponsorship Coach and Founder of Creator Wizard Justin Moore ...
Feb 23, 2022•41 min
There’s no better feeling than building a livelihood doing the work you love. For many creators, that means a life of painting, pottery, design, and left-brain thinking. But to succeed as a full-time creator, you have to get technical every once in a while. If you’re not a numbers person and shy away from the analytical aspects of email and business marketing, ConvertKit has a built-in set of technical experts ready to explain. Enter Alyssa Dulin and Melissa Lambert, ConvertKit deliverability ex...
Feb 16, 2022•40 min
You know it, you love it…maybe you’ve never heard of it. Regardless, it’s the first viral trend of 2022 and after a rough few years, embracing something as wholesome as a free word puzzle has felt uniquely refreshing. But what made Wordle the viral sensation that it is? And what’s the best way creators can capitalize on a free service without destroying what made it special to begin with? Like every success story and every creator misstep, there are lessons creators can learn from the absurd vir...
Feb 03, 2022•38 min
When someone stumbles upon something different, it usually takes mainstream society a while to catch up. Understanding and validating the power of creators and the creator economy is no different. After years of creators forging their own careers despite judgment and confusion, the universe is finally catching on. And everyone wants in on the lucrative new economy that’s disrupting a $2 trillion industry. But when did the power players of society finally take notice of the creator economy? How c...
Jan 26, 2022•36 min
The time has come for annual reflection. When you’re passionate about growing a side hustle, it’s important to reflect mindfully on the year you’ve had rather than forging ahead carelessly and going through the motions of yet another 12 months. So what have you learned this year as a creator? And what changes are you planning in the year ahead? In this episode, Charli, Haley, and Miguel reflect on their own 2021 while asking listeners the same question. From setting boundaries, finding hobbies, ...
Dec 15, 2021•38 min
As this year wraps up, consider the place email has in your creator strategy. Does it have a place at all? Or was it overshadowed by the latest social trend? Email may be older than the internet, but if you think it’s a medium of the past, think again. While easy to overlook if you’re like all of us reaching for TikTok before breakfast, email stands alone in a few key categories you’ve probably never considered. So if you’re scared of being sent to the spam folder, this one’s for you. In this ep...
Dec 08, 2021•39 min
In today’s Q&A episode, Charli, Haley, and Miguel discuss the importance of social media, the future of podcasting, and the benefits of planning a business before diving in headfirst. From social strategy to a SWOT analysis, here are a few hot takes on the creator economy. Today’s Questions [06:32] - Will creators always need social media to reach their audience or is there some kind of future where we can transition away from it and have a direct relationship with our audience? [21:03] - Ho...
Dec 01, 2021•36 min
Do you know much about NFTs? Or does the blockchain space make you think of Elon Musk and an exclusive tech community that feels far out of reach? Regardless of your personal affinity, NFTs will only become more relevant to our modern economy. And they’ll only become more relevant for creators looking to build community and earn a living. But the types of people you meet in the NFT space and the organizations that grow out of these platforms may surprise you. More than just a Twitter trend or an...
Nov 17, 2021•37 min
