The Ultimate Guide For Digital Creators

Let’s face it:

Being a digital creator is not an easy task.

The overwhelm, the confusion, the feelings of being lost -- It can get pretty tough at times.

It’s also super fun and exciting, sure , but the downs on the creator journey are just as extreme as the ups.

You probably experienced some of these moments:

• You’re doing everything you can to grow, and yet… no results.

• Sometimes you feel like you want to curl up in a ball and do nothing

• It seems like everyone “gets it” except for you

• You see all these people winning and you can’t help but compare yourself to them

• One day your numbers are great, the next day you’re losing followers and getting no engagement

• You ask yourself, “what did I do wrong?”

• You feel stuck and you have got no clue how to escape from this

I am not an exception.

And do you know what the problem is?

I don’t really see anybody talking about the big picture (correct me if I’m wrong here).

You get all these details, sure -- Fragments of the puzzle. But no one is telling you how to make sense of it on a larger scale. And that’s what I’m here to help you with today.

Twitter is not an easy job, but YOU are not going to let that bring you down.

If this applies to you… You’re exactly who I wrote this newsletter for.

But let's start off with my own personal experience so you can see where I'm coming from.

Dark Times

Lately I've been thinking about the one-person business / creator model.

These past weeks have honestly been quite the struggle for me (this is a good thing though).

I am in the process of “evolving” my brand and business and taking it to the next level -- That had me think a lot about my vision, my brand, my profile, my content, my offer, and my marketing.

In the process I discovered that I was oblivious to a whole handful of things.

Last month I made $159,00. But then I realized that I was focused too much on short-term gains, and not really on long-term compounding and sustainability.

I discovered that it would make more sense to go easy on the money, provide as much value as I can for free, and invest into my brand and offer first and foremost.

I had to change my entire approach to being a creator-based business, and that included some long-overdue housekeeping and facing some harsh truths.

I have been avoiding networking almost entirely, and I noticed that my social skills could need some more development.

I noticed that I haven’t really been taking much of a strategic approach to my business -- That’s not good.

I noticed that I am terrible at graphic design and I’m gonna have to learn how to do it.

I noticed that I still had a lot of fantasies about how I’m going to make money and grow on Twitter -- Those don't serve you in any way.

I had to formulate theories, run exeriments, and fail 100’s of times.

And yes, it can be tough sometimes. It was quite the struggle if I'm being totally honest with you -- But that's what growth looks like.

For weeks on end I was stuck in this constant state of negative emotions.

Frustration because I wasn’t getting the results I wanted and because I saw other creators shoot past me like I was nothing -- Meanwhile I’m sitting here stuck at 1500.

It may look to you like I am “famous” (someone actually said that, lol) or “successful”, but how successful am I really?

The foundation on which my brand is built upon is still pretty wiggly -- And that's really the only thing that matters.

I felt overwhelmed because of all the different projects and tasks that were piling up and drowning me with their weight and sheer volume -- I just didn’t know what to do next.

"You need to learn copywriting!"

"Storytelling is the most important skill!"

"You need to write threads!"

I need to create systems, I get that, but which one to go for first? The ones for my tweets? Threads? But where should that come from in the first place?

Oh wait, I still need to write out my life vision. And I still have to apply for a job.

It can get pretty crazy. But… this is what I signed up for.

And I do find a deep satisfaction in doing it.

After all, we are not being "bitches" here (in a healthy manner).

Eventually, all of this fuckery led me to an important realization… it all starts with you.

You are the foundation, you are the creator, you are the business and the company at the same time. And you can't just ignore that.

Why the fuck do you think that I’ve been telling you that “personal growth = business growth” for all this time?

And that's exactly what we are going to hit the actionable section off with.

Understand Your Role

Why do you think my newsletter is called “The Holistic Creator”? It’s because I stand for holistic (all-encompassing) growth.

Growth as a person, as a business, as a community… All of these things are intimately tied to one another.

Your success on Twitter depends on your level of personal growth.

Here’s a short list of things that keep you from growing:

1. Fears (perfectionism, fear of being judged etc.)

2. Your ego (judging people, unwillingness to surrender etc.)

3. Laziness (where does that come from?)

4. Addictions (distraction)

These thing are all serious hindrances to your ability to run a brand and business and doing that successfully. Fixing them is not optional.

You can’t just ignore these… they have a direct and deeply harmful negative impact on your brand & business. If you want to succeed -- You have to get rid of them!

You need to understand that problems are created inside of your mind. They are not real.

From the perspective of the universe, everything is going according to plan.

The only "problem" you have, is a lack of understanding of a given system -- That includes the inner workings of your mind and psyche.

Key takeaway: You need to actively do serious self-improvement work if you want your ambitions to materialize in the real world. It is not an option.

Understand The Elements

This is another aspect of holism. In holism, everything is simultaneously a part and a whole.

If you want to understand the whole that is creator-based business, you first need to take the whole apart into its elements, study each element carefully to make sure you understand it, and then put it back together.

So here's a (fairly detailed) description of what each element is for:

a) Brand

“Your brand is who you are, what you do, and why you are doing it.” - Dan Koe.

It’s what you are leading people towards.

This is a crucial first step to take, and many people skip it thinking it’s “not that important” -- But as it turns out, it's the single most important thing.

Just start, right? Yes and no.

Starting is a great way to figure out what you don’t want, but not a good way to continue.

Honestly, what do you want out of life? If you haven’t clearly visualized and defined it, you’re automatically going to take on someone else's dreams as your own.

That’s a recipe to living an unhappy, unfulfilled life.

You cannot outsource this work, because every single one of us has a totally unique path that fits their exact needs. This is serious stuff, and you should not take it lightly.

If you don’t put together a life vision in the tiniest detail, you will automatically take on that which is provided by your environment -- That means you will never ever live the life of your dreams if you don’t visualize and design it first.

Is that something you want? Think about it.

b) Profile

This is where you will get tripped up immediately if you haven’t put together a vision for your dream lifestyle (e.g. your brand).

See how things go full circle if you don't address them right away?

Treat your profile like a landing page.

It’s about effective communication. Your profile picture, your banner, your bio, your pinned post… all these things have to accurately represent what you stand for.

You need to communicate your value to the people that are visiting your profile, and you need to persuade them to follow you. How do you do this? Well…

First impressions matter a lot. What do they see when they click on your profile picture? Do they see a clean, professional, and well-designed banner and headshot? No?

Then you might have lost them already. We subconsciously judge things (including people) by their appearance, whether you like that fact or not.

Don’t delude yourself into thinking that “looks don’t matter”, because they absolutely do.

Where would you buy a new pair of shoes:

1. The clean, new, and well-lit flagship store, or...

2. The shady, dirty, run-down corner store?

Even if the price is the same, you get the exact same shoes, and the stores are just as far away from your house -- You will go to the brand store 100% of the time. Don't lie to yourself here.

c) Content

Content is the lifeblood of your brand and business.

It is how you communicate your value to your audience. It makes all the difference.

I can have the best-looking profile in the world, but it’s still near useless if my content is garbage. And vice versa, stellar content can “save” even the shittiest profile.

If your content is lifeless, boring, and just repeating the stuff that other people are saying, that won’t get you very far.

Great content needs to be valuable, yes -- You give people a reason to follow you by solving a painful problem that they have.

(Put extra emphasis on “problem” here, that’s what all human behavior revolves around)

But from what I’ve seen recently, Twitter is much more about personality and entertainment factor than we would like to admit to ourselves.

I mean, honestly: Even if you come on Twitter with the intention to learn -- You’re not going to be able to resist a juicy story, a relatable annecdote that speaks to you on a deep level, or a hilarious meme. Correct?

And you can use this to your own advantage. Don't get me wrong... “Value” is still valuable and you absolutely need it -- But it’s just not enough anymore.

We are reaching a point in time where almost everyone is posting value in some way or another, and you need to differentiate yourself if you want to succeed this year.

That means being authentic, showing your personality, and telling stories.

Expect more of that stuff coming soon -- You will read about my life story next week.

P.S: You won't believe what has been hiding behind my unassuming face the entire time ;)

d) Network

I am far from being a socially gifted person.

BUT -- I do recognize and respect the importance of having a strong and healthy network, and I’m really working on nurturing and expanding it piece by piece.

A network is your own personal support structure.

You can get advice, engagement, and even products and services for free or in exchange for a testimonial.

The main rule of thumb is to provide as much value as you can to your networking partners -- If you are a pure (selfless) person, you should want to help them out as much as you can anyways.

If you are not -- You need to work on that.

Another important element is genuine interest and friendship.

The interactions make no sense if you’re acting like a cold robot that’s only in it for the gain (and by the way, to those who this applies to -- we know that you are being fake and it's not serving you at all).

You should be genuinely interested in them, and not in what benefit they can provide to you. Otherwise none of this makes any sense.

e) Offer

This is way too much to go into here (that’s for another week), but we will brush over the big picture nevertheless.

If you are (successfully!) building a personal brand, and that means getting everything right, you have leverage:

1. You have built a community that is warmed up to your brand

2. You have built trust, authority, and credibility by proving your expertise with value bombs, testimonials, case studies, and results that you got

At that point, getting money should be a piece of cake. You just need to position your offer in the right way. Again, you do need to understand what you're doing.

Understanding The Big Picture

This is the juicy part.

Now… I can tell you about this, and I will, but this stuff is just not teachable.

It’s wayyyyy too fucking big and nuanced for me to communicate, you won't understand unless you collect that experience on your own.

I have been struggling to understand this for the last 6 months, and I will keep struggling with it forever. You can only get closer to understanding the situation. So here we go…

It all starts with you, remember? You need a solid foundation to build your brand and business upon, which means you need to grow as a person.

Get rid of everything that is hindering you from becoming successful.

You need a detailed life vision, that is your brand at the same time. From there, you can start thinking of how you will actualize that vision.

What are you going to learn? Which problems do you need to solve?

The solutions to those problems are your content. People don’t realize that your content and your offer are actually pretty much the same thing, just in different dimensions.

You can break your product down into content, and the product is the whole thing coming together in one place -- They share many similarities and they have crossovers in terms of the information that you are providing.

Understanding the big picture on its full scope is not an easy task, not at all. So don't come into here with all of your fantasies.

There's literally thousands of variables that play into all of this, and you really need to contemplate deeply before you come to any real conclusions. It's an absolute behemoth of a concept to wrap your head around.

The devil is in the details.

I like to think of it as an onion. You are trying to remove layer after layer of misconceptions, misunderstanding, and confusion, until we get to the core of it (truth).

This article is a great starting point for you, but you still need to do consistent and profilic self-education if you want to grasp this better.

1. Consume everything that’s related

2. Do research like a scientist (that means take this shit seriously)

3. Take notes on everything that seems important -- Even the stuff that doesn’t (sometimes that turns out to be exactly what you are missing)

4. Contemplate (think about) the stuff that you noted down

5. Use that data on real-world projects immediately

You need that execution and application to see it in use.

Projects can be your Twitter brand (inc. your profile page), your offer, your sales funnel, your (content) system, and the content itself etc.

Trust me when I say that understanding the big picture is infinitely more important than any specific detail or piece of knowledge that you can think of, no matter how deep you go with it.

The world needs synthesizers, not specialists.

Being a specialist can be taught, and therefore it is highly replaceable.

If it can be taught to AI (which is going to happen eventually), you will lose your position as a specialist and you will get replaced with the flick of a wrist!

Every problem that you currently have with Twitter, is directly caused by your lack of big-picture understanding.

When you understand the importance of getting the big picture, your whole approach to being a creator(-based business) will change -- You will see the world with different eyes.

When you really “get it”, you will understand why some creators grow so fucking fast while you are not moving at all.

You will see what really matters and what doesn’t.

Your confusion, overwhelm, and frustration and feelings of being lost will vanish into thin air.

Your confidence will skyrocket and your results will multiply by 10.

And when in doubt, ask yourself: What would a fast-growing, happy, and successful creator do in your situation?

Defining and clarifying the big picture is the "highest ROI activity" you could possibly ever engage in.

Most people are simply too caught up in the details to notice what's really going on here.

This is literally the biggest problem I see creators having.

Stop and think when almost no one does.

And if you need help with all of this -- I’m ready to serve you.

I offer 1:1 consulting where you get to learn about the right mindset, personal branding, positioning strategy, content systems, and much more -- Click here to find out if it suits you.

If you have made it this far, please hit me with some feedback -- I poured my heart and soul into this article and I would love to know whether you liked it or not, thank you.

That's it for this week, peace out.

-- Tym