“We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world.” — Helen Keller
It’s a weird time to write a newsletter about how to make the most of your creations.
There are certainly more important issues to deal with in the world at the moment.
But…
I’m going to publish this newsletter as I typically would for three reasons:
• As our lives increasingly become abnormal, it probably helps to have a bit of normality wherever we can find it.
• I hope it can give you (and me) a momentary distraction from everything else we’re dealing with.
• I hope it can be a reminder there will come a time in the not-so-distant future when you’ll be able to turn your full attention back to your creations.
Until then, stay safe, hang in there, and take it one day at a time.
Now, on to this week’s ideas…
1. Six Ways To Earn Attention For Your Creations
“Attention is an investment that people expect a return on.”
Attention isn’t free and in order to earn it you must be strategic in your approach.
In this post I share six ways to earn attention for your creations based on 12 examples of people who have done so.
The methods include to give value for free, reveal yourself, and give people something worth talking about.
Related: How to get more true fans.
2. The Laws Of Creativity
“Make a lot. Most doesn’t matter. Some will.”
A lot of smart people have spent a lot of time thinking about, practicing, and sharing wisdom on the topic of creativity and this document is a nice crash course in some of their observations.
Article Group breaks down the laws of creativity including advice from experts about how to make better creative decisions, communicate with others, and lead a team.
Related: A manifesto for creative people.
3. How To Tweet
“Ask yourself if you’d follow yourself from just reading your bio and pinned tweet. If not, work on it until you do.”
Daniel Vasallo went from 151 Twitter followers to 2,374 in a month and then offered to review 50 other people’s Twitter accounts to give them feedback on how to grow their audience.
The resulting thread breaks down how to tweet including suggestions that you avoid retweets, reply to other people’s tweets, and best practices for your bio and pinned tweets.
Btw, I found this link in Paul Metcalfe’s newsletter.
Related: Here are your next four tweets.
4. You Can Be More Than One Thing
“It’s been almost nine years now since I decided I would be a journalist forever — a decision made with the type of certainty only found in 22-year-olds who believe in things like ‘forever.’”
This one is a little different than what I typically share, but I have a hunch it may resonate with you.
Stephanie Rice shares a simple, but powerful epiphany she had in a recent conversation about the state of her career and her growing disillusionment with it.
As her friend pointed out to her, “You can be more than one thing.”
Related: Nobody can stop you from getting your dream job.
5. Taste Communities Are The Future Of Marketing
“Instead of focusing on individuals, we should focus on their relationships and look at the communities they belong to.”
Conventional wisdom suggests one of the best ways to identify the target audience for your work is to create personas that represent who those people are and what interests them.
But Ana Andjelic suggests taste communities are the future of marketing and points to the way Netflix thinks about its audience as an example.
Her tips include to think about your brand in plural, offer many doors in, and target communities instead of individuals.
Btw, I found this link in the Storythings newsletter.
Related: How to make something people will buy.
Three Quick Things Before You Go…
Want help making progress with your creation? Check out my Creator Accelerator.
Last week’s most popular link was how to maximize your time.
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