Are you impatient like me?

I started this whole creator thing - newsletter, podcast, book, etc - about 16 months ago.

I can’t tell you how many times over the last year I’ve thought why haven’t I figured this out yet?!

The reality is that I had figured a lot out, I just haven’t given it enough time to work.

Today I want to talk about what to do if you’re feeling impatient.

1. Shift your mindset
2. Align your business with your goals
3. Focus on one principle
   

Always remember: your focus determines your reality
~George Lucas

Shift your mindset

Here’s the thing - you’re likely not going to change how long it takes to reach the success you want to have.

Even if you do everything right, it still takes time.

Research from TheTilt shows:

It takes full-time creators 17 months to become self- supporting. Let’s break that timeline down a bit more: On average it takes just over six months for a full-time content creator to make their first dollar, then 10+ months to be self-supporting. And our research shows they make their first hire (i.e., bringing on any type of help) at about the 24-month mark.

That’s 17 months for full-time creators.

You can expect it to take longer than that for part-time creators like many of us are, myself included. My part-time looks more like 6 months on, six months off, rather than a few hours a day, but to think that I’d be supporting myself with $10k months after a year and a half is fairly naive.

Can it happen sooner? Yes, of course

Is it likely? No.

So we need to shift our mindset as creators and realize that this stuff takes time! Not to mention the time it takes to acquire valuable skills, build an audience, create products, test offers, etc.

The only way I’ve found to speed things up is to build systems that have been proven to work. That saves you the time spent in trial and error and gets you the most direct route to the outcome of a sustainable business.

Align your business with your goals

When you take an outcome-first, or “Craftsman” approach to your business, you can then align everything you do in that business with whether or not it helps you achieve those outcomes.

For example, say you ultimately want to have a few thousand dollars every month, more time with your family, and the freedom to travel whenever and wherever you want.

Wouldn’t that inform how you built the business? You likely would build an online business rather than a brick & mortar business. You’d focus on digital products rather than physical ones that required labor and shipping.

You would decouple the revenue from your time, focusing more on products than services. And you’d figure out the right product basket that included some mid-tier products like courses in the $100-500 range and mix them in with sponsor revenue, ad revenue, and membership subscriptions.

It wouldn’t take a large audience to get to $2-3,000 per month, and you could operate that business from anywhere in the world.

If, on the other hand, you wanted a seven-figure business that has some high-value, done-for-you service offers, that wouldn’t align very well with the previously mentioned outcomes. You’d need to be available to your clients in order to service those larger orders, and possibly manage a team of people helping you complete the work every day.

The outcomes inform the business.

This is why, in the upcoming 10k Creator Challenge, the very first session is focused completely on outcomes and mindset. You can learn more by clicking here.

Focus on one principle

That principle is: do more of what works and less of what doesn’t.

You’ve got to track your activities and your results so that you can optimize your efforts and your systems.

If you’re just showing up every day and creating, you don’t know if it’s getting you closer to the outcomes you want for your life and your business.

Start with tracking one metric, and seeing if you can do something this week and this month to make that number go up. For example, visitors to your website.

First, figure out how many you currently get each week. You may need to install fathom analytics or google analytics, then let it run for a week before you start.

Then, once you have your baseline, see if you can make that number go up. Who can you get to promote your business and send people your way? Can you go on a podcast or do a guest blog for someone? Can you reach out to new potential customers and invite them to check out your site?

It’s not hard to go from 20 to 50 to even 100 visitors per week with a little effort.

Getting into the thousands per week requires systems and either time or money to bring more visitors to your site.

The way to grow your business is to do more of what works and less of what doesn’t. The easiest way to do that is to build systems that you can optimize over time.

There is so much potential when you start to implement these mindsets and systems into your business.

The sooner you start, the sooner you start the clock to get to the point where the business is sustaining you and the life that you want.

Daren

PS - If you’re projecting $500k+ in revenue for your creative business next year, you need to check this out.

Also, my one-on-one strategy calls are going up in price in January. I’ve got a few slots left for December if you’re looking to get a head start on 2023.

*During the 60-minute call, we will look at every area of your business and help you identify the biggest constraint and how to overcome it to unlock your growth. Past clients have found thousands of dollars in monthly revenue from one single call. Book your call now before prices go up in the new year.

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LINKS TO HELP YOU GROW

This month's Craftsman Creative Workshop is on the must-have systems every creative business needs. We'll do live feedback on YOUR creative business and help you identify the most important thing to focus on as you prep for growth in 2023. Join me live, for free.

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Joe & I will be doing a live Q&A call for the 10k Creator on December 13th at 10am PT / 1pm ET. You can join us live on Streamyard for free by registering here.

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The 10k Challenge starts on January 2nd, and runs for two weeks. During the event we'll build the systems your business needs to grow in 2023.

The challenge takes place inside the Society of Independent Creators. You can learn more here and sponsor the event here.

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Sparkloop has been on a roll this year, and is easily responsible for the most growth I've seen in my newsletter the last six months. Their suite of tools from Proof to Upscribe to MagicLink and now the partner network are truly game-changing. Head over and check it out for yourself if you're looking to grow your newsletter.