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The numbers on my channel don’t show it yet, but I’ve been making content and building on the internet for the past 15 years.
There is so much I wish I would’ve known when I first started making videos.
But I turned 25 last week — and as you can see, I’m looking gray, wiser than ever.
My journey has brought me to partnerships with brands I use every day, editing for famous artists & athletes, all the way to being on camera for my favorite sports team.
So I want to talk through 10 secrets I’ve picked up over the past 15 years that would help anyone trying to build a career from making content — things I never would’ve learned in a classroom, only on the internet.
Make sure you around for the last few if you want to start making real money from your content.
Let’s go!
You’ll feel cringe until that money comes in.
As I dive in here I need you to understand two things:
- To look and sound as good as your favorite creators, it’s going to take way longer than you think.
- You aren’t just posting on the internet — treat your content like a business.
These are connected, let me explain.
Nobody is the creator they’ve always dreamt of being in their first 100 videos. You are going to make (and publish) videos that you know aren’t as good as the creators you follow. You’re going to feel “cringe” talking to the camera or documenting your life, and you’ll likely care about what your real life friends would say if they saw your videos.
But the second you start making money from this, all of that cringe, fear, and self-doubt disappear.
It could be a brand deal, 1-1 call, ad revenue or your own products/services — doesn’t matter. All that matters is that you’re a pro now. If you get paid to make content once, you’re a professional creator now.
This is different from imposter syndrome.
You never know who is watching you.
Bored during the COVID summer, I wrote a silly basketball article that got some traction with my friends. Left it up on the blog, one day I got a DM from what I’d call a, umm… suspicious Twitter account. Through a few months of calls and failed projects I found myself working full-time in the creator space, managing the ConvertKit accounts of creators I guarantee you’ve heard of. Now, I run all things video content at our company.
I made a TikTok account in 2021 and my 7th video got reposted by a creator I admire. Someone in his network saw it and put my name in front of a successful, well-connected exec media executive looking for editing help. That person recommended me to someone, who recommended me to someone else, and I’ve made over $50,000 as a one-man editing team since.
Your views may be low. You might not have many followers. But the right people are watching, I promise you. Put your best in everything you make because you never know who might see it.
Be social on social.
There is no greater leverage play on the internet than telling sending earnest messages to people you think are cool.
I can think of 5 people right now who have handed me multi-thousand-dollar projects strictly because I’m the person they think of when they realize they need help with their content.
These relationships start by telling someone a specific reason why you love them, along with what you’re getting out of their content, and a blanket offer of “If you ever need anything or just want to jam, let me know.”
Everything changed for me when I read Jason Levin’s piece titled I escaped the void.
Just like in real life, you won’t make any new friends online unless you intentionally put forth the effort. Be a genuine reply guy. Tell people you like them and why. Constantly look for opportunities to help others. Engage with other people’s posts. Connect the dots for others on potential business. Use your network to help others — with no expectation in return.
You won’t believe what happens when you start being social on social.
One format on one platform for one year — then evaluate.
This is something I’ve learned recently… and everything could be different for me if I knew this at the start.
At the beginning, you’re pumped to make this commitment and want to create EVERY kind of content. But you can’t get stuck in this mode — all of the creators you follow are known for their one thing.
Think of three people who you watch all the time. You might follow them on each of their platforms, but they’re focused on one kind of content for one platform.
Find a platform you want to be known on. Create until you find a format you think you could do 100 times AND other people tell you it’s resonating for them. Make 100 of those posts (while genuinely engaging with other similar people in your niche).
Quality vs. quantity is a platform-based decision.
For the longest time I thought I had to make the best videos I could possibly make.
I ended up not making any.
Then I played the volume game on short-form and racked up a 10k following, but felt empty.
I quit that.
What I realized is — being native to the platform you want to be on is more important for your longevity than the amount of work you put in.
I want to crush YouTube, and the videos I watch on YouTube look and feel amazing. Netflix-level quality, even. Beautiful cinematography, incredibly storytelling, full productions. When I was making videos on TikTok I enjoyed seeing the numbers go up but I never really felt proud of what I was making.
This is how I feel. You need to understand what actually matters to you, what platforms you want to succeed on, and whether you will stay consistent creating low-production content more often or high-production content infrequently. Because until you can hire a team to run all of your post-production for you, you’re a one-man show.
Speaking of one-man shows…
Design is non-negotiable, but you are the brand.
Good design isn’t a way to stand out anymore — it’s a prerequisite.
Your videos should look and feel like you. Fonts, colors, thumbnails, composition, structure, lighting… all in the pursuit of presenting yourself in a unique, professional, and signature manner.
And your main profiles shouldn’t just feel like you – they should be you.
I see so many people creating YouTube channels, Instagram accounts and companies under some made-up brand name — when they’re just one person.
Your name is infinitely more valuable and permanent than any venture.
Do not waste the attention you get on a name that isn’t yours unless you are a $1M+ company with multiple employees.
Even if you have a company & products to promote (like I do with HeyCreator), putting the majority of your effort a brand account is not worth the time. How likable and trustworthy you seem are the levers that will blow up your business — not the brand account itself.
Service work + your own content = speed run to consulting.
Unless something crazy happens in your first 50 videos, the fastest way to start making $1,000+/month is to offer your creator skills (on-camera, editing, scriptwriting, thumbnails) to other creators you love.
Doing this service work (or working for an agency that serves established creators) gets you close to people who are doing the same thing as you at a much higher level. Plus, you build your network, too.
While you’re working for other creators and starting to make real money, do not let your own content slip. Use what you’re learning from being inside other creator businesses to:
- make your content better (style & performance)
- understand the different ways you can monetize from your content
- get very clear on the types of businesses you don’t want to build (and why)
When you’ve seen success in both serving other creators and building an audience of your own, you have all the knowledge you need to help other creators 1-1.
If you haven’t been on both sides of this, or do this before you’re ready — you will feel like an imposter.
Flex unapologetically.
Use the internet to rack up cool stories.
If you land a client everyone loves, go viral on accident, meet your heroes or collab with a popular brand, tell that story – all the time.
My biggest flexes right now are:
- Adobe paid me $5,000 for 6 seconds of video.
- One time, my first video on a new YouTube channel blew up to 2.7 million views, putting $7,000 in my pocket.
- Through a brand I worked with, I got to make a video with my favorite sports team and interview Tee Grizzley.
- I’ve worked on content for Logic, Chelsea Cutler, Chad Ochocinco, and other famous people.
Let’s be clear: I’m not better or cooler than you because all of these things are true. But it does give me the authority to speak on what it’s like editing for cool brands, what they actually care about, and how I ended up in situations like that (so you can, too).
We’re raised to be humble, and nobody likes someone who brags — I get it. But on the internet, leading with these bragging points is the fastest way to get someone to listen to you.
As much as I despise the 18-year-old high-ticket life coaches shilling ecom or dropshipping garbage, they can convince other impressionable youngsters to buy their stuff simply by flexing their dad’s expensive watch, fake Stripe screenshots, or dope family vacation pics.
Do cool stuff & tell people about it.
Email is where the majority of your money will be made.
I didn’t believe this.
I thought the biggest creators were making their money through YouTube ad revenue or selling on social.
I was so damn wrong.
In 2022, I logged into a famous creator’s ConvertKit account through work and saw he was charging $5,000 per ad slot and sending his newsletter twice a week. That’s $520,000 per year from his newsletter ads alone — not to mention his other businesses and investments.
(hint: He’s a massive creator with 5 letters in both his first & last name. No, the other one.)
In 2023, I helped on a course launch for another big-time creator. Through the killer landing page we developed and his 100,000 email subscribers, he made over $120,000 in a four day weekend sale — with 95% of the sales coming through email. He’s launched it again several times since, consistently hitting 5-figures with each promotion.
(hint: This guy has 5 letters in name, total.)
You should make a concentrated effort to grow your email list. Create free resources and give them away in exchange for their email addresses. Send personal updates & valuable lessons to the list regularly. Make your newsletter the main call-to-action in all of your social platforms.
When it’s time to launch products, sell to your list over the course of a week. Create a discount exclusively for your newsletter subscribers within that week. You’ll likely convert 7.5% of the list to into buyers if the list is dialed in and needs your product.
This is why you should constantly work to grow your email list — because a $100 product converting at 7% to a list of 100 people is $700. But if your list was 10,000 people, and you only converted at a 4% conversion rate, you would still be looking at a $40,000 launch.
If you do it right, you’ll never apply for a job again.
My friend Jay Yang posted this quote from Jakob Greenfield’s A Skill Called Luck that sums up this exact point:
People direct opportunities towards 1.) people they like and 2.) whoever is top of mind right now. Once you’ve internalized this, coming up with strategies to increase your luck surface area is straightforward. You just have to become more visible and more likeable.
I’ve applied for one creative job in my life. A videographer role for University of Michigan Medicine. I didn’t get it.
Every time I’ve been paid for creative work — strategy, editing, filming, on-camera work, brand deals, design, you name it — it’s come from either a glowing recommendation, a friend who needs help, or someone finding my content.
This concept is so hard to grasp for the normie, non-creative people. Spend all of grade school hyper-fixating on how to get into the school you want, so you can get the job you want. Try to craft a few perfect paragraphs on an application to stand out. Use best interview practices leave a lasting impression. To them, money comes from an awesome looking resume and 40 years at a desk slinging mortgages, or sensors, or car parts.
On the internet, money comes from becoming more visible and more likable.
That’s it.
You’ll get found way faster (and by better bosses willing to pay you more) by being yourself on the internet at scale, as opposed to clicking through a job application.
People will line up around the metaphorical block waiting to give you money, in the ways you’ve designed for yourself. You can optimize funnels, work on your “closing tactics” and all of that bullshit to squeeze extra dollars out later.
If you set out to do great work, keep tabs on other internet people you love (and the ones who love you), stay kind, and never expect anything in return… you will never apply for a job again.
These are my 10 secrets I wish I knew about creating content sooner… let me know which ones resonated with you the most, and if you have any of your own.
Thank you for being here.
Tim