Create more than you consume: A simple, anti-viral guide for freelance creatives | Dan Nelken

Dan: [00:00:00] it was only two years ago where I spoke for the first time. I remember walking to the venue thinking, how am I gonna get out of this? And my thought was to pull the fire alarm. But I survived and got through it.

Dan: And it even ties into posting for the first time. I was not super comfortable with that either. I wasn’t comfortable when I was flown to London to speak and there was an audience of 400 people. But every time I do something like this, and this is the difference, I do have a slide that speaks to this.

Dan: Like I just feel my potency and that I’m capable of so much more. And it’s just like the reminder, we hear the cliche to do the uncomfortable things and sometimes they’re really scary. But then the other side of that is, is just the like infinite potential that we all have.

Dan: Can show hands or nod whatever you’re comfortable with.

Dan: But how many of you would like more work or better work, better clients? [00:01:00] Okay, let’s just post more end of talk. Feel frustrated or like you’re not being seen or you’re feeling undervalued or you’re not being used to your full potential in your work. Anyone relate to that? You feel like the world isn’t presenting you with the right jobs or clients?

Dan: I know often I feel like, oh, this is the one and they’re great people and then it sucks. It happens too often and I think we just have this idealistic view of what it is. And I think we’re just waiting for the perfect opportunity or thing to come to us. When, for me now, I’ve just started creating and I think the only way to do it is to create it your yourself.

Dan: It’s not easy, but it’s possible. And I’m starting to realize that how many of you don’t see yourself doing what you’re doing in 10 years or five, or maybe even two? I felt all of these things, I felt ’em like very deeply and I just knew that I had to start just getting uncomfortable and creating, I just couldn’t picture myself being [00:02:00] a freelance copywriter at whatever, 50 and 55 and 60, I didn’t even think they would want to work with me, so I was like, I gotta do something.

Dan: And I, to that point in my life, I hadn’t chosen to. Climb the corporate ladder. I just always knew it wasn’t for me, but I had never built anything and that frustration just grew massively. What is this slide? So this talk is about taking control of your career instead of waiting to win the career lottery, the perfect client that will last for the rest of your life.

Dan: It’s about creating like a human in a world that rewards creating like a machine online. And I think I didn’t really, I don’t wanna say that I didn’t do it intentionally when I started creating just five years ago, AI wasn’t really the thing it is today, but I think what did help me stand out was that I did just created like a human being and I still do that to this day.

Dan: Yeah, so in saying all that, what if there was this magical place where we could create for free and show our true value? There’s lots of places to do [00:03:00] that. And. I know that social media is a terrible, awful thing. I still hate it. The algorithms are evil and predatory. A lot of the content is terrible and it makes I think, good creative people.

Dan: I think it turns them away. I don’t want to be associated with that and I don’t want to create. And then all those people who are like influencers are like, this is how you create and you have to post X amount per day and this is how you do it, and you have to post this many times a week. And I think all of it is just really intimidating and not true.

Dan: At least it hasn’t been for me. So I’ll say two things to that thing. One, every minute you spend creating is a minute you don’t spend consuming. And for me on LinkedIn, like I don’t read anyone’s posts. It’s just my channel, it’s my network. And I interact with whoever comments and posts and of.

Dan: That’s the lamest like social network There is, but it’s the one I love the [00:04:00] most because it’s the one I currently create on and I fully control it when I, other, if I’m on YouTube, I’m just getting like videos of shark attacks or whatever. It’s this guy likes shark attacks. I don’t. And the second thing, yeah, I wouldn’t be here tonight if it weren’t for creating content.

Dan: I did write a book, but if I wasn’t creating content, nobody would’ve read that book. So if you have to build an audience, and I had the rough draft of this book, I shared bits of it once a week. That was all I posted. And at that time I was growing, I don’t know, it was like 700 to a thousand people per month is what the following was growing for a while.

Dan: The algorithm changed a bit. I wasn’t creating as much and shifted what I was talking about. But that meant when the book came out, I had an audience. People bought the book, lots of people bought the book. It was this bestselling book all over the world. That led to online courses and then workshops and talks.

Dan: And a lot of it I, [00:05:00] I wasn’t prepared for any of it. I thought if this book, helps as I was just saying one person, it would be worth it for me. I just needed to do something for myself. And then people wanting me to speak, I was like no, wrong guy. I just wrote a book. ’cause I was an insecure copywriter and wanted to help people.

Dan: I was no expert. But I think I’ve actually accidentally become one through doing this. So I’m going through it, but it’s increased my perceived value. So how companies and people think, oh, he has a book, he must be smart. But more importantly, it’s impacted like how I perceive myself and I’m starting to see my own value.

Dan: And then when you see your own value everything changes because I think. Through most of my career, it was like wanting other people to see me and needing their validation or they weren’t paying me enough, or they didn’t offer me the right role. I just, it was like all about them. And that’s how I determined my value.

Dan: And that’s, that has shifted my confidence now that it’s like higher than it’s [00:06:00] ever been. Obviously my rates are higher than they’ve ever been because I post, I’m like top of mind for creative work and workshops and even doing workshops. What I charge for those when I started to now is like so much more.

Dan: I won’t tell you how much, but it’s, I’m the biggest payday of my life earlier this year, just a single day from doing a workshop with a big brand. And when I first started doing them with brands, I was like, I don’t know how to bill Chad, GBT, this. But I’m learning better Work finds me like I talked about earlier.

Dan: Because I think I create and people know my sensibilities and they know, oh, he would be a good fit for X. And I’m also becoming more familiar with my sensibilities and who I’ll work with and who I won’t and how I’ll work. The book courses a community, that’s what this is from. I’ll talk a bit about that.

Dan: It helps me think bigger and globally. Growing up here in Vancouver, most of my time I would think about [00:07:00] what clients or who I wanna work with was just limited to this city. And now, I judged an award show in Nigeria recently from here. But like the world’s a big place. And that’s what sharing on social exposes you to.

Dan: In fact, I don’t get a ton of attention from Canadian, especially Vancouver companies, but across England and across Europe and the Netherlands and Australia. So I’m not limited to the city, which, we have a tendency to, I think. Think smaller. I think we need to think a bit bigger. It’s brought me lots of tears.

Dan: I just couldn’t believe, like being in, in my home and sharing this content and that book and getting messages. I got two the other day from people around the world at how what I’ve done has helped ’em. We all have go through things in life and I would just be walking my dog in the morning and get a message from someone and literally just tearing up.

Dan: So I will say this if you are following people online and you read something to just let that person know that it [00:08:00] helped. I’m telling you, it, it does make a big difference. And met so many awesome people. Like it is online, obviously posting, but then when I travel or even out in the city, I’ve just met people from that or people who introduce themselves and met so many amazing people.

Dan: Yeah, I think creating content can change the arc of your career too. I’m gonna share an approach that helps me succeed despite the algorithm. I don’t worry too much about its rules. I have my own kind of ethics and I stick to those and it seems to work. And even if it doesn’t work, I don’t care.

Dan: I’m not like, I really, I’m not going, trying to go viral. I just want to be a good human being. And I’m like, I know people like my stuff. It’s I just believe it’s quality. Yeah, social media doesn’t suck. It’s just a tool. It’s the humans who own the tool and a lot of people who use the tool who make it suck.

Dan: I think good creative people can [00:09:00] stand out in the sea of turds. And also I think so many creative people I’ve worked with. It’s what we do for a living and we’re building other brands. I think if we can just turn our superpower, our expertise and benefit from it ourselves, we can grow in the same way.

Dan: And it does help me ’cause I can now with. Clients that I’m consulting with I know because I have evidence like it’s working for me. So I’m hoping this inspires you to create quality content that will help unstuck the internet and maybe help suck proof your career’s. A word I made up yesterday.

Dan: This is another word I think I made up, but I know I’ve been to talks where I felt inspired but then never did anything. I know not everyone is gonna go, let’s post on the internet tonight, but I do hope that some of you do post something. Even if it’s six months from now and this talk inspired you or helped in some way, please just let me know because it’s not paying very well.

Dan: That’s what I get paid in. No, I’m just [00:10:00] kidding. So today’s talk, I’m gonna talk a fair bit. There are three prompts for you to talk to each other a wee bit and I’ll do some q and a at the end. There is drinks at a second location I think. What is it? Fable. Fable. Okay. You’ll probably say that later I think.

Dan: Yeah. Okay. So the first prompt before I get into these keys to uns sucking the internet is this. I just want you to talk to the person next to you. You don’t have anyone. Just what’s stopping you or stalling you from creating? What does your inner critic say? What are your excuses? Like, why aren’t you doing it?

Dan: If you wanna do it, maybe you just happen to be here and you don’t want to do it, and that’s fine, but if you do or you’ve thought about it, I’m just curious, just talk to someone and share maybe your thoughts on that and what’s stopping you. The community that I started, it’s called the Escape Artist Community.

Dan: It’s for creative professionals who want to create more for themselves. And as part of that, there’s this nine hour course. And so when [00:11:00] we meet live, I recap things or they watch the videos, and then we talk, and this was one of them. There’s actually 15 keys. That’s it. We don’t have all, we don’t have all names, so I got some of them.

Dan: So I’m gonna start in with the first one. Your target audience is, any guesses? Your son, mom? Yeah. You’ve got it correct. Mom and dad, did someone say I gotta change the slide? Yeah, that’s you. I hear this a lot, but I’m trying, I try to expand on it just so you get a sense of what I mean by this.

Dan: There’s a really long quote on the next slide. This is just a warning. I broke it up though. It’s often said that your specific combination of DNA, your life experiences from childhood up until now is one of a kind, and that the person you are is somewhere in the order of one in 400 trillion. Thus the odds are long that there has ever been another one of you before.

Dan: Nor will there be another you anytime soon or ever. Regardless of [00:12:00] whether the math is accurate, the idea is seductive. You are one of a kind. A book, never Play It Safe by Chase Jarvis. Highly recommend screen grabs there, but I love that your advantage in life is the mix of your values, your DNA, your personality, your experiences, strength, weaknesses, and your insecurities.

Dan: I think what stops us from creating sometimes is we think I’m not an expert or I don’t know everything, but on the other side, you do know a lot of things and we’re just so black and white. We focus on one of those things, or we’re not perfect, or we do have this weakness and that means we shouldn’t create, but like everyone in this room has a shit ton of value that can help a shit ton of people.

Dan: But I think it’s when you share, like I have from a place of insecurity, my book was called A Self-Help Guide for a Copywriter. So it was, I wasn’t claiming to be anyone. I wasn’t Oh yeah. I’m gonna talk about, this is a term I’ve created called an inside [00:13:00] Outer. And I, when I see people who have their guts out and they’re not trying to be anyone, they’re not, and whether they’re speaking or they’re at work or with their friends, it’s that’s who I want to be.

Dan: I just want to be like Dan consistently and not have to change for this client or that client. And that’s what creating has helped me do. It’s just getting all of my insides out and starting to see my value. An example of this is Mike Crio, the founder of Liquid Death, who before this was like, he was an advertising creative, but into punk music, was a skater, was a rebel and didn’t really fit in.

Dan: And now he’s got a punk, water brand. Tony Hawk, his first skateboard that he bought was a Tony Hawk skateboard. Tony Hawk is an investor. He skates with Tony Hawk. I feel like whether you like the brand or not, Mike is just being himself and making a lot of money. Yeah. We can all tell when [00:14:00] someone is creating something and not being truly authentic, they want you to think about them in this way or that way.

Dan: It’s pretty obvious people who aren’t and there’s not that many people who aren’t. So create for yourself, like yourself if you like. This is the answer to the test. You’re winning. Lottery ticket is all of those things that make up you, that is your advantage. ’cause nobody in the world has that combination of things that you are one in 400 trillion.

Dan: And I think when you start to create, you start to see how special you are.

Dan: Oh yeah. So it’s not, will anyone like this? I think a lot of us think that when we’re creating is really, will I like this? That’s what I’ve done. It’s not, does this work on the platform? Is does this work for me? And I think. People stop creating ’cause they think they have to figure out the platform.

Dan: You got it figured out. Like just, it’s just about [00:15:00] trusting your gut. And I think sometimes people are worried if I say this, I might lose business. Or it’s only worth the opposite for me because everyone’s a human being and the people who are like the clients I want or the places I want to speak at are like, yeah, I feel that way too.

Dan: I just wasn’t saying it. So it’ll probably get you more business than not saying it. Antiviral, 

Ami: viral thinking. 

Dan: Yeah, I don’t worry about likes or comments or virality. The most important question, going back to the last one was, do I like this? That’s it, that’s enough. If I think it’s of value and one person likes it, that’s all I need.

Dan: Yeah. I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t play the algorithm. I just created two reasons. The joy of creating and the frustration of me not creating what propelled me to start. Yeah, I genuinely thought from everything I do, my book, when I send my newsletter, I think there’s 10,000 subscribers. I just want, if I get one person replying, [00:16:00] I feel like it was worth it.

Dan: That’s all I ever want is just one person. I think because I try as I’ll get into create what I feel is quality, that I don’t need a thousand people. It’s if I got five, I know their quality. I just believe if what I’ve created is a value, then they’re valuable too. And then if you’re consistent, you will go viral occasionally.

Dan: There’s a lot of words in this presentation because it was part of a course. I don’t have any examples, but I have gone viral several times. This is another one. What if everyone in the world did this? This is just a filter that I use. Like a moral filter. Some examples when Karen’s attacked.

Dan: Oh just the name. Karen. Is there anyone named Karen in this room? The name is going extinct. I know it’s fairly recent phenomenon, but when Karen’s attack was a subject line for an email newsletter I was about to send, and then I thought to myself what damage is this causing? And I started to research it.

Dan: And the amount of bullying that young girls, one, the name’s going [00:17:00] extinct, but also adults and any women with the name Karen are having a hard time because of it. And so I did not do it. And it’s the same with Jaguar changed its logo and it seemed like everyone in marketing and advertising had to have an opinion on it.

Dan: And so I did not post, ’cause I’m like, it just makes the internet a worse place. And a lot of the people who are doing it are just doing it to get likes, not to be a decent human being. Oh. And then just piling on in general, like with AI for example, it’s just negativity sell. People are just mimicking that and I just won’t allow myself to do it.

Dan: So yeah, have a POV without being a POS and let’s go. So yeah, follow your moral compass because the algorithms do not have one. And I think if everyone’s okay with not getting as many likes, I think eventually I think we can win over if there’s this movement, I picture like a [00:18:00] rebellion and that eventually I just think it has to shift where people are wanting more valuable content and it’s so obvious what the crap is.

Dan: Yeah. So I consistently now will take short term a’s for longer term W’s. I just have this crazy belief that it’s the right thing to do and I think it helps me going. And I think that’s the hardest part for a lot of people. They do stop if they’re not seeing the results. If you stick with it.

Dan: Like it’s just compounding. If it’s even one person that followed you or likes it the next time and the next time it just trust me. It does happen. Yeah, so respect your audience and remember your target audience is you. If you don’t like it, don’t share it. If you think you’re sharing it just to get likes or because it will get a reaction.

Dan: I, I don’t personally. Yeah. So don’t be like the influencer bros. But know how they think. My book so when it started to climb [00:19:00] the charts of Amazon, I didn’t even know there were charts. I didn’t think I want to climb charts. ’cause again, that was like, if one person reads it, this will be a win.

Dan: But I got some notification that it was in like top 50 and then I get one from Australia and one from England and it’s top 30, top 20, top 10. And then I was like let’s go for it. Top 5, 4, 3, 2. And then I thought let’s go for number one. I never got to number one because Alex, her, I don’t know if you know who he is.

Dan: This book was number one. I listened to it. Months later I was bumped to number three because his book was number one. His audio book was number two, and then I was four. And I don’t know, it was like his ebook, his audiobook, his printed book. And I just kept going down. He was like, he was the top six and I was seven.

Dan: But I listened to his book and he said, this, you can complain about how people, so he was talking about how to sell things or how to create content and like scarcity mindset. [00:20:00] And he said, you can complain about how people ought to be or how the world should be. Or you can embrace how it is. You can either be right or you can be rich.

Dan: This book is for getting rich. If that bothers you, just put this down and go back to arguing against human nature. Hint, you’re not going to change it. And I think a lot of these influencer bros. Just do that. I think they just objectify people and they do, it is very like predatory ’cause they know the weaknesses of our brains.

Dan: But there was a lot of value in the book and I think it was good for someone like me who was maybe so far the other way. Some of these tactics are okay as long as you are aware of it and you’re still being a decent human being. So yeah, it’s predatory. They often like stealing content or it’s like adjacent to something you’ve seen.

Dan: They’re hacks or this comment ding dong below and I’ll send you my top secret content planning system that you’ll never reheat. That stuff drives me nuts. But I think I will probably [00:21:00] do something like that but make a joke of it. So I love the things they do. I’ve become friends with some of them because I’ve developed a bit of an audience and they’re not bad people.

Dan: They’re just playing a game. The algorithms are the problem. They learn the platform and then they teach people how to do it. This guy in New Zealand, I actually have a picture of him in here. He’s like such a good guy, but he’s telling me what he’s making and charging people to like how to create on LinkedIn and it makes me want to do it.

Dan: But these people, a lot of them don’t have, if you’re a professional, creative, the same creative standard, they don’t have maybe the perfectionist tendencies because they’re just playing a game. And I think we can take from that to not be so emotional and precious about what we do. So yeah, we can learn the tactics.

Dan: I love, as I said, playing with ’em and making them my own or twisting them. ’cause people are expecting you to do this ’cause they’ve seen it and then you just make it more [00:22:00] human. Oh, what I, when I did a webinar for my community, or no, it was my course. And I said, do you know how people do those free webinars?

Dan: And then at the end they throw this irresistible offer at you and it was like I’ll be doing just that on February 22nd. So I was transparent about how I was gonna do it, that I was selling something and I think people just liked my post. I think it was like 2000 people signed up for these webinars.

Dan: A lot of ’em didn’t come. ’cause I think they just liked my posts. They had no interest in my course. So yeah, it’s using the tactics, adding your humanity and all of the things that make you one and 400 trillion and their systems and structure a lot of them, and they give that away. It’s really helpful.

Dan: A lot of creative people struggle with that. A DHD, we were talking about that. And they do break it down and that can be helpful too. So yeah, it’s just being less judgmental, less of a perfectionist with your own work and getting it out there because. Where it’s not in this slide, [00:23:00] but on a future slide, I think I kept it in, your five out of 10 is, is gonna be way better than there are seven or eight.

Dan: If you’re a professional creative, you have that ability. It is a huge advantage that combined with your uniqueness so working at a sustainable pace the gurus say you have to post this many times a week or it’s not worth it. This is what I have to say to that because as I said Mondays, I once a week for 52 weeks was a challenge when I started sharing content and I shared on Mondays and it was born out of a very human reason.

Dan: So it was like helpful content and I thought if they’re dreading going to work on Monday, or if they have creative self-doubt, I will just give them something Monday morning. It was always Monday morning that they can take into the week. And I think that’s why it resonated, because it was the timing of the thing.

Dan: My newsletter went out Mondays, but after I Googled, [00:24:00] worst day to send a newsletter is Monday. But it worked for me. And so you can’t follow the algorithms and all of that. It’s like just trust your gut and go with that. So quality over quantity to take time to create, not too much, but one good piece of content a week or one podcast a month is better than three piles of dooo each week.

Dan: I don’t know why Dooo and I had these poo emojis in here. I took them out. I had to Google if Dooo was hyphenated the other day. It is hyphenated, but yeah, this is, oh, this is not the most recent one I took. I took this out too, but this is just like fire hosing the internet with content. That I just, I don’t love that either.

Dan: And I think of the people who follow me, if I’m posting once a week, maybe twice, and you find it, that’s great. And if you don’t, that’s also great because you’re not gonna tire of me most [00:25:00] likely. So yeah, you become more trusted and respected, even if you’re not getting the likes and follows and hearts.

Dan: Maybe the people wanting more, but also the more you create, the faster you get. So it takes longer at first to get going if you want to create quality. But then that speeds up and you also have you like a library of work. That first year, it was one piece of content every week. So I had 52 and I think I might have posted 56 times.

Dan: And then the next year I kept that up. So now I have, it’s five years, almost probably about once a week. So I could probably get by on not creating anything new and just like using that as inspiration or reposting old things and updating them. You also attract people with integrity and influence. So this path started for me.

Dan: I was contacted by massive organizations, educational organizations can, a [00:26:00] lot of the stuff that I was creating was being shared in courses and programs around the world. So the risk of quality is the time spent versus results. It can feel deflating. It can be slower to grow, which can also feel deflating.

Dan: And then one thing I think about a lot is the mindset of social media consumers. Nobody’s there, like really paying attention. You’re like avoiding something or procrastinating. And here I am crafting something for someone who’s sitting on a toilet to read what I wrote. And that inspired this.

Dan: I’ve created this. How you approach creating content and how people consume content. I’m gonna revisit again. He’s on a toilet that’s, I didn’t even put that together, but anyway. But one, one way around that is maybe you share bits of your content, not all of it, and you have something they can subscribe to read the rest of it.

Dan: Or what I do, I will share like a headline out of my [00:27:00] post, and that’s the image. So the people with a DHD if they don’t wanna read it, I give them something to like, and the people who are intrigued or wanna read more can read the posts. So I’m like appealing to both of them at the same time. Quality content increases your knowledge too, how you’re perceived, how you perceive yourself, increases your rates.

Dan: And then quality content leads to things like the books and courses and workshops and high fives, which I might collect later. But it also works in reverse. And that was it for me because I had a rough draft of this. Book that I had been working on. And I think when we think of social media content, the mindset is always it’s gotta be fast and quick.

Dan: ’cause you have to do it every day. Then it’s not valuable. I encourage you to take time, even if you were thinking you were gonna do it, take a year to really think about what you would create and how it would serve you. What do you want out of it? Yeah. So this way, the way I did it is and I always think this way.

Dan: I do have some slides on it, but I don’t just create to [00:28:00] build an audience. I’m thinking about what do I want out of it? What am I selling? So the world has figured out how to create crappy content at scale. How can we create quality content at scale? This is something that I’m really focused on and thinking big picture about how I create versus what should I post today.

Dan: So L money, L social spoke the creative pulse event. And she has, she calls it a having a signature series for me, because I come from the world of advertising, I call it like campaign thinking. So don’t think in one off posts. Yeah. So don’t, not what should I post today? That is really hard. And that, that the essence of this and my copywriting book was if you have to sit and write headlines, you don’t start with a blank page.

Dan: That’s what I did for years. It’s why it’s really hard and you just expect these fully baked headlines to jump out of your head. And when I broke down the process, I was like, oh no, you come up with buckets, like [00:29:00] the overarching areas, what are all the ways in, and then that’s not creative. And then you list first level ideas under each one of them.

Dan: If you have 10 buckets and 10 ideas, you have a hundred thought starters. And then you write headlines. And so when it comes to creating content, it’s thinking and campaigns. So I’ve done, and there’s podcasts and things. I’ve done CD talks where. Creative director talks. It was creative direction for creative directors, and that was a series and a template that I experimented with.

Dan: And I had, because of the book, it was a series of copywriting tips. So I knew it just gave me guidance and it was like easier. I’m just thinking big picture. I did a series of these old man videos where I had this aging filter and I was like, I’m gonna write a book one day. And I would just talk about all the things.

Dan: My dad actually inspired that he’s 80, he still says he’s gonna write a book, he’s not going to. And now because of my community, the escape artist community, I have an interview series that I’m doing there. It’s [00:30:00] as of right now, it’s just within the community. I’ll be sharing like carousels on LinkedIn.

Dan: And then my latest one that is coming soon is called Prompts for Humans. And a lot of that is just a way of me reframing a lot of the content I’ve done, but it’s more relevant to frame in this way, and I can update it. But I can easily do that like once a week and keep that up. And then I can have two streams of content, one for my escape artist community and one for copywriting.

Dan: And now that I’ve created things, that was a lot of work, but everything is selling a product or a talk. And this is how, going back to the beginning of this talk that, my life and my career is changing. So some examples, this guy Dave Harland, I don’t know if any of Dave Harland. Again, I, he’s become a friend of mine.

Dan: He’s in London. I spoke in London and we hung out like just an amazing guy. That’s an extra bonus to this whole path, but he has [00:31:00] a ton of different series, and this is one called confuse the Scammers. And so if anyone pops into his inbox trying to sell him something or it’s a scam. He just strings them along and they’re usually like film plots and he has really bad Photoshop skills and he’ll send pictures.

Dan: He often starts them with, they’ll say how’s it going? And he can tell that they’re, it’s a scam and he’s usually just inherited a bunch of money and is really stressed about it. And then he just, that, that gets them hooked. And anyway, a lot of them will remove their profiles altogether by the time he’s done with them.

Dan: And so he shares this series, and I think he’s gonna come out with a book he does, I think it’s advertising related, but it’s like the 12 days of Christmas and every year he updates that. So it’s, he’s not having to create new content. And that’s the thing with sticking with anything, it does get faster and easier, but you do have to go through a, the hard part of figuring it out.

Dan: I don’t know if you’ve seen Rob Mayhew, Alan’s favorite in-house comedian, him and [00:32:00] his funny jumpers or his sweaters. He would just do takes on advertising and now he’s sponsored by I don’t know what the company is, but those sweaters are really expensive. And they sent him these three, $400 sweaters.

Dan: It’s completely changed his career. This guy Michael Rankin, he has his UR dope show. He’s in Atlanta. He was named creative director. Shaquille O’Neal is one of the owners of the ad agency. And I think on a Zoom call, Shaquille O’Neal gave him his promotion. I actually interviewed Michael.

Dan: But his show, it’s just, you can see too when you watch his show that it’s just him. He has these crazy sound effects and it’s easier. And you can see like in all of these, like it’s also imagine they’re having a lot of fun doing it. They seem like they are. And so it’s just finding something that is less effort or it’s worth the effort.

Dan: So what I’m doing now with things, and this is maybe not the best example, but just to show you how [00:33:00] I’m approaching things. If I have a single insight or I create a single post, I’m like, is it something more? What are the other visuals that could go with it? I could just go on and on. This could be a recurring thing where I’m commenting, I have an idea for another book that is related to this.

Dan: And so I’m stopping myself all the time and just going, is there something bigger in here? ’cause I don’t want to have to do all the work of finding another insight. It’s I have it. Can I milk it for more and just be more efficient with how I’m creating? And you’re not having to do something new every week.

Dan: Yeah. Don’t worry if it’s not perfect. This is the point I made earlier. You’re five out of 10. If you’re a good person and even half decent creative, that’s an advantage and it will be better than most of the stuff out there. Obviously, it takes some time to find your voice and figure it out and get comfort.

Dan: I’m still finding mine and getting more comfortable, like I’m not there yet. Just, it takes a while. But it’s such an amazing feeling to get your [00:34:00] insides out and have success. Yeah. This is a term, I tmd it, I don’t know why. Minimum viable creativity to just get things out and test it. So many ideas in my head.

Dan: It’s just overwhelming. It’s such a relief whether they do well or not, to just get them out and to just make things. And social media’s just so easy to do it. And if we get over like the need to be liked and for it to go viral and just feel good about creating something and stick with it, you will get the likes as well.

Dan: Oh, the only reason I’m successful is I’m just faster than everyone else. Zane Bolt. And he didn’t say that. That would be too literal. She said Cody Sanchez. I saw that this interview with her. I don’t dunno. I think on Instagram, and for me a classic like Overthinker for so long it’s been so freeing to just do it and you can’t just live in your head.

Dan: I know. It just got exhausting for me. I had to do [00:35:00] something. Okay, so now we’re gonna go back to talking to each other and I’m not expecting it to be great, but it’s just like jam with the people you were talking with earlier and just what could you possibly write about? You don’t need a title for this signature series or campaign thinking.

Dan: It’s just try and bucket your thinking. Big picture, what would it be about? Like even if you have a rough general idea from this conversation it’s a good place to start and no pressure to create anything ever. But I think it’s worth just having the chat and seeing what comes outta your brain and if nothing comes out, that’s okay.

Dan: I’m stuck all the time. Okay. 

Ami: 10 ish minutes. 

Dan: Yeah, that, this, for me, I wasn’t thinking this way when I started creating, about having a signature series. I did happen to have a rough draft of this book. So in a way I did, and it was all themed. But it’s been, I a big focus for me now when I look at other creators who were creating quality content at scale, this is what they’re doing.

Dan: So [00:36:00] nine, I would say don’t follow my system. Have a system or approach if you want to take it seriously, this was my process. This was my process as a professional creative in advertising. I just thought that was the only way to do it. And I’ve become a lot more, I don’t know, like mechanical in how I think.

Dan: And I have this system and I, it’s given me so much confidence to know how I do things before, I think there’s a quote that I’ll get wrong, but this guy made the analogy of every time I had to solve a creative problem, it was like walking onto a stage. I was a magician. And I had the hat, but I didn’t know, if it would be a rabbit or an eel or a shovel or what would come out now that he broke down how he does what he does, he knows how to do it.

Dan: He knows the secrets to his own tricks. So I think it’s just having some secrets to how you create. I know for me, I have to create my own system. It never seems to work when I’m like, oh, let me just get that notion template and fill in the blanks. I think, I mentioned the influencer bros. We can borrow from [00:37:00] them.

Dan: They do that. Take influence from them. But I think, what’s gonna work for me is something that I create, I think this is the problem too, when we’re consuming content and listening to podcasts and following people on Instagram or wherever we’re looking for answers and just hoping someone gives us the answers to the test and then we can just do it.

Dan: But I think we just gotta stop and create it for ourselves. It takes a bit of work, but once you do that, it gets a lot easier. Yeah, I think for me, I think, when I’m big enough I’ll hire someone. I wouldn’t create a system, or if this course launch hits, then my life’s gonna change in this way.

Dan: And it was always like, if this, or when this happens, for so much in my life I thought that way and now I catch myself that I’ve made some difference. This is about suffering from the ifs. And when I wrote myself a letter, Dan plan like the ifs and when are never ever going to happen because they are not.

Dan: Catch yourself in those moments when you’re saying or thinking if this happens then or [00:38:00] when this happens, then those are signs you need to make something happen. Sciences start taking on the things you don’t know or don’t like to do or the things that don’t come easy to you. It is time you can do it and you know you can ya Ah.

Dan: So have a plan or a strategy, not the ifs and when. And I remember even thinking oh, when I have a partner, I will get a dog. It took me a long time, obviously. And eventually I got, just got the puppy. Six months later I met someone and now we have two kids. So yeah, have a goal for the content or your reason for posting.

Dan: I think sometimes we can get caught up and feel like it’s not the right goal. I’m not sure that’s exactly the thing I want. And that stops us too. I don’t think it has to be the right goal, just have a general idea and then you’re working towards something and then the answers come to you once you start creating, not before.

Dan: So right now what I’m focused on are like monthly content themes. So I have 12 and I figured those out. This is [00:39:00] like my buckets when I was talking about earlier from when I create, and then I have one idea per week based on, obviously I have a lot of content, I have multiple courses and a book, so I can pull from that.

Dan: And then that’s like my brief and it’s like my deadline and I don’t stray from that. And then if I’m inspired to create more or I post old content, I can, but that was a simple way for me to break it down. 12 themes that I could talk about once a week. Four ideas under each one. Okay.

Dan: Overcoming fopo. This is fear of posting online. So yeah, the whole self-doubt thing that who am I to be doing this? I’m no expert is a quite a common one. I hear from people going back to like early on in this presentation, and what I realized too, like I am an expert in myself and my own opinions like.

Dan: I’m the, like the top expert in the world on me and what I think. And so when you create from that place, like it’s infinite and [00:40:00] you are all experts in that. And that’s what I’ve realized with me, combined with my experience and my upbringing and my weird quirks and all of that. I’m absolutely an expert in that.

Dan: And I also realized, I think what helped me was like, who am I to be doing this in the world of advertising? ’cause I felt I’m a nobody. I hadn’t accomplished all these great things. And then I stopped and was like I’m not helping everyone above me. I’m just helping.

Dan: It’s the help I’ve always needed. And that’s the only thing I knew. Like this would’ve helped me and maybe it will help other people. Lots of people can use that. And even lots of people above me who are in this top 1% yeah, fear of judgment from others is another funny one. I think we were worry about what other people will think and when I was doing that.

Dan: It was most often, like people I knew, obviously that’s who you can project. And it was like people I worked with, who does Dan think he is? But like I said earlier, I’m judging award shows in Nigeria. Like the world is a really big place. And [00:41:00] what I’ve found and has been like so rewarding with the world can seem like a pretty dark place, but people are so supportive and the people that I do know have been so supportive on this path.

Dan: People are so grateful to why I said, I’ve been brought to tears so many times. Like when you’re creating and what you get back, it’s pretty awesome. And you, me, I just believe that people are awesome and so kind. And I don’t know that I would feel that way if I wasn’t creating and connecting with people.

Dan: So that judgment piece doesn’t really, it just didn’t apply for me. It was just a fantasy in my head. Like it who is gonna make fun of me for posting like nobody, yeah, e each post does not represent you. Your first year results don’t represent you. It’s the totality of what you create. And as long as you don’t stop that’s it.

Dan: It’s just like adding bricks. Yeah. An expert is an idiot who didn’t quit. This was me. ’cause I [00:42:00] definitely didn’t feel like an expert when I was creating. And then all of a sudden, people are calling me an expert or other names like that, that I was really uncomfortable with. I remember one of the first like video podcast interviews I think the interviewers said I’m excited to have you on the show.

Dan: And I said that makes one of us. I just didn’t know why it was happening. I didn’t plan for this to happen. I knew it was a possibility. But when it happened, then what you have to do is okay, then I’m not an expert and I’m not gonna go down this path. Or maybe I just need to accept that I, I might be now and I do have value.

Dan: And I’ll just run with it because I keep going back to that. I’m an expert in my own experience and myself, and if people want me to talk on their podcast then I guess I will. So yeah, instead of thinking about failure and each post or whatever it is you’re creating, just think about the potential upside.

Dan: Like it’s the other side of that. What if I stick with it and get past this uncomfortable feeling? And you do have more [00:43:00] desire to create. We all do. And we’ve not stopped evolving as a species. The fact that there’s freaking AI and all this, that’s the thing inside of all of us saying to do more and create more.

Dan: And you wouldn’t be here today if you didn’t want to. And just think, this drives me too, and I think of my kids. So like I, there’s a, I don’t have it in this presentation, but there’s an old Sony PlayStation ad. I wasn’t planning on sharing this, but I have a microphone and I’m here and I thought of it.

Dan: So I’m going to there was this study done. It’s fleas in a jar, and if you put fleas in a jar and there’s no lid, the fleas jump out. And if you put a lid on the jar, the fleas jump and they hit their heads and then they stop jumping that high. And if you remove the lid, the fleas never ever jump out, never, ever.

Dan: And if you dump them out of the jar, they never ever jump higher. Then that height and every flea born to those fleas never, ever jumps any higher than that height. And so it was certain things for me that does motivate me when I think of my kids. And the [00:44:00] first time I was flown to speak, it was New York, which is a fancy city name too.

Dan: I was like, could’ve been Idaho. But no, it was New York. I remember thinking maybe I’ll have a heart attack in front of these people. Maybe I would shit my pants as the theme of this dog, but I thought I have to go and jump, and if I’m able to jump higher, maybe my kids can to. And obviously, I’m still here.

Dan: It went well. And yeah, that’s what’s happening for me is like I’m able to just maybe just jump a little bit higher with what I’m doing and I’ve stopped caring so much about what other people will think and I just have this belief that if I just keep going, I’ll figure it out and I’ll be alright.

Dan: Yeah. And you don’t wanna be doing the same thing the same way in 10 years or even five, or even two. I think one thing I did that helped me was just feeling that discomfort and frustration. I felt it. It was really hard for me that I had to do something and honestly I was, I think, I hadn’t done anything, so I was [00:45:00] 45 when I started, so it’s, oh no, wait, even older than that 46 maybe.

Dan: Yes, you’re correcting me. You don’t know. So yeah, I’d say be prepared for this process if you’re not and or you don’t have a habit of creating for it to be hard, it is new, but for me. There’s been two kinds of hard in my career. There’s client work or working for ad agencies. That’s hard. It has been hard, but I would find like the relief at the end of those was just that it’s over now and then I just move on to another one.

Dan: But I didn’t find I was like growing as much, but like this path for me has been hard. But then I feel like I’m two inches taller by the end of it and can go and do things. And my belief in myself, that’s what I’m gaining from doing this kind of hard when you’re creating for yourself, not building other people’s, companies, agencies, brands.

Dan: And that is just what it’s all about. And I’m starting to realize now, after all I’ve done in the last five years, [00:46:00] like I was honestly close to not having realized any of it. It was like I had all of that inside of me. I knew, like I felt like this volcano at a certain point, but I was also close to not doing it.

Dan: And I just, I know I haven’t scratched the surface. Shit. It’s the same for all of you. Okay. 11, there’s 12. So we’re almost there. Don’t always be selling, but always be advertising. What I mean by that is if you have a product, I can’t sell my book, but everything I create, like a me two years ago reached out and said, I met him at an event and he said, do you wanna speak?

Dan: He had read my book and I said, oh, how much does it pay? And he said, we’re a nonprofit, which you never want to hear. And I said I’m not sure I wanna talk about my book. And he said what are you most passionate about right now? Right now? And I said encouraging other creative people to create for themselves.

Dan: The dedication to the reader in my book says, create things for you. It doesn’t matter if they’re perfect, all that matters is that they’re [00:47:00] yours. That’s why I wrote the book. It wasn’t to be a copywriting expert. It was like I needed to make something for myself and I knew I was gonna start a community.

Dan: And so that saying yes to that talk forced me to one, get outside my comfort zone, but also figure out basically that the structure for what my community would be. And so really, and people from that talk did sign up for my community, so I wasn’t directly selling it, but everything I create now has an end point or a goal.

Dan: ’cause I want it to change my life. Yeah, you, so I think I’ve changed this to say you can’t pay for your mortgage with emojis. So I dunno why it didn’t update, but I like that line better anyway. So yeah, I think it’s just thinking about your end game when you’re creating content. ’cause I find some people will create content to maybe make their friends laugh, which is totally okay.

Dan: Or they’re creating content, like I said, to get likes. But if you do want more business or to [00:48:00] grow a business or you’re working on a book or you might do this one day, like just have an idea of. It doesn’t have to be specific if you don’t have that idea, but the general trajectory of your career, because then the people who are following you and liking you, it’s just like as soon as that thing is ready they’ll buy it.

Dan: This is the logo for the Escape artist community. I don’t know why I skipped over it so fast. Yeah, and so the it’s interesting. We talk about feeling like a fraud or whatever. I think when I created the copywriting book and was talking about that, I was like, I knew that wasn’t my future. And so I felt like a fraud talking about it.

Dan: And I wasn’t doing as much client work. And now I’ve started this community and I’m doing more client work and I feel like a fraud because I’m doing client work and then I realize, oh my, I’m just a fraud. No matter, maybe I’m just me and I’m just doing what I do, and if I just own what I’m doing, then there’s not a problem and other people can judge it.

Dan: Oh. This is my favorite. I think it’s why it’s the last one. [00:49:00] It’s ties into the fleas in the jar. But I do realize, and this is how I think I keep creating, and that no matter what I share, even if it gets, three likes or three thumbs down, I know it’s successful. Like I’ve just reframed it in my mind because even if it’s terrible, maybe I’ve inspired people to be like, that was garbage.

Dan: I’ll create, maybe it’s my friends, the people who I thought were judging me, were like Dan’s doing this. I could do a better job than Dan. Even that motivates me, and I know I’ve been of service. There’s the line. Yeah. So whether it’s a great post, I’ve helped people. If it was a shitty post, I’ve inspired people maybe on that side of things, if it’s confusing, if I have typos.

Dan: Even my book had, I don’t even know how many typos, like 40 something. I don’t know how I had an editor, I had a proofreader, but I think I just kept tinker. And I was just devastated. But the book was selling and then I updated them and it [00:50:00] was fine. But I also, there was part of me that eventually I was like, oh, I liked that it was imperfect and human.

Dan: Oh, I have a human woman. I just noticed people who create, and you’ll often see lists of like favorite creators and I’m sometimes on those lists on LinkedIn and they’re just all men. I think it’s really important if you’re not a white man to create and have a voice.

Dan: Like when you think about being an active service, like to have more people creating, to see your other people to see you. It doesn’t have to be going viral, but if you’re creating that is, it is making a difference. It really doesn’t matter. And being of service to your future self, I think of like my kids, I think a lot of people feel like creating content is selfish because it’s all about you.

Dan: And this for me has helped reframe it where it’s not about me. It’s not about growing an audience. It’s truly yeah. Being of service. And I think, if you’re not creating, that’s also a service. It’s it’s a disservice because you do have a lot of value. And I think you’d be shocked if you started creating, there’s so [00:51:00] many people that you could help from just being honest.

Dan: Okay. It’s almost over. This is an even longer quote. Excerpt is my least favorite word to say. I dunno why I put it in here. Okay, there we go. Not long ago I read a passage in a book. I bought a guy who bought a house with a bamboo stand growing near his driveway. He decided to get rid of it, so we cut it down, then took an ax to its roots and smashed them into little pieces.

Dan: He dug down and removed as much of the root system as he could, and then he poured a plant poison over what remained. He filled the hole with several feet of gravel and then taking no chances. Paved it over with Sumit. Okay. Two years later, he noticed something, a little green bamboo shoot, pushing up through the cement.

Dan: That bamboo was unquenchable. It could not stop pushing upward. We have something like that inside ourselves. It is our desire. When I read that, for me, when I think I felt it for [00:52:00] so long and I just wasn’t creating and it just never went away, I think we do all have it and it’s felt so damn good to lean into it and start creating.

Dan: I think we always have that. You have that ability and you have the desire, if you can relate to this. It’s just getting out of your own way and being okay with it not being perfect and figure it out. But if you’re thinking about it over the long term, I just can’t believe what I’ve done in five years.

Dan: And it would be the same for you. So yeah, you don’t figure out exactly what you want to do, how you want to do it, and then start creating it. It works the other way around. That’s what I’ve figured out. Because even copywriting, I did not want to be a copywriting guy. I had to create something.

Dan: And just through creating it got me going without overthinking what that thing was. Oh, okay. This is the last one, and then I’ll wrap up. And on one slide you’ll see all 12 of these things. So this is something that occurred to me [00:53:00] recently. When I listened to that desire and I’ve been so focused on my inner critic and I’ve written a lot about that, and I think help people understand and quiet that voice.

Dan: But there’s a voice that I’ve been ignoring that I’ve only recently started to hear it or realize, oh man, that voice has been there all along too. It’s just not getting the headlines. That’s the voice that is frustrated for you when you’re in a job that you don’t love and you feel like you’re not being treated fairly.

Dan: And it’s I’m more smarter than that. That’s quite, we just focus on the negative association with that. But really. That is your value saying I’m worth more. We just don’t interpret it that way. And now that I’m starting to create and do things, I’m like, oh yeah, this was the thing inside of me that was pushing me to create.

Dan: Like maybe it’s not as common to talk about it, but we’re gonna talk about it now for five minutes. And I think, if you’re not comfortable saying like what is that voice telling you to do? What are the crazy things it’s [00:54:00] telling you, you could do this, you could start a business, you could this.

Dan: Like just get that out. That’s it’s right. And I think it might be interesting to just see what comes out and it, if nothing’s coming out or if that doesn’t feel comfortable for you, maybe you can just share some examples of where, when you’ve been frustrated at work or frustrated because that’s what that is too.

Dan: And if that comes easier to you and then just reverse engineer that to be like, what is. That feeling telling me it is saying you’re worth more. So maybe take five minutes and then I’ll probably have a couple minute wrap up. But I’ll stop talking now. Okay. This is just a challenge to put a note in your calendar.

Dan: We were just talking about this for two weeks from now, something like five to 10 content series ideas. Just make that commitment to yourself. If you’re interested in thinking about creating content, maybe pick someone you’ve been chatting with tonight as your accountability partner. And think about on the back end of that, like what might you make?

Dan: Do you want to build your own company? [00:55:00] Do you want to build your clients? Do you want to attract a certain type of client? And then go, okay, what type of series could I create to get that and just send those ideas and maybe a year from now you start making it. That’s how it works. I think we’re so ambitious that next week we’re gonna change our lives.

Dan: I know. Even the community that I run, there’s people working on various things around the world, but I had said to them it was lifetime access because I knew, things happen in life and there’s loved ones that get sick and you can get sick and your career can get really busy and it’s the up and downs of things.

Dan: But if you can commit to doing something and just stick with it, and even for me, I have this 52 week challenge in the community, and it’s a minimum of 15 minutes a week working on the same idea. I’d say half of the 50 people haven’t been able to do it. That’s 15 minutes. So it’s not easy. Okay.

Dan: These are the 12 keys. Do one sucking the internet, 12 of the 15, I’m sure there’s a million of [00:56:00] them. So remember you or your target audience because you are one in 400 trillion antiviral thinking. Just don’t worry about going viral. Just focus more on being consistent and figuring it out. And. The best thing about sucking at first.

Dan: If your content doesn’t do well, it means nobody saw it. So that’s great. It’s like a free rep. Let’s just keep going. That filter of what if everyone did? This is like my moral filter for things. Am I making the world a worse place by jumping on this trend? Or is it helping? Oh, this I took this this is not updated.

Dan: Respect. That was, I had a list of things like even humor. Sometimes I, even in my book, I took out a lot of what I thought were like jokes because the point was to help people and I didn’t want to get in the way of that. So just being clear about what the goal was. It wasn’t about me. It was about helping someone.

Dan: So not thinking like the [00:57:00] influencer bros but knowing how they think and maybe you could steal from them and put it through an ethical filter, work at a sustainable pace, focus on quality over quantity. You don’t have to post three times a day or four or five times a week like they’re saying.

Dan: Maybe one day you build to that, but one a week, even once every two weeks, if that’s all you can do is amazing, and you, if you stick with it, that will increase. Think of big picture. That signature series can help you. Just think bigger and create faster. Gives you a system. So don’t follow my no system.

Dan: If you can avoid it. If you can’t avoid it, and you can still create, then it’s better than nothing. Overcoming the fear of posting online and remember that judgment is just in your own mind. The people are really so supportive. Once you start creating it is ridiculous. I’ve seen it, experienced it and seen it for so many other people just blown away by the kindness [00:58:00] of others and strangers.

Dan: It’s out there. Yeah. Don’t always be selling, but always be advertising. That’s just thinking. I see some people create and we’ll build an audience, but they don’t like, have anything to promote on the back end of it. And I know that sounds selfish, but really what are we doing it for? I think for me it’s I love doing it and I love this path that I’m on, and in many cases now I’m making more money, certain things than I ha and I have the joy too is, I was in Lisbon doing a talk.

Dan: I just could not believe that they had paid me and paid me well to talk for a couple hours. They were like, oh, we’re going on a sunset the sailing cruise. Would you like to join us? What am I doing? Yes, I would like to join you. And then just thinking every action is an active service and if that can help you, create more.

Dan: Just think of the people that you are helping just in, in your close circle that no, you’re creating. It might give them the courage to too. And I can think [00:59:00] of people I’ve worked with when they were doing things and you know that, that feeling where you’re like happy for them, but you’re more sad for yourself ’cause you’re not creating and you can’t really be excited for them.

Dan: That’s a gift you can give people if you’re creating, even if what you’re creating isn’t resonating or taking off, there’s gonna be people around you who are like, she’s doing it. I’m gonna try too. And it might take them a while, a year to get creating, but that is a difference you can make.

Dan: Yeah. I think if good creative people create more together we can help unsw the internet. I’m pretty sure. That’s my last slide. Thank you for coming.