🔴 How To Find Your Value As A Content Creator

This newsletter is for those who have ever felt the urge to work for themselves.

By the end of this newsletter, you’ll know how to turn your passion into a business.

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Stage Zero: Paycheck to Paycheck

For many Americans, making more money isn’t just admirable, it’s necessary.

75% of Americans earning less than $50,000 live paycheck to paycheck.
66% of Americans earning between $50,000 to $100,000 live paycheck to paycheck.

Living paycheck to paycheck means you have little to no money left at the end of the month.

If you’re living paycheck to paycheck you’re carrying a mental burden whether you know it or not.

You won’t get out of it by ignoring it and keeping the same habits.

To get the weight off your mind, you have to be intentional about your finances.

Start by asking yourself these questions

1. What is my exact monthly income?

   1. Understanding total earnings, including any side income, is crucial for budgeting.

2. What are my fixed monthly expenses?

   1. Identifying all fixed costs, such as rent, utilities, insurance, and loan payments, helps in understanding essential outgoings.

3. What variable expenses do I incur each month?

   1. Tracking variable expenses like groceries, transportation, and entertainment can reveal areas for potential savings.

4. How much debt do I have, and what are the interest rates?

   1. Understanding the total debt and the cost of that debt is key to strategizing its repayment.

5. Am I making any late payments on bills or debts?

   1. Late payments can lead to additional fees and impact credit scores.

6. Do I have any savings, and if so, how much?

   1. Assessing savings helps in understanding the buffer available in emergencies.

7. What unnecessary expenses can I cut down?

   1. Identifying and eliminating non-essential spending can free up funds for savings or debt repayment.

8. Do I have a budget, and am I sticking to it?

   1. Having a budget and adhering to it is fundamental for financial stability.

9. What are my financial goals for the short and long term?

   1. Setting clear goals can help in creating a focused financial plan.

10. Do I have an emergency fund, and how can I build or improve it?

    1. An emergency fund is critical for unexpected expenses and should be a priority in financial planning.

It’s important to know where your money goes in your personal life because you need to know where your money goes in your business. If you have bad personal spending habits, your spending habits will put your business out of business.

Once you understand your spending habits and get to a place where you have a few hundred dollars left at the end of the month, you’re in a good spot to start a side hustle.

Stage One: Finding Your Value

Once you have good spending habits to build upon, it’s time to identify what your value is.

I unintentionally created a journaling exercise that helped me find my purpose and overcome financial struggles.

This journal exercise is called the THREE Method and it’s completely free for you to do on your own. The exercise takes about 30 minutes to complete. It might be the best investment of 30 minutes in your professional career.

In short, you’ll spend about 30 minutes listing your passions, skills, and what you find spiritually rewarding. Then, you’ll sit back and identify what you think you should pour your energy into.

A year ago when I did the THREE Method, I identified that I should share my passions via this newsletter. That same day, I created the first edition of The Bleeding Edge.

My value has evolved to help content creators achieve their goals by auditing their social media accounts and individual videos.

If you don’t have a value that jumps out at you, try the THREE Method here for free.

Stage Two: Prove Your Worth

Full transparency, this is the stage I’m currently in.

My main goal when I started this newsletter was to make $1,000 per month by the end of 2023.

Did I achieve my goal? No.

I wasn’t even close.

Although I sold out my first proper digital art collection, Formidia, in the second month of the newsletter, beyond that, all profits have been much, much lower than $1,000 per month.

Hence, why I’ve rebranded the newsletter to be creator-finance-focused.

To be worth paying for, you need to be the solution to a problem.

Think of who you want to surround yourself with. This is your target customer.

What problems do they have, and how can you use your findings from the THREE Method to solve them?

Once you know this, it’s a game of trial and error.

If you’re not ready to charge your customers, you can build your confidence by doing it for free. Once your confidence is up, start charging.

I work best when I have a target to aim for. If your brain works that way as well, we can set a goal of making 10% of your salary through your side hustle in your first year.

Why?

10% of your paycheck is a great starting place for a side hustle. It’s not an unrealistic target, but it’s enough of a stretch for you to have to push yourself.

Let’s say you make $48,000 right now.

To make 10% of your income, you’re looking at making $4,800 a year, or $400 extra per month.

Let’s say you go the new-age route of selling a digital product. This way, you’re scaling your time and keeping profit margins very high.

This could look like writing a newsletter, making short-form videos, launching an app, making digital presets, 3D assets, courses, podcasts, and consulting, to name a few.

$400 per month is…

1 person buying a $400 product per month
4 people buying a $100 product per month
8 people buying a $50 product per month
16 people buying a $25 product per month
40 people buying a $10 product per month

Not to mention, once you’re able to get a few sales, you build your confidence as a business owner, which is a lot more valuable than some extra money in the bank.

Stage Three: Match Your Paycheck

If you’re capable of earning 10% of your paycheck and you enjoyed the process of getting there, you will probably want to continue your side hustle.

Many readers of The Bleeding Edge are working their first, second, or third jobs and view these jobs as stepping stones in their careers.

Your goal probably involves branching out and doing your own thing at some point. Your ideal timeline may be anywhere from next year to a few decades from now.

No matter your timeline, a good goal to have is earning a certain percentage of your paycheck each year.

You might aim for 20% of your paycheck in year two, 50% of your paycheck in year three, and so on until eventually you replace your entire paycheck.

At the point in which you match your paycheck, you have a choice.

1. Leave your job and leap your side hustle

2. Continue splitting time between your day job and side hustle

3. Stop your side hustle because you like the stability of a consistent paycheck

4. A combination of any of the above

You might think it feels like a lofty task to replace your income right now, so let’s break down the numbers.

Again, let’s say you make $48,000 right now.

Going the new age route of selling a digital product again, you’re looking at making $4,000 per month.

$4,000 per month is…

10 people buying a $400 product per month
25 people buying a $160 product per month
50 people buying a $80 product per month
75 people buying a $53 product per month
100 people buying a $40 product per month
200 people buying a $20 product per month
400 people buying a $10 product per month

Seeing the numbers broken down like that makes the goal seem less lofty.

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That’s my current best attempt at sharing what I know about finding your value and turning it into a business.

Other than this newsletter, I’m working on a few side projects of my own. I’ll share the learnings in the next month or so while I set the foundation.

If you’ve read this far and haven’t yet, please hit the like button on this post. It truly helps the newsletter get seen by more people, which helps me, which helps you.

See you next Monday at 7 am EST :)

Bonus Content

How to win on the internet by Greg Isenberg.