Summary

Zacc Rowlands reflects on his content creation journey, emphasizing five key changes he would make to achieve better results when starting anew on a platform called "X."

Abstract

Zacc Rowlands shares his insights on content creation, drawing from his personal experience of posting daily content initially met with indifference. Despite the lack of immediate engagement, he persisted with a rigorous routine of content creation, including daily posts, newsletters, videos, and writing, which led to the development of a digital asset library and new friendships. Reflecting on his early days, Rowlands identifies five areas for improvement: withholding judgment on social media creators, learning from successful peers, increasing content volume, reducing decision-making by choosing a niche, and actively making friends within the online community. He advocates for a more open-minded approach to content creation, emphasizing the importance of embracing volume and community engagement to refine one's creative voice and purpose.

Opinions

Rowlands regrets his initial judgmental view of social media creators, recognizing the fulfillment that comes from daily creation.
He acknowledges the value of learning from successful creators, even if their approach initially seems distasteful, and adapting their strategies to fit his own style.
Rowlands suggests that higher content volume in the early stages can accelerate personal growth and audience discovery.
He stresses the importance of committing to a niche to avoid decision fatigue and maintain consistent content creation.
Rowlands admits his shortcomings in online social engagement and encourages building a social network as a crucial component of success in content creation.
He believes in the flexibility to change niches as one's interests evolve, advocating for a personalized approach to content creation.
Rowlands promotes his weekly newsletter, "The Creator Cycle," as a resource for further exploring creativity and content creation strategies.

5 Things I Would Do Differently If I Were Starting on X From Scratch

Learn from my mistakes, and save yourself a headache.

For two months, I posted daily content into the void.

Nobody cared.

I didn’t let it deter me from:

• posting daily.

• starting a newsletter.

• creating over 30 videos.

• writing 1000 words a day.

• building a library of digital assets.

• making a few friends along the way.

It’s tough getting the ball rolling when you feel like you’re not going anywhere.

Consistently showing up and creating what I was curious about has been the difference.

The fact is, I could’ve seen better results if I had done some things differently.

And while I’m happy with my outputs in general, there are 5 things I would do differently if I were starting all over again.

1. Stop Judging.

I judged social media creators as vain, vapid, attention-seeking losers who didn’t live a real life outside of the internet. This was the major objection holding me back from getting started sooner.

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Creators of all kinds get to do one of the most satisfying things a human possibly can every day.

They get to create.

I would love to slap my former self in the face and tell him to stop being such a judgmental betch.

Judgment gets us nowhere and oftentimes is a reflection of our own insecurities.

2. Learn From Others.

My judgment of others as being cringy and douchey led me to ignore sound advice from a lot of successful creators. (I still fall victim to this.)

You can easily take the essence of knowledge others are offering and apply it to your own content creation strategy without copying them.

For instance:

I loathe pain point hooks. Often, you will see something like, “Stuck in beginners hell? Under 300 followers and don’t know how to grow?” “Here’s my PROVEN framework to save you from your miserable existence, you little prick.”

Ok, the last line you probably won’t see, but you get the point.

I ignored how effective those hooks could be because of my hate for how they made me feel and the people who used them.

Solution: I used the essence of their tactics and made them relatable to my own experience.

Instead of saying, “Stuck in beginner’s hell?”

I would say, “For two months, I posted daily content into the void.”

It’s the same pain point, but the latter is relatable to my personal experience, and the former is a jab at your insecurities.

Is it as effective?

I don’t give a shit. I don’t feel like I’m playing with your emotions this way, and that makes me happy.

3. More volume.

I posted 1–3 times on X every day when I started out.

But If I could go back, I would post 5 times as much.

By getting extreme volume out when nobody is paying attention, you can work on your confidence at a quicker rate.

Volume leads to quality.

Also, more volume gives you more opportunities to be discovered.

When you’re starting out, you have no idea who you are and what you want to make consistently.

If I had pumped out more volume when I had that excited new passion energy, I could’ve figured out what I was really interested in sooner and wasted less time in my old niche.

4. Reduce decision-making.

Pick a niche and get started.

Too many decisions lead to indecision.

Anxiety, stress, and a never-ending feeling of not knowing what to focus on are all due to fear of commitment.

Once I committed to writing about photography specifically for novices, I was able to create consistently.

I didn’t have to deal with choice overload anymore.

And if you don’t want to get stuck in the wrong niche, I have wonderful news.

You can change niches whenever you feel like it!

It’s your world that you’re building.

Who gives a shit.

I changed my niche about 2 months in, and everything is fine.

5. Make friends.

Yeah, so I’m still pretty bad about this one, which is why I would tell former (and current) me to be more outgoing with internet folk.

I’m an incredibly outgoing guy in the real world:

• I go on group runs

• Work as a bartender

• Host meet-up groups

• Crack jokes all the time

• Play in a rock n roll band

• Make videos with strangers

• Talk to strangers at the dog park

• Used to manage a restaurant and lead teams

But for whatever reason, I’m not that outgoing on the internet.

Maybe it’s the dinosaur in me who used to knock on people’s doors to hang out before texts were invented.

It’s called social media for a reason.

To have any success, you need to be social.

Networks are the most powerful asset anyone can have.

Don’t neglect your social network like I have.

Be outgoing, make friends, and make connections.

But please don’t DM people to follow you back.

That’s not cool.

If you enjoyed this article, then you’ll love my weekly newsletter, The Creator Cycle: Unboxing creativity and content creation through a series of 4 boxes.