How to Become a Successful Content Creator While Still Working 9–5
Becoming a successful content creator is a 2021 state of mind
Let’s face it — you are likely reading this article for one of two reasons.
You may want to do something beyond your regular 9–5 job, perhaps to generate a little more income, dip your toe in that entrepreneurial area, or because you keep thinking to yourself, “Hey, I can do that!” Perhaps you find yourself reading too many of those articles of others who have had amazingly, near impossibly, done just that, and you think, “Why not me?”
Alternatively, you are reading this because you already are a content creator on Medium, Instagram, or even News Break. You write about advice, book reviews, thought pieces, images, or something altogether different and maybe searching for new ideas to do this even more effectively.
Sound familiar?
The Magic Bullet of content creation
You may even be wondering what magic bullet is needed to come up with something original to say several times a week or even more frequently? OK, here is the secret. There are very few wholly original ideas. What are there more of? Ideas that are adapted and reframed from new, interesting, or exciting perspectives.
Did Steve Jobs create the computer? No, he took what others were already doing and brought a new perspective to it.
Did Amazon invent the bookstore or eCommerce? No, Jeff Bezos took what others were doing and did something different with it, including on a new scale or with alternate shipping expectations.
How about Kylie Jenner? Did she invent cosmetics? Certainly not, though she has leveraged them in a way unlike any of her competition.
In these cases, along with many others, people took what already existed, filtered it through their own experiences, and came up with something new. Not original in the way that nobody has ever seen it before, but original in that they made things their own.
Some of these people made products while others developed services, but is this process so different from content creation? After all, what is content creation?
Content creation contributes information to any media and most especially to digital media for an end-user/audience in specific contexts. In other words, you create novel content as it is within your unique context.
What does this mean for my content creation?
I struggle to develop new ideas like everybody else has, though I have found the key is not to think about things as new ideas on their own, wondering how I can say something nobody else has ever talked about. Impossible that is, so instead, I bring my twist on something already out there.
Who else can bring things to life than those who live them? That is the essence of content creation — take what is there already and share it through our own unique perspective.
Do what you love and do it with gusto!
Yes, you will need to do this regularly, taking enough ideas that you find and developing them in your voice while allowing your curiosity to bring you further each day. Yes, it is a state of mind, one that in itself is the essence of content creation!
How to implement this state of mind
There are many examples out there of people who do this well, and while they all have their tips and tricks, here are the ones I have learned and developed that I find most helpful.
- Start with something you know. I mean, how can we generate new content in some form if we don’t know anything about it? I understand and work with professional education, learning from experience, and working within applied research, where all of my work begins. I often start from there with things I am working through in my current life, so my content builds upon my real experiences.
- Approach this from a new perspective, especially one that challenges assumptions. Why do what everybody else does? Isn’t it more interesting to turn some small element on its head, or at least a little off-center? Nobody else can do this in the same way you do, as nobody else has the same lived experiences and worldview you bring due to your uniqueness. What are the assumptions about this film, something in the political landscape, or the typical ways of doing X, Y, or Z? Go on, take a stand on something and explore it regardless of what others think about it. Remember how good Elaine felt when she finally spoke her mind about The English Patient? What is itching to come out of your thoughts and perspectives, though you have kept inside out of concerns for being different?
- Don’t be self-conscious about doing it right — get it out! The simple fact you are doing something at all demonstrates you are doing it right. Being preoccupied with right or wrong when creating personally unique content is only a state of mind. Without some content to work with, the ideas are quietly and safely stored in your mind where nobody can react to them. Content creation is all about doing, and the best way to start is just to start.
These simple three steps — start with what you know, challenge assumptions to do something new with it, and just get it out — are not rocket science, but then why should they be?
Just start!
You can position yourself as a content creator even while working at your other job, as where else is a better place is there to have lived experiences that can form the basis of the content you will generate? Creating content does not need to be a full-time pursuit, and until you have developed a following, it likely cannot be one. Why not simply start in your spare time, with the key to commit to a regular process for it, as that will help it grow and strengthen?
This is the essence of a 2021 state of mind, when work as we knew it has shifted for good. There are no other start-up costs, so what are you waiting for?
Who knows, you may become the new voice in your niche that others will look up to and wonder about your secret to success!
