Content Creation | 4 Min Read
#52 - Turning One! 🎉
The newsletter turns 1 year old in this weeks edition so to celebrate here are 4 key lessons I've learned over the last 52 editions.
Hey Friends 👋
This edition marks a pretty massive milestone for both this newsletter and myself, it's the 52nd consecutive edition since starting the newsletter which means for an entire year, a new edition has been published each week without fail. 🤯
To celebrate the anniversary and the milestone, I wanted to share a few lessons and insights I've had over the last year that I hope can help you in some way.
But, before jumping into those, I just wanted to say a quick thank you to every one of you for coming along with me on the journey regardless of how many editions you've read or when you subscribed, the fact you subscribed means the world to me. 🙏
1: Forget The Numbers
At the start, it's easy to get pulled into the mindset of chasing the numbers and optimising for views. I know I did and for each edition I would berate myself for not doing better, not getting more views or link clicks. But, the reality is at the start all of this stuff is irrelevant and you just need to focus on showing up and producing content at your established cadence.
It's been often said by creators with large audiences that you should enjoy the beginning because no one is looking and you can experiment as much as you'd like.
So, at the start, enjoy the process, enjoy creating content and ignore the numbers.
2: Anything Is Better Than Nothing
Some weeks will be tough and you'll feel like not writing or making anything at all. Sometimes time will be against you and you'll be tempted to just skip that week but instead just put something out there and keep your streak going.
I know some of my earlier editions have been like 300 words max and were put together in 30 minutes from start to finish purely because time was against me that week. But, instead of just skipping a week and opening the door to skipping future weeks because I've allowed myself to do it once. I decided to just publish something and keep the momentum alive.
In essence, anything is better than nothing and when time is pushing against you, just focus on keeping the streak going.
3: Focus On What You Can Control, Not What You Can't
It's easy to focus on the things we can't control like subscribers, followers, link clicks, etc as these are the things that are often thrown in our faces as metrics of success. But, we shouldn't focus on these and make targets around them because they're not in our sphere of control.
I can't make you push subscribe or click a link but what I can do is make sure I publish a new edition each week or tweet three times per day containing links to content I've made.
If we make goals focusing on things out of our control we're stacking the deck against ourselves because even if we give it our all and move heaven and earth for that goal, we can still fail because of something we can't control.
This is why we should focus on goals we can 100% control and by completing those goals, they have the possibility of having side effects on things we can't control.
For example, publish one new video for a year (we can control) and by doing this we increase our chances of reaching 1000 subscribers (we can't control).
4: Focus On The Smaller Pieces
When I first started this newsletter about a year ago, the idea of writing a new edition every Sunday for an entire year was terrifying. I had no idea how I would manage it or if I would even achieve it.
But, instead of focusing on the giant task of publishing 52 editions over a year without missing a week, I just focused on taking it a week at a time, publishing one edition and then the next and the next.
So, whenever you feel overwhelmed by the goal you're working on break it down into its smallest pieces and focus on doing them one step at a time. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other, publishing one new post per week and before you know it you'll have run a marathon!
Once again and as always, thank you for reading and being a part of this amazing journey over the last year. If you have any questions or want to chat, reply to this email and let's chat, I'd love to hear from you.
And now, let's get started on year 2! 💪
Thank you for reading as always.
Coner x
Enjoyed This Newsletter?
If you have enjoyed this edition and want to see more of my content please consider checking out my various socials below:
Questions
If you have a question you'd like me to ask me then I'd ask you to consider publically tweeting me it so others may be able to learn from it. However, I understand not all questions are suitable for the public domain in which case you can email me at hey@conermurphy.com
