4 unpopular opinions I have as a business owner and content creator

When somebody thinks of a content creator or business owner, you have these assumptions of what that might look like based on what you’ve seen or heard on social media. But, it truly is different for everyone and today I really want to squash some of those “myths” of what a content creator or business owner pathway has to look like and share some of my unpopular opinions! Let’s get into it!

I don’t really want to grow the size of my business…

As a business owner, one of the most common goals is to grow your business as much as possible. Right? Well, in my opinion, the answer is no. I don’t feel the need to grow my business further. I’m not talking about financial growth - that would always be nice, but rather the number of team members and overall size of my business.

I’ve seen many businesses grow into corporations, with large teams and extensive hierarchies, but that’s not something I aspire to. I’m happy with the small (but amazing) team that I have currently. I don’t want to sacrifice the quality of our work or the happiness of our team members for the sake of growth. Instead, I want to focus on building a sustainable business that can provide for our team and our clients for years to come.

I believe that having a small team allows for more personalized attention to each client. It's easy to lose sight of the client’s needs with a large team, and it can be difficult to keep track of the quality of the work being produced. By keeping a small team, we can better ensure that each client is satisfied with the work and that our team members are happy, which ultimately leads to better outcomes for everyone involved.

Every Monday morning, Shelby from our team leads a meeting with the other four team members - which allows us to get one on one updates from each team member about the handful of clients they each manage. I can’t imagine how impersonal it would feel if our team was 50 to 100 people, and each of them had five or more clients. Creatorly would start to lose its more boutique, personable approach.

You don’t need to be on every social media platform…

Another common belief in the content creation world is that you need to be on every platform in order to be successful. However, my second unpopular opinion is… that I don’t think you need to be on every platform. In fact, I believe that focusing on one timely platform and one evergreen platform is a great place to start, and it’s okay to stop there if that feels good. Being on every platform can be overwhelming and spread you too thin, causing burnout. Instead, I suggest identifying where your audience is and focusing your efforts on those platforms. This allows you to create high-quality content and engage with your audience more effectively.

I think it's important to remember that each platform has its own unique audience and style. What works on one platform may not work on another, and trying to create content for every platform can lead to a lack of focus and quality. By focusing on one or two platforms, you have the opportunity to really hone in on your audience and create content that resonates with them. This can lead to more engagement, more followers, more sales, etc.

Educational content creators don’t need to create and sell a course…

My third unpopular opinion is about educational content creators and the assumption that creating a course is always the right direction. While courses can be a great way to share knowledge, they’re not always the best fit for every audience or creator. It’s important to identify what your audience needs and wants, and sometimes that means creating something other than a course. For example, some audiences may prefer shorter, bite-sized content like blog posts or videos, while others may benefit more from one-on-one coaching or consulting. It’s important to stay open to different formats and delivery methods and choose the one that best serves your audience.

You may or may not know that I personally developed what I consider a really awesome, high-value course. It’s called the Instagram Road Map and you’re more than welcome to check it out, I’ll have it linked in the show notes. To be fully transparent, based on my original expectations, it didn’t really perform that well as far as sales. I’m still very proud of it and I love seeing the folks who did sign up get value from it! So overall, it was 100% worth it. But would I do it again? Not really sure. It’s definitely not in my current game plan. My focus is now on smaller, more affordable, digital products. I feel like that resonates the best with my audience.

Being honest and transparent about my revenue…

Something some creators shy away from is sharing their revenue. I’m fully transparent about my revenue with my audience. I share both my gross and net income… I would never want to lead people to think I make more than I do. This level of transparency can be uncomfortable for some people, but I believe it’s important to be honest with your audience. It helps to build trust and credibility, and it also helps to dispel the myth that being a content creator is always a lucrative career. By sharing both my gross and net income, I hope to provide a more realistic view of what it’s like to be a content creator.

I think it's important to remember that being a content creator is hard work. It takes time, effort, and dedication to create high-quality content that resonates with your audience. By being transparent about my income, I hope to show that it's not always easy to make a living as a content creator, and that success doesn't come overnight. However, with dedication and hard work, it is possible to build a successful career in this field.

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Okay, y’all! These opinions are just what work for me and my business, but this doesn’t mean that you can’t run a course or grow your business to thousands of employees, the point of this episode is so you know that there is no “standard” of what your content creation business has to look like. Don’t do something in your business just because that’s what you think you’re supposed to do. Follow your gut - you know what will make you happy in the long-run better than anyone else!