How to grow as a lifestyle creator
If you scour the Internet for helpful tips on growing as a creator, you might notice one thing. Most of those YouTube videos, podcasts, or other social media content is directed toward content creators in the educational niche. Not necessarily those of us who are in the lifestyle niche. So the question I want to unpack today is, how to grow as a lifestyle creator. Let’s get into it.
Work with what you got
Let’s first start with some logistical tips and that is to start with what you have. I know it’s easy to watch creators who have been around for a while and aspire to create the same quality content they do. But if you’re just starting out, it’s impractical to go and buy thousands of dollars worth of camera, audio, and lighting equipment. Even more so, being a lifestyle creator, you’re moving around a lot and capturing more than just one, sit-down area, so it’s important to learn how to use your surroundings to your benefit.
When it comes to the camera, I would say a large majority of us have some sort of smartphone and trust me, this is a perfect place to start if it’s all you have. As you become more invested in your platform, especially if it’s a YouTube channel, you can always get a nicer camera in the future. But if you have a phone or an existing camera, just find ways to increase the quality of other aspects of your content. For example, trust me when I say that improving your audio can make or break your video.
Instead of investing in a $1000 camera, and if you’re ready to invest in anything, look into buying some sort of audio improvement microphone under $100. There are so many different options to choose from. I would just check out Amazon or somewhere like Best Buy, and read the reviews and I’m sure you’ll find something in your price range. Improving the audio automatically is going to make your content higher quality. You can be in a beautiful location and have horrible audio, and no one’s gonna want to watch it. So ensuring that your audio is clean and crisp is a great place to start when it comes to growing as a lifestyle creator. You can also just pay attention to your surroundings, if it’s super windy outside or loud in a building, maybe it’s not the time to film with audio. Instead, maybe do some b-roll and a voiceover. To create a high-quality voiceover for your lifestyle content, just throw a blanket over your head and phone, and start recording. You’ll be amazed at what that combination does. Then simply pair it with the b-roll you filmed earlier.
Next, when it comes to lighting, you can actually get lighting equipment pretty reasonably priced, but because you’re a lifestyle creator… again – you’re going to be moving around a lot. So lighting is not necessary, it’s more about finding the perfect light. When you’re filming throughout the day, no matter what location you are creating in - make sure to leverage the natural daylight in your favor. The great thing about being a lifestyle creator is that you’re usually telling a story, so it’s okay that the lighting changes throughout the content, as that’s going to show the time of day changing. It’s totally different than when planning a structured, educational, sit-down video. Sure, you want the video quality to be high, but you also don’t have to think as much about the “perfect” lighting. As long as the video quality itself is strong, and they can see you… that’s what’s important.
Finally, embrace your own lifestyle, don’t adjust your lifestyle to fit your content. What I mean by that is, there is a lot of pressure in the lifestyle niche to have this perfect, aesthetic life. But, at the end of the day, most of us watch lifestyle content because we feel like we can relate to the creator. There is someone out there who relates to you…so embrace your environment, your space, and yourself. Your ideal community will find you when you’re being the most authentic.
Have some sort of strategy
I think sometimes with lifestyle creators who are just starting out, it’s easy to just go in feet first without doing any sort of strategic planning. Lifestyle content, from the outside looking in, can sometimes appear super casual and relaxed, with very little strategic planning. But that is where most lifestyle content creators fail. They go into this journey expecting it to be easy because the creators they have watched for years make it LOOK so dang easy. But most successful lifestyle creators only got to where they are by planning their content strategically. Here’s how:
Tell a story: I think one of the most important strategies as a lifestyle content creator is figuring out how to tell stories with your content. I understand that as a lifestyle creator, there are a lot of unplanned events that happen, so it feels nearly impossible sometimes to plan content or find a story within the content you’ve already captured.
Here is the best way I have found to create content based on my day, my travels, etc. Plan your day with your content in mind. I talked about this recently in a podcast episode about planning a travel vlog - but as you plan your day … ask yourself questions like, what can I do today that would be interesting to my audience? Where am I going that my audience would find exciting? What can I say or do in my content that would resonate or be relatable to my community? Unlike some sit-down, educational pieces of content, you don’t need to have a script. But you can still draft a solid intro and outro, and outline an itinerary for your day - laying out exactly what things you want to make sure to capture in your content. This will help you plan your story before you even start filming. This gives you the opportunity to structure your day around what your audience will connect with the most, ensuring that it will be interesting to them.
Then, if something happens during the day that was unexpected - you can easily fit that into this semi-planned content and can even adjust as you go. For example, your ending might be a bit different if something redirected your original endpoint for that day.
Lean into the season: This strategy can be for any niche and that is to create and post your content at the right time of year. Here is an easy example - say you’re a lifestyle creator who shares a lot of content surrounding having a well-balanced, organized life. December and January would be the PERFECT time to post a lot of content about setting goals, resetting for the New Year, etc. etc. This is a way to lean into the season.
Be consistent: I am sure ya’ll are tired of hearing this … but consistency is key. You want to create a brand and rhythm that you’re community can rely on. Especially with lifestyle contact, your community starts to feel like your friend, and as their friend – you need to make sure that you show up for them. The best way to do this is come up with a posting schedule that you stick to.
Develop a content calendar: finally, you need to develop some sort of content calendar. I actually have a notion contact calendar template in my shop, I’ll have it linked in the show notes if you want to check it out, but you need some way to organize when you’re going to post and the overarching theme of what that content is going to be about. This will also help you keep organized on what stage of the process you are in. Are you outlining, are you filming, are you editing, etc?
Create a routine: beyond planning, when you’re going to post your contact, you also need to figure out when you’re going to create it. I think it’s very helpful to have some sort of weekly schedule that allows you the time you need to create this content from start to finish. You can set a reminder to plan this on a week by week basis or you can have themed days - for example, you can have a writing day, a filming day, an editing day, etc.
Don’t forget about keywords: Something else that I think is forgotten sometimes when it comes to lifestyle content is SEO. I’ve talked a lot about writing intriguing titles and thumbnails if you’re a YouTuber and creating cover images and using the proper captions or hashtags for Instagram, but I feel like sometimes with lifestyle creators, who are just starting out, they forget the importance of this strategy within their content. Again, from the outside, looking in, it doesn’t look like a lot of lifestyle creators actually care about keywords, but that’s not the case. There are always ways that you can frame your words to also please the social media algorithm.
I hope this gives you a start when it comes to growing as a lifestyle content creator. If you want to see more content surrounding the lifestyle niche, please let us know by sending a DM to the Creatorly Media Instagram. Also, if you happen to have a travel channel, check out my new Travel Vlog Planner template, or if you are just trying to figure out the best way to script your YouTube videos, I also have a Viral Script template as well. All of these templates will be linked in the show notes.
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