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Resources For Modern Workers

New content weekly to help you build your personal digital systems for productivity, self-improvement, knowledge, creativity &Ā team work.

Browse By The Personal Systems You Want To Build...

When Showing Up As A Creator Means Giving Yourself A Break

Yesterday was the first time in 105 days in which I didn't publish an atomic essay. After watching the Twitter threads masterclass with Dickie & Cole I decided I wanted to execute on a Twitter thread I'd been thinking about. Two hours later I hit publish. I could have shipped, I had plenty of essays in my up next pile to work on. But I didn't. I had more than shown up for myself as a creator. So why did I feel so guilty, so worried? It felt weird and wrong and I wondered if I'd even made the right decision.
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The Definitive Guide To Notion Products That Are Not Templates

āš”ļøNEWS FLASH: You don't have to be using Notion as your main daily productivity driver to build cool products with it and make money online as a creator. Here are 17 product ideas that you could build & launch in the next week using Notion.
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How To Balance Thinking Deeply While Shipping Daily

Writing every day can be tough. Some days it can feel like groundhog day. Ideation, draft, write, publish. Every day. But what if an idea requires a little more deep thinking? How do you give each idea the time and thought it deserves while still shipping daily?
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Four Tools Every Creator Needs to Ship Creative Work At Pace

How do you continue to be creative over long periods and at speed? As well as having a full-time job that keeps me pretty busy, I've recently become a creator, a maker of products, and a co-founder of a SAAS company.
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Four Mindful Habits That Will Transform Your Twitter Experience

I've been glued to my phone for weeks. Sometimes I even trick myself into thinking I'm not addicted. I turned off my Twitter notifications from showing up on my screen a long time ago. But sneakily, left them on in the notification center, just so I could swipe down anytime in case something 'important' was happening.
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How I Went From Wannabe Creator To Creator in 100 Days

In 10 years of being a wannabe creator, I produced a grand total of 100 pieces of content on the internet. It was always the same pattern. Super excited about an idea I dreamed about it, planned everything creating a cool name and beautiful design before I even had any content. When I did put content out, it was hard to get anyone to read it except my beautiful supportive IRL friends.
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5 Mistakes Early Stage Creators Make That Are Holding Them Back

I've been shipping for 99 days and 3 cohorts. Here are some mistakes I see early shippers making.
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I'm Not Formally Qualified To Be Doing Any Of This šŸ˜±

Traditional schooling needs a major overhaul. Throughout my last 2 years of high school, I sat in Maths class boycotting the fact that it wasn't a required subject, but our school had made it required for us. Day after day I argued with my teacher about how utterly worthless it was for me to be learning any of these concepts that I would NEVER need to know in real life.
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Systems Won't Save You From Yourself. Here's What Will...

That shiny new tool, or template or system is not going to save you from the perceived disorganised mess that you are. We've all been there. Being blinded by that shiny new toy that promises ULTIMATE PRODUCTIVITY. Only to find it months or weeks later laying dormant on our computers, untouched, in the graveyard of other good ideas we've abandoned. And then beating ourselves up, wondering why we just can't contort ourselves into this perfect system?
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Stop 'Saving Things For Later' and Start Triaging Instead

We are not living in our parents world. Today you have to deal with more information coming at us than any other person in history. Every day, as humans collectively we create roughly 2.5 quintillion bytes of data. Even if you tried to consume it all, you couldn't.
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Why Over-sharers Are Building A Bigger Audience Than You

I'm naturally a sharer. I love to share what I'm doing and what I'm learning. I'll easily take a screenshot, record a quick loom video or write out a process if I think it is interesting. I love taking a peek 'behind the scenes' of others processes too.
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Thinking Of Building An Online Course? Don't... Try This First

The beauty of the creator economy is that there are so many ways you can make money. And you don't have to create your own 20+ module CBC transformational online course to do it. And you probably shouldn't (at first). A course is a big endeavor, it takes a lot of time and energy to build and there is no guarantee that anyone will buy it.
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The 'First Moves' Framework That Will Kill Your Procrastination Forever

3 min 11 seconds
The science-backed method that helps solopreneurs start (and finish) their hardest tasks
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The Simple Task Method I Used To Eliminate Procrastination For Good.

They say it takes about 20 minutes to refocus every time you switch tasks.I donā€™t know about you, but I donā€™t have 20 minutes to waste every time I switch between the tasks on my list. My time is limited. So I created a way to skip that 20 minute hazy moment where youā€™re faffing aroundā€¦
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How to Stop Being the Bottleneck in Your Teamā€™s Progress

The life-changing method I created to manage work that was waiting on me, get back to people faster, and create more space to do my best work.
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Master Your Schedule with My 10-Minute Weekly Planning Process (using Tana)

My foolproof weekly planning routine that takes me about 10 minutes every week and keeps me organised across my work, my creator business & my whole life.
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How To Make Steady Progress On Your Big Creative Projects

Lately Iā€™ve been struggling with my process for getting big creative projects done. They feel like they are taking forever to finish. Each step feels big so I put it off thinking I need a bigger chunk of time to deal with it.
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An Essay About Boring SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures)

2 min read
I am a master procrastinator. Not because I don't know what I should do or because I'm not motivated - but because most of the time I just don't have the headspace to get stuff done.
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What Goal Setting Looks Like For Infinite Game Players

2 min read
I was listening to an Instagram reel the other day from Sahil Bloom talking about finite v infinite games. If you're not familiar with the concept...
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Three Questions About Rest The Internet Couldn't Answer

2 min read
Yesterday I searched Google for the phrase 'How To Stop'I couldn't exactly articulate what I was trying to find, but basically, I wanted some advice on what it looks like to slow down, stop, & rest. I assumed I'd find some advice on this exact thing. Except I didn't.
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Five Weird Things I Do To Prepare For A New Year

2 min read
I love this time between Christmas and New Year. It's always so full of hope. It's quiet and gives me time to think, plan & dream for the new year. And like everyone I'm thinking about goals I want to accomplish, creating concrete plans of reaching those goals.
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How To Level Up šŸ†™ Your Life One Day At A Time

1 min read
Daily planners are not a new thing. It's literally the simplest & most powerful way to plan the day. Take a sheet of paper (or screen), put the date at the top & start organising your day. I remember getting my first Filofax and then going on to design my first paper (then digital) planner pages.
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A Simple Yearly Planning Ritual That Takes Less Than An Hour

2 min read
Despite what it looks like, I'm not one for complicated systems.And while I admire all the people who can put their head down for days and go through long yearly reviews & planning rituals, that is not for me.
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All The Things Iā€™m Putting Of Till Tomorrow

2 min read
Unpopular Opinion: Procrastination has nothing to do with your motivation (or discipline) levels. I constantly defer tasks on my list to tomorrow. So much so that I created a list in my daily planner called 'All The Thing I'm Putting Off Till Tomorrow.' At first, it was a joke, but it's become a key way of noticing patterns in my behaviour.
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How To Work In Your 'Spark Of Genius' Everyday

Why do we subject ourselves to so many unwritten rules as creators and writers? One of these unwritten rules I decided to ditch was: If I didn't write it last week I MUST write it this week.
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How I Create Consistent Content Every Day With One Simple Morning Routine

For the past 2 years I have had one morning routine: Wake Up Make Coffee & Write. It doesnā€™t matter if itā€™s a weekday or weekend, I'm on holiday, in the middle of a busy time at work, or whatever - I do the same thing each morning.
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How I Turned A PKM Tool Into My Own Personal Coach

When I'm not creating content for the internet I'm a marketing coach.It took me a long time to embrace the role of coach in my life. When I first got started I thought I was supposed to have all the answers and that was why my clients were coming to me.
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My Word (& New Role) For 2023

At the beginning of each year I choose a word to theme my year. It's a word that focuses me and provides a lens to make decisions, take action & frame everything I do. It's less of a goal or a 'thing to do' and more of an intention that infuses my thoughts, my actions, my goals & my days.
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How To Be A Lifelong Learner (even if you hated school)

Most people stop learning when they finish school or university. School gives structure to our learning for the first years of our life. But when we finish school, unless we continue to be intentional about learning & growth, we end up wandering through life, maybe reading a few books (if we're lucky).
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How I Review 99.9% Of The Tweets I Bookmark For Later

Be honest, how many of your tweet bookmarks do you go back and look at?Judging from the tweets I've seen in the last few days the answer is... very little. This is a no judgement zone here! I had hundreds of bookmarked tweets racked up that I never ever looked at.
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A Three Step Guide To Organising Your Roam Research 'Brainā€™

When I first started using Roam Research I didn't get. I had come from a very rigid system that required a lot of processing and maintenance. And suddenly I was staring at a blank page wondering how on earth is this going to be better at organising my brain?
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You're Thinking About Your Notes Inbox All Wrong

I currently have over 600 notes in my writing inbox. It's not because I neglect to process them (it's the first thing I do every day). It's because my outcome is not about getting to zero. Just like the number of pages left at the bottom of my kindle books I wish I could simply turn off the constant nagging that I'm trying to get to the end of everything.
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Why You Should Actually Forget Most Of The Things You Capture

Should you really capture everything that comes into your head? Weā€™ve come to take it as gospel that our knowledge management system or our ā€˜second brainā€™ should act like our first brain - only better. Our first brain for some odd reason canā€™t hold a lot of stuff that this modern world throws at us.
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Episode 1 of Digital Hoarders: Burn šŸ”„ Your Old Notes!

I had someone ask me recently how I managed to move all my 10 years worth of notes from Evernote into my new system in Notion & then into Roam Research. The truth is, I didn't. I literally abandoned everything in Evernote and started again.
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Forget Spaced Repetition: The Foolproof Way To 'Remember' Your Notes

I don't review my notes in the typical way most PKM gurus will tell you to do. Most people treat their notes like a filing cabinet. Writing them and then filing them away for some later use. But who wants to drag files out of a filing cabinet every week to add to the 'review' pile? How boring (and no wonder people fail when it comes to 'reviewing' their notes).
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Your Ultimate Guide to Time Blocking in Tana | Step By Step Tutorial

3 easy timeblocking approaches to fit any work style using Tana.
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Supercharge Your Tana Day Page with Related Content - 10 Must-Have Sections

I've always loved how Tana keeps everything at my fingertips. But with the new Related Content feature, it's like having a supercharged dashboard right on my day page!
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Create Your Ultimate Digital Bullet Journal with Tana: Step-by-Step Guide

I have always loved the Bullet Journal system. It's simple & yet a profound way to get things out of your head and stay focused throughout the day.
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Unlock the Power of Tana's New AI Chat: A Step-by-Step Guide

Can AI really make your note-taking more powerful?
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Simplifying My Day Page With Tana's New Core Features: Full Walkthrough

How I'm using my Daily Page now with the release of Tana's Core features like Related Content & Google Calendar integration.
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Unlock the Power of Hybrid Note-Taking: Integrating GoodNotes with Tana

I very rarely miss my paper notebooks now that I use Tana. But every now and then when my brain needs to arrange my thoughts visually & find myself longing for a simple workflow where I can go from notes ā†’ drawing ā†’ back to my notes.
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My Set & Forget Tana Weekly Review System

Confession: I've never been very good at a consistent weekly review habit.
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My Tana 5 Minute Daily Planning Routine (Inspired by Sunsama)

I am notorious for creating day plans that are unrealistic and have WAY too much packed into them. Which is why when I saw Sunsama's daily planning routine it really got my attention
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I Replaced A Full Time Admin Assistant With AI

How I Use Tana To Get Admin Jobs Done Faster & More Efficiently Than A Human Asisstant
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How To Use Tana's Random Node Feature: 5 Ways

In this video I show you 5 ways you can use Tana's Random Node Field to review past notes, mix up your journalling practice, and have a little fun.
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Easy Mode Unlocked: The Ultimate Tana Starter Guide

Tana is one of the most powerful knowledge management tools I have used. But sometimes all those powerful features can overshadow just how simple it can be to get started. And I guarantee that most people are overthinking it from the very start.
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Create A Custom Affirmations App In Tana: Step By Step Tutorial

Throw away your Affirmations apps & subscriptions and build your very own custom one in Tana
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How to Use AI to Kickstart Your Writingā€”Without Getting Generic Content

4 min 32
How to Turn a Messy Brain Dump Into an Outline Using AI in 10 Minutes (and while chilling on the couch)
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How To Create New Ideas From Old Content With A Simple GPT Prompt called 'Pretend Podcast'

4 mins 8
Breath fresh life into old content with a simple chatGPT prompt that will get you thinking in ways you never thought of before
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How to Turn Your 1:1 Calls into a Goldmine of Content: Step By Step Guide

2 min 37
What if every time you jumped on a call with a client you could generate a bunch of content ideas at the same time?
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Turn Your Morning into a Creative Powerhouse with This Simple 3 Step Writing Routine

3 min 39
How I Went from Sporadic Blogging to Consistent Content Creation with One Simple Routine
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The Quirky Method I Use to Mine My Newsletter for Social Media Content

2 min 39
Ever feel like content creation is consuming your life? This method will save you.
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3 Cheat Codes For Non Experts To Start Sharing Your Ideas Online

We live in a world where it has never been easier to share your ideas & build an audience (& a business) around your ideas.Think about how hard that would have been 100 years ago or even 50 years ago?So why then do we struggle so much to get started?
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Less Creation, More Communication: Why Your Best Ideas Deserve a Replay

When I post about sharing ideas in multiple ways the most commented thing ends up being:'Only a portion of your audience sees every post, so sharing it multiple times means everyone sees it.'But that comment misses the whole point of WHY we should share our ideas repeatedly.
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How To Build A Creative Practice Like The Great Artists

I struggled for a decade to be a creator without a creative practice Instead of practising daily, the only time I switched on my creativity was when I needed to produce something. No wonder I struggled for so long!
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How To Build Atomic Ideas (That You Can Turn Into Endless Content)

Three years ago I was desperate to build a consistent writing practice.
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How I Structure My Daily Writing Sessions To Unlock My Ideas

One daily habit pulled me out of years of inconsistency as a creator... Establishing a Daily Spark Writing Practice.
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8 Of My Go-To Frameworks For Turning Ideas Into Content

Content is simply the communication of ideas.Lots of people have ideas, but if you can't communicate them well all those amazing ideas are going to get lost in translation.So communication is the real game of content creation.
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How To Break Down Content Creation Into Easy To Manage Phases

If weekly content planning always feels like a big lift to you, try breaking down your planning into phases instead.
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No. You Don't Need A Lead Magnet To Grow Your Newsletter

Traditional wisdom tells us we should have a lead magnet to 'trick' people into signing up for our newsletter because no one just signs up for newsletters anymore right? WRONG. Every day, no less than 5 people sign up for my newsletter without having to be coerced or 'tricked' by a lead magnet.
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Why You Might Be Struggling To Grow As A Creator

2 min read
In 2 years I've grown from 0-18k here on Twitter and people are always asking me what the secret key or tactic or hack to unlock growth is.
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Why Every Creator Needs A Signature Platform

The biggest creators I know have started on one platform and then as they grew they branched out onto multiple platforms. Because being a creator on a platform isnā€™t just about the content, itā€™s about understanding the platform, engaging with people and a million other different factors.
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Social Media Is Not Your Enemy

2 min read
Social media can make us crazy as creators or writers. On the one hand, it's the perfect conduit to get our message out there and build an audience. On the other hand, we're constantly wrestling with algorithms, and the shortest shelf life for all of our content.
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Why Are All The Creators Leaving Twitter?

2 min read
Twitter Impressions are down. That seems to be the only thing I hear from creators at the moment. And yeah, it sucks. But it's not the first time they've gone through a dip, and it won't be the last.
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Why New Creators Should Go Deep (not wide) On Platforms

2 min read
Content alone isn't going grow your audience on content platforms. As creators, our main 'thing' is creating content, so it's easy to see social media platforms as just big distribution channels to get more people to see what we are creating. But if the internet is just one big distribution channel for your voice you are missing the point.
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Why It Took Me 18 Months To Start Writing On Medium

2 min read
It's the (new) age old question - Should you publish on Medium or your own blog? Over the past few weeks, I've had multiple people ask me why I chose Medium over my own blog or substack or the many other platforms I could write longer-form content on.
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4 Ways New Creators Can Get Started Publishing On Twitter

2 min read
Just over a year ago I got started writing on Twitter. I always viewed Twitter as a distribution platform. A place where you came to tell the world things you created. But these days Twitter has become my main publishing platform where I test ideas and get (mostly) instant feedback on them.
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The Quick Guide For Managing Twitter Without Having To Quit Your Day Job

1000 people. 30k essays. 7 million words.When I first heard that we had 1000 people in the January cohort of ship30for30 I thought I might have to quit my day job after all šŸ¤£
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Every Creator Needs A Community

The creator economy is both wild and lonely at the same time. On one hand, I feel so lucky to be living in this moment where there are so many opportunities for creators. And on the other hand, it's an extremely lonely place that's easy to quit
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The Only Growth Hack You Need To Grow On Twitter

It's easy to get caught up in numbers on Twitter. There is literally numbers everywhere. Number of followers, number of likes, engagement rate numbers, numbers of notifications. It's enough to make you think that Twitter is all about numbers...
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How To Sell Digital Products On Auto-Pilot (Without Relying On Constant Launches)

You don't need a million-dollar launch to have a successful digital product.
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I'm Back From Creative Sabbatical & I Have Thoughts šŸ˜

I've been on a creative sabbatical for the last 4 weeks and it's been the best thing I've ever done as a creator.
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How To Launch Your First Digital Product (& Survive šŸ«£)

So many creators I speak to are scared to launch their first product.I suspect there are a lot of reasons but the main one I hear is "Don't I have to have a big audience or following to launch a product?"I launched my first product with 500 followers, no email list & I made $3k in 4 weeks.
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When To Say Yes (& No) To New Opportunities As A Creator

Over the last couple of years, I've said yes to a million things as a creator. New projects, platforms, launches, content, newsletters, communities and more.
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My 2022 Creator Revenue Story: How I Almost Didnā€™t 2x My Revenue This Year

I almost wasnā€™t able to write such a glowing review of 2022. It was October and I was nowhere near reaching the (very reasonable) goals I had set for myself.
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I Cracked The Creator Content Funnel To Sell My Products On Auto-Pilot

I spent a ridiculous amount of time last year launching products. I think all up it was about 11 products from templates to courses to workshops to guides. I tried it all. And I made a fair amount of money doing it as a second income. Launches are fun (when they work) and they provide a nice windfall of cash for that month that you are launching. But they are also exhausting work and when you are not launchingā€¦ no one is buying.
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The Evergreen Creator Funnel That Makes $2k Every Month

I spent a ridiculous amount of time last year launching products. I think there were 11 in total. Launches are fun (when they work). And they provide a nice windfall of cash. But when I wasn't launching... no one was buying.
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The Burnout Free Guide To Being A Creator In The Year 2022

Here's what no one is telling you about being a creator... it's relentless. Being a creator seems fun at first as you proudly hit publish on your first blog post, or write a Twitter thread that gets more than a few likes and suddenly you start to build a bit of an audience.
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Why You Should Always Launch Your Free Notion Template On Gumroad

I love it when I see people launching their first Notion template. After all, it's where I got started. I launched my first free Notion template in December 2020 and countless more after that. And by far the best advice I ever received from seasoned template creators was to put it on Gumroad.
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The New Way To Pre-Launch A Product On Gumroad

Don't despair over Gumroad removing the pre-launch feature. Recently Gumroad removed their pre-launch feature. If you've been using it to pre-launch your products you might be wondering how the heck to do you do a pre-launch now?
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Why You Shouldnā€™t Quit Your Day Job To Become A Full-Time Creator

Hereā€™s an Unpopular Opinion For You: Having a day job and being a creator are not mutually exclusive.You can do both well & enjoy them. I do. Most people assume Iā€™m a full-time creator. But nothing could be further from the truth.
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How To Break Bad Habits When You Don't Have Willpower

I don't break bad habits. I focus on building good habits. If you do a search on Quora for habits, you'll come across many questions about how to break bad habits. It seems that we're more obsessed with breaking bad habits than we are about building good ones.
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