I turned 47 years old today.
It’s been quite a ride and I’ve evolved into a full-time creative entrepreneur who helps other creative entrepreneurs grow their audience and business.
I love it.
Here are some lessons about being a creative entrepreneur I’ve learned that may help you if you’re on a similar journey…or want to be.
1. “Why not me?” is a powerful mindset.
2. Your audience is often the person you used to be.
3. The most valuable things you know create more value for you when you share them freely with others.
4. The more relationships you build, the more success you’ll have.
5. The ideas you consume determine the person you’ll become.
(Btw, here’s an easy way to find valuable ideas to consume.)
6. Consistency is always rewarded.
7. Charge more.
8. You attract the audience you deserve.
9. People don’t pay for interesting, they pay for valuable.
10. Make things that transform people.
11. Testimonials are powerful — get them, use them, share them.
12. Your audience will tell you what they want if you ask them…and listen to them.
13. It’s not about you.
14. Repurpose everything. There’s so much more value you can get out of every little thing you do.
15. Don’t be afraid to try.
16. Don’t be afraid to quit.
17. Don’t charge for time, charge for value created.
18. Your product or service is worth what people are willing to pay for it.
19. Promotion is part of the gig.
20. Create things that are perfect for someone, not OK for everyone.
21. Deciding what you don’t want to do is as important as deciding what you do want to do.
22. Simple will always be more successful than complicated.
(Btw, that’s why my Skill Sessions are designed to give simple step-by-step plans you can follow to get what you want.)
23. You’ll learn more by doing something than by being taught it.
24. You don’t define your personal brand — your work does.
25. Be more specific.
26. Don’t say no because you’re scared to say yes.
27. Don’t say yes because you’re scared to say no.
28. You’re not selling something to people, you’re offering them an opportunity.
29. Emphasize the benefits, not the features.
30. People don’t care about you and your product, they care about how you and your product can help them.
31. You can’t succeed as a creator without being entrepreneurial and you can’t succeed as an entrepreneur without being creative.
32. You’ll never know if something can work until you put it into the world.
33. Clarity is the most valuable thing you can have.
34. Everything can be templatized.
35. Don’t be fooled by social media vanity metrics — in most cases they’re meaningless.
36. Make specific promises and live up to them.
37. You’ll get better as you go.
38. Make sure you’re going after what you want and not what you think you’re supposed to want.
39. In almost every scenario you have more choices than you realize.
40. Give refunds. You don’t build a successful business by taking money from unsatisfied customers.
41. The better you get at saying no, the better you’ll get at doing the things you say yes to.
42. The packaging and presentation of your products and services is as important as the products and services themselves.
43. It’s easier to sell to people looking for a solution than people who don’t realize they have a problem.
44. What you want to get out of what you do will change. And that’s OK.
45. Your relationship, history, and mindset about money will influence what you create and sell — recognize when those beliefs help you and when they hold you back.
46. One day you’ll look back and realize how little you knew when you thought you knew it all.
47. Being a creative entrepreneur is an infinite game — the goal isn’t to win, it’s to have the opportunity to keep playing.
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