[00:00:00] Often the time to become a creator is followed by crippling uncertainty, self-doubt, and financial loss. And what's worse, if you look around to other creators, it might seem that they're confident, certain, and running successful businesses with ease. So what do they do different? They are more themselves, they're more authentic in their goals and the things that they create.
And how they help people. They have a clear idea of their audience, the value that they add to that audience, and more importantly, where they want to take their creative business. And how do you figure that out as a creator, especially if you're a new creator. But even if you've been doing it for a while, as I have, it's as simple as asking yourself a few questions.
Who are you trying to help? How do you or your content help them? [00:01:00] And what does success look like to you lifestyle wise, financially in your health and wellbeing? And all of that comes from your values, right? So who are you as a person and what values are you trying to uphold out in the world through your work?
And it all comes down to an unshakeable belief in themselves that you deserve success, that you can succeed, and, and you can figure it out. So welcome to creators of Crush the Show that helps you move forward from Crush to crushing it as a creator. I'm your coach and sh host, Shawn Buttner. And in today's episode we're gonna talk about the decision to.
Become a creator and a couple of things that you can do in order to maximize your success. So you crush it, right? And you're not crushed by the [00:02:00] psychology or all the things you don't know about being a creator. So picture this, you're in a, an air conditioned hotel ballroom. And see it kind of has that like coldness to it, you know?
And there's a booming voice over the PA that says, are you living your truth? And if this is the first time you've a heard that question for yourself, consider it. You know, are you living your truth right now? Because. When I was in that room and the first time I heard this, I did not like the answer. I didn't love that I was, uh, working at a place that had seemingly random deadlines, uh, with enough work for two teams to get it accomplished.
I didn't love the constant undercutting of any ideas to [00:03:00] improve things, to make things better, or to operate a little bit easier because we were under such. Pressure with lack of team. I didn't love having to be available for trivial things and all my waking hours and sometimes even on call when I was sleeping.
And most of all, I didn't love the feeling of being a cog and a corporate machine that didn't matter. And the feeling of is this what life is? Right? And so. There I am sitting in an air conditioned room with like 500 other folks could hear a pin drop. There's some light music playing and I'm thinking about this question and cool.
It's a high, uh, performance since it's a, a personal development seminar. I have a journal and I'm journaling on this. For five minutes. [00:04:00] And so I'm asking myself like, if this isn't the truth that I want to live, what is my truth? What does my ideal life look like? What do I need to do now to start making moves?
And surprisingly, in just 15 minutes, this question lit a fire and gave me a ton of motivation to make change. And I had the outline of a plan, the beginning of it, and a clear idea of where I wanted to go. And so the follow up to that was what steps am I going to make? I'm going to, I decided in that moment that I was gonna give myself a month to leave my job, uh, in corporate to start a business.
And in that moment I decided I was going to. Relocate and I decided that I was not going to play it safe anymore. Like the [00:05:00] decision to make changes in my life early on and like this is probably my mid to late twenties, was to do the things that I thought were interesting or I thought were exciting. Um, maybe not necessarily the most financially responsible, but.
Not having a family or kids or anything like that, like that was the time to do that. Um, and I wanted to look back at my life and when I told the story about this big moment in my life where I decided to leave the job, I had known the first corporate job after college for five and a half years and strike out on my own that it wanted it to be a story that I would be happy and excited to tell on my future kids.
And so that's what I did, and it's been amazing, right? And so what are the components of [00:06:00] this story? And the components are you need to have clarity. You need to know who you are. You need to know what your truth is. You need to know how you can. Where you're gonna go, right? So you have to have that vision of the future so you can work back very clearly on how you get there.
And with that vision, you can start making bold decisions and take bold action towards that future. And so that's what we're gonna talk about in today's episode. Right. So with all of that said, you know, you might be thinking like, well. Maybe I don't have a lot of clarity as a creator, or maybe I don't.
Yeah. I'm just so stuck in what I'm doing right now that I don't know what to do going forward. And so there's three things that I think really help you get clear on your [00:07:00] future, right? And especially as a creator. And again, if you're a beginning creator or someone that's been doing it for a while, I think these are.
Things worth revisiting, uh, and thinking about consistently because one thing I know as a high performance coach is the people that are at the top of their professions, of their sports, of their field are ones that are consistently seeking clarity. And so the first part you have to be very clear on is you have to have.
A clear belief in yourself, right? You deserve success. You can figure it out. You can take action to make change. And
I, those are two beliefs that I think are fundamental for doing anything, and we don't often think of them. Right? And it creeps in. To our [00:08:00] lives when we're like, yeah, like I, I put out 700 videos of YouTube and nobody, I have zero views on it. You know, something's wrong with me. Right. Or maybe like, I didn't ever wanna be a YouTuber, so that was just kind of an afterthought.
And for no views, for an afterthought, that seems appropriate and you accept that. But something changes when you go, you know what? I put in a lot of work here. I deserve to, to see some result from this. Right? And that belief, uh, of I deserve to see results here, gets you to look at what you're doing in a different way.
It's like, okay, if I deserve to get results here, but I'm. What I'm doing isn't getting results. It's up to me to do something different and to figure it out. Right? And so it's [00:09:00] a, a confidence in your ability to handle things and borrow from your past jobs or past experiences, places where you've succeeded.
So if you've had a high powered job as a lawyer or. As a doctor or as a software engineer or somebody in finance, and you go to start your show, your podcast, it's gonna be a lot of learning. It's gonna be a lot of fits and starts. It's gonna be a lot of questioning yourself, but you've already figured out one thing and you've probably learned a lot doing that one thing and getting to a certain level of success, and you could borrow it moving forward.
So. You have to have a clear belief in yourself and your capability. And maybe it's a little bit of naive too. Um, and that's okay. 'cause it really takes a lot of faith to continue to do this work. [00:10:00] So first, get clear on your beliefs. Second thing, it's worth. Consistently answering a few questions for yourself either monthly, like I do this monthly and anytime I'm feeling lost in my business and I, I like by that question from my story sitting in that conference room, you know, are you living your truth is a very great place to start because it's a good diagnostic.
'cause you might be like, yeah. And if you go, you hear yourself going, yeah. That means there's something wrong and you need to find out why. It's not a confident Yeah. I, I, I'm, this is the path, this is the way, this is who I am, this is what I'm doing. So that's the first question. The second is, who are you trying to help?
And it's something, this is a question that I've been digging into the last year pretty heavily. I hired a coach to help me with this. I, um, think it's [00:11:00] really hard to create things when you don't have someone in mind. Because it's too general. Right. And, and I think effective content, uh, has to clearly identify a problem that someone is actually having and then actually solve it.
Right? That's, I think, the contract we have with most content. So I. Uh, that's kind of how I, I judge when I'm reading, uh, somebody else's newsletter, watching a YouTube video, I'm like, how is this helping me? Right? It's a natural human question, but how is your content helping other people? And the third thing is, is like, what does success look like to you?
And to think about it financially, like I how to be a creator full time, I need to have. X amount of money in coming each month to pay the bills, to pay the mortgage, to make sure my wife won't leave me. You know, those types of things. We have, uh, lifestyle bills. Like I only wanna work for [00:12:00] four hours every day during the week, and I want weekends to see friends and go golfing.
Right. That's a simple life, but it's, it's great. You know, I have met and talked with creators that. Built their business so they could travel the world or so that they could live overseas for a couple years. And so this, this idea of living your life while you're doing the work is super important. And so I'd consider that too.
And then wellbeing wise, like how do you wanna feel every day and like physically? Do you want to feel strong and flexible and capable and able to do what you gotta do? Do you want to feel mostly like happy and connected with people? Um, you know, it's different for everyone. And everyone wants to be happy.
It's just what makes you happy, you know? So, uh, knowing and [00:13:00] being clear, again, going back to clarity, what you lights you up inside, it gets you excited and passionate for the stuff that you're working on is very important, and to have that in your life every day, right? Like for me, something that makes me really happy is being able to play guitar.
So I have my guitar handy over by my desk. And so if I'm thinking about things or procrastinating a little bit, sometimes I'll pick up and I'll play a song or two, right? Just to kind of take a mini break, get out of the technology, center myself onto the next thing. And so that's what works for me. It's different for everyone.
So what is that for you, and what does success look like for you again? Right. So success for me is playing music every day and going for a walk every day and working at things and answering questions I think are relevant to me and to the people I serve and are, it's helpful, right? At the end of the day, if I help someone [00:14:00] else crush it as a creator, like that's a good day and that's what I look for.
So that's kinda what I'm talking about to illustrate that. Uh, finally. I keep harping on this three word exercise to find your values, but if you do not define clearly your values and who you are as a person, you're going to run into situations where you're unsure on what to do next. You're gonna run into situations where something doesn't feel right, you know you want, should I take this job?
Should I. Join the sponsorship, but something feels off and you're not gonna know why and you might go ahead and do it. Where if you were very clear on who you are as a person, you might say, I don't work with people that lie. And if this brand or has a reputation or is wanting to just, I was telling you just, you know what?
Pretend [00:15:00] that you use our product and we'll give you money so you could, um. Do a commercial on it, right? You're gonna feel weird about it, like you're not going to, you know, be cool about it. Um, and whereas in the same situation you might be, I just want to serve my audience and I don't use this product and I know that it solves a particular problem of my audience, so it is worth it, you know?
So it's, it's not that there's a lot of gray area on this kind of stuff, and so. How do you handle that? It, it's knowing what your three words are and the exercise. Again, here's a full episode on it. I think it's episode three. I'll put that in the show notes. Um, the exercise goes like this. If you were to imagine your most successful best future self, 10 years in the future, and they went into a time machine and came back to talk to you, [00:16:00] um.
What three words would describe that best, most successful future you? And another way to look at it. 'cause sometimes that question's hard for folks is if your family and friends were to describe you in three words, what three words would they say that you would be proud of? And that between the, those two angles, it usually unlocks for people.
And so yeah, after you listen to this or when you're back, I. At home or at your desk where you can journal, you know, take your phone, send an alarm for five minutes and just brainstorm on what three words describe the best of me. And then you'll have a bunch of words kind of brainstorm. You could, you know, move it down to three.
And you know, pro tip here, these aren't locked in for the rest of your life. So if you have an idea of what they are. Uh, especially if you haven't done an exercise like this before, this will change a lot as you continue going through it [00:17:00] and find better ways to describe the best version of yourself. So that's part of the process.
I'm laying that out for you. If you haven't done it, if you've done an exercise like this before, you probably get that. But just another reminder for you too. And so with those three words, you know, for me it's. Optimistic, it's present and it's creative. These are my personal three words. I have three words for a lot of other areas of my life, like my business, joy, growth, impact, um, but you know, for your personal words.
Right. Okay. Why did you choose those words? You know, I chose optimistic because it's something that my parents were in some of the most. Intense situations growing up. You know, my mom being diagnosed with cancer, my dad had a wallfall on at a work site when I was in second grade and after the initial devastation [00:18:00] of the medical event, you know, it's all cracking jokes and trying to make light of a situation that's very serious.
Uh, both times it was life threatening and we got through it, you know, and we got through it with a little bit of grace 'cause we were able to poke fun at it. Um, and so it's pro probably why I have a little bit of a dark sense of humor and I try to tamp that down when I'm out in the world. But it's also a very great coping mechanism to keep doing, keep moving forward in the face of adversity.
And this isn't toxic positivity or I'm telling you to just paper through your emotions. Like optimism, I think is being able to have a. A vision for a better future when you're not feeling it in the moment. Right? And so it's easy to work towards a future that you believe in and you think will be better for you, [00:19:00] your family, and the world than not.
And so I wanted to, to share that, but that's why optimism is really important to me and like. If I look back at the last two weeks and this week in particular, this has been at at a very low number for myself, and that's fine, right? There's a lot going on in the world. I've been trying to ride the line of being engaged and informed without getting into depression or anger and giving into stuff so.
Yeah, you know, I haven't felt like myself this week and it's impacted other things. And so how do I get my head back in that mode? And it's reminding myself that there's still a lot of good in the world, even though things seem terrible, it's holding the door open for someone at the [00:20:00] coffee shop. You know, little acts of kindness.
And gratitude that can really change that around. So, uh, what are, why did you choose your three words? And then the other hint is to check in on a scale of one to 10, 10 being nailed it, one being not at all on how you're doing with those daily or weekly or monthly or when you need to. Um, and then final part is why did you assign yourself that number?
Because. It's easy to just say, I'm a seven, and then you're like, why am I a seven? You know? Or for optimism. I'm a four. Why am I a four? I've been listening to the news and not liking what I'm hearing, and I don't like where I think this is taking us as a nation and I'm in the US and I can't control it.
You know? Um, it's just kind of happening, so. That's frustrating and it's [00:21:00] hard to imagine a better future with a lot of these heavy feelings, you know? So it is what, it's, so that's why I, I gave myself a four on optimism this week, but I'm working on changing it. I'm not gonna wallow in a four for too long because sun still comes up.
There's still stuff to do. There's still people to help. And this mission of helping other creators crush it. Is something that lights me up and can help counterbalance that. So there's that. All right, so that's a three word exercise. So again, if
so, we're talking about what high performing creators do differently. Again, they're themselves, they have a clear idea of. Their values, how those values show up in the world, who they're helping and how they help, [00:22:00] how they're living their truth. Um, it's the belief, clear belief in themself and their capability, and it's having a clear definition of your values and measuring yourself up to those values often to help you move forward.
So that's. It for this episode of Creators That Crush. Uh, I hope you liked this episode. Please, if you liked it, do uh, give us a shout out on Apple Podcasts. Leave a comment. I'd love to hear from you there, and we'll see you in the next episode. Folks, take care here.