If you're like me, you have a good job that does more than just put food on the table.
Then, 2025 happened and your job became the plaything of someone who had little idea what you did. They juggled flaming chainsaws around it in the name of efficiency, with a big smile on their face.
“Oops, didn't mean to cut that limb off.”
Sound familiar? If your job is most of your income, it's at the very least an uneasy time, maybe worse.
1. Take stock of what you know
You know stuff. A lot of stuff.
What problems have you solved? For whom?
The problems you solve at work count.
Write all of these down.
2. Identify who could benefit from what you know
Pick your best problem and ask who you could solve it for.
The more specific, the better.
Describe the problem, the method, for whom, and the benefit:
“I help career people with an entrepreneurial streak to start and build a content creation business to relieve the stress in the face of employment uncertainty.”
Revise it as it becomes clearer.
3. Pick a platform that you already participate in
Odds are you participate in at least one platform:
- YouTube
- Threads
- Bluesky
- Substack
- Medium
- Tiktok
- others?
If you don't participate in one of these, pick one that you see yourself getting the hang of quickly. (If you read on Medium, then that's as good a choice as any.)
On that platform, search around for your audience, and listen to the problems they're having.
4. Start participating as a Cre8tor
A “Cre8tor” is a term coined by Robert Pagliarini, author of The Other 8 Hours: Maximize Your Free Time to Create New Wealth & Purpose.
Cre8tors make the adjustments needed in their lives to create value for themselves and for others in part of the other 8 hours of each workday available to them.
On your chosen platform, provide insights to people having problems you know how to solve, or answer questions they have that you know the answer to.
Show up regularly with value and your audience will grow, along with your credibility and the trust they hold in you as someone who can fix what ails them.
Learn as you go on how to do this better.
5. Sell solutions to willing buyers
Eventually, with an informed understanding of your audience's problems or “pain points” as they're often called, you can offer a solution that people will pay for.
For a time, I was able to sell an ebook on fancy serial numbers, a niche in currency collecting. (This one.)
There are of course other ways to monetize your audience's attention without selling a product, once the audience and traffic get big enough.
Just getting on the Cre8tor path has benefits!
The jump from Step 4 to Step 5 may seem a bit large, but here's some encouragement:
Even before you make your first dollar, you'll sleep better at night just because you're working toward it!
This income stream is yours.
It's done after hours. It's not your boss who benefits. It's you.
If you haven't felt that feeling before, it's a good feeling. It's comforting and exciting at the same time.
And with consistent effort and constant learning and improving, the probability of success goes up.
Where will you create today?
If you've made the decision to create somewhere today, say “I Create” in the comments and I'll respond!
Thanks for reading!
Hi, I'm John and I encourage people to work for themselves, and on themselves, every day to sleep better at night.
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Photo by Adolfo Félix on Unsplash