Stages of the Builder’s Journey — a Blueprint for Aspiring Creators
Dear Everybody,
I channel successful creators in my personal life and at Gumroad.
Here’s what I’ve learned from them in the past six months, in their own words.
Don’t wait until you have a big following (i.e. start now)…
“I had fewer than 300 followers when I started”
“I had fewer than 400 followers when I started”
“I had fewer than 500 followers when I started”
Create without a plan (i.e. just be creative)…
“This started as an experiment”
“I wasn’t trying to build a business”
“I didn’t set out to become a creator”
“This wasn’t something I thought I’d be doing”
Put yourself out there (i.e. publish)…
“I wrote online”
“I started blogging”
“I posted what I was thinking”
Get good at something specific (i.e. build skill)…
“I did it for a long time”
“I wrote and taught for a decade”
“I earned credibility through experience”
“I did the same thing over and over again”
Repeatedly help others (i.e. add value)…
“I gave away what I was learning for free”
“I started to get a reputation for helping people”
“I took what I learned the hard way and relayed that to others”
“Because I was helping people, my prior qualifications were irrelevant”
Engage with people and listen closely (i.e. pay attention)…
“People started saying, ‘Hey, can you help me do this?’”
“People were interested in learning from me specifically”
“I started getting asked a lot of the same questions over and over again”
Feel the heat in the market (i.e. notice imbalances)…
“I couldn’t encapsulate everything in one reply”
“It was impossible to explain in a short comment”
“I realized there was a limit to what I could answer”
“It started to become a supply-and-demand issue”
“That spillover became the opportunity”
Locate proof of demand (i.e. create deliberately)…
“I posted a thread and got a big response”
“I proved there was an opportunity to elaborate more”
“I found out there was pent up interest about a subject I knew well.”
Pick a topic (i.e. find your niche)…
“It's something I love.”
“Other people respond to it”
“I have a lot of background in it”
“It’s a thing I know how to do well”
“This comes naturally to me and I get excited about it”
Build for the sake of building (i.e. take a leap of faith)…
“I took baby steps”
“I had no idea whether it was going to make money”
“I knew what I wanted, so I decided to write my own”
“It wasn’t until later I realized I could sell something”
“I did something independently in my area of expertise”
“I didn’t know how to do it, but I thought, ‘At least this can be a start.’”
Package your expertise (i.e. build a product)…
“I started thinking about how I do certain things”
“There were people paying for what I was doing”
“I bet there were other people like that”
Time box the effort (i.e. give yourself a deadline)…
“I decided to publish on Christmas Day.”
“I challenged myself to finish it in a month”
“I gave myself three weeks to write the whole thing.”
Focus and commit (i.e. go all in)…
“Every day I wrote at least half a page”
“I worked hard to summarize everything I knew”
“I was writing on weekends, nights, mornings, and lunch breaks”
Build in public and in private (i.e. incorporate feedback)…
“I got extra eyes and filled in weak spots”
“I brought on a professional editing team”
“Comments from other people made the product a lot more valuable”
Press publish (i.e. go live)…
“When I was done I said, ‘Here’s this thing I’ve built’”
“The great part is people getting value out of it”
“I was surprised by the success of the launch”
“It was far more successful than my expectations”
Let one product inspire others (i.e. repeat the above)…
“I would just love to keep doing what I love”
“The true reward of this work is I get to do it”
“There’s a saying, ‘The destination is the journey’”
Thank you for reading!
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Sincerely,
Justin
Talk about 'idea density.' Love this series, Justin.
Love this. Thank you for sharing.