24 Lessons After 60,000 Posts & 600 Videos
My 24 best lessons after creating content for 4+ years
It’s been 4 years since I made my first piece of content.
It was a YouTube video and it got 15 views (half of which were mine).
Since then, I created:
600+ YT videos
500+ threads and long-forms
57,000+ tweets and comments
2,000+ posts for Threads, Instagram & LinkedIn
Last year, I finally hit 6-figures & became a full-time creator, but I’m by no means the fastest or richest and I made a ton of mistakes.
So in this newsletter, I want to give you the best lessons I learned so that you can become a full-time creator or writer much faster than me.
Here are the 24 best lessons I learned after 4 years of creating content:
Before we dive in, the 80% discount for the Micro Offers workshop ends tonight. This is your last chance to get it (and the other discounted courses and workshops). Click here to check it out. Back to the newsletter!
1. Focus on inputs, not outcomes
You control your actions. You don’t control the results.
If you focus on what you can control, you’ll get a good outcome.
If you focus on what you can’t control, you’ll only end up stressed.
So focus on good inputs to get good outcomes.
2. Reverse engineer your ideal future
Get clear on your end goal — then work backwards like a chess grandmaster.
This ensures that every move leads to the outcome you want.
Invest in mentors and courses to speed up the journey.
Set long-term goals for direction. Set short-term goals for action.
3. Don’t reinvent the wheel
Find people who’ve already done what you want to do.
Study the actions, habits, and skills that got them there.
Inputs drive outcomes — so emulate their inputs.
Don’t blindly copy, but steal like an artist.
Combine your best ideas with the best ideas of others.
Adapt what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.
- Bruce Lee
4. Don’t compare yourself to others
Comparison is the thief of joy.
You’re comparing your journey with someone else’s highlight.
That’s unfair.
The only fair comparison is you vs. you.
Outcompete your past self.
Compete with your potential self.
5. Don’t obsess over your niche
Don’t let people tell you that you need to niche down at the start.
Your niche evolves over time.
Start with your Ikigai:
What you love to do
What you are good at
What the world needs
What you can be paid for
Build the business you enjoy building and your niche will become clear over time.
6. Leave more comments (X, IG, LI)
On most platforms, content isn’t enough to grow.
You need to escape beginner hell first.
And you do this by forcing eyes on your content with comments.
Comments → profile clicks → optimized profile → followers.
If your profile is good, you’ll convert +10% of people into followers.
7. Start a newsletter from the start
Your social media audience is rented.
Your email list is completely yours.
So promote your email list every day.
Create a high-quality lead magnet to grow your email list. Then make your newsletter extremely valuable so it’s a win-win.
8. Create systems for recurring activities
It takes mental energy to figure out what to do.
That’s why you create a training plan if you go the gym consistently.
Work is the same. If you do something often (like creating content), create a system.
Systems reduce decision fatigue and put you straight into execution mode, which saves valuable mental energy.
If you want the system that I used to gain 18K followers and 70M views in 90 days on Twitter, check out the X Growth System or sign up for my free newsletter to get my Twitter Simplified eBook (and an eBook about writing).
9. Learn to grab and keep attention
Attention is the currency of the creator economy.
People pay attention with time and energy.
So you need to give them a high return on attention (ROA).
You grab attention with high-quality hooks and intros. You keep attention with value, Aesthetic Writing, and storytelling.
The best content gives people the highest ROA.
10. Don’t waste time on low leverage activities
Most tasks don’t move the needle. 20% of your actions drive 80% of your results.
But most people focus a lot of time on low leverage activities.
Low-leverage work feels productive, but it’s procrastination in disguise.
Get clear on what moves the needle and actually do it.
11. Don’t multi task, do deep work blocks
Deep work is where you focus on 1 task for 90+ minutes.
Undistracted focus helps you to get into a flow state. You get into flow when the difficulty level matches your skill level.
This is the state in which hard work feels effortless.
12. Optimize your health
In a one-person business, you are the business. So if you optimize yourself, you optimize your business.
That’s why it’s crucial to focus on getting the basics right.
Eat clean
Mediate daily
Exercise daily
Get enough sleep
Get the right supplements
Garbage in, garbage out.
13. Don’t just focus on making money
External motivation isn’t sustainable.
If you don’t get what you want, you’re frustrated. If you get what you want, you’ll be afraid to lose it.
When I hit my $10k/mo goal, I didn’t feel joy — just fear of losing it.
Things changed when I focused on work I truly enjoyed.
Don’t let money, followers, or fame distract you from why you do it. Focus on a meaningful mission, not on external metrics.
14. Don’t become a starving artist
Purpose matters most, but income is important too.
If you don’t have a plan to earn, you’ll become a starving artist. So pursue what you love, but also learn to write, market, sell, and build products.
That’s how you turn your passion into a full-time income.
If you want to learn how you can turn your knowledge into digital products that sell on autopilot, check out Productize Knowledge.
If you want to learn how to build a massive audience and how to monetize it to get time freedom, check out the X Business System.
15. Keep your content simple
Make your content simple, concise, and to-the-point.
People are busy and have bad attention spans. So you need to keep that in mind.
You don’t want complexity. You want simplicity with depth.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.
- Leonardo Da Vinci
16. Start on 1 platform, then expand
If you start on multiple platforms, your growth will suffer.
So master 1 platform first, then post your winners on all platforms.
I recommend starting with Twitter. It’s faster to write tweets than to create videos.
So use Twitter to test your ideas, then repurpose your best posts to all other platforms.
If you like this newsletter so far, please like it, share/restack it, and subscribe for more
17. Ignore haters, hypocrites, trollers & negative people
You have a limited amount of mental energy.
Don’t waste it on people who are trying to bring you down.
They’re trying to bring you down to their level because they can’t get to yours.
Whoever is trying to bring you down is already below you.
So just ignore them and let your results do the talking.
18. Work in high-energy periods
Map your energy levels for a day.
This shows you when you’re at your best.
The best way to get a lot done is to do the most important work when you’re at your best.
So get clear on the highest leverage tasks and do them at the time of the day when you’re at your best.
19. You don’t need to be perfect
You don’t need to be perfect, you need to be consistent.
If you consistently do the right stuff, you will get what you want.
So don’t think in months, think in years.
Play the long game. It’s the only game worth playing.
20. Don’t wait for clarity
You can only collect the dots by taking action.
You can only connect the dots by reflecting.
If the path is already there, it’s not yours.
It’s someone else’s.
Act to collect the dots, reflect to connect the dots.
21. Productize your knowledge
Client work is fine - if you enjoy it.
But if you want complete time freedom, you need to stop trading time for money.
Digital products let you do that.
They allow you to turn your knowledge into passive income.
This helps you to earn with your mind instead of your time.
Again, to learn how you can turn your knowledge into digital products that sell on autopilot, check out Productize Knowledge.
22. Learn when to pivot, not when to quit
It’s like climbing a mountain.
If your current path doesn’t lead to the top, don’t give up. Change your path.
The goal stays the same, only the route changes. Pivoting isn’t failure — it’s being strategic.
23. Don’t always listen to big creators
A lot of big creators grew when it was much easier to grow.
And a lot of rich people grew fast by leveraging their finances.
This is fair game, but this means that they usually can’t give you the strategies that will work best for you.
So listen to people who are 5 steps ahead of you instead of 50.
24. Use the EDO System
I created the EDO system to manage my time.
Eliminate what isn’t high-leverage
Delegate what isn’t enjoyable
Optimize the rest
It’s simple but effective.
In short:
Don’t wait for clarity
Optimize your health
Use the EDO System
Leave more comments
Don’t reinvent the wheel
Keep your content simple
Productize your knowledge
Work in high-energy periods
You don’t need to be perfect
Don’t obsess over your niche
Don’t become a starving artist
Focus on inputs, not outcomes
Start a newsletter from the start
Start on 1 platform, then expand
Learn to grab and keep attention
Don’t always listen to big creator
Don’t compare yourself to others
Don’t just focus on making money
Reverse engineer your ideal future
Learn when to pivot, not when to quit
Don’t multi task, do deep work blocks
Create systems for recurring activities
Don’t waste time on low leverage activities
I hope this article was helpful my friend.
If you liked this newsletter, please like it, share/restack it, and subscribe for more
Talk soon my friend,
Stijn
PS: t the 80% discount for the Micro Offers workshop ends tonight. This is your last chance to get it (and the other discounted courses and workshops).
Click here to check it out. Talk to you again in the newsletter!
You’ve really laid it all out there! Four years and 60,000 posts? That’s an incredible commitment! Those lessons are gold for anyone feeling like they’re starting late. - That's an amazing achievement.