RC #023 ⚒️
How to build an audience, an exercise habit and a happy community.
Welcome to issue #023 of Rational Creatives, a weekly newsletter that empowers curious people to make a living doing work they love.
Hi friends,
Hope you're doing phenomenal!
After spending a few days in a beautiful National Park in Oklahoma, I'm back in Louisiana.
This trip was a great opportunity to slow down, reflect and be present. After all the craziness of January, I really needed a break to appreciate life and recharge my batteries. Now, I'm ready to kill it in February.
This is what you'll find in this issue:
The Creator Hierarchy of Needs
Gumroad's Build Your Audience Challenge
Things you should stop doing at your desk
A tool to start selling access to your private spreadsheets
How my friend Jamie became an Amazon best-seller author
How you can be a better designer (even if you don't plan to be one)
Everything you need to know about Clubhouse as a creator/indie hacker
An interesting cohort-based course from the queen of community building
Fit Creator Club: a new community that helps creators build an exercise habit
Enjoy 😎
According to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, we have different levels of needs and we prioritize fulfilling them in a hierarchical way. Based on this idea, Peter developed The Creator Hierarchy of Needs — a model that explains how the needs of digital creators evolve as they grow and mature. This essay will help you understand and overcome the challenges you're currently facing as a creator.
Do you need a little help building your audience? You should join Gumroad's Build Your Audience challenge. For 5 days, they'll share with you tips, tools and resources to grow your audience. You'll have access to a private community that will support you. And you'll get a guide you can use to keep building your audience once you're done with the challenge.
As a creator, your desk should be a sacred place. It should be the place where you are most productive and do your best work. To ensure that, you need to create clear rules for yourself — you need to know what things you're allowed to do and what things you're not allowed to do on your desk. This essay by Justin is the perfect place to start thinking about that.
The most interesting product I found last week was Only Sheets by Kamphey. It allows you to sell access to any of your Google Sheets on Gumroad without making it public for everyone to see. If you have any cool template, database or notes that can help for other people, now you can sell them using Only Sheets.
In December, my friend Jamie Russo launched his book The Underdog Paradox, which became an Amazon best-seller in 130+ countries. Last week, he wrote this short essay for Jack Butcher's Value where he explains how he used 5 principles he learned from Jack's course to turn his book into a huge success. These principles can help you create your own successful digital product too.
If I could learn only three skills during my entire life, I would choose: writing, speaking and design. The reason? Each one of them makes you a stronger, more influential communicator. It doesn't matter how smart or skilled you are, if you suck at communication, you're screwed. In this brilliant thread, Craig gives you a free master class on how to be a better designer.
The new social app Clubhouse is all the hype right now. And although they're quite different, it seems like it could be a strong competitor for the current social media king, TikTok. In this post, Bobby summarizes the most important things you need to know about Clubhouse as an indie hacker or creator. You should also check this tweet explaining how they plan to allow creators to monetize their audience.
Niche, paid communities are thriving. And for good reason: the best ones provide tons of value for its member. But building and maintaining a happy, valuable community ain't easy. Community queen Rosie and her Team Rosieland want to help. They recently announced their 6-week community building course, starting on March 22nd. I'm feeling very, very tempted to join!
Would you join a judgement-free community of like-minded creators where everyone does 30 mins of exercise for 30 days? My buddy Austin and I are building Fit Creator Club to help other creators build an exercise habit at the same time that they meet and connect with other like-minded people. We are planning to launch the first cohort in 2 weeks. We'll have just 20-30 spots available, so DM on Twitter asap if you're interested!
And before I let you go, a reminder:
Stick to your job. Keep. Going.
And don't forget to stay curious, be kind and have fun.
Until next time,
Daniel
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