004 | The Creator Entrepreneur.

📓 Where Creators Become Entrepreneurs

🌅 Background

One month ago today I leaped into the creator economy and bought my ticket to CreatorFest in Orlando, FL. This was my first in-person multi-day conference since June 2023. The energy in the air was electric. The attendees were young, enthusiastic, and motivated.

It reminded me of my former days at crypto conferences. Except these people focused on value first. Monetization second. This was the point of the event. To teach creators to generate income, use tactical content creation techniques, and avoid getting sued.

Contrary to my original assumption, most people were not your typical influencer. These were people who built brands and media empires. These people were world travel content creators turned Amazon Prime influencers. They were burnt-out creators turned talent managers.

A few of the people at the event were:

• Tyler Chou, “The Creator's Attorney” on YouTube

• Patrick Israel, co-founder of CreatorFest and CEO of Stem Media

• Logan Forsyth, CEO Media Scaling, promising 1B views in 6 months

• Jim Louderback, former CEO VidCon, THE digital creator conference

• Justin Nelson, CEO of Sphere Rocket, a Virtual Assistant company

• Brooke Berry, Head of Creator Development at Snapchat

• Adam Elend, early pioneer of content as a business model (also my partner in crime at the event)

📇 Storytime

The event began like any great piece of content: a hook.

The doors flung open and a 10-minute countdown (feel the energy here) filled the room. A group formed in the front to pump up the energy at 9am.

Any good content writer knows the next part needs: a story.

Enter, Iconic Becker, an icon not just by name.

A 6-minute video appeared on all 3 screens — a story of a 16-year-old with a dream to become a YouTube star, never surpassing more than 100 views after 4 trial sprints, one of those ‘sprints’ having created 750 videos. Consistency is key, but for what?

Icon found hope in the event industry, hosting 137 events worldwide since 2020, for groups like the FBI, Formula 1, Gary Vaynerchuk, and more. Despite this success, he could not forget his dream of becoming a real content creator.

He was inspired by his teenage hero from the early days of YouTube, a guy named “Steve” (not his real name) who made videos before monetization and ads were possible. Steve’s advice — “Make money before making videos, kid.”

So Icon used his skills in hosting events to do something he had never done before: create one from scratch. All in 9 months. Oh, and also signing a $400,000 liability waiver to the hotel months before he had sold 1 ticket, with $4 in his bank account.

📝 Lessons

At the end of Icon's story, these 8 lessons showed up on screen:

Lesson #1: Make a list of the most terrifying things you could do. Then pick the scariest. Do your impossible dream.

Lesson #2: You will never feel ready to do what scares you most.

Lesson #3: When you got nothing left, you've always got you.

Lesson #4: You know you're going the right way when more enemies show up.

Lesson #5: You will never know your true friends, until you know true suffering.

Lesson #6: Right now is the hardest it will ever be.

Lesson #7: Depth over width.

Lesson #8: Everything you need is already here.

🔓 Value Unlocked (Notion)

My Apple notes and photos were flooded with information. I did my best to compile this in a database format for myself and you the reader.

📌 The Best of CreatorFest Notion here.

Reply to this email if you have any questions!

🎬 Conclusion

Creators think of value first, monetization second.

(According to the host, some creators attending the conference could not even afford a $40 recurring charge to their credit card!)

This was interesting. In my former days of Web3, I noticed most projects did the opposite, monetizing first through a crypto token, then searching for value. Focusing on value first works best in the end.

To write a recap of CreatorFest did not feel like justice.

So I did what any creator would do, and film a recap video, alongside my friend Adam. That video is set to drop next week on the new Bread & Rose Work Club YouTube channel. Stay tuned.

Attending this conference in person gave me a huge energy boost in a remote, online world because this week has been my hardest working yet. I loved the event and I'm excited to attend again next year to learn more about the Creator Economy through a Future of Work lens.

⚡️ Updates

Last week, I mentioned that I would be holding a networking power hour and after initially 20 signups, 10 are confirmed.

What is it? - A quick synopsis of introducing yourself online and a speed round of 2-3 ther business professionals.

Why? - Connecting online can be hard, but it doesn't have to be. I'll use my power of connecting to kickstart the goal of building profitable connections.

When? - August 28th, 2024 at 12pm Eastern Standard Time.

How do I join? - Reply to this email :)

🎧 Playlist

Every week, 5 new songs to our playlist. Choose your platform 👇

📣 Sponsor

Although we received our first-ever Beehiiv Ad Network sponsor (🥳🎉), this company did not fit the criteria of what would be a best fit for our audience, you the reader. Stay tuned for updates.

📥 Survey

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