EP 20: 6 Lessons I Learned as a Content Creator in 2023

As we enter the final weeks of the year, I’m bringing season 1 of this podcast to a close and reflecting on everything I’ve learned in the process.

I recently invited in some outside feedback on my Substack publications and podcasts, and I candidly share how this feedback made me feel, as well as what I intend to do with it. I also share my overall journey with content creation this year, including the best performing platforms for me, the worst performing platforms, and my favorite content creation tool.

What did you learn as a content creator this year? Are there any big questions you’re working through as you plan for 2024? Let me know in the comments below. Enjoy the episode!

Below is a transcript of the episode, plus the self-inquiry prompts, for your reference—please excuse grammatical errors!

Hello creators, and welcome back to the Mindful Content Creator Podcast. This is episode 20, which will be the end of season 1 for us, and today I want to talk about 6 lessons I learned as a content creator in 2023.

It seemed appropriate here in the final months of the year to wrap up the first season of the podcast and to start thinking about where I want this to go in the future. And I've been doing a lot of mulling it over in the last few weeks.

I do want to say first off sorry for not releasing an episode last week. It's what I had planned to do, but everyone in our house got sick, including my one year old girl, got her first cold, which was difficult. So I also apologize if my voice doesn't sound, uh, quite normal for this episode, but I really wanted to share all of this with you. So I wanted to get an episode out anyway, regardless of how my voice sounded, and I will be a little bit more informal in this episode because I'm going to kind of openly talk about something I am going through now with my own content.

So I want to give you all some context as to where I started on this journey at the beginning of 2023 because really all of this started at the beginning of the year. I decided I was going to start creating more of my own things, and creating perhaps a little less for other people. My business and my career has largely been focused on creating things for others, for their businesses, and while that was rewarding for a time, and I saw the value in it,

I began to feel this pull toward getting out my own work and sharing my own voice and that's been kind of tough for me to do because it's hard when so many people tell you that you're so good at doing this one thing for them and so you kind of get addicted to that feedback that praise and you think, oh, this is the direction I'm supposed to be going in, but I've always had this underlying feeling that this was not the final stop for me, that I definitely wanted to create more of my own content and share more of my own wisdom in and of itself rather than kind of hiding behind someone else's business or ideas.

So at the beginning of 2023, I was a brand new mom, still trying to figure out life with a newborn and trying to figure out my career now that I had a child as well. And even knowing that the pressure was higher, I knew I still had to take this leap to do more of my own creations.

And so I actually moved over my original newsletter, which I had started with my yoga and journaling business the year before, or actually, it might have even been two years before. But I, once I got pregnant, I wasn't really teaching yoga anymore. I got kind of lost on how to teach yoga as a pregnant woman and as a woman postpartum. But I still really loved the journaling aspect, and every week I sent out journal prompts to a very small list of people, I'm talking like 20 people here, but I wanted to keep doing it because I liked creating those prompts and I liked writing a little bit about my life and where I was coming from and why I thought of these prompts.

And I decided to kind of rebrand that rather than framing it as a way to get people to come to my yoga and journaling classes, which I wasn't teaching anymore. I wanted to just claim this is what I do. I create journal prompts. I want people to share their stories, listen to my stories, write in their own journals, explore all of these topics.

And so I renamed the newsletter The Soul Journaling Sessions and that Substack obviously still exists today. You can find that under my profile as well if you're not also subscribed to that one. And I turned it into a podcast where I read the essay that I wrote and then I read each prompt, and I give two minutes for people to journal. So it's kind of a hybrid, a way to both listen to the story that I'm telling, in case that's more soothing to you, or easier to do than sitting and reading it. And then you can actually sit down and journal with me, kind of in real time.

And I have really loved growing the Soul Journaling sessions. I think I'm now up to about 70 subscribers. It's still not a lot, but it's a huge jump from where I started at the beginning of the year. And so I'm really happy with that slow growth.

And at the same time, I was coming up with new ways to share my wisdom as a content creator because I've spent a lot of my career creating content for my employers or my clients. So I've done corporate content, I've done content for solopreneurs, small businesses, associations, and of course my career started in TV news, which is kind of the ultimate content creation machine, right?

I knew I had something here to share but it didn't quite click until those first few months of 2023 when I sort of started to combine what I had learned in my yoga practice and in my spiritual exploration and studies with what I was doing with content creation, because even with my one to one clients, I was doing things like creating meditations for them to help get into their creativity and to prep for webinars and events and things like that. And I was also pulling cards, oracle and tarot cards with my clients. And so there was this underlying spiritual aspect. And whenever I work with clients to write and create content, I send them journal prompts because I want to pull out those stories from them.

And that all eventually led me to think of the mindful content creator. I wanted to create a space for those of us who don't love the traditional content creation game, because. I saw that in myself and my clients, but we still have these important messages we want to share and we believe that there is a better, more holistic, more rewarding way to do this.

And so these really started as two separate Substack ideas, two separate podcasts, and I always saw them that way. And while they've both been growing slowly at their own pace, I've overall been happy with that growth. Of course, I'd like it to go a little faster and to build these communities, but I'm still pretty pleased with how far I've gotten within this one year span.

But recently I decided to get some feedback, which if you've listened to some earlier episodes, you have heard me say that I don't totally love getting a lot of feedback on things. I'm not entirely sure where this comes from, if it's just a flaw in my personality, it's my ego, exactly what it is. It's something I'm still working on.

But when I get really into a project or into creative ideas, feedback often trips me up because I'll kind of get in this zone where I'm like, this is what I want to do. This is what I want to create. And then when someone else comes in and shares, well, maybe you should do this, then I kind of get into this like freeze mode where I think, oh no, have I been doing this wrong the whole time?

Now, should I shift? And if I shift now, like, how is that going to change everything that I've done so far and what I've planned? I kind of start spinning. But at the same time, I recognize the value in talking to other experts in the industry in talking to people that have been there before me who are successful.

And as always, it's about finding that that right balance. This led me last month to sign up to have an audit done of my substacks with someone that I follow and who I respect and who has success on substack. the advice was the exact one thing that I didn't want to do, which is combine the two substacks. and I totally should have been prepared to get this advice because everyone says including Substack not to have more than one publication because then you just end up competing with yourself, but it's funny even the people who say this have multiple publications themselves, but they're already at that point of success so they can say well it's okay for me, but when they look at an outsider's, you know, work, and we're talking about, oh, we're trying to grow faster, and there's a lot to do, the easiest and quickest thing, of course, to say is, well, you should kind of narrow it down, not try to do too much, and bring it all together into one thing. And I totally get this advice. I see the value in it. I see why someone would tell me to do this But I've been on this path now so set that they are two separate things .

The way I see it soul journaling sessions is for people who are looking to do some personal work. They're looking to go deeper within themselves. They like to journal, they like to write. And then when I look at Mindful Content Creator, I see all of you as probably solopreneurs, people who run small businesses, people who have messages they want to share. You're maybe working more in the spiritual or health and wellness space, and you want to create better content. You want to create in a way that feels better to you, that feels aligned with you, and that is aligned with the people that are in your community that you're sharing these things with.

And yes, while some of you may very well be signed up and subscribed to both lists, I do think they serve very different purposes.

The reason I had initially wanted to keep them separate as well was to make the branding very clear, which helps people find you easier and improves your SEO. So, if someone's searching for journaling on Substack, they're gonna find soul journaling sessions. If someone is a content creator and they search content creator, then the mindful content creator will come up. But my concern is if I combine this all into one under just my name or I was even considering combining it all under my Instagram handle that I kind of use loosely as another brand name, which is The Mystical Farrey.

But if I were to do that, now you search, you don't necessarily find those terms and The Mystical Farrey or Marcy Farrey doesn't necessarily mean something to you, right? You're not going to look at that publication and say, Oh, that's what I need. It's just my name. And maybe if you know me, that's exciting, but for the most part, I'm trying to draw in new people, right?

I also worry about over-cluttering with too many different ideas and content in one place. I learned a lot about websites and content marketing from Andy Crestodina of Orbit Media in Chicago. I've gone to many of his training sessions, and when I worked at an association, I had him come in every year to do sessions with our marketers, and I always just soaked up his wisdom, and one of the things he would often say is that every time you take something away on a page, it makes everything else easier to find.

So going in with that mindset, I really wanted these two things to be separate because if you're really interested in one and you land on that page, you're not going to get anything else. So if you're a mindful content creator and you land now on the Soul Journaling sessions, you're going to say, Well, I don't need journal prompts about the new moon in cancer or whatever sign it is. I just want to know about how to create content mindfully, or I just want my mindful content prompts.

So this was a little bit of my logic and justification behind it. And perhaps even now I'm sitting here justifying this all to you. And so it was really tough for me to get that feedback and be like, Oh, but that goes against all of my instincts and everything that I've been working on up until this point.

This brings up the question of am I just getting in my own way, or do I really need to trust my own instincts on this? And it's been tough for me, admittedly, to trust my own instincts as a content creator because I've never created content for myself, with my own ideas, with my own work. I've always created for other people. And so, yes, I have been able to come in and help people get more views or build a stronger community or build a better story with their content. But I haven't done this with my own work, and so it's hard to say to myself, Oh, you know exactly what you're doing. You're the expert. You're good. I'm still thinking that I need to seek something outside of myself to get that stamp of approval.

I find myself now at the end of 2023, wondering, do I need to shift gears? Do I need to make a change? And I'll tell you that right now, I'm leaning toward listening to myself and trusting my own instincts because I feel like I started this one way for a reason, and I want to see it through. Of course, after taking some time off here through the month of December, maybe I'll change my mind, but right now, that's where I'm leaning.

And you know I try not to place everything on my astrology sign or my human design but it is interesting because in my human design I am a 1 3 generator And with a line three in my profile, I'm someone who experiments. So I'm not the type of person that can just take advice and say yes and follow it to the T without really like considering anything else. I kind of have to do things for myself, experience them for myself. I have to quote unquote fail or make mistakes And so it's really hard for me to take that outside feedback without very seriously questioning it.

But if you've ever found yourself in this position, I would love to hear about it. Let's chat. Let's talk about how do we know whether to trust ourselves or if we're just avoiding doing a tough thing, because that could be true too, and I'm willing to see it that way. So I'll be taking the next few weeks as I enjoy the holidays to also kind of rethink what I'm doing with both substacks.

I don't see either of them going away at all, but I may adjust the pace at which I release content. I may potentially combine things, though I'm thinking not, uh, and maybe some other changes. But if there are other things that you would love to see here, please let me know. And something I definitely want to do in 2024, and that kind of scares me, is create paid tiers for both of my Substack publications.

It's also been really hard for me to get past this block of, Oh, I can't really charge for work that I just create. I can charge for work that I create for other people for their businesses, but not just to consume my own creations. But I realized that that's something I really need to get past, that it's okay for me to want to create things that perhaps other people pay for. And specifically with the Mindful Content Creator, I would love to create perhaps some workbooks or some templates, or even have some workshops where we all gather together.

Maybe we co-work together and talk about a topic each month or, you know, quarterly, something like that. So if there's something that you're feeling that you would love support with, Whether it's directly with me or in a group context, please let me know. I would love to hear your thoughts. I would love to offer something that you're really seeking. And of course, that is aligned with me and what I'm able to share.

So having provided all of that context, which may or may not have been too much, but I wanted to be open and share where I'm at, I also want to talk about the major things that I've learned as a result of all of this that happened this year. And I have six major lessons that maybe you've learned too, or that you can consider as you go into 2024.

Number one thing that I've learned, embrace new platforms. Oh my goodness. Once I stopped focusing on Instagram solely, everything else just opened up. Once I realized that I could try Substack, that I could try an app like Insight Timer, things really just sped up. So this year I have focused on Substack and Insight Timer, which is a meditation app where I do meditation courses that are audio only. I am already at over 80 followers there now, and I just started at the beginning of this year, so I'm really hoping I hit 100 before the end of the year. But I feel like that's been great growth for me.

And that leads me to my second lesson. Slow growth is growth, and it should be celebrated. I think we all get caught up in these stories of people who have this crazy instant success where they have thousands upon thousands of followers overnight. And yes, that can happen, certainly. But it's not something that happens to everyone, and just because it doesn't happen to you instantly doesn't mean that you shouldn't be doing what you're doing. Slow growth is growth, and you definitely shouldn't give up, because one day you may reach that point where you get those thousands and thousands of followers, but you won't get there if you don't keep trying.

Number three, follow your passions and curiosity, and it's absolutely okay if you have multiple passions and curiosities. Again, this is just what I was talking about, that I call myself sometimes a multi passionate content creator, and I got that word multi passionate, uh, from Marie Forleo. If you've ever followed her or listened to her stuff, she talks about being a multi passionate entrepreneur. I think it's absolutely possible to have different areas of interest and to allow each of those to thrive. And that's what I'm trying to do with my two substacks.

And number four, it's okay to be imperfect. It's better to share regularly and imperfectly than to aim for perfection and end up sharing nothing or sharing very rarely. once I let go of that idea that everything I put out needs to be perfect, I was able to create so much more and I feel better and I feel like I'm actually doing something.

Number five, trust yourself and your own instincts. This is just what I was talking about again with the feedback that I received. I am learning to trust where I'm being led. And it's okay to sometimes not take that outside expert advice. It's okay, even if you paid for it. I think that's another common one that we all get tripped up in. It's like, I paid all this money to this expert to get this feedback, and now I'm just not gonna follow it? But you know what? That's okay. Sometimes we learn an important lesson. Even though we paid that money, we learned a lesson that we needed to learn that wasn't necessarily that feedback that that person gave us, if that makes sense.

I think I'm learning more about myself after having had this audit, so I'm trying not to get upset over the fact that I paid for something that I might not use.

I think we all easily get caught up in this idea of expert advice, but really, we know ourselves best, we know our work best, and it's okay to just listen to our own instincts.

And finally, number six, choose devotion over consistency. And that goes way back to, uh, I believe it was episode 11 when I interviewed Cassie Uhl, and we talked about consistency and the trap of consistency. To me, it's far better to focus on commitment and devotion to what I'm doing and what I'm creating and to forget about what traditional content creators would say consistency is. You don't have to post at the same darn time every day. You don't have to post on the same day of the week. And your consistency could simply be that you do some sort of creative work every single day that helps you then create and share the content when you're ready.

So those were my six big lessons from 2023, and I'll just share a couple other highlights to close out just because I like to share this information as much as I can to help all of you, but my best platform this year by far was Insight Timer. I feel like I really am starting to grow a community there. I have people who are regulars in my classes, and it feels really nice to feel like I'm actually building something. And I want Substack to get to that place as well, and it's starting to. But for whatever reason, Insight Timer has moved a lot faster for me.

The biggest dud for me was Instagram. I was getting better views in 2022 on Instagram, and then I don't know what happened in 2023. I have had some reels that literally have gotten six views, and I have no idea why. I don't feel like I've done anything that drastically different, other than slow down how much I posted. So that's been a real disappointment, And I'm not really sure how much time I'm going to spend with Instagram in the future. I might try a few last ditch effort things, but it may not end up being something I use very much at all.

And the best tool that I have used as a content creator this year is Descript. If you haven't heard of Descript, it's a video editing app. It's what I use to edit the podcasts that I edit for one of my clients. It's what I use to edit these podcasts. It's what I use to create reels and all sorts of things. It's fantastic. I think that my favorite thing about it is that you get a full automatic transcription once you put your video or content in. That makes it very easy to edit. You can almost edit it like it's a Word document, though, because I'm used to traditional video editing, I still edit in the timeline, and it gives you both options. But having that transcription just makes a world of difference, especially if you're wanting to create social content right afterwards with it.

Editing on it is very clean and very easy, and I feel like the learning curve is not so high, so if you're considering creating a podcast or you already create one and editing for you is tough on your own, I highly recommend looking into Descript.

And lastly, I just want to share a little bit about what I desire for 2024 as a content creator:

I hope to have continued slow growth and I hope to continue honoring that.

I want to create paid tiers for both of my publications, as I mentioned before.

I want to put trust in myself as a content creator and trust in my own instincts.

And then I want to dial down the amount of work I do for other people's brands. That's going to be a tough one and a change for me in the new year, but I think it is a much needed one.

So as you're beginning to wrap up your year as a content creator, I encourage you to take a little bit of time to reflect, see where you were at the beginning of the year, where you are now, and you don't have to focus on just the numbers. Just think about how did you feel at the start of the year about your progress and what you were creating, and how do you feel now? And if you're at a crossroads point like me or you're kind of mulling over some changes, I think one question to ask yourself that will be helpful is:

What will most help me enjoy and embrace all facets of myself as a content creator in 2024?

Of course, I will have this question in the show notes. Thank you all so much for joining me for season one for going on this journey with me. I am excited to come back in 2024. There will probably be some light changes, probably nothing too drastic, but I am, as I mentioned, wanting to grow and expand a little bit. So my hope is to get on more guests and to create more things that will be of help to you.

Again, let me know if there is anything you would love to see here. And please just feel free to share what you're thinking for yourself and your own content. I'd love to just chat and share ideas and talk things through. We can all be here to support one another.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and I will see you for season two of the podcast. Until then, happy creating.