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Howdy,
Happy Friday! Here's your weekly roundup straight from my notebook.
Enjoying the news, tools and ideas I share here? Consider mentioning this newsletter to your friends or even forwarding this email to them if that's something people actually do.
Thanks,
- Anthony
If this is your first time reading, you're welcome or I'm sorry -- Sign up here if you'll put up with this in your inbox every Friday :)
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🎁 What's Inside:
🤳 Instagram is Trying Really Hard
📉 Netflix Loses Record Number of Subscribers
📝 7 Rules for Better Copywriting
💰 34 Ways to Make Money as a Creator
And More!
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Instagram Videos Are ALL Reels Now
Bring Back IGTV as a TikTok clone, and give me my Instagram back.
Instagram, in an effort to not be overtaken by TikTok - have taken yet another step towards being off brand TikTok.
All videos less than 15 mins will now be Reels, and the Reels/Videos sections of profile pages have been merged into one.
In this announcement, they also shared new features available for Reels:
- Templates
- Dual Recording (front camera + back camera can record at the same time)
My Takeaway
Everybody - users and creators - are frustrated with Instagram. It seems like they are trying so hard to keep up, that there's no soul left in Instagram.
When I visit my Twitter, I know what vibe I'm heading into.
When I open TikTok, I get a range of content - but TikTok gets me and my taste.
But Instagram just doesn't have the same connection with users anymore. Which is what set them apart for so long.
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Record Subscriber Losses for Netflix
Not as many as they expected though so... Yay?
The streaming giant, Netflix announced that they saw a loss of 970,000 subscribers last quarter.
970,000.
It's not the 2 Million they predicted, but it's certainly an alarming number for Netflix who have faced a difficult 2022.
To mitigate the losses from these unsubscribes, Netflix is launching a lower priced tier with ads - as well as beginning to charge more for different 'homes' using your account.
My Takeaway
A lot of Netflix's success with streaming is down to being first.
For a long time, when you thought of TV and movie streaming - you thought of Netflix. But now the streaming world IS the entertainment world, and Netflix can't coast on the success just from being first.
It's becoming harder to compete with the quality of original shows available, but Netflix has been losing that race for some time.
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Stick these to your monitor. They're worth checking out.
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- 7 Rules for Better Copywriting [THREAD]
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- 34 Ways to Make Money as a Creator [IN DEPTH]
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- Short Copywriting Examples and Headline Inspiration [MICROCOPY]
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- An Amazing Essay from Adam Singer on Growth Hacks and Originality [MUST READ]
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- New Daily Podcast Rounding Up The Best of DTC Twitter [DTC DAILY]
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What Creative Fuel Are You Burning?
The hidden cost behind the wrong creative inspiration...
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You’ve been driving across the “Content Creator Highway” all night. With your eyes barely open, you pull into a local gas station and hear the ding as you drive over the hose.
Time to re-fuel.
You pull your little creator-mobile up, lift the rusted spout and choose your fuel type. What kind of fuel are you filling up with?
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The 2 Ingredients That Started It All
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You can trace most people’s creativity back to 2 factors:
There’s an initial spark that lights up and captures your attention, making you realize what's possible.
But then there’s your creative fuel. The part that turns the spark into a light that doesn’t go out.
Most of us are aware of our spark, and we think back to it often. But we don’t spend enough time thinking about our fuel sources.
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Are You Burning Dirty Fuel?
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It’s easy to pick out your spark. But picking out what fuel you’re burning takes a lot more self-awareness and reflection.
Luckily, once you pinpoint it - you have the control to choose a different fuel.
When I look back in my creativity, my first fuel source wasn’t sustainable.
As a kid, life was chaotic and I spent a lot of time feeling helpless and lost. But then I started writing stories and creating worlds in my notebooks. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was creating from a place of seeking control.
Burning dirty fuel like this can certainly be powerful. But if you burn it for too long, you’re causing more harm than good. For creative careers, this is where burnout happens.
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Sustainable vs Unsustainable Fuel Sources
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Think about the work you have been doing in the last 6 months to a year.
Have you been publishing from a place of:
These are some highly unsustainable sources - even if they’ve powered the most growth you’ve ever had.
It may be time to publishing from a place of:
- Ambition
- Exploration
- Curiosity
- Expression
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Pay extremely close attention to your self talk. How you talk to yourself while creating, consuming, and marketing.
If you talk down about your creativity, your work will always feel like it’s trying to prove something. But when you believe in your creativity, your work will always be something - and that means so much more.
The next time - and every time - you create something, take 5 mins to think about what powered you to create it. Notice patterns over time, and build the ability to choose before you start a project.
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Enough InTake. Time to Create.
Use what you learned here, and go create something spectacular.
Find me on Twitter and share your thoughts on this week's issue - or even share your favorite creator tools!
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Bonus: Every week I choose 1 album to listen to while I draft this newsletter. This week it was Bon Iver's "For Emma, Forever Ago".
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