road to success: being a creative

its more than arguable that in 2024, it is easy to be a creative. The avenue is incredibly open with platforms left and right, tools that give new creators and open door to sponsorships, and companies looking to create industry plants. We're in the tail-end of making/breaking being a creative on the internet. There are too many tools, and we have bigger fights (like artificial intelligence).

as someone on the road to success, here's what I've learned about content creation, being a creative, and the pitfalls and drawbacks of being a career creative.

I'm a freshman college student in the media production field looking to do live production for television and media (ultimately with a focus on meterology). I've been creating games since 2012, 3D modelling in Blender since 2017, a musician since 2015, and a professional photographer (camera op) since 2023. I come from a family of writers in sociopolitical fields. I am also a former journalism student. I also study radio communications in my free time, do graphic designs, lend my PubRel skills to local organizations and spend a lot of time doing trend analysis. I also have spent time in marine science with a focus on meteorological impacts. I like to be a jack-of-all-trades.

This will be a rolling article; it will be updated over time.

1. All that glitters is not gold

Spongebob? Smash Mouth? wherever you've heard the quote, it's absolutely correct. While we're past the peak age of being an indie creator on youtube where the content creation door was wide open. It is incredibly hard to create a solid career in the creative field as a whole. It requires a lot of dedication to learning and perfecting your art of choice.

Many platforms have flown onto the radar quickly. Platforms like TikTok, Kick, Lemon8, Instagram, BeReal, and other fad-based social media platforms will inevitably take the internet by storm. These companies profit from independent creators trying to make a break, because regardless of your use case, you're their profit generator. 

Many of these platforms lure creators in with the guise that they can make money. (case in point being Roblox, where prior to 2022, the development page in an introductory banner used to insinuate that anyone can make profit as an independent creator, despite the fact that the skill barrier and requirements are set quite high to DevEx).

Be careful with whatever platform you chose, and be smart with how you invest your time and energy.

2. Presence, Stories, Narratives, Identity

In journalism, we're taught that everything is a story/narrative. There's a reason why the 5 o'clock news is filled with those stories that make you gasp (like five-story fires, people helping their communities, etc). In the media field, it's very easy to fall into a rut, or even worse, into blind content creating in order to be "relatable" or "trendy."

The biggest issue as a content creator is digital footprint. We see many large creators get de-platformed solely because they were immature and misunderstanding of how their actions online affect others. The internet likes to shun and dictate how a creative should behave, should talk, should act. Cases like Chappell Roan and the Paparazzi are a fantastic ongoing example of how creatives take abuse on the daily and those who give it have little repercussion. Creatives are being held accountable more than those who actually perpetrate bad behavior. The internet is going to at some point start a witch hunt for any reason they can. Do not let the internet dictate your creativity as long as it's with positive intention.

The creative has full control over their identity online, whether they realize it or not. All celebrities could make their private life private, but very few know how to actively maintain privacy for their home life. This is why we have cases like the Streisand Effect. Actively broadcasting that you're going to make your home life private is the number one way for people to nitpick your life outside of your job. While in words, it sounds easy to maintain this barrier, It's very obviously not. I implore that creatives take their work life into their own hands, and sew the seeds of privacy early on in their career. You, and only you get to dictate how your presence on the internet exists, don't let others chose how *you* exist.

Telling a story is favored in the creative space because it gives a mindset and an idea to follow. Even with abstract pieces, having a subcontext to bring full contextuality is so incredibly important.

3. Quality over Quantity

We're taught that the highest resolution with high framerates are the standard for "good" content. Similarly in writing, "good" content is relatable with high standards that makes the initial break into the field hard. As a creative, we face scrutiny for the quality of our works.

It's inevitable that a creative will find their process and push as much content as they can.
If more people see a broad range of my content then I should gain more exposure" does not work. A wonderful creative example is Scotty Yu-Jan. Mr. Yu-Jan's upload schedule prior to 2024 was only a few videos per year. Going back two years, he only produced three incredibly high quality videos. With his fanbase growing, he's spent more time creating quality content, giving his fanbase >4 videos per year. All of his videos have a standard for quality, and the easiest way to sum it up is clean and collected.

A musician that has a high standard of quality is P!NK. While her studio album lists are long, her music is incredibly polished. She has a small set of songs she typically performs in order for her theatrics to fit, and often a mix from every "era" shes had. She doesn't always change this order because she has these down pact. Her backing vocalists (and band) have been working with her for decades, which is an incredibly hard feat. People come and go all the time in the touring industry, yet Mrs. Moore Hart has maintained the same backing vocalists through her nearly 30-year career. Knowing your limits, knowing your strength, and keeping a good relationship with your co-creatives is a key to success, and most creators (even those who work independently with no outside support) often forget this.

Would you rather produce one good quality piece which will get you direct and interactive views, or a dozen shoddy quality pieces that will get you more blanket views? Ultimately, this is the formula that most algorithms push thanks to the Vine/TikTok/Reels format. Breaking this circle takes time and effort, which is why many creators give up. It can take years to have a big break, and most people really push themselves to get it as early as possible. The burnout from this can literally change the route of someone's entire life. Getting to a point where you hate doing what you do is so inevitable, but there are ways to make sure you don't get this feeling.

I hope these few points give some insight from my experiences. I do plan on adding onto this with knowing PR tools, learning transferable skills, and how you can structure a community to thrive even with longer production times. being a creative with followers should not have a big hill to climb, but with the commercialization of social media, it can be a barren place to be in.

If you want to support my journey, I'm @aechsphotos on instagram and @aeches on youtube!! Much of my content is private currently as I'm re-evaluating my creative paths. Photography should remain frequent though!! If you want to communicate with me (for any reason??) i'm aeschylus@escargot.chat on escargot. It's my preferred means of communication nowadays. I do respond on here though!