How do you learn from other successful content creators and improve your skills?

Using my own personal content journey as an example, I believe that for anyone new to content creation, the most crucial first step is simply to start. Getting started is often the most challenging part! Rather than spending excessive time defining your niche or goals, the most crucial thing to do initially is to take action. Set up your camera and record, write that blog post and publish it, or share your article on LinkedIn. Once you begin creating content, you'll naturally begin to develop your voice and niche as your content evolves.

Contrary to popular belief, a great niche is not found or discovered, and you don't research it or ask your audience because it doesn't exist until you carve it into the side of the mountain with your bare hands. This takes time. A great niche is completely unique and has no equal, that's what makes it special and unlike anything out there. A bad niche has other competitors in it.

The best possible way for those starting out to transform your content creation skills is by studying successful creators. Observe their storytelling, audience engagement, and innovative techniques. Adapt these insights to fit your unique style, ensuring authenticity. Network for direct wisdom, embracing feedback and potential collaborations. Remember, growth is continual; stay ahead of trends and evolve. Your journey to content mastery is shaped by learning from the best while forging your very own distinct path. From what I have learned, identifying your niche happens only after you have started your content creation journey. You wouldn't find it, but it comes to you!

Finding a niche takes time. Defining and starting with a specific niche in mind treat as tests. You take one niche and do a test for a couple of weeks and check if it’s working well for you. In the long term, it is super important as we want to be known as content creators who can help a very specific audience and not everyone. Let me give you my example. I was working as a marketing consultant for many years and worked with various tech companies, but only when I niched down to Web3 I started getting traction and build a recognized brand. Don’t worry if you don’t have a specific niche. Start observing what are your passions, what you like, with who you like working and what are the trends and based on that data you may find it soon!

One can learn a lot from successful content creators by observing their strategies, studying their techniques, and perhaps even attempting to decode their secret dance moves. By immersing oneself in their work, embracing curiosity, and shamelessly stealing... er, I mean, borrowing their ideas, one can undoubtedly improve their own skills and find their own unique rhythm in the content creation world.

Here are three things to keep in mind when choosing a platform: 1) What type of content will you be sharing? 2) How do you want people to interact with your portfolio? 3) What is the goal of having a portfolio? This last one is very important as there's a difference between having a portfolio to share with potential clients and a portfolio to land brand deals.

It involves a few key steps: 1. Understand Your Audience: 2. Consider Your Content Type 3. Evaluate Your Resources and Skills 4. Analyze Competitor Presence 5. Experiment and Adapt 6. Consider Growth and Monetization Potential Remember, the best choice will balance where your audience is, what you are good at producing, and where you can consistently maintain your presence and grow.

While everyone wants to be "big on every platform", it's very challenging to do this. Start with 1 target platform that is your priority and where your AUDIENCE SPENDS THE MOST TIME. Then have a few other platforms as a secondary platform. The best combo is short form video across TikTok, Reels, and Shorts.

Select the right social platforms and content formats based on your audience. For example, my community is made up of media and tech industry professionals, so I focus on LinkedIn, podcasting, and a newsletter.

Sharing content is a crazy world.... there are so many sites! Currently, we have a podcast https://b2bvault.info We are on all the podcast apps! And then, we post on all the social media channels and the podcast in video format on YouTube! Our podcast is information for anyone who owns a business should check out - we talk about, Small - medium businesses, technology, payments, payment types, and what is new, and we talk about specific business types. Getting followers is not easy, we keep posting content because people find the content and then call us to help them with their business. We have been helping business owners since 2001.

Organizing and curating your portfolio isn't about making it look pretty; it's about making it easy for potential customers or employers to understand what you have to offer and why they should work with you.

When it comes to planning content, I've always found that defining an overall theme and sub-themes can be incredibly helpful in organizing ideas. By establishing a clear path, it becomes much easier to determine specific formats, topics, or categories that all relate back to the defined themes. Starting with a clear and defined structure allows you to stay focused on your objectives and makes it simpler to identify relevant ideas. From there, you can build a roadmap for your content and develop a strategy that aligns with your overall vision.

You don't need to create something new every time. You can discover for your audience, you can inspire, you can interview, etc. Curation can even be your main format!

This is arguably the most important and perhaps the most crucial aspect of becoming a successful content creator. With so many creators vying for attention, your personality, or what some call your "secret sauce," is what can set you apart. Your unique qualities cannot be replicated by anyone else. Don't shy away from showcasing your personality in your content. But remember, never try to mimic or steal someone else's personality. Your audience can quickly detect BS, and it could lead them to lose interest in you. Always stay true to yourself, and let your personality shine through in everything you create.

Social media platforms are saturated unless you add your unique spin to your content. Add some flare, humor, personality, or more value than the next creator. Ask yourself: Why should I follow you?

Personality is overrated. Why be unique when you can just create "safe" content and be the same as everybody else? (See what I did there? ??)

"Portfolio" to me is a LinkedIn Profile, personal website, or Link tree. Have a central place where people can find you, and see your other channels, online courses, books, websites, etc.

Ugh, self promotion always felt icky to me (not really my style), so I focus instead on highlighting others' expertise, commenting on interesting news and trends, and engaging my community.