Universal Tips for Transition into Content Creation. A Memo by an Architect Turned Creator

Transitioning into a career in online creation from a non-adjacent industry can be daunting, but appears a tempting option for more and more people in the current Age of Content. A lot of people facing making such a choice arguably have similar big-picture questions on their mind. What if someone briefly addressed them with a quick memo—someone who’s been there themselves?

It’s obviously not a requirement to have a dedicated degree to get into content creation, so the more impressive it appears when established professionals from other domains make transitions onto this path.?

Meet a former guest of our recurring Prequel Live livestream series Justin Espejo, a Vienna-by-way-of-the-Philippines trained architect turned video creator, who in his COVID-era search for new beginnings embarked on a journey of self-learning and through trial and error came from a place of having no filmmaking skills to racking millions of views on his now-signature filmmaking tutorials.

As a follow-up to our Prequel Live interview, Justin comes up with a memo of rule-of-thumb insights for our readers.

Challenging Yourself as Part of Learning

Being a content creator requires versatility, like trying out different social media platforms due to changing trends and algorithms. However, it’s also about adapting to various formats, even unfamiliar ones. I, for example, was initially unsure about making short videos. Then I gave myself a month-long challenge of creating one daily. It did not only increase my popularity but also made me value the impact of short-form content.

Improving Skills to Attract Brands to Improve Skills

Developing skills and showcasing quality work is crucial for attracting brands, even those with smaller followings. I started out by self-learning, and I was lucky that even when I had minimal following, brands found me and were keen on collaborating in the beginning. But I knew that if I wanted to work with my dream brands, I had to improve on my skills as well. It's the confidence I got from developing my skills that then gave me the courage to start reaching out. It’s impossible to avoid the desire and pressure to self-improve as a creative person.

Staying Authentic and Focused

When one of my videos went viral for the first time, I felt overwhelmed but remained focused on his long-term content plan. I firmly believe that leveraging personal strengths and sharing genuine stories, works better than mimicking others and chasing someone’s trends. Staying true to oneself is the key to making it through the unpredictable waves of trends and viral successes

Gear vs. Skills

I believe that any camera from the past 10 years is sufficient for starting out. Skills matter more than gear ever will. Even though my first video wasn't filmed with a most recent or a most expensive camera, it did get a lot of attention. This hopefully goes to show that taking chances and using your skills can really be worth more than fancy equipment.

Diversifying Income Streams

Let me speak from my experience with monetizing content:?brand deals, affiliate links, ads on your content via AdSense, and your own digital products are the four main potential income streams for content creators. Ideally, you should think about balancing out these different ways to make money from your content—establishing all three of these instead of relying on just one will make you resistant to fluctuations in any one of them.

This is an adaptation of a conversation as part of our Prequel Live series of interviews with our guest experts from the world of audiovisual production and creation. Follow us on IG @prequelapp to tune in for next installments.