I love my job. I don’t even consider it a job.
For me, it’s more like a lifestyle. What I do, day by day, it’s something that I really enjoy, a job that makes me to just cannot wait for the next morning to get back to the office.
I have a fantastic team and we work together absolutely great in content creation and marketing. We manage to deliver our users and customers the experiences they want because here at Bannersnack, we are focusing on high-quality content based on our user intent.
Before I had this dream job, I used to have jobs that didn’t give me the same level of excitement. Not even close. Of course, there were good days and bad days, but all in all, it wasn’t something that I could relate to.
As far as I know, I always had a side project. I always had at least a blog besides the work I’ve done. I always challenged myself and stepped out of my comfort zone.
These days there are two kinds of people who are looking for a job. There are the ones that are amped with the classic mindset that “I need a job” who just start typing what they search for on Google, click on the first three results, apply their CVs and wait until somebody sends them an e-mail to schedule an interview.
And there’s the second type of people who are ready to work on getting a job. They are making their career to happen. They are effectively bringing the jobs to them and ask if they want to work with them.
I’m not talking about entrepreneurs. I’m talking about the kinds of people who get their hands dirty to do their job. The ones that do not settle to just send a CV and apply for a job.
Now let me explain what do I want to say with this.
To make my point, I’ve experimented.
I’m a marketer who also knows how to design.
I know how to use Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, ProCreate, Figma, and because I’m working at Bannersnack, an online graphic design software, I understand the basic rules of online template-based design as well.
Furthermore, I am also a heavy user of social media. I do not consume content on social media just because I’m bored. I’m using social media to understand people’s behavior, know what they do, and learn about the next trends on every one of each specific social media platform that exists.
While I was looking on Instagram, I saw more and more creators who are publishing Instagram Carousels. They are using this kind of content to educate, inspire, and to entertain their followers. This is basically the only type of content you want to follow and engage with if you are sick of the TikTok dance or the morning coffee photos.
So I followed them and saw a pattern in these IG Carousels. I understood the basics of the AIDA principle and made a few carousels for my own Instagram profile.
Now that I knew how to create Instagram Carousels that are able to get the audience’s attention, I was looking for someone to experiment with this new kind of content.
While watching Noah Kagan’s content, I knew that his videos could be easily repurposed in an Instagram Carousel.
So I grabbed one video, divided into ten simple Slides, and made the design based on Noah’s brand, color, and style.
I took the visual and sent it to Noah and told him that this graphic is for him, if he likes it, I can send it to him in 2 formats in order for him to publish it on Instagram and Linkedin as well.
His answer:
When Noah published this Carousel on Instagram and Linkedin, not only that I received a few followers on Linkedin and Instagram but I also got five requests from people outside my community to create these kinds of visuals for them.
I told them that I’m not making these for a living, so it was only for Noah.
But this experience supported my idea.
There is no way you can’t make money today and work to get a job.
Also, this experience is supporting Ryan Holiday’s career advice:
Make someone look better. Do the work that nobody wants to do it.
Think outside the box and give these ideas to people who are not willing (because they don’t have enough time) to do it and ask them if they will let you do it for them.
This is the canvas strategy – find canvases for other people to paint on.
Take, for example, Ali Abdaal, a doctor who is also a YouTuber. The kind of person who is working not his dream job but also creates content for his audience.
In his interview with Noah Kagan, he presented how he built his big Youtube channel as a side hustle while he was a student at Cambridge. He is not only a doctor, but he started multiple businesses as well.
Or, you can take a look at how Brian Dean created a series of videos for QuickSprout (Neil Patel’s blog), and then he turned them into a SEO industry, making him one of the most popular SEO people of these days.
Moreover, Ryan Holiday was a research assistant for bestselling author, until he became the Head of Marketing for American Apparel. Now, he is one of the most famous writers. He is involved in consulting other popular brands and personalities around the world.
Find out the jobs you can do, and no one is making because they are or seem to be too hard, jobs that take a lot of attention to detail that people don’t have or don’t have the time to invest in it.
Maybe you could repurposed their content on other platforms.
Take a Youtube video and re-make it for TikTok, for Instagram Stories, for Instagram Reel, Linkedin, and Facebook. Take their podcasts, transcribe the entire audio streams, get the best quotes and ideas from them, turn them into Instagram Carousels, write two articles, and create a spreadsheet with the Twitter status they can publish. Or, maybe you can take that podcast and make it sound even better.
There are so many options if you are willing to focus on the work and put aside your pride. Be humble, and don’t worry about the credit.
All you have to do is to just do the work. It’s not easy, and it’s not convenient to work for free in the beginning. But, it will always be more rewarding than simply watching Netflix all day and waiting for someone to call you and invite you for an interview, just because you have send them your CV next to thousands of other participants.
Let me tell you something. You are no that kind of special.
But if you are willing to do the work and make someone look better, that will pay at the end, and you will become a particular person. A secret weapon that everybody wants to have.
Think about this!
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