How One Creator 660x'd Their Following in 9 Months

Advice from Mylene’s Mind

This week in Creator Studio, our Discord Community, we interviewed Mylene Mae (@mylenesmind). She grew from 482 followers in December 2023 to over 318k today.

Here are a few of the key points that really stuck out to us:

• What really grew her account was a series—23 Lessons from 2023. Yet the series didn’t take off until the 6th video.
  
  As where many creators would give up if the first 5 only produced 1-2k views (what happened to Mylene), she changed the hook and the 6th video hit.
  
  The lesson? Create a series. Give it several posts to take off. Be open to changing the hook or format if it isn’t working.

• Forget the idea of posting every day. Mylene says it leads to burnout when you feel forced to post every day. Instead, post when you’re inspired.

• The motivation or inspiration to create a piece of content will eventually leave. So when you feel it, create it and post it—don’t add it to a list to revisit months down the line.

Watch the full interview and join future creator chats live by joining the Discord.

The EOY Checklist for Creators

I listened to this podcast a few weeks ago—How to Get Ahead of 99% of People (in 4 Months) from The Mel Robbins Podcast.

(spoiler) The premise is that September is the most productive month of the year. (I know, we’re in October now…but hear me out)

While most people tend to slow down around this time of year, the people that use it to their advantage are the ones who will get ahead.

So with that said, here’s a few ideas of things you can do to get your ‘ish together in Q4 before we head into 2025.

1. Go through your camera roll

I recently came across an app called Swipewipe. It allows you to swipe through your camera roll like a late-night scroll on Tinder—anything you X will delete.

It’s one of the fastest ways to sift through all the old photos, b-roll footage, and other content you have sitting in your photo library.

2. Update your media kit (or make one)

Does your media kit still reflect your brand? Are the brand deal case studies still your top examples? If no, give it a quick update.

I use Beacons for my media kit and love it. It’s free, user-friendly to create, and the performance stats update automatically on the back-end.

3. Review your top-performing content

Your top-performing content this year can help create a framework for next year’s content plan. Or, amidst the Q4 frenzy, it might be worth recreating some of these pieces.

Either way—it’s good to look back on what you created, figure out why it performed so well, and take those learnings with you.

4. Update your highlights and playlists

This is something I always neglect.

But just recently, I gave my IG highlights an update and to my surprise, I’ve gotten several messages in response to stories I saved there. TBH, I didn’t think people looked at highlights.

But now I’m realizing they’re prime real estate. (especially for affiliate links, products, etc.)

Same with playlists on TikTok and YouTube.

Don’t get too into the weeds with this—especially if you’ve also neglected it and haven’t updated it in a year.

Set a timer for 15-20 minutes, and try to update as much as you can. Don’t worry about adding content from January into these (unless you’re able to in a short amount of time).

5. Examine your time spent

Answer these questions:

• What did I spend the most time on?

• How much of those tasks are things only I can do?

• What slowed me down?

• What gave me energy?

• Which projects and videos were most exciting to work on?

• Which projects and videos drained me?

• What can I outsource?

Figure out how to outsource the parts you don’t like or the parts that other people can handle. This will give you more time to work on things only you can do, or the things that excite you—both of which will really move the needle.

Quick Links

👩🏻‍⚖️ The state of Arkansas just sued YouTube.

🎵 More music might be removed from TikTok.

👀 IG’s new “best practices” feature giving personalized tips for success.

🎤 IRL events are becoming the next big thing for creators.

📈 Does content edited outside the app impact IG reach?

See ya next week,

Karat