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Welcome to 1% Better. A weekly newsletter where I provide simple playbooks to grow your following, earn more revenue, and live a more fulfilling life.

Today at a Glance:

• The hardest part about content creation, and a solution

• My AI newsletter TTPQ has relaunched!

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Latest Video (click to view):

A few weeks ago I started a Youtube and have been making weekly videos! I’ve long said videos are the future, so I’m putting my money where my mouth is.

If you like, subscribe, and turn on notifications to this video email me the screenshot I’ll send you an X growth playbook!

My X posts don't get enough engagement and I want to quit

Here’s a recent DM I received (I get no less than 20 of these DMs a week):

Hey Alex! I need your help. You keep telling me that threads are the best way to grow on X. I’ve posted a thread every week for the past three weeks but none of them are catching on. I also send 200 replies a day! I’m so close to just giving up on X. Can you take a look and tell me what am I doing wrong?

This person, alongside 99.99% of people on social media, are stuck in the middle.

The middle. The most painful place to be in your content journey.

There’s 3 stages of content creation: the beginning, middle, and end.

The beginning and end are easy and incredibly fun.

The middle is slow, agonizing, excruciating, distressing, and enough to make you want to quit.

In the beginning, you’re running on adrenaline. You signed up for X for the first time. You’re playing with your new shiny toy. You’re creating content, and the world is your oyster. You hit post for the first time and you get a massive dopamine hit. You’ve just put yourself out there for the whole world to see.

The end is all momentum. You’ve made it. 100k followers and you’re making enough income to live off of. You’re living the life of your dreams, doing exactly what you want every day.

The middle is torture. The adrenaline from just starting has worn off. You crashed from your initial dopamine hits. You’ve hit post every day for four months in a row and still only are getting 15 likes a tweet and maybe a couple of followers a day. At this rate you’ll be an influencer when you’re 90! This isn’t even fun anymore.

Here’s your issue:

Your mission has become getting likes and engagement.

This is a 100% guaranteed way to burn out and quit.

You’re measuring your success and self-worth on how many likes you’re getting.

You’ve invested your entire emotional state into a metric you have 0 control of. A metric that is volatile, fluctuates, and is influenced by an algorithm that is impossible to understand. You’re dooming yourself to stress and anxiety. Stress and anxiety are TERRIBLE for creativity.

There is a 0% chance of becoming successful at content creation if your entire mindset hinges on this uncontrollable metric.

The solution is simple: shift your mindset.

When you’re in the middle, your measure of success should stem from one thing: how much you’re learning.

You have 100% control over how much you learn and improve. You have 0% control over engagement, likes and follows.

Joy and happiness come from progress, and progress comes from improving. When I was writing tweets, threads, and newsletters daily from December 2021 to June 2022 with under 5,000 followers and 50 subscribers, I was completely focused on improving by just a little bit every day.

I tried to pick up as many new skills as I could. Read as many copywriting books as 24 hours would allow. Read as many other newsletters and threads as my eyes could handle.

I tried to take just one nugget of a lesson from everything I read and apply it to my next piece of content.

This chase of constant minor improvements was a rush. I had faith that if I kept striving for 1% improvement every day, eventually, I’d hit a tipping point and people would realize I’m creating something of value.

A growth mindset is the only mindset that will lead to success. Allowing yourself to get caught up in the roller coaster of emotions that comes from engagement will only corrupt you.

It’s not an easy shift to make, but it’s a shift you need to strive for every day. It’s the only way to survive the middle and get to the end phase, where the fun really begins.

If making that shift was easy, everyone on X would have a million followers and 100,000 subscribers.

While your competition sits in bed and cries every night about not getting likes, plot endlessly on how you’re going to improve. You’ll become an unstoppable force.

Ignore likes. Obsess over improvements. The likes will follow, I promise.

Quick recommendations for improving your writing skills:

Books: The Copywriter’s Handbook, The Elements of Style, Copywriting Secrets

How have you made a mindset shift when it comes to content creation? How do you find joy in a world filled with likes, retweets, and engagement? Hit reply and email me. Happy to chat!

My AI Newsletter TTPQ Has Relaunched!

I have really exciting news to share! The best AI newsletter in the game has relaunched!

It’s called TTPQ (Tweet, thread, prompt, quote) and it gets sent out every single week.

It includes 1 tweet or thread template, one KILLER AI prompt, and one motivational book quote from whatever I’m reading.

If you are looking to improve your content, get better at AI, or just keep up with tech, this is the newsletter for you.

Every awesome AI prompt I come up with will be shared in this newsletter. This is the ultimate way to keep your AI skills strong.

Feel free to sign up for TTPQ here:

If you are a part of my community, The 1% Club, TTPQ is 100% included. Feel free to sign up for that here:

Have a great weekend everyone!

-Alex