3 Powerful Characteristics Successful Digital Creators Share

A brand is general but digital creation is personal.

Digital creators have a brand but what makes you read or engage with their content, and buy their products or services is their ability to convey their authenticity throughout their message and content. This is why they can personally connect with their audience.

Here a 3 characteristics successful digital creators share.

The ability to teach from their failures.

Here is an example of teaching from failures from digital creator Ed Latimore. Ed has created products and has a high number of content regarding his past struggles with porn addiction and alcoholism.

I have battled other addictions of my own. This is what makes me connect with Ed’s content. In this digital age, so many digital creators are super consumed with branding and marketing that they can seem unrelatable appearing to have everything all together. When looking for mentorship or looking to learn from a digital creator, make sure they are transparent about their own struggles and failures on their journey. If they appear to have it all together, it is just going to make you feel incompetent and your insecurities will eat you alive.

A Study by Psychology Today:

Part of the reason participants share their success is that they may think it reflects well on them. But subsequent studies in this paper suggest that participants don’t really understand how much can be learned from failures. For example, in one study, participants were told they could get a hint in the game in which they could be told the location of the 1-cent loss or the 20-cent gain. About a third of the participants selected the 20-cent gain as the hint, suggesting that they did not realize that finding the location of the 1-cent loss would enable them to avoid losing anything in the game.

The ability to ignore their perceived flaws.

Here is an example of ignoring flaws in a playful manner with Andrew Henderson of the Nomad Capitalist. Andrew has an unorthodox outlook on living in America which makes him polarizing at times. Andrew creates digital content for 7 figure income earners who want to relocate to another country.

Let’s face it, as a digital creator, you will eventually be told something negative or ridiculous about your content. When this happens, everyone is usually watching to see how you respond or if you even will respond. I personally don’t respond because I think it is a low-value or low-energy activity. But when successful digital creators do respond to such buffoonery, they do it with such grace or intellect. There is nothing cooler or admirable than seeing someone take criticism and flip it on its head. Everyone loves an underdog especially when it is in public view.

A quote from Ellen Hendriksen, Ph.D. of Psychology Today:

Criticism is part and parcel of living in the world. Posting on social media, performing your stand-up comedy, or even coaching your kid’s soccer team will all invite judgment and criticism. And doing anything truly innovative will guarantee it. So how can you ready yourself and not be discouraged from stepping outside of your box? Here are 12 ways to deal with four different kinds of criticism.

The ability to find their lane in a crowded industry.

Here is an example from Nicolas Cole tweeting about his journey in the digital writing space. Cole was a former bodybuilder who developed a following online by creating a blog about fitness. He also worked as a copywriter for a company in Chicago. His unique journey has made him a viral machine on Twitter and Linked In.

Humans can’t help themselves when it comes to something fresh, different, and authentic. If you are a digital creator then you understand how difficult this can be to differentiate yourself from other creators. I have been following the journey of many creators and they all have been on their personal journeys for a very long time. And in that time, they had to reinvent themselves time after time. After each reinvention, they got closer and closer to finding their lanes in a sea of digital creators. There is a price to be paid for authenticity. The price is time, failures, and lots of criticism.

A quote from Po Chi Wu Ph.D. from Psychology Today:

What goes on inside the minds and hearts of authentic entrepreneurs? How did they evolve to become who they are? What can be learned from the way they met challenges in their lives? How did they overcome the fears they had? What assumptions about themselves did they have to discover and eliminate? What truths did they have to set as guidelines for their growth? How did they stretch beyond their comfort zones? What is authentic risk-taking? How is authenticity related to success?

As a digital creator, your brand can have the prettiest branding templates but without a soul or personal traits that only you can provide, you will never stand out.

Take the time to develop the traits that matter.

Read this post and more on my Typeshare Social Blog