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LOG 025: If You're Creative But Lazy, Please Read This

A year building the platform, three films, and what the metrics were telling me all along.

LOG 025: If You're Creative But Lazy, Please Read This

Double Down

I spent a year building my platform and lost track of the one thing that really moves the needle.

The work.

From the outside, the year looks great.

The platform grew. The work didn't.

In the past year, almost since I launched the World Building Codex, I have been growing my platform. New content. Cinematique, the free prompt library. The course. My mailing list went from 200 to almost 1,800 subscribers. The course sold well, about six to seven thousand euros in revenue. The Codex has been downloaded thousands of times.

And the feedback from the creative community was amazing. People told me it changed the way they approach generative AI and filmmaking. Less thinking in single, random images. More building worlds where everything is consistent.

As a personal journey, this has been incredible.

But here's the catch.

What really moves the needle is the work that validates your authority as a creator. And this year I made three real pieces.

RE/START, conceived for a short film competition. It was part of a series of films I was already building, so it helped a lot with consistency and creating characters. Robert Scoble reposted it and the feedback was great.

SNOWCRASHER, the game trailer. A good excuse to test a new video model, and it taught me a lot about character sheets. It is still one of the most visited posts on my website.

Robot Heist, a 30-second film where I was just testing different approaches to storytelling.

That's it. Besides small shorts posted here and there, my whole effort went into growing the platform.

And I have to tell you: between growing a business and getting more people to like my work, my work is the one that suffered the most. By this stage I could have made two or three more films. Films that validate me and make my body of work much stronger. Instead I'm a filmmaker with three films under my belt this year.

As a creator, I failed myself. I kept pitching world building to everyone and didn't make enough of it myself.

I know the context. A family, a full-time job, a YouTube channel I'm opening on the side, everything made to fit my personal brand. In retrospect, the growth is amazing. But as an artist I struggle with only three good projects under my belt. If I had gone all in on creation, my place within the community would be much stronger.

I also understand that people now see me mostly promoting my work. That is part of marketing a platform. The platform is growing, it makes revenue, it's great. But I still need my work as a product in itself. That is what makes people trust you.

The data was telling me what to make next

The metrics confirm all of this. SNOWCRASHER was a hit. Cinematique was a hit. Robot Heist was a hit. RE/START was a hit. People reposted RE/START from X to LinkedIn and it went viral there as well. People were blown away.

So what if I had made SNOWCRASHER 2, SNOWCRASHER 3, different iterations of the same world?

There is this thing in social media where you look at your metrics, you look at the work you put out, and you double down on what works. It's the same thing I'm always saying: focus on your work. Once you have an identity, once people recognize your work, you double down on it. Social media works exactly the same way. And I insist on social media because it is directly connected to promoting your art.

It is the Content Multiplier again. One world that works, many pieces out of it.

Because when you go viral, something special happens. A lot of people double down on you too. They reach out. They connect. You end up in conversations with very interesting people on a similar path, or a little further ahead. New connections. People who want to work with you.

If you want your creative work to spread, and those opportunities to come to you, don't forget this. Double down on your hits.

Have the funnel ready before the hit

This doesn't mean the platform was a mistake. What I'm building now is made to double down on my own work, and to have the platform ready so that when things go viral again, I can capitalize on it.

Another example. Cinematique, my free prompt library, went viral in Asia. A blog in Korea picked it up, from there it spread to Taiwan, and suddenly I had a surge of about 6,000 visitors on my website. One of my e-books sold like crazy. On a normal week I sell one or two, if I'm lucky. For two or three weeks it was two or three sales every single day.

That is what a hit does when there is something behind it.

So what I'm investing in now is a complete funnel. If I get another hit that drives impressions to my profile, to my YouTube channel, to my mailing list, I can make the most out of it.

Own Your Path

I believe every creative should have some form of self-marketing. A foundation for their own work, so they can be independent.

Artists usually don't think about this. They stay stuck in the loop of not knowing how to monetize their work. And something I find a little tragic is how many end up depending on being a creative partner for this platform, or that platform, or the other one. Hoping for credits. Maybe a little income on the side. Maybe it even becomes the full-time income.

But there is a big risk in not owning the process. If the platform goes down, you go down with it. Those companies go up and they go down. You cannot build on partnerships that pay you in credits or in promoting someone else's company.

I learned that one the hard way this year. RE/START was made for a short film competition. It was an emotional ride, nerve-wracking, and then you get sucked into the politics of the contest. Before the winners were even announced, the owners of the platform were already promoting some of the shorts. I'm not doing that again. For now I'm also cancelling my partnerships and affiliate links. I don't want to depend on anyone for my success, and I don't want it to feel like another job.

So take this as another path. Build your infrastructure, so that when your work hits a nerve on the internet, you benefit from it and you own it. That is where digital products work very well. Sharing your knowledge with the world has a value people will pay for. Your process, your thinking, collaborations, licensing your work. All of that is very powerful, and I encourage you to do it as much as you can.

So: double down on your hits. And set up a way to become independent from brand partnerships and other people's companies.

I'm not saying stop them. If that pays for your credits, if it gets you some extra money on the side, fantastic. But don't forget that you can also do it on your own.

Next year, more films. The platform is ready for them.

If you want to improve your AI filmmaking skills, I created the World Building Academy. You start with an idea and leave with one complete world, built end to end, a trailer you can ship, and a method you can run again on the next one.

Three lessons are free to watch: vvsvs.pro/academy

Links and references mentioned