Introducing: The Lazy Letters
Hi there,
Thanks so much for stopping by on my blog. It's been a VERY long time since I last published a blog post. The last 12 months have been pretty interesting over here as I have been busy re-thinking my whole identity and purpose as a creator.
For the longest time, I thought I wanted to be a portrait photographer. I had even re-launched my website in 2020, moving away from showcasing every facet of my photography to fully branding myself as a "portrait and social media photographer", ready to conquer the local portrait scene. What I noticed very quickly though is that I actually wasn't ready and that every time someone had reached out to me for portrait work, I was absolutely terrified and felt like the biggest imposter. Who do you think you are taking people's money not being confident in delivering the desired results. Thankfully, people seemed to be happy with what I produced.
When it comes to photography I do believe in the saying "Fake it till you make it" and I'm fully subscribed to the opinion that you need to feel uncomfortable to be able to grow as a person and as a creator. It's the best and quickest way to learn, for sure. However, as someone working a full-time job and only being able to work on creative projects on the side, I was missing the joy in it. I thought to myself I should feel fulfilled and hungry for more, not bone-wrenching terror that makes me create less. The more I thought about it the more I realised that portraiture as my main focus is not the right fit for me. At least not at this point in time.
Don't get me wrong, I still love taking photos of people and I will continue doing so every chance I get. I also find so much joy in my beach and drone photography. My dream is to one day start selling prints as the idea of my work hanging in someone's home really excites me. So if you signed up for the photography, fear not, this will always be part of what I do and I will keep sharing my photography work on my Instagram @bydanjacobs.
About a year ago I came up with the concept of The Lazy Creator and with that I shifted my focus entirely to creating videos on YouTube. On my channel I talk about all things part-time creators struggle with - productivity, time management, growing an audience online. As I grow and learn as a creator myself, I want to bring along other part-time creators, share with them what I learned and hopefully inspire them to create more.
It is not without selfish reasons that I chose to talk about all things involved in being a creator. This is what I'm most interested in myself and since my time is limited, I figured I should create content about the things that I am trying to get better at myself - productivity, self-development as well as tools and apps that make my life easier. This is I think how most YouTube creators start. They learn something new and then share it in a video.
So far I have published 40 videos on my channel and I try to put out a new one every week. Make sure you SUBSCRIBE if you want to follow my journey. I don't exclusively post videos for creators, I also talk about my experience of moving to Australia and share vlogs from my everyday life.
Now let's jump into what these Lazy Letters are all about. The Lazy Letters are a monthly newsletter which is an extension of my YouTube channel and my social media. Think of it as the extras on a DVD which are reserved for true fans only. I will be sharing what's going on behind the scenes, what I'm working on and other fun little tidbits that I won't talk about anywhere else. I will also include tips and tools for creators, things I recommend you watch, read and listen to and things that inspire me. And yes, there will be photos as well.
Why am I calling it Lazy Letters? I'm not much of a writer. I romanticise the idea of writing but I fail terribly in the execution. Given my whole channel concept is built around "being lazy" and finding ways to simplify and save time, I thought about how I can apply that to a newsletter. The goal is to create something that is quick and fun for you to read, provides value and is not too daunting for me to write every month. With this in mind, I came up with the 5 things below that I will be including in each email - and only one of them relies on me writing more than 2 sentences, win-win 😅
#1 Monthly Recap 🗞
A brief update of what's going on and what I've been up to. This part will be the most text heavy part but it will not be as long-winded as this blog post.
#2 In case you missed it ▶️
The latest videos I posted on my channel.
#3 Creator's ToolKit 🖌
Every month, I will share one of my favourite tools that make my life easier as a part-time creator. That could be a piece of gear or an app. If I have a discount code, I'll include that as well.
#4 Monthly Favourites 💡
Everything that inspired me in the last month: videos from other creators, quotes and poems, articles, books as well as movies and TV shows. It's a dumping ground of things I like that you might find helpful or interesting as well.
#5 From the Archive 🗃
Every month I'll be digging into my hard drives and pull out an image or a video that I either really like or that serves as a reminder of how far I've come on my journey as a creator.
If all of this sounds like a fun monthly read to you, it would mean the world to me if you’d subscribe. The Lazy Letters will land in your inbox around the 3rd of each month.