How to Create Your Dream Job
📝 Table of Contents
📖 Background
Katie Steckly, a full-time creator and YouTuber, has made a name for herself in the creative community. In 2018, Katie had 2,500 subscribers on YouTube. Today, she has over 219,000. 🤯
One thing I love about Katie is how relatable and actionable her content is. She gives away all of her secrets, and shows the exact steps she’s using to grow her creative businesses. She also grew up in a small town (like me), and I totally resonate when she talks about building an online community to connect with people who are just like her.
Katie recently published a video about how she created her dream job. You should definitely check out the full video, but here’s a summary of what I took away from it.
🎯 Results
Katie is a full-time creator and YouTuber with over +219,000 subscribers
She is also active on Instagram where she has over +96k followers
She’s worked with major brands, including Sony and Epidemic Sound
Katie earned over $310k in 2022 as a creator & biz owner (source)
Established her own agency, Creatorly Media, to handle client services
🔑 Key Takeaways
Passion > Job Title - Follow your creative instincts rather than obsess over a job title.
Embrace Opportunities - Even if they don't seem directly related to your dream job.
Diversify Income - Unlock new income streams early in your career.
Unbelievable Persistence - Consistency is the biggest factor in long-term success.
🧠 Skills Required
Video editing - produce high-quality videos that engage & entertain.
Graphic design - create eye-catching thumbnails and design a visually appealing website.
Creative vision - come up with innovative ideas that differentiate your content.
Content creation - create engaging content that resonates with your audience.
Digital marketing - get traction on your content on various channels (social, newsletter).
🧰 Tools & Equipment
A variety of apps including Photoshop, Lightroom & Premiere Pro
Macbook Pro for photo & video editing
Katie’s main camera is the Sony ZV-1
Main light is the Apurture AL-F7
📝 Process
Creating your dream job is obviously no easy feat, but this the framework Katie used to build a creative career that she truly loves.
1. She followed her creativity (not a career path).
Katie explored different career paths like writing, graphic design, and journalism, but her inner desire was always to become a YouTuber.
She immersed herself in a variety of creative projects purely for the joy of creating, using platforms like Premiere Pro for video editing and Photoshop for graphic design. She would often spend hours lost in her creative process, tweaking every detail until she was satisfied with the final product.
The biggest takeaway here is to create for the sake of creating. If you naturally gravitate towards creation, building a full-time career out of it becomes way more attainable.
2. She took opportunities (that weren’t her dream job).
While building her YouTube channel, Katie recognized the need to find income-generating opportunities to support herself. She put her creative skills to use and worked with clients, taking on various projects including:
Filming wedding videos
Creating corporate training videos
Filming home tours for real estate
Helping local businesses with various digital marketing tasks
Katie understood the value of getting paid to practice her creative skills, which allowed her to refine her abilities while earning an income. She embraced all opportunities, even if they didn't seem immediately beneficial, recognizing that each experience could contribute to her growth.
As her YouTube channel started to blow up, she got to a point where she could just focus on pumping out videos without having to do those side gigs anymore.
3. She diversified her income streams.
Katie understood the importance of having multiple streams of income to build a sustainable creative career. Her income streams now include:
Creative projects through her agency, Creatorly
Collaborations and brand deals
Affiliate marketing partnerships
Selling digital products
Katie has done a phenomenal job with choosing brands that align with her values. For example, she’s done sponsorships with Epidemic Sound (which provides royalty-free music for creators), and recently she partnered with Lingoda.com, an online language learning platform, which aligns with her passion for international travel.
4. She was really freaking consistent.
Despite not considering herself the most talented or skilled individual, Katie propelled herself forward through sheer determination. She practiced consistently and never lost sight of her goal.
She refers to this approach as "brute forcing" her way forward with consistency and practice.
So when she decided to make YouTube her job, she went all-in on keeping a consistent posting schedule (even when she didn't feel like it). No matter what challenges came her way, she never gave up.
Katie calls this skill ”Unbelievable Persistence”, which is one of her biggest strengths.
5. She followed a feeling, not a job title.
Katie's advice is to follow what genuinely ignites your passion, rather than focusing solely on a specific job title. She encourages people to explore a variety of creative endeavors and experiment with different ideas, mediums, and formats.
"Following what you genuinely love doing is going to give you the longevity you need to keep pursuing this."
Trying out different things allows you to discover what truly resonates with you and provides the longevity needed to pursue a fulfilling creative career.
🚫 What Didn’t Work
Too Much Help Content - Katie recently shared her biggest mistake on YouTube, which was focusing too heavily on creating help-style content and neglecting hub and hero content. Her strategy going forward is to experiment, evolve, and nurture her community by incorporating more vlog-style content and engaging with her viewers.
Burnout - Katie experienced burnout in 2021 due to the rapid growth of her business and YouTube channel during the pandemic. To recover, she took a break, sought therapy, engaged in new hobbies, and regained her social life. By focusing on living in the moment instead of strict goals, she is now doing much better.
Search > Homepage - Katie admitted her mistake of focusing on search results instead of home page. She plans to prioritize quality over quantity, ensuring that each video represents her brand well and engages her audience effectively.
⚠️ Risks & Pitfalls
Putting on your blinders - Sometimes people focus too much on their ideal job and ignore other opportunities. This can cause them to miss out on chances to grow and earn.
Unrealistic expectations - Don't set your standards unrealistically high when taking on creative side-gigs. Every opportunity can teach you valuable skills you can use in the future.
It takes time - It takes a really, really long time to build up an audience. It also takes a while to build up secondary income streams. It doesn't happen overnight; play the long-game.
Fluctuating Income - Secondary sources of income can fluctuate each month, so it is advisable to have a variety of them in order to ensure a consistent monthly income.
📕 Resources
Starter Kit for YouTubers in 2023 - An in-depth video guide for creators getting started on YouTube, including gear, equipment, organization, apps and strategy.
The Instagram Roadmap - A comprehensive course taught by Katie about building an Instagram strategy that gets you results (she has +90k followers, so her strategies are legit)
Creatorly - Katie’s content agency. They focus on creating content that provides value, fosters connection, and grows your audience organically.
