La chica del faro

[La chica del faro @FarLighthouse]

Desde #talaiadesonjaumell

[Alex Llull @AlexLlullTW]

When you launch your tool's MCP connection and Claude decides it's a good time to go down

[Alex Llull @AlexLlullTW]

my last real tweet was in 2024

but I've been lurking ever since

quick reintro: I'm now running partnerships and creators at perspective (bootstrapped, ~$10M ARR) building a bunch of stuff in the b2b creator space

also had a son who is almost 2 y/o

big launch coming on here soon, so figured i'd actually show up again 😅

going to start sharing more about what works when you build a b2b creator program that brings real revenue

let's see how it goes 🤟

[Pepe Martin @iampepemartin]

"Soy freelance (un único cliente), creador de contenido y trabajo 6 horas al día". Preguntas de autónomo con @AlexLlullTW

[Katt 💎buildthekeyword.com @kattrisen]

Alex his newsletter has been an amazing resource of motivation and inspiration from the start.

So fun (and crazy!) to talk to him.

Thanks you Alex!

[Alex Llull @AlexLlullTW]

Goal with every newsletter sponsorship I take:

make it a win-win for everyone involved 🤝

[Alex Llull @AlexLlullTW]

Listen to this 45 seconds to change your content strategy:

Whenever you create content, you should be "mining for hits"

The aim is to collect enough proven content hits that can later be repurposed indefinitely.

This is efficient content creation

cc @jspector

[Alex Llull @AlexLlullTW]

Exactly 3 years ago, I sent my first-ever invoice as a freelance.

My journey as a freelance wasn't really by choice but by necessity.

I got fired mid 2020.

They closed our regional office because of Covid earlier that year (August), and I won't lie, I was scared as sh*t.

But that experience was the push I needed to start building something on my own.

Something I had been dreaming of for five years yet never had the guts to pursue.

After getting fired, I had two options:

- Go back to a corporate job
- Or try to build something by myself

You reading this means I went for the latter.

And what a journey it has been.

As a freelance, I've had the pleasure of working with amazing creators like @katebour, @justinmooretfam, @khemaridh, and a few others.

As a creator, I've found joy in building, experimenting, and selling digital products.

I've also started a side project for which I have a 5-10-year vision: The Steal Club.

And as of very recently, I managed to land a role at a company I highly respect: @tweethunterio.

The 3 years ago me who charged $500 for a "social media consult" would not believe me.

It all started with putting myself out there and creating content on this platform.

My only regret is not starting sooner.

My advice to anyone on the fence about starting their creator journey is to take the leap and start creating content online.

Worst case scenario, you get better at creating.

Best case, you end up on a crazy rollercoaster journey full of opportunities that you never imagined possible.

I can't wait to see what the next 10 years have in store.

[Alex Llull @AlexLlullTW]

I used to struggle with imposter syndrome with my content. Here's how I solved it:

👉 Stopped trying to position myself as an "expert" and framed everything from a learner's perspective.

From "Do it like this" to "Here’s how I did it and what I learned"

(just like this post)

[Pol Rodríguez @polrodriguezriu]

Sigo a @AlexLlullTW en Twitter y en su newsletter The Steal Club 🕵️ desde hace mucho tiempo y me flipa lo que hace.

En estas 2⃣ últimas semanas publicó 2⃣ hilos de Twitter que me llamaron mucho la atención 🤯 así que le invité a charlar en el podcast de @getmumbler 👇

[Alex Llull @AlexLlullTW]

This is hard to admit but I used to feel jealous of other people winning.

"X got 50k subs, congrats!" (but I only had 5k)

"Y sold $20k worth of digital products" (but I only sold $2k)

This need to constantly compare yourself to others is one of the worst things you can do as a creator.

And I get it. It's almost unavoidable.

I struggled a lot with this when I got started as a creator.

Seeing others who started at the same time (or even later) surpass me in followers gained or money made drove me crazy.

But here's one mindset shift that changed everything for me:

I stopped seeing them as competition (and comparing myself to them).

And I started seeing them as Inspiration.

This perspective shift changes everything.

Now X guy making $20k with one product launch doesn't affect me, because I'm not comparing myself to him.

Instead, I dive deep into figuring out what he did to get those results and "steal" the best bits for myself.

If you adopt this mindset, you will begin seeing things in a very different light.

PS: I like to call it the "Thief Mindset", just because it pairs well with my brand lol

This is also how the @stealclub was born, but that's a story for another day

[Alex Llull @AlexLlullTW]

I think there's an expectation problem in the creator economy.

We see creators going viral every day and think that's the norm

We see creators getting 25k followers in 3 months and think that's common

We see creators claim to make $10k/month with digital products and we think that's normal

It's not. Those are outliers.

When we don't get those numbers, we feel bad, we burn out, and we quit.

I've been too close to it.

But if I've learned something while being a creator is that you don't need 25k followers, go viral every day or make $10k/mo to make a very comfortable living.

My advice: Embrace the idea that success in the creator economy doesn't always mean huge numbers or extraordinary earnings.

Lower your expectations around being a creator and stop chasing unrealistic standards

You'll be much happier.

[Alex Llull @AlexLlullTW]

My income split per month (in 2023):

January: 90% services - 10% creator*
March: 70% services - 30% creator
July: 50% services - 50% creator

*Creator income= newsletter + digital products

This hasn't happened by chance. I'm making a conscious effort to make it happen 👇

- I've stopped working with 50% of my clients
- I've 2x on newsletter sponsorships
- I've launched 2 digital products this year (a self-paced course and a membership)

Still, creator income is proving to be more difficult to grow than service income.

I'm on track to make less this year than the previous one (about 25%-30% less).

It's probably not the best timing because I bought a house earlier this year, and I'm getting married in like 2 months, but it felt like the right call.

I'm thinking long-term.

I know focusing on the creator side right now will bring me closer to my ideal lifestyle in a few years.

I wanted to be more public about it in case any other creator is going through the same transition!

PS: Bonus pic of me and the missus a few weeks after getting engag

[Alex Llull @AlexLlullTW]

Something that not many creators/solopreneurs talk about: the impact taking a vacation has on your business

After working on Monday, I spent the rest of the week with my partner in Cantabria (north Spain).

We had tasty food, visited cool places, and escaped from the heat wave in the rest of Spain 👇

It was great for me, but it was bad for the business.

All metrics were down that week 📉 (web visits, social media impressions, newsletter growth, sales...)

When (almost) everything depends on you, if you totally step away, this happens.

Of course, there are solutions:

- I could hire an assistant
- I could have left content scheduled for the entire week
- I could set up some automation to increase sales on the backend
- I could have checked my email and spent 1-2h of every vacation day posting something on Twitter or sending an email.

I didn't, and the business suffered.

But at the same time, it was my choice. I needed a break. Physically and mentally.

In the short term, doing nothing that week had a negative impact on the business, but it also had a long-term impact.

A positive one.

I feel more rested now. Ideas and the path forward are clearer.

That wouldn't have happened if I had been "ON" that week.

Sometimes all you need is to completely slow down to speed up again.

So if you are considering taking a "working holiday," my 2 cents are: don't.

Unplug from everything.

Shut down your computer, turn off phone notifications, and enjoy your holiday. Even if it impacts your biz in the short term.

Future you will thank you.

[Alex Llull @AlexLlullTW]

How to steal other people's successful content for your own niche

In just 3 steps (and 8 tweets) 🧵

[Alex Llull @AlexLlullTW]

The Lion King, The Dark Knight, Interstellar, Gladiator...

What do they have in common?

They've been scored by the same person: Hans Zimmer

I was lucky enough to see him live yesterday in Madrid.

Here are a few things I'll be stealing from him:

First, how he connects with the audience.

After the first piece ended, he took the mic and asked the technicians to light the audience.

The reason?

Because he likes to "see who he's talking to." Then he just started talking like he would to an old friend.

He basically said how much he loves the city, the culture, the food, and the people.

That already built a good rapport with the audience, but what truly made the connection was that he picked up the band members who spoke Spanish and made them talk and joke with the audience.

Another thing I loved was how grateful he was to his band.

He constantly praised them, asked for applause, and literally said that without them, he would be "a little man."

We are talking about a man who won Oscars, Golden Globes and Grammys.

I didn't know what to expect, but how humble he seemed surprised me.

While he's the show's star, his soloists often take center stage, and he takes a step back and just jams.

It's also very inspiring to see someone enjoy his craft so much.

You could really tell he enjoyed being on that stage, playing music.

The last thing that surprised me was that he announced that he would be playing The Dark Phoenix after playing one of his top soundtracks (The Dark Knight).

For those who are not into movies, the Dark Phoenix is an X-men film that flopped very hard.

The usual thing would have been to skip that piece and focus on his many other hits.

But no, he seemed very proud of this particular piece, even if it was tied to a terrible movie.

His pitch was, "Even if none watched the movie, I love the music, so I'll play this song."

How proud he was of his work was genuinely inspiring.

All in all, I left the arena after almost 3h amazed by his character.

Once I got home, I started nerding about him and found this little nugget (video below) on how he approached scoring interstellar with Christopher Nolan.

It's amazing to see how he birthed the soundtrack from just a core idea about the relationship between fathers and sons.

If you ever have the chance to see the show live, go. You won't regret it!

[Alex Llull @AlexLlullTW]

I hate Twitter.

Or that’s how I felt for the last weeks/months here.

And I’m not talking about all the recent changes, Elon, and all that.

It’s not the platform. It’s how I’ve been using it.

I started tweeting around 3 years ago to build a strong personal brand so I could sell my services.

I just got fired, so I needed $$$.

And it worked. But something else happened.

In the process, I met amazing people who built awesome stuff and shared it all for free.

That’s when I saw the real magic of Twitter.

Meeting and becoming friends with some of the top creators in the world was simply mindblowing for someone living in a little apartment in Spain.

Then, inspired by these people, I launched my own projects, like The Steal Club.

And while I had a ton of fun doing it, that turned Twitter into an acquisition channel.

My content shifted towards getting people to sign up or buy.

And in the process, I lost what made Twitter special for me: that connection with others.

Combining that with my ego’s struggle to keep up with algorithms and lack of reach has made my Twitter experience painful.

Posting one tweet and getting a few likes and no reach?

I felt bummed for the whole afternoon.

Not getting any subs from that other thread?

Same.

This has been happening to me lately.

And I hate it.

So from now on, I want to make a switch.

I want Twitter to be fun for me again.

And it all starts with my content.

That doesn’t mean it will change for the most part, but my purpose for creating it will.

It won’t be for subscriber acquisition or to get clients because, luckily, it’s not that relevant as an acquisition channel anymore.

It will be to share my experience as a creative entrepreneur.

My wins, my losses, my learnings…

But above all, it will be so I can have fun on Twitter again.

[Alex Llull @AlexLlullTW]

One of the downsides of being a creator and solopreneur is working alone.

This is why events like the one I attended this weekend are so exciting.

I got to meet a bunch of talented entrepreneurs from the Spanish community and dang I left energized and inspired!

[Alex Llull @AlexLlullTW]

Do you know what the Eiffel Tower has in common with making money as a creator?

Not much, apparently.

But after reading this thread, you'll understand what that is (and learn about a very smart tactic pro creators use)

Plongeons dans l'action! 🧵 (Excuse my french):