Graham Cochrane (00:08.013)
Creators, we need to talk. If you've been hustling nonstop, but you feel stuck, your income's flatlining, your growth is stalling, or you're one late night away from total burnout, you're not alone. But there is one big mistake that almost every creator is making, and it's killing their impact, it's killing their income, it's killing their energy. But here's the good news. Once you spot it, you can fix it.
So stick with me in today's episode, I'm gonna show you exactly what the mistake is and how to break free starting today. Let's dive in.
Graham Cochrane (01:01.39)
So this will be for you if you are a creator on social media, YouTube, podcaster, if you are an influencer, if you are an online business owner or coach, anyone that is trying to get more people in front of their offer or get their offer in front of more people, scale, grow, whatever it is in this modern economy, this is for you because guess what? This is a human problem, not necessarily an industry problem, but I see it big time in the creator economy.
And so we're gonna address it today. I'm gonna give you a special framework that's gonna probably unlock something for you that's gonna make so much sense, help you see what this mistake is, and then we're gonna do a little exercise that's gonna help you break free from it. So I wanna start with a story. I was at a point where my business was humming along. I was at what I would call a dream state, my first business, the recording revolution. I used to teach musicians how to record music, and I would consider myself successful.
I was doing a few hundred thousand dollars a year. It was really easy for me and it was a lot of fun. But a couple of problems were happening. One, I was kind of slowing down with my income. So from all the massive growth, I was kind of getting to that point where I didn't see much growth at all. I kind of plateaued honestly for a year and it made me nervous. Two, I was getting bored.
This made me feel nervous too, because I didn't want to get bored. I was making good money. I didn't want to self-sabotage. So I tried to keep convincing myself I really love this stuff when I was starting to not love it like I once did because I've been doing this music thing really my whole life, even before I started teaching it. So was getting a little bit bored. I was out of ideas and I wasn't being innovative. And I had these other ideas I wanted to implement, but I didn't know how to do it because it wasn't directly related to my primary business. I had watched
a guy named Ramit Sethi from I Will Teach You To Be Rich make this pivot really nicely. He had started his original blog on personal finance and then he was teaching about money and then he started to evolve the brand into how to launch your business, how to get your dream job, how to increase your salary, how to negotiate. He had all these cool other offers he was creating. He was talking about more things and I felt boxed into the one thing I was doing and I saw him expand effortlessly as it were.
Graham Cochrane (03:21.058)
And I really, really loved it. And so I was being mentored by him at the time and I reached out and said, hey man, can I get on a phone call with you? I gotta talk about this thing. And I told him, look, I'm burning out. I'm wanting to do this other thing. I wanna teach business, but I don't know how to do it and pivot, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. What do think I should do? He said, Graham, you know how when you're on the airplane and they go through the safety briefing, they tell you about the moment that oxygen pressure dips, there's gonna be these yellow.
oxygen masks that fall from the compartment above you and if you're sitting next to a child they tell you to do what? To put on your own oxygen mask first before assisting others. He said, why do they do that? I said, well, they tell you to do that because if I try to put on the kids mask without mine, I'll pass out and then I can't really help them. He's like, exactly. So is it selfish for you to put your own oxygen mask on first before helping the little kid next to you or
your grandmother or whoever needs help?" I said, no, that's not selfish at all. In fact, that's smart. That's strategic. That's actually serving them. He said, exactly. He said, bro, you need to put on your own oxygen mask first. You got to figure out what your oxygen need is so that you don't burn out because you're on the path to burning out. You got a good thing going, but you will burn out. And if you don't serve that need, if you don't fuel yourself, then you won't be able to serve anybody else.
That was a huge moment for me because it unlocked not only some permission in my heart, but it gave me more urgency to make this pivot and to fuel myself in this way. And I made a big, big change. I went down the path of pursuing the thing that was fueling me, that was giving me energy, and I got more creative and I was able to actually grow both businesses and I learned something really, really important.
Graham Cochrane (05:34.794)
Energy effort-fueled businesses fade But energy fueled businesses flourish. Let say that again effort-fueled businesses fade energy fueled businesses flourish I Have seen this in my own business. I've seen this in my clients businesses I've seen this in other people's businesses and I have seen this in private conversations with
Massive YouTubers, I'm talking about millions of followers, big influencers who reach out to me privately, who tell me these things that they're about to burn out. When I ask them this question, when I show them this framework I'm about to show you, they realize that they have been an effort-fueled business, not an energy-fueled business, and the unlock is huge for them. So what I wanna do is show you something super powerful that I call the burnout barrier. Okay, and the burnout barrier, you imagine these two axes, right? You got joy going up and down.
and you've got money going left to right. So you got low joy, low money in the bottom left corner, right? So when you started your business or you started your creator business or your brand or your podcast or your YouTube channel, it was a hobby. Even if you intended it to be a business, by definition when you start and you ain't making any money, it's a hobby, honey, okay? That's how you know if you got a business versus a hobby. Is it making money? No, you got a hobby, right?
The good thing about hobbies is that they are high joy. Low to no money, but they're high joy. It's fun. That's why you're starting this thing, hopefully. And that's where most of us start. Once we cross over into selling something, coaching, a course, you get an ad revenue for the first time, you get a sponsor, whatever it is, you move from a hobby to a hopeful business, right? So got a hobby brand, you got a hopeful brand. The hopeful brand
is still very high joy. It dips a little bit. It's not quite as high of joy as a hobby because guess what? You gotta do work. And there's a little bit of pressure because now you're actually putting yourself out there and asking people to buy something. It's a little scary. So the joy goes down a smidge, but it's still very high and money goes up because you're now in business. And you are hopeful that this can continue. And in your mind, you imagine it'll be this straight line across the money side. You'll keep making more money left to right.
Graham Cochrane (07:58.274)
and you'll keep your joy where it is. But the reality is as time goes on, there's this inevitable curve to what we call a handcuffed business. Now your business might be a plummet off a cliff down to this point, or it might be a slow roll down. Some of us can go longer than others, the situations are different, but the inevitable end is the same. As you make more money, and you will make more money, because you're smart, as you make more money,
your joy continues to plummet and plummet and plummet to the point where you keep bumping up against this imaginary line, this burnout barrier as you're curving downward and to the right, you can never cross it. And you start to go from, was scaling to now I'm reaching what I think is an income ceiling, a plateau. And on top of that, I hate what I do and I call it a handcuff business because you feel stuck to this thing because it's so darn successful.
However you define success, it might be making $60,000 a year, it might be making $600,000 a year, it might be $6 million a year. Whatever your number is, it's probably reached some level of success, and if you're feeling this, you know what I'm talking about, you actually feel a bit guilty for feeling stuck and trapped and frustrated and wanting more because on the outside, everybody would.
love to be in your shoes. They would love to have the kind of money you have. They would love to be as quote unquote successful as you are, but they don't know what's happening internally that the joy has plummeted. That's why you really can't deal with the judgment of outsiders because they don't know what you're dealing with. This is where so many people and so many of my clients end up. Why? Because they have an effort-fueled business. Everything on this side of the burnout barrier, when you're starting a business as a hobby, when it's starting to hum along as a hopeful business,
When you get successful on the outside, but your joys plummeted in a handcuffed business, all three of these stages of business, you're running on effort. And that's people tell you. Just hustle. Rise and grind, baby. Just grind in and out. As if that is the strategy. And the problem with that language is that they're kind of right in that effort is required to start a business. But effort-fueled businesses fade. That's the inevitable path. They fade.
Graham Cochrane (10:16.648)
Energy fueled businesses flourish. The shift you have to make is realizing the mistake is that you're still running off of effort and you instead need to run off of energy. The things that give you energy fuel you up. When you do that you can cross over the burnout barrier and get to what I call is a healthy business which means you go back up to that top right and not only is money growing because you're still going to the right but joy comes way back up so you're back to that level of joy that you had when you were a hobby.
or a hopeful business only now there's unlimited joy and income to be had. And that's because you've made the shift from running off of effort to running off of energy. So what am I talking about here? Here's what need to do. You need to do more life-giving activities in your business. You need to know what things give you life and do more of them. And there's a simple exercise you can do. You can do it right now. It's something I call an energy audit.
You take out two pieces of paper or a notes app or Google Doc, but you write two lists or two columns. List or column number one, you write down the tasks, people and environments that give you energy. And they don't all have to be work related. What are the tasks, people and environments that give you energy? For example, on my list, I will have creating content like this gives me energy.
I will have working out of the gym gives me energy. I'll have going for long walks on the Hillsborough River downtown on the Riverwalk gives me energy. Traveling gives me energy. Okay. Those are all things that give me energy. People, people that are growth minded, people that are encouraging, people that laugh, people that smile and they're specific people as well. My wife, my kids, some close friends, people in my mastermind. Environments that give me energy. Airplanes, especially first class.
Come on somebody, love airplanes. It's like my magical place, airports. love being in, I get energized by being in these places. Now some people hate airports, they hate airplanes and these would go on the other side for them. But for me, I get fueled by traveling and be fueled in those environments. I get fueled when I'm outside anywhere where there's oceans or the beach, that's an energy giving place. So tasks, people, environments that give you energy. You need to write these down. You probably know them intuitively, but write them down.
Graham Cochrane (12:44.812)
And then the second column or list is equally important. What are the tasks, people or environments that take away your energy and that drain your energy?
You need to write all those things down because when you see them and then you compare them to what you do in your weeks and your days in your business, it's going to be telling. The reason you're burning out is you're probably doing things that drain your energy with people that drain your energy in an environment that's energy draining. But you do it because you think you need to make money. You do it because you think it's necessary to make money. But the reality is that is one narrative that you could believe because that's what made money in the past.
But friend, this is where you gotta get creative. And this is the shift that I help my clients make, is going from effort to energy. Think about it this way. How do roller coasters work at a theme park? There is a track that you're on, and then there's a chain that usually pulls you up. It's taking energy.
It's taking effort to pull you up to the top. Effort-fueled ride. But when you get to the top, it lets you go from the chain and then you go down this big drop. And now you're no longer being fueled by effort, you're being fueled by energy. Because when you go down, you're conserving energy, storing up energy, and that gives you energy to go back up the hill and then down the hill and up the hill, loop-de-loops all around the ride. There is no electricity, there's no gas.
There's no anything or train or track pulling you along. You are literally running off of stored energy that can be used up, recreated, used up, recreated. And in theory, if the track is designed the right way, it could keep riding forever without needing any more effort. This is the shift you now need to make in our business. One type of fuel got you going, but it will not sustain you. That's why doing 10X won't work. Doubling down, tripling down, 10Xing down.
Graham Cochrane (14:43.072)
It will work for a moment until you crash. If you shift from redesigning your business, your offers, going from launching to Evergreen, the way you talk to your clients, the way you design your dream week, all these things that I help my clients do, you're gonna be able to have perpetual energy and then the work won't feel like work and you won't burn out. And not only will you not burn out, you'll be working less. Not only will be working less, you'll be making more. And it sounds crazy, but my clients do it every day. I'm living proof of it and you can be too.
So if you haven't done an energy audit, do one right away.
Graham Cochrane (15:27.276)
And if you think you need help with this, especially if you are a six or seven figure entrepreneur or creator and you need help with this, I have an exclusive community that I coach every single day called my Effortless Business Accelerator and it's designed for people like you. The link is in the description below, but if you want to apply, see if you're a good fit, you're gonna get regular group coaching with me twice a month. You're gonna get a ticket to the live in person mastermind event we do in Tampa. You're gonna be able to get the entire
that I put together, my Effortless Business course that teaches you all these frameworks we've done for you, templates and swipe copy and exercises in the workbook so you can apply the stuff to your business. And then there's a 24 seven private chat between me and everybody in the community so that you can be surrounded by other growth minded, like minded, successful creators like you. Again, this is not for you if you're beginner, this is not for you if you haven't made six figures, but this is for you if you're successful already.
but you wanna go to the next level, but you wanna do it as an energy fuel business, not an effort fuel business. You know it's for you if you click the link below, check out all the details and you can apply there as well. I hope to see you inside the community. I would love to be your coach and I'd love to help you get past this burnout barrier so that this year is the most profitable and effortless year of your life.
