Hello!

Happy Wednesday, readers! I hope everyone’s week is off to a great start and we’re all feeling ready for turkey time next week (yep, that’s next week… 🙃).

As the days, weeks, and months scream by, and we barely have time to think, I have to step back and ask you… what are you thankful for this year?

Whether it’s family, friends, personal growth, or professional success, take a moment this week to reflect on what makes you feel whole.

I’m grateful for good health in my family, an incredible group of friends, my awesome gf, and, of course, you readers. Seriously, having the opportunity to rant, vent, obsess, and beyond about my experiences as a creator and professional in the creator economy is a dream come true.

When I first started this newsletter, I simply covered creator news and had no idea what direction I wanted to take this thing. But over the last two years and 100+ issues, Cmd+Shift+Create has truly turned into my baby. This is the content I love to create, and you, readers, are the reason I keep going.

So, to anyone reading this right now, I am truly thankful for you.

You are making my dream of becoming a creator closer to reality, and I can’t thank you enough. I genuinely never expected to have an audience of hundreds of readers tuning into my chaotic ramblings every week, but here we are.

So I’ll ask again, what’s one thing you’re feeling especially thankful for? Hit reply to this email and let me know. I would love to share your responses with the rest of the community, so send ‘em away and keep an eye out for a shout-out in next week’s issue!

Thank you again ❤️ 

-Luke

Numbers are Stupid

Take it from me: the more value you place on vanity metrics, the unhappier you’ll be as a creator.

When I first started, I was obsessed with metrics. As a lil baby micro-creator (I know my worth), I used to check my numbers constantly. And it wasn’t pretty.

In my first full year of writing this newsletter every single week, I didn’t even break 160 subscribers.

Seriously.

Worse, most of those subscribers didn’t even sign up for the content. They were people I knew personally or people I convinced to subscribe after a conversation. I’d see the analytics: they’d open the email, skim for a second, and close it. It was disheartening.

I often questioned why I was even doing this.

It takes hours. It makes me no money. Nobody reads it. And on top of that, I didn’t feel like I could fully express myself creatively. I kept wondering: What’s the point?

For over two years, I let those numbers mess with my head. Even as they grew slowly, I obsessed over every dip and peak, feeling like I had no control, and no creative freedom.

But a few months ago, something shifted (you already know that pun was intended 😤).

Instead of staring at subscriber counts, hoping that I bring in thousands of readers, I started doubling down on creating the kind of content I love, and to my pleasant surprise, this is the content that seems to resonate with you.

It’s funny, really. As I made the transition into not caring about those vanity metrics and subscriber counts, my audience started to grow. Where I was once gaining and losing subscribers every week, I’m now finding that readers are not only joining the community, they’re sticking around!

Now, all of this said is not to toot my own horn. This is supposed to be a wake-up call to you creators who are where I was just a few months ago. Stop caring for the audience that you could have, and start caring for the audience that you have now!

At the end of the day, the hard truth is this:

You’re going to lose followers.
You’re going to have flopped content.
You’re not always going to hit the mark.
You’re going to fail sometimes.

And that’s ok.

Focus on crafting stronger content that resonates with your audience, and once you find that, keep exploring. It’s more than likely that you’ve already found what makes your audience tick, now you just have to keep going to bring in even more like-minded audience members.

While it’s insanely hard to simply forget about the almighty follower count, just remember this: numbers are stupid, and your metrics don’t matter.

Hope you enjoyed this week’s post. See you next week ✌️