An existential crisis. A confession. An Announcement.
I have a new newsletter, a new website, a new brand, new offers and I want to share with you how we got here, and show you all my shiny new STUFF!
Let’s begin, where it always begins, with me crying on the floor:
“WHO AM I??”
Do you ever find yourself crying on your bedroom floor, amongst the dust bunnies, wondering how you’re going to become the next chapter of you?
And who you really are?
And who you might be if the wackadoo world of social media wasn’t *influencing* your every move, how you feel about yourself, and your brain in every imperceptible way?
No? Just me? Cool, cool.
I’ve gone through far too many existential crises the last few months.
From feeling like I had absolutely nothing more to say…
…promising myself I would never again share my little brain butterflies (aka “ideas”) with a world that chews them up and spits them out and copy-pastes them until you can’t tell where they started anymore (cue Melanie’s “What Have They Done to My Song, Ma?” 🎶)
…fantasizing about completely pivoting my brand into being a cooking show (I’m not even kidding. Would you watch me make soup on youtube??)
I gave my power away (to other people’s opinions, to the algorithm, to what people wanted from me) and then in an instant had to take it ALL back.
I realized, I actually *do* have a lot to say. I mean, 250+ content ideas in my nifty “OCM” (aka, Organic Content Machine) Airtable base means I have something to say after all 🙃
But saying it in an Instagram reel or Story isn’t my way.
I spent the last few months dreaming up a sustainable content strategy that I was actually excited about, that could grow with me over time (not on social media, in my case).
I wanted an overall business strategy that would put my ideas front and center, without the distraction of “design”, “aesthetics” and fancy editing and visuals.
This led me down quite a rabbit hole, and had a cascade effect across my entire business as a result (ahem, a whole new website platform).
But one of the most exciting things to come from this process is: I’m launching a weekly NEWSLETTER.
Introducing…
The Creator Confessions newsletter !
A weekly newsletter where myself and other creators you know and love spill the tea on what it’s *really* like to choose to make a living publishing content on the internet (the good and the bad).
Creator Confessions will be 50% practical tactical tips and actionable strategy, and 50% vulnerable confessions from your favorite creators that you won’t read anywhere else. It’s the perfect mix for nosey curious creators like us.
Should I be working through my never ending cycles of existential crises in public through publishing a newsletter? Probably not.
Is that going to stop me? Heck no 😂
By sharing my all-too-neurotic musings with you, I hope we all feel a little less alone. Including me.
I have 130+ private journal entries in my airtable base that I've written through the wild ups and downs over the last few years that I've never published and certainly never thought I'd share. Along with 150+ other pure value content to share with you about selling more courses, creating content, and running a lean, profitable creator biz.
I had to work through my frustration around being ripped off and watered down and the state of *everything* but here we are.
What to expect from Creator Confessions:
- Existential musings from me about what it's really like to move through the ups and downs as a creator-founder
- Confessions anonymously submitted by you, our cozy community, that you'd like to share with everyone (with or without your name attached - submit yours here ).
- Secrets from your favorite creators as I'll be shamelessly asking them to spill the tea and share their own Creator Confessions with us
- Oversharing and TMI and probably cussing, fair warning 🙂
While the Creator Party community is my Sagittarius sun peeking out, Creator Confessions is my Scorpio rising.
The part of me that wants to overshare the raw truth and consequences of choosing to be a creator on the Internet for a living.
I feel like this is the conversation that's missing from this industry.
A few times over the last few months, it almost made me wanna leave this space altogether because I'm soooo tired of the “aesthetic” and everything being so “pretty and perfect” and people with no expertise droning on about “passive income” and the general *blech* of it all.
I like long form content, I like pure value over pretty pictures, and I like to get into the nitty gritty of it.
All the real deal creators and founders are having really hard conversations and experiencing heartache and disappointments AND amazing wins and leaps forward, and feeling like there’s no place to share the full spectrum of the experience of running a creative business.
50% of running a Creator biz is ecstasy and the other 50% is agony and I feel like we can all just accept it’s going to be a bit of both.
Each week, I’ll be alternating between sharing one practical tactical tip or strategy you can implement in your creator + course business, and one “Creator Confession” where myself and your favorite founders share the ups and downs of making a living online.
You’ll find the new content published in 3 main places:
- In the newsletter, straight to your inbox.
- On the new blog, so you can read at your leisure.
- As a podcast episode, so you can listen through your favorite app on the go.
Subscribe to the podcast feed, bookmark my blog page, and make sure I’m in your primary tab.
If you’d like to invite your friends, you can share the Creator Confessions newsletter page here .
My latest reinvention includes not just the newsletter, but also a new website and other surprises.
I’ll do a deep dive into more in future issues, but for now I’ll let you explore:
Introducing… the new MariahCoz.com website!
Yep, I’m embracing the personal brand again! It’s just me and one team member now, and to be honest I always get bored of the “brand names” after a while 😁
I replaced my fancy website with a one-page website that I designed myself! I love how simple it is.
We migrated the site from Squarespace (where I’ve been hosting my websites for a decade) to Leadpages Sites (that’s my affiliate link). I’ve been building all my sales pages on Leadpages since 2015… so now it’s easy to manage my landing pages, sales pages, AND site in one place.
Introducing… new ways to work together!
You’ll see I added my private consulting packages to the site. I have been loving working 1:1 with my clients lately!
There’s one new package in particular that I’m very nerve-cited to share with you: consulting for SaaS platforms .
For years, I’ve been working behind the scenes with many software companies and SaaS founders by creating marketing webinars, workshops, educational tutorials, strategy and more to connect their customers to their products. I’ve worked with Teachable, Convertkit, Circle, Skool and others and I’m finally ready to put this out there as a service!
This is one of my secret sweet spots, a quiet “zone of genius” for me. I am really good at helping software platforms connect the dots between the features and functions of their product to their customers' desires.
If you or someone you know runs a SaaS platform that serves creators - let’s chat and see if I can help you ! I am so excited to be putting this out there more publicly and pursuing these projects.
Introducing…Sponsorships!
If you want to get your business in front of my email subscribers and community, you can now sponsor the newsletter (and podcast, blog + other media channels!). This is a great way to promote your new offer, webinar, trial, freebie, newsletter, or other opt in.
This is new for 2024 and I’m sure sponsorship prices will go up as we sell out these spots. Learn more and book your spot here before they’re gone!
More to come soon!
There’s more announcements coming next week, but I’ve said enough for today and given you enough to explore for now.
Next week, I’ll share more about how I’ll be supporting my students this year and how we can work together to get all my systems, processes, resources, training, and tools in one convenient package.
Rebuilding my business in public while you’ve been watching, on this accelerated timeline, has been a journey!
I’ll continue bringing you behind the scenes with me.
Building a business online is never “set it and forget it”. You will constantly be evolving and rearranging. That’s what we signed up for!
In the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing the nitty gritty details of this big reveal you see today.
- How I built the new site and migrated the entire blog
- The content strategy I’m committed to
- Launching a real newsletter with sponsors
- Behind the scenes of my upcoming course launch 👀
For now, keep an eye out for next week’s issue.
Subscribe to the podcast feed, bookmark my blog page, and make sure I’m in your primary tab.
Share the newsletter with your friends if you feel inclined (thank you, love you, appreciate you).
You’re about to hear a lot more from me…hopefully, that’s a good thing! 😆