I Finally Burned Out (as a Creator).

My 7-month old son had a blowout last night. Thankfully, it was right before his evening bath time. Another close-call. Phew.

As I hosed down my baby’s bum with warm water, I kept asking myself…

“What’s it all for? What’s the point? What am I even doing?”

I was, of course, thinking about my creator journey.

With the new baby, I had spent 6 months reflecting. Taking a step back. Re-evaluating everything.

You see, over the past 2 years, I’d gone all in. Every single week, I published a podcast episode and a newsletter to go along with it. Oh, and of course, I had to promote the episode and newsletter on X (RIP Twitter) and LinkedIn. So, I used the latest “hot AI tool” to summarize my episode to generate a bunch of posts I can re-purpose.

I would get up early to engage with my favorite creators on X and LinkedIn, just to warm up the almighty algorithm. Then, I’d post on both platforms, let my creator friends know that my latest post was up (so they can engage), sit around refreshing my notifications like a crack addict so I could “reply back” quickly to any new comments within the first hour of posting.

This was every single day (including weekends). Consistency is the key to success, remember? 1% better every day. Yada yada yada.

But I was on the content hamster wheel. Addicted to notifications. Addicted to more podcast downloads. Addicted to more newsletter subscriber growth.

Grow, grow, grow… but, for what?

I realized that this game never ends. I was on a hamster wheel. And it just spins faster and faster.

The funny thing is that I didn’t even know I was on the hamster wheel. Now, that’s scary.

I’ve realized that I was trying to do too much. Taking too many courses on "how to grow on (fill in the blank) platform.” Reading too many posts on how “this one creator grew their audience to 500k in 6 months using these 5 growth hacks.”

I’m done. Enough is enough.

Here are some new rules for myself as I re-enter my creator journey:

1. For myself only… 0 likes or 1 bajillion likes, I don’t care.

2. Authentic & real, no “authority-building” bullshit.

3. From my own experience, no platitudes.

4. More fun, casual, off-the-cuff.

5. Keep everything simple.

Starting with my next newsletter, I’ll update the design & color palette to reflect this approach. So don’t be alarmed!

I want this space to be more of a two-way conversation between you and me. Less me. More you.

So, hit “reply” and tell me…

a) what do you think of this newsletter format?
b) what have you been up to?

Love you all,
Yong-Soo

P.S. I posted my first-ever Reel on Instagram yesterday! So if you’re on Instagram, you can find me here!