One month ago, I started the Ship 30 for 30 program hosted by Dickie Bush and Nicholas Cole.
I'd always liked the idea of being a writer, and I'd previously tried my hand at various content creation strategies, including two failed newsletters, a failed blog, and a fledgling YouTube channel.
But none of it was working great, and I felt I was lacking something.
So I joined Ship30 when it was available for a promotion. The program is a 30-day online community-based course through Skool that guides an upcoming writer into the world of online writing. Here are three of my biggest takeaways.
Consistency
Probably the most important lesson I learned was the power of consistency. Ship30 actually helped me develop a real writing habit where none existed before. If nothing else, this program inspired me to start getting up earlier (between 5:00 and 6:00am) to write during my "sacred hours". I'm now consistent in ways I wasn't before.
I didn't miss a single day, and I think I'm better for it.
Focus
Before Ship30, I was unsure what to write about, and I lacked confidence in my direction as a creator. The program helped me narrow my focus and drill down into my niche.
I started thinking I wanted to write about creativity and human intelligence more broadly, but I learned my content is strongest when I focus on learning strategies (I call this 'hyperlearning'), note taking, and books.
Going forward, I'm focusing on those topics in my newsletter and YouTube videos.
Value
Writing every day helped me to realize what I don't like about writing.
I learned I don't actually like writing snappy little atomic essays every morning. I can definitely see their value. But I realized that for the type of content I want to produce, I'll probably end up more satisfied if I focus on making more video content.
However, the Ship30 techniques carry over to that medium, and I plan to use them, including:
Write publicly (or in this case, video publicly): Dickie and Cole are right that getting feedback by producing a lot and iterating on what's working is a great strategy.
Don't miss twice: This is great advice for building any content creation habit.
Focus on good hooks: Honestly, this is something I still need to work on and which I know carries over to other media. Ship30 proved to me this matters, because I could see a direct effect on Typeshare with how I delivered hooks.
Those are my takeaways. I would recommend Ship 30 for 30 to anybody interested in learning more about becoming an online writer or really any type of content creator. It was well worth the money, and I enjoyed the community aspect of it immensely. I'm keeping that little ship emoji in my bio, and I'll be on the lookout for other students of Ship30 who signal with it. Let's be friends! 🚢