047: Matt Ragland - How to Go Full-Time as a Content Creator

08/16/21 • 71 min

Matt Ragland is a productivity expert and full-time content creator. He has worked for companies such as AppSumo.com, ConvertKit, and Podia. Matt graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor’s degree in recreation & tourism management.

Matt was one of the earliest members of the team at ConvertKit, where he was employee number five. Since leaving ConvertKit to start his own company, he now hosts a podcast, publishes a newsletter, has created several courses, and hosts his own YouTube channel.

Matt prides himself on being a skilled manager and enjoys helping his clients and audience grow and develop their agencies. He is also the proud father of two boys and is a fitness enthusiast. Matt and his family live in Nashville, Tennessee.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Matt’s biggest revenue drivers as a content creator
How to know when it’s time to take your side hustle full-time
How to optimize your YouTube channel and content

Links & Resources

Matt Ragland’s Links

Follow Matt on Twitter
Watch Matt on YouTube
Matt’s website
Matt's newsletter

Episode Transcript

Matt: [00:00:00]
If you’re not sure if you want to do something, try it 10 times, and really give it a good try. Write 10 newsletters. Make 10 videos on YouTube. Record 10 podcasts. I have found that going from 10 to a hundred is definitely a slog, and there are lots of mini milestones, but once you do something a hundred times, you’re going to build momentum on it.

And you’re also going to build your own country.

Nathan: [00:00:30]
In this episode I talk to my long-time friend, Matt Ragland. So Matt joined ConvertKit really in the early days. He was employee number five, and he was here for the crazy ride. Then he started a YouTube channel. He led the customer experience team at another startup called Podia. He’s now as a full-time independent creator earning a living on his own.

We have a really fun conversation reminiscing about the early days talking about crazy rocket ship growth, and how we kept up. We get into earning a living as a creator. How he grew his YouTube channel to 60,000 subscribers. How to choose a niche, and when you should double down on that, and what’s getting traction on YouTube.

The last thing that we talk about is when, as a creator, you should quit your full-time job, and some of the nuances of that, so you can go full-time on your creative endeavor. So it’s a longer episode today because Matt and I just can’t help but tell stories.

With that, let me get out of the way and dive in.

Matt, thanks for joining me.

Matt: [00:01:31]
Oh, it’s such a pleasure. I’m thrilled to be here.

Nathan: [00:01:34]
I want to go back to, what year would it even be?

Matt: [00:01:40]
2015.

Nathan: [00:01:41]
2015? Okay.

Matt: [00:01:44]
Right around this time. Maybe a couple months later, but it was like late summer.

Nathan: [00:01:49]
So, it’s July, like yeah. And then July right now. Yeah, it would have been when we started talking, I’m thinking, what were you doing online around that time? Cause I started to come across you on Twitter.

I think Brian Delk was a mutual friend.

Is that right?

Matt: [00:02:06]
Yeah. Ryan Delk was a mutual friend. Brian Harris was a mutual friend. The way that we got actually directly connected is that I was on Brian’s email list. And I saw that you were doing a webinar with him to promote ConvertKit. And I had just signed up for ConvertKit as a customer, always like a little no...

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Matt’s biggest revenue drivers as a content creator
How to know when it’s time to take your side hustle full-time
How to optimize your YouTube channel and content

Links & Resources

Matt Ragland’s Links

Follow Matt on Twitter
Watch Matt on YouTube
Matt’s website
Matt's newsletter

Episode Transcript

And you’re also going to build your own country.

With that, let me get out of the way and dive in.

Matt, thanks for joining me.

Matt: [00:01:31]
Oh, it’s such a pleasure. I’m thrilled to be here.

Nathan: [00:01:34]
I want to go back to, what year would it even be?

Matt: [00:01:40]
2015.

Nathan: [00:01:41]
2015? Okay.

Matt: [00:01:44]
Right around this time. Maybe a couple months later, but it was like late summer.

I think Brian Delk was a mutual friend.

Is that right?

Previous Episode

046: Sahil Bloom - Why Writing Makes You a Better Investor

Sahil Bloom is Vice President at Altamont Capital Partners, a generalist investment fund managing over $2.5 billion in capital. At Altamont, Sahil helps lead the consumer products and services sector. Sahil also participates in board activities at Altamont’s portfolio companies Fox Racing, and Brixton.

Sahil is an angel investor in over 25 tech startups. He works with entrepreneurs and founders to build scalable and sustainable value for all stakeholders. Sahil also publishes a popular newsletter about business, mental models, economics, and more.

Sahil graduated from Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in economics & sociology, and holds a master’s degree in public policy. While at Stanford, Sahil was a four-year member of the Stanford baseball team. Sahil is also a two-time recipient of the Bruce R. Cameron Memorial Award. This award honors students exhibiting excellence in athletics, academics, and leadership.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

How Sahil went from 500 to 200,000 followers on Twitter in one year
The emerging seven-figure opportunity Sahil sees for localized newsletters
Sahil’s system for writing exceptional content
The key difference between income-producing activities and wealth-producing activities

Links & Resources

Sahil’s Links

Follow Sahil on Twitter: @SahilBloom
The Curiosity Chronicle

Episode Transcript

Sahil: [00:00:00]
I think of writing and storytelling as foundational skills to your entire life. I mean, if you write well, it makes you better in every other area of your life. I think more clearly it exposes the gaps in your thinking so quickly. And that happened to me all on the way. Like the amount that I learned about investing by writing about investing was insane.

Nathan: [00:00:27]
This episode is with Sahil Bloom. So, Sahil, full-time is an investor. He’s a vice president at Altamont Capital Partners. On the side he has built a massive Twitter following over just the last year before we started the interview.

I had no idea that his 200,000 plus Twitter followers have been in the last 14 months, basically since COVID.

So, in this episode, we talk about growing a Twitter audience. We talk about all kinds of things. Sahil was a baseball pitcher for Stanford. And so we get into the new name/image/likeness rules for the NCAA.

What else? There’s all kinds of good stuf: his creative writing process, his mental models, how he thinks about income versus wealth. It’s the kind of episode that I absolutely love some.

So I’m going to get out of the way and let you listen to it. But really quick, if you’d do me a favor and go ahead and subscribe on Spotify, iTunes, wherever you listen to the podcast, and then write a review, I’d appreciate it. It will help the podcast reach a few more people.

So, all right. Let’s dive in.

Sahil, thanks for joining me.

Sahil: [00:01:34]
Yeah. Thanks for having me.

Nathan: [00:01:35]
Okay. So, I want to start with what you put in your bio, which is just three words, investor, educator, and storyteller. I like how concise you’ve got this down to things that describe you, but how do you think about the way that those three interact with you?

Sahil: [00:01:50]
You know, it’s it’s interesting. I tend to think that there is like a natural flywheel that is being created in real time around the universe of like investing, in the universe of creating. And you’re seeing it in...

Next Episode

048: Ali Abdaal - Building Multiple Income Streams as a Content Creator

Ali Abdaal is a Doctor, writer, podcaster, entrepreneur, and YouTube sensation. Ali has grown his YouTube subscriber base to over 2 million, and writes a weekly newsletter titled Sunday Snippets. Sunday Snippets covers productivity tips, practical life advice, and the best insights from across the web.

Ali studied medicine at Cambridge University. He worked as a Doctor in the United Kingdom before taking time off to explore his other interests. His YouTube channel covers medicine, tech, lifestyle, and productivity. Ali also co-hosts a weekly podcast with his brother, called Not Overthinking.

After learning to code at age 12, Ali started doing freelance web design and development. He enjoys playing piano, guitar, and singing covers of mainstream pop songs. You can find occasional videos of Ali’s music prowess on his Instagram page.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

Ali’s savvy insights for growing your YouTube subscriber base
A proven formula for writing content titles that get clicks
Ali’s playbook for taking your podcast to a whole new level

Links & Resources

Ali Abdaal’s Links

Follow Ali on Twitter
Watch Ali on YouTube
Check out Ali on Instagram
Ali’s newsletter
Ali’s website

Episode Transcript

[00:00:00] Ali:
YouTube can change your life, but you have to put out a video every single week for the next two years. If you do that, I guarantee you it’ll change your life. I can’t put any numbers on it. I can’t tell you how many subscribers you’ll have, or how much revenue you have, like a hundred percent guarantee.

You will change your life at the very least in terms of skills or connections or friends, or opportunities that will come your way as a result of posting consistently.

[00:00:30] Nathan:
In this episode, I talk to Ali Abdaal. Over the last four and a half years he’s built his YouTube channel from zero to 2 million subscribers.

He’s who all of my friends who are into YouTube turn to for advice. He’s got a paid course. He’s got a substantial email newsletter. He started out as a doctor and then has made the switch into a full-time YouTuber. So anyway, I’ll get out of the way, but, before we dive into the show, if you could do me a favor after t...