Why Community Might Be The Answer to Creator Burnout

Dear subscribers,

I want to help creators make a living doing what they love online, but the reality is that many creators are suffering burnout.  I often feel the same way with two kids, a job, and a newsletter to write.

In today’s post, I interviewed my friend Teri Yu (co-founder of Vibely) on how creators can avoid burnout and take back their time by scaling their communities. We cover:

1. Why are creators burning out?

2. How can creators avoid burnout?

3. How can building a community help?

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Why are creators burning out?

Can you share a few reasons why creators are burning out?

When we asked 150+ creators last year about burnout, the top 3 reasons were:

1. Algorithm changes: Creators must rely on opaque algorithms to get discovered.

2. Making a living: Creators must constantly pump out content to maintain their subscriber base and get brand deals.

3. Hamster wheel effects: Creators must clock 71+ hours across social platforms to stay relevant. 

Vibely creator burnout report

Can you give an example of the hamster wheel effect?

Yes, imagine that you’re a video creator. In any given week, you need to:

1. Ideate and script the video

2. Shoot the video

3. Edit the video for different social platforms

4. Respond to both positive and negative comments 

This process may be fun for a few weeks but is draining long-term. If you decide to take a break, your follower count will drop, and your sponsors will lose interest. After a year, content creation starts to feel more like a burden than something that you enjoy doing. 

I also want to touch on hate and online bullying. What have you seen there?

Creators have shown me the DMs they get, and it isn’t pretty. Many haters enjoy tearing down creators for entertainment, envy, or resentment. It could be a handful of hurtful messages or a flood of death threats.

Creators have thick skin, but it's hard to decouple self-worth from public sentiment when your identity is tied to your follower count.

We need a new system. One where creators aren’t valued and paid only from their popularity (eg., brand deals), but how much real and meaningful value they’re created for their fans.

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How can creators avoid burnout?

You outlined five strategies for creators to avoid burnout. Can you cover them?

Sure, here are several ways that creators can avoid burnout:

1. Establish dedicated content days to create content and take days off.

2. Outsource and delegate tasks like editing and marketing to other people.

3. Find genuine support circles of friends, family, and fellow creators.

4. Do a social media detox to go outside and reflect. 

5. Monetize through scalable ways like building a membership community.

At Vibely, we’re excited to help creators make a living through community to get off the content treadmill.

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How can building a community help?

Can you talk more about how a community can help creators scale their time?

Most creator platforms (e.g., Patreon, Cameo, OnlyFans) require the creator to keep pumping out content to make a living.

We want to help creators become community leaders instead. With our Membership 2.0 product, creators set a price and goal for community members to accomplish through intimate events, exciting challenges, and vibrant discussions. We’ve seen this model succeed with many creators, including:

1. Dear Alyne (300K IG). Earned $9,000/month with only 8 hours spent a month.

2. Ask Sebby (150K YT). Earned $1,370/month with only 30 min spent a month.

3. Pheydrus (50K YT). Earned $2,100/month with only 2 hours spent a week.

Can you give a specific example of how this works?

Yes, for example, Beauty Within, a 2M YouTuber skincare channel, nominated ambassadors in their Vibely community to welcome new members, support each others’ skincare routines, and lead book clubs and movie nights.

We’re constantly building new tools to help creators scale their time through community - including meetups, challenges, and more.

From Beauty Within’s Vibely page

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Wrap-up

You were a viral YouTuber before you became a founder. How are the two roles similar or different?

I see creators as entrepreneurs without clear monetization and career paths. Creators, like founders, need to be self-starters who are willing to climb uphill and face existential crises along the way. 

Many of my teammates at Vibely are creators. Our CTO Selman Kahya, for example, is a 242K YouTuber who was also a Senior Staff Engineer at Uber. We’re grateful to be working in a space that we love and know intimately. It helps us prioritize and focus on the right problems, empathize deeply with our creators, and build the best solutions to make their lives easier.

Thanks Teri! Where can people learn more about Vibely?

You’re welcome! They can visit our website or check out our press coverage. If you’re a creator looking for help, you can also book time with our team here.