Over the last year, I have traveled nationwide to hear the struggles of journalists, newsrooms, and local messengers trying to spread good information into their communities. But there is one constant theme that always bothered me — a lack of knowledge of the most basic elements of content creation. And to be honest, I don't blame them. As a creator journalist, I had to teach these skills to myself and learn from some of the best out there. There is no rubric. No benchmark. And (for the millionth time) no infrastructure to bridge the gap between journalistic information and the creator economy.
That's why today we are launching The Creator Translator — a new initiative of Bottom Up Media that will help experts, community messengers, and journalists better understand the creator economy and learn the best practices of content creation so they can generate leads, rebuild trust, and grow their audience.
This newsletter drops once a month — unless you want more — and each issue will give you three things:
A short piece about a real problem being faced by experts and journalists in the creator world
Actionable bullet points on how to implement solutions and best practices, along with tools you can use right away
A real example of a creator who is either going through those problems or putting those solutions into practice
But who am I to give you this advice? To be quite honest with you, I don't know how to do anything else in my life.
I started my first social media page when I was 14 years old, blew it up before my mom found out, and deleted it. But since going to school for journalism, I have had a passion for social media and content creation — with no one to teach me right from wrong. How do you make money? What is a hook? What even is a TikTok? I had to practice over and over again to reach this level of understanding the algorithm and content creation.
Over the last five years, I have managed 20+ social media accounts, reached nearly 50 million people, and helped dozens of newsrooms, experts, and journalists grow their presence online. I have made nearly 2,000 videos in my lifetime — and no, not all of them have been perfect. That is exactly the point. We get too obsessed with those who have millions of followers and ignore the process of getting there. The lessons you find here will be foundational, but they are the building blocks of content creation and journalism you won't find anywhere else — because this stuff simply isn't taught.
My goal for this newsletter is to be the benchmark that the next generation of students, journalists, and community messengers can use to become creators. To reduce the knowledge gap between creators and journalists. To help real community messengers get good information into an ecosystem filled with misinformation, and meet people where they are.
And to be quite honest — writing is not my forte. So this newsletter is going to be very personal, because my creation journey has been. It's been full of ups and downs, and I hope to share all of them with you. I am genuinely trying to make a difference with my work, not gatekeep it.
Thank you so much — and please, keep making content. This is the time to do it, before it is too late.
Sincerely,
Your friendly neighborhood journalist,
Rahim