The Proffitt Podcast
Are you thinking about starting a podcast? Launching a YouTube channel? Repurposing your old blog content into something fresh? Hi, I'm Krystal - host of "The Proffitt Podcast." And I'm happy to say you've come to the right place!
Business owners and content creators dream of building a platform where they can connect deeply with their audience, and marketing feels easy. But I also know what it's like to feel confused and overwhelmed.
Join us weekly as we strip down those processes and remove all the overwhelm with new tips, simple strategies, and great conversations with creators like you. Tune in to hear how I help creators start, launch, and market their content confidently. The motto here is, "We all have to start somewhere."
The Proffitt Podcast
What Content Creators Need to Focus on in 2025 (Insights from Our Annual Survey Report)
Ever feel like you're the only one struggling with your content creation journey? Our annual audience survey results are in, and the findings might surprise you.
With over 50 respondents and 12 in-depth follow-up interviews, we've uncovered the three universal struggles plaguing creators across all platforms: consistency, monetization, and imposter syndrome. Whether you're just starting out or have been in the game for years, these challenges create a common thread that binds the creator community together. You're definitely not alone.
The most eye-opening revelation? While creators obsess over the front-end of their content—what audiences see on Instagram, YouTube, or their podcast—most are a complete mess behind the scenes. The lack of systems, workflows, and standard operating procedures is killing productivity and preventing creators from reaching their full potential. This digital chaos makes it nearly impossible to stay consistent, properly monetize, or overcome imposter syndrome.
Looking ahead to 2025, our data points to three critical focus areas for creator success: developing sustainable content creation practices that prevent burnout, implementing monetization strategies that feel natural rather than salesy, and embracing community-building through meaningful collaborations. These aren't just nice-to-haves—they're essential components for long-term success in the creator economy.
Ready to see how your creator journey compares to others? Download our comprehensive 20-page report at krystalproffitt.com/annual-survey-report and join our free Podcasters Connect community to access resources, monthly coaching calls, and connect with fellow creators who understand exactly what you're going through. The days of creating in isolation are over—let's build something sustainable together.
🎧 Free On-Demand Training:
Ready to grow your podcast, stay consistent, and finally start monetizing? Watch my brand-new training, The Podcast Growth & Monetization Blueprint: What’s Working Now, and get a sneak peek inside my private community, Podcasters Connect — plus exclusive access to our custom AI podcast assistant!
👉 Watch now: krystalproffitt.com/growth
Click the "Send Krystal a Text Message" link above to send us your questions, comments, and feedback on the show! (Pssst...we'll do giveaways in upcoming episodes so make sure you leave your name & podcast title.)
I talk to creators in every kind of capacity, whether it's in a Facebook group or on Instagram, in the DMs or through email and actual conversations with creators. I talk to you all the time, but this year we did something extra special. We did a formal annual audience survey a few months ago and you really delivered. This community showed up and shocked me in ways that I was just so overwhelmed by the amount of responses that we had and just the amount of excitement to participate in the survey. And today we are unveiling our key findings with our annual audience survey report and I can't wait to share with you all of the different pieces. So this is important because if you are listening to this and you serve an audience of creators, podcasters, youtubers, bloggers then you're going to want to know all the things that we learned inside this report, but you're also going to be curious to understand how other people are showing up and the problems they're struggling with and the challenges that they're facing and some of their favorite tools. We're going to dive into some of the nitty gritty pieces of this today, so let's get right to it. Welcome to the Profit Podcast, where we teach you how to start, launch and market your content with confidence. I'm your host, crystal Profit, and I'm so excited that you're here. Thanks for hanging out with me today, because if you've been trying to figure out the world of content creation, this is the show that will help be your time-saving shortcut. So let's get right to it. Shall we welcome back to another episode of the profit podcast. I'm so excited to be here with you today and chatting about creators, because it's what I'm obsessed with. I'm obsessed with you in this audience. I'm obsessed with learning about your journey and your ups and your downs and your highs and your lows and what you're struggling with. I mean one selfishly I want to know how I can best serve you through our content and our products and services that we create for this community. But the other piece is I want you to understand how your journey compares to other people on this same journey. So we're going to go a little high level today and we're going to talk about one. You're not alone. We're going to dive into the number one creator struggle that we saw when we did our report. The second thing is the biggest gap that creators need to fill in 2025. And then we're going to talk about what creators need to focus on right now. Okay, so are you ready? Are you buckled up? Like, because we're just going to dive right in, because we have a lot to cover today. So, number one you are not alone. Can I say that again?
Speaker 1:I feel like I need to say it like 10 more times, because whenever I was in the very beginning stages of my journey, I felt very alone. I felt very alone, like y'all. I started podcasting when I still had to explain what a podcast was and how. If you had an iPhone, there was likely an app on your phone specifically for podcasts, but you likely didn't know where it was. That purple icon was hidden on some screen on your iPhone. You didn't even know that it was there. That's how podcasting was in 2018. So I struggled a lot and I felt lonely and I felt like there was just so many things that I was just going through by myself.
Speaker 1:Well, it turns out back then, and even here today, there are specific things that we all struggle with as creators. So, whether you are a podcaster, you're a blogger, you're a YouTuber however you define creator one of the biggest things actually, we're going to go through three. These were the three biggest ones through three. These were the three biggest ones Consistency, monetization and imposter syndrome. Those were the three biggest struggles that we saw over and over and over again. So if you've ever struggled with consistency, monetization and imposter syndrome, you are not alone. You are not alone in this. I have gone.
Speaker 1:When it comes to consistency, the thing that really used to frustrate me is trying to figure out like what does that mean? Do I have to publish something every week? Do I have to publish something every other week? And what does that look like for other people? Can I be the coach that tells people well, you have to publish every week in order to be successful? That didn't feel authentic to me. So I've never approached consistency that way. I do believe that it's one thing, that you can approach it in whatever way makes the most sense to you. You just have to stick to whatever the schedule is Like. What is your production schedule? You have to stick to that. Then the other piece of it is monetization. Y'all I didn't start figuring really figuring out monetization, until about two years ago. Two years ago is when I was like, oh, I can have somewhat predictable income, and about a year ago is whenever I finally figured out sponsorships and how to make money from people paying me to create content for them. Like that was mind blowing to be able to figure that out. So if you're struggling to understand monetization again, you're not alone. I just recently really figured this out.
Speaker 1:And then imposter syndrome there's so many of you that responded in the survey that were like I just don't feel like I'm an expert, I'm using air quotes for those of you just listening like expert enough to put my stuff out there. So this is you Again. You are not alone. So my own like personal experiences is I have, really, when I think about imposter syndrome, I always thought I don't have a big enough following to talk about this, or I don't have a big enough following to be worthy of putting content out there. And I think that one day I kind of woke up and was like, yeah, and so were so many other people. They had the knowledge, they had the skills, they had the ability, but the one thing holding them back was somebody saying, oh, the crowd isn't big enough that's going to listen to you. Don't let that hold you back, just keep showing up anyway. Here I am, here we are multiple years later and I keep showing up. I still think there's probably 50 other people that know way more than I do probably more than that about podcasting and content and all that stuff, but I don't let it hold me back anymore.
Speaker 1:So I have actually pulled direct quotes that I really, really want you to go check out in the report. Actually, if you want to just like pause this and go download the report, you can go to crystalprofitcom forward slash annual survey report and you're going to be able to download a copy of your own right there. So go check that out. I'll mention it again a few times throughout here, but you should go check it out because the fact is is that all of these struggles are universal and we can all work our way through them. You are not alone, and I want you to download this report, read some of those quotes from actual people.
Speaker 1:So I interviewed let me see we had over 50 people respond to the survey, so it's a pretty good sample size of creators in this community. And then I also did 12 follow-up interviews, like in-depth conversations, asking detailed questions about their journey, and we pulled some of those quotes and we put them in the report and I want you to hear what some of those folks had to say so, go down the report and then we'll, we'll, we'll continue this conversation, but let's move on to the next thing, because we're going to talk about the biggest gaps that creators need to fill in 2025. By the way, I want to pause for a second and give a shout out to Kathy, because she cracks up every time I say fill, because, whether it's F-I-L-L or F-E-E-L, she told me she was like it. Just, it makes me smile every time you say that and I just, like Kathy, you popped into my head whenever I was saying the gap that creators need to fill. So there you go. That one's totally for you.
Speaker 1:But one of the most eye-opening things that stood out to me for the survey and all the responses we collected is creators really want to grow. That's clear, right, you're putting all this hard work and effort and energy into creating your content. You want it to grow, but the thing that you are struggling with are processes, workflows and SOPs, so standard operating procedures. This is all of the backend of your content, and I think that there becomes this like weird power struggle between marketing on the front end, right, all the things that people that are following you on your Instagram or your email list or whatever other marketing stuff that you're doing. Like that's the front end, your website, all of those pieces but then on the back end, oh, it's a mess. It is a total and complete mess because either there are no systems at all or you've tried to implement systems but you're like, why am I doing all this? It's just me, I'm the only one Can I just name things, whatever I want to name them and search them up in my Google drive for your Dropbox, wherever you're saving stuff, and find things, y'all. This was such an eye-opening thing that you want Like we have a whole chart with percentages in the report that this was the number one thing that people they're saying they were struggling with this. So if you are someone who is in the creator economy and you serve like digital clutter or like workflows processes like this is definitely a place for you to step in and support this community.
Speaker 1:But also, without systems in place, it's really hard for us to stay consistent and work on those monetizations and just those different things that you don't have time for. You quote, don't have time for these other things, y'all. It's because you're a mess. You are such a mess on the back end of your business, and I'm not saying that as like pointing my finger at you. This was pointing finger at me too, like I was a mess for a long time in my systems and my processes, which is why we are actually working on some products for helping you have better systems and processes in your business. Last year, we released we have our product, the Business Booster Bundle. You can grab it today. It's less than $100 for you to go in. We have our launch tracker. I'm showing you behind the scenes of our business and the other pieces that can help you in your digital business. But we're going to be working on a lot of other things, like a lot of lower ticket products, because this is what y'all have also told me.
Speaker 1:It's like we want to understand workflows, how we can get better. We're just we're in the works, so heads up, it's coming your way. But if you're feeling like you're constantly overwhelmed or making content is just so frustrating because you're trying to do it on the fly, or like you're trying to really dial in your workflows and you're just overwhelmed by the whole thing, this is the one thing that if you're like, what's the one thing I should focus on this year? It's getting organized. It's getting your digital life together. It's making sure that you have systems and processes in place in areas that you currently don't have any. If you currently don't have any, you know that I'm talking to you and we're gonna figure this out together.
Speaker 1:Actually, in fact, if you're watching on YouTube, tell me in the comments like type the word workflows and let me know if you're interested in learning more about what that can look like, because I have some ideas, but I would actually love to reach out to you and get some feedback directly. Or, if you're listening to this and you want to know more, send me a DM on Instagram or send me if you're on my email list. Hit reply, because this is something I think that we can do big things with for workflows and processes and SOPs, because y'all, I got so many templates. I have so many templates for all of this stuff and I can't wait to share them with you. But again, if you want to know more about what folks who answered the survey had to say, go to crystalprofitcom forward slash annual survey report to download the file and see all the direct quotes and what other people said, because there were other challenges and gaps that creators can fill and fill. I said it again, kathy, there you go. I want you to go check out what some of those other struggles were.
Speaker 1:All right, well, let's get into the big event right, the main attraction, what we're really here today, because that is what creators need to focus on now, like right now. So, based on the data and what we saw in our report, where you need to pay attention to and what should be some of your priorities, if you haven't focused on this from the beginning of this year, or maybe this last month or last quarter, maybe you set this as one of your future goals, but it's how to create sustainable content. What does that mean? That means how can you have a sustainable content creation will, or have something that is going to be your system in place so that you do not burn out? Because this is again one of the things that just makes me so sad is when people burn out and they stop creating altogether, is when people burn out and they stop creating altogether.
Speaker 1:We are trying to create sustainable creators, and that's not just people that are, you know, interested in saving the planet. I'm talking about saving your sanity and helping you show up consistently Again, there's that word consistently like, whatever that means to you and your creator journey. But I want to really make sure that you think about this, whether or I can't even talk now whether you are at the beginning, you're a baby, beginner creator and you're just getting started, you're crawling before you can walk and you're just trying to understand what this whole creator business is about, or you're a more seasoned, professional creator. You've been doing this for a while but you're on the edge of burnout, like let's figure out. What are those systems, what are those processes that you can put into place so that you have a sustainable content creator journey, because that's what I'm most interested in. I want you to be able to create with confidence, but I also want you to be able to show up and keep creating.
Speaker 1:So that is really one of the things that you should focus on how can I make my content creation processes more sustainable, whether that's for posting on Instagram, it's posting on YouTube, it's writing your emails to your audience, putting out a podcast episode, whatever kind of content you're creating, or whatever you're doing. Putting out a podcast episode, whatever kind of content you're creating or whatever you're doing, is it sustainable? Because if it's not, and you're like, oh God, what I'm doing, like I'm staying up until late, like way, way, way past midnight, to finish my last episode or to get it published or to schedule things out, or I'm working on weekends and I don't ever get to see my family because I'm doing this, or I don't get to hang out with my friends because I'm constantly like that is not sustainable. So get to a point in your content where it is sustainable and you're truly enjoying what you're doing.
Speaker 1:The other piece, like the other piece that you should focus on, is monetization that feels natural. Now, what I mean by this is like what are the most effective ways that you can actually monetize your content without feeling salesy? Because this was one thing that came up, this was one of the direct quotes. It's like marketing feels gross and monetization feels even worse because I feel salesy and overly promotional. And this was not the only time, like it wasn't just one person one time that has said that to me. It is multiple people that have talked about I don't like marketing, I don't enjoy it, I don't know how I can monetize, because I don't want to sound salesy and I don't want my audience to be disgusted by me trying to promote something in my content.
Speaker 1:So we're going to focus on that mentality in Podcasters Connect. So if you have not joined us, we have a free membership that you can upgrade and do all the monthly coaching calls and content audits and do that. But you can join us for free inside Podcasters Connect. You can go to crystalprofitcom, forward, slash join or, if you download our report and you're not part of our community, we'll send you an invitation. But what this is is it's a place for you to understand how monetization really works. We just did a training all about how I do proposals and I send information to brands and the brands that I've worked with and what I've learned from working with brands who have actually paid me to collaborate with them and create content. And I've learned how to not feel salesy and how to not feel gross whenever I talk about things in my content on my podcast, because, at the end of the day, the piece for me that really clicked is whenever I feel very natural and I feel like I am offering something of value to my audience. That's what feels like natural to me. That's what I.
Speaker 1:One of the key mission and values of this podcast since we started is adding value, no matter what I do every single time. I have to show up here and add value to this community, and that's how I don't have this idea of like, well, I can't talk about B-School, or I can't talk about DCA, or I can't talk about my own products or services. I'm like, no, no, no. All of those things add value, and so that's how I lead with all the monetization strategies, all the different promotional strategies that we share on here. So, anyway, that's just like a little teaser of the coaching that we do inside Podcasters Connect. So, come check us out, come check us out and this is the other piece is like, based on, you know, the feedback that we got, what creators need to focus on.
Speaker 1:The third one is community and collaboration. Y'all, more creators are realizing that you cannot do this alone and you shouldn't, you shouldn't do this alone, y'all. I did this alone for a really long time and it was sad, it was lonely and it wasn't until I met other creators. It was around 2019, 2020 when I started to expand my network and get a lot more connected into other areas of the online industry, and I'm like, so deeply grateful for the people that I have met on this journey, because that community and collaboration and accountability and just friendship y'all. I know some of these are so basic, but having those connections are going to be crucial to help you have that sustainable content that we talked about. Some of the monetization opportunities that I've had have come from networking places, like different friendships and conferences and events that I've had have come from networking places, like different friendships and conferences and events that I've attended.
Speaker 1:Like getting introduced to different people and I just cannot stress this enough like really leaning into networking or partnerships or growing your community or guesting on podcasts, whatever that looks like for you. That should be one of your goals in the coming quarters, in the coming months or even in the coming years, and I think that, no matter what stage you're in, if you really focus on creating and cultivating those relationships and making those a priority for you, that return on investment is just going to be priceless. It really is, because you're going to find people that are just like you. Like I said, download the creator report and you will see there are people that are just like you out there and you don't have to go far to find them. They're here, they're in this community and a lot of them are already in Podcasters Connect, hanging out asking questions, adding an insane amount of value that I don't want you to miss out on. So I feel like I'm just like I'm on my soapbox now about finding collaborations and working with other people, because it is. It is my like seasoned podcaster soul coming back to tell you these are the things that I wish I would have known in my journey, and I wish I would have been more connected with people whenever I first started.
Speaker 1:So the key takeaway here is go download our annual survey report. It will be so helpful for you, even if you don't have an audience, because I know some of you are going to download this. You're like oh, I serve creators. This is great intel. Yeah, it is. I already.
Speaker 1:I did all the work for you. Like, this is a 20 page report. I don't even think I told you that this is a 20 page report that my team and I put together, and I I mean, I'm biased. I think it looks fantastic. It was designed so beautifully and it is just going to be the very first annual report that we have done, and this will continue to be a trend that we do from now on, because one it was so fun getting to talk to so many of you creators.
Speaker 1:Two, I learned things about you that I didn't know that I needed to focus on. And three, I think it's just a great example of y'all are always asking me how do I get feedback, how do I learn more about my audience? You do a survey. Y'all do a survey. You don't have to go to the links that I did of creating a report and creating a 20 page report, creating a landing page for it and doing all that stuff. But I do think that leaning into who your audience is, who your community is, and what they want to learn from you, is super important. So go check it out Again.
Speaker 1:Go to crystalprofitcom forward slash annual survey report and take a look at it. Let me know your feedback. You'll get an email where the report will be delivered and if you find something of value, please respond and let me know. I would love to hear from you. I will never get sick of hearing from this community because y'all are so awesome, but that's all I have for you today, so make sure you hit that follow or subscribe button wherever you are watching and listening today. If this is your first time tuning in, what an incredible one to join us for the very first time. Make sure to join Podcasters, connect and check out our community, but, as always, remember, keep it up. We all have to start somewhere.
