In the creator community, there’s a lot of pressure to stay consistent. It’s quite similar to what many makers face – but the creative block is real! And sometimes all you need is some accountability to keep you on track.

That’s what we love about Creator Sandbox! Here’s the story behind it.

Hi, my name is Jerine Nicole. I am a part-time emergency registered nurse. In my free time, I write content about personal growth, the creator economy, and about entrepreneurship. I love learning and understanding what makes creators successful, and I try to apply those learnings to my life, and my creative process.

I write long-form articles on Medium, and I use Twitter to network and build relationships with other creators. I also started freelance writing for a creator-focused business as a way to help others like me navigate their way in the gig economy.

During this whole process, I've learned to use multiple no-code tools along the way. Automation has made some of my workflow much easier! I want to share my knowledge with others.

Addressing a problem in the creator community

I joined a 30-day writing challenge called ‘Ship 30 for 30’ and met a lot of new creators. It’s a well-established 5-week cohort-based learning course. I loved it! I learned about writing, and more importantly, I understood what it meant to be a part of a community. Being involved in so many cohort-based courses and other online courses, I found a problem: As soon as the program was over, people stopped showing up consistently online.

I asked some of the people I connected with if they felt the same way, and they did. At this time, I had already brought together a group of people that would meet every two weeks for a Zoom call to check up on each other.

When I finished the 30-day writing challenge with Ship 30 for 30, I asked a few people if they would be interested in becoming accountability partners. The idea was for us to keep each other motivated and on track to stay consistent with creating, even once the cohort course was done.

I found myself with 4 accountability partners that agreed! I then asked them if they were willing to join a small paid accountability group. This way there’d be a single accountability community rather than lots of Zoom calls with various people every week.

When they unanimously agreed to join, I made a Google survey to share with those interested and capped the invite at 10 people. That was the maximum number I could support at the time.

Using no-code tools to fix the problem

The solution I figured we needed was a paid accountability group with biweekly Zoom calls to keep the publishing habit going.

I set up a payment link for those that expressed an interest in joining, and people could come and go based on their interest.

I used a Notion dashboard to set up a wiki of sorts. It contained all the resources that helped me in my writing journey and some templates that helped me track my content and my data.

The community also had a Discord channel to check up on people and set up biweekly Zoom calls. I think of it as a support group for creators.

‍Here are the no-code tools I used:

• Google Survey to know who was interested
• A ConvertKit page to collect payments
• A Notion dashboard
• Discord community
• Biweekly Zoom calls, with the details in Notion

Each creator had their own Notion page to keep track of their publishing goals and data. I’ve kept it a very low-cost project until I am sure that the membership model works for me.

Identifying the right community to provide the right offering

This is specifically who the Creator Sandbox community is for:

• Those that are serious creators, but need support in their online ventures
• Anyone committed to experimenting on their own and in public
• Someone that is motivated when part of a group
• Those that welcome feedback from others, and are happy to provide it too

Here’s what you get in the Creator Sandbox:

• A biweekly zoom call with online creators
• A private Discord channel with a group of people to get feedback and support in between the calls
• A Notion dashboard with resources related to the creator economy and content creation
• Co-working session on Discord for deep work purposes

My goal is for every creator to have the tools and confidence to keep putting their writing and work online. If you’re looking for some accountability and motivation to help you stay consistent and show up with your best work, why not join us!

Thanks for sharing your story with us, Jerine! You can follow her journey on Twitter.