You can make money as a content creator even if you have less than 1,000 followers, but you need the right systems, habits, and money-making mindsets in place.

I’m sure you’ve already heard this a million times: you can make money as a content creator even with under 1,000 followers. But here’s the part that people don’t talk about enough…

You can also have tens of thousands of followers and still make almost nothing if you don’t have the right systems, habits, or money-making mindsets in place.

I see this all the time online. Creators will look successful on the outside; they’ve built their followers by thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands, but they feel stuck financially on the inside because they’re not able to monetize the platforms they’ve built.

And it’s not because they’re not talented. It’s because they’re unknowingly doing a few things that are keeping them broke.

So today, I’m breaking down the 8 biggest mistakes that keep creating from getting paid, and the exact mindset shifts, strategies, and actions you need to take so you can finally stop undervaluing yourself and start making the money you deserve as a creator.

As always, if you’d like to watch instead of read, click the video below. Let’s jump in.

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Make Money as a Creator by Finally Fixing These 8 Bad Habits

I’m going to start with mindset because if you don’t believe that you can make money or that you deserve to make money as a content creator, then you aren’t going to get very far. I’ll always argue that this is the most important category, and it’s where all of my students start within the BSP Model.

Money-Making Mindsets for Content Creators

I know that a lot of us want to roll our eyes at the word ‘mindset,’ it gets a similar reaction to when someone says “niche down,” and believe me, I get it. I was one of those people.

It feels cliche, ‘woo woo’, and a bit like a buzzword, and because of that, it’s mostly ignored when compared to more practical strategies or step-by-step plans.

So, if you’re nodding along, agreeing with me, please listen when I tell you: your mindset sets your income ceiling. You can’t outperform your own subconscious beliefs around money, because that will determine your income long before your strategy ever does.

Morgan Housel, author of The Psychology of Money, discovered that most people don’t reach their goals because they first fall to the level of their beliefs and habits.

I’ll be honest with you. I’m proof of that. For the past three years in business, I’ve set the goal of making $1,000,000 in one year. And every year, I keep missing that goal. One year, I even got close, making $950,000. But the reason I kept coming up short wasn’t because of strategy; it was because I had subconscious beliefs about myself, my identity, my business, and money.

These beliefs were keeping me stuck.

Mindset might not feel “sexy,” but it’s the foundation that determines whether or not your strategy will even work.

Mindset Block #1: The Belief that ‘I don’t deserve to charge for this.’

This shows up all the time in the BSP Model. And maybe it comes up for you, too. Maybe you’ve thought things like:

• “I’m not _____ enough” (expert enough, big enough, experienced enough)
• “This feels too simple.”
• “People won’t pay me for this.”

Meanwhile, your comments and DMs are full of people asking for help. Asking if you offer one-on-one coaching. Asking if you have any resources that can help them get to where YOU are.

​The problem isn’t your skill, it’s your perception of your skill.

​This is called the Spotlight Effect, and it’s when we think people are judging us far more harshly than they actually are.

​So, while you’re overthinking and worrying that you’re not good enough to charge for something, you have followers thinking: “You’re the only person I trust. Tell me how to work with you.”

​When you believe you’re not worthy of getting paid, you subconsciously undervalue yourself, avoid launching, and never fully step into your value, which keeps you broke.

​Unfortunately, there’s no quick fix for changing the subconscious beliefs that you’ve carried your whole life, but there are some simple first steps that can start shifting your mindset.

• Go back through your comments, DMs, or emails.
• Screenshot every “thank you,” “this helped so much,” or “how do I work with you?” message.
• Create a folder called ‘Proof I’m Qualified.’

And every time your brain tells you that you’re not ready, open that folder because it’s proof of the opposite. If you want to go deeper into transforming your relationship with money and value, read The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel.

Mindset Block #2 – Comfort Ceiling Syndrome

The next mindset block that could be holding you back from making money as a content creator is the ‘Comfort Ceiling Syndrome.’ This is when you consistently hit the same income level month after month. It could be $0, $1,000, or $5,000, and then the moment you finally earn more, you slow down or ghost.  

• You procrastinate on your next launch.
• You second-guess sharing your offer.
• You avoid posting altogether.

This isn’t because you’re unmotivated or burned out. It’s because you crossed the income level that your brain is comfortable with.

Gay Hendricks talks about this in The Big Leap; it’s called an Upper Limit Problem.

And as I mentioned earlier, we take action that’s consistent with the identity we believe we are, not the identity that we want to be.

So if your subconscious identity is:

“I’m a small creator,” or “I don’t know enough to make real money,”

Then even when you have the perfect strategy… your brain will pull you back down to what feels familiar.

This is why creators get stuck at the same income over and over. Not because they aren’t capable, but because they haven’t expanded the identity that can actually hold more.

Now again, there are no overnight hacks for expanding your identity or rewiring your beliefs. But I do have a simple first step that can help you break through your comfort ceiling and make more money as a content creator.

The moment that you notice yourself pulling back, whether it’s procrastinating, avoiding posting, or delaying a launch, I want you to pause and ask yourself:

“Is this fear… or is this unfamiliar success?”

​Giving a name to what you’re feeling is the easiest way to interrupt the pattern.

Then, anchor the new identity with one small action that reinforces who you’re becoming:

• Post one piece of content
• Sell one digital product
• Pitch one brand
• Hit publish on one thing you’ve been putting off

Tiny actions like this will help shrink your fear and normalize the success that your brain isn’t used to yet.

And if you really want to understand and overcome your upper limit, read The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks. This book explains exactly why your brain panics when you exceed your familiar income and how to expand your identity so that you can actually hold more.

Mindset Block #3: You Thinking Selling = Selling Out

I hear this from my students all the time. In fact, we’ve all heard the criticism:

• “Creators are sellouts.”
• “Brand deals ruin authenticity.”
• “Selling digital products is a cash grab.”

And when you care deeply about your audience, this hits hard.

​So when you’re ready to make money as a content creator, you might worry:

• “What if I launch a course and people leave?”
• “What if I take a brand deal and someone hates the brand?”
• “What if I share an affiliate link and think I’m a sellout?”

This mindset might come from a good place. It means you care. You want to protect trust. You want to serve people well. But this mindset needs a reframe.

Choosing yourself and valuing your work is not selling out.

It’s stepping into leadership.

You build trust by:

• partnering only with brands you stand behind and saying no to all the rest
• recommending affiliate products you actually use
• creating digital products your audience is asking for, or you wish existed, because no one else was making them when you started

Honestly, this is what ethical selling looks like. This is what serving your audience looks like.

​And don’t worry, I’ll break down exactly how to sell in this way later on. In the meantime, here’s a simple mindset shift that should help immediately:

Instead of asking: “What if selling makes people trust me less?”

Ask: “How can I sell in a way that builds trust?”

​Then create a 3-point “Ethical Selling Standard”: a personal checklist you follow every time you promote anything:

1. I only promote what I personally use or believe in.
2. I only create products that genuinely solve a real problem for my audience.
3. I would recommend this to a close friend without hesitation.

When you follow your own standard, selling stops feeling like manipulation and starts to feel like leadership, clarity, and service.

​If you want to delve deeper into redefining what ethical selling really means, I recommend reading To Sell Is Human by Daniel Pink. This book breaks down the psychology of selling in a way that feels empowering, ethical, and aligned, especially if you’ve ever struggled with the fear of “selling out.”

Mindset Block #4 – Treating Content Creation like a Hobby, Not a Business

Believe it or not, if you want to become a content creator and you want to make money as a content creator, you’re going to be running a business.

​The moment that you decide: “This isn’t a hobby, this isn’t a side hustle, this isn’t testing the waters, this is my business.” Everything changes.

Instead of posting when you feel like it, waiting to sell until you feel ready, or skipping systems because it’s just Instagram, step into CEO mode and all of a sudden, you show up differently. You don’t wait to feel ready; you show up, you study, you sell, and you leave.

​Even if you’re making $0. Even if you’re still learning. And even if no one is watching you yet.

​When you start treating your content like a real business, it starts paying you like one.

​Now that we’ve tackled the biggest mindset blocks, it’s time to talk strategy, because the right strategy only works after your mindset is aligned.

Money-Making Execution for Content Creators

Execution Mistake #1: Not Building a Platform that’s Connected to Community

This is one of the most painful and confusing mistakes that I see creators make. It looks like this:

​Two creators both decide to sell their own merch. One has 150,000 followers and gets zero sales. While the other has 10,000 followers and sells out.

​The difference is their community.

​The Creator with 150k followers likely:

• chased trends instead of conversation
• posted for views instead of value
• didn’t reply to comments or DMs
• created content for an algorithm, not people
• Posted “viral” content that attracts strangers, not their ideal buyers
• But an audience that watches… but doesn’t trust

At the end of the day, community is what converts. Having conversations with your audience is what converts. And clarity is what converts.

​If you want to make money as a content creator, stop building  a platform and start building a community where people feel like they belong.

Execution Mistake #2 – You Only Have One Income Stream

This is another reason why so many creators stay broke. Because they’re depending only on ONE income stream:

• AdSense
• Brand Deals
• TikTok Views
• Affiliates

When you focus only on one income stream, your income is unpredictable and capped. Not only that, but all of those income streams aren’t income streams that you own.

​I have a student in my course, the BSP Model, who’s in the fashion niche. Over the past year, she posted consistently, and her main income stream was affiliate marketing. Each time she posted, she would encourage people to comment and send them a link to that item.

​People don’t really think about this, but affiliate marketing is one of the hardest income streams to really grow and maintain. So when I was working with this student, I had her think about other ways that she could monetize her content. Yes, there are brand deals, but they’re still capped because there are only so many you can do at a time.

​Instead, we created a digital product for her. This gave her a way to grow her income with something that she owned 100% and could make 100% of the sales from. Now, she had two income streams that were easy for her to maintain while she grew.

​Creating her digital product was simple. She made a PDF guide in Canva, exported it, and uploaded it to Stan, which she was already using as her link-in-bio tool.

​StanStore is the tool that I wish had existed when I started my content creator journey. It’s the number one tool that I recommend to creators, and if you’ve read my blog in the past, you probably already know that.

​With Stan, you can sell coaching, digital products, or courses, and the most important part is that you get 100% of the money with every sale. Other platforms will take a percentage of your sales, whereas Stan does not take from you or your audience.

It’s a tool that was built by creators, for creators. I love that I get to be an ambassador for this tool, and if you want to learn more, you can here.

​Creators who make real money aren’t waiting to get picked by brands or platforms.

​They’re creating, packaging, and selling value that they own.

Execution Mistake #3 – You’re Ignoring funnels

If you’re a creator who is consistently making a similar amount of money each month, but you haven’t been able to break through it, you might need to set up funnels. This is where so many creators lose money without even realizing it.

​When you have the right funnels set up, you don’t have to sell more in order to make more. You can make more with the sales that you’re already getting.

​A funnel is simply the journey that someone goes through from discovering you → trusting you → buying from you →  buying again and again and again.

​Your funnels don’t need to be complicated or “techy.” A simple, high-converting funnel can look like this:

1. Free value (your content)
2. Freebie (something small that solves a micro problem)
3. Entry product ($9–$29 product that gives a quick win)
4. Upsell Mid-tier offer (templates, bundles, workshops)
5. Upsell High-tier offer (courses, coaching, memberships)

Having funnels in place is how creators wake up to the “you just made a sale” notifications.

Execution Mistake #4 – You Create, but You Don’t Sell

Oftentimes, creators think they’re not making money because:

• The algorithm hates them
• Their content isn’t good enough
• They need more followers

But the more likely reason why a creator isn’t making money is that they aren’t telling people what to do.

​Now, I’m not saying every video needs to be sales-forward or optimized for conversions, but it should be part of your regular rotation.

• Are you making sales-driven content?
• Have you mentioned your offer/affiliate link this week? (repeat offers!)
• Are you using CTA’s on your posts?
• Do you have your income streams easily accessible?

I talk about my offers in almost every video. On average, 74% of my YouTube viewers are new to my channel. About 25% of the people who watch my videos already know about The BSP Model or my 12-Month Creator Plan, and they might even be tired of hearing me talk about how much I love Stan.

​But repeating the offers I genuinely believe in and know bring the most value to my viewers actually helps my growth and helps new viewers find resources meant for them.

​This is supported by the Marketing Rule of 7.

​It’s a classic principle in advertising: people need to hear about something around 7 times before they remember it, trust it, and take action on it. Not because they’re ignoring you, but because our brains are already overloaded, our attention is scattered, and most people watch content while multitasking.

​So if I only mention an offer once, I’m actually making it harder for new viewers to find it and benefit from it.

​Repeating your offers creates familiarity and helps to build trust. And at the end of the day, that trust is going to lead to more sales, more impact, and more viewers actually getting the help they came for.

​Trust me, if you take the time to fix these 8 bad habits, you will make money as a content creator. And don’t forget, I’m here to help you every step of the way. If you want to keep learning about how you can become a content creator this year, I recommend you read this post next.

​Thank you so much for being here, and I’ll see you in the next one! Follow your joy.