Ben Affleck's Cringe Mountain & Three Hard Lessons

Hey Climbers. This week —

• ✨ What I wish didn’t take me 100 million views to learn

• ⛰️ Ben Affleck’s Cringe Mountain

• 🤔 And the cooooolest rug you’ve ever seen (just trust me on this ok)

But before we get started, a quick note that…

Cringe Mountain Academy opens in 2 days!

It’s a 90 day program helping creators go from basecamp to breakthrough with mindset, strategy and creative techniques that have earned me and my clients millions of views.

And once it starts, I’ll be raising the cost of the program. Because with hours of course content, a community of creators, weekly consulting calls and 1:1 chat support with me, it’s insanely valuable for the amount you’re investing.

So if you’re ready to make 2024 the year you climb, hit the button below and book a free call with me to learn more about Cringe Mountain Academy.

Now, back to regular programming…

✨ 3 hard truths I wish I knew before I started

I hope this saves you a little of the trouble and time it took me.

#1 TikTok isn’t the ‘why’.

If I could go back, I’d tell past Erica to think of a why.

I’d tell her to think big. Think broader! Think about a mission, a movement.

It took me 100 million views to learn that social media can be most impactful when used as the vehicle to get to a greater goal, not as the greater goal itself.

And when you have a clear why, your what and your how become clearer too.

It’s a subtle mindset shift but it’s powerful.

TikTok isn’t the why - it’s how you get to the why.

#2 How you talk about it is more important than what you talk about

A Cringe Mountain Academy student asked me this week whether I believe in ‘niching down’.

I told her: do not worry.

This is a place where you are safe from the tyranny of that phrase.

When you spend time developing your unique tone, style and storytelling abilities, WHAT you talk about becomes less important.

Because the thing that people come back for is HOW you talk about it.

#3 Monetisation doesn’t ~ just happen ~ when you get lots of views

When I first started I thought that if I got views, money would kinda just appear in my account.

I didn’t spend much time thinking about exactly how??? Like??? Erica??? Cmon???

Turns out you need to be a little intentional about monetisation.

There are a few things to consider: Do you want to monetise with brand deals? Or selling a product? Or both?

It just takes a little thought and a little strategy but it can absolutely be done.

⛰️ Ben Affleck’s Cringe Mountain

How good was Ben Affleck in Buffy The Vampire Slayer?

Oh? What’s that? You didn’t know Ben Affleck was in Buffy The Vampire Slayer?

Well, you’re forgiven.

Because apparently he was so underwhelming in delivering his ONE LINE in the film that it got cut.

Here’s a video where he talks about sitting through the premiere and realising that they had to re-record his part.

Imagine if he’d have stopped because of that!

Creative inspo of the week

There are two cool things about this rug artist I came across on instagram:

1. The art is really cool

2. If you scroll back far enough in his feed, you can see the evolution of where his art started to where it is now.

Where it is now

davidnott

View more on Instagram

Where it started

davidnott

View more on Instagram

You really could never have guessed his pencil drawings would lead to that.

And that’s on experimenting, persisting, and developing a personal style.

Next time you see a creator you like, scroll back into their feed to find their oldest video. It’s always inspiring to see where they started.

Okay that’s all for now

Until next time!

Keepin Climbin’

Eri out xx