🧑🏼‍🚀 Blueprint 054

Welcome back to Blueprint, a weekly series where I share an unfiltered, behind-the-scenes look into my journey as a creator entrepreneur.

It’s been 54 weeks (1 year + 2 weeks) since I went full-time.

A reminder that the internet game is not zero-sum. Everyone reading this can win at an unlimited scale. I’m writing this for the internet astronauts building their own worlds. If that’s you…let’s ride 👩🏻‍🚀

WEEK 54 METRICS & UPDATES

Week 54 Metrics + Updates

• 🧮 | Video Traction: Metrics (views/engagement) continuing to look strong. Videos seem to be resonating and general style is still working. Going to keep hammering it. Experimented with a more laidback delivery in this video about Friend (AI wearable). It crushed on Tiktok and LinkedIn, didn’t outperform on IG. First time I’ve made a video that felt close to the tone I actually speak with. Going to try this more. Lmk if you like this style

• 🚀 | Audience Growth: Super strong audience growth this week. My profiles finally seem optimized and more sticky (e.g., more of the new eyes hitting them are converting into followers/subscribers). Will write a section about Sticky Pages in the future if there’s interest

• 🎥 | YouTube Split Channels: I continue to get several comments that people think my long-form YouTube videos “deserve more views.” Still trying to diagnose why they aren’t ripping. My short-form and long-form YouTube strategies are different so I’m going to start posting them on separate channels. I have a hunch that my short-form (tech/business) watchers are not clicking through to my longer-form (content strategy/blueprint deep dives) because they cover different topic buckets. I’m catering to two different audiences but the YouTube algo is tuned to analyze channel performance by combining them into one. Moving forward, I’ll post my long-form YouTube videos here and my short-form videos here. Will report back if I see that splitting them out starts working. Do me a solid and follow my shorts channel to signal to the algo that it isn’t spam

• 💬 | Blueprint AMA: I’d love to experiment with an AMA version of Blueprint. I’m open to answering any question you have about content, marketing, personal branding, entrepreneurship, AI use cases, or life philosophy…can be specific or broad! I’ll record detailed responses and share the written versions here as well. If you have a question, you’d like me to answer…drop it here

• 📲 | Blueprint Audio: Beehiiv (my email platform) just launched a way to have an AI voice narrate an audio read of each episode. I’ve turned it on so you’ll see a “Listen Online” button at the top of Blueprint. Naturally, I picked the silkiest Brit I could find. If you prefer listening vs reading, give this a try and let me know what you think

ROCKY

Rocky

One of my favorite entrepreneur creators to follow is Alex Hormozi.

I like him because he has a proven track record of legitimate financial success ($100M+ net worth at 31 years old) mixed with a no nonsense yet inspirational delivery style.

I love his take on the Rocky cut scene.

If you think about any inspirational movie, especially one about a fighter, there’s always a training montage.

It usually lasts for 3-5 minutes and shows the protagonist turning into an absolute savage. There’s uplifting music, crazy workouts, and you can see the transformation happening in real-time.

At the end of the scene, the movie typically rolls right into the main event, whether it be a prize fight, heist, or big game.

In culture, we watch these movies knowing they aren’t real, yet our subconscious often anchors baseline expectations to them.

One of the reasons people get impatient with success is because these Hollywood stories have warped our sense for what’s normal.

5 minutes to become a champion is not normal. 5 years to become a champion is.

Hormozi’s quote on this…

It’s helpful to remind yourself that the agitation you feel for not being where you want is not only normal, but necessary.

Another example of this is when you hear seasoned leaders give introductions of themselves.

They often say something like, “Yeah, I spent 10 years here and another 8 years here before ultimately starting at X”

They throw around 10 years like it’s an appetizer.

And often times, they don’t even mention the first 5-10 years of their career when they were still wandering.

It’s a long game.

BLUEPRINT YEAR 1 RECAP VIDEO

Blueprint Year 1 Recap Video

We just posted the full Blueprint Year 1 video breakdown…one of my favorite videos to date! Full video link.

This episode covers:

• 🧮 | Year 1 Metrics

• 🧐 | Biggest wins, losses, and takeaways

• 🎯 | Year 2 Strategy Adjustments

• 🫡 | Helpful learnings and mindset shifts from Year 1

BLUE STRIPES OVER CHECKS

Blue Stripes Over Checks

Ahh the blue check…many thought it would forever be society’s last bastion of digital status.

Then, a few years ago, Elon and Zuck created a shortcut path that allowed anyone with $10/month to buy their way into the verified club.

Overnight, the value of having the blue check went to zero.

Or did it?

In the first era of social media, the blue check was synonymous with a verifiable person of influence.

Two components = verification & influence

As soon as Elon/Zuck made it possible to purchase, the blue check became only useful for verification.

In the current social era, if someone has the blue check on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or Threads, you know they’re a human and that’s about it.

But here’s where things get interesting…

In the future, I think that original combination of verification + influence will be 1000x more valuable than it ever was.

I’m calling it blue stripes (just so the title could be cheeky…go with me).

What happens when AI content tools get 100x better?

I’d expect we’ll see millions of digital influencers with profiles that are indistinguishable from humans.

They will use a combination of HeyGen/Synthesia + Midjourney + Claude 3.5 + Eleven Labs to create content that is as good or better than mine is today.

But how will they be as good as the real me?

They will train their scriptwriting models on all of my videos, design a character that is the best looking person you’ve ever seen, and have lifelike facial expressions and movements.

Oh yeah, and they’ll make them speak with a British accent.

It will become so easy to make these characters that anyone will be able to print Hugh Jackmans at will.

This means content platforms (if run the same way they are now) will be full of insanely high quality, AI-generated content.

Flooded with it…Noah’s Ark level flooded.

And you might be thinking the same thing I was when I came to this realization…

Sheeeeeeeeeeeit.

Because if there are millions of these Brad Pitt looking, Benedict Cumberbatch sounding, Walt Disney storytelling profiles, how will I ever stand out?

You won’t…unless you’ve already built a verifiable reputation of influence.

The new blue check won’t be a blue check…it’ll be your digital fingerprint, a personal brand so well known in your niche that viewers default to you over the endless stream of robot generated content.

I call it blue stripes because the only people that will have it are those that have earned their stripes during this last “human-only” era.

Think about it…

The same way people buy local farm-grown produce or local handmade crafts at the flea market will become how they decide which media to consume.

If you have access to everything, it must mean something for you to spend time consuming it.

At any time a user could jump on a perfectly dialed “For You” superhighway…or you could “consume local” and support your favorite creator.

To watch your stuff, people might need to go out of their way…which is why they’ll need to know who you are.

I believe right now is the most important time in history to go all-in on building a personal brand because it may be the last era where you’re only competing with other humans.

It’s not that human players won’t exist in the future…of course they will.

But if you haven’t built a critical mass of verifiable reputation before the AI content tools cross the chasm, it’ll be 1000x harder to establish one from scratch.

If there’s a Louvre in every city, why would you visit the real one in Paris?

You’d only go if you knew the one in Paris was the real one.

But which one are you visiting if you don’t know where the real one is? I’d guess, whichever is easiest to get to.

It’s possible that the most valuable media IP in the next era is the set of creator personal brands that established fandom before the AI wave.

PRESS

Press

After that uplifting bit…here’s a fun metaphor about playing craps!

I’m not a gambler, but my favorite thing in the world is to play craps (gambler’s anonymous is rolling their eyes)

If you haven’t played, the basic strategy is to bet that a certain number will be rolled before a 7.

If it is, and you bet on that number, you win. If a 7 comes before that number hits, you lose your bet.

I’m sure many of you are thinking, where tf is this dude going with this…

If you watch legit craps players play, a common way to win a ton of money is to bet all the numbers at the same time and PRESS your advantage when you’re on a hot roll.

For simplicity, let’s assume you had bet $25 on each the 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 and 10 (ignore everything else in the pic).

All you need to happen is any of those numbers to be rolled before a 7 and you win.

Let’s say an 8 is rolled.

A beginner player would be handed $30 in winnings (the payout is 6:5). They would then take that $30, pocket it, and hope another number is rolled. If another 8 is rolled, the player makes another $30.

An advanced player would tell the dealer to press. Maybe they’ll put $15 of the $30 in their pocket, but then leave the other $15 on the 8.

Now their bet on the 8 is $40.

If another 8 hits, they now win another $48 instead of another $30.

I’ve seen craps rolls go for 30+ rolls, where six 8’s hit in row. If someone was pressing the whole way, they make $300-$500 per hit.

Here’s the truth…pressing doesn’t always work in craps because the game is rigged against you. The house always has an advantage.

But pressing does work in business because often times, you’re the house.

Just like in craps, the goal is to find the spot in your business where you have a unique leverage advantage over the field and press as hard as you can.

For you, maybe that’s your unique advantage to create a certain type of content or your ability to hire A-players.

Chances are, there is one thing that you’re unnaturally good at.

Create conditions so that you can do more of that thing.

Look for ways to press your advantage.

EVERYTHING MATTERS

Everything Matters

I’ve always believed that everything matters.

The way you tie your shoes. The way you approach that hungover workout. The way you answer your email.

Every little thing matters.

And it matters not because of how the outputs will be perceived by others, but because of what it signals to yourself about who you are.

How you do anything is how you do everything.

And if you believe you’re the type of person that crushes everything, you can crush anything.

My college roommate Sam had a bit about this that I’ll never forget.

Someone asked why he was confident he was going to win.

He said the coldest thing I’ve ever heard…

“There isn’t one area where I’m going to be significantly better than you. There might even be some where I’m worse. And you won’t feel the disadvantage…you may not even notice it. But I’m going to try slightly harder than you at every single little thing I do. And over time, those slight imperceptible efforts are going to matter. Because at the end, when they add up, I’m going to have beaten you and you’re going to have no idea how it happened”

We were playing beer pong.

Everything matters.

WEEK 54 BEST CONTENT

My best content from last week:

1. 🤖 | Meta rolled out the future of Creator AIs: Watch

2. 👀 | Are we living in an episode of Black Mirror (AI Friend launch): Watch

3. 🎙️ | My appearance on The 505 podcast: Watch

4. 🎯 | Use this easy framework to focus better & lock in (Blueprint 53): Watch

5. ⚖️ | Should I stop posting shorts & go all-in on YouTube (Blueprint Month 8): Watch

6. 🧑🏼‍🚀 | Blueprint (Week 53) - Fame vs Influence, Defining Success, The Duration of Stardom, Inspiration, Content's Biggest Contradiction: Read