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- š§š¼āš Blueprint 051
š§š¼āš Blueprint 051
The realness epidemic, creative priming, Blueprint Month 12, no soliciting, Kallawisms
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Welcome back to Blueprint, a weekly series where I share an unfiltered, behind-the-scenes look into my journey as a creator entrepreneur.
Itās been 51 weeks since I went full-time. Next week is the full 1 year review!
TODAYāS TOPICS:
š | Week 51 Metrics
š¤ | The Realness Epidemic
š š» | No Soliciting
š | Creative Priming
š¤·š»āāļø | Kallawisms
A reminder that the internet game is not zero-sum. Everyone reading this can win at an unlimited scale. Iām writing this for the internet astronauts building their own worlds. If thatās youā¦letās ride š©š»āš
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WEEK 51 METRICS & RECAP
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The Realness Epidemic
People are craving realnessā¦itās the biggest content trend Iām noticing lately.
To me, authenticity and realness are cousins, but theyāre not the same.
Authenticity represents the interests and passion you have for the things you talk about it.
Itās the angle.
Realness, on the other hand, is about being raw & vulnerableā¦itās the filter (or lack thereof).
When you watch someoneās content, can you feel their emotion as much as you hear the words theyāre saying?
This is how you to gauge if theyāre being real.
Why are we seeing this ārealness trendā emerge?
Two main reasonsā¦people are lonelier than ever and theyāre sick of being overstimulated.
The pandemic accelerated a permashift to remote work.
For someone like me that hated the wasted energy of commutes & unnecessary meetings, this was a celebrated change.
But I, like many, underestimated the medium and long-term loneliness that would come with working in isolation for extended periods.
Social media used to be socialā¦it was initially designed to help you stay connected with friends, even if your real life/job didnāt allow you to do so.
But with the emergence of For You feeds, almost all social platforms have turned into streaming appsā¦prioritizing content from strangers over friends and family.
This combinationā¦working alone plus social apps becoming streaming apps, propagated mass loneliness.
But this is only half the issueā¦
The other half, is that most content is designed for retention & drains brain function.
People feel tired because they are literally frying their brain from overstimulation.
If you had a personal, over-the-shoulder security camera that let you rewatch your ā5-minute phone breakāā¦youād be horrified.
The amount of app switches, notification checks, content scrolls, and on-screen flashes from each piece of content would give nausea to the 2018 version of you.
I remember when listening to podcasts on 2x speeds seemed unenjoyableā¦now, if I donāt, I get bored before the punchline.
This combination of factors has caused most people to swing their content preferences the other way.
They want the ārelaxing stroll on the beachā contentā¦which I call, hyperreal.
In practice, what does hyperreal look like?
Itās the type of videos made by my friends JT Barnett and Ben Kaluza.
Chill, slow, minimal cuts, room to breathe. Itās so much more enjoyable to watch.
Do I think all content will shift to this styleā¦no.
If I look at my own content, does the majority of my stuff fit within this styleā¦no, not yet (other than my IG stories).
But even if my own actions havenāt fully made the adjustment, I try to point out when I feel the pendulum swinging so you can zag before the othersā¦and this feels like a moment to start zagging.
To play devilās advocate, the hard part about making content in this hyperreal relaxed style, is that it can be incredibly hard to get people to notice you and stop scrolling, especially via short-form platforms if youāre starting from scratch.
This is why both of the examples I shared are from YouTubeā¦and it feels like this strategy is more primed to win on YouTube than anywhere else.
The takeaway is thisā¦if youāre making content, do everything you can to inject as much realness into it as possible. Be vulnerable, be emotional, be raw.
BLUEPRINT MONTH 12 VIDEO
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Blueprint Month 12 Video
If you like reading these weekly, you will love watching the monthly video versions even more. We continue to raise the bar on the qualityā¦my editor Charlie went crazy on the Month 12 edit (Watch).
This episode breaks down:
š§® | Month 12 Metrics
š§ | Biggest learnings across short-form, YouTube, LinkedIn, approach, likability, automation
āļø | The Samurai, The Smith, The Swordsman
NO SOLICITING
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No Soliciting
As a kid, my middle school let a magazine company brainwash me into selling zines door to door.
Shoutout to my grandpa who signed up for 18 monthly copies of Readerās Digest (Large Print) to help me get the grand prize.
I remember going up to certain houses and seeing a gold plate on their door āNO SOLICITINGā
I was 10ā¦and had no idea what that meant.
After ringing the doorbell, I quickly found out š¬
Turns out, most people in the real world donāt like being sold to.
As a creator, I think about every account on social media as a digital house.
And guess whatā¦most donāt like being sold to on social either.
So much of the content I see is trying to sell someone to take an actionā¦asking them to watch this, download that, like this, pay for that, etc.
This is transactional fandom and feels a losing strategy long-term.
Think of the ratio of asks to value as your sell rate.
What percent of your content is trying to sell something, either a soft sell (like a link click or an email subscribe) or a hard sell (actually selling a product)?
The god tier creators rarely ask.
They make exclusive high-value bangers for years, often times cashing in that fandom 1-2x times per year at most.
My goal from the beginning has been to give everything away for free, trading in short-term gains for long-term trust.
Itās impossible to know how well Iām doing, or if this is even the game optimal strategy (Iāve been fasting for months now), but it feels right in my gut.
Would love to hear from others on thisā¦what is the optimal sell rate?
CREATIVE PRIMING
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Creative Priming
My best ideas seem to come from common physical triggersā¦walks, showers, exercise.
Rarely do I have original thoughts when I sit down and ātry to generate ideas.ā
Why is this?
For me, great ideas come from connecting two random things that donāt normally belong together.
This process happens more often when Iām in the right creative state.
Weirdly, the source of where those two things come from doesnāt matterā¦itās the fact that Iām in a mental place to be able to connect them that facilitates the idea generation.
I call this process creative priming.
Iāve found the best way to get into this primed creative state is to do things that arenāt work.
Thereās something about using physical tasks to occupy your subconscious that opens up the portal for ideas.
I love being in these pockets.
If you want to start coming up with better ideas, try going for long walks/workouts without your phone and then showering right after.
KALLAWISMS
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Kallawisms
I donāt think Iām cool enough yet to brand my own category of aphorisms, but the wife was out of town so we rideā¦
Play in markets where demand is high but the bar for greatness is low. Iāll spare you the 2Ć2, but think about it. Places like hedge funds, Ivy Leagues, etcā¦demand is high but bar for greatness is high. You can win, but it will be difficult. Places like local HVAC businesses, B2B social media, etcā¦demand is high but the bar for greatness is much lower. Easy for you to come in and dominate. When you see high traffic and low average bar, sprint at it
Itās easier to find chefs and let them cook than to find apprentices and teach them the menu. The easiest way to win is to find people that have already done what you want them to do and just get out of the way. Thereās a reason The Avengers always win
Nobody cares about you or your brandā¦they just want to know how you can help them. This is a bit of a harsh reality, but itās true. You are the hero of your story, but youāre not the hero in their storyā¦they are. When you message, prioritize it around what you can do for them
If you liked these, lmk and Iāll do more of them.
WEEK 51 BEST CONTENT
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My best content from last week:
š¹ | How I Edit Viral Shorts To Consistently Get +1M Views (Step By Step Tutorial): Watch
šÆ | Blueprint Month 12: Watch
āļø | This audio tool is insanely good: Watch
šŖ© | This is how you world build: Watch
š§š¼āš | Blueprint 050 - Grooves, Content Armies, Scheduled Rest, The Future of Attribution, Content Factories: Read
If you enjoy reading Blueprint consistently, let me know how I can improve it to make it more valuable for you. I read and respond to every message!