🧑🏼‍🚀 Blueprint 059

Welcome back to Blueprint.

If you’re new to the series, it’s been 59 weeks (1 year + 1 month + 3 weeks) since I went full-time as an entrepreneur.

My goal is to go from $0 → $1M/month while transparently documenting the entire journey, strategy, and moves.

• Each week, I share learnings & experiments (in written form)

• Each month, I share income & strategy shifts (in video form)

• You can watch the Year 1 recap video here

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 59 METRICS & UPDATES

Virality Explained

It’s been a while since I’ve had a video go nuclear…this week I had two.

The first was this one breaking down Cursor AI, a natural language AI coding tool that is an early taste of what "easy programming” could look like in the future.

The next day, I posted this one about lifesize floor plans (you walk around a 1:1 scale projected floor plan of your home before you build it).

Collectively, these two videos drove 9.2M views on IG, 750K on Tiktok, 700K on LinkedIn.

In the content game, there is nothing more intoxicating than having multiple viral videos breaking out at the same time.

It’s a bit like hitting jackpots on back to back slot pulls in Vegas (although views ≠ dollars and Wayne Newton’s not around to give you a high-five).

I wanted to share a few thoughts on virality that I think will be valuable to hear…

…because if you make content for any reason, chances are, this is what you’re chasing.

In this section, I’ll share:

• How to engineer virality (my sauce)

• When virality is good vs bad

• The impact for a creator from having a viral hit like this

How to engineer virality (my sauce)

I believe virality can be engineered…to an extent.

Anyone who guarantees virality on a specific piece of content is lying to you, because a large portion of it comes down to factors outside of your control (timing, initial shares, large account cosigns, etc.).

You could post the exact same video on 7 different days, across 7 different accounts, and it might only go nuclear 1-2 times.

But…I do believe you can pull a couple levers to dramatically increase your viral hit rate.

As a baseline, I averaged 1.1M views/video across 150 videos in my first full year. My viral hit rate (videos with 1M+ views) was 1 in 6.

Here’s my formula for virality…

The good news is, going viral is pretty straightforward…to make it happen, all you need is a lot of people to share your video with others. If you maintain a share rate of at least 2-3%, your video will go viral.

Each variable in the equation above is designed to increase your share rate. If you hit on all of them in the same video, buckle your seatbelt.

Let’s breakdown each piece:

1. Unique Idea: To get people to share, you either need to be first to market with a common idea or have an uncommon idea. First to market with a common idea would be like covering the new Apple product release and posting your video before anyone else. But this won’t guarantee virality because a) lots of people quick react to news and b) it takes several hours for the algo to start spreading your video. Even if you beat the field by 1-2 hours, you need some of these other factors to also be true to have a breakout. The other route is to make a video using an uncommon idea. This is something that people haven’t seen before (story, product, framework, concept, etc.). To find uncommon ideas, you need to look in uncommon places. Find blogs, YouTube channels, and newsletters that do a good job of surfacing weird things. I spend a lot of my time hunting for these sources

2. Large Applicable Audience: The reason common ideas go viral is because there is usually a large applicable audience. Using the Apple example, this video would be relevant for anyone interested in tech. That’s a huge TAM. Huge TAM means lots of people that might share and lots of people for them to share to. The larger the applicability of the content, the more people that might like it. The problem with common ideas, and why they only work with speed, is that even if you make a banger video with a large applicable audience, if someone knows that their friends have already seen/read the news, and you don’t have a unique POV, they won’t share it. They may like it, but they won’t share because sharing a stale story doesn’t earn them the social credibility they’re looking for. On the other side, the problem with uncommon ideas is that they are often very niche and have small audience TAMs. This means that even though they’re interesting, there may not be enough people willing to share it

So far, across the first two variables, the highest probability scenario for virality is to use an uncommon idea with a large applicable TAM. For me, this would be something like my Taylor Swift Stage Construction Video (uncommon idea = her stage + large applicable audience = Taylor Swift)

3. Unique POV: The best way to make someone share a common idea is to have a unique POV on top of it…I call this a storylens. What is the lens through which you’re telling the story? Because it’s so hard to find uncommon ideas consistently, most of my mega viral videos fall in this combination (common idea + large applicable audience + unique POV). A good example of this is my Leo Messi <> Inter Miami video. This was a common topic (Leo Messi signing with Inter Miami), a large applicable audience (Leo Messi), and a unique POV (how did the business deal break the current model for players?). People will be willing to share a common idea, even if you’re not first to post, if you have a unique POV on top of it. If fact, the unique storylens can almost act like an “uncommon idea” if it’s good enough.

I’ve also found that an uncommon idea + unique storylens actually doesn’t go viral as much as a common idea + unique storylens or an uncommon idea + non-unique storylens.

You’d think having both an uncommon idea & unique storylens would multiply the uniqueness, but it comes off so far from normal that most people don’t find it compelling.

For example, it’s easier to get people to share Taylor Swift + Her Tour Business Model or Taylor’s Dad + His Message to Her Verbatim than it would be to share Taylor’s Dad + His Strategic Business moves.

4. World-Class Hook: If you nail the three variables above, you should guarantee at least a medium performing video. But to go supersayan, you have to have a killer hook. This is probably the most important thing. Why? When people share your video, they either repost as a story or send it as a direct message. Reposting as story will only show the first 10 seconds of the video…that means it must be compelling enough to get others to click into the shared story and watch. Also, the watch curve on all videos is an exponential decay, so the hook will get the most eyes. I’ve talked a lot about what makes a good hook in the past, and it’s a bit more art than science, but here are a couple things that can help:

   1. Open a curiosity loop (after one sentence, does the viewer need to keep listening to find out the answer)

   2. Visual hooks (use text on screen and some motion to help hold the viewer’s attention)

   3. Quick delivery (be quick with your speech pacing initially)

Hooks are the hardest thing to nail and change with every single video. This is one of the areas where I add the most leverage when I work with brands directly…taking their video ideas and elevating their hit rate by writing hooks for them.

5. Compelling Story: If you’ve nailed the hook, and solved for the above variables, you just need to keep the viewer engaged with a decent story. There is more room for error here than on the hook. I made a video breaking down the exact storytelling techniques I’ve used. Linking that here

6. Luck: I talked about this above…I lot of going viral comes down to if the right people share your video to start spinning the wheel initially. One reshare from someone with 100K+ followers can mean the difference between 10K and 1M views. Big accounts sharing your video is both mathematically exposing more people to it and psychologically cosigning your video as something people should watch. These both matter

When virality is good vs bad?

When I first started making content, I assumed the goal was virality at all costs.

My thinking: more views would equal more followers, more followers would equal more influence, more influence would equal bigger brand deals, etc.

But like most things, my beginner assumptions weren’t completely accurate.

Going viral in a category outside of your niche is often more harmful than helpful.

Let’s walk through the example with my Leo Messi video (my biggest ever).

My core niche with shorts is tech/AI. My goal is to build a huge authority around new tech, AI, and how to use those tools to build and grow as an entrepreneur.

The Leo Messi video got 17.5M views on IG and 11.7M views on Tiktok. It drove 25K+ new followers.

Even though that video had a business strategy angle, it had nothing to do with tech and was “off target” for my audience.

That meant that when I went back to my normal tech video posting, most of those new followers didn’t want to watch.

Over the next several months, I was averaging 4-5K new followers per week, but also losing 4-5K new followers per week.

My net gain was essentially flat for months.

Psychologically this can be super confusing to a creator…you had a massive viral hit, but can’t grow despite solid performing videos in your niche.

I had to go through a full cleansing period where most of these misaligned followers churned off my account.

This has happened to me twice.

As a creator, pure reach is not the goal…targeted reach within your category that helps you build “on target fandom” is the goal.

When you go viral within your targeted niche, it will act like a trampoline, giving you thousands of new fans in one shot. This is super helpful.

To avoid the misaligned virality, it’s super important to be disciplined about the ideas that you choose to make content about.

Viral impact on a creator entrepreneur

The truth is, these types of viral moments are validating, but you shouldn’t put too much weight in them.

Don’t mistake virality for winning. Winning comes when you provide value to a fan for a long-time.

All virality does is give you the chance to do that for more fans sooner.

2 NEW VIDEOS

First Vlog + Blueprint Month 13 Recap Video

2 new videos for you guys to check out.

• The first is my first ever vlog. In this episode, I spend a weekend in San Diego chasing down a world-class choco croissant, and explain why I’m vlogging

• The second is our Blueprint Month 13 Recap. I think this is the best video we’ve ever done. The animation in here is sick. I cover:

  • Month 13 Metrics/Income

  • 4 biggest learnings from Month 13 (hiring, automation, vlogging, management)

  • Strategy shifts for Month 14

If you like reading Blueprint, you’ll love both of these videos. Check them out here.

DIGITAL DRUG DEALERS

Digital Drug Dealers

Over this last couple years, I’ve noticed view counts have skyrocketed on social media.

It feels like 1M views today doesn’t mean the same as 1M views 5 years ago.

And I was thinking…if I was architecting these platforms, how would I hook people into continuing to make content?

The first things I would do is a) make it easier to feel what “virality” feels like and b) make the numbers bigger (digital inflation).

$100 feels bigger than $10 even if the purchasing power is the same because of 10x inflation.

Psychologically, the bigger the number, the more intoxicating it feels.

The more intoxicating it feels, the more hooked people become.

I think social platforms are boosting the numbers and/or making it easier to get them bigger on purpose to hook people faster.

I know for a fact TikTok was doing this, and I suspect this is happening everywhere else.

I know I just spent that whole first section talking about how to go viral, but don’t let yourself get addicted to views.

Content is a cheat code if you can turn the attention into leads into customers into sales.

Views are simply a version of internet points that doesn’t translate to real value on their own.

They’re a proxy for traction, but one that can be easily manipulated (e.g., a single second glance on an IG story could count as a view and that would boost the numbers, etc.).

Focus on the core metrics that actually move the needle for you and your business.

Falling in love with views is a trap.

MYTHICAL FIGURES

Mythical Figures

I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on my decision to share everything about my entrepreneurial journey in Blueprint.

On one hand, it’s what the younger version of me would have wanted. I also think it will be cool/valuable to look back on the early days and get to revisit my blindspots and strategic mistakes.

But on the other hand, to steelman this thinking, I wonder if I’d be better off playing more in the shadows, keeping my learnings private?

In this section, I want to tease a mindframe around this…it’s pretty out there and may not fully make sense but yolo.

I call it mythical figures.

Mythical figures are people that accomplish incredible things but rarely speak about them publicly. They’re generally unavailable.

On the rare occasions they do show up, the world pays extra attention.

These figures exist across every category…Naval, Peter Thiel, Frank Ocean, and Banksy are a few that come to mind.

I’ve noticed there’s a premium on the opinions/appearances that come from mythical figures (e.g., tech people feening when Thiel went on Rogan bc he never does interviews, etc.)

It seems the lack of availability creates a level of mystery. This mystery drives optimistic speculation…that speculative narrative is often rosier than the reality.

For example, nobody hears from Frank Ocean for 5 years. People talk about what he could be doing. Speculation is that he’s in a cave making the best record of his life. The legend grows. Reality: He’s probably just chilling, making music normally. He drops a record without notice and people hype it to the moon. The record is great, but the narrative drives part of its performance…and that narrative was based on optimistic speculation because of his unavailability.

Take the inverse of this…there’s something about when people share everything that diminishes the uniqueness of their insight.

Hormozi is the one outlier I can think of here.

He shares more volume than anyone and I always find his thoughts incredibly insightful.

But for almost everyone else, the minute they start becoming more public and less mythical, I notice myself valuing their opinion/work less over time.

For example, I’ve always thought of Ray Dalio as a legendary figure…an untouchable in finance.

Then, I saw his series about The Changing World Order and many appearances on podcasts.

The thoughts in his videos were brilliant and TCWO piece was consistent with the quality I would have expected, and yet, as soon as I saw it, his mythical factor diminished.

Another good example is Elon.

When he was posting/interviewing less, I cared more when he gave an interview.

Now that I see him tweet 20x per day about Alex Jones related conspiracies, he’s lost a bit of that mythical factor to me.

It’s odd. You’d think the more someone publicized their thoughts, the deeper I’d feel tied to them (if I liked them originally).

But for me at least, this doesn’t seem to be the case.

It’s movie sequel theory. If I love the original, and the sequel sucks, it diminishes the whole franchise in my eyes.

Perhaps the reason this mythical factor goes away with more availability is because higher volume means you’re seeing lots of extraordinary and ordinary thinking.

A hit rate of 50/100 seems less impressive than a hit rate of 2/2 even though the absolute volume of great stuff from the former is 25x higher.

If anything, the pattern seems to be that these mythical figures produce something brilliant early on (that seems to come out of nowhere), and then they disappear.

I could argue against myself by saying that many of the aforementioned mystical figures created their greatest works in a different era, where there was less content noise for their greatness to have to wade through.

In this era, in order to be seen, you have to be more available and show up more often...it’s just how the game is played now.

It also could be that most of the people I see posting a lot just aren’t that good. More from an average poster isn’t better, but more from a legend is.

Either way, I’m debating whether sharing less of the behind the scenes would be better for me in the long run.

KALLAWISMS

Kallawisms

Treadmills for the mind…

1. Boredom

The weird part about business is that success comes from hammering the same winning formula over and over until it stops working.

This is boring, but when you have a winner, it’s critical to ride it.

The best builders fall in love with the boredom of this repetition.
— — — — — — — —

2. Blinders

After a while playing in entrepreneurship, you start noticing potential opportunities everywhere.

Your brain gets tuned to look for unsolved problems and you can’t stop seeing them.

Success comes from letting a new potential idea outside your space go and keeping the blinders on to give your full attention to your main focus.

This becomes increasingly harder as you build an advanced skill competency.

Don’t let the distraction of new ideas pull you away from what’s already working.

— — — — — — — —

3. Hurricanes

It’s hard to feel the wind from the eye of the storm.

Hurricanes suck on the edges, but the eye of the storm is actually extremely calm.

When you’re the builder, you live in the eye of the storm and move as it moves.

It’s very hard to notice progress from the eye. When you’re in the eye for many years in a row, it becomes tough to ever feel like progress is happening.

This is why people say when they “zoom out” they realize how much progress they’ve made.

Don’t forget to zoom out.

WEEK 59 BEST CONTENT

My best content from last week:

1. 🐓 | Chick-Fil-A launching a Netflix competitor is genius: Watch

2. 🤖 | 8 year old builds a website in 45 mins without knowing code: Watch

3. 🏠 | This is the future of home design: Watch

4. 🥐 | 31 y/o entrepreneur building business from 0 to $1M/month | Why start vlogging?: Watch

5. 🎯 | Blueprint Month 13 Video Recap: Watch

6. 🧑🏼‍🚀 | Blueprint 058 - Winning vs playing, atomics, pursuit vs craft, TV shows, speed to value, timewasters: Read