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How to Build a Personal Brand (Full Course) — Transcript

by Caleb Ralston · 73,104 words · 10,481 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00Right now, you're on one of two paths.
0:02Path one is the forgettable brand. You
0:04post content randomly, hoping that
0:06something's going to stick. People have
0:08no idea who you are or what you do, so
0:10they do not engage, and they definitely
0:12don't buy. Now, path number two is the
0:14intentional brand. This is where you own
0:17what people associate with you, and your
0:19content builds trust and moves people
0:21toward a decision. If you're on path
0:23number one right now, this course is
0:25going to get you onto path number two
0:28and save you years and hundreds of
0:31thousands of dollars worth of mistakes.
0:33And if you have identified that you're
0:35on path number two, odds are you've
0:37probably hit a ceiling that you have not
0:39been able to break through. This course
0:40is going to help you smash through that
0:42ceiling and actually hit the scale that
0:44you've been wanting. This course is not
0:46just theory. It's built from real
0:48execution and my 16 years of experience
0:50in building brands online. So, here's
0:52what we're going to cover. Section one
0:53is branding. Section number two is going
0:55to be content strategy. Section number
0:57three is going to be building your team.
0:58And finally, in section four, we're
1:00going to talk about monetizing your
1:02brand. So, the first section is
1:03branding. And I think that we should
1:05start off with some definitions here so
1:07that we are on the same page and
1:09everything that we discuss moving
1:11forward is from the same understanding.
1:13I define branding as a pairing of
1:15things. I define good branding as an
1:18intentional pairing of relevant things
1:20done consistently and what you get from
1:23that is the byproduct which is brand.
1:25Brand is when the audience inherently
1:27associates those things together. Let's
1:30use the most classic example known to
1:32man. Nike and Michael Jordan. Nike
1:36entered the basketball market and they
1:38wanted to have their audience or
1:41customers associate them with athletic
1:44greatness. specifically within the
1:46basketball industry. So, what did they
1:48do? They intentionally paired themselves
1:51with greatness in basketball. Michael
1:54Jordan. I I can't think of another name
1:56that's more synonymous with victory,
1:58with winning, with greatness. Or take
2:01Gary Vaynerchuk in content. The man
2:03literally wrote a book called Crush It.
2:05I don't even remember when it came out.
2:06I think 2009. And he was talking about
2:08how people are going to make money
2:10talking about the Smurfs on YouTube. The
2:14man is synonymous with content and over
2:16time his actions done repetitively have
2:20led us to draw that association. He has
2:23intentionally paired himself with
2:26content among many other things. Or my
2:28absolute favorite that I always have to
2:30inject at any chance I get,
2:32Harley-Davidson. Harley-Davidson for
2:34many years in their marketing has
2:36intentionally paired themselves with
2:37freedom. And so what is the association
2:40that the customer base draws upon when
2:42they think of Harley-Davidson? Freedom.
2:45The open road, tearing off their suit
2:47and going out and hitting the road. And
2:49so ultimately what we are trying to do
2:52is think of what are the associations
2:55that we want our audience to inherently
2:57draw when they think of our name. And
2:59the beauty of this is it actually makes
3:02it operational for you. All you have to
3:04do is deliberately and intentionally
3:06pair yourself with the association that
3:08you want your audience to make. It takes
3:10all of the woo woo fluffy magic out of
3:12what brand is and it makes it something
3:14that you can actually do. Now,
3:16real quick, my team and I put a lot of
3:18effort into building out this course and
3:20a lot of accompanying worksheets and
3:23playbooks. So, please take advantage of
3:25them. What you're going to notice is at
3:27the bottom of the screen here, we're
3:28going to have little icons that tell you
3:31what sheet and how you can download it.
3:34I would highly encourage you, please
3:37download these sheets and follow along.
3:39Now that we know what brand and branding
3:41are, we need to define what your brand
3:45is. Now, your brand actually exists
3:47whether you define it or not. Your
3:50audience might be defining it for you. I
3:51would rather we be intentional and take
3:53control. The first step in defining your
3:55brand is defining your desired outcome.
3:59I like to work from the end goal and
4:01reverse engineer our way backwards. And
4:03so here is how I actually reverse
4:05engineer our desired outcome to today.
4:08It is called the brand journey
4:09framework. And it's just four simple
4:11questions, but I can't tell you how many
4:14people have told me how impactful this
4:16was and gave them the exact road map of
4:19how to go about building their brand. So
4:23question number one, again, like I said,
4:25we're starting from the end in mind and
4:27working our way back. So what is our
4:29desired outcome? What do we want to have
4:31happen? Question number two is, what do
4:33I have to be known for in order for that
4:35to happen? Question number three is,
4:38what do I have to do in order to be
4:41known for that? Unfortunately, building
4:43a brand isn't just about things that we
4:45say, it's about our actions. And so if
4:47we want to be known for something, in
4:49order to be known for it, we got to do
4:51the to be known for it. And then
4:53finally, the last question takes us to
4:56right now. What do I have to learn in
4:59order to do that? So if I'm going to do
5:02things in order to be known for
5:04something to then get my desired
5:05outcome, well, right now, I might not
5:08know how to do those things. And so this
5:10gives you day one exactly what to do.
5:14You need to learn these specific items
5:16and then you need to do those things and
5:19then you will become known for those
5:20things and then eventually the desired
5:22outcome occurs. If you have clarity on
5:24your outcome, this ensures that every
5:26decision you make along the way lines up
5:29with what you want to have happen. The
5:31majority of people that are building
5:33their brand online that are posting
5:34content, I promise you
5:3799.9% of them have no idea what they're
5:39trying to accomplish with their content,
5:41with their brand. And so what they're
5:42doing is they're wandering aimlessly.
5:44There's an amazing example that I I love
5:46to share from Alice in Wonderland.
5:48There's a moment where Alice comes to a
5:49fork in the road. There's two different
5:50directions she can go. And the cat,
5:52Chester the cat, I believe is his name.
5:54And he's sitting in the tree and she
5:57says, "Which way should I go?" And he
6:00goes, "Well, where are you trying to end
6:02up?" And she says, "I don't know." And
6:04the cat responds with something so
6:06powerful. He says, "Well, then either
6:08way, we'll take you there. If you do not
6:11have a desired outcome that you are
6:12making your decisions off of, you're
6:14going to go somewhere, but it might not
6:16be the place that you want to be. Now,
6:18after you define your desired outcome, I
6:21would argue probably the most important
6:23part of defining your brand is defining
6:25your associations or the associations
6:28that you desire to have. Ask yourself,
6:30what do I want to be associated with?
6:32What do I want the audience to think of
6:34when they hear my name? Here's an
6:35example. Do you want your name to be
6:37tied to business, trustworthiness, or
6:39mental well-being? Everything you create
6:41should reinforce those associations.
6:44This is where intentionality in branding
6:46starts. Everything you create should
6:48reinforce those associations. This right
6:51here is where intentionality in branding
6:54starts. So, a very meta example here is
6:57that I am creating this course and the
7:00content that we're going to be putting
7:01out to intentionally pair Rston, my
7:04consulting firm, with value, with
7:07scaling brands, with understanding
7:09attention, with building brands that not
7:11only scale, but last and build
7:14trustworthiness within their community.
7:16This is literally what I'm doing. I'm
7:17putting together a massive course right
7:19now that is going to outline all of this
7:22and
7:24consistently pair myself with those
7:26attributes that I want you to draw upon
7:29when you hear about Rston Consulting.
7:32So, we're going to continue to create
7:33content like this talking about scaling
7:36your brand. We are intentionally pairing
7:39ourselves with the relevant thing
7:41scaling brands and we're going to do
7:43that consistently through our content.
7:45Now, we just went over what you want to
7:47be associated with. I would argue this
7:49next part is far more important and
7:52something that 99.9% of people
7:55completely ignore, which is what do you
7:58not want to be associated with? A lot of
8:00people make the mistake of assuming that
8:02brand is only about what you want to
8:05have happen. But a lot of what building
8:07a brand and a successful brand is,
8:10especially in today's saturated market
8:11where there's so many people online
8:13talking about the same subject matter as
8:15you, you can stand out by what you
8:18choose not to associate with. This is
8:20ultimately how you protect your brand.
8:22This is how you keep it from deliluding
8:24and being misinterpreted. Think of how
8:26many people you see online whose
8:27reputation probably has nothing to do
8:29with what they wanted or what their
8:30desire was. often times that is a
8:33byproduct of not being intentional with
8:35what they are not going to associate
8:37with. If you don't actively shape your
8:39associations, your audience is going to
8:41do it for you. Now, this next little
8:43example and explanation here is going to
8:45get a little technical. So, I'm actually
8:46going to read off of the screen to the
8:49right of the camera right now um so that
8:51I don't mess this up because I think
8:52it's really important and I want to make
8:54sure that we go through this exactly how
8:56I meant to. If we believe that branding
8:59is a pairing of things and that good
9:02branding is an intentional pairing of
9:04relevant things done consistently and
9:06that that then creates brand which is
9:09when the audience inherently associates
9:11those things together then we're on the
9:13same page of what brand and branding is.
9:15But what you'll notice is intentional is
9:18not a good or bad statement. Intentional
9:22doesn't mean right or good. Meaning, you
9:25could be intentional with pairing your
9:28brand, but with the wrong things done
9:31consistently. Unfortunately, what this
9:33ends up leading to is the audience
9:35drawing the association between your
9:38brand and those wrong things. Here's an
9:40example that I have to give a qualifier
9:42for. I have some pretty strong views and
9:44opinions on some of the online creators
9:46in the business education space. All
9:49love and respect to everyone. Everyone
9:51can do their own thing. This is Caleb
9:52Rston's individual opinion. Strongly
9:56believed, loosely held. There are some
9:58very scammy, sketchy in
10:01the online education space. They are
10:03untrustworthy and they make content
10:06trying to ladder up to selling some
10:08course online. If you choose to
10:11consistently appear in content with
10:13them, whether it's them inviting you on
10:15their podcast or you guys doing a collab
10:17video together, if you do that
10:20consistently, aka you intentionally pair
10:23yourself with the scam artist online,
10:26the untrustworthy character, the snake
10:29oil salesman, guess what happens if you
10:32do that consistently? Your audience will
10:35start to inherently associate you with
10:38that crowd. Is that good for trust? No,
10:42not at all. In fact, this is some of the
10:44biggest problems that you see with a lot
10:46of creators in the business education
10:48space right now. There are a lot of
10:50individuals that actually have a lot of
10:52value and a lot of good to add into the
10:54world and education and able to
10:57literally show people a whole new way to
10:58approach their business, their career.
11:00But the problem is is they go on all
11:02these podcasts with these
11:04individuals that I cannot trust. And by
11:07doing that enough times, I no longer
11:09feel that I can trust that individual.
11:12So, as much as you want to pair yourself
11:13with the right things,
11:15please, please be diligent about what
11:19you choose not to associate with. If you
11:22get a bad feeling in your gut, if you
11:25don't think that it's the right move,
11:26it's not worth the exposure. I'm going
11:28to open up the kimono here for a second.
11:31I have people right now, not a lot
11:33because I'm not that interesting, but I
11:35have a couple of people that have been
11:36asking me to come on to their podcast.
11:38And so far, I've said yes to everyone,
11:40but there are some individuals out there
11:42that I know will probably eventually
11:43reach out and ask me to come on the
11:45show. Now, if they have that kind of a
11:48brand, I will choose to not go on the
11:52show, even if it's the biggest audience
11:54that I could get in front of because
11:56ultimately awareness is not worth the
12:00trade. What are those people going to be
12:01aware of? They're going to be aware of
12:03you in light of that association. All
12:06right, we've defined our brand. So now
12:09we need to position it. Now your goal
12:11isn't to just blend in. You actually
12:13want to find what is missing in your
12:15industry and own that gap. So it might
12:19be the information that you have. It
12:21might be the philosophy you have around
12:23a certain subject matter like branding
12:25for example. Or it might be your
12:27personality and your unique take on the
12:30same information. You might just be able
12:32to reach a whole different audience that
12:34wasn't able to connect with some of the
12:37other creators in that space.
12:39Ultimately, what you are looking for is
12:41the gap of what is missing and then you
12:44fill it. Now, how do you go about
12:46finding out what is missing or how do
12:48you own that gap? Well, ask yourself
12:50these two questions. What are the people
12:52that are currently creating content in
12:54the space that I'm wanting to occupy?
12:56What are they saying that I disagree
12:57with? How can I take what has been
13:00taught for years or shared for years and
13:03bring a fresh perspective to the table?
13:05Here's a really good example. If
13:06everyone in your industry is focusing on
13:09going viral and getting lots of views
13:11and and always doing that, maybe leaning
13:14into building a long-term trustbuilt
13:17brand will stand out. That's what I'm
13:19trying to do here, right? A lot of my
13:21counterparts who I love and respect,
13:24they emphasize virality and getting
13:26views and there's a lot of benefit to
13:28that. But where I'm coming in and kind
13:30of filling the gap is there's not a lot
13:32of people online talking, especially in
13:35the form of free content like this in a
13:37way that shares with you how to build a
13:39brand that lasts. If you just emphasize
13:42views, for example, the moment the
13:44algorithm changes, nobody's going and
13:46searching for your name. On the flip
13:47side, if you build a brand that has
13:49trustworthiness and deposits a lot of
13:51goodwill into the marketplace, the
13:53moment the algorithm changes, your
13:54audience will be searching for you. And
13:56so that is a prime example of me
13:58contrasting myself with the others in
14:00the industry. That's me noticing a gap
14:03where nobody's talking about this or
14:04very few, and me wanting to fill it, not
14:07only with my unique perspectives and
14:09philosophies, my experience doing this
14:11for 16 years, but also maybe a unique
14:14and quirky personality that some people
14:17will really hate and then a tiny few of
14:20you might actually resonate with. Now,
14:21the other way to bring a fresh
14:23perspective is to share your story. So,
14:26what I would encourage you to look at is
14:27what is different about your story than
14:30everybody else's. Now the the obvious
14:32answer is everybody's story is
14:33different, right? But what is it that
14:35makes you uniquely you? That you can
14:38present all of your information, your
14:41beliefs through that lens. Ultimately,
14:44your story is your brand's secret
14:46weapon. This is what makes you unique
14:48and makes you stand out from everybody
14:50else in the crowd. Nobody else has the
14:52same come-up story or origin story that
14:54you do. An exercise to help you do this
14:57is actually to list out pivotal moments
14:59in your story, in your life, challenges
15:02you've overcome, turning points in your
15:04career, that moment where you got laid
15:07off at your job, and then all of a
15:09sudden ended up finding the next gig,
15:11and it's the greatest thing ever. And
15:13any unique experiences that have shaped
15:15your perspective. For me, working with
15:17Gary Vaynerchuk completely changed my
15:20perspective. I I had a completely
15:22different understanding of what it meant
15:24to create content online with your
15:27audience in mind first rather than
15:30making to make you look good. Share
15:32that in your content. And
15:33ultimately like stories resonate way
15:35more with people than you saying typical
15:38tropes and attributes like hardworking
15:41or innovative or hustling. Nobody gives
15:44a about that. They want to hear the
15:45story behind the hard work. For example,
15:47instead of me being like, I'm a hard
15:49worker, I would tell the story of when I
15:51was editing Gary Ve's trash talk series
15:53and how I would come in on Sunday, and
15:56start editing 12 to 14 hours a day,
15:58Sunday through Thursday, and then I
15:59would arrive in the office at 6:00 a.m.
16:01on Thursday, and I would not leave the
16:03office until 2:00 p.m. on Friday. I'm
16:06not going to do the math for you right
16:07now, but I believe that's about 32 hours
16:09straight. the story and if I went more
16:11into detail would be far more compelling
16:13than me just telling you about working
16:15hard or how I work hard. Another example
16:17is instead of Jeff Bezos talking about
16:20how resourceful he is, tell the story
16:22about how he used a door as his
16:24desk. Nothing will say resourceful more
16:27than telling that story. Share your
16:29stories. That is what your audience is
16:30going to resonate with. Now, for those
16:32of you who have made content online, the
16:35thing that you're probably very aware of
16:37is there's a lot of skepticism. There
16:39are a lot of objections that the
16:41audience has towards your content,
16:44especially if you are in the education
16:46space. Legitimately, the majority of
16:48people watching your content are
16:50thinking the entire time, why would I
16:52trust this? Does this actually work?
16:54Okay, cool. That worked for you, but
16:55does it work for me? How would it work
16:57in this scenario? Have you done this in
16:59multiple different industries? They are
17:01constantly thinking of their objections
17:03to what you have to say. And often times
17:06those objections and that skepticism
17:08appears in the comments. Here's what I
17:11would like you to do. Instead of
17:13allowing that to take place in your
17:15comments, start looking at your comment
17:18section, getting a greater understanding
17:20of the skepticism and objections that
17:22commonly occur within your audience and
17:24start addressing them in the content.
17:27Just like a great VSSL overcomes
17:30objections before a prospect hops on a
17:32sales call, treat your content the same
17:35way. Why would you not try to overcome
17:37the objections that your audience is
17:38going to have? If ultimately your goal
17:40is to educate and change the actions of
17:43your audience after they consume your
17:44content, why would you make it harder
17:47for them to do that? Let's make it
17:49easier by overcoming any objection or
17:51skepticism they're going to have about
17:53what you're saying in the content
17:56itself. If you address the skepticism
17:58and the objections proactively in your
18:00content, what you do is you build more
18:03trust and credibility. When you answer
18:05the questions before they're even asked,
18:08you remove friction, and then it makes
18:11it easier for your audience to actually
18:14change their actions and be educated.
18:17All right, the next one is don't be a
18:18robot. This is something that a
18:20lot of people making content online
18:22really struggle with, and I completely
18:25understand why. There's this weird
18:27object that you're talking into called a
18:29camera and a lens. And it's like this
18:32very freaky ordeal, right? Even right
18:35now, I am doing my best to be a human,
18:37not a robot, right? And bring my
18:39personality into this content rather
18:42than just monotone giving the
18:45information that I want to. And part of
18:47being a human is sharing not only the
18:51wins, but also the losses. Share the
18:54failures that you've had along the way
18:56and the lessons that you learned from
18:59those failures. Think about it. The
19:01friend that you have that's always
19:02sharing how great everything is and how
19:05they just keep winning eventually, one,
19:07they just become kind of
19:09annoying, right? But two, do you really
19:11believe that? Do you really believe that
19:13life is so perfect and that everything
19:14is going exactly their way? No. Imagine
19:18not knowing this individual. So from
19:20afar, your audience is going to be even
19:22more skeptical of you if all you're
19:24doing is sharing all your W's. On the
19:26flip side, if you are vulnerable and you
19:29share your losses, what you will find is
19:32a lot more people will trust you and
19:34connect with you and relate with you. I
19:36actually think that losses are more
19:39relatable than wins. And we can learn a
19:42lot more from losses than maybe we can
19:44learn from wins. And ultimately, if you
19:47share your losses and the lessons
19:49learned from them, you help your
19:51audience potentially, if they choose to
19:54take action, avoid making those same
19:57mistakes. A really good example of this
19:59is someone that I worked for uh several
20:01years ago. When I started with her, her
20:04whole audience thought that she was a
20:06robot and viewed her as not human. She
20:11just came across as like an information,
20:14you know, overload. and she was just
20:16sharing her knowledge which was a lot
20:18but it had no substance or personality
20:20to it. And so when I started working
20:23with her it was my number one goal to
20:25show her human side to take it from just
20:30information just d to like show
20:33personality right and and this
20:35individual she had an amazing
20:36personality. She was hilarious so funny
20:39quirky everything. But you would never
20:41know that just watching the content. In
20:43fact, a lot of people would meet her in
20:45real life and be like, "You're so much
20:48nicer and funnier and than I expected
20:50you to be. I actually kind of expected
20:52you to be a jerk." But like, in no way
20:54was that the case, but you wouldn't know
20:56it from the content she was making. And
20:59so, I really encourage you to do your
21:02best to bring your true self, bring your
21:05whole self into your content. Seriously,
21:08it will make you stand out. There's
21:10nobody else that's actually like you. An
21:12example for sharing your failures is in
21:14my first YouTube video, I share a
21:16failure. I share the story of how one of
21:18my main clients cut my monthly
21:21compensation in half and I had to go and
21:24fire my friends that I had hired. That
21:27was a real shot to my ego and isn't my
21:30favorite thing to share necessarily, but
21:32I think one there's a big lesson that I
21:35shared that is accompanied with that
21:39failure. But also, I think that you guys
21:42watching it probably, if you did see
21:44that video, felt a little bit closer to
21:47me because I appeared more human. That
21:51transparency ultimately builds trust way
21:54faster than somebody who is just
21:55constantly posturing and trying to show
21:57you how great they are. This
21:59next one is actually uh really tough for
22:01a lot of people to do. And I completely
22:04understand why. The point is to listen
22:06to your audience. The hard part or the
22:09difficulty in this is there's a lot of
22:11people that make content that get a
22:12decent amount of hate in their comments.
22:15They get a lot of people that are just
22:17frankly being And what
22:20I would encourage you to do is do your
22:22best to ignore those individuals. And
22:24real quick, just like an anecdote on
22:25this is if you ignore the praise, you
22:28can ignore the hate. If you get really
22:31high off of the praise when people
22:33applaud you in the comments, you're
22:35going to be very vulnerable to being
22:37very depressed when you see the hateful
22:40comments that are tearing you down. But
22:42aside from the hateful comments, the
22:44other comments that you have in your
22:47posts are actually incredible insights
22:50into how you should go about navigating
22:52your brand and the content that you
22:54create. Especially in the early days, I
22:56would encourage you to look at the
22:58individuals that know you, your friends,
23:01co-workers, and any audience that you
23:03may already have. What are they
23:05associating you with? What do they
23:07praise you for? What do they applaud you
23:08for? What do they admire in you and what
23:11keeps them wanting to either continue
23:13hanging out with you, talking to you,
23:15what keeps them coming back? What you
23:17want to do is use this feedback to
23:18refine your positioning and ultimately
23:20know what you can double down on. A
23:22really big example for me is, and this
23:26will sound weird coming out of my mouth,
23:28but please take this with like a humble
23:30tone that I hope I have here. Something
23:32very interesting that I've noticed is
23:33when I hop on Zoom calls with potential
23:35clients or with clients, like 90% of the
23:37calls end with one or more of the
23:40members on the other team mentioning how
23:42much they love my energy and
23:44personality. Again, it feels really
23:46weird for me to say this, so please hear
23:48it correctly, but I started noticing
23:49that and I realized, man, to my point
23:52earlier, I should really make sure that
23:55I bring that same personality and energy
23:57into the content that I make cuz it's
23:59who I am. It's how I actually roll. Like
24:02I I'll make a statement and then I do a
24:03little side comment on. I do that with
24:05all my friends or my family all the
24:07time. I do it on client calls, on
24:09discovery calls, anything. And so if
24:12that is something that people are
24:14resonating with and liking and giving me
24:16real time feedback on that they like
24:18that and enjoy it, why the would I
24:20not involve that in my content? And so
24:22this is using my audience and
24:25technically I wouldn't even call them my
24:27audience, but essentially they are. and
24:29using their feedback to refine how I
24:32present myself in the content, which
24:35ultimately the way I'm going to present
24:36myself is being fully me. Now, another
24:38example is if your audience really
24:41values your practical advice, your no
24:44BS, nononsense, straight to the point
24:47advice, I would really encourage you to
24:49lean into it. If you start seeing a
24:52trend emerging where people are, you
24:54know, adding more filler fluff and, you
24:57know, comfort creators, that's great,
24:59but that's not you. Don't follow a trend
25:02just because it's a trend. Stay true to
25:05who you are and what your audience
25:07appreciates most about what you are
25:10putting out. Another example of
25:12listening to your audience and actually
25:14making a very good change is there was
25:17another client that I had worked with uh
25:19a while back and they fell into this
25:22pattern of honestly getting way too
25:24intense in their content and only
25:27talking about really one subject matter.
25:29They didn't really diversify and they
25:32were just hammering one message over and
25:35over and over that the audience wasn't
25:37resonating with. It wasn't like, you
25:39know, you have your haters that are that
25:41are speaking out and stuff, but
25:42ultimately you're telling your truth.
25:44No, like the majority of the audience
25:46was giving a lot of push back. And so
25:48what this individual did is they
25:50listened to the audience. And by
25:51listening to the audience, they started
25:53to add more context. They didn't change
25:55their belief. They didn't change what
25:57they were saying. They rounded out what
25:59they were saying and gave more context
26:01as to why they were pushing this message
26:04so much. So again, listen to your
26:06audience and let it shape how you
26:08present your ideas, philosophies, and
26:11beliefs. Don't have it change your
26:14beliefs. Don't cater what you're saying
26:16just to the audience. Nobody likes that.
26:18That's what we call a politician. Nobody
26:20wants that. And now the
26:23longanticipated brand story framework.
26:26Your brand story isn't just a before and
26:28after transformation. It's a series of
26:30intentional decisions that shape how
26:33people see you. Now, I tend to believe
26:35that most story frameworks are a little
26:38too rigid to actually be practically
26:40used, especially for many different use
26:41cases. I think that what they end up
26:43doing is they assume that every brand
26:45has some dramatic aha moment, right?
26:47Some big problem that they have to
26:49solve. They assume that the founder
26:51story is the most important one. They
26:53assume that a brand's identity will
26:55never evolve. But great brands aren't
26:57built on a singular moment. They're
27:00built on consistency, distinction, and
27:03connecting with the right audience over
27:05time. So here's a storytelling framework
27:07that I believe works in all cases.
27:09Forget the problem transformation
27:11outcome framework. Okay, I believe that
27:14that is too narrow. Instead, here is the
27:16threepart brand story framework. Number
27:19one is the catalyst. This is why your
27:22brand exists. Every brand, I believe,
27:25starts because something needed to
27:28change. This isn't necessarily always a
27:31struggle. It might be an opportunity or
27:33a gap in the market. For example, and I
27:36don't know this for sure, but I can make
27:38some pretty good assumptions here. I
27:39don't think Phil Knight started Nike
27:41just to be rich. If he did, there's
27:43plenty of other businesses he could have
27:45started that had a higher likelihood of
27:46success. I believe he saw that no other
27:49companies were fulfilling the demand and
27:51meeting the needs that the market had.
27:53In order to determine what your catalyst
27:55is, I would ask yourself these three
27:57questions. What needs to change? What do
28:00you see that others don't? What's that
28:03opportunity that you see so clearly that
28:06nobody else can see? And why do you feel
28:08the need to act on it? If you answer
28:11these three questions, this is your
28:13catalyst for your brand. This is why
28:15your brand exists. Number two is the
28:17core truth. This is what makes you or
28:19your company different than everybody
28:21else in your space. A strong brand
28:24stands out. It doesn't blend in.
28:26Blending in ultimately leads to you
28:28being forgotten. A lot of people
28:30misunderstand this and there's a lot of
28:32them online right now. It doesn't mean
28:34that it's controversy for controversial
28:36sake. That's where you just get the
28:38annoyingly loud people on the internet
28:40that nobody likes. That is not what I'm
28:42saying here. What I am saying is it
28:44means having a core conviction that is
28:47different than everyone else in the
28:50market and not only having that core
28:52conviction but sharing it publicly with
28:56the world. A great example of this is
28:59actually an artist by the name of Russ.
29:01Uh Russ has some very unique views on
29:04how musicians should go about navigating
29:07their career. He is very very strong
29:10about how artists should remain
29:12independent and own the rights to their
29:15music. He believes that this allows them
29:17to have creative control but to also
29:19profit more off of their hard work. What
29:22does he do with that? He shares those
29:24beliefs in the form of his music. He
29:27literally talks about it in his music,
29:29but then also when he does interviews on
29:31podcasts or various news networks, he
29:34reinforces this and shares it heavily.
29:37So to determine your core truth, ask
29:40yourself these three questions. What do
29:42I believe that others do not? What is it
29:45about my personality that stands out?
29:48And think about this. We we talked about
29:49it earlier, but what do people
29:52compliment you on that you can lean
29:55into, that you can double down on? The
29:58example I gave earlier was that people
30:00on Zoom calls, client calls and stuff
30:02like that would mention that they love
30:04my energy and my personality. So what am
30:08I doing in my content in building my
30:10brand? Leaning into that and really
30:12trying to highlight and bring my
30:14somewhat quirky and weird personality
30:17into the content. And number three, why
30:19would the audience care about this? How
30:21does this impact them? What value does
30:23it bring for them? If you answer these
30:25three questions, you'll have your core
30:27truth. And number three, the proof. This
30:29is how you reinforce your identity over
30:33and over and over. I believe that your
30:36brand is not what you say, it's what you
30:40do and prove over and over again. Strong
30:44brands don't just have one past success
30:46story. They have an ongoing pattern of
30:48credibility. Another Gary example is
30:50that he doesn't just talk about volume
30:53of content and the importance of it.
30:55He's proved it for like 15 plus years.
30:58And he reinforces the credibility of
31:01this statement by talking about what
31:03he's done not only for his personal
31:05brand, but all the brands that Vayner
31:07Media works with for the Super Bowl
31:09campaigns, for example. The majority of
31:11their Super Bowl campaigns are
31:13determined off of high volume social
31:16content that they do throughout the year
31:18to test learnings, see what the audience
31:21resonates with, and that's what they run
31:22with on the Super Bowl. And he shares
31:24those stories. So, he is reinforcing the
31:27credibility over and over and over. So,
31:30three questions to ask yourself are, how
31:32does every piece of content I make
31:35reinforce the associations I want people
31:37to make with me? What case studies or
31:40examples can I share that establish my
31:43credibility? And number three, if
31:45someone hears your name, what's the
31:47first thing that they think of? So,
31:49here's a fun example using myself, the
31:51catalyst. I saw brands trying to scale
31:54via just views and impressions, but
31:57struggling to actually build trust with
31:59their audience. It wasn't that the
32:00problem was the content. The problem was
32:02they were lacking clarity on the big
32:05picture strategy and what they wanted to
32:07have happen with their brand. The core
32:10truth is that I believe that a strong
32:13brand is built by the intentional
32:16pairing of relevant things done
32:19consistently, not just getting virality
32:23and getting a ton of views and
32:25impressions. And the proof is that I've
32:27built many different brands that scale
32:30businesses to millions and millions of
32:32dollars in revenue. And I show you how
32:34to do it completely for free via my
32:36content. So you can build your brand
32:39story in three very simple steps. It's
32:42not rocket science. It's not the
32:44complicated that a lot of my
32:45counterparts make it to be so that they
32:48can sell you some course. The
32:49catalyst. What do you see that others do
32:52not? The core truth. What do you believe
32:54that others might not believe? And the
32:56proof. How do you continually reinforce
32:59that identity every single day? Not only
33:02through what you're saying, but through
33:03your actions. If you nail these, your
33:06brand won't just have a story. Your
33:07brand will have loyalty. All right. Now,
33:10for something that a lot of people
33:11struggle with, which is picking your
33:13topic. Like, what are we going to talk
33:15about here? And this is a question that
33:16I get from many people. I've gotten this
33:18question hundreds, if not thousands of
33:20times over the last couple of years. And
33:23there's a lot of different opinions
33:25online about what or how you go about
33:28picking your topics. I have kind of a
33:31nuanced uh belief on this and view on it
33:34and it's one that changes and evolves
33:37over time. I encourage you to start
33:40narrow. I personally believe that early
33:44trust is built off of being great at one
33:47specific thing and talking about that
33:50same specific thing. We all have that
33:53friend who is the best at everything.
33:56And we know that they're not good at any
33:58of it. By them talking all about how
34:00great they are at all these different
34:02subjects and all these different skills.
34:04We pretty much assume that they're not
34:06good at any of them. Contrary to that is
34:08the friend who only talks about
34:11woodworking and how they love carving
34:14this beautiful chair or putting together
34:16this amazing desk for their parents or
34:19whatever. The person who is obsessed
34:20around one thing and speaks about that
34:23at nauseium is the individual who we
34:27believe has credibility and is actually
34:29good at what they're talking about. They
34:31have expertise. A great example of this
34:33is that when Gary started making content
34:36online forever ago, I mean, he was super
34:40early. I think 2006, 2007 on
34:42YouTube, he was the wine guy. He made
34:45content around wine. That's what he knew
34:48super well. Now, at the time, he also
34:51understood business and marketing, but
34:52he didn't talk about that. He built his
34:54base and credibility off of a subject
34:56matter that he was worldclass at. Over
34:59time, he began to expand that, right? He
35:02began to speak to the different business
35:05practices and marketing techniques that
35:08he used to build his dad's wine and
35:11liquor store. But in the beginning, all
35:13of his content for the first several
35:15years on YouTube was wine library TV
35:18where he was tasting and giving reviews
35:20on various wines. And then what you
35:23started to see is he would start to pop
35:25up at South by Southwest and start
35:26talking more about marketing. And then
35:29one day all of a sudden this amazing
35:32speech gets dropped on YouTube
35:34accompanied with a book called Crush It
35:36where he informed everyone of his
35:39beliefs on marketing and utilizing this
35:43new crazy thing called social media. And
35:46so what you see there is Gary started
35:48very narrow and as his experience and
35:52knowledge expanded, so did the subject
35:54matter that he covered in his content.
35:57Again, if you try to talk about
35:59everything in the beginning, you will
36:01dilute the power of what you're speaking
36:03to. So what you're going to notice is
36:06I'm not going to sit here talking about
36:08business tactics. I'm not going to talk
36:11about sales techniques. You're not going
36:13to hear me referencing customer success
36:16techniques and strategies cuz that's not
36:19my wheelhouse. That's not my expertise.
36:21My expertise is on scaling brands and
36:23using organic content strategy to
36:25accomplish that. And so that's what
36:27you're going to hear me talk about. But
36:29what may happen is over the next couple
36:31of years as I gain more experience in
36:33other areas, you might watch my brand
36:36and my subject matter and topics evolve.
36:40Now, the natural question that I imagine
36:43is coming up for you right now is, well,
36:46how do I know when it is the right time
36:47to expand? I feel like maybe right now
36:49I'm at that point. Or on the flip side,
36:52I'm so far from ever expanding. Like, I
36:54want to only talk about this subject
36:56matter for the rest of my life. One, you
36:58should actually know what you're talking
37:00about before you talk about it. So, if
37:02you haven't actually gotten to a point
37:04of excellence and world class, then I
37:08don't know that I would talk about this
37:09new subject matter. I don't I don't
37:10think I would bring it into the table
37:12because what value are you going to be
37:14providing the audience by sharing
37:17something that you don't really know
37:18much about? Now, another thing that you
37:20can look at is once you're known for a
37:23specific topic and you get consistent
37:26engagement and positive feedback from
37:28the audience on that, then you can
37:31consider to start to expand. I would
37:33encourage you to take on adjacent
37:35topics, not something that is completely
37:38different. For example, I'm not going to
37:41be talking about brand strategy and
37:43organic content strategy and then next
37:45week start talking about breath work.
37:47that would be completely offthe-wall and
37:49make no sense, right? So, there would be
37:51too much of a jump for my audience to
37:54trust me on this new subject matter
37:56because there's nothing about what I've
37:57been talking about right now that would
37:59give me credibility for this new subject
38:02matter. to use Gary as the same example
38:04when he was talking about wine and
38:07building the brand and the company
38:09online. By him doing that and gaining
38:12success with the company, it gave him
38:14credibility to speak into marketing and
38:18to share those strategies because he had
38:20demonstrated them in actual use. He put
38:24those strategies that he shared with us
38:26to practice to build his business and
38:28that gave him credibility to jump into
38:31the next section or the next topic in
38:34his career. Another one is look at your
38:35audience and what they're asking for. If
38:37you start noticing that they're asking
38:39for additional information on something
38:41that you don't really cover that much,
38:42but you've maybe hinted at or or has
38:44been displayed in a minor way in your
38:47content, well, maybe that is time for
38:50you to start speaking to that subject
38:51matter. For example, if all of you
38:54watching this started asking me a ton
38:56about my Harley-Davidson and all the
38:58little uh intricacies of all the
39:00upgrades that I've made and the
39:01performance and the handling and how I
39:04go on long road trips, I would gladly
39:05answer those questions. Now, when
39:08thinking about expanding, uh I would
39:10encourage you to do it strategically.
39:12So, let's walk through what that looks
39:13like. A great example of a company that
39:16went about expanding their product line
39:19is Amazon. Amazon started by selling
39:21books, right? And now they sell
39:24obviously a lot more than just books. I
39:26mean, if we look at what I'm wearing
39:28right now, about 3/4 of everything I
39:30have on was purchased off of Amazon. But
39:33ultimately, even though Amazon has
39:35expanded to all these various different
39:37products, they haven't lost their core
39:39identity with books. And I would argue
39:41them acquiring Audible was actually a
39:43big step in re-engaging that audience.
39:47They now have what I probably believe is
39:50the biggest audiobook platform out
39:52there. And so they returned or
39:55reinforced rather than returned, they
39:57reinforced their roots by doing that. So
40:01in expanding, never lose sight of your
40:05core identity and where you started. For
40:08another example, to keep running with
40:10the Gary Vee example, that man continues
40:12to this day to bring back Wine Library
40:15TV on occasions. He still brings wine
40:18into his content here and there. He pays
40:21ode and homage to the OG Gary Vee.
40:25Another great example, similar to Amazon
40:27and Gary of returning to your roots is
40:30Crayola. As of February 2025, when we're
40:32filming this, Crayola announced that
40:34they're bringing back eight discontinued
40:36colors that they had uh taken off the
40:38market. Some of them, you know, as most
40:40recently as 2017, some of them go back
40:42to like 1990. one, bringing it back is a
40:45nostalgic play and that's obviously
40:46going to resonate with a lot of the uh
40:48audience, a lot of the parents honestly
40:50that have kids now like we grew up I
40:53grew up with Crayola and my generation
40:56is of the age we're like we have kids
40:57now and so uh there's definitely a good
40:59play there. But I think what this shows
41:01is a company and a brand can evolve and
41:06and add new product lines, add new
41:08things in and change over time. But I do
41:11believe there is a lot of power in
41:13always holding to your core, to your
41:16root. And that doesn't necessarily mean
41:17that every year, every day, every month,
41:20you have to do that. But it is good and
41:22I think it means a lot to the day one
41:25and OG members or audience or customers
41:29of yours for you to return to that. Uh,
41:31another example actually that that I'll
41:33generalize because a lot of creators do
41:34this is if you're a creator or a
41:36musician, the content or music you were
41:39making day one in the early days, that's
41:41what a lot of your day one fans fell in
41:44love with. And like brands, a lot of
41:47musicians and artists and creators
41:50evolve and they evolve what they create,
41:52right? We all know, I mean, I'm really
41:54big into hardcore music as an example.
41:57And I can't tell you actually a prime
41:59example of this, just thought of right
42:01now, is Knock Loose. In the hardcore
42:03space, Knocked Loose started as a
42:05hardcore band. They had that like grungy
42:08local basement sound, but Knock Loose
42:10has blown the up. And as they
42:12continue to get bigger, they have haters
42:14that call them sellouts and all this
42:16stuff. Well, the cool thing that Knock
42:19Loose does at their shows is they still
42:21play their original tracks. They still
42:24play the gospel and that
42:27slaps every single time. And it allows
42:29for us Day One fans to have that
42:32nostalgic feeling and make sure that we
42:35still feel attached to not only what the
42:37band has evolved into, but where the
42:39band came from. So, a takeaway here for
42:42those of you that have a more
42:43established brand is maybe consider
42:46bringing back like a nostalgic play,
42:48like return to your roots a little bit.
42:50If you had a different content format
42:52style that you used to do, or like the
42:55musician example, if you had an earlier,
42:57more raw sound, maybe consider releasing
43:00a project that taps into that nostalgic
43:02play. Nostalgia is a very big winner
43:06amongst humans. A pro tip on this is to
43:10expand in layers, not leaps. So don't do
43:13anything massive. Every jump, every new
43:17topic you add should really feel natural
43:20to your audience. Again, like the
43:22example I gave earlier, it shouldn't
43:24feel like talking about brand and
43:26organic content strategy and then going
43:28to breath work. Like it should be if I
43:30wanted to get to breath work, I should
43:32probably inch my way over to that point
43:35rather than having just a complete black
43:36and white change. Now, based on the
43:38niche you're in and your desired
43:39associations, that's what's going to
43:42inform the topics that you want to
43:44explore and expand on. Now, a key
43:47reminder in this, and this is where a
43:49lot of you are potentially going to get
43:51hung up, so this is why I'm saying this,
43:53don't think of it as a rule when you're
43:56picking these topics. These are
43:57guidelines that you can follow that make
43:59it easier for you to create content, but
44:02don't make it an absolute rule. As much
44:04as I was saying that it'd be weird for
44:06me to make content around brand organic
44:09content strategy and then immediately
44:10jump to breath work. Sure, that might be
44:12really abrupt and kind of like gnarly
44:14for the audience, but ultimately our
44:17goal is to do this for a long time. And
44:19so if that is something that you do want
44:21to talk about, it. Just jump and do
44:22it. By no means are these rules to
44:25follow. These are guidelines to help you
44:27and make this easier for you. Not
44:30something that you have to overthink
44:3124/7. In fact, I'm going to double down
44:33on this real quick because I think a lot
44:34of people sit down with a brand
44:36strategist or whatever and they build
44:38out these content pillars and then they
44:41always say, "Well, if it doesn't fall
44:43within the content pillar, we can't talk
44:44about it." But here's the thing. When
44:46Trevor and I sat down and identified
44:49what we were going to be talking about
44:50in our content, we didn't necessarily
44:53say Harley-Davidson's, but as you can
44:56probably tell if you're at this point in
44:57the video, I reference Harley a lot. and
45:00I want to make content around my
45:02Harleyies as well. Is it one of my
45:03content pillars? No, it's not. But if I
45:07want to make a video about my Harley,
45:08I'm going to do it because I
45:10enjoy it. And I think that what it does
45:12do is it rounds out my brand and makes
45:14me more interesting. I'm not just
45:16somebody who cares about brand and
45:18organic content. I also love my
45:21motorcycle and love to travel on it. I
45:23love to customize it. This is what will
45:26make you interesting and will cause you
45:28to actually stand out from your
45:31competitors. So the key here is don't be
45:33rigid. Stay flexible. So if you're
45:36trying to figure this out, here's three
45:38questions that might help you. First
45:39question is, what am I genuinely
45:41passionate about discussing? If you
45:43can't tell by now, I'm very passionate
45:45about brand strategy. It probably comes
45:47through in my tone here. That's what you
45:49want to talk about. You want to talk
45:51about something that you're going to
45:53want to talk about because when you do
45:55that passion comes through and people
45:57will connect with it and they will
45:59probably feel like you are more
46:01convicted about what you are saying and
46:03believe you more and actually take
46:05action on what you are saying rather
46:07than just sitting and listening. Number
46:10two is what will resonate with my
46:12audience most right now. So for me, for
46:16example, when I talk about brand
46:18strategy, something that is definitely a
46:21need in the audience that I have is
46:23organic content strategy. I'm going to
46:25talk far less over the next year about
46:28my paid media strategy because that's
46:30something that a lot of people that I
46:32have spoken to over the last 5 years
46:35need less help on. They have more
46:36experience in that. On the contrary, a
46:39lot of people look at organic content on
46:42social as like this like blackbox
46:44magical mysterious thing that they do
46:46not understand. And so that's why a lot
46:48of the content that we're going to put
46:49out this year is going to be around
46:51organic content strategy. And I would
46:53argue number three is the most important
46:54of the three questions. What will cause
46:56my audience to change their actions the
46:58most? Like I've said multiple times in
47:00this video, what you don't want when
47:01you're making educational content is for
47:03people to just be passively consuming
47:06and do nothing about it. You want them
47:08to take action. So, what can I speak to
47:11and how can I speak about it in a way
47:14that makes it easy for my audience to
47:17then listen and take action on what I am
47:20saying. So to make sure that we're not
47:22getting confused here, I just want to
47:24real quick emphasize. I'm not saying
47:26talk about one thing. I don't want you
47:29to talk about just one thing. I want you
47:31to emphasize your one thing. So if we're
47:34looking at a pie, 80% of the pie should
47:37be that one main thing you want to be
47:39known for. But use the other 20% to
47:42round yourself out, to round your
47:44company out, and be more human.
47:47This is how other people will relate to
47:50you. Here's an example. Look at your
47:51significant other or a friend of yours,
47:53right? If you talk about one thing to
47:56them all the time, 24/7, guess what?
48:00They're probably going to hate
48:01you. They're going to get bored of you.
48:04And even more so, you are probably going
48:06to hate you and get bored of yourself.
48:08Sure, it's totally okay to spend 80% of
48:11your time talking about that one thing.
48:1280% of what I'm talking about here is
48:14brand strategy and I'm going to continue
48:16doing that. But the other 20 I am going
48:18to utilize to round me out and make me
48:21more human. I like to call this interest
48:24stacking. Here's a really good example.
48:26All of us probably at one point in our
48:28life started at a normal job and day one
48:32the only thing we have in common with
48:34our co-workers is that we work for this
48:36organization. But as you start to get
48:38more comfortable, you probably tend to
48:40reveal a few more things about yourself,
48:43interests you have. Let's say, for
48:44example, uh you reveal the fact that
48:46you're a huge Kendrick Lamar fan, and
48:48this is during the great Kendrick and
48:50Drake beef. And somebody else on your
48:53team, Sarah, also is like, I love
48:55Kendrick as well. Suddenly, you go from
48:59having one thing in common, we both work
49:01for this company, to having two things
49:03in common. We work for this company and
49:05we both love Kendrick Lamar. What ends
49:07up happening there is you become work
49:09homies, work friends, right? It becomes
49:12more than just co-workers. And as you
49:15start to learn more things that you have
49:17in common with each other, you may go
49:19from being work friends to friends. Even
49:21to the point where once you move on from
49:23the organization, you're still friends.
49:26I think of the same exact principle in
49:29building your brand online. The more
49:31interests and things that you find
49:34interesting that you talk about in your
49:36content, you give your audience more at
49:38bats to connect with you because they're
49:40like, I also like that thing. And how
49:42unique that there's this intersection of
49:45somebody who loves human optimization
49:48and making their body healthier, but
49:50they're also a complete computer science
49:52nerd. That is a very interesting
49:54intersection. So, what you want to do is
49:56actually give your audience more at
49:58bats. So again, spend 80% of your time
50:01talking about the core subject, the core
50:04topic. Ideally, this is something that
50:06is in line with your offers that you
50:07have and drives revenue and
50:09profitability for yourself or your
50:11company. And then the other 20% talk
50:14about your interests. Give your audience
50:15at bats to connect with you. An example
50:17that I love to use for this, whether we
50:19love him or we hate him, is Joe Rogan.
50:21Joe Rogan does an incredible job about
50:23talking about all the different
50:25interests that he has, right? conspiracy
50:27theories, politics, human
50:30optimization, hunting, UFC, comedy. I
50:33mean, the list goes on and on. And so,
50:35if you're interested in one of those
50:36things, you might be interested in his
50:38podcast. If you're interested in two,
50:40three, or four of those things, you're
50:42probably a super fan. The only
50:44way people would know that they are a
50:46super fan or become a super fan though
50:48is if he talks about those things. If he
50:51just stuck to MMA and comedy, there'd be
50:54far less at bats for his audience to
50:57become
51:01obsessed. All right, we are on to
51:03content. So, we've covered branding and
51:05what brand is and we've gone pretty
51:08in-depth on that. And that is laying the
51:10groundwork and giving us the direction
51:13that we are now going to take with our
51:15content. I like to think of it as we've
51:17established our brand and now content is
51:19what we will do to amplify the brand.
51:22And one thing I want to give you as kind
51:24of a qualifier or a statement upfront
51:27that will influence everything that we
51:29talk about from here on out is that I
51:32like to build a content strategy in the
51:36same way that a great personal trainer
51:39designs a great training program for
51:41their clients. A great example is right
51:43now I am gonna start getting back into
51:46lifting and if I were to go into the gym
51:49and immediately start working on Ronnie
51:51Coleman's training routine, well, I'd be
51:54I would probably injure myself
51:56and I definitely wouldn't stick with it.
51:58And so, every good personal trainer
52:00knows that the best fitness routine or
52:02best training routine is one that you
52:04are going to stick with for a long time.
52:06We get the most results the longer we
52:09stick with it. Content is the exact same
52:12way. A lot of people make the mistake of
52:14trying to do what Mr. Beast does or what
52:16Gary Vee does or what all these
52:18different creators online that you see
52:20are doing. Some of them go really high
52:22volume. Some of them go extremely high
52:23production. That is a great goal to
52:26aspire to, but do not start off that
52:29way. You will burn out quick and
52:32you won't stick with it. And so
52:33everything that we design and we talk
52:35about, I want you to take and determine
52:38what do I feel like I can actually
52:41consistently stick with so that I get
52:44the results I'm looking for. So with
52:46that in mind, we are now going to start
52:49by choosing our content medium. This is
52:52the type of content, the style of
52:55content that you are going to emphasize.
52:56Now, I want to be very clear before we
52:58go into it. I think you should do all of
53:00these, but what I want you to determine
53:02is what is going to be your 80%. What
53:05are you going to lean into the most?
53:07Picking the right content medium is
53:09about playing to your strengths while
53:11ensuring long-term sustainability. You
53:14want to be able to do this for a very
53:15long time, like I said at the top. So,
53:16we have four different mediums that
53:18we're going to be discussing here. We
53:20have written content, we have video
53:21content, audio content, and
53:24graphic/design content. And so, we're
53:26going to start with written content
53:27first. Now, written typically is best
53:29for LinkedIn, uh, Twitter X, whatever
53:32you want to call it, Facebook, email,
53:35newsletters, ebooks, articles, those
53:37kinds of things. Honestly, the the best
53:39version of this is somebody who feels
53:41they are capable of taking high value
53:43information, maybe even really dense
53:46information and concepts and being able
53:48to articulate it in a written format
53:50that is concise and high value per
53:53sentence. When I'm thinking about video
53:55content, I'm thinking about value per
53:56second. I would like to think about
53:58value per word or value per sentence.
54:01When it's coming to written, it's
54:03February 2025 when we're filming this.
54:04Right now, LinkedIn is, in my opinion,
54:07the hottest platform to be on. Whether
54:09you are an entrepreneur, a creator, a
54:12musician, an artist, whatever you are,
54:14LinkedIn is actually the platform that
54:16is super underrated because everyone
54:18assumes it's just business people
54:20talking about their careers, but it's
54:22not. We're at the point now where the
54:24homie is posting a photo of him
54:27and his family in the minivan going on a
54:29road trip and then the next post is some
54:31career update. And so we're actually at
54:33the point now where LinkedIn is no
54:34longer just a resume and job status
54:37update psych. It is a social media
54:41platform, however you want to call it,
54:43interest media, social media, whatever.
54:45it is now getting to the point where it
54:46has matured and so people are behaving
54:48the way that they used to on Facebook
54:50back in like 2013 2014 and the beauty of
54:52it is right now if you comment on
54:56somebody's post all of their connections
54:58see it and so it's actually got true
55:00virality and I'm emphasizing this right
55:02now we'll touch on LinkedIn a lot more
55:04later but written content is
55:06murdering on LinkedIn if you understand
55:09how to package and format your written
55:12post if you get the hook Right? It's
55:15incredible right now. And so, uh, if you
55:17feel you have the skill set to do
55:20written, well, this is a great moment in
55:23time for you. Now, if you're wondering
55:25if this is going to be a good medium for
55:27you to pick, well, here's a couple of
55:29questions that you can ask yourself. Do
55:30you enjoy sitting down and writing or
55:32even journaling? Are you already doing
55:34this? Right? Like, do you have a habit
55:36of every morning or every night before
55:37you go to bed, you're already
55:38journaling? Well, you might already have
55:41maybe 70% of the skills required and
55:44also you might have 100% of the interest
55:46in the medium required to do it. A
55:48really crucial question that I think a
55:50lot of people don't ask themselves and
55:52never evaluate the written content off
55:54of is, can you write this down, this
55:57concept, and have it make sense without
55:59saying it out loud? Some of the worst
56:01LinkedIn posts, you can tell they're bad
56:03because the person who wrote it has to
56:05explain what they're saying in the
56:08written. If you have to explain it or
56:09add commentary, it is not a good post
56:12and you should throw it in the trash.
56:14And then once you have a post written or
56:16an article written, do you like the idea
56:19of refining it, editing it, reviewing
56:22it? I'll tell you, when I work on a
56:25LinkedIn post, I probably do about 10
56:27different versions minimum of it where I
56:30reread it, write it. I mean, I just go
56:33back and forth, back and forth on it.
56:34And so I think something very similar to
56:37what we'll talk about here in uh video
56:39content as an editor, you have to be
56:41comfortable watching the same moment
56:43hundreds of times, right? Every editor
56:45watching heard that big time. Well, it's
56:48the same with editing written content.
56:50And so you need to be comfortable with
56:51doing that. That's how you can evaluate
56:53whether or not written content is going
56:54to be a good medium for you to
56:56emphasize. The next one is video
56:57content. Video content is the highest
57:00leverage medium that you can engage in.
57:03With video, you get the main video that
57:05you filmed. Let's say it's a long form
57:06like this. Well, we can also pull short
57:09form clips from it. We can also extract
57:11the audio and make that a podcast. We
57:14can also take the transcript and then
57:16take little quotes out of the transcript
57:18that were punchy or piffy and put those
57:21out on threads, Twitter, uh, Facebook
57:24status update as an image with the copy
57:26on it. There's a lot you can do. You can
57:28then take the transcript and use it as
57:30your starting point to write LinkedIn
57:32posts if you want or articles or a
57:34newsletter. So video is the highest
57:36leverage because you put the effort of
57:39filming this and then you're able to
57:40redistribute or repurpose that content
57:43for so many different mediums for so
57:45many different platforms. But like I
57:47said at the top, if you right now
57:49watching this shudder at the idea of
57:51being on camera and it sounds like
57:53awful, well, I would encourage
57:55you don't do it yet. Again, we want to
57:58be doing this for a very, very long
58:00time. And so, we want to create a system
58:02that we enjoy and we look forward to,
58:05not something that we dread and get
58:06anxiety when we see it on the calendar.
58:08Now, video content includes everything,
58:10right? This is YouTube long form,
58:11YouTube short form, Tik Tok, Instagram,
58:13LinkedIn video tab, Facebook reels,
58:16Spotify video. Now, like everything is
58:18pretty much pushing video these days.
58:21And so again, not only are you able to
58:23repurpose it in so many ways, but you're
58:24able to feed so many different platforms
58:27the type of content or the medium of
58:30content that they are asking for. Now,
58:32if you're wondering who is video best
58:35for, well, honestly, it's really if you
58:38feel comfortable being in front of the
58:40camera, if you feel like you have the
58:42ability to articulate fairly clearly, I
58:45mean, look at me. I'm not necessarily
58:47the best on camera or anything, but like
58:48that's what we're doing here. So, if you
58:50feel that or you're not feeling like
58:53you're an absolute natural at it, but
58:55you're willing to improve and work on it
58:59in real time in public like myself, then
59:02okay, cool. I would highly encourage you
59:04to take on video, you get so much more
59:06out of it. One thing that I left out is
59:08you can also extract stills from the
59:10video. So, you can also use those for
59:12social posts. I mean, the amount that
59:13you can get for the amount you put in is
59:15limitless. Couple of questions
59:17that you can ask yourself when
59:18evaluating if video is your medium are,
59:23are you comfortable on camera or are you
59:25at least willing to try and improve in
59:30public over time? Can you handle uh
59:33negative feedback from people calling
59:34out your lack of abilities to articulate
59:37or uh be entertaining on camera? If so,
59:40do it. Do you get excited about
59:42visuals and grabbing attention? Okay,
59:45video is probably a good one for you. If
59:47not, maybe it's down the road. And the
59:49last question is, can you speak
59:51concisely without rambling? Or again, if
59:54you can't, but you're comfortable
59:56learning on the job, learning in public,
59:58then okay, cool. Let's tackle it. Let's
1:00:00do it. The reason why we have this last
1:00:01question is because one of the things
1:00:03that I've noticed in a lot of talent
1:00:04that I filmed with over the years is
1:00:06that when you are extremely
1:00:07knowledgeable on a subject matter,
1:00:10something happens when you start talking
1:00:12about it. I call it bunny brain. I get
1:00:14it all the time. I start saying
1:00:15something and then my brain fires off
1:00:17this next idea and it's like this little
1:00:19rabbit trail that I end up following and
1:00:21it can cause you to ramble and it can
1:00:23cause you to veer off topic. And if you
1:00:25find yourself doing that, that is not
1:00:28necessarily a reason to not do video
1:00:31content. That just means you need to
1:00:32have a better editor that can help make
1:00:35sure that the content stays focused.
1:00:37Now, the next one is audio content. And
1:00:40this is mainly podcast. That's really
1:00:41what I would want you to think about
1:00:43when you're thinking about audio
1:00:44content. And really, it's exactly the
1:00:46same as video except for you remove the
1:00:48discomfort of staring into this lens,
1:00:51this eternal black abyss that you just
1:00:53have no idea what the reaction is on the
1:00:56other side. Because the majority of you
1:00:57don't have an amazing cameraman behind
1:00:59it like Trevor who is nodding and giving
1:01:00me affirmation that what I'm saying is
1:01:03good. So, it is freaky to sit in
1:01:05front of a camera, stare into the lens,
1:01:07and talk. It's a lot easier to just have
1:01:10a mic in front of you and just riff. And
1:01:13so I would recommend if the idea of
1:01:16video is exciting and terrifying at the
1:01:19same time, maybe consider for a period
1:01:22of time starting with a podcast. And
1:01:25what I have found is when people do
1:01:27this, they very quickly realize, oh, I
1:01:30might be able to do this video thing.
1:01:32It's not that bad making content after
1:01:34all. And so it allows you to see
1:01:37yourself in a very similar scenario and
1:01:40recognize that it's not that terrifying,
1:01:42not that freaky, it's actually very high
1:01:44reward. Maybe I could do the same thing
1:01:46with video. So if video was something
1:01:49that seemed interesting to you, but you
1:01:51get a lot of anxiety and fear that pops
1:01:53up in your mind and your body when you
1:01:56think about it, then I would strongly
1:01:58consider starting with a podcast. Three
1:02:00questions to ask yourself here are, do
1:02:02you feel confident speaking without a
1:02:06visual element? If you decide to do a
1:02:07podcast, that's amazing. What we are
1:02:09missing is a sensory input. There is no
1:02:13visuals for the viewer to be able to
1:02:16help understand what you are saying. And
1:02:18so, if you're explaining a really
1:02:21in-depth complicated concept, you have
1:02:24no visual aid to help illustrate what
1:02:27you are saying. And so you have to use
1:02:29your words to be able to articulate and
1:02:31paint the picture for your audience.
1:02:34This is more difficult. And so it's not
1:02:36like podcasting is just easier than
1:02:38video. I think a lot of people
1:02:40actually underestimate what goes into a
1:02:44top podcast. They think, well, I mean,
1:02:46it doesn't require any visuals, so that
1:02:48makes it a lot easier. But that means
1:02:50that your descriptions and the way you
1:02:53articulate your information has to be
1:02:55even more clear. The next question is,
1:02:58do you enjoy deeper conversations or
1:03:01deeper dives into one specific subject?
1:03:04I find that I prefer longer form
1:03:07podcasts personally and I think that if
1:03:10you look at the top charts, yes, there
1:03:12are short episodes and and shows that
1:03:14don't do like hour plus long podcasts,
1:03:16but I would say the majority of the top
1:03:18100 are a little bit longer than 20
1:03:22minutes, for example. And so if you feel
1:03:25comfortable being able to go deep on a
1:03:28subject matter for that long, I think
1:03:30this would be a great medium for you.
1:03:32And the last one is, does your voice
1:03:33have enough energy and clarity to keep
1:03:36people engaged? A lot of people would
1:03:39hear this and think, well, I don't have
1:03:41that interesting sounding of a voice.
1:03:43Well, I disagree. I think one
1:03:47the cadence in which you speak. If
1:03:49you've noticed sometimes when I talk I
1:03:50talk really fast then I slow down. I
1:03:53talk louder and then I bring it down.
1:03:56I'm always trying to emphasize certain
1:03:59things. And so when you go on a fast
1:04:01pattern and then slow down, for example,
1:04:04it allows the audience to understand
1:04:07you're trying to emphasize something.
1:04:09It's a pattern interrupt. So there's a
1:04:11lot of different techniques. There's a
1:04:12million creators on YouTube here that
1:04:15can show you how to be more engaging
1:04:18with how you communicate. But I actually
1:04:20want to take a slightly different
1:04:21approach to this. Throughout this
1:04:23course, I've mentioned kind of my life
1:04:24philosophy, which is taking whatever is
1:04:26given to you and using it as your
1:04:28advantage, even if it was viewed as a
1:04:30disadvantage by most people. If you have
1:04:32a monotone voice, I would actually lean
1:04:35into that and I would make that your
1:04:37bit. Again, what a lot of people would
1:04:40view as a disadvantage or a weakness, I
1:04:43think you can make that your thing.
1:04:45Honestly, some of my favorite podcasts
1:04:47and comedians are very monotone and
1:04:51sarcastic, and I think that that makes
1:04:53for a very interesting show. So, again,
1:04:56whatever you see right now as the reason
1:04:58why you shouldn't do it, I would argue
1:05:01is probably the very reason why you
1:05:03should do it. Now, the last medium is
1:05:06visual/graphic content. What this looks
1:05:09like is infographics, carousels, PDFs
1:05:12that you upload to LinkedIn as a
1:05:15carousel. That's kind of the hack there.
1:05:16Or anything that is
1:05:18designheavy. Now, a lot of people are
1:05:20going to hear this and think, "Well,
1:05:21that's just for designers. I'm not I'm
1:05:22not a designer." Well, one, there's a
1:05:24million tools out there that can
1:05:26take a complete novice with design and
1:05:29make them look like, you know, fairly
1:05:30intermediate. There's Canva, there's
1:05:33Figma, there's all these Adobe programs
1:05:35with AI and how it's evolving right now.
1:05:37I mean, we're almost at the point where
1:05:38like, you know, my grandma could
1:05:40design a really dope carousel for
1:05:42Instagram. Like, it's not that
1:05:43difficult. Okay, the real thing here is
1:05:45it's not necessarily you designing it.
1:05:48You might have a designer that you work
1:05:49with. It doesn't always have to be you
1:05:52implementing it, but I think a lot of
1:05:54people that are going to resonate with
1:05:55this are individuals who don't like
1:05:58video content, but want to be able to
1:06:01explain and articulate their thoughts
1:06:04utilizing not just words, but visuals.
1:06:07Something that's working really well
1:06:08right now in February 2025 on Instagram
1:06:11is carousels. Carousels are
1:06:13murdering. And I think the simpler the
1:06:17better. And this is where you compare a
1:06:19visual and written word. So instead of
1:06:22just having to explain things through a
1:06:25blog post or a LinkedIn post, you have
1:06:27two different ways to be able to explain
1:06:30the concept. Three questions to ask
1:06:32yourself uh if you're considering visual
1:06:34or graphic content, are you good at or
1:06:36curious about tools like I mentioned,
1:06:39Canva, Adobe, Figma, any of those?
1:06:42Number two, can you simplify complex
1:06:46concepts into a visual? Tiny little side
1:06:49note, an amazing example of this is an
1:06:51Instagram account. I believe it's called
1:06:52Visualize Value. This individual,
1:06:54whoever they are, I'm I don't know them,
1:06:56does an amazing job of taking pretty
1:06:59highlevel complex concepts and making
1:07:02them into unbelievably simple and very
1:07:05easy to understand visuals. And I think
1:07:09the audience really appreciates the way
1:07:12that they are able to do that. And
1:07:14third, uh, do you enjoy the process of
1:07:16making content look great, looking
1:07:18polished? This is not necessary. Uh, you
1:07:20could literally draw on a
1:07:22piece of paper, take a photo of it, and
1:07:24upload it. That's actually, as a side
1:07:26note, something that is currently
1:07:27working really well online is drawing
1:07:29something or creating something physical
1:07:31in the real world, taking a photo of it,
1:07:32and uploading it. You can do whatever
1:07:34you want here. But if you do have a a
1:07:37love for refining visuals, this might be
1:07:41an interesting medium for you to
1:07:42explore. All right, so we've chosen our
1:07:44medium or mediums that we feel
1:07:46comfortable creating in. Now, some of
1:07:48you might choose all four of those.
1:07:51That's what I'm doing. I highly
1:07:52encourage it. If you feel like you have
1:07:54either the team around you, bandwidth,
1:07:56or skill set, or ideally all three, then
1:07:59yeah, by all means, use all four of
1:08:01them. I just wanted to give you the
1:08:03opportunity to choose one of them if the
1:08:06idea of doing all four feels
1:08:08overwhelming in the beginning because
1:08:09again, we're not trying to jump to
1:08:11Ronnie Coleman's training routine. We're
1:08:14not trying to jump to Mr. Beast's
1:08:16content output, okay? We're trying to do
1:08:19one thing at a time to start to gain
1:08:22momentum and stick with this for a long
1:08:25time. So, now that we've picked our
1:08:26medium or mediums, it's time to choose
1:08:29our platforms. What I recommend people
1:08:32do is prioritize two to three platforms.
1:08:36I don't want you trying to crush across
1:08:40all the different platforms. I know a
1:08:41lot of people out there talk about post
1:08:43everywhere, post all the time, and
1:08:44that's a strategy and that's fine. I
1:08:46would actually discourage you from doing
1:08:48that. I think that you gain a lot more
1:08:50by picking, let's say, two platforms
1:08:52that you're going to learn heavily and
1:08:56really emphasize original content for
1:08:59making content specific for that
1:09:01platform. More on that in a little bit.
1:09:02The reason why I say two or three rather
1:09:04than one is you want to avoid single
1:09:08channel, single platform risk. Here's a
1:09:10prime example that we just recently went
1:09:13through. Again, we're filming this in
1:09:14February 2025. Just a month ago, we had
1:09:17this wonderful 12-h hour period where
1:09:19Tik Tok completely disappeared in the
1:09:21US. Nobody could download it. They
1:09:23couldn't access it or anything. Guess
1:09:25what happened? Complete terror. Everyone
1:09:29was freaking the out, or I should
1:09:30say everyone whose business or income
1:09:33was tied solely to Tik Tok. And more
1:09:36than likely, they were the individuals
1:09:39who found a lot of success on Tik Tok
1:09:41and then never chose to build on other
1:09:44platforms to diversify their reach. And
1:09:47by doing that, they were unbelievably
1:09:50vulnerable. Now, I'm not saying that I
1:09:52think that the US government is going to
1:09:53start like banning all of these apps. I
1:09:55do not think that. But what I do know is
1:09:58that algorithms change. The way that
1:10:01platforms behave and serve your content
1:10:03to your audience is always changing. I
1:10:06mean, if you were to look at how many
1:10:07tweaks Instagram makes to their
1:10:09algorithm and the way that content is
1:10:11served, it's insane. And the real real
1:10:13is that it's changing all the time for
1:10:15different people. You and I are getting
1:10:17different updates at different times.
1:10:18You have features available to you that
1:10:20I do not have and vice versa. And so, I
1:10:23really encourage you, don't try and post
1:10:25on all the different platforms. What I
1:10:27would encourage you to do though is make
1:10:28sure that you aren't tied to one single
1:10:31platform. Now, what I do like to do is
1:10:33uh I'm a Lord of the Rings nerd, so I
1:10:35like this analogy. I like the Eye of
1:10:36Sauron approach. I do like to of my two
1:10:39or three that I'm prioritizing, put more
1:10:42emphasis or more priority and resources
1:10:45towards one at a time, but I try to
1:10:48rotate between, let's say I pick three,
1:10:50I try to rotate between those three. And
1:10:53so I think of the other two on
1:10:55maintenance mode while I'm focused on
1:10:57YouTube, let's say. And then maybe I get
1:11:00YouTube into maintenance mode and I move
1:11:01over to LinkedIn. Now, how am I going
1:11:04about this? Because we're at a very wild
1:11:07time in my life where I am starting to
1:11:09create content. As you can tell right
1:11:11now, this is the first time in my life
1:11:13where I have started to make consistent
1:11:15content for myself, not for the talent
1:11:18I'm working with. And so if you were to
1:11:20look at my social media profiles right
1:11:22now, you would probably see that
1:11:25YouTube, Tik Tok, X, Threads, all these
1:11:28different platforms, I have less than
1:11:30like 4,000 followers on all of them.
1:11:32Most of them less than 2,000. And then
1:11:34on Instagram, I have like 68,000
1:11:36followers. And so if you were assuming
1:11:38that I would start on Instagram, that's
1:11:40a very fair assumption. But actually,
1:11:41what I've done is I've picked four
1:11:42platforms that I'm going to prioritize.
1:11:44Now, I am recommending that you do two
1:11:46or three. I've been in this game for 16
1:11:48years. So, there's a little bit of a
1:11:50discrepancy there. I want to make sure
1:11:51that that's very clear. Do more of what
1:11:53I say in this, not as much of what I do.
1:11:55So, what I actually did is when we first
1:11:57started making content, I started with
1:11:59LinkedIn. And the reason why is because
1:12:01I believed that the majority of my
1:12:03potential clients were on LinkedIn more
1:12:06than Instagram. I also felt more
1:12:08comfortable with LinkedIn and Instagram.
1:12:10And so, those were the two platforms I
1:12:12started with. So, we started on
1:12:13LinkedIn, made a couple posts, and then
1:12:14we did a post on Instagram. And I would
1:12:16encourage you to do the same. Start
1:12:18where you feel comfortable. A lot of
1:12:20people really push the whole get out of
1:12:22your comfort zone. No, that
1:12:24Not in the beginning. In the beginning,
1:12:26you want to build the habit of doing it.
1:12:28Like I remember when I was really into
1:12:31powerlifting, a lot of times when my
1:12:32buddies wanted to get into lifting and
1:12:34were trying to figure out how, I would
1:12:36tell them, go to the gym for 10
1:12:38minutes 5 days a week. If you just build
1:12:40the habit of driving to the gym, you're
1:12:42going to do it. That's usually
1:12:44the issue. And it's the same here. Build
1:12:46the habit of making and posting your
1:12:50content. Make it as easy as possible.
1:12:52Now, what we are going to do is we're
1:12:54starting to expand. So, like we're doing
1:12:56right now, we're filming long form
1:12:58YouTube content. And so, we're going to
1:13:00expand from just LinkedIn and Instagram
1:13:02to YouTube and a podcast. And the reason
1:13:04why I want to do that is I believe that
1:13:06short form content is amazing to drive
1:13:09awareness. And I think it's super
1:13:10powerful and very effective to get brand
1:13:13recognition. I view long form as the
1:13:16place where conversion actually happens.
1:13:19This is where we're able to truly
1:13:21demonstrate our excellence and
1:13:22expertise. Okay? So, for you, if you're
1:13:25watching this and you're considering uh
1:13:26whether or not to do long form or short
1:13:28form content, well, short form has a
1:13:30lower barrier to entry. So, it allows
1:13:32you to start to get the repetitions in
1:13:34and like I said earlier, build that
1:13:36habit. But eventually, I would encourage
1:13:39you to implement one or two long form
1:13:42styles. either YouTube long form video
1:13:45or long form podcasts, ideally both like
1:13:48I'm doing. And the reason why is because
1:13:49the more time somebody spends with you,
1:13:51one, the more they're going to see your
1:13:53expertise and your knowledge, but two,
1:13:56there is this whole sunk cost fallacy.
1:13:58And the way it works is the more time
1:14:00somebody spends with you, the more
1:14:01willing they are to actually act on an
1:14:04offer that you present them. For the
1:14:06very few of you watching this that have
1:14:07bought a Harley-Davidson or probably any
1:14:10other vehicle, I just only buy Harley's.
1:14:12Their finance team has this very
1:14:14interesting tactic that they do. They
1:14:16have you fill out all this paperwork and
1:14:18then they literally, I guarantee they
1:14:20get the information. They run your
1:14:21credit. They get all that within
1:14:23seconds and they make you sit there for
1:14:25like 10 or 15 minutes just talking to
1:14:28the sales associate. Then what they do
1:14:30is they take you on a tour through the
1:14:32whole dealership. And all they're trying
1:14:34to do is get you to invest more time in
1:14:38the dealership so that you feel like,
1:14:39well, I don't want to waste my time now.
1:14:41I might as well do this transaction.
1:14:42There's obviously a lot more that goes
1:14:44into it. But I view long form content
1:14:45the same. The more time your audience
1:14:47spends with you, the more likely they
1:14:48are to transact or convert on your
1:14:51offer. So what is the point here? Start
1:14:54where you're comfortable. If you're
1:14:56already active on LinkedIn, Instagram,
1:14:58YouTube, Tik Tok, wherever, then I would
1:15:01just use that to start. Again, we want
1:15:03to build the muscle and the habit of
1:15:06making and posting content. And I
1:15:08emphasize posting because a lot of you
1:15:10make and then it sits on your
1:15:12photo album on your phone and you never
1:15:14actually put it out. The next question
1:15:16that I would ask yourself when trying to
1:15:17figure out which platform do I feel most
1:15:19comfortable on is where do you naturally
1:15:21spend the most of your time? Like if you
1:15:24spend a lot of time scrolling on Tik
1:15:26Tok, you probably understand what
1:15:28content does well on Tik Tok. And if you
1:15:30go from just doom scrolling to literally
1:15:33consuming the same but with a more
1:15:35strategic mindset and thinking, okay,
1:15:37why did I like watching this video? And
1:15:38you start taking notes on that, you're
1:15:40going to keep track of best practices
1:15:42that then you can start to implement
1:15:44into your own content. The third
1:15:46question is where is your audience? Back
1:15:48to the exercise we did the brand journey
1:15:50framework, right? We created our desired
1:15:53outcome and then we reverse engineered
1:15:55from there to today. Well, based on what
1:15:58our desired outcome
1:16:00is, who are we needing to reach in order
1:16:03for that to occur? And where do we
1:16:05believe it's a hypothesis that they
1:16:07exist or they live the most? For me,
1:16:10we're building a consulting firm where
1:16:12we work with entrepreneurs, creators,
1:16:15entertainers to help build their brands.
1:16:18And a lot of them happen to be on
1:16:21LinkedIn very actively. And so that's
1:16:24why we started with LinkedIn as our
1:16:25platform of choice because it was a
1:16:28hypothesis of mine that we had more
1:16:31qualified potential leads existing on
1:16:34LinkedIn than let's say Instagram for
1:16:36example. And then the finally I would
1:16:38ask yourself are they on Tik Tok for
1:16:40quick engaging content or are they on
1:16:42YouTube for more long- for deep dives
1:16:45into one specific subject matter or are
1:16:47they around on LinkedIn trying
1:16:49to be one of those thought leaders right
1:16:50now. Basically, you want to make an
1:16:53educated guess on where you think your
1:16:54audience is and then test it, monitor
1:16:58it. Are you getting actual leads? Are
1:17:00people reaching out to you inquiring
1:17:02about what you do? If not, there's two
1:17:04potential options. One, your content
1:17:06sucks and nobody gives a Two,
1:17:08maybe you picked the wrong platform.
1:17:10Now, once we've determined what medium
1:17:12we like, what platform we're going to
1:17:14want to work on, okay, cool. We now have
1:17:16a good understanding and baseline of
1:17:18what we are skilled at. Once you realize
1:17:20that, double the down on it. If you
1:17:23decided you're going to do video and
1:17:24written, but man, your video content is
1:17:26just not performing and your written is
1:17:28going really well, I would encourage you
1:17:30not to eliminate video, but reduce the
1:17:32amount of effort you put towards your
1:17:34video content and increase the amount
1:17:36for the written content. There are
1:17:38special moments in time and when you are
1:17:41popping on a platform, that is not the
1:17:44time in my opinion to go about trying to
1:17:46level up other skill sets. That is the
1:17:49time where you double down and you pour
1:17:51gas on the thing that you are
1:17:53actually good at and can consistently
1:17:55put out that your audience deems as high
1:17:58quality and high value. Now, on the flip
1:18:00side, if you're confident on video and
1:18:02you feel like you're able to articulate
1:18:03your thoughts, you're entertaining,
1:18:05engaging, well, then double down on
1:18:07either short form or long form video.
1:18:09Again, it's whatever you feel you are
1:18:10best at, you should be leaning into that
1:18:13heavily. And like I said earlier, if you
1:18:15prefer audio, start a podcast.
1:18:17you'll eventually, I think, get to a
1:18:19point where you feel comfortable doing
1:18:20video and then you're doing a higher
1:18:23leverage activity. The next thing is
1:18:24look at your results and don't listen to
1:18:27your ego. I'm just going to be
1:18:29unbelievably vulnerable and transparent
1:18:30here. I have been seeing the footage
1:18:33from this course and I actually feel
1:18:35like I look fat as this. I feel
1:18:37like I've gained weight. I would
1:18:39encourage you to push past some of that
1:18:41ego some of those
1:18:42insecurities. I understand why they're
1:18:44there. I get it. Trust me. But if you
1:18:47are gaining traction and getting
1:18:49engagement in your content and people
1:18:50are resonating with it, who gives a
1:18:54how you think you look? More than
1:18:57likely, people aren't even thinking
1:18:58about that. Like the real real is I'm
1:19:01sure none of you even thought of that.
1:19:02Maybe you did, but probably didn't until
1:19:04I just said it. And so now I just, you
1:19:06know, brought that to your attention. If
1:19:08I allowed my ego to dictate what we did,
1:19:11we would probably not release any of the
1:19:13content we've made so far. And so what I
1:19:15would encourage you to do is look and
1:19:17track your metrics. Look at the
1:19:20engagement. Look at the results you're
1:19:22getting. And stop listening to that
1:19:24little demon on your shoulder that keeps
1:19:26telling you how weird your voice sounds,
1:19:30how fat you look, how tired you look,
1:19:33how weird you sound, what whatever it
1:19:36is, whatever that inner up voice
1:19:38is, that is not what is propelling you
1:19:41towards your goals. Another thing that I
1:19:43would really encourage you to focus on
1:19:44is that a small correct audience that is
1:19:48engaged is so much more powerful than
1:19:50having a massive audience of people that
1:19:53have no idea what the you're doing
1:19:55and could give a about it. For
1:19:57example, if you were to look at my
1:19:58Instagram page, I have 68,000 followers.
1:20:00Nowadays, that's nothing. But
1:20:02back when Instagram first started, that
1:20:03was a lot. But those followers are not
1:20:06engaged with me. I got them like 10
1:20:08years ago off of my landscape
1:20:10photography. And so a lot of you
1:20:12watching this probably have 500 to a
1:20:14thousand followers, but those followers
1:20:16might actually be very engaged in your
1:20:18subject matter and very interested in
1:20:20the offer you have. Whereas if you look
1:20:22at mine, all of them follow me or the
1:20:24majority of them followed me for Pacific
1:20:26Northwest landscape photography that I
1:20:28was doing 10 years ago. And so now I'm
1:20:30going to have to go through the process
1:20:31of converting people to my new content
1:20:33and I'm going to lose a shitload of
1:20:35people. And so there's so many creators
1:20:37online that have these massive I know
1:20:39many people with millions of followers
1:20:41that make very little off of their
1:20:44social media content. I also know a lot
1:20:46of people that have less than 10,000
1:20:48followers that are making millions of
1:20:50dollars a year off of their following.
1:20:52Why? Because those 5,000 people that
1:20:54follow them are their target audience,
1:20:56their potential customers. So again,
1:20:59don't look at your ego of the inflated
1:21:01numbers, the the big follower count, so
1:21:03that when your friends see it, they're
1:21:05really impressed. No, who gives a
1:21:07about that? You want to make sure that
1:21:09you are growing and acquiring the
1:21:12correct audience. So please do not be
1:21:14discouraged if you don't have hundreds
1:21:16of thousands or millions of followers.
1:21:18There are plenty of people out there
1:21:19with less than 10,000 that are making
1:21:21more money than you could ever dream of.
1:21:23Now another thing is you want to track
1:21:26the performance on the platform. That is
1:21:28an indicator that you are making content
1:21:30that the platform prefers and so people
1:21:32will see it and engage with it. And
1:21:34ultimately this is probably especially
1:21:36for the people early on in their
1:21:37soloreneur or business days or a
1:21:40creator. This is how people are aware of
1:21:42your offer. Okay? So it's important for
1:21:44you to play the game. But what I would
1:21:46really encourage you to do is actually
1:21:49pay more attention to conversions. So,
1:21:52if you are a musician, are more people
1:21:55streaming your music? If you have a
1:21:57clothing brand, are more people buying
1:21:59your hoodies? If you're a video editor,
1:22:01are more people hiring you for various
1:22:03gigs? If you're an investor, are more
1:22:05companies coming to you for investment
1:22:08opportunities rather than you having to
1:22:09reach out to them? Because time and time
1:22:11again, what I have seen people do and
1:22:14it's a huge mistake is they build their
1:22:17whole brand and content based on
1:22:20performing well on Tik Tok, Instagram or
1:22:22YouTube and they never build it based on
1:22:25actually converting to sales or to
1:22:28streams. This is a huge mistake because
1:22:32unless I have this completely incorrect,
1:22:35the majority of you probably watching
1:22:36this aren't just trying to be famous for
1:22:38famous sake. You're trying to drive
1:22:40awareness that leads to a desired
1:22:42outcome. And if you don't optimize
1:22:44around the desired outcome, what you end
1:22:46up doing is you're going to waste one,
1:22:48two, maybe three years and lots of money
1:22:50and time chasing some vanity metric that
1:22:53doesn't actually improve your bottom
1:22:55line. The key here is not to think of it
1:22:57as one or the other. It's both. You need
1:22:59to make sure that you are paying close
1:23:01attention to how you're performing on
1:23:03the platform so that they can see your
1:23:04and become aware of what you have
1:23:06to offer. But then also make sure you
1:23:08are optimizing your content that leads
1:23:11to action. I would rather have 30 40%
1:23:15less likes and views and subscribers or
1:23:18followers, but have that audience
1:23:21convert at a higher percentage than have
1:23:24millions of followers and have a very
1:23:26low percentage of conversion. That's my
1:23:28personal preference because again, we're
1:23:30not making this content here for me to
1:23:33become famous. That is in no way the
1:23:35goal at all. I actually really hope that
1:23:36doesn't ever happen. My goal is purely
1:23:38to become known with my potential
1:23:40customers. And that's it. I don't need
1:23:42everybody to know who I am. And so, make
1:23:45sure that you are mapping and building
1:23:48out your strategy and optimizing your
1:23:51content for the correct thing. All
1:23:53right. Now, we're going to determine
1:23:54your posting cadence. This is a big
1:23:57debate, big question that a lot of
1:23:58people have. I get it. Honestly, I
1:24:01probably got this question at
1:24:03least 300 times in the last year. No
1:24:06joke. And it's a debate that occurs
1:24:08heavily online and a lot of different
1:24:11top creators that you should look up to
1:24:14have differing opinions here. And so I'm
1:24:16going to share with you my philosophy
1:24:17here. Before we dive into the framework
1:24:19for determining your posting cadence and
1:24:21then another framework for how to
1:24:22increase the volume and increase your
1:24:24cadence, I want to give you my
1:24:26overarching philosophy on quality versus
1:24:29quantity. The great debate has existed
1:24:32probably for the last eight years
1:24:33online. And I think that a lot of people
1:24:36that enter this debate don't actually
1:24:39define what these two things mean and
1:24:42what they are and what their purpose is.
1:24:44So quantity is something that a lot of
1:24:48people have overindexed on. I'll say,
1:24:52okay, they believe that you post a high
1:24:55volume of content in order to gain the
1:24:58most impressions and show up everywhere,
1:25:00having your face in front of people all
1:25:02the time. And that's a beautiful
1:25:04byproduct that occurs from posting a
1:25:07high volume of content. But I actually
1:25:09view volume of content as a tool in what
1:25:14I call the accordion method. The way I
1:25:16like to think of it is I don't know what
1:25:19quality is and neither do you. We sit
1:25:22around ideulating on a piece of content
1:25:24and we'll say something like this is a
1:25:26highquality piece and that ultimately is
1:25:29a subjective opinion. That is you
1:25:32subjectively saying this is high
1:25:33quality. But we don't give a about
1:25:35what you think. We care about what your
1:25:37audience thinks. Your audience is who
1:25:39determines what quality is, not you. And
1:25:42we use volume to acquire that data
1:25:46quicker. If you were to post 10 videos
1:25:49over 30 days, okay, that's one video
1:25:52every 3 days. Cool. If you were to take
1:25:55the same amount of videos and post them
1:25:56in a week, you're going to gain insights
1:26:00faster. And what insights am I talking
1:26:02about? What your audience is resonating
1:26:04with. What are they liking more? What
1:26:06are they commenting on more? what's
1:26:07getting more views. Those are indicators
1:26:10of your audience signaling to you, the
1:26:12creator, hey, I call this higher quality
1:26:15content. Quality does not have anything
1:26:17to do with the fancy that we're
1:26:19trying to do here, the lights, the
1:26:21camera, right? Like the the set that
1:26:23you're working on. No, that. That
1:26:25has nothing to do with quality. Think
1:26:26about this. Some of the most viral
1:26:28videos, most viewed and engaged with
1:26:30videos ever online are filmed at night
1:26:34in the dark on a cell phone.
1:26:37Like, they're grainy. You can barely
1:26:39tell what's going on, right? Quality is
1:26:41a subjective thing. And because it's
1:26:44subjective, I would rather have the
1:26:45audience determine what it is rather
1:26:47than me pontificating on what I think
1:26:49quality is. So again, you post high
1:26:52quantity, high volume content to get the
1:26:55learnings on what your audience says is
1:26:57quality and then what I believe you do
1:27:00is you compress the accordion and that's
1:27:03when you start to put more effort per
1:27:05piece of content. We're going to get
1:27:06into that in a little bit here. I don't
1:27:08want to spoil the mana right now, but
1:27:10that's my overarching philosophy and
1:27:12kind of the the shade the lens that you
1:27:14can view the rest of this section
1:27:16through. So now that we understand what
1:27:18quality and quantity are, we are going
1:27:19to determine our posting cadence. What I
1:27:22would encourage you to do is first start
1:27:24with the highest leverage platform.
1:27:26Okay, what do I mean by the highest
1:27:28leverage platform? Well, one, what are
1:27:30you getting the most results from? Where
1:27:31are you getting your leads? Where are
1:27:33you getting the majority of your
1:27:34engagement? Right? What is performing
1:27:36well by the platform standards and by
1:27:39conversion standards? And number two,
1:27:41what platform allows you to create one
1:27:43piece of content that then you're able
1:27:45to repurpose into many different pieces
1:27:47of content? Typically, what this looks
1:27:48like is a long form piece of content,
1:27:49aka this course, right? A YouTube video
1:27:52is going to provide you so much ability
1:27:55to be able to, like I said at the top,
1:27:58clip moments, so you can get shorts, uh,
1:28:00you're able to pull the transcript, get
1:28:02quotes, use that transcript to then make
1:28:04a LinkedIn post. You can extract the
1:28:06audio for a podcast. You can then pull
1:28:08stills from the video to use in social
1:28:10posts. It's a very high leverage medium
1:28:14and platform. Now, please again, I
1:28:17really pushed this in the last section
1:28:19and I'm going to just continue
1:28:20reinforcing it. If you are tracking
1:28:23conversions, which you should,
1:28:24conversions offplatform, if you notice
1:28:27that there's one or two platforms that
1:28:28are leading to a lot more conversions
1:28:31offplatform, please double, triple,
1:28:34quadruple down on those platforms. On
1:28:37one of the teams that I was running, we
1:28:39learned when actually looking at the
1:28:40data that YouTube was our number one
1:28:43lead provider, Instagram was number two,
1:28:45and LinkedIn was number three. But
1:28:47here's the very interesting thing. That
1:28:49was by absolute. But if you look at
1:28:51percentage of audience that is actually
1:28:54converting, LinkedIn was number one by a
1:28:56mile, it was a way smaller
1:28:58audience because it was a platform that
1:29:00we took on and started really optimizing
1:29:02for way later than YouTube and
1:29:04Instagram. So what we realized is we
1:29:06should allocate far more resources to
1:29:09LinkedIn. If it has a higher percentage
1:29:12of qualified leads coming from it, all
1:29:15we have to do is increase the amount of
1:29:17impressions we're getting and in theory
1:29:19that will be the number one platform,
1:29:21not just by percentage, but by absolute
1:29:23leads. We discovered this at a time when
1:29:26LinkedIn was just starting to emerge as
1:29:28like the next big platform. And so we
1:29:31actually as a team had kind of devalued
1:29:33it. We viewed it as an afterthought. It
1:29:36wasn't our number one priority. But the
1:29:38moment that we looked at the data, bing
1:29:41bing bing, track your data. The moment
1:29:43we did that, we saw massive returns. All
1:29:46of a sudden, LinkedIn became something
1:29:48that we were putting. I mean, we were
1:29:50spending probably 20 $30,000 a month
1:29:52just on LinkedIn organic content alone.
1:29:55The next one is actually going further
1:29:58or deeper on what we started this
1:30:00section off on, which is volume for
1:30:02speed and learnings, not just reach. I
1:30:04encourage you in the early days to
1:30:07increase whatever volume you think you
1:30:09need to do right now, increase it. Okay?
1:30:11And the reason why I said it up top, but
1:30:13I'm going to reinforce it and emphasize
1:30:15it again. You want to know what your
1:30:17audience deems as quality. And you want
1:30:19to know that as soon as possible. And so
1:30:21what I would encourage you to do is
1:30:22increase the frequency in which you
1:30:24post. A great example of this is a
1:30:25previous team that I ran. We started our
1:30:28YouTube efforts by posting three videos
1:30:30a week. Then we increased it to five.
1:30:33Now, were these highly optimized YouTube
1:30:35videos? No. I wouldn't even call them
1:30:37edited. They were just trimmed. There
1:30:39was no editing being applied. And there
1:30:40was definitely no graphics or any
1:30:42intentionality to how we crafted the
1:30:44intro, the packaging, nothing. What we
1:30:46were doing though is not trying to
1:30:47optimize because we weren't at that
1:30:49phase yet. We were at the learning
1:30:52acquisition phase. We were trying to
1:30:54understand what is the audience
1:30:55resonating with the most. What are the
1:30:57questions they're asking? How are they
1:30:59engaging and behaving with this content?
1:31:02What this allows you to do is then
1:31:04determine what they're with and
1:31:07do more of that. And when I say do more
1:31:10of that, I don't necessarily mean more
1:31:12volume. I mean putting more effort per
1:31:15piece. So let's say you were posting
1:31:16five YouTube videos a week. That's a
1:31:18lot. What if you took the effort that
1:31:21you put and the time and resources you
1:31:24put into five videos a week into one?
1:31:26And that one video was based off of the
1:31:28knowledge and insights that you now have
1:31:31of what your audience has said to you is
1:31:33quality. Sounds like you might be
1:31:35getting some traction and actually start
1:31:36growing and getting subscribers and
1:31:37views. It's crazy and it actually
1:31:39works. Quality is not your
1:31:41personal preference. Quality is
1:31:43determined by your audience. Plain and
1:31:46simple. One of the biggest traps
1:31:48I see a lot of you making is that you
1:31:50are making the decision for your
1:31:52audience. Maybe you have a piece of
1:31:54content that you've been sitting on and
1:31:55you think, "Ah, this isn't high quality
1:31:57enough and you're just not posting it.
1:31:59You're not putting it out there and
1:32:01you're making the subjective decision
1:32:03that this is not worth your audience's
1:32:05time and they're not going to get value
1:32:06out of it." But how do you know if you
1:32:08don't put it out? Especially in the
1:32:09beginning. I understand mature creators,
1:32:11you get to a point when you are a
1:32:13content creator where you do actually be
1:32:15able like you know this is not going to
1:32:17hit. Like we can't even post
1:32:18this. Nobody's going to give a
1:32:19about this. That does happen. But in the
1:32:21early days, you don't have a
1:32:22clue. You don't know anything about your
1:32:24audience or what they want. You have
1:32:26your perception of what you think they
1:32:28want, but more than likely, it's not
1:32:30that accurate. And so, I encourage you,
1:32:32stop guessing. Stop making the decision
1:32:34for them and allow them to tell you what
1:32:37they want. And the last point in
1:32:39determining your content cadence or your
1:32:41upload cadence is avoid the perfect post
1:32:44trap. I like to say that perfect is the
1:32:46enemy of posted. If you're struggling to
1:32:47post
1:32:49daily, yes, me too. I agree with you.
1:32:54Most people can't post daily. That is
1:32:56kind of like an absurd level to just
1:32:58immediately jump into. And so, I would
1:33:00encourage you, visit the idea of posting
1:33:02three times per week. Visit the
1:33:04idea of posting once a week, once every
1:33:06other week. Look at what we're doing.
1:33:07We're probably going to be posting one
1:33:08long form video on YouTube a month,
1:33:11maybe every three weeks or so. But we're
1:33:13putting more effort per
1:33:16piece rather than high volume. Now,
1:33:19Caleb, I thought you just said do high
1:33:21volume in the beginning in order to
1:33:22learn what the audience resonates with.
1:33:24Well, I have a little bit of a leg up.
1:33:26And I'll give you kind of like an
1:33:28insight into that just so that you
1:33:29understand that I'm not bullshitting
1:33:31you. In the last year, I met with over
1:33:332,000 businesses and consistently ran
1:33:35question and answer sessions with them.
1:33:37I did a roundt session with literally
1:33:392,000 business owners. And I know what
1:33:43the common questions were. I have a very
1:33:45good pulse on what people are wanting to
1:33:47hear from me based on what they would
1:33:49ask me at these Q&As's. I also have been
1:33:54in the industry for a very long time.
1:33:56And so, not only do I know what people
1:33:57are wanting, I also know what they need.
1:34:00I know what the majority of the industry
1:34:01is currently saying. Half of these
1:34:03on YouTube are telling you a lot
1:34:06of around how to grow your
1:34:08brand or how to scale your organic
1:34:10content. and I've seen it long enough
1:34:11that now I'm at a point where I'm a
1:34:13little bit fed up and that's why I'm
1:34:14putting this content out for you. I
1:34:16would encourage you unless you have
1:34:18those insights, unless you've met with
1:34:202,000 different individuals that map
1:34:23towards your ideal customer, then I
1:34:25would probably start with high volume.
1:34:28But again, if high volume means one post
1:34:32every other week in the beginning
1:34:33because that's all you can do, then do
1:34:36that. whatever you can actually put out
1:34:39consistently, please start with that.
1:34:41Don't try and jump to the Ronnie Coleman
1:34:44method and squat 800 lb when you've
1:34:46never squatted 135. And the last point
1:34:49to that is again, stop aiming for
1:34:51perfection, speed wins. So, for example,
1:34:54we're filming this course, right? And
1:34:55we've invested a good amount of money
1:34:57into this and a lot of effort and we
1:35:00have been very intentional with all the
1:35:03little elements, right? like uh the set,
1:35:05the lighting, uh the framing, the way
1:35:08that we're shooting this on three
1:35:09different cameras, the audio, like all
1:35:11this right? We're trying to be
1:35:13very cognizant of all of it. But there's
1:35:14been semis that go by. There's been
1:35:18police officers that are, you know, woo
1:35:20woo, the sirens going by. There's all
1:35:22kinds of And it's not perfect. And
1:35:24we could stop every single time and we
1:35:26could potentially even decide this isn't
1:35:29the right space. Uh maybe we should have
1:35:31filmed in something that was more uh
1:35:33audio friendly. But guess what? Perfect
1:35:34is the enemy of Postit. And so we are
1:35:37still going to capture this, put it
1:35:39together, and we are going to post it.
1:35:41And what have we been doing every night
1:35:43after we finish filming? We've been
1:35:45going home and figuring out what we
1:35:46would do differently and how we're going
1:35:48to improve on the next version of this.
1:35:50So, what I would encourage you to do is
1:35:52instead of letting all the different
1:35:54problems or issues you see with the
1:35:56content you're working on right now and
1:35:58using that as a reason to not post,
1:36:00that. Post it and take note of what
1:36:02you're going to do on future pieces that
1:36:06you make. So, we've determined our
1:36:08posting cadence and we're at a point now
1:36:11where we've been doing it
1:36:12consistently. Congratulations. Good for
1:36:15you. That's awesome. A lot of
1:36:17people give up after like a week or two.
1:36:18And so if you've made it even like 2 or
1:36:203 months of posting, you are in the top
1:36:221%. So congrats. You're awesome.
1:36:25I'm proud of you. And I want you to do
1:36:27more. And by more, I mean I want you to
1:36:29increase your volume. And here's how
1:36:31we're going to do it. One, you are going
1:36:32to leverage a content pillar approach. I
1:36:35want you to identify your pillar
1:36:37content. Typically, this is more long
1:36:40form content. Okay? So, think like a
1:36:41YouTube video, long form, a deep dive uh
1:36:45thread. Maybe it's a long form written
1:36:47post on LinkedIn or it's a newsletter
1:36:49that you send out to your email list.
1:36:50Then what you're going to do is you're
1:36:52going to do what I affectionately call
1:36:54mining. You're going to go through your
1:36:56long- form content and mine for the
1:36:59gold. If it's a newsletter, what you're
1:37:01looking for is bite-sized chunks that
1:37:04are self-contained. So, this is a
1:37:06paragraph that you have in your
1:37:07newsletter that you could extract and
1:37:09pull and it would make sense and be
1:37:11valuable in and of itself without the
1:37:14other context. You're also probably
1:37:15going to find maybe a quote or two that
1:37:17you could pull from that. Okay? And then
1:37:19you could probably also do a version
1:37:21where you take the entire newsletter and
1:37:24you summarize it in call it five or six
1:37:27sentences. So, a medium form post on
1:37:30YouTube. If you have a long form YouTube
1:37:32video, well, what you're going to have
1:37:33is an editor or editors that go through
1:37:36and they're mining for the gold. They're
1:37:38going to find the moments and extract
1:37:40them that they know are going to perform
1:37:42well and resonate with your audience.
1:37:44Typically, you're looking for a powerful
1:37:47moment that maybe is a slightly
1:37:48contrarian view or is a nuanced take on
1:37:51an already discussed subject. For
1:37:52example, my quality versus quantity
1:37:54moment. I almost guarantee Trevor is
1:37:56going to clip that moment and we'll post
1:37:57it on Instagram, Tik Tok, YouTube short,
1:37:59all that because that's going to be
1:38:00a moment that will do well for our
1:38:02audience. Now, this is nothing new. I
1:38:04like to call it the waterfall
1:38:05distribution model. But ultimately, I
1:38:08got to pay homage to the actual man who
1:38:10came up with this. This is the OG Gary
1:38:11Vee. He came up with the content
1:38:13framework and how he extracts thousands
1:38:17of posts from one long form piece of
1:38:19content. And he's been doing this since
1:38:21I want to say like
1:38:232015, 2016, right? Like originally it
1:38:26started with releasing Daily V and then
1:38:28clipping moments from that and posting
1:38:29them on Instagram before reals, Tik Tok,
1:38:31any of that was a thing. And so here's
1:38:32what I recommend you do. Take your high
1:38:35value content. Let's use a YouTube video
1:38:37for example. And what you're going to do
1:38:38is you are going to break this down into
1:38:41short form clips. You're going to
1:38:43extract quotes that you can put out on
1:38:45threads and X. You're gonna take the
1:38:46transcript and find a moment that you
1:38:48can rewrite into a LinkedIn post. You're
1:38:51gonna then take that LinkedIn post and
1:38:52post it on Facebook as well. Then one of
1:38:55the shorts that you clipped from that
1:38:58YouTube video that you post on
1:39:00Instagram, use the LinkedIn post as your
1:39:03caption for that post. Okay? Do you see
1:39:05how literally in the moment right now,
1:39:07I'm not looking at notes. I'm literally
1:39:08coming up with this in the moment
1:39:10because there is so much that you can
1:39:12extract from a YouTube long form video.
1:39:15I haven't even gotten to carousels yet.
1:39:17Now, what I want you to do is take the
1:39:19different sections from your YouTube
1:39:23video and make two carousel slides per
1:39:26section. Now, you got to simplify. You
1:39:28can't have a fuckload of text. In fact,
1:39:30the best practice is to have one very
1:39:32basic, very easy to understand image
1:39:35followed by one, two sentences at most
1:39:38per slide. And so diving even deeper on
1:39:41it, you want to make sure that the first
1:39:43two slides in your carousel are taken
1:39:46from the hook that you made for the
1:39:48YouTube video. So reinterpret the hook
1:39:50that you made for the YouTube video into
1:39:52the carousel opening two slides. The
1:39:54reason why is because when it's served
1:39:56immediately, they're seeing the first uh
1:39:58tile, the first slide. But if they
1:40:00didn't engage with it, Instagram gives
1:40:02you a second atbat. How nice of them.
1:40:04They're going to serve the carousel
1:40:06again to your followers, but it's going
1:40:08to be on slide number two. So, you want
1:40:09to ensure that you have a hook for one
1:40:11and two. Now, another thing to note is
1:40:14uh this is not a rule, it's an
1:40:15observation. Often times, listicles tend
1:40:18to, at least as of February 2025, they
1:40:21do better in carousel form. So, if you
1:40:24have a video that is 10 things I learned
1:40:27about investing in my 30s, okay, cool.
1:40:29That's going to be an amazing amazing
1:40:31carousel. However, if you have like a
1:40:34really complex deep dive on a subject
1:40:36matter that is like not in any way made
1:40:40for the lay listener or viewer, then I
1:40:43would probably consider maybe just
1:40:46taking one section of that video and
1:40:48then expanding that into a carousel
1:40:51rather than trying to compress an entire
1:40:53video. So, when I say taking a YouTube
1:40:56video, please try to stick more towards
1:40:58listicles when you're doing this.
1:41:00Otherwise, you're going to want to just
1:41:01take one section of the YouTube video
1:41:03and turn that into the carousel. So, in
1:41:04this example, I couldn't even keep track
1:41:07of how many different pieces of content
1:41:08I just listed out. It's easily over 10
1:41:10pieces of content that we just created
1:41:12off of one video that you filmed. Insane
1:41:15amounts of output for what you put in,
1:41:18aka very high leverage activity. Now,
1:41:20the next thing that you're going to want
1:41:21to do is scale by platform, not all at
1:41:24once. First, we picked our medium. Then,
1:41:25we picked our platforms. Then, we
1:41:27determined our posting cadence. Cool.
1:41:29We've been doing that consistently for a
1:41:30while now on two or three platforms that
1:41:32we determined were our highest priority
1:41:35platforms. Now that I of Sauron approach
1:41:38that I mentioned earlier is really going
1:41:40to come in handy. Do not try to scale up
1:41:44all three or two platforms that you are
1:41:46emphasizing at once. If you do this, you
1:41:49won't do any of them well. And so just
1:41:51like I mentioned with the Sauron
1:41:52approach, what you're going to do is
1:41:54let's say for example your top three,
1:41:56you go LinkedIn, YouTube, Instagram. All
1:41:58right, LinkedIn being number one, we're
1:42:00going to attack increasing volume there
1:42:04first. So, what does that look like?
1:42:05Well, you make sure that YouTube and
1:42:08Instagram are on maintenance mode.
1:42:10They're not going to go down, but
1:42:12they're not going to be growing. That is
1:42:14not your emphasis right now. You want
1:42:15those just consistently putting out
1:42:17enough content to keep the current
1:42:18audience engaged. If you grow, amazing.
1:42:20That's a wonderful little surprise, but
1:42:22that is not our goal. Maintain focus on
1:42:25LinkedIn. And when we're focusing on
1:42:27LinkedIn and scaling this up, you have
1:42:29two different ways to scale it up. In my
1:42:31opinion, you can either literally
1:42:33increase the volume of posts you do or
1:42:36you can increase the amount of effort
1:42:38you put per post. As of February 2025, I
1:42:42actually would encourage you instead of
1:42:44just increasing the volume, I would
1:42:46start with increasing the amount of
1:42:47effort you put per post. So let's say
1:42:49for example, you were posting five times
1:42:51a week on LinkedIn. I actually would
1:42:54encourage you as of right now, and this
1:42:56is way different than what I would have
1:42:58said a year ago. I'm very much on the
1:43:00higher effort per piece of content train
1:43:03right now. And so I would take the
1:43:05effort you put into five pieces and put
1:43:07it into three. I am finding you get far
1:43:09more out of a very, very extensive and
1:43:12high value piece of content than you do
1:43:15off of medium value content at a high
1:43:18volume. Here's an example. There was an
1:43:20individual that I worked with. They
1:43:21loved volume and they wanted to post a
1:43:24minimum of four videos a month on
1:43:26YouTube. Now, when we did that, those
1:43:29videos would average around 250,000
1:43:31views a video, which is really great for
1:43:33most people, but according to our
1:43:35standards, that was actually lower than
1:43:37what we were looking for. Add all of
1:43:39that up together, and that's a million
1:43:40views a month. I would argue that one
1:43:43video a month that gets a million views
1:43:45is way more valuable for both the
1:43:48audience and yourself than the four
1:43:51videos that get 250,000 views. Well,
1:43:53Caleb, where did you come to that
1:43:55conclusion? It's the same collective
1:43:56views. Ah, it's the same number of
1:44:00views. It's not the same number of
1:44:02eyeballs. Meaning the video that got a
1:44:05million views had a high percentage of
1:44:09those views be new
1:44:11audience. These are people that have
1:44:14never consumed your content or rarely
1:44:16consumed your content before. Now the
1:44:18videos that got 250,000 more than 60 to
1:44:2170% of the views were from the current
1:44:24audience. And there's nothing wrong with
1:44:25nurturing your current audience. I want
1:44:26to make sure that that's clear. But can
1:44:28you see a massive discrepancy here? It's
1:44:31very clear to me that the millionview
1:44:33video once per month has a
1:44:35disproportionate amount of value
1:44:37compared to four 250,000 view videos a
1:44:40month. I believe that this is why Mr.
1:44:42Beast Jimmy Donaldson went with this
1:44:45method. When he was posting content on
1:44:47YouTube, he wasn't trying to post a
1:44:49video every 3 days. He wasn't trying to
1:44:50post a video every week. He was posting
1:44:52a video every 4 to 8 weeks. There was
1:44:54times where he would go two months in
1:44:56between posting a video. Why? because he
1:44:58was putting so many resources and so
1:45:01much effort into each piece. Because
1:45:03what he knew is rather than the majority
1:45:06of YouTubers who are trying to put out a
1:45:07video every week, if he put all that
1:45:09effort into a video every six weeks, way
1:45:12more people were going to see it, way
1:45:14more people were going to enjoy it and
1:45:15share it with others because it was such
1:45:17a crazy concept and crazy execution of
1:45:20that concept. And so I'm actually on the
1:45:23lower volume, higher effort per piece
1:45:26train. And the reason why I'm saying
1:45:27lower volume and not higher quality is
1:45:30again quality is subjective. Now over
1:45:33time you get to a point where you know
1:45:35what your audience deems as quality. So
1:45:37you could use the term higher quality
1:45:39content. I just don't like to say it
1:45:41because I don't want to confuse you and
1:45:42make you think that I know what quality
1:45:45is. I don't. You do. So back to
1:45:47LinkedIn. What I want you to do is focus
1:45:49on putting more effort per piece of
1:45:52content you do. Now what do you do more
1:45:55of? Well, if we've been doing five posts
1:45:58a week, for example, we have a pretty
1:45:59good insight on what topics and what
1:46:01kind of structure or formats people on
1:46:04the platform are resonating with and
1:46:06preferring. So, one, we can just do less
1:46:09of the other and more of that. But
1:46:12here's another little hack for you. Look
1:46:14at the top 10% performing content. Take
1:46:17the last 90 days, for example, or if
1:46:19you've only been posting for 30 days,
1:46:20take the last 30 days. Whatever amount
1:46:22of time that you can do up to 90 days.
1:46:24And what I want you to do is identify
1:46:27your top 10% content. And then what I
1:46:30want you to do is study the out of
1:46:33it. And what you're looking for is not
1:46:36all these different things that you
1:46:37think could have been the reason why it
1:46:39performed well. What you're looking for
1:46:40is what occurred in all of these pieces
1:46:42of content that I can then replicate and
1:46:44put into every piece I do moving
1:46:46forward. If it exists in only one or
1:46:48two, then it's kind of a crapshoot. But
1:46:51if you identify, and usually you're only
1:46:53going to find one, maybe two things. If
1:46:55you identify those one or two things,
1:46:57you raise the probability of your future
1:46:59content performing better than average.
1:47:02And so what you're doing is you're
1:47:03always learning and optimizing off of
1:47:06your top content, not your general
1:47:08content. A lot of people look at
1:47:10everything they're making and they try
1:47:12and extract learnings from it. But why
1:47:13would you want to learn from the bottom
1:47:1510% or the bottom 20%. I want to always
1:47:17be looking at the top tier performance
1:47:20and how can I replicate these scenarios,
1:47:23these conditions that led to it
1:47:26performing so well. And again, please
1:47:28increase the volume because you see that
1:47:31that platform, that channel is driving
1:47:34more conversions. Again, whatever
1:47:36conversions look like for you. If that's
1:47:38email newsletter signups, if that's more
1:47:41streams to your music, if that's more
1:47:43downloads on your short film on Amazon
1:47:45Prime, whatever it is, I want you to
1:47:48optimize for conversions first. And
1:47:51another question that I get a lot of
1:47:52times is like, if my content isn't
1:47:54performing well, well, what do I do?
1:47:56Well, you do what I just said. Even if
1:47:58your content isn't performing super
1:48:00well, there is some content that's
1:48:02performing better than others. And so
1:48:04look at the top 10% and study what that
1:48:07is. And I would encourage you to do this
1:48:09on a monthly basis. If you just stick
1:48:11with what the original core findings,
1:48:13okay, cool. You're just optimizing on
1:48:15that. But if every month you re-evaluate
1:48:17the top 10%, you're always going to be
1:48:19lading up. You're always improving off
1:48:22of your best work and learning from your
1:48:25best work rather than sticking with the
1:48:26learnings that you had 6 months ago. So
1:48:28the next thing that we're going to focus
1:48:29on is making your content sustainable.
1:48:33Like we said at the top, this only
1:48:35matters if we stick with it for a long
1:48:37time. That's when we start to get the
1:48:39actual returns on our investment. And
1:48:42so, first off, I want to just say you
1:48:44need to be playing for the long term. If
1:48:47you hate video, you're not going to
1:48:48stick with it. So, don't do
1:48:49video. Eventually, after making content,
1:48:51maybe as an audio only format or a
1:48:54design focus or potentially even doing
1:48:56written, you may get comfortable with
1:48:58the idea of putting yourself out there
1:49:00online, getting feedback, and being okay
1:49:03with that feedback. In which case, maybe
1:49:04you'll get more comfortable with the
1:49:06idea of doing video. But if that idea or
1:49:08that concept of filming a video like
1:49:10this with a camera here, camera here,
1:49:12camera there, that sounds freaky to most
1:49:14people, I wouldn't push yourself to do
1:49:16it. Again, I want you to ease into this
1:49:18so that it's something that you can do
1:49:19for a very long time. Content creation
1:49:21should be sustainable for years, not
1:49:24months. Now, the next thing is to build
1:49:26a simple content machine. What do I mean
1:49:28by that? Well, we're not Mr. Beast on
1:49:30day one. And so, what you need to do is
1:49:33set a baseline of what you are wanting
1:49:35to accomplish. Let's say it's one video
1:49:36every two weeks for YouTube. And maybe
1:49:38it's posting three shorts a week on
1:49:41Instagram and YouTube Shorts. Cool.
1:49:43That's simple. Now, what we can do is
1:49:45consistently do that. And if we do it
1:49:47for 2 or 3 months, then what we can do
1:49:48is raise the bar and increase the volume
1:49:51that we want to make. Some people find
1:49:54batching content to be highly effective
1:49:56for them. Some people will literally
1:49:58block a 12-hour day and film three or
1:50:01four YouTube videos, some shorts, and a
1:50:03couple podcasts. And if that works for
1:50:05you, amazing. What I have observed,
1:50:07again, not a rule, just an observation,
1:50:09is for a lot of individuals, this puts a
1:50:12lot of pressure on the day. And if you
1:50:14find yourself feeling that pressure a
1:50:16lot of times, again, what I have
1:50:17observed is that that causes poor
1:50:20performance on the day of filming
1:50:22because they feel so much pressure they
1:50:24get anxiety, they end up getting sick or
1:50:26all these crazy things start popping up
1:50:28rather than having it be more of a low
1:50:31pressure environment where maybe you
1:50:33film a video here, a video there. The
1:50:36the thing that you need to do is make
1:50:38sure you are aligning your strategy with
1:50:41your calendar and your schedule. What do
1:50:44you have available to you? Do you have
1:50:45time to be able to film it throughout
1:50:46the week or do you have to batch? If
1:50:48you're in a scenario where you have to
1:50:50batch content, what I would recommend is
1:50:53ensuring that the team you're working
1:50:54with is a team that can make the
1:50:57environment conducive for you to deliver
1:51:00your best content. Which leads me to the
1:51:02next point, which is remove yourself
1:51:04from the execution. And we're going to
1:51:05go really deep on this one. Out of all
1:51:07of these different points within the
1:51:09make it sustainable section here, this
1:51:11is where we're going to spend the
1:51:12majority of the time. If you can afford
1:51:14it or as soon as you can afford it,
1:51:18please invest in building a team. Now,
1:51:21I'm going to go really in depth on this
1:51:23in the next chapter or the next section
1:51:25of this course here uh where we
1:51:27literally talk only about team. But if
1:51:29you have the capital, if you have the
1:51:31resources to do it, I encourage you to
1:51:33invest in this immediately. Now, this
1:51:35might look like hiring freelancers in
1:51:36the beginning or agencies that you work
1:51:38with, something that's a little bit more
1:51:40minimal on the upfront cost and allows
1:51:42you to test and make sure that you're
1:51:44getting a positive ROI. So then you can
1:51:47reinvest and redeploy capital into
1:51:51furthering and building out your team.
1:51:54Now, about the team, something that I
1:51:56have observed is that filming content is
1:52:01hard for the talent. Why is it hard?
1:52:03Well, there's high pressure, right?
1:52:05We're wondering, uh, how is this going
1:52:07to perform? Am I going to be able to
1:52:08deliver this and make a great piece of
1:52:11content off of it? Yeah, sure. That's
1:52:12the natural. But then there's also these
1:52:14like crazy questions that pop up. When
1:52:16you're staring into the camera lens and
1:52:18you're saying all this you're
1:52:20wondering, is this actually interesting?
1:52:21Is it valuable? Are people going to
1:52:23actually learn and change their actions
1:52:26based on what I'm sharing? Are they
1:52:28enjoying this? Is this boring? These are
1:52:31all natural questions that come up. And
1:52:33so that happens during the film session.
1:52:35Then oftentimes, and I'm sure if you're
1:52:37listening to this or watching this and
1:52:39you've filmed content, you're resonating
1:52:41with what I'm saying. You drive home.
1:52:43And on the drive home, you're like,
1:52:44"Fuck, I I could have done so much
1:52:46better. That was not very good." And
1:52:47you're going through all of these like
1:52:50inner critic, like a inner critic
1:52:52monologue that you're having with
1:52:53yourself. Here's how I solve this issue.
1:52:57I make sure that the team that is around
1:53:00the film session that is around the
1:53:03content creation makes it easier for
1:53:06you, not harder for you. What do I mean?
1:53:08Well, I have an entire playbook on how
1:53:10to go about creating an environment to
1:53:13make your talent feel comfortable. So,
1:53:16for those of you who are building your
1:53:17brand and trying to get a team around
1:53:19you, this playbook will be gold.
1:53:22For those of you that are the content
1:53:24creators behind the scenes that are
1:53:26trying to improve how you capture
1:53:29content with your talent, this will be
1:53:31gold. And I'm going to walk you
1:53:33through it just a little bit at a high
1:53:34level, but again, I would encourage you
1:53:35download it, study it, study it, study
1:53:38it. I believe that it is not the content
1:53:41creator's job to create the right
1:53:42environment. It's the team's job. And
1:53:45so, it starts, in my opinion, with the
1:53:46videographer. Now, to solve the problem
1:53:49of you wondering if what you're saying
1:53:51is interesting, what you need is a
1:53:52videographer who gives you visual
1:53:54feedback as you are filming. So, what I
1:53:57started to notice that I just naturally
1:53:59would do when I was filming with talent
1:54:01is I would nod my head when they were
1:54:03saying something good. Now, as what they
1:54:06were saying escalated, it got better and
1:54:08better and better. The intensity in
1:54:10which I nodded my head would increase.
1:54:12And it sounds funny, but every single
1:54:14person I've ever filmed with actually
1:54:16commented on this and would tell me how
1:54:18much it reinforced what they were
1:54:20saying. They knew, "Oh, okay. This is a
1:54:22good moment. I'm going to go deeper on
1:54:24this." And so what you're doing is you
1:54:26are giving them real time feedback
1:54:28because the difficulty with creating
1:54:31content is the feedback loop. It can be
1:54:33fairly quick with social media, of
1:54:34course, but it's still pretty extended.
1:54:37We're going to film this video and this
1:54:38course will not drop for a minimum of 6
1:54:41weeks. I mean, that is the earliest
1:54:42it'll drop from when we filmed it. So, I
1:54:44won't get any feedback from you, the
1:54:47audience, which is who I care about the
1:54:48most, for 6 weeks minimum, probably more
1:54:51like two months. But what I am getting
1:54:53is Trevor behind the camera, is nodding
1:54:55his head or when I say something that he
1:54:57thought was really good, he's putting a
1:54:58thumbs up and letting me know that's
1:55:00some good One, maybe I'm going to
1:55:02double down and go further on it and
1:55:04dive deeper, but two, I just know that
1:55:06what I'm saying isn't boring as
1:55:08This is incredibly empowering and
1:55:11enabling for the talent that you are
1:55:13working with. It literally changes the
1:55:16way that they deliver their message.
1:55:18These are all tactics that ladder up to
1:55:20the principle of making a conducive
1:55:22environment to capture great content.
1:55:25Okay? So, they all all the tactics flow
1:55:27out of this principle. And one of them
1:55:29is when they're done saying something
1:55:32great, when you take a break, when a
1:55:33take is over, go up and give them a fist
1:55:35pound or a high five. I've been doing it
1:55:37my whole career. I've been the guy
1:55:38behind the scenes doing it. And now I am
1:55:40in front of the camera in this like very
1:55:43like intimidating environment. And every
1:55:45time that we take a break, Trevor's
1:55:47coming up and giving me a fist pound and
1:55:48saying that was great and then calling
1:55:50out one or two things that I said that
1:55:52he thought really stood out. I've been
1:55:55doing it for years, but as somebody who
1:55:57is now on the receiving end of it, I
1:55:59can't tell you how effective
1:56:01this is. It's unbelievable because one,
1:56:04it keeps my momentum going. I'm tired.
1:56:06Like we've been filming this for a long
1:56:08time. I'm exhausted. It literally gives
1:56:11me energy. And I would see it with
1:56:13talent that I've worked with where I I
1:56:15remember I would see them their energy
1:56:16starting to fade and then I behind the
1:56:19camera would just increase my energy.
1:56:21Even if I was exhaust, I'd be like, "All
1:56:23right, I'm going to figure it out." And
1:56:25they match that. And so what you want is
1:56:28you want a team around you that is
1:56:31trying to make your environment or the
1:56:34environment you're filming in the
1:56:35easiest possible for you to communicate
1:56:38the message you have within you to your
1:56:40audience. The 2.0 version of this is not
1:56:44only are they giving you dabs, giving
1:56:45you praise when you're doing a good job,
1:56:47they are also thinking through the frame
1:56:50of a skeptic. They're thinking through
1:56:52all of the objections that your audience
1:56:55is going to have when they consume the
1:56:57content. And just like a good video
1:56:59sales letter, a VSSL on your website
1:57:02overcomes sales objections that maybe
1:57:04the prospect would bring to the
1:57:06salesperson on the call, you're
1:57:09overcoming those in the video before
1:57:11they even get on the call. And I like to
1:57:13think of really welldone content as
1:57:16accomplishing the same thing. What we're
1:57:18doing after each section here is Trevor
1:57:20and I are sitting down and going, "Okay,
1:57:22what are some areas that we could like
1:57:23poke holes in? What what context do we
1:57:25need it? What questions can we answer
1:57:27for you guys before you even ask it?"
1:57:30Because ultimately, I believe if you do
1:57:32that, you are going to build greater
1:57:34trust with the audience. You make it
1:57:36easier for them to trust what you are
1:57:38saying and then take action on it. One
1:57:41more tactic on this because I think it's
1:57:42really helpful and then the rest I'm
1:57:44going to leave for you to study in the
1:57:45playbook is once the film session is
1:57:49done, 15 to 20 minutes after, I always
1:57:53would send a message to whoever I filmed
1:57:55with telling them how great I thought
1:57:58they did. Now, if it was a rough film
1:58:01session, I wouldn't lie. What I would
1:58:03say is, "I am so impressed with how you
1:58:05showed up and still pushed through
1:58:07despite this, this, and this." You never
1:58:09want to your talent because
1:58:11eventually they pick up on it and they
1:58:12realize like, okay, a compliment from so
1:58:14and so never is actually that helpful
1:58:16because they don't mean anything they
1:58:18say. So, you want to always be truthful
1:58:20about it. But the reality is is like if
1:58:22you've had a really hard day,
1:58:23like if I got an email from a partner of
1:58:25ours and it was really bad this morning,
1:58:27that would throw me off. So maybe it
1:58:30wouldn't be the best video ever, but
1:58:31it'd be impressive that I still showed
1:58:33up and decided to do the action
1:58:34regardless. So, you always want either
1:58:37your team or if you're the team watching
1:58:39this, you want to send your talent a
1:58:41message telling them how well they did.
1:58:43And I would encourage you to call out
1:58:45one or two things they said. This way,
1:58:47they really actually know you were
1:58:49paying attention to what they said. It
1:58:50wasn't just like, "Oh, the lighting was
1:58:51great and all that." No, no. The content
1:58:54of what was being said was valuable,
1:58:56insightful, and useful for myself, and I
1:59:00know it will be for our greater
1:59:01audience. This then allows them to go on
1:59:05to the rest of their day or into their
1:59:06evening feeling better about what they
1:59:08made. And what that does is if we
1:59:11believe brand is how we defined it at
1:59:13the beginning of this that creates a
1:59:16intentional pairing between relevant
1:59:18things them and good content and
1:59:22eventually they start to associate that.
1:59:24And so then they start to associate good
1:59:27feelings, excitement and positivity with
1:59:30film days. A lot of people really hate
1:59:32film days and they really see it on
1:59:33their calendar as like a massive dread.
1:59:35They know it's necessary, but they don't
1:59:36want to do it. What you want is an
1:59:38environment that you look forward to it.
1:59:40When you see film day on your calendar,
1:59:42you want to be excited about it because
1:59:44it's so enjoyable because the
1:59:46environment is so reinforcing of what
1:59:48you are doing. The next one is to
1:59:49systematize repurposing. Now, real
1:59:52quick, I want to give a big qualifier
1:59:55here. Repurposing content, like for
1:59:57example, what we talked about earlier
1:59:58with the waterfall method. You make a
2:00:00long form piece of content and then you
2:00:02clip micro from it. That is a great way
2:00:04to start. But it is 2025 and we are now
2:00:07at a point where all the platforms are
2:00:09fragmented and behave differently. The
2:00:11best version of content and we'll talk
2:00:12about this more in a little bit but is
2:00:14making content contextual to the
2:00:16platform itself. Making it native for
2:00:19Tik Tok, for Instagram, for LinkedIn,
2:00:21for YouTube long form. And sometimes
2:00:24pulling clips from long form is native,
2:00:27right? Like a lot of podcast clips do
2:00:29really well. More podcast clips don't do
2:00:31well than podcast clips that do. And so
2:00:34if you want predictive power and you and
2:00:38you want to be certain that the piece is
2:00:40going to do well, the best version is
2:00:42going to be making it contextual to the
2:00:44platform. However, if you are earlier in
2:00:47your efforts here, and I'm talking like
2:00:49first 3 years even, you're probably
2:00:51going to be doing more repurposing. The
2:00:532.0 0 version of this is not just
2:00:56clipping or extracting short form
2:00:58content from long form. It's actually
2:01:00using insights of how content has
2:01:02performed on one platform in one medium
2:01:05and using that to inform new mediums for
2:01:09new platforms. Let me give you an
2:01:10example. There was a client that I was
2:01:12working with a couple years ago and she
2:01:14had a really powerful statement. I I
2:01:18can't remember off the top of my head
2:01:19right now. So, uh it was powerful but I
2:01:21can't quite remember it and I apologize.
2:01:23She put it out as a tweet. That was it.
2:01:26We put it out as a tweet and so many
2:01:29people were responding to it. It was one
2:01:31of her top performing, like most liked
2:01:33tweets of all time. So many responses,
2:01:35so many people sharing that tweet to
2:01:39their stories and tagging her. And so we
2:01:42thought we had something here. This is
2:01:44called social listening. We paid
2:01:46attention to what the audience was
2:01:47saying. They were calling this quality.
2:01:49They're like, "This is quality,
2:01:50y'all." So what did we do? We tripled,
2:01:53quadrupled, fiveupled, whatever that
2:01:55word is down on this. And what we did is
2:01:58we then created a short and we had her
2:02:01expand on this statement. We used
2:02:04literally the tweet as the hook and then
2:02:05she explained why she came up with that
2:02:08quote, why she said that, what the story
2:02:10was, what the scenario she was going
2:02:12through that inspired that quote. Next,
2:02:15we actually created a poster of the
2:02:18quote and we put it up in a very cool,
2:02:20aesthetically pleasing environment and
2:02:23we took a photo of it. Like I said
2:02:24earlier, if you were paying attention,
2:02:26something that does really well, this is
2:02:27a tactic, not a principle, but something
2:02:29that does really well right now is
2:02:31taking a photo of a real life thing,
2:02:34whether it's like you're writing on a
2:02:35post-it note or it's a printed, you
2:02:37know, quote or whatever, that is doing
2:02:39really well on social. So what we did is
2:02:41we printed the quote, took a photo of
2:02:42it, posted it, and it was one of, if not
2:02:45her top performing Instagram post of all
2:02:47time. So then what we did is we turned
2:02:49it into a longer form hashed out
2:02:52LinkedIn post. So we took the quote and
2:02:54we use that as the hook cuz it had been
2:02:56proven effective on Twitter. It had well
2:02:58now X, but it was Twitter at the time.
2:03:00And it had been proven effective on
2:03:03Instagram, on YouTube shorts, on Tik
2:03:05Tok. It did well everywhere. So we're
2:03:07like, cool. We're not going to
2:03:08around with the hook. We're just going
2:03:09to keep it the same. So, we did that and
2:03:10then we had her expand on it, right? We
2:03:13took a little bit of what she said in
2:03:15the short form clip and then we had her
2:03:18add or round it out, add more
2:03:21commentary, more color commentary to it.
2:03:22That performed really well. It
2:03:25was definitely a top three, if not her
2:03:26top post on LinkedIn. So then, guess
2:03:28what we did? We used that to inform
2:03:31making a YouTube long form video on this
2:03:34entire quote. And so what we did is we
2:03:36utilized I think we did a version of the
2:03:38quote as the title. You know, YouTube,
2:03:40you kind of have to play the youtuby
2:03:42game. But what we did is we used that
2:03:44and it informed a long I think it was
2:03:46like a 25 30 minute video. It was
2:03:49probably in her top 10. I don't want to
2:03:50say that it was her top video. It
2:03:51wasn't, but it was in the top 10. It
2:03:53performed really well. How
2:03:54incredible that we started with a tweet
2:03:57and what started as a tweet developed
2:03:59into some of the top performing content
2:04:00for all of her platforms. But did you
2:04:03notice what we didn't do is just repost
2:04:05the tweet everywhere. We made that tweet
2:04:08and remade it contextual to what the
2:04:11needs of the platforms were at the time.
2:04:14If you're listening or watching this
2:04:15right now, please like rewind or I'll
2:04:19just say it again. Make the content
2:04:21contextual to the platform. Reverse
2:04:24engineer what the platform is telling
2:04:26you it wants and what its users want and
2:04:30make it in that way. It can be the same
2:04:32exact message but repackaged
2:04:34differently. An analogy that I love to
2:04:35use and I'll probably share it multiple
2:04:37times throughout this course is you
2:04:39watching this. You are you. Okay? Wow,
2:04:43what a what a breakthrough statement.
2:04:44But you are you. But you show up to
2:04:46different scenarios and circumstances
2:04:49differently. Let's say, for example,
2:04:51you're going and getting brunch with
2:04:52your family on Saturday. And then
2:04:54Saturday night, you're going to go out
2:04:55and meet up with the ladies and go out
2:04:57for cocktails. And then Monday morning,
2:04:59you have a business meeting. you. Let's
2:05:01say your name is Sarah. Sarah is showing
2:05:03up to all of these different
2:05:06circumstances, events as Sarah. But the
2:05:09reality is is Sarah is going to talk
2:05:11about different topics and speak with a
2:05:14different tone and probably use
2:05:15different vocabulary given the different
2:05:17scenarios. That's not her being
2:05:18inauthentic. That is her revealing
2:05:20different parts of herself contextual to
2:05:23the environment she is in. Knowing her
2:05:25audience is what she's doing. Well,
2:05:27social media is the exact same thing.
2:05:29All the platforms are just these
2:05:31different events that you're going to.
2:05:33So you show up as you. Sarah shows up as
2:05:36Sarah on LinkedIn, Tik Tok, Instagram,
2:05:38YouTube, Facebook, all of them. But you
2:05:40reveal different parts of yourself. You
2:05:42emphasize different parts and you use
2:05:44different vocabulary because you're in a
2:05:47different environment. That's what it
2:05:48looks like to create contextual content
2:05:51to the platform you're on. And then
2:05:54lastly, I would encourage you define
2:05:55your energy rhythm. And this sounds like
2:05:57so woo woo and blah blah blah, but
2:05:59really what it is is it's knowing
2:06:01thyself, okay? It's knowing I perform
2:06:05best. I have the most amount of energy
2:06:07and clarity of thought in the morning or
2:06:09I'm way better late at night. Whatever
2:06:11is your best time, I would encourage you
2:06:13to schedule your content creation around
2:06:15that. For me, I know that probably
2:06:18around midday, I start to get a little
2:06:20tired. So, in the morning is my best
2:06:23midday and then towards the end of the
2:06:25day I start picking back up. And so I
2:06:27try to plan accordingly to that. If I
2:06:30were really good at night and I sucked
2:06:33in the morning, I was just all groggy
2:06:34and like clear, I wouldn't film in the
2:06:36mornings, right? Because not only would
2:06:37I not enjoy it, it wouldn't perform as
2:06:39well. And so just look at where you find
2:06:41your most optimal times, where you feel
2:06:43most dialed, and schedule your content
2:06:46sessions around that. And a subpoint to
2:06:49that is protect your creative and your
2:06:51content time just like it's an important
2:06:53business meeting. Something that I've
2:06:54seen a lot of people do is kind of
2:06:56depprioritize this and they move their
2:06:57content day around all the time. And I
2:07:00understand very important if you're
2:07:02running a business or you know if you're
2:07:04an artist and you're meeting with a
2:07:05potential buyer for your painting or
2:07:07whatever. Sure, that's very important
2:07:09and that I would prioritize over your
2:07:11content creation. But I would tell you
2:07:14that unless you have a very mature team,
2:07:16more than likely what will happen over
2:07:18time is if you continue to reschedule
2:07:20and push off content days, unless
2:07:22they're very mature and they've been
2:07:23around this for a while, they're going
2:07:24to interpret it like it is not a
2:07:26priority for you. And if it's not a
2:07:27priority for you, it's going to become
2:07:29less of a priority for them. And so the
2:07:31way that you show up often times will
2:07:33dictate unfortunately or fortunately
2:07:36depending on how you look at it, how
2:07:37your team shows up for you. Hello there.
2:07:40This is me interrupting this programming
2:07:43for a very interesting little
2:07:45advertisement. I just want to let you
2:07:47know about a email newsletter that we
2:07:50are putting together. Now, this isn't
2:07:51going to be your traditional newsletter.
2:07:53It's not like a weekly or monthly
2:07:54cadence. We're just going to
2:07:55occasionally send you dope free
2:07:57that we think is going to
2:07:59actually drive massive impact for your
2:08:01brand and scale your content rapidly.
2:08:03And so, if that sounds interesting, you
2:08:05can go to caleb rston.com, enter your
2:08:07email, and we'll send you some dope
2:08:09goodies. All right, the next section is
2:08:11utilizing storytelling in your content.
2:08:14Now, I don't think this is going to be
2:08:16any secret to anyone. Storytelling is
2:08:18incredibly powerful and effective. So
2:08:19much so that you're seeing one of the
2:08:21creators who is most known for maybe not
2:08:24utilizing as much of traditional
2:08:26storytelling techniques, Mr. Beast, who
2:08:28has been more like adrenaline go. He is
2:08:32even implementing far more storytelling
2:08:35tactics into his content. Especially if
2:08:37you've watched Beast Games, you You know
2:08:39exactly what I'm talking about. Stories
2:08:40aren't just entertaining and engaging.
2:08:43They also change people's perspectives.
2:08:46They allow the individual to see maybe a
2:08:49similar concept or a similar
2:08:50circumstance that they've been dealing
2:08:52with from a whole new perspective. But
2:08:56they also keep people hooked. I mean,
2:08:58attention is the greatest asset right
2:09:00now in today's age, right? It's what
2:09:02everyone is looking for. And
2:09:04storytelling does keep people hooked. It
2:09:06does retain attention. Stories also
2:09:08create an emotional connection between
2:09:10you and your audience. They allow you to
2:09:12provide more depth and round out the
2:09:14concept or principle that you are
2:09:16sharing. People have a harder time
2:09:18remembering facts, but what they do
2:09:19remember is the stories that you tell
2:09:21them and the new perspective they were
2:09:23able to gain because of the story. Here
2:09:26is a storytelling framework that you can
2:09:28use in your content. But please do not
2:09:31operate off of this framework like it's
2:09:33something rigid. It is not written in
2:09:35concrete. It's not in stone. This is a
2:09:38guide for you. You now have the rules.
2:09:41Feel free to break the rules. Like move
2:09:43things around. Like whatever you find is
2:09:45working most effectively for you. Please
2:09:48use this in a fluid way rather than a
2:09:51rigid way. What we're going to go over
2:09:53is the hook, the problem, the journey,
2:09:55the lesson, and then the call to action.
2:09:57First, the hook. We have to get
2:09:59attention fast. We are living in a world
2:10:01where you're competing with everything.
2:10:04You're competing with all the other
2:10:05creators, all of their friends, everyone
2:10:07on social media that is making content.
2:10:09You're also competing with the
2:10:11dog that's barking at them. I mean,
2:10:13there is so much going on in people's
2:10:15lives that you're competing for their
2:10:17attention for. And so, you have to get
2:10:20their attention immediately. Depending
2:10:22on the platform that you're making
2:10:24content on, some of them you only have
2:10:25like a second or two to get that
2:10:27attention. If we're talking Instagram,
2:10:28Tik Tok, Facebook reels, YouTube shorts,
2:10:31LinkedIn video tab, any sort of short
2:10:33form video, you have about two or three
2:10:35seconds to get their attention. If you
2:10:37do not do that, guess what they're
2:10:39doing? Not consuming the rest cuz
2:10:40they've already scrolled five posts
2:10:42further down. Now, for YouTube long
2:10:43form, what a lot of the industry experts
2:10:46like to say is that 30 seconds, you have
2:10:4830 seconds to capture attention. I don't
2:10:50really agree with that. I think you have
2:10:52about 15 to 20 seconds max to capture
2:10:54attention. And really what they're
2:10:55looking for is like one, is this video
2:10:57actually what I clicked on, right? The
2:10:59the packaging, or am I getting, for
2:11:01those of you that remember back in the
2:11:02day, the Rick Rald thing, am I getting
2:11:04Rick rolled, right? Or is this actually
2:11:06what I'm looking for? Two, is this the
2:11:08person that I want to listen to telling
2:11:10me this information? For a strong hook,
2:11:12I recommend starting with a very bold
2:11:14statement, potentially a contrarian
2:11:15view, something that is uh different
2:11:18that you see differently than your
2:11:20counterparts or industry experts in your
2:11:23field. This can also be an unexpected
2:11:25fact, although I I do think that those
2:11:27are kind of getting a little tiresome at
2:11:28this point. But I think that no matter
2:11:30what, if you say something that most
2:11:33people believe to be true and you claim
2:11:35it to be false and give an alternative
2:11:37take, you're almost always going to
2:11:40catch people's attention. Here's two
2:11:41examples for you. Subscribers, views,
2:11:44likes don't matter. What actually
2:11:46matters is that is an example of a
2:11:49contrarian statement. A lot of
2:11:50counterparts, a lot of the industry
2:11:52experts within online content creation
2:11:54would say the opposite of what I just
2:11:56said there. A lot of them are pushing
2:11:58for those metrics and that hook would
2:12:01catch attention because it is different
2:12:03than what the majority of other content
2:12:06creators are saying. Thus, it stands
2:12:08out. Another great example of a good
2:12:10hook is a pattern interrupt. So, one of
2:12:12the top performing clips I ever made for
2:12:13Gary Vaynerchuk was uh the blueberry
2:12:15clip. And he literally starts it off by
2:12:18he's like chomping on some blueberries
2:12:21and he goes, "I eat blueberries like
2:12:23it's my job." And then the next
2:12:24thing he says is, "You missed the first
2:12:2630 I ate." And this was like such a such
2:12:30a pattern interrupt for a lot of people.
2:12:31This was one of at the time it was his
2:12:33most viral clip at that time. And so
2:12:36basically what you want to do is you
2:12:38want to either provide a contrarian
2:12:40point of view, a pattern interrupt. You
2:12:42want to ask a thoughtprovoking question,
2:12:44something that is going to be a thumbs
2:12:47stopper that is going to cause them to
2:12:49have to watch the rest of the video
2:12:51because they're so interested. Next, we
2:12:53have the problem. This is where you're
2:12:54going to set up the stakes. Here, you're
2:12:56going to introduce a conflict or some
2:12:58sort of emotional investment. And this
2:13:00doesn't have to be a massive conflict or
2:13:03anything like ultra dramatic or
2:13:04anything. Essentially, what you want is
2:13:06some sort of problem or thing that the
2:13:10main character has to overcome in some
2:13:13way, shape, or form. Now, ideally, you
2:13:15want to make the problem specific and
2:13:17relatable. So, ideally, this is
2:13:19something that your audience is going to
2:13:21be like, well, yeah, I've gone through
2:13:22something similar. They're going to be
2:13:23able to see themselves in that problem.
2:13:26They maybe have recently encountered
2:13:28something very similar. An example might
2:13:29be, I was working 14 hours a day for my
2:13:32hero, Gary Vaynerchuk, but I still felt
2:13:35stuck. This creates stakes. It shows you
2:13:38how much I care and that I love working
2:13:41for Gary and that he is my hero, but
2:13:43that I was in this inner turmoil of
2:13:45feeling stuck as an example. Next, we
2:13:48have the journey. This is how we
2:13:49overcome it, right? In the traditional
2:13:52like storytelling mantra, this is how
2:13:56the prince slays the dragon to rescue
2:13:58the princess. Now, one thing to note is
2:13:59people resonate with progress, not
2:14:01perfection. And so, if you're sharing
2:14:03this journey, I would encourage you to
2:14:06not just share the highlights. Share the
2:14:09low lightss, right? The low points where
2:14:11you've made mistakes. In the example of
2:14:13I was working 14 hours a day for my hero
2:14:15Gary Vaynerchuk, but I still felt stuck.
2:14:17I would then go on to tell the story of
2:14:20how I got unstuck through a sequence of
2:14:23victories and losses. Okay? It wouldn't
2:14:26necessarily just all be roses because
2:14:28that's not what life is. And people
2:14:30resonate and connect and relate to your
2:14:33struggles, I would argue, more than your
2:14:36successes. And I encourage you, show the
2:14:38messy middle. Show where you're doubting
2:14:41yourself, where you're doubting the
2:14:42opportunity you're in. Maybe you're
2:14:44building a business right now and you
2:14:46can share how you're like unsure how
2:14:49this is going to actually go. Is this
2:14:50going to build into some big business?
2:14:52Is it going to be successful? Am I going
2:14:53to be able to provide for my family? Or
2:14:55am I going to have to go back and get a
2:14:58real normal job, a 9 to-5? If you're a
2:15:01musician, maybe what you end up doing is
2:15:04you're putting out tracks and you're
2:15:06trying a new style of music. Maybe
2:15:08you've traditionally done more rock and
2:15:09roll and you're entering the country
2:15:11music world and you're uncertain if that
2:15:13audience is going to resonate with it. I
2:15:15think that your audience is going to
2:15:17resonate more with you explaining why
2:15:20you're trying this new thing and the
2:15:22fact that you're not certain of how it's
2:15:23going to go. I mean, that's what I've
2:15:25been doing probably throughout this
2:15:26course. Maybe you've noticed it, but
2:15:27like there's been times where I'm
2:15:28indicating I think this is going to be a
2:15:30powerful project. I think this is going
2:15:32to affect a lot of people and I think
2:15:33it'll lead to a lot of good outcomes for
2:15:35Rston, my consulting firm. But I don't
2:15:37know. I have no idea. I'm investing a
2:15:40lot of money, at least for me, and a lot
2:15:42of time and effort into this, right?
2:15:43Like, we've been filming all day
2:15:45yesterday, all day today, and
2:15:47we'll film again tomorrow. And like, I'm
2:15:49exhausted. I'm investing a lot into this
2:15:51and I have no idea if it's going to turn
2:15:53out. I think it will, but I don't know.
2:15:55And I think that me sharing that, more
2:15:57than likely, you resonate with that. At
2:15:59some point in your life, you have also
2:16:01too had a moment where you invested a
2:16:03lot into a project. Maybe it was back in
2:16:05fifth grade when you were working on
2:16:06that volcano for science and it was like
2:16:08you put a lot into it but you didn't
2:16:09know if it was going to actually erupt
2:16:11for Mrs. Fields, right? Like I don't
2:16:13know. So I really truly believe in your
2:16:17storytelling framework this is the key.
2:16:19We want to share the transparency. We
2:16:21want to share these moments. We want the
2:16:23audience to see themsself through you in
2:16:26some way. An example of this could be I
2:16:28realized I was burning out because I was
2:16:30trying to do everything and that's when
2:16:32I realized that I could do blank. That
2:16:34is an example obviously very concise
2:16:35version of it but that is an example of
2:16:37giving an insight to the journey a
2:16:40mistake that I had made. I was trying to
2:16:43do everything and I realized that I was
2:16:45burning out. Now for the lesson this is
2:16:48where you make it useful for your
2:16:50audience. Every story that you tell is
2:16:52going to give them a new perspective and
2:16:55a shift. It's going to open them up to
2:16:58new possibilities and new realities. So,
2:17:00this is the moment when you give them
2:17:02the lesson, the takeaway, the thing that
2:17:05they can act on. Otherwise, it's just
2:17:07they're being entertained. You're just
2:17:08telling a story, and they're like, "Oh,
2:17:09cool. Great story." If you give them the
2:17:11lesson, the takeaway, and you make it
2:17:14easy for them to take action on that by
2:17:16giving them step-by-step instructions,
2:17:17chunking it down, making it as easy as
2:17:20possible for them to change what they
2:17:22do. Then, what you're doing is you are
2:17:24providing value to your audience. Cuz
2:17:27ultimately when people say provide
2:17:28value, that's all providing value is
2:17:31something that is useful, something that
2:17:33the audience can take and immediately
2:17:36put into action. That is what valuable
2:17:38content within the education space is.
2:17:41Now, an example of how I might
2:17:42transition to this is here's what I
2:17:44learned from that season of my career
2:17:47and here are three ways that you can
2:17:49apply these learnings in your career so
2:17:52that you avoid the mistakes that I made.
2:17:54Ideally, what you want to do is tie this
2:17:56lesson back into what your expertise is
2:17:58and really ideally back into what your
2:18:00offer is. Because ultimately, we are
2:18:02trying to either build our business,
2:18:04build our craft, build our art, whatever
2:18:07it is that we are offering the world, we
2:18:09want to make people aware of that. And
2:18:11so, every time that we can tie our
2:18:13lessons, our stories back to that, the
2:18:15better. And lastly, we have the CTA or
2:18:18the call to action. Now, immediately
2:18:20when I say that, 99% of you immediately
2:18:23thought it was something like, "Now, if
2:18:25you want to learn more about things like
2:18:26this, go to my website and buy my offer
2:18:29or pay for my course or whatever
2:18:31shit." That's not necessarily the case.
2:18:33A call to action just literally means
2:18:36telling people to take action. It
2:18:38doesn't mean that you have to sell them
2:18:40something. I would argue that your best
2:18:42content is not going to be pushing and
2:18:44selling If anything, the 2.0, 3.0,
2:18:474.0 0 version of this once you have
2:18:49bigger budgets is you just retarget
2:18:51those individuals who paid. That's a
2:18:52totally another video. We'll do that one
2:18:54other day. The call to action can be a
2:18:56very simple thing of comment below on
2:18:58what your biggest takeaway was and how
2:19:00you're going to apply it to your life
2:19:02moving forward. That can be a very
2:19:04simple call to action. It drives
2:19:06engagement. It causes the viewer to
2:19:07think and actually probably identify
2:19:10what they are going to actually do and
2:19:12then increases the likelihood that they
2:19:14will change their actions. So, an
2:19:16example of this is if you're struggling
2:19:18with trying to do everything yourself
2:19:19and burning out, try delegating and
2:19:22training your team. Please, what I would
2:19:25love to hear from you, comment below,
2:19:27tell me which of these tactics you're
2:19:28going to use in training your team and
2:19:30delegating some of the tasks that you
2:19:32currently have on your plate so that you
2:19:34no longer are the one trying to do
2:19:35everything so you don't burn out. Now,
2:19:38ultimately, what this does is it bridges
2:19:39the gap between engagement and
2:19:42viewership and actually taking action.
2:19:44And that's the ultimate goal of
2:19:46educational content. Now, we have two
2:19:48more sections here on story. And then
2:19:50right after that, I am going to go very
2:19:52in-depth on what I believe educational
2:19:55content is, what its purpose is, and how
2:19:57you should go about making it. But
2:20:00first, we're going to dive a little bit
2:20:01deeper into more around storytelling,
2:20:04which brings us to the best types of
2:20:06stories to tell. Not all stories work
2:20:08equally as well in content. The best
2:20:10ones fall into these categories. The
2:20:12first one is origin stories. Uh people
2:20:15love this one. Now, if you start your
2:20:18journey of making content and you do
2:20:20this for several years, I promise you,
2:20:22you're going to get bored of your origin
2:20:23story and you're going to get to the
2:20:24point where you start telling your
2:20:25content team, "Stop cutting that. Stop
2:20:28including that." Do not do that. You
2:20:30need to treat your content like you're
2:20:32always trying to reach a cold audience
2:20:34because that's what you're trying to do.
2:20:36And guess what's so unique about a cold
2:20:37audience? They don't know your
2:20:39origin story. Origin stories are what
2:20:41people resonate with, in my opinion, the
2:20:44most. It's how you got to where you are.
2:20:47It's the thing that you're going to tell
2:20:49that is going to be the most relatable
2:20:50for the audience watching. The thing
2:20:53that's not relatable is where you're at
2:20:54right now. Let's say you're a very
2:20:56successful businesswoman and you've
2:20:57built a massive business and you have,
2:21:00you know, your $500 million net worth.
2:21:02You're huge. You're on the cover of
2:21:04Forbes, all this crazy That is not
2:21:06relatable. But how you went from being a
2:21:08barista at Starbucks, barely making ends
2:21:11meet, all the way to that point, that is
2:21:13what we, the audience, are going to
2:21:15resonate with. So really, please lean
2:21:18into your origin story. This tells the
2:21:21audience why you are doing what you're
2:21:23doing. Okay? This gives us the
2:21:26understanding, right? This is the Peter
2:21:28Parker getting bit by the spider. This
2:21:31is Batman encountering the terrible
2:21:33situation with his parents. This also
2:21:35gives insight to pivotal moments that
2:21:37shaped your career and shaped who you
2:21:40are as a person. We are a collective of
2:21:42everything that has happened in our life
2:21:44up to this point. And if you don't share
2:21:46that with your audience, they're not
2:21:47going to truly understand why you do
2:21:49what you do, why you say things the way
2:21:51you say them, why you act the way you
2:21:53act. So this is me right now committing
2:21:55to you guys. I am going to continue to
2:21:57dive deeper and deeper over the next
2:22:00year into my origin story, into why I
2:22:02operate and think the way that I think.
2:22:04For example, we talked about how we
2:22:06shape the environment for filming. There
2:22:09are a lot of things that occurred in my
2:22:11life leading up to working on set that
2:22:15allowed me to have a completely
2:22:17different perspective and insight into
2:22:19how to make talent feel comfortable.
2:22:21Another example is the first video that
2:22:22we put out on YouTube talking about my
2:22:24career journey, right? I literally tell
2:22:27you in that video how at 15 years old,
2:22:29Sean Kel gave me the book Crush It by
2:22:31Gary Vaynerchuk. I read it and forever
2:22:34changed how I viewed my career. I all of
2:22:36a sudden realized I could do video
2:22:38content. And so it gives you insight to
2:22:40so many different things. why I chose
2:22:42this career path, how I've navigated it,
2:22:44why I've overemphasized social media
2:22:46even at the time when the majority of
2:22:48marketers and my counterparts were
2:22:50talking about how it was a fad. You also
2:22:52gain insight on probably why I
2:22:53referenced Gary so much throughout this
2:22:55course in a lot of different speeches
2:22:56and podcasts that I do because Gary has
2:22:59had such a huge impact on my life. But
2:23:01if you didn't know the fact that I read
2:23:03his book when I was 15 years old in
2:23:05high school and decided to
2:23:07completely change the trajectory and
2:23:09course of my life, you'd be like, "Wow,
2:23:10this guy references Gary a lot. It's
2:23:12kind of interesting. It's kind of weird.
2:23:14Why does he like Gary so much?" And this
2:23:16gives insight as to why. The next one
2:23:19that people really relate to is failure
2:23:21stories. I think most humans have one
2:23:24thing in common, which is we fail. By
2:23:26telling failure stories, what you do is
2:23:28you become relatable to your audience
2:23:30and you build more trust with them.
2:23:32People trust vulnerability more than
2:23:35they trust success. They trust failure
2:23:38more than they trust wins. If you do
2:23:40tell these stories, don't only talk
2:23:42about what went wrong. Don't make it
2:23:44just a sob story. You hopefully gained
2:23:47lessons and insights from that failure,
2:23:50from that loss, from those mistakes. And
2:23:52what you can do is not only did you
2:23:55learn from it, but you can help others
2:23:56learn from it and avoid having to make
2:23:58the investment of time, money, whatever
2:24:01that you did and lost in your mistake.
2:24:04And so ultimately you are servicing your
2:24:06audience or providing value, usefulness,
2:24:10so that they can then make different
2:24:12decisions and avoid that pitfall
2:24:14altogether. For example, referencing the
2:24:16career video again because at the time
2:24:18of recording this, it's the only video
2:24:19that I've put out on YouTube. I share
2:24:21the story of how I thought I was a hot
2:24:24shot, big shot. I signed two I502 legal
2:24:27cannabis companies in Washington state
2:24:30and I had tripled my income and I was
2:24:32like, I was the big man. I was hot
2:24:36And then that same client cut my monthly
2:24:38compensation in half and I had to go
2:24:40fire three friends that I had hired.
2:24:43Again, Mr. big shot immediately brought
2:24:46down to low very very disappointed
2:24:51little Caleb. It was brutal. And I
2:24:53shared that story. But not only did I
2:24:55share the story, I shared what I learned
2:24:57and how I will never make that mistake
2:24:59again. And what I tried to do is
2:25:01articulate in a very clear way how you,
2:25:04the viewer, can avoid the same mistake
2:25:06in your craft, in your career, in your
2:25:09business. Now, as much as I think
2:25:11sharing the losses and the failure
2:25:12stories are very important, it's also
2:25:14extremely important to emphasize your
2:25:17success stories. Otherwise, people will
2:25:18just think that you are a failure
2:25:20constantly learning. And that's not what
2:25:22we want. We want to actually create the
2:25:25association between you and the success
2:25:27that you have had. More on that in a
2:25:29little bit. But what you want to do is
2:25:30show before and after transformations.
2:25:32Okay? So ideally, these success stories
2:25:35end up being the proof that validates
2:25:38that you are the right person to be
2:25:40listening to on this subject matter. And
2:25:42when you validate that you are the right
2:25:44person to listen to on the subject
2:25:45matter, what you're doing is increasing
2:25:47trust in the viewer. And if you increase
2:25:50trust in the viewer, a lot of magical
2:25:52things happen. And if you start to
2:25:54highlight small wins that became big
2:25:56results, this starts to build on your
2:25:59credibility. For example, I like to
2:26:02reference as often as possible how I
2:26:04worked with Gary to grow his Tik Tok
2:26:06from 300,000 followers to 3.5 million in
2:26:10just 3 months. And by doing this, I am
2:26:13providing you with credibility or proof
2:26:16that what I'm about to say is valid
2:26:19because I have had success in this
2:26:21realm. Another one is customer and
2:26:23client success. This is more proof that
2:26:25not only can you execute something for
2:26:27yourself, but you can do it for others.
2:26:29you can replicate this success. And if
2:26:32you can replicate this success, then why
2:26:35would you, the viewer, not believe that
2:26:37you could do the same thing? This is
2:26:38another moment where you get to let the
2:26:40audience see themselves in your content.
2:26:43Ideally, they see themselves in your
2:26:45success story and then they go and take
2:26:48action and get that same success. An
2:26:50example would be I met with an agency
2:26:52owner about 2 years ago. They were
2:26:54asking me, "How do I get more out of my
2:26:55editors? How do I get them to be better
2:26:58and up to speed?" And I shared with him
2:27:00a very very simple tactic and it comes
2:27:02from the principle of let them know what
2:27:04you like so they do more of it. And what
2:27:06I told him is I said instead of only
2:27:09leaving comments on frame of all the
2:27:11things that you want your editor to do
2:27:13differently, spend at least the same
2:27:15amount of time leaving comments on
2:27:17reinforcing what you want them to
2:27:19continue doing. Because editors, if you
2:27:21only get notes on what you should
2:27:23change, well, you don't know if the
2:27:25client liked what you did on, you know,
2:27:28minute 1313. And so then they have to
2:27:30spend energy on the next edit wondering,
2:27:32should I continue doing subtitles that
2:27:34way? Should I still do transitions in
2:27:36the same way? They don't know. And they
2:27:38have to expend effort in guessing what
2:27:40you liked. So call it what you like
2:27:42equally, if not more than what you want
2:27:44changed. And he texted me about a year
2:27:47after that and told me it was the
2:27:49greatest insight that he had ever heard
2:27:51in training a team. And his output and
2:27:54quality, and by quality, I mean the
2:27:56performance of the content increased and
2:27:58went better for his clients. And his
2:28:00client retention increased because one
2:28:03of the common problems that a lot of
2:28:04agencies experience is high client churn
2:28:07due to poor editors. Well, this changed
2:28:10how he trained his editors and it
2:28:12changed his agency forever. There's an
2:28:14example of me sharing a client success
2:28:16story. The final one that I'm going to
2:28:17share with you is industry stories. Now,
2:28:19I like to take a contrarian view to this
2:28:21because what you don't want to do is
2:28:22just be another person that's agreeing
2:28:24with everybody else and regurgitating
2:28:26all the same So, if you have the
2:28:28same opinion as other people, ah, I
2:28:30mean, yeah, sure, make the content, put
2:28:31your opinion out there, but I don't
2:28:32think that you're going to find that is
2:28:34as effective at catching attention and
2:28:37sparking conversation. And so what I
2:28:39would encourage you to do is look at
2:28:40what the people in your industry are
2:28:42talking about. And when you have a
2:28:44differing opinion, put it out
2:28:46respectfully, of course. Don't be
2:28:47talking and naming names and stuff,
2:28:49but share the industry trope that
2:28:50everybody touts as gospel. And then
2:28:53share your contrary belief or your view
2:28:56on it. An example here is maybe you call
2:28:59out the fact that a lot of people are
2:29:01encouraging content creators to make
2:29:03heavy calls to action for their offer in
2:29:07their organic content. And maybe you
2:29:08believe differently like I do. Maybe you
2:29:10start the video off by saying never tell
2:29:12your audience about your
2:29:14offer in your organic content. And then
2:29:17you expand on it. This is going to take
2:29:19a very typical trope that a lot of
2:29:21people are touting in my industry and
2:29:24flip it on its head. It's going to catch
2:29:26attention and provide a slightly unique
2:29:28perspective that most people have not
2:29:31heard. Now, this next section is purely
2:29:34about educational content. So, for
2:29:36anybody who is making entertainment,
2:29:37this might not be as useful. But for
2:29:39those of you who are making educational
2:29:41content, this is going to be possibly
2:29:43the most critical next few minutes of
2:29:46this entire course. This is the purpose
2:29:48of educational content. If you and I
2:29:51agree on the same definition of branding
2:29:54and brand. Branding is the pairing of
2:29:57things. And good branding is an
2:30:00intentional pairing of relevant things
2:30:02consistently which then creates the
2:30:04byproduct which is brand which is when
2:30:07the audience inherently associates the
2:30:09two things. Then cool, we're on the same
2:30:10page. And what I'm about to describe
2:30:12will make a lot of sense. In educational
2:30:15content, what you want to do is you want
2:30:18to share success stories. What ends up
2:30:21happening when you intentionally pair
2:30:24yourself with the relevant thing,
2:30:25success stories, you and success
2:30:27stories, is over time the audience
2:30:31begins to associate you with success.
2:30:35Now, what happens there is not the magic
2:30:38sauce, okay? That's not the epic
2:30:40because what that causes is trust. trust
2:30:43in what you say. So that's amazing, but
2:30:45that's not the final byproduct that
2:30:47we're looking for. When they trust what
2:30:48you have to say, now they start to hear
2:30:53the lessons and takeaways that you
2:30:56share. When they trust those lessons and
2:30:59takeaways that you share, they then
2:31:02start to take
2:31:03action. This is when the gold starts.
2:31:07When they start taking action, they
2:31:09start to get the results that they want.
2:31:12They get their desired outcome. They see
2:31:15that success that they were hearing
2:31:17about in your client stories for
2:31:20themsel. When this happens consistently,
2:31:23what begins to happen is the audience
2:31:25doesn't associate you with success
2:31:28stories. The audience begins to
2:31:30associate you with their success. This
2:31:33is powerful because what ends up
2:31:35happening is they realize whether it's
2:31:39conscious or subconscious that they
2:31:42always get more than what they invest
2:31:47with you because all they had to do was
2:31:51invest their time to consume and then
2:31:54their time to take action. Now,
2:31:56sometimes you're going to be telling
2:31:57them something that's going to also cost
2:32:00money. Maybe it's running paid ads. So
2:32:01yeah, they have to invest money in it.
2:32:03But I guarantee if they get the success
2:32:05outcome, it is greater than the
2:32:07investment they made. And so what you're
2:32:09doing is you are teaching your audience
2:32:12that what they invest with you always
2:32:15leads to greater outcomes. And this is
2:32:18the brand that you start to build with
2:32:20your audience. And guess what happens
2:32:23all of a sudden? When you make your
2:32:25audience aware of the offer you have,
2:32:27they believe, they trust that what they
2:32:31will invest in this offer is very little
2:32:35in comparison to what they're going to
2:32:37get as the outcome. I can't tell you how
2:32:40many different people I've worked with
2:32:41where we have done this at scale. There
2:32:43was one company that I worked with and
2:32:45we were putting out a lot of educational
2:32:47content, specifically long- form content
2:32:50on LinkedIn and YouTube. This company
2:32:52started conducting in-person seminars. I
2:32:55remember I would every once in a while
2:32:56try to attend them and and bounce around
2:32:58and mingle with the guests. And the
2:33:00question that I would always ask them
2:33:02is, "Hey, what what was the the
2:33:04conversation with the salesperson like?
2:33:06What was the point of sale like?" And
2:33:08they would almost all say the exact same
2:33:11thing. I literally told the salesperson,
2:33:13"Shut the up and take my credit
2:33:14card." Because through the free content
2:33:17you put out, I knew that whatever you're
2:33:20going to charge for was worth far more
2:33:23than what I had invested. So if I'm
2:33:25paying $1,000 to go to the seminar, I
2:33:27know I'm going to get at a minimum
2:33:29$10,000 worth of value. But actually,
2:33:31the way that we created content, they
2:33:33were getting like 50 to 100x the value
2:33:36of their investment. Ultimately,
2:33:38educational content is just scaling
2:33:41trust. And when you scale trust, doors
2:33:43that you could never imagine fleeing
2:33:45wide open for you. Opportunities start
2:33:48knocking at your door like you could
2:33:50never imagine. People come into your
2:33:52life that you never would have thought
2:33:54would have any interest in you. And the
2:33:57profit that you are able to make on your
2:33:59offer or for your company goes through
2:34:02the roof. Again, educational content, I
2:34:06believe, is ultimately just scaling
2:34:08trust. and trust makes everything in
2:34:12business and life easier. Now, we're on
2:34:15to having your community drive your
2:34:18content. I would encourage you, please
2:34:21involve your audience in what you are
2:34:23creating. I'm going to give you an
2:34:24immediate example of this actually that
2:34:26happened literally last night. We're
2:34:27here filming this content and uh an
2:34:29individual who is here that works at
2:34:31this studio, he also makes music. And we
2:34:35were talking about just different ways
2:34:37to involve and get more engagement from
2:34:40his audience. And one of the things that
2:34:42we were talking about is a lot of
2:34:44musicians, they have, you know, multiple
2:34:46different versions of a verse for a
2:34:48track, as an example, that they're
2:34:50working on. Or they might have a guitar
2:34:51lick that they're working on, and they
2:34:53have a couple of different ideas or
2:34:54versions that they're working on. This
2:34:55applies, by the way, to like filmmakers,
2:34:57to authors, like literally any medium
2:34:59that you're making. And I told him,
2:35:00well, a very simple way to engage your
2:35:02audience and to get them to feel very
2:35:04bought in to this single or an album,
2:35:07but let's call it a single for now that
2:35:09you're releasing is to upload maybe to
2:35:12your Instagram or whatever platform you
2:35:14prefer, the two different options. So,
2:35:16let's say you have two different
2:35:18versions of a verse that you're going to
2:35:19run in a track that you're releasing.
2:35:21You upload both of them and you allow
2:35:24your audience to tell you which one they
2:35:27like the most. Guess what? They're going
2:35:29to be invested. How cool, right?
2:35:32And if you're an author, you can do the
2:35:33same thing. You might have two different
2:35:34versions of a chapter. Sure. You might
2:35:36have two different versions of the title
2:35:38of the book. There's so many different
2:35:40things that you can do here. But if you
2:35:42involve your audience, one, you're
2:35:45making content or you're making
2:35:47something that you know they're going to
2:35:49want because they have told you they
2:35:50want it. But also, they are so much more
2:35:53bought in. They're going to be your
2:35:55advocates. They're going to go out and
2:35:57be your missionaries telling other
2:36:00people about what you produced because
2:36:03they were part of the process. The
2:36:04mindset shift here is shifting from
2:36:06creator first to community first. If you
2:36:10make everything about them and serving
2:36:12them and bringing them into your world,
2:36:14bringing them into your content
2:36:16creation, it's a totally different
2:36:18ballgame. It's no longer just a one-way
2:36:20talking at them. It's talking with them.
2:36:23Next is you want to create a feedback
2:36:25loop or feedback loops. This is where
2:36:27you listen and adapt. Listen and
2:36:29iterate. This is where the magic is.
2:36:32This is when literally people think that
2:36:35you're reading their mind. I
2:36:36believe the best content ideas actually
2:36:38come directly from your audience because
2:36:40you're making content to serve your
2:36:42audience. Let them indicate to you what
2:36:45they want more of. Now, I do not
2:36:47necessarily believe that what this looks
2:36:49like is posting a poll being like, "What
2:36:50do you want to hear from me?" I like
2:36:52that for like Q&A format, but I actually
2:36:54don't think that that is the best way
2:36:56because they don't know what they want.
2:36:57Let's just be honest. They they don't
2:36:59know what they need. But what they do is
2:37:02they will send you DMs or they'll
2:37:04comment questions. That's where you want
2:37:07to see the insights. So I I find when
2:37:09people make polls asking their audience,
2:37:12what should I make next? I'm not nearly
2:37:15as much of a fan of that. I think that
2:37:16that is way too blue ocean and doesn't
2:37:19provide any sort of constraints for them
2:37:20to make the decision within. However,
2:37:23the questions in your DMs, the questions
2:37:26in your comment section, that is insight
2:37:28on what your community is wanting more
2:37:31of from you. An incredible example of
2:37:33this, like I kind of said at the top of
2:37:34this section, is Gary spends an
2:37:37incredible amount of his time doing what
2:37:40we refer to as social listening. He is
2:37:43looking at tweet replies. He is looking
2:37:45at Instagram DMs. He is looking at
2:37:47comments on his content and he is taking
2:37:50all of that in and synthesizing it. What
2:37:53he does is he starts to notice that
2:37:55maybe five people today asked him the
2:37:58same question or a very similar version
2:38:00of a question. And what Gary does so
2:38:02well is he immediately acts on that and
2:38:04creates content answering that question.
2:38:07Now what he doesn't do is say, "Man, so
2:38:10many people have been asking me about
2:38:11blank." He immediately jumps into it and
2:38:12addresses the problem or question that
2:38:14he is receiving from his audience. And
2:38:16then this crazy thing happens. People
2:38:18comment on his post being like, "How did
2:38:20you know I needed this right now, Gary?
2:38:22You're somehow reading my mind." And
2:38:23it's almost like he is reading their
2:38:25mind because what he's doing is
2:38:26recognizing if five people in the last 3
2:38:29hours ask me a very similar question,
2:38:31there are thousands of people that for
2:38:34whatever reason, whatever woo woo magic
2:38:36in the universe, they're experiencing
2:38:38that right now. And they need that
2:38:40insight right now. And so if you do
2:38:42this, if you pay attention to what your
2:38:44community is saying and the feedback
2:38:46they're giving you, you can be making
2:38:48content that is literally speaking to
2:38:51them in their exact moment right now,
2:38:54aka reading their mind. Another thing
2:38:57that you can do is you can make your
2:38:58audience the hero of the story. By doing
2:39:01this, you encourage them to want to take
2:39:03action on what you're sharing, get the
2:39:05success, and then become one of those
2:39:07success stories. So what this looks like
2:39:08is sharing community wins,
2:39:10transformations, and case studies. If
2:39:12you have a weekly call that you do on
2:39:15Zoom for free for people in your
2:39:18audience and you're telling them or
2:39:21sharing information with them or sharing
2:39:23some new direction or something that
2:39:24they can do and they take action on it
2:39:26and it changes their life, you should be
2:39:28sharing that on social. Don't just
2:39:31keep it for the community. share that
2:39:32publicly because what that will do is
2:39:35one, it will incentivize current members
2:39:38of your community to take action and win
2:39:41so that maybe they can be a success
2:39:43story, but two, it will cause people who
2:39:46are on the outside that are a little bit
2:39:47more skeptical to be less skeptical and
2:39:50trust you more. An incredible example of
2:39:53this is if you receive a DM from
2:39:56somebody in your community, somebody
2:39:57that's in your audience, and they've
2:39:59gained success. they tried something,
2:40:01they put into action something that you
2:40:03told them, a lesson, a takeaway, and
2:40:05they got the result that they were
2:40:06looking for. What you could do is you
2:40:08could turn that into content. Maybe what
2:40:09you do is you do a an Instagram video
2:40:12call with them, record it, and then you
2:40:14put that piece of content out there.
2:40:16Now, no, this is not going to be your
2:40:17top performing content by any means.
2:40:19Anything like this, you're not going to
2:40:21see massive engagement on. You're not
2:40:23going to see a ton of views, likes, or
2:40:24anything like that. But what you will
2:40:26see is it will encourage future people
2:40:29to engage with your content and send you
2:40:32their success stories, how they have won
2:40:35based on what you have shared. And
2:40:38lastly, leverage user generated content.
2:40:42UC is kind of the acronym that almost
2:40:45everybody in the industry uses and so
2:40:47that's probably what you're more
2:40:48familiar with. I would encourage your
2:40:50audience to create with you. And so what
2:40:52this can look like is potentially you
2:40:54put out a prompt encouraging your
2:40:56audience to share an insight or story
2:40:58based on the lessons and advice that you
2:41:01share in your content. Then what you do
2:41:03is you take those videos that they have
2:41:05posted. Maybe it's to Tik Tok, Instagram
2:41:07reels, and you can stitch them. You can
2:41:09actually create content off the back of
2:41:12your audience's content that they are
2:41:13already creating. What this will do is
2:41:15create a perpetual cycle of engagement.
2:41:18This empowers your audience to want to
2:41:20one create content with you, but also to
2:41:24promote you to their audience. And no
2:41:26audience is too small. Like even people
2:41:28that have 300 followers, I want them
2:41:30informing their 300 followers about my
2:41:33brand. Now, I believe that there are
2:41:35three pillars to community content. And
2:41:38my hope is in sharing this, this just
2:41:40allows you to come up with more ideas
2:41:43within these three different pillars.
2:41:45First one is educational content. This
2:41:47is when we're teaching our community. We
2:41:49help the community by solving their
2:41:51biggest problems. The next one is
2:41:53conversational content. The goal or
2:41:55purpose of this is to engage the
2:41:56audience. You want to make your audience
2:41:58feel heard and involved in your content.
2:42:00Again, we don't want this to just be a
2:42:02one-way relationship. We want it to go
2:42:04both ways. And number three, social
2:42:06proof content. This is where, like we
2:42:08talked about earlier, you can showcase
2:42:10community wins as an example. You want
2:42:12to be highlighting real stories from
2:42:14your community and how what you're
2:42:16putting out there is driving impact in
2:42:18your community. So, we've gone over the
2:42:20value of building a community and having
2:42:23the community drive your content, but
2:42:26how do you turn viewers into community
2:42:28members? Well, first off, you're going
2:42:29to want to make engagement the goal, not
2:42:31just views. So, the way you do that is
2:42:33you create content that invites them to
2:42:36participate. This might be as simple as
2:42:38literally just asking your community to
2:42:40drop a fire emoji in the comments if
2:42:42they found this clip useful. This could
2:42:45also go so far as to literally ask them
2:42:47to debate in the comments. So, what you
2:42:50could do is you could share a
2:42:51controversial take on something. Again,
2:42:53not controversy for controversial sake,
2:42:55but something that is counter what the
2:42:58industry norm is. You could share that
2:43:01and then your call to action could be
2:43:03literally telling your audience, debate
2:43:05whether or not you agree with this in
2:43:06the comments below. Or you could go even
2:43:08crazier and say, "I would love to know
2:43:11your two cents on this. I'm going to be
2:43:13engaging with some of you and going back
2:43:15and forth. We can debate it in the
2:43:17comments." Drive engagement in your
2:43:20content. And second, please respond and
2:43:23reward participation. People ask me,
2:43:26"How do I increase engagement in my
2:43:28content?" The number one thing that I
2:43:31notice for most of the people that ask
2:43:33this question is the three people that
2:43:36are currently commenting on their
2:43:37content, they're not responding to. So
2:43:40like why on earth would you think more
2:43:42people are going to start engaging with
2:43:43your content if you're not even
2:43:44responding to the ones who are? What you
2:43:46want to do is set an example for future
2:43:48people, future audience members,
2:43:50somebody who's new that comes in. If
2:43:52they see that you are more likely to
2:43:54respond to comments, they are more
2:43:56likely to comment. Go figure. People
2:43:58don't like one-way conversations. They
2:44:00love when creators, even big creators
2:44:03especially, are responding to their
2:44:05comments. What you're doing is you're
2:44:06not only acknowledging the people that
2:44:07are engaging and thanking them for that,
2:44:09but again, you're giving signals to
2:44:11other audience members that they can go
2:44:13from becoming a viewer to an actual
2:44:17community member. And the last one, I'm
2:44:19I'm a huge fan of this. I love to create
2:44:21inside jokes and shared language. I
2:44:24believe that really strong communities
2:44:26have very unique terminology and shared
2:44:28language that they all understand and
2:44:30outsiders do not. Think of any niche,
2:44:33any interest that you have. Deep within
2:44:35that community exists a lot of different
2:44:37sayings that maybe your friends and
2:44:39family do not understand. For example,
2:44:42gym bros have bulking season and the
2:44:44Harley community has all their jokes
2:44:46about sportster riders. So, when you're
2:44:48thinking about your community and your
2:44:50niche, what's the inside joke? Whether
2:44:52it's leveraging one that already exists
2:44:54and implementing it in your content so
2:44:57that you show people that you are an
2:44:59insider, you get the inside jokes, you
2:45:01understand the lingo, you speak their
2:45:03language, or it might be creating your
2:45:06own. There's so many different creators
2:45:08who have their own little sayings that
2:45:10people outside of the community don't
2:45:11understand. The takeaway is either
2:45:13leverage inside jokes and statements and
2:45:16language that you know already exists
2:45:17within your community and niche or
2:45:20create your own. And now we've reached
2:45:21the point in the course where we are
2:45:22going to talk about scaling your
2:45:24content. We've established how to pick
2:45:26your medium, how to pick your preferred
2:45:29platforms, everything, right? We've
2:45:31given you a lot of different frameworks
2:45:33and you've been consistently posting.
2:45:35You're involving your audience. You're
2:45:36doing all the right things. And now
2:45:38we're at the point where we want to
2:45:39scale the out of this thing, right?
2:45:41We want to amplify your brand at a whole
2:45:43another level. More content equals more
2:45:45opportunities to engage, more
2:45:47opportunities to attract, and more
2:45:49opportunities to convert. But here's the
2:45:52thing, scaling does not need to equate
2:45:54to burning out or quitting early, right?
2:45:57We want to build a process and system
2:46:00that is sustainable and works for you.
2:46:02Now, the key to making platform specific
2:46:04content is actually recalling something
2:46:06that I shared with you earlier, which is
2:46:08the analogy of you are you and you show
2:46:11up to multiple different circumstances,
2:46:13events, situations as you, but you're
2:46:16going to present yourself slightly
2:46:18different given the context or the
2:46:20environment that you are in. You're
2:46:22going to speak to different topics or
2:46:24use different vocabulary. Let's say I'm
2:46:26going out to go riding with the boys,
2:46:28right? I am going to talk in a slightly
2:46:31different way than when I go and get
2:46:33breakfast with my mom. I am still me,
2:46:37but I'm going to emphasize different
2:46:39parts of me and use different vocabulary
2:46:40that is appropriate for the setting that
2:46:42I am in. I view social media and the
2:46:46different platforms the same way. You
2:46:48are your brand, but you're going to show
2:46:50up and emphasize different parts or
2:46:52elements of your brand given the
2:46:53platform you're on. You're also going to
2:46:55use different lingo and language. you're
2:46:57going to talk way differently on
2:46:59LinkedIn than you are on Tik Tok. Now,
2:47:01what you've probably been doing up to
2:47:03this point is making content and then
2:47:06deploying it to all the platforms. So,
2:47:09let's say, for example, you made a
2:47:10YouTube long- form video. You're
2:47:12probably mining and pulling shorts from
2:47:14that and then posting those shorts on
2:47:16all the different platforms. And that
2:47:18was a great start. That caused you to be
2:47:20able to scale your brand to a certain
2:47:21point. But right now, you're probably
2:47:23hitting a ceiling. And the way to smash
2:47:25through that ceiling is to now start
2:47:29making those same clips but have a
2:47:32different creator tackle it given their
2:47:35knowledge and context on the platform
2:47:37they're distributing it to. So what does
2:47:39this look like? Well, one, it looks
2:47:41massively inefficient because what
2:47:43you're going to do is you're going to
2:47:44provide the same source media to maybe
2:47:47five different editors and they're all
2:47:49going to cut it slightly differently to
2:47:52make it contextual to Tik Tok versus
2:47:54Instagram versus LinkedIn video because
2:47:56all three of those platforms might
2:47:58require a completely different hook.
2:48:00Now, what you might find is that the
2:48:02meat of the video stays roughly the
2:48:04same, but the entry point into the meat
2:48:06of the video, the hook might be
2:48:08different because people are looking for
2:48:10different things or solving different
2:48:12problems on LinkedIn versus Tik Tok.
2:48:14Just because you've been doing it one
2:48:15way doesn't mean that that is how you
2:48:17continue. Often times, the way you got
2:48:19to one point is not the way you're going
2:48:20to get to the next point. And so the
2:48:22solution here is to take your team and
2:48:25the creators that you have on your team
2:48:27and reverse engineer their specific
2:48:29skill sets and interests and assign them
2:48:32the platform that lines up with their
2:48:34strengths and interests. Cuz what you
2:48:36want is you want them to be living,
2:48:38eating, and breathing this platform. I
2:48:40remember when Gary assigned TikTok to me
2:48:42and we were at 300,000 followers and
2:48:44literally what he had me do is the first
2:48:46week I didn't make any content for it. I
2:48:49sat eight hours a day for a whole week
2:48:52straight just scrolling through Tik Tok.
2:48:54That is like doom scrolling on another
2:48:56level except I was actually
2:48:58taking note and learning what people
2:49:01were doing on the platform that worked.
2:49:03And what I was trying to do is extract
2:49:04the insights that could be applied to
2:49:07Gary's content. So at the beginning of
2:49:08this section, what we did is we outlined
2:49:12prioritizing two or three platforms. But
2:49:14now we're probably at the point where,
2:49:16yeah, you still are prioritizing, let's
2:49:17say, those three platforms, but you're
2:49:19probably redistributing the content on
2:49:21another three. So, what you're going to
2:49:22do is you're going to take your top
2:49:24three platforms and your bottom three
2:49:26platforms, and you're going to assign
2:49:28those out to your team cuz more than
2:49:30likely, you don't have like 10 people on
2:49:31your team. You might have three editors
2:49:33that you can assign to these platforms.
2:49:35So, what you do is you give your best
2:49:37editor, your number one platform, and
2:49:40your number four platform, and so on and
2:49:43so forth. Your second best editor gets
2:49:44platform number two and platform number
2:49:47five. Okay? And then again, the third
2:49:50gets number three and number six. And so
2:49:53what we're going to do is we're going to
2:49:54tell them to spend 85% of their time,
2:49:57effort, and energy making platform
2:50:00native content for their top priority
2:50:02platform. And then they're going to
2:50:04spend the remaining 15% trying to
2:50:06experiment with platform native content
2:50:08for their second priority platform.
2:50:11Notice that is a huge discrepancy. 85%
2:50:13and 15%. Because we have identified that
2:50:16these three platforms, your top three,
2:50:18are what are actually driving the
2:50:20economics of your business. They're
2:50:22driving awareness to your art. They're
2:50:24driving awareness to your offer. And so
2:50:26that is where we're going to put all of
2:50:28our effort. So here's an example of how
2:50:30this is actually ran. Let's say Angela
2:50:33is our best editor. Okay? So we assign
2:50:35Instagram to Angela. Angela is going to
2:50:38spend 85% of her time during the week
2:50:41creating Instagram native content. She's
2:50:45literally making content specifically
2:50:47and only with Instagram in mind. Now,
2:50:49could this be redistributed to other
2:50:51platforms? Of course, absolutely. But
2:50:53you want her thinking through the
2:50:55mindset of the Instagram audience that
2:50:57you have. And then she's going to spend
2:50:59the remaining 15%. Let's say Tik Tok we
2:51:02identify as number four. Okay, cool. 15%
2:51:04of her time is going towards making
2:51:07platform native content for Tik Tok.
2:51:08What this probably will end up looking
2:51:10like is maybe creating seven original
2:51:13pieces of content for Instagram a week
2:51:14and maybe one or two for Tik Tok. And
2:51:16that's fine. Again, what we're doing is
2:51:18we're taking the Eye of Sauron approach
2:51:19that I mentioned earlier and we're
2:51:20delegating that out to the team now. So,
2:51:23it's not just you or the head of your
2:51:25content team doing that. You're actually
2:51:27giving the power to your individual
2:51:29contributors on the team to do the same.
2:51:32They're prioritizing the platform that
2:51:34drives the most results and then they
2:51:36are testing and around with the
2:51:39secondary platform because as we know
2:51:41social evolves, things change and we
2:51:43never know if Tik Tok is all of a sudden
2:51:45going to jump in priority. On one of the
2:51:47teams that I built, we had gotten to a
2:51:49point where we had already optimized
2:51:51quite a bit on the platforms. But when
2:51:53we made this change, an already massive
2:51:57massive output team that was getting
2:51:59billions of impressions every year, we
2:52:02were able to see a 1.5x return. Now,
2:52:05that might not sound like that special.
2:52:07Everyone talks about 2x, 10xing,
2:52:09100xing, but what you got to realize is
2:52:11when you are at the top. 0.1% of content
2:52:15creators, a 1.5x increase is
2:52:18massive. A great analogy for this, if
2:52:20you know uh powerlifting in any way,
2:52:22shape, or form, when you are early in
2:52:24the days and you first start lifting,
2:52:26you can be doubling your lifts every
2:52:28couple of months, but then once you get
2:52:29to a point where you're like maybe
2:52:31squatting 6 or 700 lb, uh you're not
2:52:35going to be doubling that, right? If you
2:52:37get a 5% increase in your lift, that
2:52:40might be the difference between a
2:52:42standard lift and a world record. Now,
2:52:43why is this actually effective? I think
2:52:45I've given a fairly good argument for
2:52:46it. But in case you're still on the edge
2:52:49and still don't totally feel like you've
2:52:52been convinced, here's a couple reasons.
2:52:54This allows for each of your creators to
2:52:56have more focus. Instead of spreading
2:52:58them thin and having them make what I
2:53:00would call vanilla content, something
2:53:02that you're making and hoping will work
2:53:04on all the platforms, they don't give a
2:53:06about the other platforms. They are
2:53:08focusing the majority of their efforts
2:53:10on one primary platform. And what is so
2:53:13beautiful about this is not only do they
2:53:16learn what the audience wants, they
2:53:19become very closely tied to the actual
2:53:22performance of the content. When you're
2:53:24a shorts editor and you make a clip, it
2:53:26is very difficult to continue making
2:53:29clips and track the performance of that
2:53:31short across five to 10 different
2:53:33platforms. But if you own one channel,
2:53:36you actually are able to keep way better
2:53:39track of the performance and the
2:53:40creators end up being held more
2:53:42accountable. They understand how the
2:53:44clip is actually performing. This is the
2:53:46beautiful marriage of creative and data.
2:53:48And what you want is you actually
2:53:51traditional creative has data and
2:53:54strategy in a completely different house
2:53:56than creative. That is like the
2:53:57traditional agency model. What you want
2:53:59is you want them to be as close as
2:54:01possible. the further they are away, the
2:54:04less that the data is actually informing
2:54:06the creative and then we're just making
2:54:07subjective calls rather than informing
2:54:09our decisions off of what the audience
2:54:11has told us they want more of. Another
2:54:14reason why this works is this will
2:54:16actually lead to greater retention with
2:54:18your team. Why? Because they're starting
2:54:21to see greater success with their
2:54:23content. It's a very powerful
2:54:25reinforcement loop. They make the
2:54:26content, they see how it performs, it
2:54:28does better. Amazing. They take the
2:54:30insights from that and that informs the
2:54:32next creative they make and it creates
2:54:34this incredible flywheel that is
2:54:36unstoppable. The other thing that this
2:54:37will end up doing is it actually
2:54:39incentivizes your audience to follow you
2:54:41on multiple platforms because you're not
2:54:43posting the same at the
2:54:45same time. You're actually posting
2:54:46different content at different times.
2:54:48And so if I look at your brand on
2:54:51Instagram and then 5 minutes later go to
2:54:53LinkedIn and your post is at the top,
2:54:55it's not the same Anytime that
2:54:57you're posting the same content at the
2:54:59same time to all the different
2:55:00platforms, you deincentivize your
2:55:02audience to follow you on all these
2:55:04platforms. Why would they do it? They
2:55:05they have no reason to. I just need to
2:55:07follow you on Instagram and I'll get
2:55:09everything that you put out. Versus, if
2:55:11you're making individual content per
2:55:13platform, well, then I am very
2:55:16incentivized to follow you everywhere
2:55:17because I'm going to gain different
2:55:19insights and different perspectives
2:55:21depending on what platform I'm on. The
2:55:22other added benefit is you create a team
2:55:24of strategists, not just creatives. They
2:55:27start to learn how to think
2:55:28strategically. And what you're actually
2:55:30doing is you're training future leaders
2:55:32of your team. A lot of editors are maybe
2:55:34a little bit more on the meek side and
2:55:36not as willing to share strong opinions
2:55:39because maybe they don't feel they have
2:55:41the data to back it up. Well, this puts
2:55:43the data in their front lap.
2:55:45This makes it so available for them and
2:55:48they start thinking differently. And
2:55:49what you'll find is two, three, couple
2:55:52of individuals on your team are going to
2:55:54rise above and shine. And you're going
2:55:56to see that they have more skills than
2:55:59just being a creator. And what you might
2:56:01find is that this individual is able to
2:56:04be in a leadership role on your team in
2:56:06the future. This provides them the
2:56:09opportunity to see that that is a
2:56:11potential for their career. Whereas
2:56:12before, they may have always thought
2:56:14they were an editor. I can't even tell
2:56:16you how many different editors that I've
2:56:18led that once we did this, they were
2:56:20like, "Oh my goodness, I always thought
2:56:22I was just going to be an editor." And
2:56:23now I see like maybe I want to be a a
2:56:25strategy lead or I want to be a creative
2:56:27director. And it opens up this whole
2:56:29other opportunity, which is amazing for
2:56:31them and provides value to them and
2:56:33their career, but it also is extremely
2:56:35valuable to you because what you want as
2:56:37you scale is to have leaders that
2:56:39understand your brand and ideally have
2:56:41been there for a long time, right?
2:56:43Consistency is a powerful thing with
2:56:46your team. Now, the next question you
2:56:48might be wondering is, okay, how do I
2:56:50determine who gets what platform? How do
2:56:52I evaluate the creators on my team and
2:56:55what platform they should own? A very
2:56:57basic version of this is just look at
2:57:00how they operate and how they
2:57:01communicate. Does the creator match the
2:57:04tone of the platform? For example, on
2:57:06Tik Tok, do they understand current
2:57:08humor and current trends that are
2:57:11existing? Right? Tik Tok for more than I
2:57:13think any other platform has like their
2:57:15own language that they speak. Maybe this
2:57:17is me being a millennial and just
2:57:20getting old now and maybe it's not just
2:57:22Tik Tok, but you want somebody who
2:57:24understands that and is up todate with
2:57:26culture and what people are saying so
2:57:28that they can participate in a way that
2:57:31is relevant to the users on that
2:57:33platform. Another example is LinkedIn.
2:57:35Do they have a deep understanding of the
2:57:36subject matter that you are speaking to?
2:57:38oftentimes you're going to want somebody
2:57:40specifically on this platform that
2:57:42actually understands the message and the
2:57:44content that you are putting out. If
2:57:46they are just repurposing what you put
2:57:48out from other platforms, that's decent.
2:57:50But if they actually have a deep
2:57:52understanding, they're going to pull
2:57:54more out of you that is what the
2:57:55audience on that platform is actually
2:57:57seeking. And for YouTube, honestly, my
2:58:01measurement on YouTube is does somebody
2:58:03consume a shitload of YouTube content? I
2:58:06truly believe that if they're living on
2:58:08YouTube, they love and are deeply
2:58:11following a couple of different
2:58:12YouTubers. They're going to understand
2:58:13the best practices and what is working,
2:58:17but also they're going to see the
2:58:19evolutions that are occurring in real
2:58:21time and be able to take those learnings
2:58:23and apply it to the content you're
2:58:25making. What you don't want is somebody
2:58:26who only consumes Netflix and Instagram
2:58:29editing your YouTube content. You want
2:58:31somebody who is deep in the weeds of the
2:58:34YouTube community and understands what
2:58:36people are doing there and what the
2:58:38audience is preferring. For example, you
2:58:41want an editor who is noticing that
2:58:44vlogs are having a sudden resurgence
2:58:47over the last year. There's more people
2:58:48making vlog content. Now, those vlogs
2:58:51look very different than they did about
2:58:525 or 6 years ago. And so you want
2:58:54somebody who's noticing that emerging
2:58:56trend and can act on it without using
2:59:00their preconceived notions or what used
2:59:03to work in 2014 or 2015 when vlogging
2:59:06was really big. You want them to
2:59:07understand the nuance and the difference
2:59:09between what a 2015 vlog looked like and
2:59:11a 2025 vlog on YouTube looks like. So
2:59:14we've evaluated the creators for the
2:59:16platform. Amazing. Now, what we need to
2:59:18do is make sure that we have a great
2:59:21data tracking system in place so that
2:59:24the creators can know if what they're
2:59:26making is working or if it's not. And
2:59:29even more than that, so that you can
2:59:31know if what they're making is working
2:59:33or not. Something that I've observed
2:59:35with a lot of different teams is that we
2:59:37say things like, "This video got 400k
2:59:39views," or "This video got 10,000
2:59:42likes." and people celebrate, but we
2:59:45don't really know what that means.
2:59:47Because what we don't know is what the
2:59:49average is and how this is either
2:59:51underperforming from the average or
2:59:53overperforming from the average. In the
2:59:55very beginning, when it's a small,
2:59:56nimble team, everyone knows what the
2:59:57averages are, okay? And so, everyone
2:59:59knows like, wo, if we got 100,000 views
3:00:01on this, that's crazy. That's way more
3:00:02than we normally get. But eventually you
3:00:04get to a point where you're putting out
3:00:05so much and you have so many
3:00:07different platforms and you have
3:00:08multiple different creators that you no
3:00:10longer really know what your team means
3:00:13or what people on your team mean when
3:00:16they're saying we got 100k views. And so
3:00:18what we want to establish is benchmarks
3:00:21and then we want to report against those
3:00:23benchmarks. And so the way I like to do
3:00:25this is I like to create what we call a
3:00:28multiplier sheet. I am not a software
3:00:30developer, so I haven't put together
3:00:32some like software tool for this, but we
3:00:34do this in Google Sheets. And it's very
3:00:36simple. In the beginning, what you're
3:00:38going to get is what I like to call
3:00:40directionally correct, not
3:00:41scientifically accurate, but again, it's
3:00:44directionally correct. It's going to
3:00:45move us in the right direction. What
3:00:47you're going to do is you're going to
3:00:49review the last 75 to 90 days of your
3:00:53content. And this is per platform. So,
3:00:55let's pick Instagram, for example.
3:00:57You're going to go back and review the
3:00:58last 75 days of content on your
3:01:01Instagram channel and I want you to pull
3:01:03the median. Okay? So, we're going for
3:01:06averages. Use the median, not the mean.
3:01:08Some teams can do and get away with the
3:01:10mean, but a lot of you probably have
3:01:12some posts that are massive outliers and
3:01:15this will tip the scales and make all of
3:01:16your content look like it's
3:01:17underperforming and not allow you to
3:01:20have a proper benchmark to establish or
3:01:23grade yourself against. And so what
3:01:25you're going to do is you're going to
3:01:26grab the median of the last 75 days. And
3:01:30I would encourage you to do this for
3:01:32different formats, right? So do this for
3:01:33reals, do this for carousels, you can do
3:01:36this for uh static posts if you do that.
3:01:39You could do it as as an average across
3:01:41all of it, but it gets way more
3:01:43scientific if you break it down
3:01:44according to the medium that you're
3:01:46tracking. And so what you're going to do
3:01:47is you're going to establish what that
3:01:48median is for the last 75 days. That is
3:01:51now your benchmark. Moving forward,
3:01:54you're going to report performance of
3:01:57individual pieces against that benchmark
3:02:00using a multiplier. So, let's say, for
3:02:02example, your average is 100,000 views
3:02:06on Instagram reels. After you have
3:02:08established that, your first post up
3:02:11gets 150,000 views. That would be a 1.5x
3:02:15multiplier. What this does is it gets
3:02:17the entire team on the same page. We're
3:02:20all speaking the same language. we're
3:02:22seeing it from the same handbook.
3:02:24Instead of saying, "Oh, this got 150,000
3:02:26views." No, it's this was a 1.5x. This
3:02:28was a great clip. It did really well.
3:02:30The benefit of this is you track this
3:02:32over time and you start to see what
3:02:35topics, what formats don't perform as
3:02:38well. It becomes very clear, like
3:02:40unbelievably clear for you to see. And
3:02:42what you can have your team do is start
3:02:44focusing on making more of the that
3:02:46works and less of the that doesn't.
3:02:49Now, a technical note for you is I would
3:02:51recommend for most platforms waiting 11
3:02:55days after you post it before you report
3:02:58on the performance. Sometimes what
3:03:00you'll find is uh a piece of content
3:03:02might, you know, do decent for the first
3:03:042 or 3 days, but then eventually it
3:03:05actually pops. Something that's
3:03:07happening a lot more on social is
3:03:09content does well for a few days and
3:03:11then maybe like 7 days in it'll pop. And
3:03:13so you want to give it enough time to
3:03:16experience the life cycle of the
3:03:18platform. The other beauty of this is if
3:03:21you share these sheets across the team,
3:03:23the person who is running your Tik Tok
3:03:25can start to see things that are
3:03:28performing really well on Instagram.
3:03:30Let's say you have a 3x clip that went
3:03:34up on Instagram. I think that would be
3:03:35very interesting for the person who's
3:03:37running Tik Tok to test it on Tik Tok.
3:03:39And what you can start to do is
3:03:41calibrate the crossover performance
3:03:44between platforms because again this
3:03:47makes it far easier for you to know what
3:03:49success looks like rather than saying
3:03:51well this clip got 150k views on
3:03:53Instagram and it did really well and
3:03:55then we posted it on Tik Tok and it only
3:03:57got 50K. Well maybe your average on Tik
3:03:59Tok is 10,000 views in which case it was
3:04:01a 5x multiplier. And so when we use the
3:04:04same nomenclature, the same language, we
3:04:07are all on the same page and we can
3:04:09start to make more educated decisions.
3:04:11Now, what I said at the top is that this
3:04:13isn't scientifically accurate. It's more
3:04:14directionally correct. And the reason
3:04:16why is because you just pulled the last
3:04:1875 days and some of those posts have
3:04:20been up for 75 days. And so it's not the
3:04:23same amount of time that you're
3:04:25reporting on. So what you're going to
3:04:26find is it's going to take a little bit
3:04:28of time to establish a scientific
3:04:31benchmark. Use it though. This will help
3:04:33you go in the right direction. What you
3:04:35should be doing is every month, make
3:04:38sure that you update what your benchmark
3:04:40is. This way, you're always measuring
3:04:42against the new median rather than a
3:04:45median that may have happened 6 months
3:04:47ago. This allows you to continue raising
3:04:49the bar and instead of you artificially
3:04:51coming in and saying, "All right, the
3:04:53new benchmark is we have to hit 500k
3:04:55views all the time." No, your benchmark
3:04:56is moving up according to how your
3:04:59content is performing. And one thing to
3:05:01call out is uh I wouldn't recommend
3:05:03doing this for YouTube necessarily
3:05:04because there are actually tools out
3:05:06there that already do this. There's one
3:05:08of 10.com, there's view stats, and I'm
3:05:10sure there's millions of others that
3:05:11will pop up over the next couple of
3:05:13months. But as of right now, I am not
3:05:14aware of any tool that does this
3:05:16automatically for your Instagram, Tik
3:05:18Tok, etc. So, typically what you'll find
3:05:21is you have to do it manually for short
3:05:22form platforms and then your YouTube you
3:05:24can utilize these tools that do it
3:05:26automatically for you. It's an extremely
3:05:29extremely powerful tool. And on the
3:05:31topic of data, I would recommend that
3:05:33you make this part of the culture of
3:05:35your team. You want to ensure that
3:05:37everybody is viewing data as their god.
3:05:41This is how they make decisions. This is
3:05:42the framework that they operate under.
3:05:44It's not us coming up with subjective
3:05:46creative ideas. I would allow, as a side
3:05:48note, a little bit of room for that,
3:05:50right? like maybe 10% of your content is
3:05:52just new ideas that the team is coming
3:05:54up with, but 90% of it should be backed
3:05:56by data. And so I would emphasize in
3:05:59your hiring process to ensure that you
3:06:02are bringing people onto the team that
3:06:04actually place an emphasis on data. And
3:06:08you can take this even a step further by
3:06:10actually hiring somebody who maybe not
3:06:12their full-time job, but a main part of
3:06:14their job and a main part of their
3:06:16experience coming into the job is
3:06:18tracking, analyzing, and then
3:06:20disseminating the information and the
3:06:22takeaways they acquire from reviewing
3:06:25the data. I remember uh on my last team,
3:06:27there was an individual that we brought
3:06:29onto the team and he completely changed
3:06:32how he viewed data. I I'm talking it was
3:06:35a complete game changer. all of a sudden
3:06:37everybody on the team started actually
3:06:39carrying and tracking the data of the
3:06:41platform they were owning. And so the
3:06:43moment he came in, we had a huge shift
3:06:45in the culture. So I would highly
3:06:47recommend if you currently have a team
3:06:48and nobody on your team is a data nerd,
3:06:51that's what you want. Go for the data
3:06:53nerd. They are going to accelerate the
3:06:56rate at which you grow and scale your
3:06:59content. A little pro tip for you is
3:07:01it's not a boulder that builds a
3:07:03building. It's brick by brick. And so I
3:07:06would encourage you to make a list of
3:07:08the bricks that you have noticed lead to
3:07:13better content outcomes. And what you
3:07:15can end up doing is having a massive
3:07:17internal playbook that is specific to
3:07:20your content and your team. Your brickby
3:07:23brick list won't necessarily look the
3:07:25same as any other teams. So, as much as
3:07:27I would love to say download our
3:07:29brick-by- brick list, it's actually far
3:07:31more contextual to the type of content,
3:07:34the niche you're in, and the platforms
3:07:36you're choosing to deploy your content
3:07:38on. But I would really encourage you
3:07:40instead of just being like, "Oh, that's
3:07:42cool." and hoping that you remember it,
3:07:44actually build a list of your bricks
3:07:46with your team. And then this becomes a
3:07:49training tool when you onboard new
3:07:51editors to maintain that level of
3:07:53excellence and level of performance. And
3:07:56you know what? it. Let's throw in
3:07:57one more pro tip because I think this is
3:07:59really powerful. Something I learned in
3:08:00the last two years that was a real
3:08:02gamecher for me is if it doesn't change
3:08:06your actions, don't track it. The amount
3:08:09of teams that I've met with that have
3:08:10these massive analytic tools that are
3:08:13tracking every single kind of metric you
3:08:15could imagine. I mean, there's
3:08:16so many of those, right? I mean, that's
3:08:18pretty much every team. You probably
3:08:20have somebody on your team that has some
3:08:21sort of crazy analytics tool that
3:08:23they're tracking every single little
3:08:24metric that you can imagine. But here's
3:08:26the thing. How much of that is actually
3:08:28going to change what the team does? And
3:08:30if it doesn't change what the team does,
3:08:32why are we tracking it? What benefit
3:08:34does it have? If anything, what it does
3:08:37is it gives information overload and
3:08:39makes it much more difficult to know
3:08:41what decisions to make off of the data
3:08:44because you don't know what you're
3:08:45looking at. you have a million different
3:08:47things that you're tracking rather than
3:08:48tracking two to four metrics that
3:08:50actually indicate what you should do
3:08:52next. And the next one, and this is
3:08:54going to sound a little aggressive, but
3:08:55I I like to say some things uh that are
3:08:57a little bit more polarizing every once
3:08:58in a while. the social media
3:09:00manager. We don't need that. The people
3:09:02that you just assigned those platforms
3:09:04to should be the ones that are managing
3:09:06the platform. They're doing the posting.
3:09:08They're going to gain far more insights.
3:09:10They're going to be tied to the data
3:09:11like we've talked about and they're
3:09:12going to understand in real time how the
3:09:15content they're creating is performing.
3:09:17Now, a couple of different little pro
3:09:19tips for you on how you can go about
3:09:21making your content in an efficient
3:09:23manner that allows you to do this for a
3:09:26long time. Cuz like we've talked about
3:09:27throughout this course, this is only
3:09:30effective if we stick with it. Build a
3:09:33content machine. Okay? Instead of
3:09:36hustling your way to success, build a
3:09:38system and process that allows you to
3:09:40put out content consistently and
3:09:42continue to provide value to your
3:09:45audience rather than being kind of an
3:09:47inconsistent spotty creator. First thing
3:09:49that I recommend doing is batching and
3:09:50scheduling. If you are a very busy
3:09:53individual, I recommend actually
3:09:55batching your content. Now, I do believe
3:09:57that there is a lot of power into real
3:10:00time content. You have the idea and
3:10:02within 24 hours you film it. But for
3:10:04some of you, actually probably a lot of
3:10:05you watching this, that's not realistic
3:10:07with where you're at in your career, in
3:10:09your business, in your endeavors. And so
3:10:11what you need to do is you need to give
3:10:12yourself the system that is realistic
3:10:14for you in this current season. And more
3:10:16than likely, that looks like blocking
3:10:18off a Thursday or Friday, the whole day
3:10:21to film. This is where you need to go
3:10:23back to the section where I talk about
3:10:25creating a conducive environment to
3:10:26extract the best content. Because if
3:10:28you're going to take a whole day to
3:10:30batch content, I will tell you cuz I am
3:10:32doing it right now, it's exhausting. And
3:10:34so you need the right environment to be
3:10:37able to continue and roll with the
3:10:38momentum so that you can make high value
3:10:42and useful content. Next, what I want
3:10:44you to do is create a content assembly
3:10:46line. Step one is ideation. This is when
3:10:48you are researching and brainstorming
3:10:50the topics that you are going to create
3:10:52your content around. Step two is the
3:10:54creation. This is when you're drafting
3:10:56the script. you're hitting record and
3:10:58you're filming it. Step three is
3:11:00editing. Now, this is where, as we've
3:11:02discussed, you are optimizing the edit
3:11:04per platform that you're distributing.
3:11:06So again, those top three platforms that
3:11:08you're prioritizing, those individuals
3:11:11are each editing that content for their
3:11:14platform. Step four is distribution.
3:11:16This is when you post and ideally
3:11:19engage. Again, the individuals who are
3:11:22managing those platforms and creating
3:11:23for it, they're the ones who are posting
3:11:25it on that platform. Now you have to
3:11:28figure out whether you want your team to
3:11:29engage on your behalf or you engage
3:11:32yourself. I would encourage you highly
3:11:35it should be you. I think there's a
3:11:36massive amount of value for me as an
3:11:38audience member knowing that if I
3:11:39comment on your post and you respond,
3:11:41it's actually you. And I would actually
3:11:43prefer you do that at the detriment of
3:11:44high volume engagement. So maybe that
3:11:46means that you only respond to five
3:11:48comments a week. That's a little bit
3:11:49extreme, but maybe it's only five. Well,
3:11:52I think that is a higher value if it is
3:11:55always you responding to the comments
3:11:57rather than your team responding to
3:11:58every single comment on your post. A
3:12:00tiny little hack around this that I will
3:12:02recommend that you can do is you can
3:12:04have your team make a team account. For
3:12:06Gary Vaynerchuk, we did this with a team
3:12:08Gary Vee account and this was very
3:12:10effective. Many times if he was
3:12:12extremely busy or we were posting and
3:12:14then he was going to hop on an
3:12:15international flight where he wouldn't
3:12:16have Wi-Fi. Okay. Well, he would tell
3:12:19the team, "Go in under the Team Gary
3:12:21account and I want you to respond to
3:12:22every single comment." Sometimes he
3:12:24would literally have us do every single
3:12:25comment. And as you may be aware, he
3:12:27gets thousands of comments. So, it was
3:12:28very extensive. But this was a very
3:12:30effective way to do it. The audience
3:12:32knew that this was his team and there
3:12:34was no funny business. There was no bait
3:12:37and switch where we were pretending to
3:12:39be Gary. No, we were just very clearly
3:12:41his team engaging with the audience. And
3:12:43then finally, step five is analyze. This
3:12:46is where you're reviewing the
3:12:47performance and you're taking note of
3:12:49what you can do to improve it in the
3:12:52future. The next section is create room
3:12:54for experimentation. The biggest mistake
3:12:56that I see in content teams, they stop
3:12:59experimenting. It actually happens
3:13:00pretty slowly. At first, you're
3:13:02innovating. You're creating new content
3:13:04and breaking through ceilings and making
3:13:06stuff the industry has never seen. But
3:13:08what ends up happening is you start
3:13:10learning what works and you double down
3:13:12on that, which is right. But then
3:13:14complacency and comfort sets in. The
3:13:17problem is the algorithm doesn't get
3:13:19comfortable and it doesn't get
3:13:20complacent. It's always shifting. Now,
3:13:23am I encouraging you to constantly try
3:13:25and chase the algorithm? No. But the
3:13:28reality is is that your content is going
3:13:30to be served in a different way whenever
3:13:32they make a change. And so, you have to
3:13:35adapt to that change. What got you to
3:13:38where you are now will not get you to
3:13:40the next level. The unfortunate reality
3:13:41is is usually by the time that a team
3:13:44realizes this, it's almost too late.
3:13:46They have built a culture of doubling
3:13:49down only on what they're doing and
3:13:51never trying new And often times,
3:13:54as much as I've been pushing databacked
3:13:56ideiation and databacked content, a lot
3:14:00of times true innovation has no data to
3:14:03back it. So what is the solution to
3:14:05overcome this hurdle and this huge
3:14:07problem that I see in many different
3:14:09teams? You need to bake experimentation
3:14:12into your process. This needs to be an
3:14:14intentional thing that you actually
3:14:17systematize and allow your team to do on
3:14:20a fairly consistent basis. What I like
3:14:22to do is I like to encourage my teams to
3:14:26drive innovation through what I call
3:14:28content hackathons. Honestly, most teams
3:14:31aren't failing because of bad ideas.
3:14:33They're failing because they don't have
3:14:35any new ideas. And this is why I
3:14:37recommend either a monthly or quarterly
3:14:40content hackathon. Here's how I run
3:14:43them. Either a monthly cadence or a
3:14:45quarterly cadence. You're going to
3:14:46dedicate an entire day to experimenting
3:14:50and for the team to make something
3:14:52completely new and completely different
3:14:55than what they do in their day-to-day.
3:14:57So, it starts at 9:00 a.m. And what
3:14:58you're going to do is you're going to do
3:14:59a kickoff call. It's usually 15 to 30
3:15:02minutes. It doesn't need to be anything
3:15:03fancy or long. What you're doing is
3:15:05you're giving context to the team
3:15:06because maybe you're scaling and you
3:15:08have new members on the team this
3:15:10quarter than last quarter. And so you
3:15:11need to make sure that everybody is on
3:15:13the same page. And what you're going to
3:15:14do is you are going to give them a safe
3:15:17space to try anything. What I would
3:15:19literally do is I would say I don't care
3:15:21how anything you make today performs. I
3:15:24want you to create something that you've
3:15:26not done before on the team. Something
3:15:28that is not part of your dayto-day. And
3:15:31typically, I would advise people to only
3:15:33make one or two pieces of content. I'm
3:15:35not going for high volume here. We're
3:15:37going for something completely
3:15:38disruptive and so different, so
3:15:41off-the-wall, that it's either going to
3:15:43absolutely crush or completely flop. And
3:15:45either way is fine because that is what
3:15:48you are incentivizing. Innovation, not
3:15:50performance. And a little fun thing that
3:15:52I like to do, too, is I like to send
3:15:54everybody on the team gift cards to pay
3:15:55for their lunch. If we're all in the
3:15:57same place, cool. I'll order lunch for
3:15:59everybody. And the reason why is I just
3:16:00don't want them to have to think about
3:16:02that. I want them focusing on this
3:16:04innovative content they're making all
3:16:06day. And so what we do is we do the
3:16:07kickoff call and then they all go and
3:16:09start ripping away at their content. And
3:16:11typically what I like to do is give them
3:16:13basically from 9:00 a.m. to 400 p.m. to
3:16:16create. And what I do is I put together
3:16:18a slide deck where they all have access
3:16:22edit access and they are supposed to on
3:16:25their slide upload their content.
3:16:27They're going to present it to the
3:16:29entire team at the end of the day. So 4
3:16:31PM hits and usually I'll give them a 15
3:16:34or 30 minute window to upload their
3:16:35content and embed it into the slide. At
3:16:374:30, we're going to have a 1 hour or 1
3:16:40and 1/2 hour call with the entire team
3:16:43where each individual is going to
3:16:45present what they made. Now I don't want
3:16:47them to just click play on their video.
3:16:49I want them to explain why they did what
3:16:52they did. And then what happens is after
3:16:54we've reviewed everybody's content,
3:16:56instead of having the incentive be the
3:16:59performance of the content, have the
3:17:01incentive be the amount of innovation
3:17:03that occurred. And the best way to
3:17:06measure that is the team. They all know
3:17:08what you are making on a daily basis.
3:17:11And so what I like to do is have the
3:17:12team vote on who won, who made the most
3:17:15creative or innovative or completely
3:17:18off-the-wall piece of content that we
3:17:20should then run publicly. And I like to
3:17:22give a prize for it. So like often times
3:17:25I'll do like an Amazon gift card or or
3:17:27something of that nature that rewards
3:17:30them for pushing the envelope. Some of
3:17:33the best content formats that ended up
3:17:34being top performers for months or even
3:17:37years for us came from content
3:17:40hackathons. I can't recommend this
3:17:42enough. It is amazing. Not only is it
3:17:45really effective, the team loves it.
3:17:46It's an entire day where they get to try
3:17:48new and there's no consequence to
3:17:50them making something that doesn't
3:17:51perform well. What you're actually doing
3:17:53is creating an environment for freedom,
3:17:55innovation, and creativity to flourish.
3:17:58Now, content hackathons are great, but I
3:18:00want to give you a framework that you
3:18:03can actually utilize for ongoing
3:18:05experimentation that will empower your
3:18:07team to not only make what they know
3:18:10works, but also spend a little bit of
3:18:12time innovating and trying new Cuz
3:18:14ultimately, not every single piece of
3:18:15content should be an experiment. But if
3:18:17you never test new things, you will
3:18:19certainly plateau. So, this is the
3:18:21702010 framework. 70% of your content
3:18:24you want to be proven that you know
3:18:27works. This is the bread and butter.
3:18:29This is what you know consistently you
3:18:30can put out and will perform well and
3:18:32your audience will resonate with it.
3:18:34This is the content that reliably drives
3:18:37engagement and conversions. Now 20% is
3:18:41small improvements and iterations to the
3:18:44content you know works. This looks like
3:18:47minor tweaks to content that is already
3:18:50hitting with your audience. This looks
3:18:52like maybe adjusting the hooks, trying a
3:18:54new call to action, or testing a new
3:18:56format with the same subject matter. And
3:18:59lastly, 10% should be saved for pure
3:19:01experimentation. This is where the
3:19:03breakthroughs actually happen. It looks
3:19:05like trying completely new formats, new
3:19:07topics or messaging, or completely
3:19:09different creative approaches to how you
3:19:11make the content. The unfortunate
3:19:13reality is most teams get stuck on the
3:19:1470%. And I understand why. It's
3:19:16comfortable, but comfort doesn't build
3:19:19iconic brands. The best teams out there
3:19:23always ensure that they have at least
3:19:25one foot in the 10% zone. To wrap this
3:19:28up, innovation isn't optional. It's a
3:19:31requirement to scale. Trends will shift,
3:19:34platforms will evolve, and audiences are
3:19:37going to move on. If you're not creating
3:19:40space for experimentation, you're
3:19:42setting your team up to be in reaction
3:19:44mode rather than leading the pack.
3:19:46Because the teams that adapt first are
3:19:48the teams that win. And the last thing
3:19:51that I want to leave you with on this
3:19:52section is the scaling mindset. So many
3:19:56people quit too early. Mainly because
3:19:58they didn't have a good process and
3:20:01framework in place that allowed them to
3:20:03do this ongoing and enjoy it. So they
3:20:06quit early. The people who win in the
3:20:09content game are the ones who stay
3:20:11consistent and stick with it for a very
3:20:13very long time. Also scaling is about
3:20:16iteration not perfection. This is
3:20:18observing, learning, and adapting over
3:20:21time. Progress over perfection. And
3:20:24lastly, let the audience determine what
3:20:27is great. And the more you post, the
3:20:30more data you get on what your audience
3:20:32says is
3:20:35great. All right, so we've covered
3:20:38brand, we've covered content, and now we
3:20:40are on to team. And I would argue this
3:20:43is actually one of the most important
3:20:45parts of the whole puzzle. And
3:20:47personally, it is probably my favorite
3:20:49section of this entire course. This is
3:20:51where I get a lot of enjoyment and
3:20:54fulfillment uh for myself in my career
3:20:57is building teams and helping to develop
3:20:59them. And so, a couple quick things that
3:21:01I want to share with you before we
3:21:02really dive in on why your team is
3:21:06everything. Ultimately, your team is not
3:21:08just there to execute, right? They are a
3:21:11multiplier of the vision that you have.
3:21:14A strong team doesn't just help you
3:21:16scale. They are there to help you build
3:21:18something far bigger than you could ever
3:21:20do alone. Now, a lot of people watching
3:21:22this probably have never built a team.
3:21:24Definitely not a media or content team.
3:21:26A couple things to keep in mind that
3:21:27will help us as we go through this
3:21:29section are one, you don't hire just for
3:21:32skills. I actually emphasize hiring more
3:21:35for culture than skills. I find it a lot
3:21:38easier to train skills than culture fit.
3:21:42You want to make sure that they align
3:21:44with your brand, where you're wanting to
3:21:46go. So, where you are right now and what
3:21:48you're wanting to accomplish and the
3:21:50subject matter that you're going to be
3:21:51speaking about. They should be
3:21:52interested and curious about those
3:21:54things. You want to make sure that
3:21:55you're hiring based off of platform
3:21:57goals that you have. And so you want to
3:21:59identify what are the different
3:22:00platforms that we are emphasizing this
3:22:03next year or years and build the team
3:22:06around that not just your traditional
3:22:08videographer, editor, designer, audio
3:22:11engineer roles. And you want to make
3:22:13sure that they fit into your overall
3:22:15creative process. If you don't like a
3:22:18lot of preparation for film days and you
3:22:20like to go off the cuff, then you need
3:22:21to make sure you're hiring people that
3:22:23are comfortable with that and able to
3:22:25ask you good questions to prompt more
3:22:28information that comes out of you. And
3:22:30number one is that we don't hire just to
3:22:34fill roles. We hire to solve problems.
3:22:38So, if there isn't a problem that you
3:22:40can diagnose, then there shouldn't be a
3:22:44role that we're hiring for this
3:22:45non-existent problem. Ultimately, what
3:22:48you end up doing, and I'll get into this
3:22:49further in a little bit, but you end up
3:22:51bringing somebody on that ultimately has
3:22:53no purpose on the team. And that is
3:22:56shitty for both parties. Another one is
3:22:58that a bad hire doesn't just slow you
3:23:00down, it massively slows you down. it
3:23:03takes months to recover and you lose a
3:23:06ton of money in the process. And so what
3:23:08we're going to do in a little bit is
3:23:10we're going to walk through my entire
3:23:11hiring funnel. And I really encourage
3:23:14you pay close attention during this
3:23:16section because what we've talked about
3:23:18brand content, that's super important.
3:23:20But mistakes made on hiring your team
3:23:22are going to cost you hundreds of
3:23:25thousands of dollars and are going to
3:23:26become a massive headache and ultimately
3:23:29it causes a lot of people to write off
3:23:31this whole team thing. I'm just going to
3:23:33do it myself with one other person.
3:23:35That's not the way that we want to do
3:23:36this. But we want to do it correctly
3:23:38from the start so that we build the
3:23:40correct foundation. And lastly, the best
3:23:41teams aren't built overnight. They
3:23:43require patience, intention, and
3:23:45investment in people who align with the
3:23:48desired outcome and the brand that you
3:23:50are building. So with that, let's dive
3:23:53in. All right. So first, before we hire
3:23:55anybody, let's define what we need.
3:23:59Okay? So define your needs before
3:24:00hiring. There's what you need and
3:24:02there's what you want. We are only going
3:24:04to hire on the prior. What you need. A
3:24:08lot of people hire way too quickly and
3:24:11they hire for roles that they think
3:24:13they're going to need. They've maybe
3:24:15heard people mention like that you need
3:24:17this D and what they don't do is they
3:24:19don't hire based on constraints. What
3:24:22you want to do is look at your process
3:24:23and what is causing the biggest
3:24:25constraint. For example, before we dive
3:24:28into this, if you are filming a bunch of
3:24:30content but nothing's getting edited,
3:24:33there is a very clear and obvious
3:24:35constraint. It's editing. So, what would
3:24:37you hire? An editor. If, on the other
3:24:39hand, you're always getting videos done
3:24:41in post-production, but you don't have
3:24:43enough in the pipeline. So, the editor
3:24:45is sitting there twiddling their thumbs
3:24:47being like, "What the do I do?"
3:24:48Maybe you hire a videographer or a
3:24:51content strategist that can help you
3:24:53ideulate and come up with new ideas to
3:24:55film. We are hiring based on problems
3:24:58and constraints we have in the process,
3:25:00not off of some random perceived idea of
3:25:02what we should have on the team. Now, to
3:25:04avoid making the mistake of hiring just
3:25:06what you want or what you think you need
3:25:08versus hiring off of problems you have,
3:25:10ask yourself these three questions. What
3:25:13tasks are taking the most amount of time
3:25:14away from high value work? Okay, so an
3:25:17example of this is if you're a content
3:25:19strategist but spend 50% of your time
3:25:22editing videos, you might need an
3:25:24editor. That's probably not the best use
3:25:26of your time and skills, okay? Because
3:25:30ultimately, you were hired to be the
3:25:32strategist. And if you're splitting your
3:25:33time, sure, in the beginning, you're
3:25:34going to have to do that as you're
3:25:36building the team, but eventually we get
3:25:38to a point where we're going to want to
3:25:39specialize. And so, if you are finding
3:25:42that you were hired or you hired someone
3:25:45for a very specific role and they're
3:25:47fulfilling multiple roles, the way to
3:25:50scale up or improve efficiency is to
3:25:53hire somebody to do that role. In this
3:25:56case, hiring an editor to relieve time
3:25:59for your content strategist. Question
3:26:00number two, what's slowing down
3:26:01execution? And I hit it already at the
3:26:03top, but I'm going to hammer it again
3:26:04because it's really important. If you're
3:26:06finding that you're filming all of this
3:26:08content and then it's just not going
3:26:11out, it's not getting done, you need to
3:26:14hire an editor. If you are always ready
3:26:16to film, always ready to edit, but
3:26:18you're sitting there twiddling your
3:26:20thumbs, not knowing what the to
3:26:21actually film, than a content strategist
3:26:23or ideation strategist, whatever you
3:26:25want to call them, that is going to be
3:26:26the critical role to bring into your
3:26:28team. Whatever the bottleneck and
3:26:30constraint is, that is what you want to
3:26:33hire around. This is how we actually
3:26:36scale rapidly. And the last question
3:26:38you're going to ask yourself is, what
3:26:39content opportunities are currently
3:26:41being missed due to lack of resources?
3:26:44So, for example, if we identify that
3:26:46YouTube is your number one most
3:26:48important platform and you're posting
3:26:50one video a month and your goal is to
3:26:53get to two, but the current bandwidth of
3:26:55the team only allows for one. Well, then
3:26:57we're going to go up to the question
3:26:59above and we're going to find out which
3:27:01part of the process is our constraint
3:27:04and then we are going to hire for that.
3:27:06Ultimately, it's all boiling down to
3:27:09hiring around the problem, the
3:27:11bottleneck, the constraint that you have
3:27:13on the team. This is how we're going to
3:27:15scale fast. If you hire five editors,
3:27:18but editing isn't your constraint, you
3:27:21just brought on a lot of cost for no
3:27:23gain because you don't have enough input
3:27:26to match the output the editors can
3:27:28accomplish. Please prioritize hiring for
3:27:31bottlenecks over convenience. Just
3:27:34because you're really good at hiring
3:27:35videographers doesn't mean that you need
3:27:37to hire five of them. You want to make
3:27:39sure that when you're hiring, you're
3:27:40hiring to create more leverage, not just
3:27:43offloading busy work. In fact,
3:27:45oftentimes what you can find is as you
3:27:48bring more people on, you can actually
3:27:50eliminate the busy work because you
3:27:52start to recognize the big tasks that
3:27:55actually move the lever for the team.
3:27:57Ultimately, we're not just trying to
3:27:58lighten everyone's load. We're trying to
3:28:00accelerate execution and the impact that
3:28:03each individual has for the collective
3:28:05team, which drives bigger impact for the
3:28:08brand at large. Now, a huge mistake I
3:28:11see a lot of people make is they hire
3:28:13for general skills, not platform
3:28:16specific needs. What do I mean by that?
3:28:18Well, there is this very interesting
3:28:21split in our world that is occurring
3:28:23right now. You have great DPS, people
3:28:26that are great at filming beautiful
3:28:28videos. You have editors that are
3:28:29incredible at editing these beautiful
3:28:31commercials or these long form films
3:28:33that you see going out on Netflix, etc.
3:28:35And they are incredible editors at their
3:28:38craft. But what a lot of people don't
3:28:39recognize is a great editor for a
3:28:42Netflix film is not a great editor for a
3:28:44YouTube video. They are very different
3:28:47skills and very different needs. Same
3:28:49for the videographer. A DP that works on
3:28:52some like Amazon or Hulu documentary is
3:28:55going to have a very different set of
3:28:57skills than somebody who is filming,
3:29:00let's say, a vlog for one of the
3:29:01YouTubers, one of the big YouTubers
3:29:03online. Okay? Completely different
3:29:05needs. And right now we're still in the
3:29:09early stages of really understanding the
3:29:12nuance and difference between those kind
3:29:13of creatives. And so what you get a lot
3:29:16of times is people hiring somebody who
3:29:18is a great graphic designer and they
3:29:19make amazing brochures. They're so good
3:29:21at designing your logo, your website,
3:29:24but they suck at YouTube
3:29:25thumbnails because it is a totally
3:29:28different skill set. And so what we want
3:29:30to do is identify what are the platforms
3:29:32that you are focusing on, which we've
3:29:34already done. And once we've done that,
3:29:36then we want to build the team around
3:29:39those specific needs. If you're not
3:29:42doing a lot of graphic design work,
3:29:44brochures, business cards, flyers,
3:29:46website updates, then you don't need a
3:29:48traditional graphic designer. If all
3:29:50they're doing is YouTube thumbnails,
3:29:51then actually typically those
3:29:53individuals do not have a traditional
3:29:56graphic design background because a lot
3:29:59of YouTube thumbnail best practices slap
3:30:02in the face of traditional graphic
3:30:05design best practices. Now, another
3:30:08version of this is, and this is the
3:30:10funniest one, people being like, "All
3:30:11right, we're going to post some content
3:30:13on social media, so we're going to hire
3:30:15a social media manager." This is the
3:30:18worst thing in the world. If
3:30:19they're a generalist, if they are great
3:30:21at all of the platforms, they suck at
3:30:23all of the platforms. The reality is is
3:30:25in 2025, there are very few people on
3:30:28planet Earth, I would say less than
3:30:30.001% that actually understand at a
3:30:33master level all of the different
3:30:35platforms. It'd be impossible.
3:30:36They're evolving all the time. And so,
3:30:38what you're going to actually find that
3:30:39you want is you want channel specific
3:30:41managers, not a social media manager. So
3:30:44instead of hiring a social media manager
3:30:45that oversees all your different
3:30:46platforms, maybe what you're going to do
3:30:49is in the beginning because you can't
3:30:50afford to hire a manager for all five of
3:30:53the platforms that you're on. Maybe what
3:30:55you do is you make sure that your
3:30:56creatives that you bring in emphasize
3:30:58one of those platforms so that they have
3:31:00a greater understanding than you do of
3:31:02how YouTube works or Instagram or
3:31:05LinkedIn or Facebook or whatever the new
3:31:07one in 2026 is. Now, on the contrary, if
3:31:10LinkedIn is where the majority of your
3:31:12business results occur, where a lot of
3:31:14conversions happen, where a lot of your
3:31:16customers are, and a lot of interesting
3:31:18conversations happen, well, I would
3:31:20actually recommend hiring a LinkedIn
3:31:22writer. Again, notice I didn't say
3:31:24copywriter, just general. I said
3:31:26LinkedIn writer. Hire them before a
3:31:28video editor. Like, if you look at how
3:31:30we approached content for Rston in 2025,
3:31:33we started posting on LinkedIn before
3:31:35any other platform. And so we emphasized
3:31:37that. We started working with a LinkedIn
3:31:39writer uh freelancer and instead of
3:31:42making video content right away, we
3:31:44actually emphasized that because I had a
3:31:46feeling that that would generate a good
3:31:47amount of leads for our business. And it
3:31:49did. We made sure to align our hiring
3:31:53with our actual needs. So as an example,
3:31:56instead of hiring a generalist, you
3:31:57might hire a YouTube editor and
3:31:59immediately get 2x the content output.
3:32:02You might then bring on a short form
3:32:04video editor to maximize repurposing
3:32:07that long- form content. Ultimately, a
3:32:09lot of the times we're trying to build a
3:32:10scenario where the individual, the
3:32:12talent on camera isn't spending all
3:32:14their time creating content. So maybe
3:32:16for a while you have the long form that
3:32:18you're doing and the editor does that.
3:32:19They 2x the output and then the short
3:32:21form editors are just utilizing that
3:32:23same media, that same footage and
3:32:26repurposing it, but you're getting two,
3:32:28three, four, five times the amount of
3:32:30impressions you would if you were just
3:32:32doing the long form. Then maybe you hire
3:32:34a platform strategist. And notice I'm
3:32:37saying a platform strategist, not social
3:32:39media strategist, because what you want
3:32:41to do is you want to make sure they are
3:32:42specifically tailored to the platforms
3:32:44you're prioritizing. Now what you might
3:32:46find in the beginning is you need to
3:32:48hire somebody who is a gangster at
3:32:49YouTube. They understand LinkedIn and
3:32:51you know they dabble with Instagram.
3:32:53That's fine. But you just want to make
3:32:54sure that they are prioritizing and more
3:32:57proficient in one. The
3:32:59generalist not what you want. If it's
3:33:02not obvious by now, the key
3:33:04takeaway is always hire for the highest
3:33:06impact content first. Whatever platform
3:33:10you're getting the most traction on,
3:33:11make sure you hire around that. and
3:33:13whatever platform you're hiring around,
3:33:16hire for whatever the biggest constraint
3:33:18in the process for creating for that
3:33:21platform is. So now we've defined what
3:33:24the roles are that we need and and why
3:33:26we need them and we're being very
3:33:27intentional with how we're hiring them
3:33:29and what problems we're trying to solve
3:33:32with these hires. Now we got to actually
3:33:33do the hiring. So let's streamline the
3:33:35process. Just like we were defining our
3:33:38needs, we are now going to define the
3:33:40role clearly. One of the biggest
3:33:42mistakes I see people make when they're
3:33:44hiring a creative uh for their team is
3:33:47just they don't know what they're
3:33:48actually looking for. Maybe they know
3:33:50the role and they know the problem, but
3:33:52then they haven't articulated the
3:33:55specific needs that they need to solve.
3:33:56Let's say you're hiring a videographer
3:33:58and you're going to be making uh vlog
3:34:01content around motorcycles, right? You
3:34:03hire this videographer, you know that
3:34:05you're going to be filming vlog content,
3:34:06so they got to be proficient at that.
3:34:08You know it's going to be motorcycle
3:34:09content. So, okay, you want them to be
3:34:12at least somewhat interested in the
3:34:13subject matter, but then what if you are
3:34:17somebody who is only willing to film
3:34:20early early in the morning, like 4:00
3:34:22a.m. to 8:00 a.m. or 8:00 p.m. to
3:34:24midnight, and you have those very
3:34:26specific needs. If you have not
3:34:27articulated that in your job
3:34:30description, you are going to get a lot
3:34:32of people that apply and go through the
3:34:34interview process and waste your time
3:34:36that are not willing to work within
3:34:38those hours. And so you need to really
3:34:41sit down and clearly articulate what are
3:34:44all the needs, not just the function,
3:34:47not just the subject matter, but also
3:34:49what are the ancillary needs that you
3:34:51have that are unique to you. So, a
3:34:53couple of questions you can ask yourself
3:34:55before you start looking for candidates
3:34:57are the following. Is this role about
3:34:59creating, managing, or analyzing
3:35:01content? An example is that a YouTube
3:35:03editor is creating content, but a
3:35:06content strategist is managing and
3:35:09optimizing distribution. Very key
3:35:12distinction there. So, we want to make
3:35:13sure we understand what their function,
3:35:15what their role is. Number two, are we
3:35:17at the point in our team, in our
3:35:21company, in our brand where we can
3:35:24actually hire somebody who is focused on
3:35:26a single platform or are we still in the
3:35:28early stage where we need somebody who
3:35:29can work across multiple platforms?
3:35:31Again, from what I said earlier, you
3:35:33want to always make sure that you are
3:35:35hiring somebody who is a specialist, but
3:35:37in the beginning, you can't hire people
3:35:39that are only going to do one thing.
3:35:41It's just impossible. So you hire a
3:35:43specialist who is willing to play the
3:35:45role of a generalist and they do end up
3:35:47taking on multiple platforms in the
3:35:49beginning. This needs to be clearly
3:35:51defined and articulated not only for
3:35:53yourself but for the candidates. Number
3:35:55three is how does this role contribute
3:35:57to the bigger picture. This is really
3:35:59important because one you want to know
3:36:01it so that you can justify paying this
3:36:03person but also you want to always be
3:36:06tying what the individual once you hire
3:36:09them what they are doing to the big
3:36:11picture to the vision to how the company
3:36:14how the brand is scaling and growing. If
3:36:17you do that it gives them way bigger
3:36:18purpose and allows them to see
3:36:20themselves in that role in that
3:36:23organization for a lot longer. And
3:36:25again, please remember, I'm just going
3:36:27to keep emphasizing this throughout it
3:36:28because it's so important. Every hire
3:36:30should be brought on to remove a
3:36:33bottleneck, to solve a problem, and
3:36:35allow the team to execute faster and
3:36:38more effectively. All right, cool. So,
3:36:40we've defined what we need. We've
3:36:41defined the role. Now, it's time for
3:36:44everybody's favorite activity, which is
3:36:46writing a job description. Now, I say
3:36:47that sarcastically, but I actually, for
3:36:49whatever reason, I don't know what the
3:36:50is wrong with my brain, I love
3:36:52writing job descriptions. I love the
3:36:54whole hiring process, interviewing,
3:36:55everything. It's my favorite. But if
3:36:57it's not your favorite, I think walking
3:36:59through this is going to be extremely
3:37:01helpful for you. What do you get with
3:37:02vague job descriptions? Vague
3:37:04candidates. Be very specific with
3:37:08responsibilities and expectations. So, I
3:37:12like to use the four Rs framework for
3:37:13drafting job descriptions. And rather
3:37:15than just running through the different
3:37:17four Rs, I actually want to describe
3:37:19what each R is and then walk you through
3:37:22an actual job description that I have
3:37:24here right in front of me on my phone.
3:37:25So the first R is role. What
3:37:27contribution is this individual making
3:37:30to the organization? What function do
3:37:32they have within the team? So for this
3:37:34job description, this is for a brand
3:37:35director and the role overview is
3:37:38company is looking for a brand director
3:37:40to build and scale the CEO's personal
3:37:42brand across YouTube, LinkedIn and other
3:37:44key platforms. This role requires a deep
3:37:47understanding of content strategy,
3:37:49social media growth, and personal brand
3:37:51development. You will be responsible for
3:37:52transforming CEO's thought leadership
3:37:54into an influential digital presence
3:37:57that resonates with entrepreneurs,
3:37:58business leaders, and innovators. So
3:38:01that's the role part of the job
3:38:03description. All right. So now we move
3:38:05down to responsibilities. What are they
3:38:07going to own? What tasks are they going
3:38:09to own on a daily, weekly, monthly,
3:38:11quarterly basis. This is a very
3:38:14extensive one. So stick with me. Under
3:38:16responsibilities, we have it broken down
3:38:18into different subsections. First one is
3:38:20content strategy and execution.
3:38:22establish and scale the CEO's YouTube
3:38:25presence, leveraging his speeches and
3:38:27interviews to create both long- form and
3:38:29short form content, eventually building
3:38:31on top of this and developing platform
3:38:33native platform first YouTube content.
3:38:36Develop and execute a LinkedIn content
3:38:38strategy incorporating a mix of written
3:38:40posts and short form videos derived from
3:38:43existing content. creative production
3:38:45and management, oversee the filming and
3:38:47editing process for social content,
3:38:49ensuring highquality production and
3:38:51platform specific optimization. And I
3:38:54think you get the picture here like the
3:38:56responsibilities are going very tactical
3:38:58into what they are owning. What are they
3:39:01doing on a daily basis that you expect
3:39:04them to do? Now the next one is
3:39:06requirements. I think this is pretty
3:39:07obvious and and speaks for itself, but
3:39:09essentially this is what are the skills
3:39:10and experience they need or are required
3:39:13in order for them to do this job to get
3:39:16this role. So again, for this one, I'll
3:39:18read a couple of the requirements, not
3:39:19all of them. Uh, one of them is three
3:39:20plus years of experience growing a
3:39:22personal brand with proven success in
3:39:24scaling reach and engagement, a strong
3:39:26background in filming, editing, and
3:39:28social content production, both short
3:39:30form and long form. Experience managing
3:39:31creatives. exceptional storytelling
3:39:33skills with the ability to extract and
3:39:36refine high value insights. So that's
3:39:38requirements. Again, this is just
3:39:40telling them this is what you need to be
3:39:42able to do and have done in your career
3:39:44thus far in order to qualify for this
3:39:47role. And the final R is results. What
3:39:50are the success metrics that we are
3:39:53tracking? What does success look like?
3:39:55What are we expecting them to do and
3:39:58accomplish or what are we expecting to
3:40:00have happen based on their
3:40:03responsibilities? Think of it like
3:40:04responsibilities is the input and
3:40:07results is the output of those
3:40:09responsibilities. So on this one, I'll
3:40:11read you a couple. Again, I'm not going
3:40:12to read them all cuz this is a very
3:40:13heady extensive one. And this is
3:40:15definitely going to be one of those
3:40:16things that you can download. I'm sure
3:40:18there's already been an icon that popped
3:40:19up. Study it, duplicate it, and
3:40:21use it for yourself. If you're hiring a
3:40:22brand director, by all means, use it how
3:40:25you need. Establish the CEO's YouTube
3:40:27channel with consistent long- form
3:40:28uploads and high performing clips. A
3:40:30minimum of two videos per month. Scale
3:40:32LinkedIn engagement and follower growth
3:40:34through a mix of written and video
3:40:35content. Posting at least two written
3:40:38and two video posts per week. We want to
3:40:41make sure that it is not only describing
3:40:43the efforts, but it's very specific on
3:40:45what the output will be. So, if you want
3:40:48to be doing two videos a month, okay,
3:40:50cool. Make sure to specify that, not
3:40:52just say establish CEO's YouTube channel
3:40:54with consistent long form uploads and
3:40:56high performing clips. That would be
3:40:57very vague and not helpful. Two things
3:41:00that I like to add to a four Rs and they
3:41:02have nothing to do. They don't start
3:41:03with an R or anything, but it's
3:41:04communication and cadence and
3:41:06expectations. I always like to make sure
3:41:08that a candidate understands like if you
3:41:11expect them to respond at 7:30 a.m. in
3:41:15the morning on Slack, well, that's not
3:41:18necessarily the norm in most workplaces.
3:41:21And so, if that is an expectation you
3:41:22have, okay, by all means, have that. But
3:41:25make sure you vocalize it and make it
3:41:27clear to them before you hire them so
3:41:30that they can tell you whether or not
3:41:32they are down for that or not. And if
3:41:34they're not, they're not the right fit
3:41:35for your role. And that's fine. No
3:41:37worries. The other one that I like to
3:41:39add is core values. I like to ensure
3:41:40that if a candidate is going to come in
3:41:42and join the company that they agree
3:41:45with what our core values are. And
3:41:46ideally, it's something that they
3:41:48already prioritize in their personal
3:41:51life. And so when they hear your core
3:41:53values, they actually resonate with it
3:41:54and are able to speak to, oh, I live my
3:41:58life by this. This is actually how I
3:41:59apply blank core value. All right. We've
3:42:03defined the need. We've defined the
3:42:04role. We've even created a job
3:42:06description using the four Rs framework.
3:42:08And now we need to start the hiring
3:42:11process. So, I'm going to share with you
3:42:13my hiring funnel. Now, this is probably
3:42:16going to seem pretty extensive and maybe
3:42:19a little too much. It's worth it. We
3:42:21talked at the top about how expensive it
3:42:23is to hire somebody that is not the
3:42:26right fit and then have to exit them and
3:42:29rekick off the search. It is a brutal,
3:42:32painful process. Trust me, I've been
3:42:34through it multiple times. Do everything
3:42:36in your power to not shortcut things. I
3:42:40will tell you, I have hired a lot of
3:42:43different creatives and anytime that
3:42:46I've made a mistake on it, it's for only
3:42:48one reason. I was in a rush. We had pain
3:42:50on the team. We had pain in our process.
3:42:53We had a very clear definition of what
3:42:56we needed. And we were clearly solving a
3:42:58problem because it was a problem we were
3:43:00feeling every day.
3:43:03But
3:43:03I tried to shortcut the process and I
3:43:07ignored red flags that were pretty
3:43:11obvious and in my face. What
3:43:14this hiring funnel is designed to do is
3:43:17to make those red flags very clear, very
3:43:20obvious, and then allow you and your
3:43:22team to discuss them. Ultimately, we're
3:43:25never going to find when we're searching
3:43:26for a candidate a 100%. There it just
3:43:29doesn't exist. So what you're looking
3:43:30for is an 80% and you want to discuss
3:43:33with your team if that remaining 20% is
3:43:36something you feel confident either you
3:43:39don't need or you can train. So the
3:43:41first part of the hiring funnel is you
3:43:43need to have a place where candidates
3:43:46can submit their CV and potentially even
3:43:49a video. This is obvious like you know
3:43:52you can use Indeed, you can use all
3:43:54these different platforms or you can
3:43:55have something hosted on your website. I
3:43:57would encourage you to do that if
3:43:58possible. And this is an area where
3:43:59they're able to upload their CV and show
3:44:02you their work history. This seems
3:44:04obvious, but there's a lot of you out
3:44:06there right now that are thinking about
3:44:08building your creative team and you've
3:44:10never really thought about this part.
3:44:12No, I don't overemphasize CVs and I want
3:44:15to make sure that's super clear. It's
3:44:17not the most important thing by any
3:44:19means, but it does reveal some potential
3:44:22strengths or weaknesses. For example, if
3:44:25you notice that a candidate has had 10
3:44:28jobs in the last five years, that is an
3:44:31interesting thing. Not necessarily
3:44:33something that's going to rule them out
3:44:35by any means. Different industries,
3:44:37different roles have higher turnover,
3:44:39right? And it might be just normal and
3:44:40part of the function of that role.
3:44:42That's fine. But it's definitely
3:44:43something you're going to want to have a
3:44:45little bit of a further investigation on
3:44:46and discuss in the screening call. And
3:44:48for the video portion, I highly
3:44:51encourage anybody that I'm working with
3:44:53to give the option for a candidate to
3:44:56submit a video. I wouldn't require it,
3:44:58but I would definitely give them the
3:45:00option. And the reason why is I think
3:45:02one, you see a lot of creativity that
3:45:04comes through, but more than that,
3:45:06there's no personality. There's no human
3:45:09element that comes through in a CV.
3:45:10You're not going to see like how they
3:45:12talk if they talk too much, their
3:45:14negative or positive tone, right? you're
3:45:16not going to see their little quirks,
3:45:18their silly personality that come out.
3:45:20That can be such a massive benefit for
3:45:22you to see how you feel they will fit
3:45:25with the rest of your team. For example,
3:45:28there was a role that I was hiring maybe
3:45:29about a year, a year and a half ago, a
3:45:31creative director role. We had been
3:45:32looking for about 3 or 4 months. I
3:45:35remember this one candidate came through
3:45:37and I was very impressed with their CV
3:45:39and everything, but what really
3:45:41impressed me and stood out was they had
3:45:44made a video, not like an edit that was
3:45:47showing what their skills were. It was a
3:45:49video of them talking about their
3:45:51experience, their background, their
3:45:53passions, and how that applied to the
3:45:56role we were hiring. It was it was
3:45:58amazing. It was a multicam video, too. I
3:46:00mean, it was very impressive and it was
3:46:01very clear that this individual was
3:46:04hungry for the role and truly believed
3:46:07they were the right fit. They put in way
3:46:10more effort than any of the other
3:46:11candidates. And spoiler alert, we hired
3:46:14him. After they submit their resume or
3:46:16CV, you're going to have somebody on
3:46:18your team that is going to be doing
3:46:21screening calls. So, what they're going
3:46:22to do is they're going to have gobs and
3:46:24and piles of résumés and CVs to look
3:46:26through. In doing the screening, what
3:46:28you're trying to do is you're verifying
3:46:30that they are aligned with the salary
3:46:32expectations. If you're wanting them to
3:46:34be in person or remote or hybrid, they
3:46:37understand the communication
3:46:38expectations. If you're an organization
3:46:40that needs somebody working 6 days a
3:46:42week, you're making sure that they're
3:46:44okay with that. If this role is someone
3:46:46who is traveling, let's say it's, you
3:46:48know, a videographer that's always going
3:46:49to be on the road traveling five days a
3:46:52week. Well, you need to make sure that
3:46:53they saw that in the job description and
3:46:56they're good with that. And so, you're
3:46:58just making sure that this candidate
3:47:00understands all the basics and they're
3:47:03good with it. You're also verifying a
3:47:05little bit of experience. So, I give a
3:47:07few questions to the screeners, whoever
3:47:09is doing it, whether it's a recruiter or
3:47:11just somebody else on your team. I tend
3:47:13to provide them two or three slightly
3:47:15technical questions. The reason why is
3:47:17because oftentimes if I'm running the
3:47:19technical assessment or the technical
3:47:21interview or the final interview, I want
3:47:24to watch the screening call. I want to
3:47:26understand how they showed up so that I
3:47:28know how to interview them. And by
3:47:30asking a few light technical questions,
3:47:32you get a lot of insight on whether or
3:47:35not they know what the they're
3:47:36actually talking about or if they're
3:47:37just kind of bullshitting you. Or the
3:47:40craziest thing that I've literally
3:47:42encountered five times in the last month
3:47:44is individuals using AI that is
3:47:47listening to the question in the
3:47:48background and spitting out an answer in
3:47:50bullet points for them to regurgitate to
3:47:53you. This is becoming a very big thing
3:47:54and uh I have literally experienced it
3:47:56five times in the last month and it's
3:47:58it's alarming. If you get a good
3:48:00technical question or two into the
3:48:02screening interview, you typically can
3:48:05avoid this and sus out if it's actually
3:48:08Sarah answering the question or if it's
3:48:10chat GBT. Once they get through your
3:48:12second line of defense, which is the
3:48:14screening call, you're going to go to a
3:48:15technical interview. Now, ideally, this
3:48:18is conducted by somebody who actually
3:48:20understands the role deeply. So for me,
3:48:22luckily I understand all the different
3:48:24roles on a creative team. So I'm able to
3:48:27do a technical interview for any role.
3:48:29Designer, motion graphics, uh
3:48:31videographer, editor, copywriter,
3:48:33content strategist, channel manager,
3:48:36anything you name it. Often times you
3:48:37don't have somebody like that in your
3:48:39organization. And so if you don't, what
3:48:41you're going to look for is somebody who
3:48:43can understand the role as best as
3:48:45possible, right? And so what this might
3:48:47look like is doing some research on what
3:48:50a YouTube video editor is and what they
3:48:52need to be proficient in so that you can
3:48:54actually ask them the right questions.
3:48:57Because if you don't ask them the right
3:48:59questions, you're not going to know if
3:49:00they're the right fit. There's a second
3:49:02thing that I'm going to touch on here in
3:49:03a second, technical assessment. Just cuz
3:49:05they do an amazing job on a technical
3:49:06assessment doesn't necessarily mean they
3:49:08can do it over and over and over again.
3:49:10And so you want to ask strategic
3:49:12questions that not only show that they
3:49:14know what they're doing, but show you
3:49:15how they think about solving problems,
3:49:18how they think about coming up with new
3:49:20ideas and innovating on stuff they've
3:49:23already been doing. Your goal with the
3:49:24technical interview is to assess
3:49:26strategic knowledge and the ability to
3:49:28execute. You want to make sure they have
3:49:30both. So, for example, if I'm
3:49:32interviewing a short form editor, let's
3:49:34say I have a brand and we have a very
3:49:38known style of short form content, okay?
3:49:42And a lot of people copy it, for
3:49:43example. Well, if that's the case, I'm
3:49:45going to not ask the short form editor,
3:49:49do you know how to make what we are
3:49:50currently doing? What I'm going to ask
3:49:52them, and this is what I've done with
3:49:54many of the different brands I've worked
3:49:55with, I'm going to ask, how would you go
3:49:58about innovating on this? I'm tired of
3:50:00the style that we've been doing for the
3:50:01last 6 months. I need something fresh
3:50:03and new. What would you do in order to
3:50:07get that new style? What I'm not looking
3:50:09for is the right answer of this is the
3:50:12new style I would do. I'm looking for
3:50:15how they think. How would they go about
3:50:18getting that new style, creating that
3:50:20new style? Because the problem for a lot
3:50:23of editors is they're very good at
3:50:26following rules and instructions. They
3:50:29come from a checklist army, but they
3:50:31don't have ownership and they don't have
3:50:33the ability to create innovation and
3:50:36drive a new style, new format on their
3:50:38own. And so that's where you're trying
3:50:40to assess their strategic knowledge and
3:50:43abilities to execute on said strategic
3:50:46knowledge. So if they pass the technical
3:50:48interview, you're going to want to
3:50:50immediately provide them a technical
3:50:53assessment. This should mirror what
3:50:55their actual job looks like. You don't
3:50:58want to do something that has nothing to
3:50:59do with what their day-to-day is. This
3:51:01is your opportunity to see how do they
3:51:04show up on the tasks that I'm going to
3:51:06be giving them daily, weekly, or
3:51:08monthly. So, for example, if we're
3:51:10hiring that short form editor, what I'm
3:51:13going to do is they just walked me
3:51:15through how they would go about creating
3:51:16a new style for our short form content.
3:51:19So, what am I going to do for the
3:51:20technical assessment? I'm going to give
3:51:22them 72 hours and maybe one hour of raw
3:51:26footage and let them create a new style
3:51:30for our short form content. Now, what
3:51:33are we testing in this? Well, one, we
3:51:34gave them a 72-hour deadline. So, we're
3:51:36seeing how are they with time management
3:51:38and commitments. Number two, they're
3:51:40going to have to deliver this item to
3:51:43us. How do they go about delivering it?
3:51:44Like, do they just like upload it to
3:51:46Google Drive and hit share straight from
3:51:48Google Drive? Do they package it into an
3:51:49email? How is their communication?
3:51:51Number four, we're seeing can they
3:51:53actually execute on what they were
3:51:55saying in the interview? They talked a
3:51:57good talk of how they're going to come
3:51:58up with a new format and new style. Can
3:52:01they actually deliver on that? And
3:52:02number five, do they show their work? So
3:52:05maybe they created this new style, but
3:52:07do they explain how they went about it?
3:52:10Now, that's bonus points and everything,
3:52:12but if somebody does that, what that
3:52:14shows me is they have the strategic
3:52:15ability, they're very creative, they can
3:52:18execute, and even crazier, they could
3:52:20train somebody else to do the same. If
3:52:23they can understand the why and the how,
3:52:25then they can duplicate that to anybody.
3:52:28But again, please just make sure that
3:52:30the technical assessment lines up with
3:52:32what their actual role is. You don't
3:52:33want to waste anybody's time. The other
3:52:34thing too, little side note here is
3:52:37ensure that you give every single
3:52:39candidate for the same role the same
3:52:41technical assessment. If you give them
3:52:42different you don't know how to
3:52:44measure them against each other versus
3:52:45if they all have the same thing, you're
3:52:47able to assess who's the right fit and
3:52:48who's not the right fit for your team.
3:52:50If they absolutely blew you away with
3:52:53their technical interview and their
3:52:54technical assessment, congrats. You're
3:52:57on to the next round. It's not over yet.
3:52:59Culture interview. If you are a team, an
3:53:02individual or a company that actually
3:53:05operates off of your core values and
3:53:09builds your culture accordingly, then
3:53:12this should really matter. This
3:53:14is where you find out, okay, they're
3:53:16very technically proficient. They're
3:53:17very good at their job. Now, the way
3:53:19they operate as a human in the
3:53:21workplace, does that work with the
3:53:24current humans we have in the workplace?
3:53:26For example, if speed of communication
3:53:29is a high priority, like you send a
3:53:32Slack message and expect a response at
3:53:34the latest five minutes later, and this
3:53:36person prioritizes deep work and will go
3:53:398 hours a day without checking their
3:53:40Slack, they might be an incredible
3:53:42editor and do amazing work, but it might
3:53:45not work well for your team. If you
3:53:47expect 5 minutes and they wait 8 hours,
3:53:50you're going to be pissed. and
3:53:51you're going to be pissed, but it's not
3:53:53really their fault because you didn't do
3:53:55a good job of determining whether or not
3:53:58they lined up with your communication
3:54:00culture. And honestly, a lot of the
3:54:02hires that I've made, I actually
3:54:05overemphasize their cultural fit over
3:54:07their technical fit. And it's just my
3:54:09belief that I can train the technical
3:54:11gap pretty well. It's actually really
3:54:13not that hard to take an editor who you
3:54:15might rate as like a five or six out of
3:54:1610 to like a eight or nine fairly
3:54:19quickly. However, somebody culturally
3:54:21that you rate as a five or six, taking
3:54:22them to a eight or nine, that's going to
3:54:24be a lot harder. You're talking about
3:54:26ways that somebody operates in and
3:54:28outside of work. And so, if they're
3:54:30getting reinforcement and they're
3:54:32building the pattern of doing it outside
3:54:34of work, you have a big hill to climb.
3:54:38So, I prefer if somebody is technically
3:54:42mid, but they are culturally great. They
3:54:45show enthusiasm, lack of ego, and
3:54:48they're willing to do whatever the
3:54:49it takes. Man, I'd hire that person at a
3:54:51five or a six over an eight or nine
3:54:53editor who has a massive ego, who can't
3:54:56take any feedback, and is kind of lazy.
3:54:59And actually, an example of this is
3:55:01Trevor Odum. I hired Trevor about 3
3:55:03years ago, and I would call him probably
3:55:06a 6 out of 10 in his editing.
3:55:08Culturally, he was a 10 out of 10. He
3:55:10showed massive humility. He showed
3:55:13extreme eagerness to learn, willing to
3:55:16do whatever it took, hard
3:55:19worker, would take the shitty
3:55:21responsibilities as well as the cool
3:55:23responsibilities, and showed a lot of
3:55:25consistency, especially for a young age.
3:55:27I hired Trevor and we trained and worked
3:55:31on his technical skills. And the reason
3:55:32why we were able to work on the
3:55:34technical skills and he was able to see
3:55:36growth is because he had the soft
3:55:38skills. The culture of it was very much
3:55:40there. I'll take that all day
3:55:42over somebody who is highly proficient
3:55:44but a Now, ways that
3:55:46you can identify whether or not they're
3:55:48a culture fit is asking about their past
3:55:50work environments. What was that like?
3:55:51How do they approach problem solving? A
3:55:53question that I really like to ask is if
3:55:55you're in a meeting with five or more
3:55:57people and somebody gives you direct
3:55:58feedback in front of everyone, how do
3:56:00you respond? If somebody is demanding
3:56:02that you drop what you are currently
3:56:03working on and assist them, but they're
3:56:06not your manager, how do you respond? I
3:56:08like to give them real life scenarios
3:56:09that actually occur in the workplace.
3:56:11And what I just mentioned is two of many
3:56:13very common occurrences that happen in
3:56:16the workplace. Right? If I know somebody
3:56:17who's higher up on the team, maybe the
3:56:19CEO or CMO has a preferred way of
3:56:22communicating, I'm going to ask them how
3:56:24they feel about that preferred way of
3:56:26communicating. A lot of CEOs actually
3:56:28prefer very direct, very quick
3:56:30communication. They don't add fluff.
3:56:32They don't add smiley faces and things
3:56:33like that. I like to ask, are you okay
3:56:36with that? Sometimes if you're hiring a
3:56:38videographer to film with a CEO, for
3:56:39example, the CEO is not going to want to
3:56:42talk to the videographer about their
3:56:43life. They're not going to want to talk
3:56:44about anything other than what they are
3:56:46there to film. That's okay. There's
3:56:48nothing wrong with that. But I need to
3:56:49make sure that the videographer is going
3:56:52to be able to handle something like that
3:56:54and not need to talk about their
3:56:56personal life with their boss. All
3:56:57right. If we have passed the screening,
3:56:59if we've passed the technical interview,
3:57:01the technical assessment and the culture
3:57:03interview, we are now on to the final
3:57:07interview. And typically what this looks
3:57:08like is a high-up leader. So if there is
3:57:11a department like let's say for example
3:57:13you have a CMO in your company and your
3:57:16content team falls under the marketing
3:57:19department maybe the final interview is
3:57:20going to be with the CMO or if it's a
3:57:23very very uh important and crucial role
3:57:25maybe the final interview is with the
3:57:27CEO I prefer the final interview to be
3:57:29with the most senior person that this
3:57:31individual will be corresponding with.
3:57:33So if they are going to be messaging or
3:57:35interacting with the CEO in any manner I
3:57:37do think that the final interview should
3:57:39be the CEO. However, if they're never
3:57:41going to interact with the CEO at all,
3:57:42CMO, director of brand, whatever is
3:57:45perfectly perfectly fine. And usually
3:57:47the way this works is it's somebody with
3:57:49a lot of experience. Okay? So, they've
3:57:51hired a lot of people. They've hired a
3:57:53lot of the right people. They've hired a
3:57:54lot of the wrong people. And they're
3:57:56reviewing all the different interview
3:57:58notes from all the different interviews
3:58:00leading to this moment. They are the
3:58:02ones with the most context, both from
3:58:04their past history, but also the most
3:58:06context on this specific candidate. And
3:58:08so it's their job to poke holes in any
3:58:11areas that were question marks from the
3:58:14previous interviews. If somebody thought
3:58:16they were hardworking but potentially
3:58:18weren't open to working on weekends and
3:58:20this role required every once in a while
3:58:21to work a Saturday or Sunday, the final
3:58:24interview is going to have to press into
3:58:26that and ensure that they're okay
3:58:28working on an occasional Saturday or
3:58:30Sunday. You shouldn't leave the final
3:58:31interview with any additional questions.
3:58:33Everything should be finalized within
3:58:36that interview. Now, the same goes for
3:58:37the candidate. You give them on all of
3:58:39these, but especially the final
3:58:41interview, you want to give them the
3:58:42opportunity to ask you questions as
3:58:44well. In doing so, you're going to learn
3:58:46a lot about them. If they have no
3:58:49questions to ask, probably not a good
3:58:51thing. On the other hand, somebody who
3:58:53asks very strategic questions that make
3:58:55sure that they understand what is
3:58:57required, what's expected of them or
3:58:59they gain clarity on that. That is
3:59:01somebody who is very interesting because
3:59:03they are thoughtful and they make their
3:59:04decisions based on information and
3:59:06context, not just emotion and
3:59:09excitement. Now, here's a pro tip. Uh,
3:59:11what I just said is insane,
3:59:13right? That's like so many different
3:59:14steps. And you might be like, "Yo,
3:59:16homie, I am a oneperson team that's
3:59:18about to hire my first person." Then
3:59:19what I would encourage you to do is not
3:59:21skip any of these steps, but maybe what
3:59:23you do is you combine them. So instead
3:59:24of having six different steps in the
3:59:27process, maybe you have three different
3:59:29calls or two different calls that you do
3:59:31with this person or these candidates and
3:59:33you just chunk them together. So maybe
3:59:35the technical, maybe the screening and
3:59:37the technical occur in the same call.
3:59:39Maybe culture and final are same and you
3:59:41have the technical assessment in
3:59:42between. That would be a three-part
3:59:44process and you would be able to
3:59:45accomplish that with one person.
3:59:48ultimately use what you got. Okay? Like
3:59:50if you don't have a team of 20 people,
3:59:52yeah, you're not going to execute this.
3:59:54That's fine. The other thing that I will
3:59:55say is sometimes there are individuals
3:59:57who you work with on a vendor like basis
4:00:01that they might be able to be part of
4:00:02the process. Say for example, you have a
4:00:04YouTube agency you're working with and
4:00:06you're hiring a YouTube editor. If you
4:00:08have a good relationship with this
4:00:09agency and you trust them and you've
4:00:11established what the timeline of your
4:00:13engagement will be, so they know you're
4:00:15eventually bringing it inhouse, maybe
4:00:17they can conduct the technical interview
4:00:19for the YouTube editor since they
4:00:21probably understand YouTube editing far
4:00:23more than you do. So, there's a lot of
4:00:25ways to be creative with this. Don't
4:00:27write it off just because you don't have
4:00:28the headcount to be able to do such an
4:00:32extensive process. You want to be
4:00:34extensive. You want to be detailed
4:00:36because you're bringing somebody in that
4:00:38is either going to raise the bar or
4:00:41lower the bar. And all we want to do
4:00:43here is raise the bar. Okay. So, why
4:00:45does this process actually work? Well,
4:00:48one, it removes bad hires early.
4:00:50Especially the optional video. This can
4:00:52filter out candidates who aren't taking
4:00:54the role serious, right? They're
4:00:55applying to a hundred different role. I
4:00:57mean, now using AI, they can
4:00:59automate applying to like a million
4:01:01different roles every day. And
4:01:02so you can weed out who are the ones
4:01:04that are just mass applying versus the
4:01:07ones that are looking at this specific
4:01:09role within your specific organization
4:01:11or team and saying I'm a good fit for
4:01:14this. Number two is we are actually
4:01:16ensuring that there's platform alignment
4:01:19here. Like we said at the top, we're
4:01:20trying to prioritize platforms and hire
4:01:22people accordingly, right? And so we're
4:01:25using technical assessments to test the
4:01:27execution ability before hiring them for
4:01:30that specific platform. So, we get to
4:01:32see this YouTube editor. Are they a
4:01:34great editor or are they a great YouTube
4:01:36editor? Number three is that it creates
4:01:38cultural fit. Culture interviews allow
4:01:41you to
4:01:42avoid hiring somebody who is highkilled
4:01:45but also a piece of Somebody who's
4:01:48not going to fit into your culture. And
4:01:50just because they don't fit in your
4:01:51culture doesn't mean they're a piece of
4:01:52But there are lots of pieces of
4:01:54out there that are great
4:01:56technically at what they do. and 6
4:01:59months in you find out they're an
4:02:01absolute nightmare to have on the team.
4:02:03And even though their performance is
4:02:04high, they drag everybody else's
4:02:06performance low and they're actually an
4:02:07anchor rather than a rocket. And
4:02:09finally, this actually just speeds up
4:02:11the hiring process. If you have a
4:02:13designed and intentional process that
4:02:15you follow, everybody whether it's you
4:02:18yourself and I or you and your team are
4:02:22on the same page and eliminates a lot of
4:02:24unnecessary back and forth and it can
4:02:26move people through the funnel a lot
4:02:29faster. Now, I'm also going to share
4:02:31with you a completely different funnel
4:02:32system, but it doesn't work for every
4:02:34single role. I've typically found that
4:02:36it works best for editors, designers,
4:02:37and strategists. It's a try out system
4:02:40or a try out funnel. And I'm just going
4:02:42to walk you through exactly how I do it.
4:02:44What I did is on Monday, I announced
4:02:47that we were conducting tryyouts. On
4:02:50Monday, I opened up registration for the
4:02:52tryyouts and closed registration by
4:02:5412:00 p.m. Pacific time on Thursday. So,
4:02:57they had a couple of days to be able to
4:02:59sign up. Thursday at 3 or maybe 5:00
4:03:02p.m., we sent out an email to everyone
4:03:05who had registered. And the email had
4:03:08the following. It had instructions on
4:03:10what we expected. We want you to edit a
4:03:1312 to 20 minute YouTube video using this
4:03:17raw footage. We want you to create a
4:03:20thumbnail and title. And we want you to
4:03:22create a short form video that goes with
4:03:24it. We were asking for a lot, but
4:03:26ultimately that's what we're asking for
4:03:28in the day-to-day job. And so we want to
4:03:30make sure that what the assessment is
4:03:32mirrors the job. And so what you're
4:03:34going to notice here is it's essentially
4:03:36the same funnel, but it's in a different
4:03:38order. So we sent that email out. We
4:03:41linked them to the raw footage, and we
4:03:43gave them a due date. Again, this was
4:03:44sent out Thursday at 5:00 p.m., and the
4:03:47due date was Monday at 9:00 a.m. Just
4:03:49like I mentioned earlier for the
4:03:50technical assessment, we're measuring so
4:03:52many different things. How do they
4:03:53manage their time? They have all these
4:03:55different tasks. How do they prioritize?
4:03:58If somebody submits on time, but they
4:04:00didn't submit everything, that might be
4:04:03okay because maybe we've identified that
4:04:04the short form video is the lowest
4:04:06priority and the thumbnail and title
4:04:08were just to see what their skills and
4:04:10knowledge were there. And if they
4:04:11prioritized and executed on the long
4:04:13form video, maybe they win. Maybe we
4:04:16just have more insights that they're not
4:04:17capable of adding the ancillary benefits
4:04:20of packaging or short form content as
4:04:23well. And so you're able to evaluate
4:04:25candidates on a very granular level. You
4:04:28also get the benefit of they're all
4:04:30editing the same exact footage and you
4:04:33might be reviewing, you know, 10
4:04:35different editors or in my case 200
4:04:37different editors editing the same exact
4:04:39footage. So what we had is about, I
4:04:41think, 1500 different editors register
4:04:43for it. Throughout the Thursday to
4:04:45Monday deadline, we had about 220 250
4:04:50editors that actually submitted their
4:04:52work. And so then came the screening
4:04:54time. That was gnarly. I'll tell you,
4:04:58you get really bored of that
4:04:59footage very fast. But the cool thing is
4:05:02is you're able to evaluate how every
4:05:04single person did the intro, how they
4:05:06did the outro, and the meat of the
4:05:08video. And so it's very easy to stack
4:05:11different editors against each other and
4:05:13evaluate who was the best. Now, what we
4:05:14did is we reviewed everything. And the
4:05:18ones who passed the technical
4:05:19assessment, we then set up a screening
4:05:22interview. Then that went to a technical
4:05:24interview, then a culture, then final.
4:05:26So essentially, we did the exact same
4:05:28funnel as we normally would, but we
4:05:30moved the technical assessment up front.
4:05:33That was a very interesting way to do
4:05:35it. Now, this doesn't work for every
4:05:37single role. As you can probably
4:05:38imagine, it would be almost impossible
4:05:40to do this with, say, a videographer. So
4:05:43the try out system only works from what
4:05:46I have gathered. And please, I would
4:05:48love to hear if any of you have used it
4:05:49for other roles. Like I'm very curious
4:05:51what I found success in just to remind
4:05:52you is designers, editors, and
4:05:55strategists. Anything that you can
4:05:57provide one source piece that everyone
4:05:59can use versus you being the source
4:06:02piece and you can't scale to 100
4:06:05different people, 200 people all across
4:06:07the world. And like I said earlier, I
4:06:09talked about hiring for culture rather
4:06:11than skills. I actually want to make
4:06:13this an entire section here because it's
4:06:15that important. Think cultural fit over
4:06:18perfection. I believe that you can teach
4:06:20anything, but in a realistic amount of
4:06:23time, you can teach technical skills
4:06:27fairly easily. I I cringe when I say
4:06:29that cuz I I know a lot of people are
4:06:31going to hate that I say that, but I
4:06:32truly believe you can train technical
4:06:34skills pretty quick. However,
4:06:37teaching hunger, empathy,
4:06:40adaptability, these are traits that are
4:06:43a lot harder to train, have years of
4:06:48pattern established in their life that
4:06:50you're going to have to overcome. Is it
4:06:52doable? Yes. Is it worth your time and
4:06:54money? No. And I truly believe that
4:06:56somebody who is highly proactive, they
4:06:59have high agency, they own everything,
4:07:02they're hungry, they're going to get a
4:07:04lot more done over a long period of time
4:07:07than somebody who is technically
4:07:09proficient but has less drive. And
4:07:11here's an amazing example. There's an
4:07:13individual named Jason Leva. I love this
4:07:15man. Uh he was one of the best hires I
4:07:17have ever made in my entire career. And
4:07:20the crazy part is he wasn't that
4:07:22experienced. You know, Jason, if you're
4:07:23watching this, please hear this through
4:07:25uh all love and everything, but I
4:07:27actually didn't think his edit was that
4:07:29great. I thought it was good enough and
4:07:31he passed and went to the screening
4:07:33call. He actually went through that
4:07:34tryyout system. But what I noticed was
4:07:36he was so hungry to learn and so willing
4:07:41to figure out how to solve a problem. He
4:07:44was a sponge. Now, most
4:07:47directors would have written him off and
4:07:49saw the edit and been like, "Well, that
4:07:51wasn't in the top 10, so nah, we're not
4:07:54going to move forward." Sure, he passed
4:07:55the screening call, but now that I'm
4:07:56doing the technical, ah, not a fit. But
4:07:59what I noticed was that he was a sponge,
4:08:02and he took feedback unbelievably well.
4:08:05I gave him very direct feedback on the
4:08:08interview, on his edit. I told him what
4:08:10I really liked, and I told him what I
4:08:12didn't like. I called out areas where he
4:08:14made mistakes, right? there was a
4:08:16dropped frame or there was, you know, a
4:08:18plugin missing or something like that.
4:08:20And Jason took that feedback so
4:08:23graciously. He was grateful for it. He
4:08:26thanked me for it on the call. It was
4:08:28crazy. And so it was in that moment that
4:08:30I realized, okay, this is the kind of
4:08:31character that I want to bring onto the
4:08:33team because whether it's short form
4:08:36editing right now or eventually being a
4:08:38videographer later, this man is willing
4:08:40to do whatever it takes. And that's what
4:08:43I need more than somebody who is
4:08:45technically proficient but not adaptable
4:08:47and not willing to hear feedback. Hire
4:08:49for mindset and train for execution. A
4:08:52motivated member can grow into a role.
4:08:56However, a disengaged one will
4:08:59definitely stay stagnant. Now, the next
4:09:02section is prioritizing strengths that
4:09:04match the platform. Every platform has a
4:09:06unique content style and requires a very
4:09:09specific type of creative thinking. If
4:09:11you hire the wrong person for the wrong
4:09:13platform, they might be really good at
4:09:16YouTube shorts and Instagram reels, but
4:09:18if you hire them to be a long form
4:09:20editor, you might kill your engagement
4:09:24and your success on YouTube. Now, we
4:09:26talked earlier about how all the
4:09:28platforms behave differently, right?
4:09:30like you are yourself and you show up as
4:09:32you to all these different platforms.
4:09:34But just like if I am here filming right
4:09:37now, then I go meet up with my mom and
4:09:39then have dinner and beers with
4:09:41the boys. I'm myself, but I'm going to
4:09:44present slightly different given the
4:09:46context and scenario I'm in, right? We
4:09:48already discussed that. And that's how
4:09:50the platforms behave. You show up as
4:09:52yourself on LinkedIn just like you do on
4:09:54Tik Tok and Instagram, but you're going
4:09:56to talk about and emphasize different
4:09:58things based on the context of the
4:10:00platform you're in. You need to reverse
4:10:02engineer those needs into individuals
4:10:05and that's how you hire. Take Tik Tok
4:10:07and Instagram for example. Uh these are
4:10:09short form and fast-paced traditionally
4:10:12platforms. And so the best fit is going
4:10:14to be a creator who is immersed and
4:10:16understands trends and understands
4:10:18fast-paced editing or at least
4:10:20understands how to continue to open and
4:10:23close loops to retain attention. This is
4:10:26ideally somebody who lives, eats and
4:10:29breathes Tik Tok and Instagram. They
4:10:31need to understand really truly what is
4:10:35happening on the platform. What is the
4:10:37psychology and what are the viewers and
4:10:40consumers on that platform expecting and
4:10:42looking for? Ideally, the 2.0 version of
4:10:45that is they understand all of that and
4:10:48they're able to identify tiny little
4:10:50gaps in the market, maybe within your
4:10:53niche that currently exist, and they're
4:10:55able to provide you the direction of how
4:10:58to fill it. Now, a very clear red flag
4:11:00for somebody on Tik Tok or Instagram
4:11:02that you're hiring is going to be if
4:11:04they are overly focused on high
4:11:06production value without understanding
4:11:09what it takes to attract attention, a
4:11:11strong hook. And ultimately
4:11:13understanding that high quality, as we
4:11:16discussed earlier, is not determined by
4:11:19us on the team. We don't subjectively
4:11:22determine what quality is. The audience
4:11:25determines what quality is. And so if
4:11:27somebody is overemphasizing high
4:11:28production value and high quality
4:11:31content, well, that's based on their
4:11:33subjective definition of what quality
4:11:34is, not what the audience is. And that's
4:11:36not what we care about. Now, LinkedIn,
4:11:38if we're looking for somebody there, the
4:11:40best fit is probably somebody who
4:11:42thrives in long form writing, right?
4:11:44They probably need to know some
4:11:46penmanship and have a little bit of
4:11:48abilities there. But it's not going to
4:11:49be somebody that excels at writing long
4:11:51form articles necessarily. This is
4:11:53somebody who is able to take a couple of
4:11:55sentences and structure them together in
4:11:57a way that not only hooks attention but
4:12:00holds attention throughout the post.
4:12:01What's going to usually work here is a
4:12:03writer who is skilled in crafting high
4:12:05value concise content that sparks
4:12:09conversation. That last part is key. You
4:12:12want to especially with how LinkedIn and
4:12:14we talked about it earlier but I'm just
4:12:15going to hit it again because LinkedIn
4:12:16is one of the ones that I'm most excited
4:12:18about this year. LinkedIn right now, if
4:12:20you get engagement on the platform,
4:12:22everyone sees. It's crazy. It It
4:12:25literally is true virality. And so what
4:12:28you want is somebody who understands not
4:12:30only how to provide value, but how to
4:12:32provide value that sparks conversation
4:12:34in the comments. That is what is going
4:12:36to drive awareness beyond just your
4:12:38current following. And the red flag is
4:12:40somebody who is too focused on formal
4:12:43and corporate writing. You would bet
4:12:46that that's what you want on LinkedIn,
4:12:47right? It's a bunch of business people
4:12:48in suits and No, that. That's
4:12:51the reason why you don't want that.
4:12:52Everybody does that. Everybody sounds
4:12:55like they're in their elevator
4:12:57pitch, you know, in a interview with
4:13:00like a board full of like 10 different
4:13:02people trying to sound all stiff and
4:13:04proper. Nobody gives a about that.
4:13:05The more human and the more personable
4:13:07you are, actually, the more you will
4:13:09stand out on that platform. And so you
4:13:11want to make sure it's somebody who if
4:13:13they're writing on your behalf is able
4:13:15to understand your personality and
4:13:18inject that into the content rather than
4:13:20taking it out. Now, if you're hiring for
4:13:22YouTube long form specifically, you're
4:13:24going to be looking for an editor who
4:13:25understands that your opening 15 to 30
4:13:28seconds is the most crucial part of your
4:13:30entire video. And if you don't
4:13:31nail that, the rest doesn't matter. They
4:13:34also need to be somebody who then
4:13:36understands that throughout the video
4:13:38they need to be creating tension,
4:13:40stakes, open loops, some sort of reason
4:13:43for the viewer to continue watching.
4:13:46They need to understand that if you do
4:13:48deliver all the value of the video in
4:13:50the opening 3 minutes, why would they
4:13:52remain for the next 10? So, they need to
4:13:54understand good storytelling and
4:13:55engaging editing, but they also need to
4:13:58understand the subject matter enough
4:14:00that they are competent and aware of the
4:14:03subject matter so they can sprinkle the
4:14:05value throughout the video rather than
4:14:07giving it all in the upfront. Because,
4:14:08as we talked about before, YouTube loves
4:14:11watch time. And so, that's what you're
4:14:12going to want to look for in a YouTube
4:14:14editor. Huge red flag here is if you're
4:14:17hiring a videographer for your YouTube,
4:14:19if it's somebody who overemphasizes very
4:14:22traditional styles of production. Maybe
4:14:24you're a running gun operation doing
4:14:26more vlog style content and they want to
4:14:30stop every scene, every moment and
4:14:32ensure that the lighting is perfect, the
4:14:34composition is perfect. They want to
4:14:36they aren't willing to use zoom lenses.
4:14:38They only use primes. Not going to work,
4:14:41right? You want to make sure that their
4:14:43technical skills align with the
4:14:45technical needs of the role. All right,
4:14:47the next section is start lean and grow
4:14:50intentionally. I laugh because uh this
4:14:53is a a huge problem that I see with
4:14:55media teams and then they have to do
4:14:57massive layoffs. Avoid overhiring too
4:14:59early. A small, high impact, nimble seal
4:15:02team six style team will accomplish so
4:15:06much more than a bloated inefficient
4:15:08team. I believe in hiring specialists,
4:15:10but early on these specialists need to
4:15:13be willing to be multifunctional, okay?
4:15:16They have to wear multiple hats. You
4:15:18might have somebody who is specializing
4:15:20in YouTube long form editing, but you're
4:15:21probably going to need them to cut some
4:15:23short clips and maybe even
4:15:25create some thumbnails. That is okay. In
4:15:27the beginning, that is what you're going
4:15:28to need. And so, you need to make sure
4:15:30that you emphasize that in the hiring
4:15:32process. Here's an example. If you're at
4:15:34the very beginning stages and you're
4:15:36limited on budget, you probably need a
4:15:39videographer and an editor, but you
4:15:40might not be able to afford hiring both.
4:15:42And so, you're going to hire somebody
4:15:44who can do both. Somebody who can film
4:15:48and edit. You gain a lot of efficiencies
4:15:50in that. Ultimately, down the road,
4:15:52you're going to want to send them down
4:15:53one path or the other so that they can
4:15:56be the specialist and you can get the
4:15:58most out of their skill set. But in the
4:16:00beginning, you have to have people
4:16:02wearing multiple hats. So again, if you
4:16:04need a videographer and editor and you
4:16:06have a very limited budget, I recommend
4:16:08hiring somebody who is skilled at both.
4:16:11Now, you need to make sure you identify
4:16:12which one is the priority. If you
4:16:14prioritize really good filming and
4:16:17steady hand and all that great
4:16:19question asking. And maybe they're not
4:16:21as good at editing, maybe that is an
4:16:22okay concession to make at the stage you
4:16:25were currently at. Now, why does this
4:16:27actually matter? Like, why do we want to
4:16:29not overhire? I mean, it seems obvious,
4:16:32but I'm going to run through just so
4:16:33that you really understand why you
4:16:35should avoid this. Number one, you avoid
4:16:37unnecessary payroll expenses before
4:16:40proving the ROI on content. I truly
4:16:43believe that anybody who does content
4:16:45correctly will get an ROI literally no
4:16:47matter what they do, even as an
4:16:48employee. However, you might not be
4:16:50doing it good, and you might not be at
4:16:52the point where you can actually hire
4:16:54enough people or the right people to do
4:16:56it well. And if that's the case, then
4:16:59you might be putting out content that
4:17:01sucks and doesn't provide anything. In
4:17:02which case, I don't know that I'd be
4:17:04scaling your team up from there. You're
4:17:06just going to be hiring more people that
4:17:08are not capable at actually driving
4:17:10awareness to your content, which means
4:17:12you're driving your ROI down because
4:17:14you're adding headcount and payroll, but
4:17:16you're not adding any profitability or
4:17:18revenue to the company from the content.
4:17:21If you keep the team smaller and don't
4:17:23hire too quickly, well, you also keep
4:17:26operations nimble, making it flexible,
4:17:28easy to pivot and move around as needed.
4:17:31I can't tell you how many times I've had
4:17:33to change process, priorities,
4:17:35everything, because one, platforms are
4:17:38constantly evolving and changing and
4:17:39requiring new things for you to win, but
4:17:42also your client. If you're building a
4:17:45team for the CEO or founder, or if you
4:17:47are the CEO and founder yourself, your
4:17:49desired outcomes, your preferences are
4:17:52going to change. You might really enjoy
4:17:54doing vlogging for a while and then go
4:17:56into a season where things are stressful
4:17:58and you don't want to have a camera
4:17:59around all the time and you need to make
4:18:00more sit down direct to camera style
4:18:02content like this. Well, you need a
4:18:05nimble team that is able to pivot and
4:18:07reverse engineer those needs. If you
4:18:09have a massive bloated team, oftentimes,
4:18:12I mean, think of it like, you know, if
4:18:14you're turning on a dime in a little
4:18:16speedboat, it's not going to be that
4:18:17difficult. But if you have to turn on a
4:18:18dime in a oil tanker, you're
4:18:20The last benefit that I really
4:18:22see here is there's a lot of context
4:18:24that is developed. You allow the
4:18:26individuals on your team to understand
4:18:29the various functions that you have on
4:18:31the team. Well, how is that helpful?
4:18:33Well, one, when you bring in more
4:18:34specialists, they're able to communicate
4:18:36in an educated way cuz they did the role
4:18:39at least at some capacity. So, they can
4:18:41speak the lingo. They can talk the talk.
4:18:43Two, they understand what any request
4:18:46they make actually takes for the other
4:18:48person. They know that if you're asking
4:18:50them to edit a video that was just shot
4:18:53this morning and edit it by the next
4:18:55morning, you're going to be up all
4:18:58night. A lot of people don't realize
4:19:01that. And so I think that it's not only
4:19:04effective in helping the team
4:19:06communicate and work together well, but
4:19:08you also get this benefit of if somebody
4:19:11is sick or quits or gets fired, you have
4:19:16people on the team that do maybe not at
4:19:18the same level, but they understand the
4:19:20role and how to function within it. Now,
4:19:22as the team scales up, you're going to
4:19:26go through this process where you take
4:19:28these specialists who you are asking to
4:19:32be generalists for a short period of
4:19:34time, and you're going to move them back
4:19:36into their specialist role again as the
4:19:38team scales. And so, I just want to
4:19:39share a very quick little framework for
4:19:41you on how you go about expanding these
4:19:44roles gradually. Step one, you're going
4:19:46to start with the multi-roll hires.
4:19:48Okay? So, it's going to be somebody who
4:19:50is highly proficient at filming and
4:19:52they're really good at editing and so
4:19:54they're doing both of those tasks. Okay?
4:19:56They're handling multiple tasks. Then
4:19:58what you need to do is ensure that you
4:20:00are documenting and defining the
4:20:02process. You want to make sure that all
4:20:05the workflow, every little tiny little
4:20:07thing that this individual is doing is
4:20:09documented and it's super clear for the
4:20:11next person that comes in. Once you do
4:20:14that, this videographer and editor,
4:20:16they're highly proficient at filming and
4:20:18good at editing. They should document
4:20:20their whole process for editing. And
4:20:22once you hire an editor, they no longer
4:20:24need to edit. So, they can now focus
4:20:28entirely on filming. They can
4:20:31specialize. So, that leads us to number
4:20:33three, which is specialize as you scale.
4:20:36Once the volume starts to increase,
4:20:38volume of output and volume of members
4:20:40on the team, you can start to split
4:20:42roles to improve efficiency. For
4:20:45example, if I am an editor, but I also
4:20:48have to jump up every two hours and film
4:20:51with the talent I'm working for, I'm
4:20:53losing massive efficiency in my editing.
4:20:56Every editor that is watching heard that
4:20:59the moment that you break out of the
4:21:00edit, it's not like you lose that 1 hour
4:21:02that you went to go film. you have
4:21:04another 30 to 45 minutes of trying to
4:21:06get back into that flow state that you
4:21:08were in. And honestly, a lot of times
4:21:10it's very difficult to get back into it.
4:21:12In general, it doesn't take 30, 40
4:21:14minutes. It might take waiting until the
4:21:16next day. And so, anytime that you can
4:21:18allow somebody to stay in that flow
4:21:20state, especially an editor, a designer,
4:21:22somebody that's doing more batch work
4:21:24like
4:21:25that, you gain so much efficiency and
4:21:29what I subjectively call quality. Now,
4:21:33in the interest of starting lean and
4:21:35growing intentionally, a very common
4:21:38question that comes up for people is,
4:21:39well, do I hire full-time in-house
4:21:42employees or do I hire contractors and
4:21:45agencies? And so, my team and I, we
4:21:47broke down, we actually created like a
4:21:49whole table that we're going to walk
4:21:51through that contrast the benefits or
4:21:55potential downsides given different
4:21:57scenarios, different factors that we're
4:21:58wanting to keep in mind. And we're going
4:22:00to compare full-time employees versus a
4:22:03contractor or agency. And so I'm
4:22:05actually going to read this off my
4:22:06phone. This is something that you can
4:22:07download if you would like. We actually
4:22:08have a worksheet that you can go through
4:22:10and it'll help you evaluate whether you
4:22:13in your scenario should actually use a
4:22:16full-time employee or hire a contractor
4:22:19or agency. Let's dive in. So the first
4:22:22factor that we're looking at is budget.
4:22:25And uh this is obviously a major uh
4:22:28concern especially for those of you who
4:22:30are in the early days, right? You're
4:22:31maybe a startup or you're a soloreneur
4:22:33and you don't have a lot that you're
4:22:35working with. This is where I'm at right
4:22:36now. I don't have any massive budget or
4:22:38anything and so I'm having to think
4:22:39strategically about what I bring in
4:22:41full-time versus contract out. For
4:22:43full-time employees, it's a higher
4:22:46long-term cost. Okay? You have salary,
4:22:48benefits, training, right? If you bring
4:22:51somebody in, you need to invest in them.
4:22:54And the difference between a full-time
4:22:57employee and a contractor here is you
4:22:59don't need to be training contractors.
4:23:01In fact, they should not require any
4:23:03sort of training. They should come in
4:23:05batteries included. They should be able
4:23:06to do the role immediately. You're not
4:23:09going to be paying for your contractors
4:23:11to attend a workshop or uh consume
4:23:14courses online. That's something that
4:23:15they should be doing on their own time
4:23:17and their own dime. Now, on the
4:23:18contractor side for budget or contractor
4:23:20agency, they're more cost-effective for
4:23:23short-term projects or specialized
4:23:25needs. Here's a great example. This very
4:23:27course that we're working on, there's a
4:23:28full-time employee working on it and
4:23:30there's a contractor working on it. So,
4:23:32behind the camera right now is Trevor
4:23:33Odum and he is actually on our team, but
4:23:36then we are working with an amazing
4:23:38motion graphics artist named Michael and
4:23:40he is a contractor because right now I
4:23:43don't have the need for full-time motion
4:23:45graphics. I I wish I did. that'd be
4:23:47awesome, but that's not the
4:23:49place that we're at right now. And so,
4:23:50if we were to bring him on full-time, we
4:23:52wouldn't have enough work for him
4:23:53anyways. And so, it's far more cost
4:23:55effective and operationally less
4:23:57intensive to be able to just bring him
4:23:59on on a project-by-p project basis. The
4:24:02next factor is workload. Okay, so for
4:24:05the full-time employee, this looks like
4:24:06ongoing daily tasks that require their
4:24:09full-time attention. If you don't, like
4:24:11I just mentioned with the our contractor
4:24:13that we're working with for the motion
4:24:14graphics, if you don't have enough work
4:24:17where they're doing daily tasks, then it
4:24:19is most likely not a full-time role and
4:24:22not necessary at this point. For
4:24:23example, a lot of you are filming
4:24:26content, right? But maybe you only film
4:24:27once or twice a month. Why would you
4:24:30have a full-time videographer if all
4:24:32they're doing is showing up twice a
4:24:34month to film with you in batches? That
4:24:36to me is a great scenario where you
4:24:38would want to hire a contractor or an
4:24:39agency. So the workload on the
4:24:41contractor agency looks more like
4:24:42project based, it's flexible or it's
4:24:45temporary work. So maybe you have a
4:24:48scenario where you have an event coming
4:24:49up, okay? And instead of just having one
4:24:52videographer, you need like four
4:24:53different people going around and
4:24:54capturing B-roll, testimonials, filming
4:24:57the keynotes, whatever. This is a
4:24:59scenario where you might hire a bunch of
4:25:01contractors or an agency to fulfill this
4:25:04temporary work. The third factor that we
4:25:06want to keep in mind and and use to I
4:25:08guess determine whether or not we're
4:25:10going to hire somebody full-time or if
4:25:11we're going to bring on a contractor or
4:25:13agency is expertise. Now, on the
4:25:16full-time side, typically they have deep
4:25:18knowledge and a long-term investment in
4:25:20your company. Even if they don't come in
4:25:22with like uh master level knowledge,
4:25:25that's fine. You're going to invest in
4:25:27them. And if they're the right culture
4:25:28fit, as we discussed throughout this
4:25:30whole section, they're worth it. And
4:25:31you're going to invest in training.
4:25:33You're going to provide them courses.
4:25:35You're going to provide them workshops.
4:25:36You might sit down one-on-one with them
4:25:38once or twice a week to really pour into
4:25:40them. And that's something that you're
4:25:42going to get the return on because they
4:25:44are a full-time employee working for
4:25:46you. However, on the flip side,
4:25:49contractors, not the case. Contractors
4:25:52should come in as the expert. Ideally,
4:25:55they have specialized knowledge that may
4:25:57not be needed long term. So, a great
4:25:59example of this is in the past what I've
4:26:02done is hired agencies for 3 to 6 months
4:26:04and we bring them in and we have them
4:26:07school us, teach us on what they're
4:26:09doing, provide us the playbooks of how
4:26:11we can move forward without them. I
4:26:13think of it like expedited learning.
4:26:15You're almost paying for like a fast
4:26:17pass to be able to move past some of the
4:26:19clunky learning stages uh that a lot of
4:26:22people take like 2 or 3 years to get
4:26:24down. You're able to accomplish that in
4:26:25potentially 6 months with a really
4:26:27quality agency. Now, the next factor is
4:26:29speed and agility. I have a lot of
4:26:32thoughts on this, but first I'm just
4:26:33going to go with what we have on the
4:26:34table here. It takes time to onboard and
4:26:36train an employee, right? Typically,
4:26:38you're looking at 60 to 90 days before
4:26:41they're really up to speed and executing
4:26:43at the level that you're looking for.
4:26:44The beauty though is they do provide
4:26:47continuity and consistency. Okay? Okay.
4:26:49So once they are onboarded in theory, as
4:26:52long as you do a good job of retaining
4:26:53them and you provide a good work
4:26:55environment where they're always able to
4:26:56grow and learn, they are more likely to
4:26:59stick there. And so you're going to have
4:27:01the same person working on the same
4:27:03projects. I'm going to kind of jump into
4:27:04it already, but the problem on the
4:27:06agency side that I've experienced is
4:27:08agencies do tend to have a higher
4:27:10turnover rate. And so, for example, when
4:27:13I've worked with YouTube agencies, what
4:27:14you'll find is you might have like seven
4:27:18different editors over the course of six
4:27:19to 12 months that work on your projects
4:27:21because they're turning through them. No
4:27:23matter how good they are at having
4:27:25playbooks, checklists, all that
4:27:27there is a difference and and you start
4:27:29to notice that it's not as consistent in
4:27:31the quality or in the style. You might
4:27:33not care about that. And so, if that's
4:27:34not a factor that you give a about,
4:27:35it. Who gives a let's just
4:27:37hire somebody full-time in-house if you
4:27:39have the amount of work necessary for
4:27:41that. If we're looking for extreme
4:27:42consistency here, I probably would not
4:27:45recommend going the agency route. Now,
4:27:47the benefit on speed and agility that
4:27:49you get with the contractor or agency is
4:27:52you do get immediate access to
4:27:54expertise. So, unlike a 30 60 90day
4:27:58onboarding plan with an employee,
4:28:00agencies would be fired immediately if
4:28:02it took 90 days for them to get up to
4:28:04speed. they're they're just like that is
4:28:06not the way that they function. And so
4:28:07typically what you'll find is maybe you
4:28:09have an onboarding call with them, but
4:28:10then after that they're ripping. And so
4:28:13if you do have something that you need
4:28:15done immediately, the agency or
4:28:18contractor route might be a better
4:28:20solution for the short term for you.
4:28:22Now, brand consistency, what you may
4:28:25think of is like making sure that they
4:28:26have the right logos, fonts, colors, all
4:28:28that And that is important and I
4:28:30care about that. But that's not what I
4:28:31emphasize the most when I'm talking
4:28:33brand consistency. I'm thinking about
4:28:35like messaging or topics that maybe the
4:28:38the talent we're working with have no
4:28:41desire to ever talk about. Okay? Or
4:28:43maybe we know as a team that there are
4:28:47certain statements in context of what's
4:28:49being said that are fine, but if they're
4:28:51cut out of the context, it's going to be
4:28:53really bad. That's something that you're
4:28:56going to be able to reinforce and
4:28:58establish extreme clarity on with
4:29:01somebody that's in-house far more than a
4:29:04contractor or agency. The reason why is
4:29:07because not only are they constantly
4:29:09working on projects for you, they are
4:29:11also involved in your internal meetings,
4:29:14okay? And so they're getting feedback
4:29:16far more consistently than an agency or
4:29:19contractor. So they know where they
4:29:21stand with the content that they are
4:29:22creating. and when they do it right or
4:29:25when they do something that goes against
4:29:26brand guidelines. Typically on the
4:29:29contractor and agency side from my
4:29:30experience on brand consistency, this is
4:29:33one of the areas where it requires the
4:29:34most amount of oversight. I can't tell
4:29:36you the amount of times that an agency
4:29:38that I've worked with over the years
4:29:39just didn't quite get it right when it
4:29:42came to what we were trying to do from a
4:29:44brand positioning and association
4:29:46standpoint. even down to simple things
4:29:47like if the talent on camera is
4:29:49referencing, you know, a successful
4:29:51entrepreneur and a not successful
4:29:52entrepreneur, they might flash up two
4:29:54individuals that we want no association
4:29:57with. And that happened very
4:29:59consistently when working with
4:30:01contractors. And the last factor in this
4:30:03section that we're trying to use to
4:30:05determine whether or not we're going to
4:30:06hire somebody full-time versus a
4:30:08contractor or agency is scalability.
4:30:10Full-time employees typically, I
4:30:12believe, are more scalable because they
4:30:15are more ideal for your culture and
4:30:18building culture and training people
4:30:20into leadership roles. You're able to
4:30:22scale the team up in my opinion because
4:30:24maybe you hire somebody as a video
4:30:26editor and over a year or two train them
4:30:28up to be a manager and they can oversee
4:30:30other video editors. And because of
4:30:31that, they understand the culture and
4:30:33the DNA of the team. They understand the
4:30:35brand and what the preferences of that
4:30:37brand are. And so not only are they able
4:30:39to continue to use that and implement
4:30:42that within their work, they're able to
4:30:43train future members of the team. This
4:30:46is really good for consistency and
4:30:48scalability. Now, on the other hand, the
4:30:50benefit of contractors on this is
4:30:53actually not long-term scalability, but
4:30:56they are very useful in testing out a
4:30:59theory. For example, if right now you
4:31:02are emphasizing YouTube, Instagram, and
4:31:04Tik Tok, and you recognize that LinkedIn
4:31:06is one of the platforms that you should
4:31:08really, really around with in 2025
4:31:10because it is the only platform right
4:31:12now that has true organic reach. Okay,
4:31:15that's an interesting hypothesis. I
4:31:17would argue that you are correct, but
4:31:19you don't totally know. And so rather
4:31:21than going out and hiring a full-time
4:31:23LinkedIn specialist that might cost you
4:31:25a lot of money, what you could do is
4:31:27take three to six months and test it out
4:31:29with an agency or a contractor. Then
4:31:32you're not making the high investment
4:31:34and long-term commitment to an employee
4:31:36and you're just doing an experiment and
4:31:38validating whether or not this is
4:31:39something worth investing in. And so in
4:31:42that case, maybe we would bring on a
4:31:43contractor to work on our LinkedIn for 3
4:31:464 months. and they're making the
4:31:48content. We're tracking the performance.
4:31:49We're tracking whether or not it's
4:31:51generating qualified leads for us. But
4:31:53then we're also working with this
4:31:54contractor because they are an expert, a
4:31:56subject matter expert in that field on
4:31:58developing a playbook that then we can
4:32:01use internally as our guiding light for
4:32:04the new hire that we bring in full-time
4:32:06once we have validated this idea. or on
4:32:09the flip side, we find out that LinkedIn
4:32:10was not for us and we didn't go through
4:32:13the problem of hiring a full-time
4:32:14employee, incurring that cost, and then
4:32:16unfortunately having to part ways with
4:32:18them. Now, we just went through and kind
4:32:20of compared full-time employees versus
4:32:22contractors and agencies, but what I
4:32:24want to do is actually break down three
4:32:26different phases or stages that you may
4:32:29find yourself in and what I would
4:32:32recommend you do. Now, I want to be very
4:32:34clear here. This is general advice,
4:32:36okay? I don't know what your exact
4:32:39scenario is. So, there's a lot of nuance
4:32:42to this. This is a good starting point
4:32:45and a good guiding light for you. I
4:32:47would not necessarily completely follow
4:32:49this as doctrine. The best version of
4:32:51this is like, I'm going to dive into
4:32:53your team, look at everything that
4:32:54you're doing, look at what your goals
4:32:56are, and we're going to develop a whole
4:32:58custom plan for you. But if we're not
4:33:00able to do that, 99% of you we're never
4:33:02going to be able to do that with, I
4:33:03would use this as your starting point.
4:33:04So what we're going to do is we're going
4:33:06to go through three different growth
4:33:07stages and then the recommended hiring
4:33:09approach that is associated with each
4:33:12stage. So stage number one is zero to
4:33:15one year. We're a baby at this point.
4:33:17And what I recommend we do is primarily
4:33:20hire contractors and agencies. That way
4:33:24we can stay lean, not invest a ton of
4:33:27upfront cost, but also we get to test
4:33:29our theories and test the platforms and
4:33:32see what works best for us. I really
4:33:34believe that there are the best
4:33:37platforms to be on and then there's the
4:33:39best platforms for you to be on. And so
4:33:41what I would recommend is utilizing the
4:33:44agency contractor method to validate,
4:33:46are you cut out for LinkedIn? Are you
4:33:48cut out for Tik Tok? Just because
4:33:49everyone says Tik Tok is the best place
4:33:51to be. Well, if you're not good in that
4:33:53format, that Whatever format
4:33:55you're best in and most comfortable in
4:33:57and feel you can provide the most value
4:33:59in, that's what you should do. Okay. So
4:34:02here we're testing and validating those
4:34:04theories. We're staying lean and
4:34:06minimizing our investment. As the
4:34:08founder, I recommend in this stage you
4:34:10are heavily involved in the content and
4:34:13strategy that you are making. You should
4:34:15be shaping what this looks like. Of
4:34:17course, you want to bring in contractors
4:34:19and agencies that you trust and that you
4:34:22lean on, but ultimately this is your
4:34:24brand and this is what you are building.
4:34:27So you should be the one that is shaping
4:34:28what that will look like. The next
4:34:30growth stage is kind of like years one
4:34:32through three. Again, roughly there's a
4:34:35lot of plus minus to this, but let's
4:34:38just say roughly one to three years in,
4:34:40you are in the stage where you are
4:34:42transitioning critical roles in house.
4:34:45So what this may look like is maybe you
4:34:48were working with a YouTube agency for a
4:34:49year and maybe you have realized after
4:34:51that year, hey, YouTube is our top
4:34:53priority. This is where 70 80% of our
4:34:55qualified leads are coming through.
4:34:57Well, in that case, maybe you want to
4:34:59hire a video editor inhouse. And maybe
4:35:01that doesn't necessarily look like
4:35:02firing the agency. It just looks like
4:35:05reducing their scope. So, instead of
4:35:07them doing the editing, maybe they're
4:35:09just doing consulting for you. So,
4:35:10you're pairing your video editor inhouse
4:35:13with the consulting power and the
4:35:15knowledge and expertise and experience
4:35:18that the agency has. The other benefit
4:35:20in this is typically agencies offer
4:35:22multiple services. So, a lot of
4:35:24different YouTube agencies, for example,
4:35:26don't just do the editing, they also
4:35:28help with ideiation, scripting, and
4:35:31packaging. And maybe this editor that
4:35:33you bring in house isn't skilled at
4:35:35those things. And so, you take the
4:35:37editing off of the agency's plate and
4:35:39bring that in-house, but then you still
4:35:41have the agency doing the ideation,
4:35:43scripting, and packaging. And so, you're
4:35:45keeping them around for very specialized
4:35:47skills. Now, stage number three is 3
4:35:49plus years. And this is around the time
4:35:52sometimes people get this earlier around
4:35:542 years but typically around 3 plus
4:35:56years this is when you want to bring
4:35:57everything inhouse. Okay. So all
4:35:59critical roles that are high volume and
4:36:02necessary to the business I recommend
4:36:05bring it inhouse. Uh we just went
4:36:07through kind of like the pluses and
4:36:08minuses and the benefits of full-time
4:36:11in-house employees versus contractors.
4:36:12So I think you understand the value of
4:36:15having an in-house team. One thing that
4:36:17I didn't fully touch on that I think is
4:36:19actually really worth highlighting here
4:36:20is that when I have brought roles
4:36:22inhouse, so previously working with an
4:36:24agency and then I end up bringing in
4:36:26house, the speed at which we are able to
4:36:28accomplish and finish projects increases
4:36:30dramatically. The level of communication
4:36:34goes up drastically. It's literally
4:36:36impossible for an agency to be able to
4:36:38communicate with you at the cadence that
4:36:40a full-time employee does because they
4:36:42have multiple clients that they're
4:36:43servicing, right? And a lot of these
4:36:45agencies, their editors are overseas and
4:36:47so they're in a totally different time
4:36:49zone. Okay? So it changes the dynamic
4:36:51completely. The moment that you start to
4:36:53bring things inhouse, speed goes up like
4:36:56crazy. Now, what I do recommend is still
4:36:59at this stage, there are going to be
4:37:00some agencies you're going to keep on or
4:37:02contractors you'll keep on either for
4:37:05very, very specialized work or access to
4:37:10worlds that you don't have access to.
4:37:11What do I mean by that? Well, typically
4:37:13a media buying agency might have a
4:37:16better relationship with Meta than you
4:37:18do or your media buyer does because
4:37:20maybe they're spending millions of
4:37:22dollars a year on Meta and so they're a
4:37:24more important client for that platform.
4:37:27If any of you out there have ran ads or
4:37:29done organic content consistently on a
4:37:32platform, you know, having a
4:37:33relationship with the rep there is
4:37:35valuable as And so if you can't
4:37:38get that with your full-time in-house
4:37:40team, you may want to maintain an agency
4:37:43purely for that relationship in case
4:37:45something goes wrong. I also believe
4:37:46that agencies or contractors can be very
4:37:49useful to have in your rolodex available
4:37:51to you so that you can scale up as
4:37:53needed for sprints. Sometimes you might
4:37:56have a launch where you're going to
4:37:57triple the amount of creative output
4:37:58that you normally have and you don't
4:38:00want to hire full-time people for a
4:38:04temporary need. So, you just scale up
4:38:07temporarily with an agency and then you
4:38:09can scale back down to what you were
4:38:10normally doing and you don't have to
4:38:12fire a bunch of people. Nobody likes
4:38:13firing people. That's the worst
4:38:15thing in the world. I would avoid it at
4:38:16all costs. And the easiest way to avoid
4:38:19it is scale up using contractors or
4:38:21agencies. Hello there. Before we
4:38:23continue on this course, I actually want
4:38:25to inform you about something really
4:38:26cool that my team and I are putting
4:38:28together. We're putting together a
4:38:29little newsletter for you. And this is
4:38:32different than your average newsletter.
4:38:33We're not going to be sending something
4:38:34weekly or monthly. We're only going to
4:38:36send you emails when we believe that we
4:38:39have something that is truly valuable.
4:38:40Whether it's a bite-sized nugget that's
4:38:42going to change your perspective or a
4:38:44crazy in-depth playbook, we only will be
4:38:46sending you when we feel it will
4:38:48drive massive awareness for your content
4:38:51and scale your brand in the way that we
4:38:53believe is best. So, if that sounds
4:38:55interesting to you, you can go sign up
4:38:57for it at calebston.com. If not, no
4:38:59harm, no foul. And with that, I hope you
4:39:01enjoy the rest of the course. Amazing.
4:39:03We've hired all these individuals. We've
4:39:06identified their roles. We've made it
4:39:08clear to them. Now, we need to onboard
4:39:10them. Okay? And I will tell you from
4:39:13experience, a poor onboarding process
4:39:16leads to weeks or months of wasted
4:39:18productivity and a demotivated employee.
4:39:22I will tell you an example. I started at
4:39:24a role one point in my career and I
4:39:27remember the first week I didn't have
4:39:29any of the uh tech set up right like the
4:39:32asauna the zooms all that none of
4:39:34that was set up for me I didn't have my
4:39:35work laptop and I had no expectations
4:39:38that had been given to me no
4:39:40deliverables that were required I didn't
4:39:42even know what meeting cadence I should
4:39:43be on I had no clarity and what happened
4:39:47with no clarity extreme anxiety I was
4:39:50constantly wondering like am I living up
4:39:52to the expectations that my boss has. Am
4:39:54I am I doing what is required? But how
4:39:56can you know if you're doing that if
4:39:58you're never informed of what is
4:39:59required and what the expectations are?
4:40:01On the flip side, I also had a recent
4:40:03role where I started and I had gotten a
4:40:0530 60 90 day plan given to me like 5
4:40:09days before my first day. So I went into
4:40:12day one knowing exactly what was
4:40:14expected of me, knowing what my schedule
4:40:16looked like. I had all the equipment
4:40:18necessary and I was motivated to
4:40:21do some work. So what you get is
4:40:24if you prepare an employee and you allow
4:40:25them to know what is expected, you're
4:40:28going to get a highly motivated
4:40:30workhorse. If you do not provide that,
4:40:32you're going to get a highly anxious,
4:40:33apathetic individual and that may only
4:40:37last for that onboarding period, but it
4:40:39might just carry into their entire
4:40:40employment. So if you do a structured 30
4:40:436090, it eliminates confusion and sets
4:40:46very clear expectations from day one.
4:40:49Okay. So we're going to create that 30
4:40:51609day plan. This is a structured
4:40:53three-phase onboarding approach that
4:40:56ensures new hires integrate to the team
4:40:59smoothly and understand what the
4:41:02they're there for. Think of the first 30
4:41:04days as orientation and core learning.
4:41:07Okay? They need to gather context. Yes,
4:41:09of course they ask questions. You gave
4:41:10them the spiel in the interview process.
4:41:12I'm sure you sent them some about us
4:41:14packet, but let's be real, that's all
4:41:16That's not actually how the
4:41:18company runs. That's not how
4:41:20communication occurs. That's not where
4:41:22they gain the insights on how to
4:41:23communicate with the CEO versus the CMO
4:41:26versus their direct manager. This is
4:41:27when they're understanding the company
4:41:29vision, the values, the workflows. This
4:41:32is how the the sausage is made. This is
4:41:35where they learn the core processes, the
4:41:36systems. They see a content calendar,
4:41:39asset management, maybe you use a sauna
4:41:42or ClickUp to manage everything. They're
4:41:44getting to understand and get a feel for
4:41:46how you operate. I often like to give
4:41:49smaller tasks. I don't want just, you
4:41:53know, knowledge acquisition to occur
4:41:55during this phase. I do want to give
4:41:56them tasks. One, because I want to make
4:41:58sure that they are able to execute. You
4:42:00know, technical assessments are great,
4:42:02but you really learn a lot in the first
4:42:0330, 60, 90 days about an employee. I
4:42:06want to make sure they're doing that,
4:42:07but I also want to give them wins and
4:42:10momentum that they can build upon. I
4:42:12truly believe if you nailed the opening
4:42:1430
4:42:15days, you have such a better employee
4:42:19employer relationship. Also, don't just
4:42:22leave them on an island to themsel and
4:42:24let them just figure it out. There's
4:42:26very rare cases where that is the right
4:42:28move. Maybe if that's what the role is
4:42:30actually like all the time, okay, sure,
4:42:32you could justify that to me. But if the
4:42:34role is not going to be like that, make
4:42:36sure that you do regular check-ins with
4:42:37this individual. Ensure that they
4:42:39understand what they're working on.
4:42:40Understand what is happening on a
4:42:42meeting. They understand who's in the
4:42:44meeting, what the process looks like,
4:42:46what the context of this project is.
4:42:48Anything that is necessary for them to
4:42:50be able to operate efficiently, you
4:42:52should be providing in the check-in.
4:42:54Also, you can be asking them how are
4:42:56they feeling? Are they confused? Do they
4:42:58feel overwhelmed, underwhelmed? Do they
4:43:00need more information? Do they need to
4:43:02chunk things down a little bit? This is
4:43:04where you get to get a feel and a gauge
4:43:06of where they're at and how they're
4:43:07responding to these opening 30 days. For
4:43:09example, if you hire an editor, this
4:43:11might look like them shadowing your
4:43:13senior editor or some experienced team
4:43:15member and ultimately they're reviewing
4:43:18high-erforming content from the past.
4:43:20Maybe this editor they're shadowing is
4:43:22walking them through their top five uh
4:43:24YouTube videos of all time and
4:43:26explaining why they got to that level
4:43:29and how they're implementing those
4:43:31frameworks and those structures to
4:43:33future videos. And maybe potentially
4:43:35it's working on internal projects or
4:43:38rough cuts of an edit that you review
4:43:41internally and that don't have high
4:43:43stakes of going out publicly. All right.
4:43:46Then you have the 60-day, the next 30
4:43:49days. Well, what are we doing there?
4:43:50This is where we want to have them
4:43:52taking more ownership. What does that
4:43:54look like? Well, they begin executing
4:43:56independently on their core
4:43:58responsibilities. They're no longer just
4:44:00doing small tasks or just shadowing.
4:44:03They're actually owning tasks of their
4:44:05own. They're also developing their own
4:44:08workflows and systems within the team.
4:44:11We have teamwide process and workflow,
4:44:13but then within that, individuals have
4:44:15their own way of operating. Every editor
4:44:17has a different way that they set up a
4:44:19file, right? Some editors like to go
4:44:21through all the A-roll and then start
4:44:23adding music and then B-roll and blah
4:44:25blah blah. Some of them like to go
4:44:27section by section and they go A-roll,
4:44:29B-roll, music, graphics, and then on to
4:44:32the next section. Allow them to build
4:44:34their own workflow and utilize that for
4:44:37the greatest efficiency that they can
4:44:38have. In these next 30 days, at the 60
4:44:40mark, you're wanting to also analyze
4:44:43their work. Look at how they're going
4:44:45about their workflow, the process, their
4:44:47communication, and the final output, and
4:44:50give them feedback. This is where you
4:44:52can start to reinforce the good things
4:44:55and help correct the things that aren't
4:44:57as effective or helpful for the team or
4:45:00process they're working on. An example
4:45:02here is a an editor would probably be
4:45:05editing full YouTube videos, uploading
4:45:08them, and then we would be reviewing the
4:45:10performance and giving them feedback
4:45:12accordingly. And then the last 30 days,
4:45:14this is the 90-day mark, right? So we
4:45:15have the 30, the 60, and the 90. And
4:45:17this is chunked down into 30 days at a
4:45:19time. And this is the last section of
4:45:21their official onboarding. We are fully
4:45:24integrating them into the team and
4:45:26giving them a high level of
4:45:28contribution. No longer are they working
4:45:30on small tasks or owning their own task.
4:45:32They're owning the big tasks. whatever
4:45:35the number one most important thing that
4:45:38we listed on the responsibilities on
4:45:40their job description, they are now
4:45:41owning that entirely. This also looks
4:45:44like owning it entirely with minimal
4:45:46supervision. Okay? So, instead of me
4:45:49coming in and checking in on them during
4:45:51the edit five or six times, I might
4:45:53check in with them at the beginning like
4:45:54I would any editor, maybe a midway point
4:45:57and then upon completion. We're also now
4:46:00at the point where they're demonstrating
4:46:02actual results, like true impact they're
4:46:05having against their KPIs that we're
4:46:07holding them accountable for. You know,
4:46:09if they're a YouTube editor, watch time.
4:46:11Is the watch time at least average, if
4:46:14not better than average, what our normal
4:46:16performance is, or if it's slightly
4:46:18below, are they improving the watch time
4:46:21each video they're doing? I always am
4:46:23looking for rate of progress. Are they
4:46:25at least improving? If they're not where
4:46:26we want them to be, are they moving in
4:46:28that direction? And finally, at the end
4:46:31of the 90 days, you want to actually
4:46:34conduct a 90-day review. Sit down with
4:46:36them, walk through everything that
4:46:37they've done, tell them all the wins
4:46:39they've had, all the things that you
4:46:40love, the way they communicated, the way
4:46:42Sarah said to John, you know, the
4:46:44feedback on the edit, she gave it so
4:46:46well. Great job, Sarah. Reinforce that
4:46:49and make sure they continue to do those
4:46:50things. But also, there may be things
4:46:52that you noticed in the opening 90 days
4:46:54that weren't as desirable or as
4:46:56effective, and you want to correct
4:46:58those. The last thing you want to do is
4:46:59just ignore a problem and just hope that
4:47:01it goes away. They don't go away, they
4:47:03get bigger. And so, at this 90-day
4:47:05check-in, this is where you want to give
4:47:07them some very real feedback. If there's
4:47:10something that they cannot continue
4:47:11doing, tell them now. If you do not tell
4:47:14them now and they continue doing it,
4:47:15that is not their fault. That is your
4:47:17fault. It is your job at this point to
4:47:20inform them of any behavior changes that
4:47:22need to occur. So, as an example, at
4:47:24this point, if we have a content
4:47:26strategist at 90 days in, they should be
4:47:27identifying high performing content and
4:47:30what we should double down on or how we
4:47:32should reformat it for another platform.
4:47:33They should be proposing new content
4:47:35ideas, not just reviewing what is
4:47:37working. They should be innovating and
4:47:39coming up with fresh new ideas. And they
4:47:42should be optimizing distribution for
4:47:44maximum reach. and they should be able
4:47:45to sit down with you and take feedback
4:47:47on what they were doing right on all of
4:47:49those and what they need to change on
4:47:51all of those. So now that we have the
4:47:53306090, well that's amazing, but that's
4:47:56not the only part of onboarding. That is
4:47:58a piece of the pie. That is a tool in
4:48:01the belt, but it is not the entire belt.
4:48:03So if we want to make onboarding
4:48:05seamless and effective, one, we want to
4:48:07provide a clear plan before day one. So
4:48:09this is sending onboarding materials.
4:48:11This is like a company handbook, a
4:48:13vision deck, a a strategy deck, whatever
4:48:15that looks like for you. And the 306090
4:48:17that we just went through. Number two is
4:48:19you're going to assign a mentor or
4:48:21onboarding buddy. Often times, if you
4:48:23don't assign this, they will make their
4:48:26own friend there, right? And that's
4:48:27great, but you want to make sure to also
4:48:29intentionally pair them with somebody
4:48:31who is going to really help them in the
4:48:33role that they have. Ideally, somebody
4:48:35who has a lot more context on the
4:48:37organization and team and how they
4:48:39function. typically a more senior
4:48:41individual. This allows them to speed
4:48:43ramp their learning but also have
4:48:45somebody that is a guaranteed or
4:48:47verified point of contact for when they
4:48:49have questions because in the beginning
4:48:51we have a multitude of questions and
4:48:53typically we're afraid or embarrassed to
4:48:55ask them. If you help assign this
4:48:57individual and you clarify upfront that
4:48:59this is what they are here for is to
4:49:01help you ask questions or help you
4:49:03answer questions and that there's
4:49:04nothing wrong with asking questions.
4:49:06it's actually encouraged to well then
4:49:08you set them up for success and instead
4:49:11of them sitting there trying to solve a
4:49:12problem for 2 hours they might solve it
4:49:14in 5 minutes asking Sarah what the
4:49:16answer is. Now number three is to
4:49:18schedule regular check-ins. You're not
4:49:19going to have a pulse on how this person
4:49:21is doing and how it's going if you're
4:49:23not checking in with them regularly and
4:49:25getting an update. I prefer typically in
4:49:28the first month to do multiple check-ins
4:49:30per week. So maybe it looks like instead
4:49:32of one 30 minute meeting, it's three
4:49:3410-minute meetings, Monday, Wednesday,
4:49:36Friday, end of day. And you're just
4:49:38checking in to see what was the most
4:49:39interesting thing that you learned
4:49:40today. What was uh the most confusing
4:49:42thing that happened this week that I can
4:49:43maybe answer? What roadblocks are in
4:49:45front of you that I can bulldoze through
4:49:47to make your job easier. This is also an
4:49:49incredible opportunity to celebrate wins
4:49:51and reinforce great actions. If they're
4:49:54a new hireer and you're on a call, a
4:49:56brainstorm meeting, let's say, and
4:49:57you're beating up a YouTube video idea,
4:50:00and they contribute a thought, even if
4:50:02it's not a good one, but they actually
4:50:03speak up, man, immediately give them
4:50:06daps for that. Like, give them all the
4:50:09love in the world for that because
4:50:11that is the kind of action and behavior
4:50:13you want to encourage, especially a new
4:50:16hire. I remember there was a hire that I
4:50:17made a couple years ago and I want to
4:50:19say like day one he was sitting in a
4:50:22meeting where nobody asked his opinion
4:50:24on it. He volunteered it and in some
4:50:28organizations they might not like that.
4:50:29I immediately stood up and gave the dude
4:50:31a high five. I was like this is
4:50:32incredible. You're day one. You're
4:50:34nervous as hell. You don't know anybody.
4:50:36Nobody knows you. Nobody knows your
4:50:37background or skill set and you're
4:50:39already contributing to the overall
4:50:41discussion. That's what we're hiring
4:50:43people for. We're hiring people to
4:50:44contribute, not sit and be a fly
4:50:47on the wall. And number four is kind of
4:50:48a bonus. I don't believe it's fully
4:50:51necessary, but it's definitely very
4:50:53helpful, but if you're resource
4:50:55constrained, I would save this for when
4:50:56you're at a bigger scale. Number four is
4:50:58building an onboarding portal or
4:51:00resource hub. And this can be fancy
4:51:03like, you know, using some software to
4:51:05automate the onboarding or it can be as
4:51:07simple as a Google Drive folder
4:51:09that has your vision deck, your strategy
4:51:11deck, context on the team, SOPs,
4:51:13playbooks, video tutorials on workflows,
4:51:16Q&A document with the founder or CEO to
4:51:19give more context on the organization.
4:51:20Anything that you feel would help make
4:51:23this person's life within the org easier
4:51:26can live in this hub. And again, it can
4:51:29be a very simple Google Drive folder. It
4:51:31doesn't have to be anything fancy and
4:51:32complex. Just like in the hiring
4:51:34process, we want to define a role
4:51:36clearly. We also want to ensure that
4:51:38once somebody is onboarded, we also make
4:51:41sure to continually define their role
4:51:44clearly because as we know, roles
4:51:46evolve, process evolves, needs evolve on
4:51:49the team. And so as those evolutions
4:51:52occur, you should be continually
4:51:54updating the role description. And one
4:51:57of the biggest mistakes I see on teams
4:52:00is overlapping responsibilities without
4:52:03clarity around who is owning what. And
4:52:06so what ends up happening there is if
4:52:08two people both think that they own the
4:52:10same task, often times they assume the
4:52:13other person's going to do it and then
4:52:14nobody does it. And so what you want to
4:52:15do is if you're going to have two people
4:52:17working on a task, make sure it's very
4:52:19clear what they're each owning and what
4:52:21the expectations of output are from each
4:52:24of them. hold them accountable. I like
4:52:26to set KPIs for accountability, which
4:52:29removes ambiguity in the performance of
4:52:32their job expectations. Here's an
4:52:34example. If you have a community manager
4:52:37and their task is to analyze metrics,
4:52:40right? They're supposed to look at how's
4:52:42engagement, are we getting enough
4:52:43impressions, are we driving enough
4:52:46traffic to our website, etc., etc. But
4:52:48then you also ask editors to do the same
4:52:51thing. One, I mean, it it seems
4:52:53incredibly inefficient and pointless,
4:52:55but two, eventually you get to the point
4:52:57where they're doing redundant work, and
4:52:59what I have observed is they both get
4:53:01frustrated by it, and then they both
4:53:03don't do the task, and then nobody does
4:53:05it, and it's not getting done. And so,
4:53:07there are going to be tasks that you're
4:53:09going to have overlap. That's
4:53:10impossible, right? Like, there's going
4:53:11to be tasks where multiple people have
4:53:13to own different micro tasks that ladder
4:53:15up to the big one. I understand there's
4:53:17nuance to it, but I would really
4:53:19encourage you if you are going to have
4:53:20two people tackling the same task, make
4:53:23sure there is clarity on what is
4:53:25expected from each of them. So, we went
4:53:27through all of this onboarding but
4:53:29what does this actually mean for us?
4:53:32What does this give us as a result?
4:53:34Well, I'll tell you. You get faster ramp
4:53:36up time. People are actually going to
4:53:37get up to speed and able to execute on
4:53:39their role at a high level much, much
4:53:43faster. I can't tell you early on in my
4:53:45career how many different roles that I
4:53:46took that it took me like four or five
4:53:48months to actually get to a point where
4:53:50I was effectively creating for the team
4:53:52that I was on. Not necessarily my fault,
4:53:54but just due to a lack of a structured
4:53:56onboarding process that the organization
4:53:59did not have in place. Number two, the
4:54:02most important thing, stronger
4:54:04retention. It costs a lot of money to
4:54:06lose an employee, like two and a half
4:54:08times what they actually costed you
4:54:10originally. Employees who feel supported
4:54:12and cared for and actually have clear
4:54:15understanding of what is expected of
4:54:17them stay longer and perform better.
4:54:21Number three is you typically get more
4:54:23ownership and initiative. Clarity from
4:54:25day one fosters confidence and
4:54:27independent problem solving. This is
4:54:29somebody who if a problem comes up
4:54:30they're not just immediately running and
4:54:32tapping on your shoulder and being like
4:54:33Sarah how do I solve this? Right? They
4:54:35are somebody who is going to if they
4:54:36come to you they're going to come to you
4:54:38with proposed solutions. So the key
4:54:40takeaway here is I want you to change
4:54:42the way you think of onboarding. It's
4:54:43not about introducing process and
4:54:45introducing team members. It's about
4:54:47setting up new hires to win
4:54:50early and often which benefits both them
4:54:54and yourself. All right, we have defined
4:54:58what we need. We've defined the roles.
4:55:01We've hired the individuals and we have
4:55:03onboarded them effectively.
4:55:05Congratulations. You are killing
4:55:07it. But now we have to develop and
4:55:10retain this high performing team, right?
4:55:12We brought all these amazing individuals
4:55:14in, but we need to make sure that we
4:55:16keep them and we give them an
4:55:18environment that makes them want to stay
4:55:19and feel like they are growing and
4:55:21empowered rather than stifled and capped
4:55:24at their growth. A strong team is not
4:55:26just about hiring the right people,
4:55:27though that is very, very important.
4:55:29It's also about developing them into
4:55:31leaders, lining up opportunities with
4:55:34their individual long-term goals, not
4:55:37just the companies, and ensuring that
4:55:38they never stop growing. Always giving
4:55:40them opportunity to further their growth
4:55:43and see that where they are right now,
4:55:46the ceiling is always moving up. So,
4:55:49they're never limited with the amount of
4:55:51growth they can have within your team.
4:55:53If your team is not evolving, you're not
4:55:55scaling, you're just maintaining. One of
4:55:58the first things I can recommend in
4:55:59trying to retain employees and keep them
4:56:00on your team and keep them feeling
4:56:02satisfied and like they're growing is
4:56:05creating a culture of ownership. A lot
4:56:07of individuals that have creative teams
4:56:10out there really believe heavily, I
4:56:13would argue too heavily in SOPs and
4:56:15checklists. Now they are very important,
4:56:17right? Checklists ensure quality
4:56:18control. SOPs ensure that we are
4:56:20operating in a very similar function and
4:56:23similar way when operating on a process.
4:56:25Okay, so this is super important. The
4:56:27problem is if you build an army, I like
4:56:31to call it a checklist army. You're
4:56:33building individuals that only follow
4:56:35instruction and don't take ownership for
4:56:38themselves. I believe that high
4:56:39performing teams thrive when they take
4:56:42real ownership of their role. Instead of
4:56:44waiting for direction from you, they are
4:56:46taking action. They're solving problems.
4:56:49They're innovating on content and ideas
4:56:52themselves. If you are the only one
4:56:54making decisions, you don't have a team.
4:56:56You just have a bunch of assistants that
4:56:58are running around doing your bidding.
4:57:00You have what I call a topdown approach
4:57:03rather than a bottom up approach. So,
4:57:05here is how you encourage ownership on
4:57:08your team instead of doing what we all
4:57:10want to do because we care about
4:57:12everyone on our team. I mean, every
4:57:14person I've ever hired, and whether or
4:57:15not you you with this, I don't give
4:57:17a I love them to death. I care
4:57:20about every person I've ever hired an
4:57:21insane amount. And so what sometimes
4:57:24occurs then is you want to solve
4:57:26problems for them. You want to make
4:57:28their life easier, but that them
4:57:31up. So what you want to do to create a
4:57:33culture of ownership is you actually
4:57:34want to not solve their problems. When
4:57:37they come to you with a question or a
4:57:39problem, instead of being like, "Here's
4:57:40the answer. Here's the solution right
4:57:42away." You put it back on them. Ask
4:57:45them, "Well, how would you handle this?
4:57:47If I got hit by a bus right now, how
4:57:49would you handle this?" If I was out
4:57:50sick for 3 weeks, how would you handle
4:57:52it? If I went on vacation for two
4:57:53months, what would you do to solve this
4:57:56problem? Oftentimes, they know the
4:57:58answer or they're creative enough to be
4:58:01able to solve it. Typically, what you're
4:58:03finding is they might be being just
4:58:05slightly lazy or more than likely
4:58:09they've been in a previous environment
4:58:10where their leader did solve all their
4:58:12problems because their leader didn't
4:58:15trust them. And if you start noticing
4:58:17that they just bring a bunch of problems
4:58:19to you, encourage them to stop bringing
4:58:22problems and start bringing solutions.
4:58:24So if they're constantly asking you how
4:58:26to solve something, encourage them to
4:58:29move from asking you how to solve to
4:58:31being like, "Which of these two or three
4:58:33solves would you recommend I try?" That
4:58:35is going to be far better. But then
4:58:37again, I would recommend that you put it
4:58:39back on them and say, "Well, which of
4:58:40the three do you think is going to be
4:58:42most effective?" And third, give them
4:58:44autonomy with accountability. Meaning,
4:58:47empower them to make a mistake. If
4:58:50you're going to ask them, how would you
4:58:51go about solving it? They present the
4:58:53idea. You might know that's not going to
4:58:55work. But if it's not absolutely
4:58:57missionritical, I would encourage you
4:58:59let them fail. They will learn so much
4:59:02more from that than from always getting
4:59:05it right based on what you say. And the
4:59:08crazier part, and a lot of people don't
4:59:10realize this, but they are paying
4:59:12attention to what you are doing. They're
4:59:14seeing here that you trust them and you
4:59:17trust them despite a potentially not
4:59:20correct or not ideal outcome. When you
4:59:23do this, you empower them to gain
4:59:26confidence and continue to solve
4:59:28problems. And when they realize that
4:59:30there's not a consequence to them
4:59:33getting it wrong and that you're just
4:59:35going to encourage them to go about it
4:59:38differently next time, they have no
4:59:41fear. And when you don't have fear, that
4:59:43is when creativity thrives. Creativity
4:59:46is not only important for creating
4:59:47content, it's important for solving
4:59:49problems. As an example, I once had a
4:59:52creative director who was technically
4:59:54incredible, right? A a brilliant mind,
4:59:57an incredible strategist. But I'm gonna
4:59:59be honest with you, they lacked a lot of
5:00:02personal skills and ability to read
5:00:04another person in the moment. And so a
5:00:06lot of times when we would be filming
5:00:08with the talent we worked for, this
5:00:10individual would ask me, "How do I
5:00:12handle this situation?" And a lot of
5:00:14times it was in the moment, right? And
5:00:16so instead of them just like verbally
5:00:17asking me, they were texting me. And I
5:00:19started to notice that I was answering
5:00:22it always. I was solving it for them.
5:00:24And what I realized was three months
5:00:26into doing that, they had not improved.
5:00:28They always listened to me. They acted
5:00:30on what I said, but they kept asking
5:00:33questions at the same rate. And so what
5:00:35did I do? I started saying, "Well, how
5:00:38would you handle this?" And sometimes
5:00:41this person would say something that I
5:00:43knew was going to piss the talent we
5:00:45were working with off, like that,
5:00:48potentially interrupting the entire
5:00:51shoot, and maybe we wouldn't actually
5:00:52get a video that day. short-term bummer,
5:00:55long-term gain. What ended up happening
5:00:58is he learned from his mistakes and
5:01:02started to be able to figure out how to
5:01:04solve the problem on his own to the
5:01:06point now where he is leading the
5:01:08initiative for that individual and knows
5:01:11how to engage with them and handle any
5:01:13problems that come up very effectively
5:01:16without texting me. Now, we've
5:01:18identified that we want to build and
5:01:20empower these leaders, right? Well, how
5:01:22do we develop people as a leader? I
5:01:24believe that teaching is actually an
5:01:27ultimate hack here. Now, not in maybe
5:01:29the way that you're thinking. I love
5:01:32team training, but I don't like to lead
5:01:35it myself. Not all the time. Of course,
5:01:36I'm going to do team trainings here and
5:01:38there. Uh it's important to hear from
5:01:39your leader and to hear straight from
5:01:41the horse's mouth. But I actually
5:01:43believe that the best version of this is
5:01:44when you empower the team to do team
5:01:47trainings. Okay? There's so many
5:01:49benefits to this and we're going to go
5:01:50through many of them. So, why does this
5:01:52work? Well, I think a lot of us have
5:01:55probably heard the traditional saying,
5:01:56but it's traditional for a reason. It's
5:01:58true. You learn a lot by teaching. And
5:02:02so, giving people on your team the
5:02:04ability to train others and teach others
5:02:07allows them the opportunity to learn
5:02:10more about that, to really ingrain that
5:02:14learning into their repertoire, into
5:02:17their utility belt. It teaches mastery.
5:02:20If you can't actually explain something,
5:02:23you don't fully understand it. You might
5:02:25be able to do the action. An example is
5:02:28editors. A very early entry-level editor
5:02:31who isn't super experienced or
5:02:33technically proficient if you ask them,
5:02:36why did you cut this video in this
5:02:38cadence, right? Why did you go 12
5:02:40frames, 36 frames, 12 frames, 36 frames
5:02:44as a cadence, in a sequence? I got
5:02:46really technical there, so please just
5:02:47ignore it if you don't speak editor
5:02:48lingo. But if that's the case and you
5:02:50ask them why they did that, a lot of
5:02:53beginners and novice editors will say it
5:02:55felt right. And that's a totally
5:02:56acceptable answer, but it's not a
5:02:58technically sound one. An editor who
5:03:00truly understands would say, I was
5:03:02training the audience to understand and
5:03:04expect the cadence that I was going to
5:03:06edit in because the next scene was going
5:03:09to be very dramatic and I was going to
5:03:10break that pattern. And by training the
5:03:12audience to get used to cuts on that
5:03:14pattern, when we deviate from the
5:03:16pattern, it emphasized that moment. That
5:03:19would be an editor who is very
5:03:20technically proficient, experienced, and
5:03:22understands the why behind why they did
5:03:25the cut. And the magical third thing
5:03:27that you get here, which is absolutely
5:03:29incredible, is you reveal hidden
5:03:32strengths and passions. I can't tell you
5:03:35how many different times that I'd have
5:03:36somebody on one of my teams, they would
5:03:37do a training on something that I had no
5:03:39idea that they were really proficient in
5:03:42and were passionate about. You learn all
5:03:43these interesting things, like people
5:03:45that love sound design, and all of a
5:03:46sudden you realize, oh yeah, that's
5:03:47right. All your edits are really good
5:03:49with sound design. Or you discover that
5:03:51somebody's really passionate about
5:03:52storytelling, and you realize, huh, now
5:03:54that they think about it, all of your
5:03:56videos actually do follow a very, very
5:03:58specific and strategic storytelling
5:04:00framework. Holy And then you get
5:04:03to spread that information to the rest
5:04:05of the team. And what happens is they
5:04:07start to develop their brand within the
5:04:11team. And so if somebody does a
5:04:13presentation on storytelling, for
5:04:15example, and George, another editor, has
5:04:18a question about it, they're going to go
5:04:20to that person. And so what that does is
5:04:22increase efficiency. Rather than sitting
5:04:24and trying to solve a problem on your
5:04:25own, you know who on the team is the
5:04:27subject matter expert to go to to solve
5:04:30the problem with. Now, how do you
5:04:32actually implement this? Well, I would
5:04:34recommend that you conduct a weekly
5:04:35training. Rotate between the different
5:04:37members of your team on who leads the
5:04:39training weekly. I also recommend
5:04:41setting up what is called like a
5:04:43mentorship loop. This is where you take
5:04:44somebody that is more senior on the team
5:04:46and you pair them with a more junior
5:04:48level individual. This doesn't mean uh
5:04:51seniority as far as tenure, but as far
5:04:53as skill set. So maybe you have a
5:04:56videographer that's been on the team for
5:04:57a year and then you hire a brand new
5:05:00videographer who is far more technically
5:05:02proficient. I would recommend pairing
5:05:04them together. The cool byproduct of
5:05:06that is the new videographer, she can
5:05:10help train him on technical
5:05:12proficiencies and he can help train her
5:05:15on proficiencies on how to operate
5:05:17within the organization and how
5:05:18processes work. You get a win-win on
5:05:20both sides. Now, oftentimes when you're
5:05:22hiring an employee, we're humans, so
5:05:23we're selfish. We're thinking about
5:05:25what's in it for us. What are we trying
5:05:27to get out of this person? How can we
5:05:29maximize the returns from this human?
5:05:31But what I would recommend is gain
5:05:33understanding on what their long-term
5:05:36career goals are and start to line up
5:05:38opportunities that you give them with
5:05:40those long-term goals. If they want to
5:05:43be in a place of leadership or they want
5:05:45to hold an executive role and they're an
5:05:47editor right now, well, something that
5:05:49would be very good for you to do is give
5:05:51them those training opportunities so
5:05:53they can gain the skill of communication
5:05:55and presenting. Often times, especially
5:05:58with creative teams, there's this like
5:06:00myth out there that, oh, creatives don't
5:06:02want to talk to anybody. they just want
5:06:03to be locked in a room and d and I
5:06:06believe that that is true but my belief
5:06:08is the why behind that is because
5:06:10they've been trained they've been told
5:06:13that's how they are they work for an
5:06:15organization and the organization never
5:06:17gives them the opportunity to
5:06:18communicate with clients or with the
5:06:20whole team they never give them
5:06:21presenting opportunities because they
5:06:24say well creatives don't like to do that
5:06:26so we're not going to give them the
5:06:28opportunity whatever their desired
5:06:29outcome is for their career it is your
5:06:32job if you want to hold on to them for a
5:06:34long time to make sure that you give
5:06:36them opportunities to grow towards that.
5:06:39If you have somebody on your team that
5:06:40has expressed what they want to
5:06:42accomplish and what you are doing and
5:06:44the opportunities you're providing them
5:06:45are actually going in the opposite
5:06:47direction, what you're going to have is
5:06:48somebody who becomes very dissatisfied
5:06:51with their role and will want to leave
5:06:53at any opportunity they have. Stop being
5:06:56like most leaders and start knowing what
5:06:59your people what your team wants. This
5:07:01is why creative teams lose great people.
5:07:04It's usually not because of like the
5:07:05work output and stuff. It's because they
5:07:07no longer see themselves growing towards
5:07:10where they want to be. In fact, often
5:07:11times they see themselves growing away
5:07:14from where they're wanting to be. And
5:07:15that is the exact opposite of what a
5:07:17human is going to prefer and choose to
5:07:20do because ultimately, like I said at
5:07:22the top, we are all selfish and we want
5:07:24to accomplish what we want to
5:07:25accomplish. Make sure you align the work
5:07:27and opportunities you give your team
5:07:30with what they want to accomplish. So, I
5:07:32recommend doing this by conducting
5:07:34one-on ones. And here are a couple of
5:07:36great questions that I love to ask
5:07:38during a one-on-one. Question number
5:07:39one, very, very basic and obvious, but
5:07:42most of you don't ask it. What's your
5:07:44long-term career goal? Shocker. If you
5:07:47find that out, the amazing thing is you
5:07:50can give them opportunities that move
5:07:51them towards that that also serve the
5:07:54company. Where do you see yourself after
5:07:55this? Do you see yourself at another
5:07:57company? Do you see yourself starting
5:07:59another company? Do you want to jump to
5:08:00a different industry? Are you wanting to
5:08:02experiment with different roles? What is
5:08:03it that you're wanting to accomplish
5:08:04directly after this? You've already
5:08:06asked what their long-term career goal
5:08:07is, but between then and now, what do
5:08:10you see? And third, what skills do you
5:08:12want to develop? Is there anything that
5:08:14you've been interested in? Right? If
5:08:16they're a video editor, but they're
5:08:18really passionate about motion graphics,
5:08:19how cool would it be to be able to give
5:08:21them more opportunities? Maybe you're
5:08:22not able to make them a full-time motion
5:08:24designer because that's not what's
5:08:25required on your team for the content
5:08:27you're producing. But maybe what you can
5:08:28do is say, "Well, I mean, it would be
5:08:29cool if we made our lower thirds a
5:08:31little bit more fancy and we did some
5:08:33cool transitions and maybe we got a
5:08:35little bit crazier with how we animate
5:08:37text." Okay, cool. You're giving them an
5:08:40opportunity to hone in on the skill that
5:08:43they care about most and where they're
5:08:45wanting to go. And then what you're
5:08:47going to get as a byproduct of that is
5:08:49them sticking around a lot longer. So
5:08:52the goal here is ultra simple. Make sure
5:08:54you align their growth with what they're
5:08:57doing daily. If they feel like they're
5:08:59just checking boxes and doing tasks,
5:09:02they will eventually check the out.
5:09:04A really good example of this is I had
5:09:06somebody who was at a manager level on
5:09:09one of my teams that really expressed in
5:09:12the opening like literally in the
5:09:13interview process expressed that they
5:09:15eventually wanted to be a CEO and they
5:09:17wanted to uh have a pretty large
5:09:19organization that they ran and at this
5:09:22point they were at a manager level and
5:09:24so what did I do? I started to give them
5:09:27more opportunities to oversee the team
5:09:29or a section of the team entirely. So,
5:09:32not just a manager level, but I gave
5:09:34them a lot of the responsibilities that
5:09:36I had without necessarily giving them a
5:09:38director title right away. One, just to
5:09:41prove that they can do it and make sure
5:09:42that we were putting them in the right
5:09:43spot, but I wanted to give them the
5:09:45opportunity to start to hone in on
5:09:48skills that were necessary and more
5:09:50importantly to be able to identify
5:09:52deficiencies they had that they needed
5:09:54to work on to eventually get to the
5:09:56point where they would be a CEO. Now,
5:09:58your jackof alltrades, your generalists
5:10:01or your specialists who are willing to
5:10:04generalize, that's going to work in the
5:10:05early days. And it's actually not only
5:10:07going to work, it's necessary. You can't
5:10:09hire specialists entirely from day one,
5:10:12unless you know, you just got unlimited
5:10:14money and really deep pockets. But even
5:10:15then, I wouldn't advise doing that. But
5:10:17eventually, you get to a point where
5:10:19specialists are the way that you're
5:10:21going to actually drive real results,
5:10:23right? We talked in the content section
5:10:24about specializing content to specific
5:10:27platforms. We talked about how in the
5:10:28beginning you make content like you
5:10:30might make a short and then you
5:10:33distribute that on all the different
5:10:34platforms. YouTube shorts, Instagram
5:10:36reels, Tik Tok, Facebook reels, LinkedIn
5:10:38video tab. But the best case version of
5:10:40this is you take that same asset, that
5:10:43same raw footage and re-edit it, remake
5:10:46it contextual to each platform
5:10:48specialization. Well, the same thing is
5:10:50going to happen with your team. In order
5:10:52to make that content special to the
5:10:54platform, you're going to need the
5:10:56individual to specialize in that
5:10:58platform. Here's why this matters. When
5:11:00you move from the generalist workflow to
5:11:03a specialist workflow, you get
5:11:05individuals who execute at much higher
5:11:08levels. They gain massive efficiency by
5:11:11doing the same thing or relatively same
5:11:13thing over and over and over rather than
5:11:16hat jumping. They really iron out all
5:11:20the kinks, all the weird inefficiencies.
5:11:22They develop beautiful workflows on this
5:11:25because they're doing it all day every
5:11:26day. Also, this leads to mastery, which
5:11:30reduces the amount of revisions and back
5:11:32and forth that you have to have with
5:11:34your team. You would not believe how
5:11:37effective it is and efficient it is if
5:11:39you can eliminate two rounds of
5:11:41revisions across all your editors on
5:11:43your team. Sure, in a week that was
5:11:45nice, but add up all that time over a
5:11:47year and you're saving weeks of your
5:11:49time. The benefit for the individual is
5:11:52that specialists have way more long-term
5:11:55career value. They are able to earn far
5:11:59more throughout their career because
5:12:00they are a specialist. Companies will
5:12:02pay far more for that than somebody who
5:12:05is decent or proficient at everything.
5:12:08So, by you investing in them as a
5:12:10specialist, you know, the reality is is
5:12:12unfortunately there's all these people
5:12:14that we love that we have on our team
5:12:15and we want them forever, but they're
5:12:17not going to stay with you forever. The
5:12:18the nature of a career and of a job is
5:12:21that there is an expiration date most of
5:12:23the time. It is my goal if you join my
5:12:25team, I want to set you the up so
5:12:27that when you go to the next spot, you
5:12:29are 10 times better than you could have
5:12:31ever imagined. And the way you do that
5:12:32is you promote specialization. they will
5:12:35typically be far happier and earn way
5:12:38more throughout their career. Here's an
5:12:40example of this, and this is pretty
5:12:41typical that I find in creatives, but
5:12:45specifically short form editors for
5:12:47whatever reason. Trevor on my team, I
5:12:49hired him about three three and a half
5:12:51years ago now. And I remember we brought
5:12:54him on as a short form editor. about I'm
5:12:57probably going to get this wrong, but
5:12:58let's call it 9 to 12 months in, he
5:13:00started getting to the point where he
5:13:02had mastered how we do short form and
5:13:05was absolutely crushing it and started
5:13:08noticing the editors that were working
5:13:10on long form content and how sexy that
5:13:13looked and how interesting and shiny
5:13:15that was. And around 14 to 16 months in,
5:13:18he started vocalizing to me how he was
5:13:21considering wanting to move from being a
5:13:25short form editor to a long form editor.
5:13:27Now, a little bit of context for you is
5:13:29at this point, we had reached a serious
5:13:33level of mastery to where he was the
5:13:35go-to guy on the team for shorts. In
5:13:38fact, so much so that every other short
5:13:40form editor whenever they ran into an
5:13:42issue would go to Trevor to help solve
5:13:45the problem. And so what I proposed to
5:13:48Trevor is two different paths. I said,
5:13:50"Dude, like you're an A player. You're a
5:13:53gangster. I want to keep you around and
5:13:55happy. So I'll move you over to long
5:13:57form if that's what you want." Now, it
5:13:59won't happen overnight because we are a
5:14:00business and we have needs, but we can
5:14:01transition you if that's what you want.
5:14:03The way this will work is if you move
5:14:05over to long form, you're going to go to
5:14:07the bottom of the totem pole. You're
5:14:09going to the very bottom of the ladder.
5:14:11Okay? Like there's already some serious
5:14:14gangsters over there and you're not as
5:14:16experienced in it. So, you're going to
5:14:17be starting from zero. Now, on the flip
5:14:20side, you could continue down this
5:14:22editing short form path. Right now,
5:14:24you're the top dog. And I see very soon
5:14:27in your future you managing all of the
5:14:31short form editors. not only being the
5:14:32person that they come to with their
5:14:34problems and helping them solve and the
5:14:35one who always ends up having the most
5:14:37viewed clips, but you actually manage
5:14:39them. Now, a little bit more additional
5:14:41context. This was young as
5:14:43He was 22 when we were having this
5:14:45conversation. A 22-year-old managing
5:14:48editors that were like six, seven years
5:14:50older than him potentially. This was a
5:14:52crazy crossroads for him. And I told
5:14:54him, I said, I believe that if you
5:14:56specialize, you will go into a place of
5:14:58leadership that there's not a world
5:15:01where you'll get there if you go over to
5:15:03YouTube. That will take years for you to
5:15:05establish here. We're already 2 months
5:15:08out from this. And if you go up to that
5:15:10level, then eventually if you want to do
5:15:13a lateral move over to long form, you
5:15:15move over there in a totally different
5:15:17position. And so you're not starting
5:15:18from zero. You're starting from a place
5:15:20of leadership. it's a completely
5:15:22different position for you to take. And
5:15:24so he chose to stick with short form.
5:15:26Now, we gave him some long form edits
5:15:29here and there because he's a creative
5:15:30guy and he wanted to do it to the best
5:15:32of my ability. Whenever somebody on my
5:15:35team vocalizes an interest or something
5:15:37they're passionate about and want to do,
5:15:38I want to do my best to give them that
5:15:40opportunity. That's just how I like to
5:15:41roll. But we focused on short form. And
5:15:44guess what? He not only was promoted to
5:15:48senior editor, he was then promoted to
5:15:49lead editor. So he was promoted the most
5:15:52out of anybody on the team and he was
5:15:56managing three different editors at the
5:15:58age of 22 and 23. It was absurd.
5:16:03Okay, he only got that because he chose
5:16:05to specialize. And now we're at a point
5:16:08in his career where he is starting to
5:16:09expand and be more of a generalist
5:16:11again. And so the way that this will
5:16:13most likely work is he'll have a couple
5:16:15of years or a season of time where he
5:16:18does more activities and then he'll
5:16:21focus again and he'll pick probably one
5:16:23lane or two that he goes more narrow and
5:16:26gains more mastery on. It's very similar
5:16:28if you notice to the accordion framework
5:16:30or method that I use for content, but
5:16:33you can do the same thing with your
5:16:35career. Another thing that I would
5:16:36highly encourage you to do is not only
5:16:38utilize your team members to educate and
5:16:41train each other, but invest in
5:16:44strategic education opportunities for
5:16:46your team. For example, if there is a
5:16:48workshop on YouTube retention editing
5:16:51that you can pay for with somebody who
5:16:54you know worked really closely with Mr.
5:16:55Beast, for example, I would highly
5:16:57recommend that you invest in that. And
5:16:59then what you do is instead of you
5:17:01taking that course, you assign one or
5:17:04two of your team members to do it.
5:17:05Here's the pro tip. Don't just have them
5:17:07go and attend and consume the workshop
5:17:09or the course. Have them then turn it
5:17:12into a team training that they present
5:17:15to the rest of the team. Again, we've
5:17:17already gone over this helps them retain
5:17:19the information far more, helps them
5:17:21develop mastery, and then they're able
5:17:23to share all of those insights and
5:17:24information with the rest of the team
5:17:25rather than hogging it all for
5:17:27themselves. So, we've talked about doing
5:17:29regular check-ins, but what does that
5:17:30look like? Well, it looks like running
5:17:32effective one-on- ones. I believe that
5:17:33if you only check in when something's
5:17:35going wrong, you've already lost.
5:17:37Consistent, structured feedback is what
5:17:39keeps people from checking out. It's
5:17:41what keeps people engaged and feeling
5:17:43like this is an area where I'm growing
5:17:45and my leadership cares about me and
5:17:48cares that I'm actually developing and
5:17:50growing rather than just staying
5:17:52stagnant and letting me rot. In
5:17:54order to do this, you need to run
5:17:55effective 101 ones. So, here is how I
5:17:58recommend you go about running effective
5:18:01one-on- ones. Number one, talk about the
5:18:04workload and blockers. How's your
5:18:06workload look right now? What's slowing
5:18:08you down? Do you need any extra
5:18:09resources or support? Is there anything
5:18:11currently getting in the way of you
5:18:13accomplishing your job? Can I bulldoze
5:18:15through any roadblocks to make your job
5:18:18easier? Revisit their long-term goals.
5:18:20You're crushing this thing. How do we
5:18:22set you up for the next step? What is it
5:18:23that you've been wanting to learn but
5:18:25haven't had the time to invest in? Are
5:18:26there any interests that line up with
5:18:28your long-term goals that we're not
5:18:30currently leveraging right now that
5:18:32we're not giving you opportunities to
5:18:33gain skill in that maybe we can
5:18:35implement that would be effective for
5:18:37our content? I had a content strategist
5:18:39who was unbelievably good at running Tik
5:18:42Tok, ideulating, and creating a lot of
5:18:44engagement on that platform. They had
5:18:47expressed interest in being a creative
5:18:48director. And so I started giving them
5:18:51opportunities to begin developing bigger
5:18:54campaigns and presenting those
5:18:56campaigns. Not just developing them, but
5:18:58presenting them to myself and to the
5:19:01talent that we were filming with. The
5:19:03reason why this happened though was in
5:19:04our regular one-on- ones, I was asking
5:19:07them, "Well, okay, you've come in,
5:19:09you're killing it as a strategist here.
5:19:11You own this platform. You've told me
5:19:13you want to be a creative director.
5:19:14Right now, none of what you're doing is
5:19:17really lading up to that. you're very
5:19:19much an individual contributor here. And
5:19:21so what we did is in our 101, we
5:19:22developed a plan of how they were going
5:19:24to start taking on bigger tasks that
5:19:26involved more people. So when you're
5:19:28developing a campaign and pitching a
5:19:29campaign, you're not thinking about just
5:19:31your sole contribution, you're thinking
5:19:33about how the entire team feeds into
5:19:36that campaign because it was a
5:19:37multiplatform approach. And in doing so,
5:19:39what we allow for is not only for them
5:19:41to gain the skills of thinking
5:19:43strategically of how to involve other
5:19:45people, but how to persuade other people
5:19:48to get involved and how to think about
5:19:50workflow and process, ultimately lading
5:19:52up to their long-term goal and vision of
5:19:54being a creative director. None of this
5:19:56would have happened if we didn't
5:19:58actually do regular check-ins to see,
5:20:01are they actually feeling like they're
5:20:03moving closer to their desired outcome?
5:20:05and am I following what I preach and
5:20:08actually giving them opportunities to be
5:20:10able to hone in those skills. So, here
5:20:12are the final takeaways on this section.
5:20:13Developing a team that grows with you.
5:20:15Number one, push ownership down. If
5:20:18you're making every decision, you don't
5:20:20have a team. You have a bunch of
5:20:22assistants. Let them start to own the
5:20:25process and solve their problems. Number
5:20:28two, make leadership a habit. Teaching
5:20:30and leading trainings should be part of
5:20:32the job, not your job, their jobs. Okay?
5:20:36Typically, this is an afterthought. You
5:20:37want to make this a priority. Number
5:20:40three, tie their growth to the company's
5:20:42growth. Let them see how what they're
5:20:44doing contributes to the overall growth
5:20:45of the company and the team. Especially
5:20:47with content teams, a lot of times
5:20:50they're like the weirdos in the cage in
5:20:52the corner. It's like, don't feed the
5:20:53crazy creatives, right? No, you want to
5:20:55show them how what they're doing is
5:20:57leading to the revenue and profitability
5:20:59that your organization has. Number four,
5:21:01go deep, not wide. As soon as you can,
5:21:04promote specialization. This is
5:21:05beneficial for you and your team as well
5:21:08as them, the individual. This makes them
5:21:11far more valuable to any future
5:21:13employer. And number five, none of this
5:21:15is going to happen. You're not going to
5:21:16be able to measure progress if you don't
5:21:18do structured check-ins. So have the
5:21:20one-on ones. Give them feedback. Ask
5:21:22them for feedback on how you're doing as
5:21:24a leader. If you choose not to make time
5:21:27for feedback, you'll eventually have to
5:21:28make time for hiring. If you create a
5:21:31culture of ownership, of growth, and
5:21:33something where they know where they're
5:21:35headed, and they actually feel like the
5:21:37opportunities they're getting are lining
5:21:39up with their career goals, you're not
5:21:41just going to have a team of employees.
5:21:44You're going to have a team that wants
5:21:45to build and can build with you. All
5:21:48right, the final section on building
5:21:50your team is building a strong team
5:21:54culture. This is so important. I
5:21:56will not be able to emphasize it enough,
5:21:59but I'm going to do my best. I'll tell
5:22:00you this, a good team culture is not
5:22:02built by accident. A lot of team
5:22:04cultures are built by accident, but a
5:22:05good one is not. It's shaped by
5:22:07intentional decisions that you make
5:22:09every day through leadership, actions,
5:22:11and how you communicate with the team.
5:22:14And if you do it right, it's not just a
5:22:15buzzword that everyone likes to
5:22:17talk about on Instagram to sound like a
5:22:19thought leader. It actually becomes the
5:22:21operating system of how your team works
5:22:23and how you make decisions. This is how
5:22:26you grow. In building this strong
5:22:29culture, you need to define and then
5:22:32once you've defined, you need to
5:22:33reinforce the core values. A strong
5:22:36culture starts with clear core values
5:22:39that guide your hiring, your decision-m,
5:22:42and your day-to-day behavior. These are
5:22:44not just words up on a wall or
5:22:46that exist on your website. These are
5:22:48literally what you live by and how you
5:22:51decide what you will and will not do.
5:22:53So, here's how to reinforce your core
5:22:55values once you have established them.
5:22:57Make sure you hire based on alignment
5:22:59with those core values, not just
5:23:01alignment on skill set. Again, like we
5:23:03said earlier, skills can be trained.
5:23:05Values very, very hard to change. Number
5:23:08two, recognize and reward actions that
5:23:10reflect company values. One of the best
5:23:12ways to do this is to publicly celebrate
5:23:14team members who are actively upholding
5:23:18the values that you've defined as a
5:23:20company. And this can look like a
5:23:21message in in Slack, shouting somebody
5:23:23out in front of the whole team. This can
5:23:25look like during a full team meetup
5:23:27recognizing them and giving them a
5:23:28gift card or an award. There's
5:23:31so many different ways to do this, but
5:23:33we all know the feeling when you are
5:23:35publicly recognized for something that
5:23:37you did well. It feels good and
5:23:39it makes you want to do more of it. And
5:23:41number three, don't be the
5:23:42leader that says all this and does
5:23:44completely different. Those are the
5:23:45worst. They breed no trust and everyone
5:23:48eventually wants to leave that team
5:23:50because they know that they are part of
5:23:53horseshit. That's just the reality. And
5:23:55there's a lot of these leaders out
5:23:56there. The majority of people that lead
5:23:58a company preach these core values but
5:24:01don't actually uphold them themselves.
5:24:03Lead by example. I remember a really
5:24:06good story actually is um back in my uh
5:24:09church days, I was on a worship team.
5:24:11The worship team is like the band that
5:24:13plays the music before the sermon
5:24:14happens. And I remember the youth pastor
5:24:17said something so powerful to me and it
5:24:19stuck and it it's how I've thought of
5:24:21myself in any leadership role to date.
5:24:23Caleb, when you are up on stage playing
5:24:26bass in the worship team, everyone in
5:24:28the youth group is looking at you as an
5:24:30example. And whatever you do, they're
5:24:33going to do 10 times. And how I apply
5:24:35that to leadership is if I am slow to
5:24:38respond, they're going to be slower to
5:24:40respond. If I show up late to meetings,
5:24:43they're going to show up really late to
5:24:45meetings. If we're a remote work
5:24:46environment and I show up on calls all
5:24:48the time in my PJs, guess what they're
5:24:50going to do? Show up in their PJs. And
5:24:52maybe that's fine in your company
5:24:53culture, but maybe it's not. Whatever
5:24:55you do, they're going to do times 10.
5:24:57Lead by example. If you have a team that
5:25:00is operating in a way that you do not
5:25:02like, take a look at yourself and how
5:25:04you're operating as the first point.
5:25:06More than likely, you are leading them
5:25:08by example in the wrong way. And just
5:25:11because you're the leader doesn't mean
5:25:12that you can hold yourself to a
5:25:13different standard. If anything, you
5:25:15need to be the one that holds the
5:25:17standard and sets it and maintains that
5:25:19bar as high as possible. So, for
5:25:22example, maybe contrary to some of the
5:25:24like, you know, hardcore examples I've
5:25:27been using here, Patagonia has a really
5:25:29beautiful team culture. They prioritize
5:25:31environmental responsibility, integrity,
5:25:33and work life balance. And guess what?
5:25:36They actually do it. So, here's
5:25:38how they reinforce those core values.
5:25:39They hire for alignment, right? They
5:25:41prioritize candidates who are passionate
5:25:43about sustainability and outdoor
5:25:44activism. That's the DNA of the company
5:25:47and the brand. And so they want to make
5:25:49sure that the people that work on it
5:25:52also are in alignment with those values.
5:25:54Number two is they recognize and reward
5:25:56employees. Employees who contribute to
5:25:58the environmental causes or develop
5:26:00innovative solutions for sustainability
5:26:03are actually publicly celebrated and
5:26:05even receive grants to further their
5:26:07initiatives whether it's within or
5:26:09outside of the organization. And for
5:26:11leading by example, their founder sets
5:26:14the standard by literally running the
5:26:16company with the same principles that he
5:26:18lives by. Giving 1% of sales to the
5:26:21planet. He even closes the office on
5:26:23powder days to give employees the
5:26:25opportunity to go serve or go skiing.
5:26:27And he treats his work like it's a
5:26:29mission, not just an activity that he's
5:26:31doing to get a paycheck. Now, the next
5:26:33point here is to be transparent about
5:26:36decisions. You're never going to have a
5:26:37scenario where everyone agrees with
5:26:39every decision that you make. That is
5:26:41okay. But what I would recommend is
5:26:43trying your very best to provide them
5:26:45the understanding of why you made the
5:26:48decision. The quickest way that leaders
5:26:50lose trust is keeping their team in the
5:26:53dark when there's a lot of changes
5:26:55occurring. So, here's what transparency
5:26:57actually looks like in leadership. If a
5:26:58project gets canled, especially last
5:27:00minute, explain why and how it impacts
5:27:02the bigger picture. I remember one time
5:27:04having an editor who had been working 13
5:27:07hours a day on a project for probably 5
5:27:08or 6 days straight. Huge edit. She had
5:27:11put so much effort into it. It was an
5:27:14incredible piece. But the person we were
5:27:16editing it for didn't like it. But it
5:27:18sucked for this editor. And instead of
5:27:20me just cancing the upload and not
5:27:22giving them the why, I explain to them
5:27:25how we want to create a an environment
5:27:29for the talent we're working with where
5:27:31they trust us. And the way that we earn
5:27:33that trust is if there is a piece of
5:27:34content that they don't like and they
5:27:36don't want to be put out, we abide by
5:27:38that. We honor that. If we do that, they
5:27:41are going to feel more comfortable
5:27:42opening up and revealing more and being
5:27:44more transparent and vulnerable with
5:27:46their emotions in future content because
5:27:48they know if they don't like it, it's
5:27:51not going to go out. But in that
5:27:52scenario, rather than just leaving her
5:27:54in the dark and being like, "Hey, I know
5:27:55you spent 6 days, 13 hours a day working
5:27:58on this and now last minute I'm coming
5:27:59in and cutting this." I explained the
5:28:01why of why we were cutting it and why
5:28:04this impacts future content and how
5:28:06it'll make our team more effective
5:28:08moving forward. Number two is own your
5:28:10mistakes. Man, if I could say this one
5:28:12like 20 times in a row, I would. I can't
5:28:14tell you how many times that I've had
5:28:16leaders in my life that make a mistake
5:28:18and just brush it off or acknowledge it
5:28:21as it's like, "Oh, well, that was part
5:28:23of the plan. That was intentional. We
5:28:25meant to do that all along." Everyone
5:28:27sees through your They already
5:28:30know that you weren't intentionally
5:28:32trying to make that mistake. That was
5:28:34not part of the plan. Don't around
5:28:35and try and make yourself posture
5:28:37yourself to be smarter than you are.
5:28:39Just to own it when you're wrong. The
5:28:42amount of times that you're going to
5:28:44gain respect from people when you do
5:28:45that is zero. When you actually own your
5:28:48mistake and you admit it to the team,
5:28:50the amount of respect you gain is
5:28:52infinite. It's unmeasurable. I am not in
5:28:56any way perfect. Very much flawed. But I
5:28:58really always try to do my best. When I
5:29:01something up, even when it's small,
5:29:03I immediately try to own it with the
5:29:05team. I try to be the first person to
5:29:07call it out because we've all been in
5:29:08the scenario where somebody messes
5:29:10something up and you're on a group call
5:29:11and you're all kind of like vaguely
5:29:14hinting at what happened, but not I want
5:29:16to be the person that immediately says,
5:29:17"No, I this up. I can't believe I
5:29:19did it. It caused all these problems.
5:29:21Here's how we're going to move forward."
5:29:22And lastly, I highly recommend
5:29:24communicate pivots as soon as you can.
5:29:28Don't wait until the last minute. A lot
5:29:30of leaders, I think, procrastinate on
5:29:32this conversation because they're afraid
5:29:35of how the team is going to respond. If
5:29:36you have to make some big pivot in how
5:29:38the team is going to operate, in output,
5:29:41in process, in cadence, whatever, it's a
5:29:43freaky thing. Like, humans get used to
5:29:46it. We're creatures of habit, right? And
5:29:48so, when you come in to the team and
5:29:49say, "We're going to do things
5:29:50completely differently." It sucks. Do it
5:29:53immediately. The sooner that you
5:29:56do it, the more time you give your team
5:29:57to be able to digest this and accept the
5:30:00fact that they're going to have five
5:30:02times the amount of videos needing to go
5:30:03out per week rather than telling them
5:30:05the week before that you're going to do
5:30:07it. Ultimately, the theme you're
5:30:08noticing here is transparency. Be more
5:30:10transparent with your team. Share more
5:30:12with them. The more that you trust them,
5:30:14the more that they will return the favor
5:30:15and trust you. Another great thing that
5:30:17you can do as a leader is pay attention
5:30:19to what your team cares about. If
5:30:21somebody on your team mentions the fact
5:30:22that they love Legos, maybe you
5:30:24take note of that and on their birthday
5:30:26you send them the Millennium Falcon uh
5:30:28Lego set, right? Like something absurd
5:30:30like that that shows that like you care
5:30:32about them outside of work and you pay
5:30:35attention to what they care about and
5:30:37are passionate about beyond just
5:30:39editing. For example, another thing that
5:30:41I love to do that I think is very
5:30:42contrary to the majority of leaders is
5:30:44if one of my team members mentions to me
5:30:47that they're sick, rather than being
5:30:49skeptical and not believing them and
5:30:50assuming that they're just trying to,
5:30:52you know, cash in the day, take the day
5:30:53off, I actually like to go a really far.
5:30:57I like to send them soup and bread or a
5:31:01pack of juices from like Prest or
5:31:03something of that nature. I want to show
5:31:05them that I care about them because I
5:31:07do. It's not just an act. It's actually
5:31:09just taking what is in here in my heart
5:31:11and putting it external. And this is
5:31:14amazing because if they're truly sick,
5:31:16cool. You're helping them get better.
5:31:18You show that they care and you give
5:31:20them the freedom to be able to take the
5:31:23day to relax and rest rather than being
5:31:25anxious the whole time. And on the flip
5:31:26side, if they are that very unique
5:31:28individual that's lying, they're going
5:31:29to feel really guilty about it
5:31:31and probably not want to do it the next
5:31:32time. And so either way, you win. And
5:31:35lastly, I believe that you inspire
5:31:38loyalty in your team by providing them
5:31:41opportunities to grow. We're humans.
5:31:43We're selfish. We want to look out for
5:31:46our self-interest and what we get out of
5:31:48it. And that's okay. So, make sure that
5:31:51on your team, you provide individuals
5:31:54the ability to scratch their selfish
5:31:57itch and grow. Ultimately, the best
5:31:59teams aren't just efficient, they're
5:32:01invested in the mission. And this only
5:32:03happens when people see a future for
5:32:05themselves within the organization. And
5:32:07they only see a future for themselves
5:32:09within the organization if they see
5:32:11continual growth. So here are three
5:32:13different ways that you can help build a
5:32:16culture of growth. Like I've previously
5:32:17said, but I'm going to emphasize it
5:32:19right now. Make sure to tie what
5:32:21individuals are doing to how the company
5:32:24is growing. Make sure every single team
5:32:26member sees how their individual
5:32:29contributions lead to the company's
5:32:31growth. Number two, check in regularly
5:32:34on their career goals and aspirations.
5:32:36Ensure that they are actually growing.
5:32:39We talked about that earlier, but what's
5:32:41amazing about doing that is the
5:32:43byproduct is they are loyal as to
5:32:46you if you actually genuinely care. Why
5:32:49would they want to leave? Why would they
5:32:51leave somebody who is experienced
5:32:53further in their career, understands a
5:32:55lot of the landmines they're going to
5:32:56have to navigate through their career,
5:32:58and that actually cares about their
5:32:59growth, and wants to see them reach
5:33:01their full potential and their goals.
5:33:04Nobody's going to leave that. And
5:33:05thirdly, we haven't really touched on
5:33:07this. Give people stretch opportunities.
5:33:10Push them. Make them uncomfortable. Give
5:33:12them opportunities that they would not
5:33:15imagine on their own that they could
5:33:17accomplish. What this does is one, it
5:33:20gives them opportunity to grow. Cool.
5:33:22Amazing. But it also shows them that you
5:33:24trust them. Trust begets trust. When you
5:33:28show your team that you trust them, they
5:33:31will show you in return trust to you.
5:33:34Like I've said, I try to ask every new
5:33:37hire on any team that I'm running, what
5:33:40do you want to accomplish in your
5:33:42career? What is your career goal? And
5:33:44this isn't just blowing smoke. It's
5:33:46literally how we tailor projects and
5:33:48opportunities for the individual working
5:33:50on the team. This accelerates their
5:33:52growth, accelerates their loyalty, and
5:33:56it makes them want to contribute more
5:33:58and help other people on the team
5:34:00realize their goals as well. One element
5:34:03of building a strong team culture is
5:34:06building an effective culture. Typically
5:34:08on creative teams, you have a lot of
5:34:11individuals that are individual
5:34:13contributors. They're makers. And often
5:34:16times in organizations, those makers get
5:34:19because people set up random
5:34:22meetings throughout the day. For a lot
5:34:24of individuals, a meeting is no big
5:34:27deal. You hop on and then you got the
5:34:28next meeting. Maybe you have a 30-minute
5:34:30gap. Okay, cool. I'll do some like
5:34:31random little assa tasks, send some
5:34:33emails, whatever. If you're a creator,
5:34:35you're a maker, that ruins everything
5:34:38because your whole goal is to get into
5:34:41the flow state. And if you get into the
5:34:43flow state and you're editing and time
5:34:45is nothing, it's non-existent and you're
5:34:47just killing it. And then all of a
5:34:49sudden, ding, that Google calendar
5:34:52notification says meeting in 10 minutes.
5:34:54Well, boom, done. It's over. Then you
5:34:56hop onto the call. Amazing. Awesome.
5:34:58Call happens. And then you try and get
5:35:00back in the edit. It's going to take you
5:35:0230 to 45, maybe even upwards of an hour
5:35:05to get back into that same state that
5:35:06you were in before. And so what I
5:35:09recommend you do for your team culture
5:35:12is implement what Paul Graham created
5:35:15which is the maker manager schedule. And
5:35:17basically what it is is it identifies
5:35:19that there are two different types of
5:35:21individuals within an org. You have
5:35:23makers and managers. Managers are
5:35:25typically people that are managing teams
5:35:28and they get done by having
5:35:31meetings. Meetings actually are
5:35:34literally integral to their role. If
5:35:37they don't have meetings, they're not
5:35:38getting anything done. On the flip side,
5:35:39a
5:35:40maker, meetings are their enemy. All the
5:35:43editors and creatives watching this are
5:35:45like nodding their heads. Their
5:35:46heads are going to roll off their neck
5:35:47right now. They're like, "Yeah, meetings
5:35:49suck. Half the time I don't even
5:35:51contribute. I don't even get information
5:35:53that is necessary other than for 5
5:35:54minutes of the call." And then the other
5:35:5625 minutes was completely unnecessary.
5:35:58The issue is there's no problem with
5:36:00either. Neither one is right or wrong.
5:36:03The problem is when either one tries to
5:36:06function within the other one's setup.
5:36:08Okay? So when a maker gets pulled into a
5:36:12manager schedule or when a manager gets
5:36:14pulled into a maker schedule. Now
5:36:16typically within organizations like I
5:36:18said you have both. It's not like you
5:36:20have a team only of makers or only of
5:36:22managers. Neither would be possible. So
5:36:24what I recommend doing is creating maker
5:36:28manager schedule. Now, the way that I
5:36:31typically like to operate, and you can
5:36:33mold this to whatever works best for you
5:36:35and your team, but the way that I
5:36:36operate is the first half of the day is
5:36:39your maker time. So, for me, this looks
5:36:42like usually 7:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. I'm
5:36:45in maker mode. This is when I am working
5:36:48on drafting things like this, or maybe
5:36:52I'm writing a script for a future video,
5:36:54or I'm reviewing a script for a client
5:36:56and giving them notes on how they could
5:36:58improve it. That is my maker time. And I
5:37:00do my best to not interrupt anybody on
5:37:03my team and pull them into a meeting
5:37:05during maker time. That is reserved.
5:37:08That is holy and sacred time for them to
5:37:11do their thing. Now, you do need some
5:37:14manager time. Meetings, unfortunately,
5:37:16have to occur. I say unfortunately cuz I
5:37:18think now I'm in a season where I'm a
5:37:19little bit more in a a maker uh mode
5:37:22than manager as much, but they're
5:37:23important and they have to occur. So,
5:37:25typically the way I run my schedule is
5:37:2712 to 5 is my manager time. This is
5:37:30where I try to schedule all my meetings.
5:37:32Now, do I hold to this perfectly? No.
5:37:34One of our partners is in the UK and so
5:37:37because of that time difference, there's
5:37:39one day a week where I have a meeting at
5:37:408:00 a.m. But if you are intentional and
5:37:43you create this system, you empower the
5:37:46team to be able to follow that. You
5:37:48empower your editors, your designers,
5:37:50your strategists to be able to actually
5:37:52have five, six, seven hours of
5:37:55uninterrupted flow work. It's incredible
5:37:59the level of efficiency that you get.
5:38:01Also, the team loves it. They
5:38:03they prefer it so much. And typically,
5:38:05what you'll find is they actually end up
5:38:07pushing you towards making one day a
5:38:10week an entire maker day. And what I
5:38:12like to do is I usually have Wednesdays
5:38:14be that day. So Monday would be a
5:38:16meeting day or a manager day and I would
5:38:18stack as many calls as I could
5:38:20on that day to try and have as few the
5:38:23rest of the week cuz once you're in that
5:38:24mode, you might as well just like suffer
5:38:26entirely. But then on Tuesday, I would
5:38:29operate in the morning as my maker time.
5:38:31And then usually the back half, like 2
5:38:33to 5 would be manager time. Wednesdays,
5:38:37I'd block entirely for maker time. And
5:38:39then Thursday would follow and Friday
5:38:40would follow the same exact schedule as
5:38:42Tuesday. There's probably an icon that's
5:38:44popped up that breaks this down. We have
5:38:46a little playbook for you on this
5:38:47that'll walk you through how to build
5:38:50your maker and manager schedule. I can't
5:38:53emphasize the importance of this enough.
5:38:56You will gain so much efficiency and
5:38:58your team will be much happier with
5:39:00their work if you operate this way. So,
5:39:02we've talked a lot about hiring,
5:39:03onboarding, and culture. Right now, one
5:39:06thing that we haven't discussed or
5:39:08touched on yet is the great debate that
5:39:12has basically started to take place in
5:39:14society since 2020. And that is remote
5:39:18work versus inerson or hybrid. And I
5:39:22think there are a lot of benefits and
5:39:25detractors to all three. And so what I
5:39:29want to do is walk through a couple of
5:39:31different factors that you're going to
5:39:33be thinking about when deciding or
5:39:35determining whether or not you're going
5:39:36to be a remote work uh team, a hybrid
5:39:40team, or an in-person team. And so we're
5:39:42going to walk through these different
5:39:44factors, and I'm going to give you just
5:39:45a couple of points on it. Again, this is
5:39:47a sheet that you can download. I think
5:39:48this will be very useful for you to use.
5:39:50This is an important thing to get right.
5:39:53And when I say get right, I'm actually
5:39:55going to explain that a little bit more.
5:39:56It's not that there is a right or wrong
5:39:58way. There's not. All of them work. All
5:40:00of them have downsides to it. The key is
5:40:03to make sure that you are very
5:40:04intentional about how you go about doing
5:40:07this. The way you build culture remotely
5:40:09is far different than in person. You
5:40:11have to be a lot more intentional and
5:40:13thoughtful remotely because as we all
5:40:16know, there's amazing moments in person
5:40:18when you're just walking through the
5:40:19office and you happen to pass by that
5:40:21employee and you just randomly embark on
5:40:23a 20-minute conversation where you learn
5:40:25a lot about them, right? You're able to
5:40:26pour into them, help answer or solve a
5:40:28problem they are encountering. That
5:40:30doesn't really happen as much by
5:40:33accident remotely. It's not like you're
5:40:35just like walking through the Zoom rooms
5:40:37and happen to stumble upon someone. Like
5:40:39that's not how it works. And so you have
5:40:41to be more intentional with how you set
5:40:42up meetings, check-ins, etc. So factor
5:40:45number one is flexibility. Okay? And for
5:40:49remote work, the flexibility is
5:40:51unbelievably high, right? Employees can
5:40:53work from anywhere. They're adaptable
5:40:54with their schedules. It allows the
5:40:57employee to be very flexible. This is
5:41:00viewed, in my opinion, as a benefit. By
5:41:03doing this, you actually in some
5:41:06instances can pay lower than typical
5:41:10market rates because this is a huge
5:41:12benefit for some individuals. There's a
5:41:14lot of people out there that are parents
5:41:16that maybe have young ones and they want
5:41:18to be able to be home around their kids.
5:41:20It doesn't mean that they're not
5:41:21working. It just means that if their
5:41:23kid, you know, starts puking or
5:41:25something like that, they can actually
5:41:26take care of it, right? It also cuts
5:41:28down on commute costs for them. There's
5:41:30a whole lot of benefits that play out
5:41:31for the employee and the company. Now,
5:41:33for inperson, the flexibility is pretty
5:41:35low. Let's be real. These are typically
5:41:37fixed hours and a required location that
5:41:40you are working at. Now, there's a lot
5:41:41of benefits to this, as we'll see. And
5:41:43now that we live in a world where a lot
5:41:45of people have become accustomed to
5:41:47remote work, this is something that a
5:41:50lot of different teams are finding
5:41:52difficult. Now, hybrid is a little bit
5:41:54of a medium here. Uh, and that's kind of
5:41:56what you're going to find is hybrid for
5:41:57all of these is kind of like a happy
5:41:59medium between both. This is a mix of
5:42:00remote work and office work. This is far
5:42:03more flexible, but provides enough
5:42:05structure that maybe the company might
5:42:07feel a little bit more comfortable with
5:42:09that cadence. A lot of individuals that
5:42:11run companies have this fear that if
5:42:14people are fully remote, how do I know
5:42:15that they're actually working, right?
5:42:17And so the hybrid model allows you to be
5:42:19able to see them in action maybe two or
5:42:21three times a week, but then maybe
5:42:24they're the type of employee that gets a
5:42:26lot more work done at home. Okay? And so
5:42:29the flexibility here is medium or
5:42:31moderate and I think is probably more
5:42:35realistic for most organizations and
5:42:37individuals than an all or nothing
5:42:40approach. The next factor that we're
5:42:41looking at is collaboration. Remote work
5:42:44requires strong digital communication
5:42:46tools, potential for time zone
5:42:48challenges as well. So you need to make
5:42:50sure that your tech stack and your
5:42:52standard operating procedure for
5:42:54communication is very clearly
5:42:56articulated to the team. If you expect
5:42:58people to be messaging back and forth
5:43:00constantly all day long in Slack, you
5:43:03need to make sure that they know that.
5:43:04If you require that people hop on Zoom
5:43:07calls, like that needs to be very clear.
5:43:10The amount of collaboration that happens
5:43:12by accident in a remote environment is
5:43:16very minimal. Every once in a while, you
5:43:17get blessed with that that moment where
5:43:19you're on a Zoom call talking about one
5:43:21thing and then it changes and evolves
5:43:23into a big project or whatever, but for
5:43:25the most part, you don't get those happy
5:43:27accidents. Now, for collaboration in
5:43:29person, this is far easier. Uh, in my
5:43:31opinion, there's a lot of real-time
5:43:33collaboration that occurs. If we're
5:43:35talking about a creative director giving
5:43:36notes to an editor, it's so much
5:43:38different providing notes on frame.io
5:43:41and and giving a couple of notes here
5:43:43and there versus sitting down with the
5:43:46editor and being like, "What if we did
5:43:47this?" And then the editor chimes in on
5:43:49that. And they feed each other and they
5:43:51ladder up to a way better idea than
5:43:53probably what they would have landed on
5:43:55using just a Frame or some sort of
5:43:57digital service like that. Now, don't
5:43:59get me wrong, we use Frame. I love
5:44:01Frame. I use it with all of our
5:44:02partners. I've used it for years and I
5:44:04think it's a very effective tool and
5:44:06better than 99% of alternatives if
5:44:08you're not in person. But there is a
5:44:10beauty of having the team working
5:44:13together on the ground in person. Being
5:44:16able to real time go back and forth on
5:44:18potential solves and solutions. Again,
5:44:21what you'll notice with hybrid is this
5:44:23is a balanced approach. depending on how
5:44:24many days you have this individual
5:44:25coming into the office is going to be
5:44:27the amount of time that they get those
5:44:29happy accidents, those random
5:44:31occurrences where collaboration takes
5:44:33place that was not planned. But it does
5:44:35also give them the ability to be a
5:44:37little bit more focused at home and have
5:44:40less distraction. Collaboration can be a
5:44:42big benefit, but it can also be a
5:44:44detractor of productivity, which brings
5:44:46us to the next factor, which is
5:44:48productivity. Now productivity for uh at
5:44:52home or remote work varies. This is very
5:44:55dependent on the individual. I would say
5:44:57when I look at the teams that I've ran,
5:44:59half of the people fall into the camp of
5:45:01they are highly effective at home. They
5:45:05have a lot of agency. They know how to
5:45:07own their own and they're mature
5:45:09enough to be able to manage their time
5:45:11effectively and not fall into the trap
5:45:13of putting on Netflix and getting into
5:45:16their PJs or, you know, taking 2 hours
5:45:20out of the middle of their day to cook a
5:45:21crazy lunch or some I know those
5:45:23are a lot of the fears that a lot of
5:45:24CEOs and founders have uh for remote
5:45:26workers. Now, productivity for in-person
5:45:28work, I actually believe it's the exact
5:45:30same answer. So, it varies depending on
5:45:32the individual. Some people thrive in an
5:45:35environment where they are away from
5:45:37their home and they know, "I'm in the
5:45:39office. This is my working time."
5:45:41However, there are a lot of individuals
5:45:43that have the gift of gab and they love
5:45:45to talk and they get really chatty when
5:45:48they're around their co-workers. And
5:45:49actually, I fall into this category. I
5:45:52personally get a lot more work done when
5:45:55I work from home and do a deep work
5:45:58session versus trying to do the same
5:46:00deep work in an office. even if I have
5:46:02my own cubicle or my own
5:46:04office, you know, the roles that I've
5:46:06had over the years tend to be roles
5:46:08where a lot of people want my input on
5:46:11things. And so I remember like Vayner
5:46:12Media for example, loved the work
5:46:14environment there. It was super cool. It
5:46:16was an open floor plan and everything,
5:46:18but the downside to it, like the benefit
5:46:20was like I could turn over to Dkirk or
5:46:22to Drock or anybody on the team and be
5:46:25like, "Hey, do you want to come check
5:46:26this out? Let's jam on it." The downside
5:46:28was when I was deep in an edit, anybody
5:46:31could do that to me and they could just
5:46:33tap my shoulder whenever and there's no
5:46:35like do not disturb, you know, mode on
5:46:38when you're in person. And so I actually
5:46:41find that half of the individuals that
5:46:43I've worked with are not very effective
5:46:45in office. They don't have enough
5:46:47discipline to not engage in random
5:46:50conversations here and there. And one
5:46:52thing I'll say is even if they are
5:46:54ideulating on a piece of content or
5:46:57they're working on it, sometimes that's
5:46:58beneficial, but sometimes that's not
5:47:00what the priority is right now. If they
5:47:01have an edit that's due tomorrow and
5:47:03they're sitting there talking with the
5:47:04team about a video we're going to film
5:47:06in two weeks, that's not the best use of
5:47:07their time. Okay? And so again, I think
5:47:10this varies and depends on the
5:47:11individual. So that's why again, I like
5:47:14a hybrid approach here because you can
5:47:17actually build a team where you reverse
5:47:19engineer the individual. Maybe some
5:47:21people need three days, four days
5:47:24working from home and only come into the
5:47:25office one or two days a week, while
5:47:27others maybe it's like, no, they need to
5:47:29be in five days a week. And you mutually
5:47:31agree upon that because they're
5:47:32self-aware and know, yeah, I don't I
5:47:35don't do a good job at home. Like I end
5:47:36up just like around, turning the
5:47:38TV on or cleaning my house or whatever.
5:47:40I do a lot of home activities when I'm
5:47:42at home. So ultimately, I think
5:47:44especially on the productivity side, you
5:47:46need to reverse engineer the individual.
5:47:48Now I understand there are some of you
5:47:49that are in bigger organizations and
5:47:51you're about to build a creative team
5:47:53and they have their way of operating and
5:47:55you don't have the ability to be
5:47:56flexible there then okay cool like
5:47:58borrow my life philosophy which is
5:48:00whatever you are given you will turn to
5:48:02your advantage okay so if you do need to
5:48:04be in person 24/7 okay cool make it your
5:48:07advantage you know organize a morning
5:48:09breakfast once a week where you and the
5:48:12team have pancakes and coffee and you
5:48:14jam on different things you've observed
5:48:16online that maybe could apply to the
5:48:18content you're making or whatever. Or if
5:48:20you have to be remote and you can't be
5:48:22in person, okay, cool. Maybe what you do
5:48:24is you create a happy hour on Fridays or
5:48:26Thursdays. Not Fridays, cuz nobody wants
5:48:27to do a happy hour on Friday
5:48:29with their co-workers. They want to go
5:48:30out with their homies. But on Thursday,
5:48:32maybe you end the day with like an hour
5:48:33session where you all have cocktails or,
5:48:36you know, you drink sodas, whatever the
5:48:38deal is, kombucha if you're in
5:48:40Bellingham, Washington, uh or Portland,
5:48:42Oregon. And like maybe you do that and
5:48:43you all jam and maybe sometimes you're
5:48:46talking about work stuff, maybe
5:48:47sometimes you're just talking about
5:48:48life. I think that you can always try to
5:48:51take the benefits from the opposite
5:48:54operation. So if you're in person, you
5:48:57can take the benefits from remote or if
5:48:59you're remote, you can try and take the
5:49:00benefits from in person and replicate
5:49:02them in your own way. Now again, this is
5:49:05another situation where hybrid is the
5:49:08best move in my opinion. That's what I
5:49:11like to run. The next factor we're going
5:49:13to take into account here is cost,
5:49:15right? I mean, ultimately, we got
5:49:16limited budgets and and some of us have
5:49:18more limited budgets than others. And
5:49:20so, this is a a factor that I think is
5:49:23probably top of mind for a lot of
5:49:25individuals. And when it comes to remote
5:49:27work, this is probably the most cost
5:49:29effective. Okay? You save on office
5:49:31space. You save on like the employees
5:49:34save on commuting expenses. You don't
5:49:36have to have relocation costs if you're
5:49:38a fully remote operation. And you know,
5:49:41maybe you, the founder, are based in New
5:49:43York City. You can hire somebody in
5:49:45Florida and California, and Kansas,
5:49:47wherever, and they're not going to have
5:49:49to move to New York City, and so you
5:49:52don't have to pay an egregious
5:49:53relocation package. Okay? So, you save a
5:49:56lot of cost there. Now, for the office
5:49:59in person, this is the highest cost
5:50:02option here. you're going to have to pay
5:50:03for an office, whether you're buying it
5:50:05outright or you're renting. That's going
5:50:07to be a pretty high overhead every
5:50:09month. You also have utilities. And then
5:50:12typically nowadays, I mean, I think this
5:50:14is a great thing, but tougher for small
5:50:16businesses, you know, with the rise of
5:50:18Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple, all
5:50:21these cool in-person offices. Everyone's
5:50:23aware that like companies can provide
5:50:25cereal and and fruit and coffee and all
5:50:27these, you know, kombucha, beer on tap,
5:50:29cold brew, all of this And so more
5:50:32and more employees are starting to
5:50:34expect some perks for being in the
5:50:37office, okay? Like at the very least
5:50:39granola bars and, you know, sodas or
5:50:42something like that in the fridge. And
5:50:43so you incur not only the cost of your
5:50:46rent or your mortgage, you have
5:50:49utilities and you have the cost of some
5:50:50perks that you're going to probably need
5:50:52to provide. Now, in the beginning, is
5:50:54this absolutely necessary? No. Of
5:50:56course, there's going to be people that
5:50:57argue in the comments about like, you
5:50:58know, people have gotten soft. They need
5:51:01doesn't matter. It's more expensive to
5:51:04be in person for sure. Hybrid's
5:51:06funny on cost. It's actually, I think,
5:51:09the maybe only or one of the only
5:51:12scenarios where hybrid is a very bad
5:51:14option cuz you kind of get
5:51:17right? You're paying for an office. You
5:51:20incur the cost of having this space. And
5:51:22if it's hybrid, you need to have space
5:51:25available for the remote workers to come
5:51:27in, but they're not in all the time. So,
5:51:29you're paying for space that's not
5:51:31getting used all the time. So, you have
5:51:33free empty space that you're not
5:51:36monetizing. That kind of sucks. This is
5:51:39the detractor in my opinion to the
5:51:42hybrid model, which I have been very
5:51:45clearly in favor of up until this point.
5:51:47So, if cost is your major factor, it's
5:51:50your number one factor, then hybrid
5:51:52might not be for you right now. That
5:51:53might be something that you can aspire
5:51:55to. But maybe if cost is your number one
5:51:57priority, you're probably going to want
5:51:59to go remote. Now, the next factor that
5:52:02we're looking at is talent pool. What
5:52:04individuals do you have access to? And
5:52:06when you are fully remote, you have
5:52:08access to the whole world. You literally
5:52:10could hire anybody anywhere at any time.
5:52:13That opens up the door for not only very
5:52:16impressive, highly skilled talent, but
5:52:19also very impressive, highly skilled
5:52:22talent at a reduced cost. Think about it
5:52:24this way. a very very talented editor, a
5:52:2710 out of 10 in LA versus a 10 out of 10
5:52:30editor, same exact skill set living in
5:52:33Kansas City. Very different. I mean,
5:52:35honestly, the difference between a New
5:52:37York City or LA editor that it's a 10
5:52:39out of 10 and a Las Vegas editor is very
5:52:41different. And so, if you are a remote
5:52:44team, you can hire highly talented. If
5:52:47you're based in LA, you don't have to
5:52:48hire LA editors for the LA Premium. you
5:52:52do have the flexibility to get away with
5:52:54not having to bring those individuals.
5:52:57You also get access to talent that is
5:52:59literally across the world.
5:53:01Okay? And so, like, if you're starting
5:53:02to make international content and stuff
5:53:05that you're going global with, you have
5:53:07access to a talent pool that's going to
5:53:09understand the nuances of those new
5:53:11cultures that maybe you don't get. This
5:53:13allows your talent pool to go from your
5:53:15local market to the entire world. If you
5:53:17are fully in office, however, you really
5:53:21limit your talent pool. If you're based
5:53:23in Los Angeles or New York City, your
5:53:26talent pool is going to be fine. You're
5:53:27you're not going to have an issue,
5:53:29especially when it comes to creatives.
5:53:30Like those are the hubs where the most
5:53:32amount of creatives are. But if you find
5:53:34yourself in like Chattanooga, Tennessee
5:53:36or El Paso, Texas, yeah, you might not
5:53:39have quite the same access to talent
5:53:41that those folks in LA and NYC have.
5:53:44This becomes a major constraint. You are
5:53:47all of a sudden limited to people in
5:53:49your local area or people that are
5:53:51willing to relocate. And that's going to
5:53:53drive your cost up because more than
5:53:55likely if you're going to bring somebody
5:53:56from LA to El Paso, Texas, you're
5:53:59probably going to have to pay them a
5:54:00premium because you're compensating them
5:54:03for a massive lifestyle change and
5:54:05literally them missing out on the
5:54:07lifestyle and opportunities that come
5:54:10from being in LA. The amount of
5:54:12opportunities that pop up for a video
5:54:14editor in Los Angeles are absurd. You
5:54:16can be at a coffee shop editing a video
5:54:18and have five different people walk up
5:54:20to you and talk to you about your work.
5:54:21And that's networking at scale. And so
5:54:24if you move to El Paso, you know,
5:54:26nothing against El Paso. I love El Paso.
5:54:28I've been there once. If you live in El
5:54:30Paso, I almost guarantee if you're in a
5:54:32in a coffee shop editing, you're
5:54:34not going to have five different
5:54:35opportunities potentially pop up like
5:54:36you would in a New York City or a Los
5:54:38Angeles. you really limit your talent
5:54:40pool when you are local, especially if
5:54:42you are local in a non- major market.
5:54:45Now, the hybrid model is a little bit
5:54:48better than the local. So, you can kind
5:54:50of use it as like a benefit that you you
5:54:52place in front of the candidate. Yes,
5:54:54you do have to relocate, but you're not
5:54:55going to have to be in office all the
5:54:56time. You can be remote. And so, maybe
5:54:58there's a scenario where they could be
5:55:00remote and go back to the town they're
5:55:02from and work remotely for 4 days a
5:55:04week. So, they could be in office 3 days
5:55:05a week and then they could go travel for
5:55:07four. This provides a lot more
5:55:08flexibility for the employee which does
5:55:11make the relocation offer a little bit
5:55:14more palatable from my experience. The
5:55:16next factor is culture and engagement.
5:55:18And I think you guys can probably
5:55:19already imagine where I'm going with
5:55:21this. Remote is very hard to build
5:55:24culture and to drive engagement within
5:55:26your team. There's a huge difference
5:55:28when I say, "Hey, Trevor, what do you
5:55:29think of this idea?" when he's right in
5:55:31front of me versus if I send it on
5:55:33Slack. He might be deep in work. He
5:55:35might be twiddling his thumbs,
5:55:37around, doing nothing. It might take him
5:55:38an hour to respond, right? And so speed,
5:55:41engagement, and culture are much slower.
5:55:45It's not impossible. You can absolutely
5:55:47build a very powerful culture remotely,
5:55:49but it just takes more time and requires
5:55:52far more intentionality. I I believe
5:55:54that if you are going to go the remote
5:55:58route, be very very intentional with
5:56:01your check-ins. send a morning check-in
5:56:03on Slack seeing how the team's doing. Is
5:56:05there anything that I can help with? Are
5:56:07there any roadblocks that I can bulldoze
5:56:09through for you? Is there any clarity
5:56:10that I can provide you? How are you
5:56:12feeling? Are you feeling healthy? Are
5:56:13you sick? Can I send you juice? Like
5:56:15anything like that that can help you
5:56:17expedite building the company and team
5:56:20culture. The other thing that you can
5:56:21do, now this is uh a cost, this is a
5:56:24higher investment, but if you have the
5:56:26budget to, one thing I found very
5:56:28effective is if you do have a remote
5:56:30team, you can create a in-person meetup.
5:56:34Okay? And this is a one-time event or
5:56:36maybe it's a quarterly event uh that
5:56:38takes place where you fly the team into
5:56:41one spot and you all hang out. What I
5:56:43would recommend if you're going to do
5:56:44that is make it a combination of fun and
5:56:46work. It shouldn't just all be fun and
5:56:48around, but it shouldn't all
5:56:50just be work, too. You want to give the
5:56:52employees the opportunity to do what
5:56:53they can't do, right? When you are in
5:56:55person, which I'll touch on in a second,
5:56:57one really cool thing that does happen
5:56:59is some employees are like, "Hey, you
5:57:01want to go grab dinner? Like, we're
5:57:02working late. Let's go grab beers. Let's
5:57:03go jam." And they develop a closer,
5:57:06tight-knit relationship, and that has a
5:57:08massive ripple effect throughout your
5:57:09team. The closer they are, the better
5:57:11they're going to communicate. the more
5:57:12they're going to understand each other,
5:57:13the less room there is for
5:57:15misunderstandings and weird drama and
5:57:17conflict. Now, like I was saying, for
5:57:19the inerson, I think this is the easiest
5:57:21method for building culture. But there
5:57:23are some downsides to it. One, there's a
5:57:25lot of young people that are in the
5:57:27workforce now that entered the workforce
5:57:30after or during co and so they've never
5:57:32been in person and so they have no idea
5:57:34how to hold themselves, how to behave
5:57:37maturely. And so you do sometimes,
5:57:40especially I've noticed on creative
5:57:41teams or younger teams, you run into
5:57:44scenarios where maybe there's a little
5:57:46bit more drama that's going to pop up.
5:57:48You might have to deal with a little bit
5:57:49more interpersonal training and
5:57:52education on how we conduct ourselves.
5:57:54Just like you get so much benefit from
5:57:56the high frequency, high touch, lots of
5:57:59contact, as we know, if we spend an
5:58:01entire weekend with our significant
5:58:03other, by the end of that weekend, we
5:58:05might be a little bit more likely to get
5:58:06in an argument. The same thing happens
5:58:08with teams. If you spend all day every
5:58:10day with each other, you might start
5:58:12getting a little irritated and maybe
5:58:14make a sly comment and that can
5:58:15snowball. And so that that's one thing
5:58:18that I would caution you to be aware of
5:58:19is if you are building a team that is
5:58:22utilizing a lot younger talent and more
5:58:26junior individuals that are earlier in
5:58:28their career, you are going to have to
5:58:30spend a little bit more time educating
5:58:32them on how to conduct themselves. Now,
5:58:34hybrid is a beautiful blend of the two,
5:58:36right? You get the in-person dynamic
5:58:38where you're able to scale culture
5:58:41quicker, right? You're able to reinforce
5:58:42good behaviors and correct bad ones a
5:58:44lot faster, but you also get the benefit
5:58:46of maybe not everybody is in the office
5:58:49every single day and so they're not all
5:58:51just chatting around a table every
5:58:54single day as well. And so you get the
5:58:56best of both worlds. You get expedited
5:58:58culture, strength of culture, but also
5:59:00you get to retain productivity that
5:59:02maybe some teams lose by always being in
5:59:06person together. The beauty of having a
5:59:07team that all love each other and get
5:59:09along really well and love to chat and
5:59:11work on is well, they work really
5:59:14well together and they get a lot done.
5:59:15The downside is is maybe they end up
5:59:18falling out of productivity a little bit
5:59:20because they're chatting too much.
5:59:21Personally, I would actually prefer, as
5:59:23a side note, for that to be my problem
5:59:25than the alternative. I'd rather that
5:59:27they they want to talk to each other
5:59:29versus them not wanting to talk to each
5:59:31other. So ultimately, I think what we
5:59:32have here is good, better, best. I
5:59:36personally like in person a lot. I I
5:59:40think that there are more benefits to in
5:59:43person than remote for the company, but
5:59:46that's one-sided. I think for a lot of
5:59:49individuals, remote work is better. I
5:59:51don't like to only do things in my
5:59:54benefit. I want to have a mutual
5:59:57exchange of benefit. And that's where I
5:59:59like hybrid. I think hybrid is the best
6:00:01version if you can afford it. If you
6:00:03have the ability to pay for an office
6:00:05that is not always being used and you
6:00:07won't get pissed when people
6:00:08aren't always in there, then hybrid is
6:00:11the way to go. You get the best of both
6:00:12worlds. You get to scale culture,
6:00:14correct bad behaviors, reinforce good
6:00:16ones. You get to do fun activities with
6:00:18the team. you get to know them better
6:00:20because you get the, you know, water
6:00:22cooler talk where you get to learn
6:00:23something about somebody that you had no
6:00:25clue that they were interested in. And
6:00:27maybe that's something that you can
6:00:28start to pour into. Maybe you find out
6:00:30that somebody on your team loves making
6:00:33music. Maybe you have a video coming up
6:00:34that you want an original track to and
6:00:36so they actually go home and work on
6:00:38that as a project. Okay, cool. Probably
6:00:40would have never discovered that over
6:00:42Zoom. But if you are at a stage where
6:00:44you can't afford an office, then I truly
6:00:47believe you can absolutely build a
6:00:49powerful strong team remotely. I've done
6:00:52it. I've literally had a team of 14
6:00:54people all remote before. I know that it
6:00:57is possible. It is a challenge and you
6:00:59have to be far more intentional and
6:01:01methodical with how you approach it. So
6:01:03to recap, hybrid in my opinion is the
6:01:06best. Then the next two, I'm just going
6:01:09to say it. In person is best for the
6:01:10company. remote is best for the
6:01:12employee. And so you have to determine
6:01:14what factors here are most important to
6:01:16you. So the sheet that you have that
6:01:18you've downloaded, what I want you to do
6:01:20is order in priority what are the
6:01:22factors that are most important to you
6:01:24right now. And that becomes your
6:01:26decision-making framework. That's how
6:01:28you determine whether you're going to go
6:01:29in person, remote, or hybrid. So here
6:01:32are my final thoughts on building your
6:01:35team. Again, I think this is arguably
6:01:38the most important part of this entire
6:01:39course. One, a strong team is not just
6:01:42about skill. It's about culture,
6:01:43alignment, growth, and trust. Two,
6:01:46define and reinforce your core values
6:01:49daily. Right? If if good branding is an
6:01:52intentional pairing of relevant things
6:01:54done consistently, well, pair yourself
6:01:57and your organization with your core
6:01:59values consistently and then the team
6:02:03will inherently associate the two.
6:02:04Branding works externally and internally
6:02:07just as effectively. Number three,
6:02:09please be radically transparent. Just
6:02:12like trust begets trust, transparency
6:02:14begets transparency. You want your team
6:02:16to be transparent with you about the
6:02:17problems that are occurring, right? You
6:02:19don't want them secretly dealing with a
6:02:21bunch of different problems that you
6:02:22have no idea about and then one day it
6:02:23blows up in your face. Well, they're not
6:02:25going to be open and vulnerable with you
6:02:27if you're not open and vulnerable with
6:02:29them. Number four, make growth a
6:02:30priority. Your team is going to see
6:02:32themselves on your team a lot longer if
6:02:36they see a long road ahead of growth. If
6:02:40they think that they're probably going
6:02:41to be capped out on their growth within
6:02:44the next 3 months, guess what they're
6:02:45spending their time doing right now?
6:02:47Posting on LinkedIn and looking at
6:02:49potential other opportunities because
6:02:50they want to move the on. Number
6:02:52five, the most important one to me and
6:02:54how I strive to always lead. Lead with
6:02:57empathy. Your team will respond with
6:03:00empathy back. So when you up as the
6:03:03leader, they will be empathetic towards
6:03:05you rather than holding it against you.
6:03:06When a mistake occurs, often times it's
6:03:09not intentional. They're not trying to
6:03:12ruin your brand. They're not trying to
6:03:15up the process or lose the company
6:03:17money. Be empathetic to all that they
6:03:19have going on. A lot of times these
6:03:22people have lives outside of their job.
6:03:25Crazy, crazy concept. and their lives
6:03:28outside of the job affect their job. I
6:03:32truly believe that if you show up on a
6:03:34daily basis as an empathetic leader,
6:03:36your team is going to stick with you and
6:03:40fight for you and show up for you in a
6:03:42way that you could never imagine. Lead
6:03:45your team with empathy, not fear. If you
6:03:48lead your team with empathy rather than
6:03:50fear, creativity will flourish rather
6:03:53than be stifled. Culture isn't created
6:03:56in the words that you say. It's created
6:03:58in the actions that you choose to do
6:04:00every single day. If you're intentional
6:04:03about it, you won't just have employees.
6:04:05You'll have a team that's fully locked
6:04:06in and ready to build something much
6:04:09bigger than the
6:04:12individual. All right, y'all. We have
6:04:14gotten to the final section. We've gone
6:04:17over brand. We've gone over content. And
6:04:19we've gone over building out your team.
6:04:21And we are at the final piece of the
6:04:23puzzle, which is monetize. And we're
6:04:25going to start with trust before
6:04:27transactions. Now, most people make the
6:04:30mistake of trying to monetize too early.
6:04:32They push offers before trust is built
6:04:35and then they wonder why no one buys.
6:04:37The reality is trust is the currency
6:04:40that preeds the transaction. Now, before
6:04:43we dive in, I want to just say I
6:04:45understand this position to be in. Last
6:04:48night after filming for a full 12-hour
6:04:49day, Trevor and I were sitting at the
6:04:51Airbnb and we were actually debating and
6:04:53going back and forth just looking at
6:04:55what could we charge for this course and
6:04:57how many people do we think we could buy
6:04:58and we were running the numbers and I
6:05:00will tell you it is unbelievably
6:05:02tempting. So, I want to empathize with
6:05:04you if you are in a position where maybe
6:05:07you did try to monetize too early. Maybe
6:05:09you did try and get transactions before
6:05:11you built trust. I understand it
6:05:13completely. Maybe you're in the position
6:05:15right now where you're building your
6:05:16brand and you haven't made any asks, but
6:05:19you're still early in the process and
6:05:20you're like, "Fuck, I really want to
6:05:22make a little bit of money off of this."
6:05:24I get it. And off top, we got bills to
6:05:27pay and mouths to feed. So, if that is
6:05:30the case, then you got to do what you
6:05:32got to do. What I'm about to walk
6:05:33through is the best case scenario. But I
6:05:36understand there are realities that we
6:05:37live in, and so you have to do what you
6:05:39got to do and take care of your family.
6:05:41But with that, before you ever try to
6:05:44monetize, I believe that your brand
6:05:46should do these three things. Provide an
6:05:49unbelievable amount of value upfront.
6:05:52Your audience should feel like they're
6:05:53winning and getting so much value before
6:05:55they ever even spend a dollar. Number
6:05:58two is demonstrate credibility and
6:05:59expertise. You need to become the go-to
6:06:01authority in your industry. And thirdly,
6:06:04establish a relationship with your
6:06:06audience. Engagement actually matters.
6:06:09If people feel like they know you, sales
6:06:11become effortless. You're not having to
6:06:14push, convince, inject all this scarcity
6:06:17and urgency, they trust you. They
6:06:19believe that what you are offering is of
6:06:21actual value because what you've offered
6:06:24for free has been worth more than what
6:06:26they've invested. And so this leads us
6:06:28to defining your monetization model.
6:06:32Now, to be clear, I don't believe that
6:06:34all brands should monetize the same.
6:06:35Your monetization strategy should line
6:06:38up with your strengths, what you're
6:06:40providing, the value that you bring in
6:06:42your content, and more importantly, what
6:06:45your audience actually needs. So, here
6:06:47are five primary paths that you can take
6:06:50with your monetization model. Number one
6:06:51is services. Think agency life, think
6:06:55consulting, think coaching. This is
6:06:57ideal for hightouch direct impact with
6:07:00your clients. You'll find this works
6:07:02well if you have deep expertise and
6:07:05people are already asking for your
6:07:07advice. Number two is products. This is
6:07:09digital or physical. Some examples of
6:07:11digital are ebooks, templates,
6:07:14playbooks, courses. One thing to note
6:07:17here is these are also very high margin
6:07:19and so your profitability will be
6:07:21through the roof if you do this
6:07:22correctly. Now, a couple examples for
6:07:24physical are like a physical book or you
6:07:26could sell apparel. There's many
6:07:28different versions of this, but you're
6:07:29going to find that digital is higher
6:07:31margins. And so, I would encourage you
6:07:33to explore this and probably lean into
6:07:36more digital products earlier on so that
6:07:38you're able to scale. Number three is
6:07:40affiliates and sponsorships. If you've
6:07:42put the effort into building the trust,
6:07:44you're going to be able to monetize
6:07:46through very intentional and strategic
6:07:48partnerships with people that align with
6:07:50your brand. Now, what I would recommend
6:07:52you do is don't shill out tools and
6:07:56programs or software that you don't
6:07:58actually use. Make sure that you're
6:08:00always pushing stuff that you actually
6:08:03actually use and believe in. Your brand
6:08:05is your most valuable asset. And if you
6:08:07end up pushing out a bunch of products
6:08:08that you don't believe in or use and
6:08:11that are actually garbage for your
6:08:12community, that pairing done
6:08:14consistently will create a bad brand
6:08:17effect for you. people will start to
6:08:19associate you with the shitty product.
6:08:21So, make sure whatever you are pushing
6:08:23or promoting is something that you truly
6:08:26believe in and you know will be valuable
6:08:28for your audience. Number four is
6:08:30community and memberships. This can
6:08:32create recurring revenue for you via
6:08:34exclusive content, masterminds, online
6:08:37groups, or even paid newsletters. The
6:08:39list goes on and on. There's many
6:08:41different options for you in this realm.
6:08:42And the beauty of this is it's a great
6:08:44hub for your super fans and for you to
6:08:47go deeper with those fans and build a
6:08:50tighter connection and build greater
6:08:51loyalty with that audience. And number
6:08:54five is ads and content monetization.
6:08:57This looks like YouTube ad revenue,
6:09:00podcast sponsorships or even newsletter
6:09:02ads. This is a very popular route to go,
6:09:04but what I would encourage you to do is
6:09:06pair this with one of the other
6:09:08monetization models. Typically, in the
6:09:10beginning, you're not going to be
6:09:11earning that much in sponsorships or ad
6:09:13revenue, but it is a nice thing to be
6:09:15able to potentially cover costs of
6:09:17production for your content. This is
6:09:20especially effective for the hightra
6:09:22long-term brand. So, like I said in the
6:09:24beginning, you're not going to see much
6:09:26traction on this monetization model.
6:09:28This is kind of like a nice to have or
6:09:29an add-on to an already established,
6:09:32more effective and consistent
6:09:34monetization model. Now, a pro tip here
6:09:36is if you're not sure where to start, I
6:09:39would encourage you to look at your
6:09:40email and your DMs and your comments.
6:09:43More than likely, you can see what your
6:09:45audience is already asking for and then
6:09:47you can serve them what they already
6:09:49have identified they need. This will
6:09:51make it a lot easier to get conversions
6:09:53to occur. Next is share the knowledge,
6:09:57sell the execution. If you give away
6:09:59value freely, people will still pay for
6:10:01the help. A lot of people, and I I
6:10:03completely understand why, fear sharing
6:10:05way too much of their information for
6:10:07free. They think, "If I share everything
6:10:09I know, why would anybody ever pay me?"
6:10:12But the reality is is the more value you
6:10:14give, the more demand you create. The
6:10:17more value you give, the more trust you
6:10:20build. The more trust you have, the more
6:10:23likely someone is to convert. So, here's
6:10:25the formula. Share the knowledge, sell
6:10:28the execution. Your best content should
6:10:30be so valuable that people feel
6:10:32compelled to act. But then when they go
6:10:34to act, they realize that the execution
6:10:36is overwhelming and they might not have
6:10:39the tools, resources or knowledge to
6:10:41implement what you have told them to do.
6:10:43This is where the monetization comes
6:10:45into play. And as an example, I have
6:10:49modified my Harley-Davidsons like an
6:10:52insane amount. One of my bikes, it's a
6:10:54Harley-Davidson Road King special. And I
6:10:56have done so much to it, you wouldn't
6:10:59even recognize it as a Road King. Now,
6:11:00when I went to upgrade my exhaust pipe,
6:11:03for example, I watched probably a
6:11:05hundred different videos on YouTube on
6:11:07how to change the exhaust pipe. I just
6:11:09wanted to have the knowledge. I wanted
6:11:11to see what kind of pipes that I should
6:11:12choose between, what the best one was
6:11:14for my model. I consumed enough content
6:11:17to know exactly what to do. Now, if you
6:11:19know me, you know I'm not very
6:11:21mechanically inclined, like at all. And
6:11:23so in watching it, what it actually
6:11:25showed me was this is far too
6:11:27complicated and way too expensive of a
6:11:30vehicle for me to up. So what am I
6:11:32going to do? I'm going to go to the
6:11:34Harley-Davidson dealership that put
6:11:36content out for free showing me how I
6:11:38could go about doing that. And that's
6:11:40what I did. I ended up going and paying
6:11:42Harley to install the pipe. I didn't do
6:11:44it myself. And so they gave me all the
6:11:46knowledge and then they sold the
6:11:49execution. Another example is maybe you
6:11:51give away a framework that helps people
6:11:53land their first client. The knowledge
6:11:55is free but the execution requires
6:11:58additional guidance templates. That is
6:12:00what you sell. The execution of the
6:12:03knowledge. So the takeaway here is that
6:12:05the knowledge is free but you charge for
6:12:08the execution. And now we're going to
6:12:10build your offer stack. A oneizefits-all
6:12:14approach definitely will not work. We
6:12:17need something that is custom and
6:12:19tailored to each of us and what we are
6:12:21providing to the marketplace. Now, the
6:12:23best brands have multiple revenue
6:12:25streams. But guess what? They didn't
6:12:27start that way. Start with one offer,
6:12:29refine it, and then begin to expand.
6:12:32Don't start with five different offers.
6:12:33You're going to confuse your audience.
6:12:35Make it very simple. Make it something
6:12:37you can track and something that you can
6:12:38refine over time before you go about
6:12:41expanding. So, here's a simple offer
6:12:43progression. One, you put out free
6:12:45content. This builds trust and
6:12:47awareness. Two, create a lead magnet.
6:12:49Think miniourse, SOP, checklist,
6:12:52playbook. This allows you to capture
6:12:54emails and phone numbers so that you're
6:12:55not just beholden to the algorithms of
6:12:58these platforms serving your content,
6:12:59but you have a direct line of access to
6:13:01your customers. Number three is you have
6:13:03your low ticket offer. This is usually
6:13:05somewhere between $10 and $100. Think
6:13:07ebooks, mini courses, or templates. And
6:13:10what this does is it removes the barrier
6:13:13of entry. Number four is a mid-t offer.
6:13:16Now, this is anywhere from $500 to
6:13:18$5,000. I know that's a wide range, but
6:13:20it depends on what you're offering.
6:13:21Think group coaching, memberships to
6:13:23your community, or even really in-depth
6:13:25courses. These are for your highly
6:13:27committed buyers. And lastly, number
6:13:29five is your high ticket offer. Think
6:13:31$10,000 plus. This is your one-on-one
6:13:34consulting, your agency services, or any
6:13:37done for you service that you can
6:13:39provide. And these are your very high
6:13:42ROI clients. Most successful brands
6:13:45don't start with their high ticket offer
6:13:46first. They establish trust and build
6:13:49awareness before ever offering that to
6:13:51the marketplace. There are some unique
6:13:52scenarios where maybe you have demand
6:13:54before you ever start making public
6:13:56content. But that is very very rare and
6:13:59the majority of you consuming this if
6:14:01you're in the early stages, you are not
6:14:03at that point yet. You need to build
6:14:05more trust with your audience and get
6:14:07more people to be aware of who you are
6:14:08and what you offer before bringing a
6:14:11high ticket offer into the marketplace.
6:14:13Next, we're going to let our content do
6:14:16the selling for us. Sales should feel
6:14:19natural, not forced. People hate feeling
6:14:22sold to, but they love buying from
6:14:25someone they trust. That's why your
6:14:27brand should bridge the gap between
6:14:30value and monetization. So, how do we do
6:14:32this? Well, here is how you can let your
6:14:35content sell for you. One, teach a
6:14:38valuable lesson and maybe end it with a
6:14:41soft CTA. Number two is share client
6:14:44success stories. Showcase how your offer
6:14:46helped them improve. Number three,
6:14:48document your process. Show the behind
6:14:50the scenes of what you do and what you
6:14:53offer. Number four, address common
6:14:55objections. Answer the unspoken concerns
6:14:57that are holding people back. Number
6:14:59five, use lead magnets to capture data.
6:15:02Offer something valuable like a
6:15:04checklist, a playbook, a miniourse, or a
6:15:07full in-depth course in exchange for an
6:15:09email so that you have direct access to
6:15:12your customers. Here's an example.
6:15:14Instead of saying, "Buy my ebook on
6:15:16personal branding," try, "I helped John
6:15:18go from 0 to 10k followers in 4 and 1/2
6:15:20months using this exact strategy." If
6:15:22you want the full system, I break it
6:15:23down in my ebook. There's a link in my
6:15:25bio. Do you see the difference there?
6:15:27It's far more compelling if you share
6:15:29the results that you are getting for
6:15:31your clients and for your customers than
6:15:33if you're just encouraging people to go
6:15:35buy the book based on what it is. And
6:15:37finally, I'm sure you've probably gotten
6:15:39this theme throughout. Play the long
6:15:42game. We want to monetize without losing
6:15:45trust. A lot of people approach
6:15:48monetization backwards. They think about
6:15:49how to make money first, then build
6:15:51content to try and drive sales. But the
6:15:53brands that actually win, they're not
6:15:55chasing short-term revenue. They're
6:15:57building long-term trust. If you end up
6:16:00doing this right, your audience isn't
6:16:02going to just buy from you once. They
6:16:03will keep coming back. And this is how
6:16:06you build a brand that doesn't just make
6:16:08money, it stands the test of time. So
6:16:11here is how we are going to execute this
6:16:13strategy. Number one is to deliver so
6:16:16much value that people feel guilty not
6:16:18buying. Instead of following what
6:16:20everyone else in the industry is doing,
6:16:21give away your best insights for free.
6:16:24Don't do the watered down version, not
6:16:26some teaser of what they can then go and
6:16:28purchase. You want to give the actual
6:16:29frameworks, strategies, and knowledge
6:16:31that people would traditionally be
6:16:33paying for. Ultimately, the reaction
6:16:35that we want to build within our
6:16:36audience is if this is what they're
6:16:38giving away for free, what the are
6:16:40they charging for? When your free
6:16:42content drives real results, your
6:16:44audience isn't just going to be open to
6:16:45buying from you. they're going to feel
6:16:48compelled to buy from you. Number two is
6:16:50build a system where people continue to
6:16:53come back. Create a recurring content
6:16:55format. I'm talking like challenges,
6:16:57weekly breakdowns, anything that gets
6:16:59your audience to keep returning. You
6:17:01also want to make sure that your content
6:17:02is easy to find and easy to binge. Put
6:17:05together playlists. Categorize it by
6:17:08topic. Make sure it's easy for your
6:17:10audience to consume this highly valuable
6:17:13free content you're putting out. The
6:17:15goal is to focus on long-term retention.
6:17:17How can we keep people engaged over
6:17:19months, not just days? Rather than
6:17:21thinking about a one-hit viral video,
6:17:23think more like Netflix, a series that
6:17:26you continue to come back to day after
6:17:29day, month after month. And number
6:17:31three, and this is the most important
6:17:33one, protect your reputation at all
6:17:37costs. It is way harder to rebuild trust
6:17:41than it is to maintain trust. Every
6:17:44short-term cash grab that you do comes
6:17:46with a significant long-term cost. You
6:17:50need to be obsessive with who and what
6:17:53you pair your brand with because these
6:17:55are the associations that your audience
6:17:56is going to make when they hear of your
6:17:58brand. A great question that I would
6:18:00encourage you to ask yourself before you
6:18:02make any moves for a monetization play
6:18:04are, will this increase trust with my
6:18:07audience or decrease trust? Will this
6:18:10make my audience trust me more or trust
6:18:12me less? And if the answer is that it's
6:18:15less, I promise you it is not worth it.
6:18:19Period. To summarize, obviously
6:18:20monetization is extremely important. We
6:18:22have to make money in order to pay our
6:18:24bills, in order to be able to fund
6:18:25projects like this, for example. But the
6:18:27reality is is if you try to make that
6:18:28play too early, you're going to burn
6:18:31your audience and degrade trust. You
6:18:33need to make sure that you establish
6:18:34immense amount of trust before you start
6:18:36monetizing your audience. This is going
6:18:38to make that monetization season, that
6:18:41play, so much easier for you and will
6:18:45allow you to continue to monetize down
6:18:48the road. The ones who are trying to
6:18:49make a short-term cash grab, what
6:18:51they're doing is feeding themselves
6:18:52today, but what they don't realize is
6:18:54they're making it difficult to feed
6:18:55themselves tomorrow. What you want to do
6:18:58is build a brand that allows you to
6:19:00continue to feed yourself day after day
6:19:02after day. But this only comes when you
6:19:05establish trust
6:19:07first. All right, that is exactly what I
6:19:10would do if I were building a brand from
6:19:13scratch. I hope you got a lot of value
6:19:15out of this and I hope you plan on
6:19:16taking action. So, in the spirit of
6:19:19taking action, please make sure that you
6:19:21download all the playbooks that we've
6:19:23given you throughout this entire course.
6:19:25It is my only goal that you not only
6:19:28consume this, but that you actually take
6:19:30action. That's what makes this whole
6:19:32time that you've invested worth it. It's
6:19:34pretty wild how much we were able to
6:19:35cover. So, here's a quick refresher to
6:19:38remind you of every little thing that we
6:19:40went through. First, we started with
6:19:42what brand is and isn't. Then, we went
6:19:44to defining your brand, then positioning
6:19:46your brand. Then, we went to picking
6:19:48your topics, choosing your content
6:19:50medium, choosing the right platforms,
6:19:52determining your posting cadence,
6:19:53utilizing storytelling in your content,
6:19:55having your community drive your
6:19:57content. Then we went to scaling your
6:19:59content, creating space for
6:20:00experimentation with content hackathons,
6:20:02why your team is everything, defining
6:20:04your needs before hiring, streamlining
6:20:05your hiring process, hiring for culture,
6:20:07training for skills, starting lean,
6:20:09growing intentionally, full-time
6:20:11employees versus contractors and
6:20:12agencies, onboarding your team properly,
6:20:14developing and retaining your high
6:20:16performing team. Building a strong team
6:20:18culture, building trust before you
6:20:19transact. defining your monetization
6:20:21model, sharing the knowledge, selling
6:20:23the execution, building your offer
6:20:24stack, letting your content do the
6:20:26selling, tracking and scaling, and last
6:20:28but not least, playing the long game.
6:20:30Now, like I said, it's your turn to
6:20:32execute. But for some of you, you may
6:20:34look at this entire course and be like,
6:20:36"Holy this is way too much for me
6:20:38and my team to be able to execute
6:20:40alone." And that's where my team, Rston,
6:20:43is here to help. We provide the
6:20:45direction and guidance along the way to
6:20:46help you take this plan and build a
6:20:48strategy that drives real results and
6:20:50leads to actual brand scale. And so if
6:20:53you are interested in potentially
6:20:54partnering with us, you can go to caleb
6:20:56rston.com, hit the application button,
6:20:58and see if you qualify to be one of our
6:21:01partners. We would be incredibly stoked
6:21:02to partner with you and help you scale
6:21:04your brand. Now, the reality is is the
6:21:07majority of you watching this, we will
6:21:09never have the opportunity to partner
6:21:10with. And that's okay. That's why we
6:21:13made this course completely free for
6:21:15you. My goal is to help you, whether we
6:21:18ever work together or not, scale your
6:21:21brand and see the results and create the
6:21:23life and the company and the business
6:21:25and whatever you're trying to build that
6:21:27you have dreamed of. If you got value
6:21:29out of it, consider maybe sending it to
6:21:31your team on Slack or texting it to a
6:21:33friend that you know is trying to build
6:21:34their brand. It's free and available for
6:21:36anyone. Share it with anyone you think
6:21:38would get value out of it. And last but
6:21:40not least, if you made it this far,
6:21:42thank you. My team and I put an
6:21:44incredible amount of effort into this
6:21:46project and it's just our second video
6:21:48that we've put out and I can't tell you
6:21:50how much your attention means to me. I
6:21:54know this was a very long piece of
6:21:55content here. And so you dedicating your
6:21:59time, there's a lot of different things
6:22:02that you could spend your time on. And
6:22:03the fact that you spent it here with me,
6:22:06I'll never be able to explain to you how
6:22:08much that means. So, I just want to say
6:22:09from the bottom of my heart, thank you.
6:22:12Thank you for paying attention, for
6:22:13consuming, and thank you for taking
6:22:15action on this. Please let me know how
6:22:17it goes. Keep me updated. I want to hear
6:22:20about how your brand is scaling. And
6:22:22with that, that is how to build a brand.
6:22:25Thank you so much.

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