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The Writing System That Saved My Brain (Learn Faster & Think Clearly) — Transcript

by Dan Koe · 6,379 words · 911 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00If you don't know what skill to learn,
0:01learn to write. Even if you don't
0:04consider yourself a writer or even if
0:06that thought has never crossed your
0:08brain. Because writing teaches you how
0:09to think, how to learn any skill fast,
0:12and how to attract an audience that
0:14supports your work, which is absolutely
0:16needed if you want to build your own
0:18business or just do any kind of
0:20independent, creative, or meaningful
0:22work. And in the age of AI, thinking,
0:24learning, and distribution, or getting
0:26your value in front of other people so
0:28you actually have the chance of being
0:30paid, are timeless skills. Writing
0:32allows you to practice them all while
0:34building digital leverage as a
0:36byproduct. Now, I never thought that I
0:38would become a writer. I still don't
0:40even call myself one, but that's what I
0:42do on a daily basis because as a
0:44business owner or someone who wants to
0:46start and build their own thing, that's
0:47what you do. You market, you advertise,
0:49you write captions, you write posts, you
0:51write emails. Literally any type of
0:53communication you do with your customers
0:56or your business partners comes down to
0:58writing. So if you actually incorporate
1:00that as a daily habit and practice to
1:02make it better, then that's a great
1:04thing because that's what the entirety
1:06of your business hangs on. And I don't
1:08even look the part. I don't look like a
1:10writer. I'm just a big dumb meathead who
1:13fell in love with deep ideas. And by all
1:15measures, writing as a simple morning
1:17habit has completely altered the
1:19direction of my life and the
1:21direction/outcome of my mind. Because
1:23when I was a kid, I would always look up
1:25to people who were very articulate with
1:27their thoughts and I never thought that
1:28my brain was capable of doing the same
1:30thing. People like Jordan Peterson, Alan
1:32Watts, etc. And I just thought that my
1:34brain didn't work that way until I
1:37started writing and I could actually
1:39feel myself getting smarter and more
1:42articulate. And beyond being able to
1:44think and learn faster, writing is a
1:46modern form of leverage that anyone has
1:49access to. That's what we're going to go
1:50over in the first section of this video
1:52and you're going to walk away and be
1:53like, "Holy I had no idea that
1:56writing, something so simple that we all
1:58have access to can be so powerful. As
2:00many of you know, my entire business was
2:03built on one to two hours every single
2:06morning of writing because how do you
2:08get customers in today's world? Writing.
2:10So, in this video, I want to show you my
2:12system for capturing ideas and writing
2:15content worth reading, but I also want
2:16to show you why this path is more viable
2:19than ever and why it will transform how
2:21your brain interacts with reality. And
2:23yes, it really is that deep. So, let's
2:25begin. First, we're going to talk about
2:27old leverage versus new leverage, and
2:30this is the secret to modern success.
2:32Let's start with a quote from Daniel
2:34Presley. I'm sure many of you know who
2:36he is. He is a great dude. The biggest
2:38leverage is no longer capital. The
2:40biggest leverage is enterprise, the
2:42ability to run a great business and in
2:44particular, the biggest leverage is
2:46personal brand, having a big audience.
2:48As soon as you've got enough people
2:49paying attention to you, you have this
2:51enormous form of leverage. And the
2:53reason this is is because the rules of
2:55wealth creation have fundamentally
2:57changed. The assets that drove income in
2:59the industrial age like property,
3:01factories, machinery, physical goods are
3:03being replaced by digital assets,
3:05audience, personal brand, IP, content,
3:08data, software that are incredibly cheap
3:10to build, more scalable, harder to tax,
3:13and compound while you sleep. The only
3:15requirement to building leverage for
3:17yourself in today's world is a good idea
3:19and the confidence to post it on the
3:21internet. The problem and where the
3:23opportunity lies is that most people are
3:25still conditioned by industrial values.
3:27They still think for some reason that
3:29going to school, getting a job, and
3:31retiring at some age is the safe and
3:33secure route when it's the least safe
3:36and secure route. And the same holds
3:37true for building leverage for yourself,
3:40for increasing your ability to generate
3:42wealth. Old leverage comes from
3:44physical, tangible assets. So, you can
3:46think a house, a factory, a Rolex, a
3:48fleet of trucks, a warehouse of
3:50inventory, or gold. You buy them and
3:53then let them appreciate or generate
3:54income. Old leverage is linear and
3:57local, so a factory can only produce so
3:59many units per day and a house can only
4:01be rented to one tenant at a time. Now,
4:03don't get me wrong, leverage is leverage
4:05and old leverage can be a very good
4:06thing, but most people, especially
4:08beginners, just don't have the capital
4:11to invest in these assets. You're
4:13probably not going to buy real estate
4:15anytime soon if you're in thousands of
4:16dollars of student debt and you probably
4:18won't buy a Rolex until your business
4:20does increasingly well. And that's the
4:22beautiful thing about living in today's
4:24world is that leverage is no longer
4:26available to only those with capital.
4:28Another important thing is that physical
4:30assets are going to be the first thing
4:32that governments find, tax, and seize if
4:34wages collapse, which is more likely
4:36today than yesterday because AI can
4:38swiftly do that, leading to governments
4:40expanding social safety nets.
4:42Governments are much less likely to
4:43seize an email list of a thousand to ten
4:46thousand people or a library of content
4:49or a best-selling book. Yeah, you can
4:51sell your house for a hundred thousand
4:52dollars, but you can also just send a
4:54well-written email to your email list
4:56and make ten to a hundred thousand
4:57dollars if you know what you're doing.
4:59New leverage comes from intangible
5:01digital assets. So, an audience,
5:04personal brand, IP, data, systems, or
5:06software. These are the leverage of the
5:08newly rich, media, data, and code.
5:11Content can be written once and seen by
5:13millions of people. Software can be
5:15created once and serve millions of
5:17users. The things that you use every
5:19day, social media and apps or software,
5:22the things that are becoming more
5:23accessible to you to actually create and
5:25build, you're watching people build
5:28leverage in real time for their future
5:30doing something meaningful most of the
5:31time. And for most people, writing is
5:35the most accessible and practical form
5:36of leverage. You can learn to code, but
5:38if you cannot attract people to care
5:40about the product you build, then nobody
5:42will use or pay for it. Writing is the
5:44leverage that unlocks other forms of
5:46leverage. Everything you see is
5:48essentially writing. You have social
5:50media captions, DMs or messages,
5:52advertising, social posts, emails, web
5:54page copy, video scripts, articles.
5:56That's the other thing is even if you
5:59want to do video in the future, but you
6:01don't have the time to edit or you're
6:03not confident enough to be in front of
6:04the camera yet, start writing because
6:07then you'll have a backlog of scripts
6:08that you can use or you'll just be so
6:11much better at grabbing attention than
6:12the next person. And when you do start
6:14creating videos, you're going to be
6:15miles ahead of the people who didn't
6:17practice articulating or organizing
6:19their thoughts on paper through writing.
6:21And if you can build an audience on a
6:23writing platform like X, Substack,
6:25Threads, etc., even Instagram, all of my
6:28posts are just written posts in the form
6:29of an image, then when it comes time for
6:31you to get on YouTube or do a podcast or
6:33do other things like that, you have an
6:35audience already built that you can say,
6:37"Hey, here's my YouTube, here are my
6:39videos." And then your audience grows so
6:41much faster on YouTube. That's exactly
6:43what I did. And I'm just an introvert.
6:45It's so much more appealing to just sit
6:46down and enjoy the creative process of
6:48writing for 1 to 2 hours every morning
6:50while sleeping well knowing that it is
6:53essentially fueling my entire business
6:55and life's work or whatever kind of work
6:57I want to do. The other thing is that
6:59you won't see these digital assets on a
7:01business's balance sheet, but they
7:02represent 90% of the S&P 500's value.
7:06Kim Kardashian, Taylor Swift, Ryan
7:08Reynolds, Mr. Beast, Elon Musk all have
7:10massive audiences and personal brands,
7:12but you probably don't want anything
7:14near their level of fame and that's
7:16perfectly fine because you don't need
7:18millions of followers to make this work.
7:20This is like one big thing when I talk
7:21to beginner creators, they think it's
7:23they have millions of followers or they
7:25have nothing. Personally, I replaced my
7:27freelancing income at around 5,000
7:29followers. My buddy Randy is a fitness
7:32personal trainer and at 10,000 followers
7:34he was making well over $100,000 a month
7:36because again, he knew what he was
7:38doing. He studied, he invested in his
7:40education, he learned the skill of
7:42business and marketing and sales that
7:44allowed him to do that. People hear
7:46that, oh, $100,000 a month, and they
7:48think that's absolutely absurd. That's
7:49on the low end for business. Like,
7:52you're still in this employee mindset of
7:54I get paid for my time, not my value,
7:56and you have a poor relationship with
7:58money that changes how you perceive it.
8:00And so, you hear $100,000, and you think
8:02that's not even close to possible for
8:04me, and that's completely fine, because
8:05you probably don't need that much. And
8:07as I said, that's on the low end for
8:09like a a business that's doing well. So,
8:12if you just want to replace your income,
8:13that's not far off. That's 3 to 6 to 12
8:16months of focused learning and effort
8:19and skill acquisition and showing up
8:20every day and actually putting your
8:22thoughts out there and trying to grow.
8:23The point is that people drastically
8:25overestimate how much is actually
8:27required for them to win. And so, they
8:29psych themselves out. They get
8:31paralyzed. Analysis by paralysis or
8:33paralysis by analysis, because all they
8:35see is these out of touch celebrities
8:37and influencers with millions of
8:38followers, cuz that's all they follow.
8:40So, I'd be stupid if I didn't mention
8:42this here, but that's exactly why we run
8:44the Creator Bootcamp, where you turn
8:46your interest into an audience that pays
8:48you. You walk away with clarity on the
8:50topics that you can talk about, a
8:51content system that runs on 60 minutes a
8:53day, and one idea that becomes a week of
8:55content. General enrollment for this is
8:57closed, but it is still available for
8:59those who sign up for Eden on the Pro
9:01Plan. So, if you want to join a
9:03community of other creators that are
9:05doing the same thing as you and learn
9:07everything that you need to start, then
9:09check it out with the link in the
9:10description or go to eden.so/bootcamp.
9:13Now, the next thing I want to talk about
9:15is how writing completely shifts your
9:17brain and your life. And this is super
9:20hard to explain, but writing goes so
9:21much deeper than just putting your pen
9:23to paper and like drawing little
9:25scribbles, obviously. It shifts your
9:27mind to see the world in a more
9:29meaningful way. You make more
9:31connections. You receive more good
9:33dopamine through those connections. You
9:35notice more in the world. Conversations
9:38become a source of inspiration. Your
9:40thoughts become filled with ideas you're
9:42wrestling to understand. You notice more
9:44detail in life rather than living on the
9:46stressful surface. And so in my eyes,
9:48there are four key benefits to writing.
9:51The first is that writing rewires how
9:53you think and the core mechanism here is
9:55forced linearity, which is just a fancy
9:57way of saying that you can feel like you
9:59understand something in your head, but
10:01writing forces you to collapse it into a
10:03single stream. Thinking without writing
10:05is like walking through a forest where
10:07you can see every direction, while
10:09writing itself is like driving on a road
10:11through the disorienting mess. You have
10:14to decide where you're going, which
10:15turns you're going to make, and whether
10:17or not you want to take the scenic
10:18route, and how to navigate back if you
10:20get lost. In other words, writing is the
10:23apparatus for thinking. It's the gym
10:27where your mind is built. So those who
10:29are very into health and fitness and go
10:31to the gym to strengthen their body and
10:33make sure it's healthy, but you're not
10:35writing for your mind, you need to make
10:37that connection. So you may feel like
10:39you understand your feelings or the
10:41counterarguments going on in your head,
10:43or even your own values and beliefs, but
10:45until you actually write them out, I can
10:47almost guarantee that you don't
10:49understand those things and that someone
10:51else either planted it in your head or
10:54you adopted beliefs and ideologies
10:56without question and now they're
10:57dominating your mind and taking control
10:58of your life. And yes, it is that
11:00serious. Now benefit number two is that
11:03writing increases pattern recognition
11:05and therefore it increases dopamine,
11:07good dopamine. And there are a few
11:08layers to this. The first is that by
11:10writing regularly, you build an external
11:13record of your thinking. You're able to
11:14quickly reference what you've written in
11:16the past as a way of articulating your
11:18current thoughts better. It helps you
11:19think with clarity. And I'm not talking
11:21you actually go and reference the thing
11:23I'm saying, since you wrote it down,
11:25since you wrote the newsletter or the
11:27article or even just the journal entry,
11:30that is now more of a part of your mind
11:32and you're able to say those things in a
11:34more clear way. Now, the second layer is
11:37similar to what's called the
11:38photographer's eye. So, for a
11:40photographer, after a few years of
11:42serious practice, you start to see
11:44frames and compositions in everyday
11:46life. So, the world doesn't look the
11:48same because you go to a mountain range,
11:50you're on a hike, and then you can see
11:52something that other people can't. You
11:54start to compose the scene in your mind
11:56like you were taking a picture and you
11:58start to think and appreciate the
11:59scenery that much more. With writing,
12:02you notice this when you're speaking
12:04with other people, when you're having a
12:05conversation, in other people's writing,
12:08in the books you read. It It opens up a
12:10deeper appreciation for the art in your
12:12life. Now, the third layer is that you
12:14notice ideas you normally wouldn't have.
12:17And this is just how the mind works, but
12:18when you have a goal or a project that
12:20you're working towards, your mind kind
12:22of conspires in your favor, so to say.
12:25Psychocybernetics, it notices the things
12:27that are going to aid you in achieving
12:29your goal. The problem is that most
12:31people have unconscious goals. They
12:32haven't made their goals conscious or
12:34they haven't set their own meaningful
12:36goals that actually trump the
12:38unconscious goals. Many people set
12:40conscious goals, but their unconscious
12:42goals that other people set for them are
12:44still more conditioned into their brain.
12:46So, their conscious goals don't really
12:48mean anything. There's no gravity to
12:49them and you let them go immediately.
12:51That's what most New Year's resolutions
12:53are. But for someone who has been
12:54conditioned since childhood that they
12:56should go to school and be a good
12:58student, the idea of starting a business
13:01isn't even going to register in their
13:03brain because it's a threat to who they
13:04are. They're going to notice the ideas
13:07and the opportunities that allow them to
13:09advance through the traditional school,
13:11job, retire path. That's just how it
13:14works. It's the same phenomenon where if
13:15you take me and take you and we read the
13:18same book, different ideas are going to
13:20stick out to us and we're going to see
13:22different ideas as more important and
13:23we're going to remember them. We're
13:25essentially going to read two entirely
13:27different books just by how we interpret
13:29it. And that is all because of the goals
13:31and projects that are framing how we
13:32perceive situations. So, for me, I have
13:35a newsletter that I write every single
13:37week that turns into this YouTube video
13:39and turns into other content, but that
13:41is my sole focus. That is the important
13:44goal for my week. And so, when I go on
13:46walks or I listen to conversations,
13:47ideas just pop up out of nowhere and
13:50somehow connect themselves to my
13:52newsletter. And that's how my
13:53newsletters and writing become very
13:55unique is because I'm not just sitting
13:57down and writing it all at once there.
13:59I'm collecting ideas just by living my
14:01life since I have the newsletter as a
14:04top-of-mind goal. Your mind is like a
14:05heat-seeking missile toward its goals,
14:07but you actually need goals or else
14:09you're going to be a heat-seeking
14:10missile toward the goals that society
14:12has assigned for you, and that's
14:13horrible. So, writing is one way out of
14:15that mess because you actually have a
14:17project to focus your mind on. That's
14:20actually the entire learning process as
14:22well. That's how you learn most things.
14:24So, benefit number three is that writing
14:26helps you articulate your thoughts as
14:28we've touched on, but most people walk
14:30around believing they understand things
14:32that they don't. Not because they're
14:34dumb, but because they've never been
14:36forced to externalize the thought and
14:38actually look at it. Writing is not only
14:40a tool to improve communication, thus
14:42improving most other areas of your life,
14:44but a tool to expose whether or not you
14:46actually know what you're talking about.
14:48And that's what most people are afraid
14:50of when it comes to writing. They're
14:51afraid of the struggle that comes from
14:53doing something meaningful. They just
14:55want to coast by and enjoy their life
14:57and hopefully make some money even
14:59though they're not putting much effort
15:00into it. And of course, they end up in a
15:02mediocre life because they're running on
15:04autopilot. They don't choose their
15:05struggle. Again, they're assigned their
15:07struggle. They want the writing or the
15:09creative work to be easy. They want all
15:12of the ideas to just come to their head
15:13immediately. They don't want to sit down
15:15and stare at a blank page and be forced
15:16to research and learn and find what
15:19their actual beliefs are so they can
15:20write it out. And that leads to the
15:22important next benefit, which is that
15:24writing helps you learn faster. And the
15:26future belongs to those who can learn
15:28the fastest. Because if the gap between
15:30where you are and where you want to be
15:33is knowledge, is learning, is
15:34understanding how to do the things that
15:36gets the result of the person you want
15:38to be, then the person that learns
15:41fastest is the one who gets to that
15:42point the fastest. The person who
15:44doesn't learn at all after graduation,
15:47which is what most people do, they go to
15:49school, they graduate and then they
15:50never learn a thing again for the rest
15:52of their life. They're just going off of
15:54their preset knowledge. Writing is the
15:56antidote to that because 80% of writing
15:59is research and learning. Writing is
16:01both a form of teaching and
16:03understanding. In learning science,
16:05there's the protege effect, which shows
16:07that students who teach material retain
16:09it better than students who merely study
16:11it. The cognitive load required to
16:13figure out how to explain something to
16:15someone else forces deeper
16:17understanding, better organization, and
16:19identification of gaps in knowledge. I'm
16:21not exaggerating when I say that I
16:23learned more in 6 months of writing when
16:27I started out than I did throughout the
16:29entirety of college or the entirety of
16:31high school. And I'm not talking about
16:33like learning basic English and learning
16:34how to write letters on a page. I didn't
16:37really need to learn basic history
16:38because I wasn't that interested in it.
16:40I didn't even apply myself and learn it.
16:42And now, since I chose to write about
16:45history in some of my newsletters, I
16:47I understand it so much better than I
16:49did just sitting in a lecture at school.
16:52You look at Daniel Schmachtenberger who
16:53talks about this quite a bit. He didn't
16:56go to school. His parents taught him how
16:57to read, how to write, and how to just
16:59generally operate within society
17:01according to their values. But outside
17:03of that, learning is the process of
17:05life. Learning is what you do when
17:07you're actually pursuing something
17:09meaningful and building something
17:10meaningful. You learn what you need to
17:11learn. And you become 10 times more
17:14articulate when you do do that way.
17:15Lastly, writing demands that you
17:17understand. So, you read something, you
17:20feel like you get it, then you try to
17:22write about it, and you realize that you
17:24can't. And most people think it's
17:25because they aren't qualified to write
17:27about the topic, which is You
17:29can write about an idea just like any
17:31other person on planet Earth can, just
17:33like you can speak it to your friend
17:35right now. You can go and tell your
17:36friend about the idea that you heard
17:37about. If you can do that, you can write
17:39about it. That's a limiting belief that
17:41stops so many creators and writers when
17:43it's just nonsense. You're just creating
17:45invisible gatekeepers in your head out
17:47of fear of actually doing the thing and
17:49publishing your thoughts. But, that's
17:50actually a good thing is not knowing how
17:53to write it because you don't truly
17:55understand it because that exposes the
17:57gap, and it gives you the thing to learn
18:00next that you would have never have
18:02found if you didn't try to write what
18:06you had learned. Now, we're going to
18:07talk about the writing system that I use
18:09to generate ideas people can't help but
18:11read, and I'm going to go over my
18:13general system. This isn't going to be a
18:15course. plenty of other videos, plenty
18:17of resources, the boot camp like I
18:19mentioned. If you want the full
18:20step-by-step process and all of the
18:22theory and the slides and all of the
18:24information you need along with the
18:25practices, then go and find it
18:27elsewhere. This is a broad overview to
18:29just see if you're even interested in
18:31it. Now, when it comes to ideas, I've
18:32never been the most organized person. I
18:35actually think building a a second brain
18:38or a system for your ideas is like a
18:40false god because systems succumb to
18:43entropy. They fall apart with time. It's
18:46always going to happen. I don't care how
18:47perfect your Notion system is for
18:50capturing ideas, it's going to fall
18:51apart one day. It's It's so cool to you
18:54right now, it's not going to be in a
18:56year. You're going to grow up. You're
18:57going to evolve. You're going to try a
18:59new system, and then the same thing's
19:01going to happen. So, just get over it.
19:03Embrace the mess. Embrace the chaos.
19:05That's where I've honestly found the
19:07most success is just embracing the
19:09chaos, which which have to be completely
19:11chaos, and just jotting ideas down in
19:13the same place. Just having a place
19:15where I can put ideas down so that at
19:17least they're recorded somewhere. And of
19:19course, ideas get lost all the time. I
19:22can't find them all the time because
19:24that's not really the problem. If you
19:25need to remember it, then it's not
19:27important. And if it's important, you'll
19:29remember it. The act of writing it down
19:31is just the act of putting your thoughts
19:33into words. So, I found that great
19:36writing or content on the internet that
19:38actually gains traction and doesn't
19:40disappear into a black hole of nobody
19:42caring about your work boils down to a
19:44few things. You need one topic or theme
19:48for the week. That for me, that's my
19:49newsletter. You need a place to quickly
19:52jot down ideas. You need a way to
19:54capture inspiration. So, social posts,
19:56YouTube videos, Substack articles, et
19:58cetera, PDFs, images. You need to
20:01understand how to package the hook or
20:03title so that people actually want to
20:05read it because writing or content is
20:07like a gift. You have the actual
20:08contents, which is what you want to say,
20:10then you have the packaging. What makes
20:12other people want to open it and see
20:14what's inside. And last, you need to
20:16effectively pull from your ideas,
20:18inspiration, and research while you're
20:20actually writing or creating because
20:22that's why you jot down the ideas in the
20:23first place is to reference them while
20:25you're writing. So, my system is just
20:28that and we're going to go over it. So,
20:29the first step is how to pick what to
20:32write about. And this one always throws
20:34everyone for a loop because they just
20:35want to they they've been told to niche
20:37down. They don't know what to talk
20:38about. They're afraid to talk about
20:39multiple things even though they have
20:41multiple interests. And if they have
20:42multiple interests, almost every other
20:44human being on the planet can have
20:45multiple interests. Like, I'm not only
20:48interested in business, neither is any
20:50other businessman on the planet. They
20:51can people can become interested in
20:53something. Stop limiting yourself to
20:55what you can talk about. If you find it
20:56important, that's unique because you
20:59interpreted it and decided to post it.
21:01That is all the niching down you need
21:04because you are not an animal that dies
21:06when they get put into a different niche
21:08or environment, like a lion that gets
21:10put in Alaska. You are a human who
21:12learns, builds, and adapts so that they
21:14can thrive in any niche. So, I operate
21:17by two principles when I pick a topic.
21:20First, is it something that I find
21:21important or worth sharing? Because by
21:24simply filtering an idea through my
21:25perspective and not overthinking myself
21:28to death, it becomes unique. I have a
21:30specific identity, and I'm probably not
21:33going to speak to soccer moms in their
21:3440s, no matter how hard I try. By just
21:37talking about what I find worth sharing,
21:40it will attract the people I can impact
21:42the most. The second principle is, is it
21:45packaged or framed in a way that grabs
21:47attention? Because as a writer, that's
21:49what you do. That's your job. There's
21:52journaling, and then there's writing.
21:54You grab attention, otherwise your
21:55writing doesn't get read. The way you do
21:57that in today's world is by studying
21:59what's working on social media and
22:01applying the structure and principles to
22:02your hook, your title, your structure,
22:05etc. I'm subscribed to the Substack
22:08subreddit, and I got a notification the
22:10other day, and it was just a person that
22:12was complaining about their work not
22:14gaining traction, but they don't want to
22:16do what it takes to gain traction.
22:18They're like, "Oh, I love the writing. I
22:19just love the writing aspect of it." But
22:22it's not picking up. Why is that? "I
22:24don't want to conform my voice to these
22:26hooks or these structures or whatever it
22:28may be." But they can't see that they're
22:30contradicting themselves. They want to
22:31be a writer, but they don't care what
22:34people think, but they also want people
22:36to care about their writing. You have to
22:38understand that refining your voice for
22:41it to be impactful to other people is
22:43not sacrificing your authenticity or
22:46your voice. It's called improving your
22:47voice so that you become a better
22:49writer. Before I go on a large tangent
22:51and rant, that's just social media
22:53growth in a nutshell. That's what you
22:55do. And the simplest way to do this is
22:57to just research before you actually
23:00write the thing. Before you post the
23:02YouTube video. Look at titles that work.
23:04You need to expose yourself to what
23:06works over and over again so that your
23:09pattern recognition system just knows
23:11what to write like it's second nature.
23:12You need to read good tweets, viral
23:15maybe not viral tweets, high-performing
23:17tweets over and over. You need to read
23:19more Substack articles that have done
23:20well and ask yourself, "Why did this do
23:23so well compared to mine? Compared to
23:25the ones that didn't do well?" You just
23:27have to study and learn. That's what
23:29That's what you do. And what that does
23:31is it shows you and teaches you what the
23:33market is already paying attention to.
23:36Because if you were to start a business,
23:37are you going to go and start something
23:38completely new? You. I'm talking about
23:41you, not some special genius person. No,
23:43what you do when you start a business is
23:46you do what works and you make it your
23:48own. You can go and sell your
23:49productivity journal because people
23:51actually buy those, but you add your
23:53little spin to it. It's exactly what you
23:55do with content. You do what works, but
23:57with your own spin, from your own voice,
23:59from your own interpretation. So, there
24:01are a few ways to do this well. I'm
24:03going to show you how to do it in Eden.
24:05What I'm going to show you is free to
24:06do. You don't have to pay to do any of
24:08this, but you can do it anywhere. You
24:09can do it in notes or wherever you want
24:11to capture ideas to, but you can paste
24:14links into your library and just store
24:16the ideas here. On your phone, too. You
24:18download the iOS app that's on
24:19TestFlight. You hit the quick capture.
24:21You jot an idea down. It comes in
24:23looking like this. You can add as many
24:25as you want, and you can paste social
24:26links as well as you scroll and find
24:28them on the timeline. So, that's the one
24:30way you do it is when you see a video
24:32that's doing really well or an idea that
24:34you want to save, you save it in a place
24:36where you can preferably find it later,
24:39but as I said, if it disappears, that's
24:41fine. But then the next thing you can
24:42use is an outlier tool. So, there are
24:44tools like 1 of 10 that offers like you
24:46can look at what's trending on YouTube,
24:49and there's others like that. But
24:50there's also the discover feed in Eden.
24:52It's a tool. This is what writers use.
24:54They use it research tools to actually
24:56research the market if they don't want
24:58to do it manually, but of course, you
25:00can do it manually. And one of my
25:02favorite things to do is to look for a
25:04specific creator and then go to their
25:06actual account and then filter their
25:08content by top liked. This is especially
25:11good if you're trying to get on YouTube
25:12and find YouTube titles or just angles
25:14that people are already paying attention
25:16to and then you can see people's top
25:18YouTube videos or top posts or top notes
25:20or top articles or top tweets or top
25:22Instagram reels or carousels or whatever
25:24it may be. Then if you want to learn how
25:26to actually recreate it, just hit the
25:28reverse engineer button and then say,
25:31"Hey, I want to recreate this with my
25:33own idea." and then you're good to go.
25:35And that's exactly what I did for this
25:37video and the newsletter that I wrote
25:39previously for this. The The topic that
25:41inspired this video was a video that got
25:43like 700,000 views and it was called the
25:45notebook system that saved my brain. I
25:48looked at that and I'm like, "Huh,
25:50what about the writing system that saved
25:51my brain? What about the writing habit
25:53that saved my brain?" And the title may
25:55not reflect that right now, but it was a
25:57good starting point for the idea that I
25:59could then write about and of course, I
26:01can craft the the title and thumbnail
26:03later on if I come up with a better idea
26:06that may or may not work because none of
26:08this is guaranteed. So, once you have
26:09something to write about, what I
26:10personally do is create one project for
26:13the entire week because I post one
26:16newsletter to Substack, which is also an
26:18article on Substack. I copy paste that
26:21to X articles, which gets posted there
26:24as well, copy pasted, that eventually
26:26turns into a soft YouTube script and
26:28then the YouTube video gets uploaded to
26:30podcast channels and then I can use the
26:32original newsletter for tweet ideas
26:34throughout the week or as ideas just
26:36come to mind, I can write the tweets as
26:38well and then those get cross posted to
26:40Substack notes and then I turn them into
26:42images that I can post on Instagram and
26:44LinkedIn and then for some of the tweets
26:46that I really like, I'll just sit in
26:48front of the camera and read the tweet
26:49to the camera and boom, now I have
26:51reels, TikToks, and Shorts and it only
26:53took an hour or two
26:56every day. And frankly, any more content
26:58than that, I know there's Alex Hormozi
27:00and other people who just want you to
27:02push more more and more and more volume,
27:04but everyone's doing that, right? If you
27:06want a competitive advantage, do
27:07something different. Tone it down,
27:10increase the quality of the things that
27:12you're doing, and make them impossible
27:14to ignore. Add a bit of scarcity to your
27:16brand so people aren't just overloaded
27:19with it. They have to wait for you to
27:20actually post something and when they do
27:22see something from you, they aren't used
27:24to it. It's a dopamine hit for them when
27:26that's not happening for any other
27:28creator that they look at. So when I
27:30have the topic that I want to write
27:31about, I create a project around it. I
27:34create a board. Of course, this can be a
27:35Notion page. You can write wherever you
27:38want. But now what I do, once I have the
27:40topic, is I'll create an outline note
27:42and then inside of here, I'll just write
27:44out certain things that I think should
27:46be in here. This isn't even close to
27:48fleshed out. It's just the ideas that
27:49came to mind so that I could start to
27:51create some kind of structure. Then
27:53inside of the board itself, I paste
27:55links to YouTube videos inside of here
27:58that I think would have good ideas that
27:59I could use inside of the newsletter and
28:01then I can have AI chats open alongside
28:04me as I write and just ask questions
28:07when I need them or I can reference
28:09videos from inside of the board. If I
28:11create a new chat, click on this video
28:13and then I just ask it for questions to
28:15pull the ideas that I need from inside
28:17of it and then I can quick capture ideas
28:19into this board as well so that I can
28:21just have them with me as I'm writing,
28:23which is honestly a dream come true for
28:25any writer. You know how valuable this
28:27can be. And then when it comes to
28:28generating title ideas or things like
28:30that, I just reference the newsletter in
28:32the chat and then if I want them to be
28:34data backed, I can have it search for a
28:36specific creator's titles or I can
28:37reference swipe files inside of my board
28:40because I've saved ideas before. So I
28:42have an entire database of YouTube
28:45videos and titles that I think work
28:47really well inside of here, so I can
28:48look through these when it's time to
28:50generate ideas for how I want to
28:51actually package the newsletter YouTube
28:53video that I'm putting out. So, so far,
28:55the entire process is just capture ideas
28:57as they come to mind and save
28:59inspiration, save the posts that you
29:00like that did really well, that have
29:02good title structures, that have good
29:04ideas in general, jot down your own
29:05ideas, and then you create one topic per
29:08week and just have that as a project, a
29:10central project where you can put all of
29:12your research. You can create a note,
29:14you can add a bunch of links in there if
29:15you want, or you can create a board and
29:17just paste everything in, and then you
29:19can write with your research alongside
29:21it. And then all you really do is you
29:22just outline, write, and repurpose as we
29:25kind of sort of discussed, but outlining
29:28and learning how to structure
29:29newsletters, that's like the top a topic
29:31for an entirely new video. So, instead,
29:33what I found in the Eden Discord,
29:35someone created a guide for my top
29:38Substack articles for how they're
29:40structured, and what I did is I took
29:42those and I turned it into a prompt that
29:44will ask you for what you want to talk
29:46about and then help guide you to
29:48creating your first newsletter. So, if
29:50you actually want to use that prompt,
29:52there's a link to it in the description,
29:54and that alone will help you write your
29:56first newsletter, if you want to, or
29:58your first article, or your first
29:59YouTube script, or whatever it may be.
30:01So, that's the entire system. Walking,
30:03reading, and about 60 minutes a day of
30:05writing forms the foundation for some of
30:07the most future-proof skills, learning,
30:10thinking, and earning independently. So,
30:12I'll leave it at that. I'm happy to
30:13expand on it more in the future, but if
30:16you want to watch more on it now, I'd
30:17actually highly recommend watching my
30:19last video, which goes over how to pull
30:21psychological levers to get people to
30:23pay more attention, and that complements
30:25writing very nicely. Thank you for
30:27watching. Links to the boot camp and
30:29prompt in the description. I'll see you
30:30in the next video. Bye.

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