A word of caution about this journey

So you have the tools in the real world and the digital world that I’ve been using across all of my media.

The key is to have a consistent system to produce what you’re interested in creating, and that part is another can of worms entirely.

What you want to create, your niche, your branding, all that good stuff…it’s something that all of us struggle with. I personally have spent years working that out here for the writing arena. It’s been an iterative process of honing in on what I am passionate about, my personal experiences that truly matter to me, and what I want to offer to the world.

When it came to my gaming channel, it was pretty straightforward. I chose one game to focus on and showed everything about how I played, my strategies for completing each scenario, and any pitfalls that I came across as well as I how I solved them.

The pitfall of content creation

One of the most tricky things about this is that if you don’t know what to make, you’ll ending up on the meta side of the whole process; the recursive process that ironically becomes the thing that you do.

• Unsure what video to produce? Make videos about making videos.

• No subject or area you want to write about? Write about writing.

• Can’t grow a following on social media? Create content about growing a following on social media.

Easy right?

The reality of that is that it’s not. The majority of people who make it here have a background in marketing, psychology, or have managed social media on some level for their profession. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with having an unfair advantage, and people who offer you these products who are legitimately good at what they do spent years honing these skills.

Be wary of falling into that trap. The truth is that it takes about three to five years to get anywhere on the internet, and I learned that the hard way by stopping at the third year mark in YouTube and just now reaching that point here in writing.

People who specialize in this move from platform to platform, whatever one is most popular at the moment. For social media writing, it was Facebook…then Twitter…then LinkedIn. For article writing, it was Quora…then Medium…and now Substack. YouTube dominates the video landscape, but as technology advances, all platforms are adopting this medium now.

It’s like choosing a major in college. You have a period of time where you can explore and figure it out, but you’ll have to declare one in order to graduate.

As you figure that out, you’ll also develop your own process for content creation, but they all have the following common characteristics…

How I make the sausage

Here’s the current evolution of my creation process:

1. Idea capture

2. Idea selection

3. Research via internet/AI

4. Plan out and write/collect material

5. Edit and refine and add visuals

6. Distribute the results

7. Review reactions

8. Respond

9. Reflect

Each of these stages needs more in-depth explanation, and it’s not something I want to get into unless there’s more interest. Needless to say that it’s missing a few nuances. This process is the same regardless of whether you’re creating video or text. You need a script. You need it to be visually appealing. You need it to be clear and focused with an eye towards the reader…it’s not just about what you want to do 100% of the time.

Self-awareness is key

I recognize the irony of this series and sharing my own methods and tools. It’s what everyone is interested in learning, but only at the start. Once you have these down, the reasons for sticking around at the shovel shop end, and you either take your new shovel and go out to dig with it or you open your own and sell a different version of the shovel.

In truth, whatever works for you and enables you to crank out something fulfilling and meaningful to you day in and day out is the whole point. It’s not for me to tell you. If your ‘why’ isn’t money and something deeper, you won’t make it past the six month mark.

Most don’t make it past the first month.

The reason I write this newsletter is to talk about finding that part that helps you stick with whatever you want to do and avoid jumping into anything for the wrong reasons. If you know yourself and have done the legwork to understand what makes you tick, then you can save countless hours of thrash no matter what you do.

Anyway, I’ve decided that this is about as much as I want to talk about this for now. I’m happy to expand on my own process in more detail if you’re interested. Either comment or reach out directly if you are, and I’ll take that into consideration.

For now, I’m going to get back to the next series that I took a break from: mentorship and influence…how they shape your identity and your legacy.