Making Good Content

Somebody messaged me and said as an INNER CIRCLE member they would like to know more about my process “behind the scenes,” and I thought that was a great idea. 

So this post is going to be an introductory exploration of some of the broad concepts I think have been useful in my content creation experience, and hopefully you can use some of these to inform your ability to create successful content yourself.

Later, I'll expand on some of these things, maybe I'll post step by step how I make a video specifically.

If you scroll down through my account, to me it seems like it has a gradient effect where you can see the little micro-adjustments change over time video by video. And that’s really the only thing I feel like I did intentionally— every day I made a new video, and I adjusted based on whatever the last video was.

That’s not even to say all the little adjustments were intentional themselves— you can’t help but be informed by whatever you’ve just done.

For example, I just bought a leopard print scarf to add to my “costume." If you scroll down, you’ll see the hat goes away, the cane goes away, the glasses change, the blazer becomes a jacket, the jacket becomes a T-shirt, my hair gets shorter and shorter, the style of video itself begins to disintegrate— you can see a very linear progression of how I stumble upon a format of video that works.

That’s all to say, a very concrete piece of advice I can give you if you want to start making video content is to try to make one video a day and see what happens.

Don’t be discouraged if they flop. If you commit to making one video a day, eventually you will land on something that works.

DO NOT be afraid to embarrass and humiliate yourself. Honestly, in this current post-modern content landscape, being “cringe” is good publicity.

The only thing you absolutely can’t afford to be is boring. I’ve worked in advertising and marketing, and those industries are full of people trying desperately to figure out how to go “viral” so they can do it for a skincare brand.

They make the mistake of looking at it like a math equation. If they do x and y, that equals viral every time.

There’s no one way to do it. The only thing I would say all good content has in common is that it’s interesting. People want to watch it and they want to share it with their friends and say, “look at this.”

TikTok’s algorithm I know specifically “likes” certain things. They REALLY like when people watch your video multiple times. They like when people share it and comment on it.

But really, all these metrics mean is that the video is interesting. How do you make something interesting? Personally, I think the key begins with valuing your potential audience’s time, attention, and intelligence.

There’s a lot of writing about the “attention economy,” that sort of stuff, and it really is true that people’s attention is currency. There’s so much to look at, you’re competing with a million other things for someone’s eyes and ears at any given time.

If you can get people’s attention and keep it, that is a sacred thing. It should be cherished. A lot of people think online content is about “tricking” your audience into watching.

Marketing types in particular make this mistake. There’s a reason nobody wants to watch ads. Because their intentions have an ulterior motive. Your number 1 priority has to be your audience and what they’re going to think throughout every single frame. Ads suck and nobody wants to watch them because their number 1 priority is getting you to buy something and you can feel that intuitively.

Life sucks. People need to be distracted. They want to have a good time. They want something to talk about and to share with their friends.

Understanding how people work and what they like is important as well. Pay attention to the kind of stuff that makes you stop scrolling and engage. Why does it interest you/other people?

This doesn’t mean you pander to what you think they’ll like and prioritize that over what you want to make. You have to sort of paradoxically value your audience’s experience as the most important thing and simultaneously not care at all about what they think.

Don’t let a flop discourage you. Fine. Onto the next thing. Plenty more where that came from.

One comment that really annoys me is when people critique something by saying “[this thing] THINKS it’s [funnier, better, smarter] than it is.” To me this tells me the person who said it is insecure about the fact that they have never put any effort into anything that would make their life meaningful and their way of rationalizing that so they don’t hate themselves for it is to view it as something one should be ashamed of.

A lot of negativity comes from insecurity and you'll get better at learning which comments are in good faith and which ones stem from insecurity, thus are of no use to you progressing as an artist.

Negative comments do sting. I read every comment, every quote tweet, and the mean ones do hurt my feelings.

If someone comments, “This guy’s not funny, and he’s also ugly.” Reading that will sting. I let the feeling wash over me completely, evaporate, and then disappear. It always does. Because it’s just one random comment from one random person.

If a lot of people respond to the same thing and the general consensus seems to be that everybody thinks it sucks, that hurts a little more. Fine. You took a swing and you missed. You’re still doing better than the people who never even try. Tomorrow’s a new day, try again and do something else.

In summary, my advice to anyone who wants to start marking content is to observe people and pay attention to what makes them respond. Take note of what people are responding to when they share a video and what about it is resonating with them.

Use those techniques for yourself and experiment. Try to make and post one thing per day. Don't be afraid of what anyone thinks, but use it to inform how you progress.

If you get an audience, learn what they want, and the limits to what they'll accept. Follow the different paths that illuminate when you have success and explore every crevice until there's nothing left that interests you and then move on to the next thing.