# 194. These 12 Personal Brand Trends Will Blow You Up So Fast It Feels Illegal

An episode of [THE 505 PODCAST](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1591279585), 12 Feb 2026, 1 h 02 min.

Audio: https://podcasts.beehiiv.com/3f71d8b4-2a8c-40eb-8500-c62b76bd9acc/019d43e4-0103-7741-b37f-b81b41dca056/019d43e4-2514-73d4-91da-1734d264ccfb/019d43e4-2643-71b6-929e-e0c94fd8f3b8.mp3

Sign up for the Paid To Be You Waitlist here: https://the505podcast.courses/waitlistpaidtobeyou Let's talk about how to blow up your Personal Brand in 2026 Timestamps: 0:00 – Intro 0:18 – Paid to Be You Waitlist 0:33 – Interest over Viral 5:04 – Fewer Platforms, More Focus 8:04 – Go Long Form 12:04 – Influence over Views 22:28 – 3S + 2F Framework 33:35 – You have to post daily 38:02 – Short and long form strategy 43:01 – Repurpose Everything 45:15 – Retention Wins 53:04 – Pick Your POV 56:04 – Always CTA 57:43 – Pick an Enemy If you liked this episode please send it to a friend and take a screenshot for your story! And as always, we'd love to hear from you guys on what you'd like to hear us talk about or potential guests we should have on. DM US ON IG: (Our DM's are always open!) Bfiggy: https://www.instagram.com/bfiggy/ Kostas: https://www.instagram.com/kostasg95/

## Transcript

[0:00] It's no secret that social media has evolved.
[0:02] And if you're running an old playbook in 2026, you are setting yourself up to fail Which is why today we're breaking down our exact 2026 social media strategy, the rules we're following, the mistakes we're avoiding, and the 12 principles we believe actually matter if you're trying to build a profitable personal brand.
[0:16] Let's get into it. Now, before we get into these amazing tips we have for you, we do wanna let you know that the wait list for our cohort Paid to Be You is officially open.
[0:24] It's a six-week live cohort where we show you how to build a personal brand and monetize with a digital offer online. So if you're interested in that, check out the top link in the description, and let's keep it rolling.
[0:33] All right, let's get started. What is tip number one? I think the big shift here, and we saw this about a year and a half ago, was we switched away from social media into interest media. Absolutely.
[0:44] So that means, like, on TikTok specifically, if... Or Instagram Reels, if you're talking about something very specific, it will find that group.
[0:52] If you're like, "Hey, I'm really interested in this plant and this is my thing," it will find people who are also interested in plants. We saw that with the videos \[laughs\] that we were putting out.
[1:00] Like, if you were saying these specific keywords, those people are finding those videos. Absolutely. I also think that if you're for everybody, you're really for nobody.
[1:09] So we really wanna get specific on the person we're trying to attract with our content. We're not really trying to go viral anymore. Do you feel like niching is still super important?
[1:20] \[sighs\] Like, picking a lane, picking one or two things that you're talking about consistently? I think instead of thinking about, "What is my niche?"
[1:28] I really like how June broke it down of, like, what is the message you're trying to spread? But instead of thinking about, like, "What is my niche?"
[1:36] I, I really think it's smarter to think about, "Who am I really trying to serve? What is the one specific thing that I can help one specific person solve?"
[1:47] And if you can get clear on who you're trying to serve, I think that's a much better way to go about social media.
[1:52] So instead of trying to reach, like, a massive audience, I think if you can think about, "Who is this specific person I'm trying to serve?" I think that's a better way to go about it.
[2:01] I think in the past people were actively trying to get to this game of 100,000 subscribers or followers or a million. Yeah. That was kind of, like, people's goals, I feel like, when you got into this whole thing.
[2:14] Now I think it's shifted to you really don't need tons and tons of people to find your message.
[2:20] You need about 1,000 people who you can actively help with one core problem and solve their problem consistently, and you really won't have to... You won't have to work a real job. Yeah.
[2:28] Like, you can do this full time by doing something like that. I also think that we've seen that specifically with Paid to Be You. It's... You look at our podcast, we have good numbers, but it's not hundreds of thousands.
[2:41] We have 30, I think, 2,000 subscribers, which is incredible. Um, I think combined we have about 100,000 followers on Instagram.
[2:51] And so we do have a great brand, but it isn't something where we're getting millions of views or millions of subscribers, and we still have a very healthy business, and that is just proof that if you help solve a specific problem for a specific person, you can build a really great business around your personal brand, and you don't need a ton of views or followers.
[3:13] Yeah, I would really think about, too, \[laughs\] who's your customer. Yes. Like, who is the person that's gonna end up buying the thing that you sell?
[3:21] Because the last thing that you guys wanna do is spend an absurd amount of time, whether this is a service-based offer, whether it's a digital offer, uh, serving someone who just doesn't have the money to pay you for, like, what you guys are worth.
[3:33] I remember when I was in college, 'cause I had a service offer when I was in college. I was basically... You know, I was a videographer, uh, in the early days, and
[3:42] I remember I met with the University of Oregon 'cause they had this, like, panel, and they were giving grants out, and I was like, "Oh, my pricing.
[3:49] They're asking for your pricing, and, like, what you're charging for stuff." And basically it was, like, a business panel in the business school, and then you got to, like, pitch your idea.
[3:56] And at the time, maybe I was like... I had inflated my numbers, too, and I was like, "$1,000 is what I'm charging," and I thought that was some big time stuff. Mm-hmm.
[4:03] And they're like, "You're just not gonna be able to really build, like, a profitable business going like this. Like, you're not gonna be able to hire people." Yeah. And I was like, "You guys are wrong.
[4:10] You guys don't understand." Um, in my head I remember, like, just taking this information, and then after I was like, "They just don't get it." Mm-hmm. "Like, they don't understand."
[4:17] And they were right, uh, because I was really going after people that could afford it in our college town. Sure. But I wasn't gonna be able to build something that's, like, thriving.
[4:26] Like Blue Stripe now where we charge a lot of money to these bigger brands. But we re- like we reposition. We're not going after, like, a mom-and-pop little tire shop. Like, that's not who we wanna go after.
[4:36] We wanna go after these Fortune 500, Fortune 1000 brands who have money to spend, who have big budgets.
[4:41] So with whatever it is that you're doing, whether service, uh, you know, whether you're a digital offer, think about what your customer does and what the result is that you're actually going to be able to give to them.
[4:52] 100%. I also think that tying this whole first tip together, instead of asking yourself, "Is this gonna go viral and is this gonna get a bunch of views?" ask yourself, "Is this gonna attract my target customer?"
[5:04] All right, let's move on to tip number two, which is fewer platforms but more depth. Dude, people holler at you and say to go on every platform. It's... You know what? It's- But they're not... They, they have teams, man.
[5:15] They have teams. It's causing me a lot of anxiety and stress. Mm-hmm. Our last podcast was about LinkedIn, and you know what? I've realized LinkedIn, not for me. There's people posting on Twitter.
[5:29] Twitter for me is just a fun platform. I'm not really using Twitter. For us, it's Instagram and YouTube, and- Those are our babies... those are our babies.
[5:40] We're going every day on Instagram, and for YouTube we're even doubling down. We're... We now have the vlog channel, the second channel, and we also wanna start a third channel, Eclipse channel, for the YouTube stuff.
[5:51] So instead of focusing on I have to be every single place, and you're comparing yourself to a Hermosi or a Gary Vee or even somebody like a Matt Gray.
[6:02] Like, these people are making millions of dollars with their content, and they can outsource work, and they have a team to be able to create a ton of content for themselves.On all sorts of different platforms.
[6:17] So stop comparing yourself to the people who have these massive teams, who their content creation ecosystem is, is seamless and really easy to repurpose 'cause they have people helping them out.
[6:29] Focus on one platform, potentially even a second, and go deep on that, and really learn that specific platform before you try moving on to another one. I think that's a, that's a great tip.
[6:40] And if you can, I think long-form is great. I think short-form still has a ton of potential. I mean, I, I notice that our, our Instagram reels are still getting, like, really solid numbers.
[6:52] YouTube is a very slow burn, so if you're thinking about diving into YouTube, I think that it's gonna take you a lot longer than you think to grow on there- Absolutely... but you also need way less people. Yeah.
[7:04] You don't need hundreds of thousands of people. Like, I would argue that a 10K audience on YouTube, a 10K community there, is the same as 100,000 community on Instagram. Yeah.
[7:14] I think that, like, if I could ask anyone and they were like, "You could have 10,000 on any platform, what would you pick?" It would be YouTube by far. Bar none. 100%. I think, though, YouTube is a tough game.
[7:28] Obviously you have to understand packaging. It takes a lot more time and effort to make a YouTube video, um, than it does, I think, to crank out short-form.
[7:39] But if you can, if you can have both long-form and short-form, um, that's amazing, and we're gonna get into repackaging in a little bit.
[7:47] But having a long-form piece of content absolutely allows you to repackage that content into short-form. Yeah. Tip number three on the topic of- Mm. Give me tip number three... YouTube. Long-form is the moat.
[7:59] So we're going heavier on long-form, and we believe that you should, too. Like you just said, YouTube is a platform that can build serious trust.
[8:11] A thing with short-form is a lotta times the videos that do well, um, you kind of remove the nuance, and it's a little bit more difficult to go into detail because you're like, "How can I fit this one idea into a 30-second video?"
[8:28] With YouTube, a proper YouTube video or even a podcast, take this podcast for example, we're giving you a full social media strategy and principles to follow.
[8:40] It's really difficult to do that in one Instagram video that's 30 seconds, it's damn near impossible. And also, let's say you were to do a series or your whole thing is making content around social media strategy, right?
[8:56] Let's say we were taking this topic and bringing it to short-form.
[8:59] Even if you were to do a series, not every single person is gonna be seeing every single video, so all the tips that you're giving, um, not everyone's gonna be seeing all those different tips.
[9:10] And so with YouTube, it allows you to create more trust and build more depth with your audience because you really can go deep on certain topics, and you know they're gonna get, uh, way more information from one video as opposed to the Instagram videos that you're putting out.
[9:23] And just time on brand is crazy. 100%. We had 1,000 days of time on brand in the last, like, month on YouTube, which is crazy, from, like, watch time. Mm-hmm. And I mean, that's, that's multiple years.
[9:36] It's over three years of people watching our stuff and hanging out with us in a month span. And I can only imagine what the really big YouTubers are getting on a monthly basis. It's crazy to, to think about.
[9:47] The other cool part, too, about long-form, if it is something that you're like, "I do wanna do this. This is where I'm gonna live," you end up getting little snippets that you can end up posting throughout the week.
[9:56] Yeah.
[9:56] Like, if you're talking especially and you're giving advice or you're giving your takes on things, you have these little snippets that you can steal and go put them on TikTok and on Instagram, and it does make your life a lot easier.
[10:07] Also, when it comes to selling a product online and you, if you ha- if you do have a digital offer, um, if someone spends more time on your brand like you said, and they really love what you have to say in your long-form content, it becomes a much more logical decision to buy something from you versus someone else because they've consumed so much more of your content, and you've built up that trust over not only just minutes, but potentially hours, depending on how long-form your content is.
[10:39] Another thing that falls into, or another format that falls into long-form besides our podcast and our second YouTube channel, like the vlogs, is the workshops that we've been doing. Yes.
[10:53] That, in a way, is long-form content. Granted, it's not living on YouTube, but it's another form of us teaching live, and that has been really fun to do as well. Yeah.
[11:05] I, I also think, I mean, if we wanted to, those workshops we can took... We can take 52 \[laughs\] of the ideas or the things that we talk about and slowly start to trickle some of them out. Yeah.
[11:15] Like, you know what I mean? So it's really interesting to, to just think, think about a 30 or a 40-minute long video and how many different little snippets that you get out of it. Absolutely.
[11:24] Yeah, that's, so that's another thing is, like, you could essentially, um, you could have or you could, you could host a workshop.
[11:31] It's an hour or two-hour long thing, and you can film it, and then like you said, you can use those snippets or gems that you're talking about and repurpose them for, uh, short-form content. Without a doubt.
[11:42] Tip number four is to optimize for influence, not views.
[11:47] We slightly brought this up earlier in the podcast, but we're not really trying to go viral anymore, and we're not basing the success of content just strictly off of, "Did this get a lot of views?"
[11:58] I think being an entertainment YouTuber is a brutal hamster wheel to be on. Which... And we're not even ta- Like, I d- I would argue that most of our viewers are not trying to go down the entertainment route.
[12:12] I, I would agree, and I, I think that, uh, I mean, from people that we've spoken to that are, are entertainment YouTubers, you're like aYou're a slave to trying to just keep going bigger- Mm-hmm...
[12:24] and bigger and bigger every single time, and I think it's, it's a very unfortunate game to have to play.
[12:30] Like, I, I think being really good at a skill, in, in anything, really good at a skill and being able to transfer that knowledge over via a video platform is so much more sustainable long-term- Yeah...
[12:43] than trying to one-up yourself every single time. Mm-hmm. It's just, it's a, it's a never-ending game of- Yeah... you can't stop. Yeah. You're...
[12:53] A lot of the time, too, those entertainment YouTubers, right, most of them rely on merch. A lot of them are divvying into other businesses. So when the views dip, so does your, so does your monthly income. Yeah.
[13:04] The brand deals get lower, 'cause the most of them rely on brand deals. Their merch sales go down.
[13:09] It's, it's a tough game to play, and I think that if I was you guys, then \[laughs\] I mean, we both at one time wanted to be entertainment YouTubers- Totally... way back in the day.
[13:19] And now- And we're, you know, we're kind of fulfilling- Dude, come on... that dream with a vlog channel. Come on. But it, it's a- \[laughs\]... it's a totally different setup, though. It's a t- Yes...
[13:25] like, we, we don't need hundreds of thousands of people to find us on there. If that channel gets to 10K in the next year, I will be over the moon- Yeah... ecstatic. Yeah. And I... And that's all you need it to get to.
[13:36] Me and Brayden keep talking about that we are the Internet's, uh, uh- What? Find the words... the biggest- The best-kept secret... best-kept secret. It's all right. Words are hard.
[13:47] \[laughs\] Dude, words are hard, but I'll tell you what, we are the Internet's best-kept secret right now, and the thing... You know what's... Dude, it's so funny. Okay, so this kinda relates to- \[laughs\]...
[13:56] when I, uh, was trying to be a DJ. Okay. Granted, never panned out. Uh. \[laughs\] But- Uh-huh. Uh-huh... uh- \[laughs\]... we would talk about how we weren't unsuccessful or we weren't a flop- Uh-huh...
[14:08] we just hadn't been discovered yet. We hadn't been discovered yet. Granted, music- A little hard. Hard, dude. Uh-huh. I'm not a musician. But I say that to say just because
[14:21] your moment hasn't happened yet or you haven't built up the audience of the size that you want doesn't mean you can't and doesn't mean what you're talking about and what you're making content about isn't of value.
[14:34] People just haven't discovered you yet, and so you need to give yourself as many at bats as you can and play the long game to give yourself the opportunity to be discovered. Got it. Yeah, go hit the cages.
[14:47] Go hit the batting cages. Dude, 100%. Stay in the cage, dude. Stay in the game. Stay in the game. Do whatever you can to stay in the game.
[14:52] If you gotta take a full-time job, you gotta take a part-time job, do whatever you can. We were talking to our buddy Kane about this the other day, and he was just saying it, it's just inevitable. Yes.
[15:02] It's inevitable if you stay in the game, but if you quit and you stop, you're done. You, you lost the race. It's like you were on... You know the things at the airport? What's that thing, that little thing?
[15:11] Words are hard, huh? \[laughs\] Words can be a little hard. But what's it called? Do you know what it's called? I don't even know what you're talking- The little, the little conveyor belt thing.
[15:17] What's that thing called that you get on? It, like, pushes you forward. When we're walking through the airport, there's that thing that you hop on, and it's like boop. Oh, the- It's not an escalator. \[laughs\] What?
[15:27] No, it's not an escalator, but- What's it called? It's like a conveyor belt. What is it? It's just like a moving... It's like the moving sidewalk thing. Yeah. What is it called? I don't know what it's called.
[15:37] We're gonna call it the conveyor belt, but you gotta just stay on the conveyor belt, man. You can't get off. Can't get off where the walkers are at. You gotta stay on the tracks and keep going.
[15:45] See, I don't know if that's the best analogy, because everyone's still going in the right direction. The people on the conveyor belt are just moving a little faster. I'm moving quicker. I'm in the game, dude.
[15:53] Dude, I don't know. All right, that might have been a swing and a- Might have been a swing and a miss from Fig... might have been a big f- Fig, dude... might have been a swing and a miss, but we're now deep.
[15:58] But, hey, we're podcast. We're having a good time. Yeah, we're having a good time, dude. It's all good. But you guys get what I'm saying. Yeah. Gotta stay in the game. Uh- Stay in the game.
[16:05] Okay, but bringing it back to- Bring it back... optimize for influence and not views. Land the plane for me... instead of thinking about or basing your success off of how many views did this get,
[16:17] base the success off of a piece of content or the content that you're putting out is if someone is willing to take the next step. So did they follow you from this piece of content? Did they
[16:30] resonate enough with the piece of content that you put out to send you a DM? Did they
[16:36] comment a word because they wanted to take that next step with you where you provided enough value in your Instagram video and you have your ManyChat set up with your lead gen product and everything's aligned, and someone's like, "You know what?
[16:48] I want that lead gen product. I'm gonna comment the word, and we're gonna send them off the lead gen product." Did they sign up for your wait list, right? \[laughs\] Did you guys take the next step?
[17:00] Hit that top link and sign up for the wait list for Pay To Be You. And so if you can think about, if you can think about your KPI as did they take the next step that I wanted them to
[17:12] in my funnel or in my, you know, uh, content strategy? Did they take the next step? Because that's a much better KPI than did this get a lot of views. I also noticed something interesting.
[17:24] I had a post that did really well the other day in my car.
[17:27] I was just talking to the camera, and I think that back in the day, like, when we were younger, we used to look at the likes as kinda the end-all be-all for, like, how a post did, right?
[17:38] But that was before it was o- it was only likes and comments. You had two things that you were able to do on a post, and now you have like, you have comment, you have share, you have save.
[17:46] If someone goes and sh- saves a piece of content or shares it, I know myself I do this personally, I don't like their post. I just save it. Like, I'm not gonna hit three different things on their post.
[17:57] \[laughs\] I'm just going to hit the save button or I'm going to share it to a friend. I'm not gonna, like, go and like. So I wouldn't be so concerned with like is this getting a lot of likes.
[18:05] I would look at the sentiment in the comments. I would look at if someone's just leaving you a fire emoji, doesn't really mean a whole lot. If someone's like- Yeah...
[18:12] "Wow, this really impacted me," or, "I thought about it in this certain way," like, look at the character count in your comments section.
[18:18] Look at how many people are sharing it, because if they're sharing it, that means they're having a conversation about it in the DM.
[18:23] So you're not really, like, getting to see that data, and those are other comments on a piece that you're putting out. Well, I was gonna sayI think saves are good for the algorithm- Mm...
[18:34] and engagement, and I think Instagram does value if someone saves a post versus not. But I think we're... We all live in, in a world where we save, and we never act on those things that we save.
[18:51] I would argue most people have hundreds of pieces of content, whether they're organized or not, and in their head they're thinking, "I'm gonna get to those saved posts." I have hundreds of saved recipes on TikTok.
[19:06] I think I've made two. I have hundreds of places in LA to go take photos, or a new coffee shop to go hit, or places that I wanna travel, or content ideas, whatever.
[19:20] Th- there's so many saved posts, and I'm guilty of being like, "I'm gonna get to that later," but you never do. Mm. And so I think saves are important for, like, the algorithm and for, like, insights, but I, I think...
[19:33] I would argue most people save shit, and they never go look back at it. I'd be interested to hear from you guys, 'cause I look at my saves honestly every day. Really? Yeah.
[19:41] I go back, like, very frequently, 'cause I have it very curated. I have, like- But what kind of stuff are you saving? Uh, cool content. I have ads that I save from people.
[19:49] If I get hit with ads and I think they're interesting or I think there's something that I could take from it- Mm-hmm... I'll save the ads. Um, I have... Really it's just those two. Okay.
[19:57] Those are the two that I focus on, like, the most. Uh-huh. Or if there's, like s- I have songs that I'll save. Sure. So I have, like, a video that I'll save- Uh-huh... and then I'll just...
[20:03] It's only for their song, and I wanna, like- Yeah... take their song for something. Uh, but I'm curious if you guys do that, and, like, what you use them for if you, or if you never go back and use them. Yeah.
[20:12] I also think that the big message here is that if somebody doesn't take the next step, even if you are providing value, your content is just kind of entertainment. Yeah.
[20:21] Like, you need them to take the next step for your content ecosystem to make sense. Without a doubt, 'cause, uh, views, who cares? Mm-hmm.
[20:29] Who cares if it's just getting views, if it's just getting eyeballs if nothing is happening from it? 'Cause I would argue that people listening to this show, you have something that you want to sell eventually.
[20:41] That's like- You have, you, you have a business, right? You have some sort of business. You're trying to drive traffic- Yes...
[20:45] to a, to a brand, whether it's physical, you have a service that you're selling, you have a digital offer that you're selling. There's no point in you just being famous, unless that's your thing.
[20:58] Well, let's cut the bullshit. That's why we're trying to build personal brands. 100%. That's the whole thing. Either you're building a... You're... Okay.
[21:07] I would say close to 100% of the people listening to this show are fucking entrepreneurs- Without a doubt... in some way or another, whether you're building a personal brand or you're building a physical, regular brand.
[21:18] And so the whole thing of social media, the whole purpose of what we're trying to do is you're trying to get eyeballs for someone to take the next step. You're trying to generate traffic to your business.
[21:31] And so if you're just getting views but you're not optimizing your content for someone to take the next step, it's fucking pointless.
[21:38] We don't care about being famous and having a shitload of followers and getting a bunch of views. They're vanity metrics.
[21:44] Sure, it's fucking cool, and more of that, if your back end is set up correctly, means probably more dollars in your pocket. But, like you said,
[21:54] if you're not optimizing for someone to take the next step and you're just getting a bunch of views, it does not matter for your business. No. And, uh, like, yeah, like, you're, you're so right.
[22:04] Let's just be, let's be real for a second. \[laughs\] Dude, be real, dude. Let's be, let's be real for a second. \[laughs\] If, if someone out there is like, "Oh yeah, dude, this thing got 100,000 views," whoop-dee-doo.
[22:14] Yeah. Who cares? Mm-hmm. You know? Who cares unless you have something that you're, that you're pushing. Mm-hmm. Number five is actually from our good buddy Dan Priestley. Shout out to Dan.
[22:24] We need to go out to London ASAP- 100%... and run back pod number two, but this is a framework that he came up with. Okay, so it's the three S's and two F's, so we got scary, strange, sexy, free value, and familiar.
[22:36] I think we should start off with number one, which is scary. Ooh. Ooh, don't get, don't get it over- I didn't know we were in October. Yeah. This is, uh, this is a common thing that we see on YouTube now.
[22:45] We've used this technique. Yes.
[22:46] It's not a new technique, but it's great and it actually works really well for people to take action because there's this fear of missing out, this fear of I don't know this information, what could happen to my business, or what could happen if I don't actually take this step.
[22:58] Yeah. If I don't take action, what am I gonna miss out on, or what is gonna happen, what is gonna happen if I don't take the next step, like you said? And so you can use this as a strategy in your content.
[23:11] You can use fear as a tactic, and I know it kinda sounds almost, like, dark artsy in a way. But, like you said, once you see it, it works really well and you won't be able to unsee it.
[23:25] But yeah, if you can, if you can make people feel like they need to take action now, and if they don't take action now something bad's gonna happen or they're gonna be, you know, left behind.
[23:33] For example, you've seen the, you know, AI's coming. Like, you need to get on AI, and if you don't get o- on AI, you're just gonna be left behind. People are like, "Oh my God, I'm so scared. Like, I gotta figure out AI."
[23:46] So if you can think about that with your content, you'll see a lot of success. Number two, we got strange.
[23:51] Ooh, you gotta take a, you gotta take a contrarian approach and say something slightly different than what most people are saying. Who did this on our podcast? Seth Godin. Seth Godin said that authenticity was bullshit.
[24:03] And I remember, well, we were sitting there, and we had listened to a lot of interviews from him. We're like... You challenged him a little bit on it. You're like, "Go a little bit deeper into this."
[24:11] And when we asked Chris Do about it, Chris was like, "Seth is taking a belief that we also, we all know that that's not exactly how he feels." Yes. Like, authenticity isn't a bad thing. Yeah.
[24:23] Let's, let's be for real for a second. Yeah. I think with information being a commodity, you can't just say... You can't just provideQuote-unquote, "value" by providing information.
[24:34] And so you need to bring in, you know, your own lived experiences, but you also need to say it in a way that's different.
[24:42] And so how can you create curiosity or say something in a different way that maybe you're sharing the same information, but you're saying it in a way that hasn't been said before, or it hasn't been said how you're going to say it, because you, you have to stand out.
[25:00] And if you are saying the same information and s- and delivering it in the same exact way and you're not having some sort of contrarian approach, you're just gonna blend in with everybody else. That's not what we want.
[25:11] Absolutely not. We want you guys to stand out. Sexy, this has been, this has been a thing since the dawn of time. Mm-hmm. Okay, this is the outcome. This is, like, the end of the r- end of the rainbow.
[25:20] What's gonna happen, right? Is that why you're wearing a- Yeah... silk button down shirt? Dude, this is my... I, I want... Yeah. It's a pretty sexy shirt, dude. Thank you, dude. I really appreciate that.
[25:29] I re- I see what you're doing... I really appreciate that. I really... I wore it specifically for this. Yeah, man. For this exact thing.
[25:34] Dude, when you have a, a red Porsche, you see that shit in all those thumbnails of these people. They're putting the, the dream scenario. They got the house, they got the car, they got the watch. It's what people want.
[25:46] People want... People think that they want that in the very beginning of the game. And this goes back to hide the broccoli in the cake. Mm. Sell the sexy dream outcome.
[25:58] If they take the next step to work with you, you know, you're not talking about the process that you're gonna take them through to get the outcome, you're selling the dream. Like you said, you're selling the red Ferrari.
[26:09] You're selling, you know, the villa in Monaco. You know? You're selling the blue water, the travel, the freedom. Dude, blue ass water.
[26:16] You notice too with, like for example, fitness, all the fitness plans, if you start talking to your phone tonight and you say, "Fitness, fitness, fitness, fitness," three times- Mm-hmm...
[26:25] you start getting hit with some ads, they're not gonna tell you that you need to be in a caloric deficit to lose weight. Yes. They're not gonna tell you that you need to work out a certain number of times a week.
[26:32] They're gonna sell you the six-pack. They're gonna sell you looking really good at your wedding. Mm-hmm. That's what they're going to sell you. Yeah. You know?
[26:39] And so it's, it's really interesting now when you, when you start to notice these levers and w- how they make you feel, you will never look at advertising or you'll never look at videos the same way when you get hit with them.
[26:49] So stay sexy, my friends. Stay sexy, rocks. Free value, a gift. The podcast is a gift. I also think that if... Yeah. We go all around the world. We pay thousands and thousands of dollars to go make the show happen. Yeah.
[27:02] Tens of, tens of thousands of dollars to make the show happen, and you guys know that. I'm very transparent with you about how much it costs us to go on these trips and stuff. Mm-hmm.
[27:09] You're aware of the financial investment that we put into the show, and we appreciate the reciprocation from you guys commenting and helping us grow this thing, and sharing it to a friend. It means a ton.
[27:22] But it's, it's a, it's a dual relationship here. We're trying to go get these best guests in the world, and you guys will DM us and tell us, like, what you wanna hear. Yeah. And we ask that stuff.
[27:31] So we're trying to extract great information from these guests and give you information that we all would have to pay for. You, me, Costas, like, we'd all have to pay for these lessons from these guests.
[27:40] Tens of thousands of dollars. I think a big misconception that people have when it comes to content versus creating a course or a mastermind or a workshop or a cohort, whatever, it's
[27:55] what do I teach for free or what do I give away for free, and what do I keep for my, uh, for, like, my paid shit? You think give it all away?
[28:05] I think give it all away for free because it's rare that someone's gonna consume, like, every single piece of your content. And if they do consume every single piece of content,
[28:19] they're gonna feel so indebted to you that they're gonna wanna work with you versus anybody else. And people pay for proximity, and people pay to learn specifically from you.
[28:29] And so if you have a legitimate skill set and you can help someone get from point A to point B or have an actual transformation,
[28:41] they're gonna pay to learn from you, even if you've given away all of your sauce or everything that you teach.
[28:50] If you've given it all away for free in multiple different pieces of content over years of posting content, they're still gonna pay to work with you and, and take your course or take your cohort or take your mastermind because they want to interact with you, and they wanna be able to ask questions that
[29:09] you are specifically going to answer about how to help them specifically. I saw that Gary and Mike and Cass, who we, we've had Mike and Gary on the show, they did a private dinner in New York. Mm.
[29:21] And if you bought, like, a certain amount of their book, you got to go to this private dinner. Gary gives away everything. Mike gives away everything.
[29:29] But the reason why, like you're saying, why you would buy a certain amount of books to be able to go to this dinner is because it's proximity, and you wanna be able to ask your very specific question.
[29:38] You're not gonna get those asked via DM. They're super busy. There's millions of people that are following Gary. He's not gonna probably see your DM. Yeah.
[29:45] But if it's a reason why you would pay even though he gives away all of his, all of the information, right? And same with Alex.
[29:51] People are paying to go to their scaling workshop in Las Vegas because they want their specific problem answered. And I would argue that
[30:00] Alex has given away so much value for free that if s- someone could watch all of Alex Hormozi's- Mm-hmm...
[30:09] content and apply everything that he teaches, and they could probably get from 1 million to 5 million if they just watch every single piece of content that Alex,
[30:19] uh, teaches and puts it into their, like, into their business. "If information was all people needed, everyone would be a millionaire and have a six-pack." You like that quote. I do like that quote 'cause it's so true.
[30:29] People pay for proximity- Mm-hmm... and implementation. Like, they want to be able to ask the expert the specific questionTo be able to apply it to themselves, and they just wanna be around you.
[30:41] Like, some people will just literally buy your stuff to just straight-up support you. Mm-hmm.
[30:46] So yeah, dude, just give away as much free value as you can and, and have it be that you give away so much free value that when you do go and ask for someone to gi- pull out their credit card and pay you something, it's like a no-brainer.
[31:00] They're like, "Of course I'm gonna pay them." The last one is familiar. Ooh. So this is pairing yourself with, with known brands. Yes. Right?
[31:07] It's the reason, it's the reason why, uh, if, if we see people that are paying $140 for that silly little Amy Leon door hat. Mm-hmm. You're like, "Oh, they're part of this, they're part of this little club." Yeah.
[31:19] You know what I mean? Or for example, for this podcast- Mm... we have paired ourselves with very successful entrepreneurs and founders and people who have grown extremely big personal brands.
[31:32] And so through pairing ourselves with those certain individuals, the show, the 505 podcast, is seen in a certain light because we are paired with certain individuals. Yeah.
[31:44] It's if we, if we had different people on that didn't give you guys value and you listened to her like, "This was mid, I didn't get anything from this," you would think of the show differently.
[31:53] Or if the show was just us riffing and giving away a ton of value, even if the value- Yeah... okay, we've done, this is episode 194.
[32:06] If every single episode we did was just me and you, and we were still giving away all the information that all of the guests have come on and given u- given away, but it was just us, it would be a very valuable show, but it would, I don't think it would be seen in the light of,
[32:25] okay, Costas and Brayden know what they're talking about. They're giving away value, but they're also paired with these very, uh, successful individuals.
[32:33] You know how much harder it would be for us to get on people by ourselves- Yes... if it was just us? Yeah. It'd be very difficult. Well, if it was just us, we wouldn't be getting on other people.
[32:41] But I'm saying- \[laughs\]... if we made the shift- Sure, sure, sure... and we're like, we wanna now get guests- Yes, yes... it'd be a lot more difficult 'cause chances are they just haven't, they haven't heard you. Yeah.
[32:49] You know? Chances are they don't know who you are. Even, we've talked about this before, but there's so many people out there with millions of followers that you don't even know the names to. Hu- 50 million.
[32:59] I'll see a singer, and I'm like, "I've never heard of this person before." Yeah. "I've never seen them in my entire life," and they're huge. They have fans all over the world. Never seen them before.
[33:07] Yeah, I, I also think that, let's say you're, uh, you have a piece of value that you wanna provide, and you wanna make a piece of content about it.
[33:15] If you use an example from, like, a known brand or company and use that as an example- Yes... you can borrow trust from that brand or company and bring it into your own content.
[33:29] So just by simply bringing it up in your content, you're pairing yourself with that brand and- W-... borrowing trust from them. Without a doubt. Yeah. All right, number seven is daily short-form is the baseline.
[33:42] How has it felt doing every day? Dude- Has it been a pain in the ass? It has been a little bit of a pain in the ass, but to be honest, like, now that I'm doing it, I'm just like, "Oh, it's just part of my daily routine."
[33:53] We've been so busy with the podcast and Pay To Be You and a bunch of other stuff that it's- Brand, brand partnerships... brand partnerships.
[34:00] It's been very difficult to honestly, like, really sit down and, um, like, bulk shoot and batch shoot content. Once we come back from this Panama trip, though, I am sitting down.
[34:11] I'm really getting dialed in with the, with the content strategy, but, um, yeah, it's just become part of my daily routine. And look, I know that this tip is daily short-form is now the baseline, and
[34:26] I am in the camp of I'm posting daily. The more you post, the more eyeballs you can get on your stuff. Every post that you put out is a potential lottery ticket- Ching...
[34:37] for success, and the more you post, the better your odds get from this lottery game.
[34:42] However, I empathize with people who struggle to post every single day because I struggled to post every single day for a very long time, especially if you're balancing, you know, freelance clients or a full-time job.
[34:59] Like, it is very... It can be a lot of work. However, if you wanna win, that's just kind of how the cookie crumbles. It's just the price of rice. It is just kinda the price of rice.
[35:15] You can either complain and say, "Going every day on social is just, like, too much work," you know? It's just, "I'm, I'm balancing all these other things." Or you can say, "You know what?
[35:28] I do really want 2026 to be the year that I really grow my personal brand and I see success, and what is gonna have to happen for me to see the success that I want?
[35:39] And it's probably at the very baseline going every single day on short-form, and that's just, like, what it has to be." And sometimes life isn't fair, and it takes a lot of work, and you gotta grind.
[35:55] That's just what it is. Make... I think make a difference, though, in your low-effort and your high-effort stuff. Totally. Like, you, there's no way that you're gonna be able to put up a masterpiece every day. Mm-mm.
[36:04] I also think you get much more grace going every day. Yes.
[36:07] And, like, I, I wouldn't expect a creator that's doing something every day or a business owner that's doing something every day for every piece to be like Mozart's, you know, crème de la crème thing.
[36:16] It's just not possible. Yeah. You don't have enough, there's not enough creative juice to go every single day at the highest possible caliber unless you start hiring out other people to help you out.
[36:28] It's just not possible. I completely agree with all of that. I also think that in my pursuit of going every single day, I've had to let go of this post needs to be perfect.
[36:38] Like, it's just not possible unless the only thing you're doing in your day is creating a piece of-Amazing content.
[36:47] Also, perfect today is not gonna be what you think perfect is in six months, a year, two years from now. As you get further and further into this content game, your, your taste improves.
[37:03] And also, if I was to make a perfect video today, quote unquote perfect, there could be better motion graphics. Like, I'm not doing, I'm not doing motion graphics.
[37:11] The B-roll could be better, like the editing could be crazier, the way I deliver the message could be better.
[37:16] And so if you get caught up in, "I can't go every day because it needs to be perfect," well, perfect doesn't fucking exist. So stop letting perfect get in the way of you posting a piece of content.
[37:28] Just try to make it, like, 70% there and just go, because you're gonna learn a lot more from posting consistently than trying to post sparse but make every piece of content so amazing.
[37:38] Number eight, short-form verse long-form. Ooh. Know what each is for. Absolutely. What is the short-form for? Short-form is to get noticed and to just, I think, stay relevant every single day in- It's advertising. Yes.
[37:54] That is adverti- You know, it's funny. I was thinking about this the other day, 'cause we've been hit up quite a bit for NBA All-Star. Mm.
[38:00] We've, like, three or four jobs going on at once over the weekend, which is wild, but it's... I think because I got hit up right when I was starting to really ramp up the posting- Mm...
[38:10] 'cause we started in like January going like every day, right? I think that you become top of people's mind.
[38:16] Right now, a friend hit me up for a job in San Francisco, and I didn't know anyone really in SF to, like, send to them, and I'm like, "That's kinda crazy." Like, it, it's advertising.
[38:27] If someone was posting consistently every day with their video work and they're like a SF-based videographer, SF-based video agency- Yeah... I would know who to call, right?
[38:35] I'd have someone off the top of my head who to call. So by not showing up consistently, you are fleeting in the minds of other people- Yes... who would hire you for certain things, right?
[38:43] I think about people around us, if I need certain things done, I know exactly who I'm gonna call 'cause they're, like, they're top of my mind. That's exactly who I need to give a ring to.
[38:52] So by not showing up, you are literally under a rock, pun intended. Come on, dude. I think that you can build trust with short-form. You can build a lot more trust with long-form.
[39:03] And so if you can think about your content strategy is really to, um, just kind of like top of funnel, get a lot of eyes and attention on you. It's a reminder.
[39:14] It's a reminder every single day, like you said, you're top of mind for these people. And then, and then you have your YouTube, your long-form, whether it's a podcast, YouTube channel, vlog, whatever it may be.
[39:25] Use the long-form to really build trust, and then trust precedes the transaction, and so you need trust for someone to actually pull out their credit card and buy from you. So use long-form to build that trust.
[39:40] I think you can still build trust on long-form. I think it just takes a shitload more videos because y- like we said earlier, you're kinda taking out a lot of the nuance when you are making short-form content.
[39:50] Or you need to just be exceptional. Like, I, I think about the- Yeah... I think about the people that I've hired. A lot of the creators that I hire, uh, they don't do YouTube at all. Mm-hmm. They're just exceptional.
[40:00] Yeah. Their work speaks for themselves. Like, I can go click on their thing and I'm like, "This is, this is, uh, this is amazing." I don't need them to make a 20-minute long YouTube video. Yeah.
[40:09] So if you are, like, a service-based provider, and let's say... I'll give you an example. Let's say you're, like, an interior home decorator. I don't need to see your YouTube video. It would help. Sure.
[40:18] It would definitely be nice and nice to have. But if I went to your Instagram and you took this blank room and then turned it into this beautiful, you know, beautiful living room or this beautiful bedroom- Yeah...
[40:28] and it's a 15-second video, your work speaks for itself. Totally. And I, I would be willing to- Sure... transact and pull out my card. Yeah. You know?
[40:35] I will say, though, okay, let's say the average Instagram reel is 30 seconds, right? Yeah. I, I'd say, like, probably 15 to 30, but yeah. Okay. Somewhere around there. Let's just say it's 30 seconds. Okay.
[40:47] Over the course... If you go every single day posting- Oh, okay... over the course of the month- Should we do some math?... the minutes- Hm... it's gonna be- 30 times 30... 15 minutes. 900 seconds- No, but-...
[40:58] divided by 60 is 15 minutes. Yeah. Dude, you're good at math. Well, the way I thought about it is that that's- That's fi- Wow, so that's l- that's one YouTube video? Well, that's, that's what I'm saying.
[41:07] Let's say you were to go every single day with a banger 30-second piece of content. That's 15 minutes time on brand. Even if your YouTube video, let's say, is 8 minutes or 10 minutes, now you have...
[41:21] Let's just take 10 minutes, 'cause I feel like that's the average. To, to make the ma- math easy. So... Or even if you do 8. Over the course, over the course of four videos, that's 32, right? 32. Yeah, okay.
[41:32] So now you're, just by putting out a, you know, instead of going every single day on Instagram, like, 'cause we do wanna go every single day,
[41:43] you're posting once a week, but your time on brand is double on long-form than it is on short-form, and you're able to give way more in-depth on certain topics that you're talking about, so that's where the trust builds, and it's just way more time on brand.
[41:57] So understand, like you said, short-form is just to, uh, stay top of mind and get attention, um, but you really do wanna be doing long-form to really build the trust, because once you build trust, people will buy from you.
[42:09] And show that personality. Oh, yeah. Get your face in there. You, you know, it's funny, 'cause I, I came from a, from a niche earlier on where I was a video person, right? I was a videographer.
[42:18] I was doing work for people. I think one thing that really set me apart in those earlier days is my face was everywhere on my page. You could see me on the page. And a lot of pe- That big-ass head. Big head, dude.
[42:30] \[laughs\] When they s- When I go to other creators' pages, a lot of the time you have no idea what they look like. Yes. You have no idea what they look like. Mm-hmm. It's just work.
[42:37] So their, even their profile photo is some artsy shit. You can't even tell what it is that they do. I think now more than ever, it's so, so important to put a face to the name. Totally.
[42:46] So updated cover photo, or at least if I land on your page, I better be able to know and distinguish your face- Mm-hmm... so I know what's going on and who I'm talking to. Yeah. You know? Absolutely.
[42:55] I don't wanna, I don't wanna DM a ghost.Want to know who I'm talking to. Yeah, absolutely. Number nine, learn the art of repurposing. Dude, do we need more B-roll or what?
[43:04] We do need more B-roll, but it's okay that we're reusing the same photos and same videos. Now, I wanna talk to you guys about repurposing in a few different ways. Okay.
[43:16] So there's the repurposing of a long form piece of content. Okay. And, you know, then you find the certain moments, right?
[43:26] So from this podcast, I'll give you, I'll give you an example of repurposing in two different ways.
[43:32] So we could take this podcast and we could repurpose it into short form clips, we could do carousel posts where we put texts of what we're saying or the tips that we're giving over the course of a, um, of a, of a carousel post with photos.
[43:52] We could do, uh, you know, talking head style video where you talk...
[43:57] You kind of maybe give a few of these tips or one of these tips and you do a talking head style video and you're sharing the same message just in a different way. You can turn the podcast into an email newsletter.
[44:08] If you're on LinkedIn or Twitter you can do written stuff.
[44:11] So that's one way of taking like the main idea and repurposing it into a bunch of different types of content which I think is very important for your content strategy and you're just squeezing as much juice as you can out of one long form piece of content.
[44:26] So that's one level of repurposing. Another level of repurposing is taking the same message or idea and repackaging it in a different way, meaning you bring in a new lived experience to tie into the same message.
[44:42] Let's say you say something in a piece of content. You don't need to say something completely new in a new piece of content.
[44:49] You can just say the same thing but in a different way and the easiest way to do that is just to take a different lived experience that you have or, uh, a different example and bring that into the content, switch up the way you wrote the script for the piece of content.
[45:05] So it's not only just taking a long form piece of content and repurposing it and repackaging it through different formats, it's also taking the same message that you're spreading or that you're sharing and saying it in a different way.
[45:18] The next one is retention equals attention. So it's super important to have some sort of hook, but I have an interesting debate for us. Okay, so there's different types of hooks, right?
[45:27] We have like a visual hook if you had a beautiful place where you film, it looks super interesting or it's unique to you, right?
[45:32] We have a text hook, uh, which would be like me putting a little like headline at the top of my video, i.e., I did this the other day. I was like the biggest shift in social in 2026.
[45:41] You're like, "Well, I wanna hear what the heck the biggest social... The... I wanna hear what the heck he has to say about this. I'm gonna stay and hear the payoff."
[45:47] We have text hook, we have a visual hook, and then we have an audio hook. So what you're saying, right? Or maybe it was like a crazy song that was really cool and I'm interested in it, I wanna hang out.
[45:54] But you posted a video the other day, it was one of your most viewed pieces, most liked pieces, and I would argue that it had zero hook.
[46:02] And someone commented \[laughs\] on it something funny and they're like, "I've been skipping your reels but I listened to this one because it felt very authentic." Yeah. It felt like there was no hook.
[46:12] So I'm curious where that is going to go and I keep getting hit with videos that are just raw off the cuff in the f- in the car. I would argue I did kinda have a hook. What was it?
[46:27] So visually I don't necessarily think there's anything unique about it. It's a mid hotel room. Mid hotel room. Okay. Text-wise it's just subtitles. Uh-huh.
[46:38] But the way I started the video was I said, "To start the year I signed a contract with myself." So- To start the year.
[46:47] I don't think that- Your first four words just- But I don't think, I don't think you need to count the number of words you're saying. I would... Oh, go seconds. Your first two seconds.
[46:56] I would say that drives a curiosity thing of like what is this contract he signed with himself? But I don't even think I would've got to the word contract. Mm-hmm. I don't even think I would've got to the word contract.
[47:07] But I think you're wrong because it clearly had good retention. That's so interesting. Yeah. I still just don't think it was a hook though. Like I don't think that's a traditional hook necessarily. Okay.
[47:20] To start the year- Fair... I wrote a contract to myself is not something that- But let me... Okay, so- It's not a hook at all... I, I think I could have started by saying,
[47:29] "I'm not feeling good and I'm in this hotel room and we're in New York and I didn't wanna post a piece of content but I'm..." Whatever. Mm. That is essentially saying the same thing but I said...
[47:44] I was like, "What can I say that might spark some curiosity?" Mm-hmm.
[47:49] I wrote a, I wrote a contract with myself or I signed a contract with myself at the beginning of the year, not a physical contract but one in my head that I would post every single day. Mm-hmm. I think that
[48:04] even though it may not be like a traditional hook I still think you are maybe intrigued enough to be like what is this, what is this contract that he's about to say potentially? I don't know. I kinda disagree. Okay.
[48:21] I, but I, and I don't know why. I think why it did well in my personal opinion is 'cause it was, there was no crazy- Uh-huh... there's nothing crazy going on. Sure. It was just real and you were talking to the camera.
[48:34] Uh-huh. And I feel like in the era of swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe- Uh-huh... it st- it sticks out because it's not like this is your top three tips- Uh-huh... to do this. Yes.
[48:45] And like I c- I am swiping by all those fucking videos now. Mm-hmm. I can't stand them. Mm-hmm. I feel like the value game is very interesting on, uh, Instagram and TikTok right now.
[48:55] I feel like I'm not sticking for those videos at all. Sure. They're almost trying to like bait me- Uh-huh... in a way and I feel like it was just you being yourself I would argue that-Made people stick. Mm-hmm.
[49:07] Like, I don't think it was, I don't think it was, like, any sort of hook or curiosity loop. Sure. I think it was like, "I li- I'm gonna see what this guy says." Yeah. It was like, "Let me just hear what he says." Uh-huh.
[49:15] It di- it didn't feel like it's trying to be something that it's not. Interesting. Okay. It's just, like, you talking to the camera. And I'm like, it's refreshing- Uh-huh...
[49:21] to almost see a piece like that comparatively to the other 50 things that I will get fed. Uh-huh. You know? What... And that's why I also think the thing in my car did well. 'Cause it's like it's, it's just in a car.
[49:33] Yeah. And it's, it's, you're talking to the mic on a, on a little thing in my headphones. There's no crazy production value going on. It's just so stripped down. There's nothing that's...
[49:41] There's no, like, barrier between. It's like you're on FaceTime with a friend almost. Yeah. But I still think that your- I did have, I did have a text hook. I did have a text hook, uh, like, on the screen.
[49:50] It was like, "The Big Shift in Content in 2026," and you're like, "Well, what is the big shift?" Well, how did you open up that video? I said that. I said, "I'm noticing something." Okay, cool.
[49:58] That's opening up a curiosity, like, what are you noticing? No, but it... I agree, but it's stripped down. I think I, I, I still think, going back to your video, I don't think there was a hook at all. Okay.
[50:09] And, like- We can agree to disagree. You don't... You think that there was a hook there. Because I said that line somewhat intentionally. Hmm. I think I could've easily said,
[50:20] "Me and Brayden are in New York right now," and it's- Yeah, no one cares. No one cares... and I'm s- Mm-hmm... I'm feeling sick. Mm-hmm. And it's snowing outside. Mm-hmm.
[50:28] Like, I, I could've said the same exact thing- Mm-hmm... but who's to know? Because I didn't- Yeah, no, you-... A/B test. Yeah, I know. That's the- But I do, I did- I go back to that kid's comment though- Mm-hmm...
[50:40] and I use that as, like, data of- Sure... of there's probably 500 people who also thought the same thing as him. Sure. Yeah. You know? But he had, he commented, so now we, we- Yeah...
[50:48] like, have a touch point of that was why he watched. Yeah. You know? On the topic, though, of this specific tip of retention equals attention,
[50:57] this is really interesting, and this is, like, a funny way to put it, but you kinda gotta blue-ball your audience. Okay. After your hook, you can't give the payoff right away. You have to be like, "I'm curious- Mm-hmm...
[51:14] because of this hook," and then you kinda set some, like the, you lay the foundation a little bit, but you don't give the payoff.
[51:20] And, like, the more you can delay the gratification of getting the sauce from the actual video, the more your retention goes up. Hmm. A lot of times you'll... Let's say you're making a video that is 30 seconds long.
[51:33] If you do the hook and then the payoff right away, that's within maybe six or seven seconds, so now your retention is maybe 25% of the whole video. If you can give the payoff and story tell enough
[51:48] to where someone's gonna wanna stay towards the second half of the video- Hmm...
[51:52] you're giving yourself a better chance of having someone watch more of your video, which means more retention, which means Instagram is gonna see that people are watching your video for longer.
[52:04] And okay, people are liking this, so it's gonna get shared a little bit more. I wanna do a test this week. Yeah. \[laughs\] And I'm curious if it, if it's almost just, like, a, a one- off-the-cuff yap session. Mm-hmm.
[52:16] Like, you don't... There's, you purposely don't do any sort of, like, trick- Sure... to get them to stay. I wonder, I wonder what it does. I'm really curious to see. We'll report back to you guys next week.
[52:27] I will say the stronger the message that you share- Mm... and if you can communicate it extremely well, the less you need the cuts and the fancy editing and the music and stuff like that.
[52:41] The people who crush it who don't have- Yeah, no captions, no nothing. It looks like shit... they're just really good at communicating a message- Mm-hmm... and the message is super valuable. You're right.
[52:53] And they also, they have a certain, like, aura to- Yeah... the way that they speak. Yeah. They're not like, "So today..." Uh-huh. It's with a conviction. Totally. This is what you... This is what I'm noticing. Yeah.
[53:05] Or b- another hook. \[laughs\] Next up, choose your POV intentionally. Mm. What does that mean? Okay. So our good buddy Caleb Browston- Oh... said something that stuck with me on the podcast. He said- Years ago... don't...
[53:20] Yeah, year, about seven or eight months ago. He said, "Don't pose as an authority if you aren't one."
[53:27] So you're either taking the POV that you are the expert, you are the authority figure, you really know what the fuck you're talking about, you have years of experience and years of game and knowledge to give away to your audience.
[53:43] So you're either taking the POV of the expert. Or you're kinda just starting out, and you're gonna take the journey POV.
[53:51] You can build authority still with the journey POV, because you build authority simply by attempting to do the thing, and you share your learnings.
[54:04] So I tried posting on social media for 30 days in a row or whatever. There's authority built in there, because you put in the work of posting every single day, and you're sharing your findings.
[54:17] If you are not an authority figure, if you do not have genuine credibility to share that you know what you're talking about, do not fake pose as a fake guru.
[54:30] It is totally okay to take the journey POV instead of the authority POV and be honest about that. Don't, don't take the position of I'm an authority if you aren't one. The...
[54:42] You can be really successful with a journey POV. Totally. I really love the videos of I'm doing this, or I'm committing to 30 days in the gym, or I did this thing for a year straight. I love watching those videos.
[54:54] Uh, Matt D'Avella's really good at this. Yes. He does it, like, it's a, his body and his life is an experiment on YouTube. Yes. Right? Those videos are super interesting.
[55:02] But by consuming and doing and practicing a lot of these things, or if you, let's say, you used yourself as the experiment, and you're like, "Oh, I d- I ran Facebook ads for a year straight-" Yeah...
[55:13] "and I made a million dollars."I'd argue now you know what the heck you're doing. Yeah. You tested on yourself, you got an outcome. Now you can show other people how to do it.
[55:22] You can share your findings also along the way. "Oh, today we tested with $5 a day and this was our findings. This is what we found out." I would much rather someone do that than pose as a, as an expert. Mm-hmm.
[55:33] And I, I think you'll have way more success. I- specifically calling out the younger rocks. Yeah. 'Cause I think that it's really easy to think that you have to come across as you're the best and you are perfect at it.
[55:45] Mm-hmm. And people will respect you so much more by just being honest. Absolutely. And last but not least, every post needs some sort of call to action. And this isn't a sell every time, nor should it ever be- Yeah...
[55:57] every single time. But you'll notice at the end of all of my videos I say, "As always, DM me on IG with any questions. Hit that follow button for more. Peace." That's intentional. Mm-hmm.
[56:05] I want people to start a conversation. I wanna help people. If you DM me a question, I will answer it. People will see that, and they always are like, "Oh, is this really you or is this a bot?" It's me.
[56:14] Takes a lot of time, but I, I really enjoy it and I think that I get to impact people from the decade plus that I've been in this game doing this stuff online.
[56:23] I think you could even have a soft CTA of like, "Oh, you should try this out." Yeah, 100%. So call to action. What is the action you want them to take? Yes. Do you want them to follow you? Do you want them to comment?
[56:33] Do you want them to try this out in their own life? Do you want them to click the link in your bio? Something. Have some sort of CTA.
[56:43] If there is no CTA, there's no next step or there's no direction for your audience to take. I really don't love when every person's post is trying to sell you something, and I think that- Totally...
[56:55] we as the audience can feel that. Yeah. If every single post on short form is like, "Buy this thing, buy this thing, buy this thing" Yeah...
[57:02] you notice that their affinity, like what people feel about them, it drops- Mm-hmm... significantly. 'Cause you're asking every single time. Yeah. It's annoying to be asked every single time.
[57:11] It's not annoying to give you a gift. No. So if you have something awesome that you built for people and it's totally free, it's not annoying to be like, "Hey, check out my free thing. Check this out. Go try it.
[57:20] Go give it a go. Give me some feedback on it." Mm-hmm. That's totally okay. But if you're trying to sell every single time, I think it does lose, like, stock in your brand. Absolutely. I have one bonus tip.
[57:31] Oh, I love a bonus. Just because we were kinda talking about it before the podcast. Oh, okay. And you've heard us talk about this on the podcast before, but you gotta pick an enemy. Okay.
[57:39] You gotta be for and against something, because if you're for everybody, you don't stand for anything. And so I know we don't like to piss people off, but, like, you have to be against something.
[57:54] You have to draw a line in the sand. The people who build the strongest personal brands are against something. I'll bring up the example of Paul Saladino.
[58:03] \[laughs\] He is against kale and vegetables, which is fucking wild. \[laughs\] He pisses a lot of people off, okay? Uh-huh.
[58:10] People who eat vegetables or nutritionists who, you know, say to eat vegetables are like- The vegetarians... "This guy is full of shit." He has a fucking cult-like following. Mm-hmm.
[58:19] And he's j- like, he's taken the, he's taken the POV or he's chosen, he has chosen the enemy of vegetables and kales, and he is against that.
[58:31] And so you're gonna piss a lot of people off, but you're also gonna have people that ride for you super hard. So if you can pick an enemy and be against something, you'll see a lot of success. Without a doubt.
[58:42] And I, I think show up, show up as yourself, as hard as that is to say. Be authentic. You got to. I, I, like, die on that hill that that's what is your X factor. Like, your lived experiences are your X factor.
[58:54] So right now if you're like, "Well, I'm just inside all day, I have nothing to talk about," go outside, go touch some grass, go skin your knees, go travel. Do whatever you can.
[59:01] You can travel with little money, 'cause I did it in college. Mm-hmm. I know you can do it. Like, you could work a crappy job that you're not loving right now and figure out a way to go out and get experiences.
[59:11] \[ts\] Um, did you ever... Hmm. Since studying abroad- Mm-hmm... have you ripped a- Europe?... Europe trip with friends or anything like that? No. I, I didn't. I haven't gone back to Europe.
[59:24] I've gone to Asia multiple times. That's fair. Yeah. I've gone to Asia quite... I, I, I mean, I lived in Asia for, like, two and a half months. Yeah. I loved Asia.
[59:32] Asia's really cool 'cause you, you have, uh, the, they, they love tourism- Yeah... out there, right? They really are very welcoming and accommodating. And specifically the Balinese people, best people in the world.
[59:45] Mm-hmm. Kindest people. Yeah. Like, I loved that culture. I felt... Like, I really got a sense of where we were living and you know all the streets at that point. You didn't even need a map.
[59:56] Uh, and I feel like we made a lot of really cool friends over there. The reason I bring it up is because- Uh-huh... I'm reading Greenlights by- Okay... Matthew McConaughey, and this motherfucker has so many- Stories...
[1:00:07] stories. Yeah. Which makes him really interesting. Yeah. Stories make you interesting. Stories make you interesting. And so I think I've shared this on the podcast, but I'm not- Yeah... sure if I have.
[1:00:18] My- Stories and hobbies, dude... yeah, my senior year of college, I took a business of acting class, and one of the assignments was to get in contact with a working actor.
[1:00:29] They don't need, they didn't have to be, like, super successful. Obviously, the more successful the better. But get in contact with a working actor and ask them five questions or something like that.
[1:00:38] Anyways, my friend Ray's dad was a working actor. Wasn't, like, super famous, but he had been working as an actor on TV shows and movies for, I wanna say, like, 40 years.
[1:00:48] So I got in contact with him, and the piece of advice that he gave me that stuck out to me was he said, "If you wanna be an actor, before pursuing acting, like, once you graduate- Mm-hmm...
[1:01:01] go travel and go experience life." Because if you can, the more life you can experience, the more lived experience you'll have to be able to pull from when you are trying to act as different characters.
[1:01:16] And it's the same for content and it's the same for building a brand. Like,
[1:01:20] if you can go out and experience life and have experiences to pull from and being able to relate to different people, or you see the world, and it doesn't have to be that you have to go on a $25,000 vacation to Europe in the summer for six weeks.
[1:01:35] It can be go to your neighboring town or just see the US, whatever it may be. Like you were saying, you don't have to spend a lot of money to travel. But go experience that. Go talk to people.
[1:01:47] Go experience life, because the more stories and lived experiences you have, the more you'll be able to bring into your content and the more you'll be able to relate to people and the more likable of a human being you'll be.
[1:02:00] Go touch some grass. Hell yeah. This was a super fun podcast. This is episode 194. If you're still here, please hit the subscribe button, drop us a comment, leave us a like, and as always, DM us on IG with any questions.
[1:02:10] We'll see you guys all next week. Peace.

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