Introductory note: Substack tells me this post is too long for email platforms so will be cut in half on email. Go over to the app/website to read the whole thing.
Friends, I am both concerned and highly optimistic.
New technology is coming towards us at a terrifying speed, and isn’t going to stop for anything, least of all our feelings.
I am concerned for those who are not taking this seriously, and highly optimistic for those making a start on tackling the digital and creator economy.
Love it or loath it, AI is changing the economy and job market forever. Will it effect you and your loved ones? Yes it absolutely will.
Creating content and building a personal brand could be the one thing that allows us to stand out and hold firm - whether you are a person with a hobby or passion to share, a small business owner / entrepreneur, or even a big business executive. Heck, this even applies if you are someone who has a traditional career and wants to continue building that.
The lessons I’m sharing in this column apply to all of the above.
I suppose one thing through all of this isn’t new, but is definitely more important now than ever: getting attention on yourself, your skills and expertise, or your products and services, is going to be the thing that matters most as AI takes hold.
I am hugely passionate about this, and have seen first-hand the transformative effect having a personal brand can have - allowing us to dare to live a life of freedom, remove the shackles of the 9-5, and ultimately build a moat around our individual castles.
And this year - fresh from the experience of gaining 130 million new views to my content in three months - I’m sharing these life lessons and practical skills with you right here, in a new segment to my newsletter called ‘Workshop Wednesdays’.
This is a paid-subscription offer that will allow me to provide deeper value every single week. This first edition, though, is available to everyone as a sample of what’s to come every Wednesday.
Even if you don’t think it’s for you, it most certainly be for someone you know, so you can also gift it to them.
The past three months > the past 10 years
I have a confession to make. Until recently, I never got short-form video content. I mean, I consume it like everyone else, but never took it anywhere near as seriously as I should have as a tool for getting attention.
I’ve been creating long-form content for 10 years, but never seen explosive growth like I did over the summer of 2026 when I decided to take short-form video seriously. The numbers do not lie: 130+ million views in three months is wild. This experience taught me a great deal and changed my perspective on making content.
It also provided me many opportunities to speak to more people, work with huge brands, and invitations to speak to almost every mainstream news outlet.
And I am nothing special: this opportunity is available to everyone. Creating content is the roadmap to building community, making more income, growing a business, improving your reputation, or climbing the career ladder.
In fact, I’d go as far as saying that starting a new account from zero is an advantage over people who have been around for a few years.
It also doesn’t matter what medium or platform you use. Substack, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, X, TikTok… they can work by focussing on one, or they can work if you do a bunch of them.
Meanwhile, the following statement is shocking but absolutely true:
Armed with nothing more than a phone and something interesting to share, your stories can easily be seen by more people than those created on the same topic by established media brands that have operated for more than a century.
I’ve experimented with this, having also created and managed several niche content pages one the side - related to football, or photography and other interests of mine.
In this respect, the algorithm doesn’t care if you are Joe Bloggs or the New York Times. To prove the point, for all those mainstream news outlets I appeared on - my own content largely outperformed theirs.
To repeat: this doesn’t mean that I am super special. I just decided to hit record and publish.
The middle man of publishers, agents and producers is gone forever, and they no longer have control of the flow of information.
So let’s get into it…
1. Real people matter. Going viral does not.
I want to begin with something that might sound a little strange coming from someone who has just told you about 130 million views.
Views don’t matter as much as you might imagine.
Sure, having your video viewed by a lot of people is great and can open new doors for you, but going viral itself isn’t always the solution to your problem.
Loads of videos go viral these days that do not lead to audience growth, business growth, or growth of any other objective the person might have.
Conversely, a video that hits just the right audience and has, say, tens of thousands of views rather than millions, can achieve significantly better outcomes.
This is why we should not chase virality, but rather chase connections with real people who care about the things we have to say. Those two things are very different.
Now I get it. There’s nothing quite like opening your phone and discovering that something you posted yesterday has been watched by several million people. It’s exciting. It’s validating. And it can be enormously motivating.
Actually, I believe the right word is intoxicating.
But do those people care enough about what you have shared to watch several of your videos and hit the follow button? Like I said, sometimes yes, but mostly no. Building long-term trust with viewers is the goal here, and so you need to be relevant to the right people.
For some of you reading - for example, you own a bake shop and the goal is to attract a local audience who will come in and buy your cakes - that is a very local audience. It makes no difference if millions of people in another country are watching.
In other words, if that bake shop posted a funny meme, a spectacular sporting moment or a bizarre incident caught on camera and it went viral, it would have no impact on their business objectives.
And it’s the same story for people who just want to create content to share their knowledge or passions.
2. Your perspective is the value
Here’s something I’ve learned from traveling around, creating content on the go and sharing thoughts online.
The things people consider perfectly ordinary are often the things I find most fascinating, and my perspective on those things is what gets attention.
A college football tailgate, for example.
To an American, particularly someone who grew up in the South, spending an entire Saturday eating barbecue, drinking beer and preparing for a football game might seem completely normal.
To a Scottish visitor, it’s extraordinary.
And when people notice that not everyone has the same context as they do, it sparks an interest.
This is called your unique perspective, and every when you share that unique perspective, you will get attention.
You don’t need to be the world’s leading expert.
One of the biggest obstacles people face when they consider creating content is the belief that they don’t know enough. They look at established creators and think: what could I possibly add?
But that’s exactly it. A topic might have been covered a 1,000 times, but nobody has provided your unique perspective before, and it might be your unique perspective that the audience didn’t know they needed.
People value enthusiasm, curiosity, personality, honesty, humor and fresh perspectives. You just need to find your angle.
Imagine five people making videos about New York City. One is a historian exploring the city’s past. Another is a food enthusiast visiting famous restaurants. A third is a local resident documenting the realities of living there. A fourth is a budget traveler trying to experience the city for as little money as possible. And the fifth is a Scottish tourist seeing the place for the first time.
Same city. Five completely different perspectives.
Some of those perspectives will resonate with a particular audience, and others will resonate with others. And that’s why I wouldn’t spend too much time worrying about whether your chosen subject is already crowded.
You just have to ask yourself: what can I bring to this subject that feels recognizably mine?
3. The secret to viral content:
Let’s talk about the part everyone wants to know. How do you actually make a video go viral?
This is going to disappoint a lot of people. There is no secret.
You share your unique perspective on life, your hobbies, your work or your profession. You do this over and over again. Some of those perspectives will resonate with a very large audiences, and others will not.
When a piece of content lands, or at least over-indexes compared to your usual, those are the ones to double down on, find new angles for and repeat.
Sure, there are things you can do to get better engagement and audience retention. I do not deny the power and importance of the ‘hook’ - the thing you say or do in the first few words of your content that grabs attention.
Honestly though, creating a hook is something anyone can learn. The best way to do this is to create a lot of content, see what resonates, and iterate.
Better yet: use the platforms’ own functionality to test this. Instagram has trial reels. Substack and YouTube offer A/B headline testing. These can all guide you.
Overall, the idea matters more than the production or editing. In fact, in the age of AI and content perfection, making things look too polished is not an advantage.
The questions I would ask before filming:
Why would somebody who doesn’t know me care?
This is the hardest question, particularly when you’re starting out. Your friends and family might enjoy watching you visit a restaurant simply because it’s you. A stranger needs another reason. You need to give people something to be curious about. Generally speaking, being yourself is the answer here.
What is the most interesting part of the experience?
Find that moment and build your hook around it.
Can I explain the idea in one sentence?
If you need five minutes to explain why a video is interesting, there’s a good chance the concept needs more work. They key is brevity. And on that note:
4. The first few seconds are your audition
Alright, let’s go back to the hook.
One of the biggest differences between traditional television and social media is the amount of patience viewers have.
On television, somebody might sit through a programme’s opening titles because they’ve already decided to watch. On TikTok, Instagram Reels or YouTube Shorts, that commitment doesn’t exist.
You’re competing with the next swipe.
And there is of course a difference between ‘traditional’ long-form content on YouTube, which competes more with Netflix than it does a TikTok video. But even then, you need to layer in hooks that continually take them further and further into the content.
With short-form content, I would recommend either getting to the point immediately, or at least teasing it.
A word of caution: there’s a difference between making someone curious and misleading them. Otherwise, people might watch once, feel disappointed and never return. A bad signal for the algorithms.
5. Make content that people want to share
This is particularly important if you want to reach audiences far beyond your existing followers. Above all, ‘shares’ sends a strong signal to the platforms.
Either way, it makes your content travel a lot further, so give people a reason to send your video to someone else.
Not sure how to do this? Neither am I. But I can look at the content I have consumed and then shared - either through a repost, restack, or sending to someone as a direct message.
Thinking about why I shared those pieces of content is as good a place to start as anywhere when considering your own content.
6. One viral video is exciting. Repeating it is where things get interesting.
I mentioned above that the goal isn’t to go viral, but there is one side-note to this.
If several of your videos on the same topic go viral, something else happens.
People rarely follow and share after seeing one of your videos. If they see 3 or 4 of your videos, then they’ll build a connection and take action.
So in cases where I have 2 or 3 videos going viral at the same time, my follower count skyrocketed.
The best way to ensure this is to post a lot of content, iterate, repeat what’s working with slightly new angles and takes, and generally keep going.
And for the love of all things sacred, if you go viral, follow it up with good, relevant, fresh takes on the topic. Squeeze that lemon.
7. How often should you post?
This is one of the questions creators spend an extraordinary amount of time debating. Should you post every day or three times a day? Is Tuesday better than Thursday?
I have a simple way of looking at this.
I get it. We have things going on that could stop us from posting more. Truth is, the algorithms do not prefer three posts a day over one. The equation here is this:
Posting more means faster feedback to you, the creator, with lessons you can use to double down on what works for you.
Post one video a week? You might have to wait for a whole year on valuable data that can help you double down. Posting several times a day, however, will lead to that data coming your way in weeks, or even days.
The bottom line is, once you’ve made and posted around 100 videos, you’ll have good data to make some decisions.
Dumping all of those videos on your timeline at once is also the not the right way to do this, of course, but the quicker you can get those videos out, the quicker you’ll have useful information, and the sooner you will start growing.
Another way to look at it is this: these platforms are all like a giant slot-machine casino. Now imagine the coins you could enter the machines were free. You’d be inserting more coins in, as fast as possible, to hit the jackpot, wouldn’t you?
8. Use short-form video to reach people. Give them a reason to stay.
One of the most important things I’ve learned is that different kinds of content serve different purposes.
You’ll have the content that reaches loads of people. I recommend doubling and trebling down on that content, make no mistake.
But where you can build community and really connect with your audience is creating some other content around the edges that shares your personality, your beliefs and your ambitions.
If you run a small business like the bake shop mentioned above, you might want to tread a fine line when it comes to introducing your beliefs. I’ll leave that judgement call up to you. Your business depends on it.
However, generally speaking, it is much better to attract your tribe and stand for what you believe in than try to appeal to everyone.
And if you’re still figuring all of that stuff out, that’s fine too. Take your audience on that journey.
9. A big audience is wonderful. A business is better.
Let’s talk about money. Because while I love making videos and exploring America, I also have bills to pay. And I’m fairly sure you do too.
Sure, you can make content for fun, but if you want to invest serious time and effort into it as we are suggesting throughout this post, there has to be some kind of payback.
There’s sometimes a strange reluctance among creators to talk about the commercial side of what they do, as though earning money somehow makes the work less authentic.
I don’t agree. Content creation requires time, effort, creativity and skill. If you can build something people enjoy and find ways to earn a living from it, that’s something to be proud of. And it’s one of the reasons I’m so enthusiastic about the opportunities available today.
When people think about earning money as a creator, they often imagine advertising revenue. You make videos, the platform shows advertisements and you receive a share of the money.
And that can certainly be part of the equation - especially when getting millions of views. I will caution though, that this is usually temporary, and over the long-term is a percentage of your income, and not the whole pie.
Depending on your audience and what you create, income might come from brand partnerships, sponsorships, affiliate recommendations, memberships, digital products, consulting or other services. You might even build an entirely separate business that benefits from the audience you’ve created. Or, indeed, you might just sell baked goods.
The important thing is understanding what value you’re providing and who might reasonably pay for it. However, it can be distracting to go after everything at once.
I’d really think about what type of creator you are, what value you can offer your audience, and go all in on that one value as an offering. You can make good money from all of them.
A real estate agent has a very clear viewer they are targeting with their content. So does a bakery. It can be less obvious to those sharing lifestyle content, but given time and comments from your viewers, you’ll figure out ways you can help them.
While brand partnerships can be a great opportunity for someone with a large audience, I suggest building and promoting your own products and services is always going to be more sustainable over the long term.
10. Don’t wait until you have a huge audience to think about earning money
Building from the last point, this might be the most important section of the entire guide. You do not need millions of followers to start earning money from content.
In fact, having 5,000 followers who really care about you, what you do, and what you can offer, is a significantly better financial proposition than someone who has a million transient followers. It isn’t even close.
So start with a problem you can solve - and then solve it.
Also, make sure you are building around something you actually enjoy. If you don’t, you will almost certainly regret and resent the direction you have gone.
11. Stop building your entire future on one social media platform
I mentioned at the beginning of this post that you can successfully build on all the platforms, or just one. I’ve seen both work.
However, I will say that if we zoom out, these platforms ultimately come and go. New challengers will come along. Heck, your account could get banned or hacked tomorrow, with absolutely no recourse.
Think about that for a second.
I know loads of creators who have built a great business using only one single social media platform. I admire them, but honestly, I’d be having sleepless nights if I were them too.
So what can you do about it? You can try and replicate your success across several platforms. You could also create new handles, and I really like this strategy. You have your main account which is successful, but you create a new account which is used only to answer people’s questions. Maybe a poor example, but you can get really creative with a handle strategy. I’d only do this after experience good traction so as not to distract.
The best idea of all is to own your audience. You can do that by building your own platform where data is gathered: names, email addresses and more. Substack is one platform that helps facilitate this type of audience ownership.
Every time you buy a new products from a website - think clothing retailers for example - they will do everything they can, including offering discounts, to get your data. This data gives them a small piece of ownership. As a content creator, you need to think the same way.
12. The numbers you should actually pay attention to
If you’re serious about growing an audience, you need to develop some understanding of your analytics. But please don’t become the sort of person who checks their view count every 45 seconds, as this only leads to anxiety.
Here are some general measurements I’d look at - with a note of caution, that these can be slightly different for each platform, and indeed the important information for each can also be different.
Views and reach
How many people saw your content and how many clicked? This tells you something about its distribution, but it doesn’t tell you whether people enjoyed it. Impressions and actual clicks are two different things, so click through rates are important. Treat it as the beginning of your analysis, not the conclusion. Specific to Instagram is the skip rate, which drives how the platform pushes content. You want this as low as possible.
Watch time and retention
How much of your video did people actually watch? Did they leave after the opening? Did they stay until the end?
Were there particular moments where viewers dropped away? These are useful questions because they help you understand whether your content delivered on the promise of its opening.
A video that attracts attention but immediately loses viewers may have a strong hook and a weak story.
Generally, the platforms want people stay on their platform as long as possible. If your content helps them achieve that, you’ll likely tickle the algorithm.
Shares
Are people sending your videos to other people? This is particularly interesting when you’re trying to reach new audiences. A video that people actively share has the potential to travel beyond your existing followers.
Look at what those videos have in common.
Comments
Comments are underrated, and can tell you things that raw numbers cannot. What are people talking about? What questions are they asking? What surprised them? What do they disagree with? And what would they like to see next?
Again though, a note of caution. One or two lone comments could lead you up the wrong track. You need to look for trends when it comes to comments, and not individual gripes.
Followers and subscribers gained
This is where you begin connecting individual videos to long-term audience growth.
A video might attract a million views but relatively few new followers. Another might attract fewer views but persuade a much larger proportion of viewers to subscribe.
Both can be valuable, but they serve different purposes.
If your goal is to build a recognizable creator brand, you should understand which content actually encourages people to return.
On this, I’d also say that followers are becoming less valuable than they used to be. Subscribers on Substack are more tangible. Even more tangible is…
Revenue and opportunities
If you’re trying to make a living from content, pay attention to the commercial results. Not just advertising revenue.
Think about sponsorship enquiries, consulting opportunities, product sales, memberships and other relevant income. What content is actually converting for you.
If you do actually want to make money, I’d suggest figuring this part out, and drip feeding more of this content - while making absolutely sure to continue delivering value to your audience.
What I’d do if I were starting from zero tomorrow
Let’s imagine I woke up tomorrow with no audience, nobody reading on Substack, no YouTube subscribers and no Instagram followers, but with a yearning to do something and dedication to carry it forward.
Is that you, now?
Good. Let’s get to work.
To be clear, you do not need to spend thousands on equipment. Most modern smartphones are enough, and mini bluetooth mics are also highly effective for sound recording.
If you have a topic in mind:
If you have an idea of who you are and what you want to talk about, great. If you are a business owner, the topic also writes itself.
Follow people in that niche topic, see what they create, look for trends and outliers, and get creating.
Make loads of videos on these topics, adding your own perspective and expertise. Show up every single day, and post for three months. Bulk record your content on a Sunday and schedule it out all week if that helps.
If you do that for around three months, and share around 100 videos, you should have some data coming back to you that shows what’s working. Refine your content accordingly based on the winners.
I cannot stress this enough: look at your competitors and see what works for them. Success leaves clues.
If you have no topic in mind
If you have no idea what to talk about and no profession to share, I have good news for you. Many top content creators thought the same thing when they began as well.
But they simply started recording and sharing snippets from their daily lives, the walks they take outside, their views on the news or politics, the video games they were playing, the food they liked to eat, and anything else.
Do exactly that. Just create and share. Do so every day for three months.
You too will have some good data after that, which will allow you some reflection and something to focus and build from.
For everyone, please remember this:
No matter how boring you think your life is, no matter how niche you think your hobby is, or how dull you think your profession is, I guarantee there are at least tens of thousands of people out there right now who will relate to you as an individual and will value the things you have to say and the things you have to share.
I implore you to start.
AI is going to make the job market and loneliness epidemic worse. Creating content will be your moat, and will also change your life in ways you could never have imagined. But you have to be dedicated to start, and keep going.
So having read all that, my question for you this week is simple: what’s stopping you from starting?
Hit reply and tell me.
Like I said, I’ll be sharing a new ‘open’ newsletter post every Saturday, and a new paid-only Wednesday Workshop post every week as well.
Speak soon.
Shaun
Thanks, Shaun - great info!
Wishing you well.