3 Pivotal Things to Think of When Starting Content Creation

#1 – What’s your unfair advantage?

An unfair advantage is something you have that someone else would have a hard time to take as their advantage. For example, Ali Abdaal started off creating music videos but he was a med student. He had no unfair advantage in that domain. So his videos did not do well. But when started doing videos on study guides for med students, he took off because he had an unfair advantage as a med student himself.

#1 – What’s Your “ONE thing”?

Best advice for niching down that I’ve ever come across and it’s a YouTube Short:

Just start on everything you like doing and your audience stats will tell you what you do best out of that and there you go. You have your niche.

There’s a counter argument to this is which is doing more than one thing can balance you out (read “Range” by David Epstein).

But because the above came easily to me and focusing on one thing is a challenge, I felt it was important for me to read “The ONE Thing”. Psst…tip: exposing yourself to contrasting views help you learn concepts faster by the way.

How it’s motivated me: there are pros to focusing on one thing. Things happen faster. You get more known for that topic. And it’s easier to do certain things just because you have a routine/ritual/systematic way of doing it instead of having to learn new ways of doing things each time you try to get a piece of content out.

The drawback is that you may get bored of working on the same topic. Alternative to this:

#3 – If Not That Then, What’s Your Why?

If you’re having trouble niching down, consider starting with the why of you wanting to start a blog/Youtube channel instead of the what you want to talk about. A lot of people have suggested thinking of your target audience instead, but I find that to be troublesome too because that could change as you grow as well. Sure your ‘why’ might change as well, but it’s less likely to (especially if you can figure out your core why).

But if you can’t figure out your why off the bat, don’t shy away from just starting. It’s ok if you don’t have everything (or even anything) figured out from the get go. Sometimes the only way to figure things out is just by starting and working on it from different angles until you figure it out. And it is almost guaranteed you will figure it out if you take action, reflect, keep trying different things and keep going.

If you can figure out your why (if not right away then eventually), it’ll afford you the ability to be more flexible with what you talk about. It’ll also allow you to be more adaptable. You just have to have a common thread that runs through all your different interests. For example, the main example Simon Sinek uses in his book is the success of Apple as a company that handles not only computers but has been able to emerge into multiple markets like music and phones. It was mainly because their why was strong: Apple challenges the status quo in everything they do. Originally they found success in computers because they took the idea of computers used mainly in corporations to something that can be used for personal use by making it more user friendly. They challenged the status quo. They then entered the cellphone market and switched it from service providers calling the shots to phone manufacturers calling the shots. Ipods & Itunes music changed how the music industry did business. Apple was able to dabble in different marketplaces because they had a strong why that drove them and that others could align with. Did they make mistakes and experience setbacks? Yes, but they could bounce back faster and the consumers of their products allowed them more flexibility to fail and get back up because Apple’s core message/motivation was something their users could get behind.

That doesn’t mean you would need to choose something that caters to others. You should always figure out your why in accordance to yourself first. Because it will be your source of energy, your motivation. Crafting your why based on the marketplace or others will not sustain you for the long run.

So think: What do you love to do? What do you mainly gravitate towards? What is your natural inclination? What do you strongly believe in? (Also consider the opposites: what do you stand against? What do you hate? What do you wish you saw less of in the world?) Figure that out for yourself and you’ll find others that match that same frequency/vibe.

I have yet to figure out my why, but as I try my hand at different things, I get closer to it. Right now it stands at learning. I’ve always loved trying new nerdy (big emphasis on nerdy) things. Reading, Excel, Notion, writing etc. GWUWI stands for Green Where U Water It, which is the one universal truth that’s flexible enough for me to get behind. You grow whatever area you train your focus on. So I can focus my attention on one area for a while and then switch to another one and switch back later if I so choose. It allows me the freedom to explore different avenues to my heart’s content. Do I have a big powerful why statement yet? Not really. I think my major dream is to learn as much as I can and go through as many books as I can, and this blog just documents that process. It’d be interesting to see what the future holds.

Bonus: #4 – “Action precedes motivation”

“The common misconception is that motivation leads to action. But actually, the reverse is true. Action precedes motivation.”

“Move before you’re motivated.”

Just a good reminder that if you don’t feel like working on something right now, do one tiny little thing on it. You don’t have to do everything. You can tell yourself you only need to do one thing and you’re done. Usually that can carry you through the whole thing. But if not, oh well, if you’ve done that one little thing for the day, you’ve done your part.

Green Where You Water It