The Exchanges

Q So what you're saying is. It's almost like ignore the trends for now. Just focus on writing really good stories. Start by writing. And then how do you think of, you know, once I've written several stories, how do you think about filming, et cetera?

A The way that I, the, the actual, like in the weeds, uh, process that I think everybody should try and do to make it the easiest on themselves is first write out what you're going to say. Then go and record it on your, like, voice notes. So go and do a, an audio only draft. Then once you have that audio draft, go and look at the words that you're saying in the video and think about is there any archival footage, any camera roll footage, any things that I have that are on Google, any articles that I was in, any footage that correlates to the words that I'm saying in this story. And then go and place it over it. Um, and then outside of that, so once you have that, that'll get you to probably, you probably have like, you know, 40% of the video will be archival footage, things from the past. And then you look at the other words that are like, that's a lot of filler content, like, I was sitting there. You don't have a, you might not have a video of you sitting in your camera roll, so you go and film those filler ones. And then that, at the end of you filling the, uh, filming those filler ones, now you have a compiled video that is completed with the audio only file, B roll, filler content, and then I go a step further and add text over top of it. That's not necessary. You could honestly do the auto text that's on TikTok and Instagram and all those, and that just works just fine. Uh, …

AI assessment note: “first write out what you're going to say. Then go and record it”

Q I want to end, uh, I want to end on, on this. Your, your four favorite creators, who are they and why?

A In terms of creators, I really think a good example that people need to look at is Tim Chiusano. Tim Chiusano is a dude that does, uh, everyday kind of Casey Neistat style vlogs on TikTok, um, and has built a big community through that, and is just a hell of a dude. Um, and I really like him. Um, Bro, the majority of them are, like, family creators. The next one I would say is, uh, Daniel Seong with his family. S-E-O-N-G. Life. L-I-F-E. Seong Life. It's literally him, his wife, and their kids in Irvine, California, a document just showing things that they do in their life and giving out tips about how they parent and what they do for their days and stuff like that. Um, I gravitate more towards feel-good content like those. Than, like, heavy hitter, uh, Mr. Beast style content that's, like, really entertaining and engaging and, like, fast paced. I gravitate more towards the content that I watch, and it makes me feel, like, the way I want to feel in my day, uh, or makes me feel like a better person. Um, so those two people I really like, um, Let's think of, let me try and think of a YouTube creator that I really like. Um, YouTube, I really like Colin and Samir. I think that they're great at what they do. Um, it's, I, I pull a lot of my own inspiration from their, uh, kind of educational, informational style of making information tangible and digestible and cool. Um, and they're b…

AI assessment note: “In terms of creators, I really think a good example that people need to look”

Q Um, yeah. But, you know, does that interest you at all? Like turning an agency into a studio?

A Yeah, I will do that. Um, The thing, the long-term plan for me will be to build my audience as a creator to the point where I feel like it has the leverage to launch a product through it, and the product that I will launch through it will be purely based off of the community and their needs and the things that they feel like need to be innovated. So if my audience continues to be creators or people in the creative world that are business-minded that are trying to get into content, and they're like, We hate our tripods, or we hate our, you know, ring lights, um, and I have an audience that's a big enough size, and I feel like the market needs to be disrupted. I will go into research and development and build a product to fit that need, and then that's what I'll launch through my audience. I don't have the, I don't feel compelled to do that yet, because one, I think you need to have a bigger audience than I have, and I'm not saying that I have a small one, but I just think you need multiple hundreds of thousands on multiple platforms to really have that be the, Be an, uh, be an, um, immediate distribution to make a dent. So I see this, I'm seeing this with a lot of creators that I know personally, and just the way that they're launching products and doing it well, I think you need, I think you need a sizable number. So I'm building towards that. And then when I get there, uh, I'l…

AI assessment note: “Yeah, I will do that. Um, The thing, the long-term plan”

Q So, like you mentioned three or four products there, like what, what was it about them, these products that caught your eye besides like a nicely designed booth?

A Well, I think things that stand out. So the way that I, the way that I judge is like, I see a wall of companies, 50 booths, and I see what ones catch my eyes. So sometimes that's bright colors and unique branding. Sometimes that's the opposite because everything's bright colors and unique branding. And there's one that's like black and liquid death looking like. So I look at what stands out branding wise first. Then the second thing after that, that I needed to do is test the product. I need to actually like try the product and see if it's something that's good that I would enjoy. If I enjoy the product now, I'm like, okay, cool. This is something that's legit. How's the team? Who are the people that are involved with this? Who's the people that's driving this forward? What's the founder like? Who are the other people on their team? And then for me particularly, I'm like, are they prioritizing content? What kind of content are they making? If they're doing that, then I feel even better about it. And then the last thing for me would be like, Where are they sold and how much are they sold for? Like, is it attainable? Is it, uh, is the price point fair? Are they sold? Are they already in big stores? Are they trying to get into big stores? Are they crushing it direct to consumer? Uh, are they nationwide already? Like, where are they? Those are kind of the four things that I look at…

AI assessment note: “I look at what stands out branding wise first. Then the second thing after that”

Q said that he had analyzed the top 1000 best performing Mr. Beast TikToks across the platform every month, and found that 15 months ago, the average length of these videos was 28 seconds. It is now 40 seconds, a 43% increase. Feels like, it feels a lot like 2017 YouTube, when the YouTube algorithm started pushing videos with higher Uh, AVD, average video duration. What do you think about that?

A I don't know if I- Do people want longer content? Yes, for sure, yes. For sure, yes. But longer meaning what? Like, do I think that people just want to sit for 35, 40 minutes? No. Do I think people are- What I think people really are craving right now is content that doesn't make them have a huge spike in their dopamine and be- Like an addicting every three seconds, they're seeing something new that's popping up. So I, that's why I think that they're, that's why I think that the videos are going a little bit longer now because people are keeping in more pauses and more ums and less, like the formula for the past while has been cut out everything that isn't fast paced, add in noise, add in, ah, text so that your eyes are going and following it all over, and you're never able to click away. Um, I think that us as consumers will crave more, I don't even want to say stillness, but just more slower paced content. Um, and so that would be my take on that. I don't think that Jimmy and their team is making content longer just for the sake of making it longer. I think it's probably the videos that they're doing now are probably needing and requiring that length. For them to make a cut, um, rather than it being a shorter one with just the videos that they're doing now. Um, yeah.

AI assessment note: “that's why I think that the videos are going a little bit longer now”

Q Maybe we can start with what are you seeing on TikTok to start with? Like, what are some accounts that are, are blowing up? Like what are trends on TikTok? A lot of people here want to create an account, want to go viral, uh, algorithm changing all the time. What are you seeing out in the trenches trenches?

A Um, I think, uh, the first thing that I always go to is, is storytelling because I, I, I don't like to encourage people to do trends because I think that trends are fleeting. It's not, trends are not a sustainable model for people to use in perpetuity. And so I always lean on, tell your stories, like tell your, tell your own life story, tell the challenges that you've been through. Or particularly because I think the people that are listening to this are entrepreneurial or business minded. Tell your company story. Talk about the things that you're going through or the way that you got to where you are or the ideas that got you to even starting the product. Um, it's, it's just so hard to, it's so hard for, to find longevity when you're just following the trend of the day. And that's what TikTok, and that's how TikTok became popular was Literally what's popping today. Trends of the day. And it's just hard. It's just really hard to consistently follow that. Um, so I highly recommend people to lean into something that's way more sustainable and actually cuts through the noise, which is original stories.

AI assessment note: “I don't like to encourage people to do trends because I think that trends are fleeting.”