Transcript

00:00:00If you would like to take content creation seriously
00:00:02this year, then here are five tips
00:00:04that I hope will help you out.
00:00:05And by the way, if you're new here, hello, my name is Ali.
00:00:07I'm a doctor turned entrepreneur and author,
00:00:08and I've been making videos here on this channel since 2017,
00:00:12documenting the journey from being a broke ass medical
00:00:14student to then being a doctor,
00:00:16to then becoming an entrepreneur and a best-selling author
00:00:17and all that kind of stuff.
00:00:18And so in that time, I've made like over a thousand videos
00:00:21on this YouTube channel, made loads of stuff on Instagram,
00:00:23loads of stuff on LinkedIn.
00:00:24And so I've been doing content for a very long time.
00:00:26And so this is the advice that I would give to someone
00:00:27who wants to take content seriously this year.
00:00:29Tip number one, competitor analysis
00:00:31is unreasonably effective.
00:00:33A mistake I see a lot of people make when it comes
00:00:34to content is just sort of making it up as they go along,
00:00:37which is totally fine if you don't have any particular
00:00:41growth goals, shall we say.
00:00:42If you're doing content as a hobby,
00:00:44then you can actually just stop watching this video
00:00:46and you can totally just ignore every single thing
00:00:47I'm about to say.
00:00:48But if you're trying to do content as you're either trying
00:00:50to make money from it, or you're trying to drive leads
00:00:52to an existing business or anything like that,
00:00:54then your approach to content needs to be more strategic
00:00:57than someone who's just doing it as a hobby.
00:00:59So assuming that you actually care about growing
00:01:01your content platforms or using them to generate leads,
00:01:03competitor analysis is unreasonably effective.
00:01:05Literally every big creator that you know has a team
00:01:09and that team is spending a lot of their time looking
00:01:12at what the other big creators are doing.
00:01:14In my case, you know, Becky, my YouTube producer, Nicole,
00:01:16our social media manager, a lot of what these guys do
00:01:19in their day job is looking at what else
00:01:21other people are doing, which feels kind of weird, right?
00:01:23It's the competitor analysis.
00:01:25It's looking at, you know, for example, on YouTube,
00:01:27what kind of videos are doing well within our niche
00:01:30and within channels related to our niche.
00:01:32I did a video the other day called how to change your life
00:01:34and it did really well.
00:01:35And then a bunch of other channels did a video titled
00:01:37how to change your life because their teams all saw
00:01:40that that video from my channel was doing well
00:01:42and therefore they did their own version of it.
00:01:43Now there's nothing wrong with copying the title
00:01:44'cause it's not plagiarism.
00:01:45It's just you're sort of getting inspiration
00:01:47from what is doing well amongst people
00:01:49who are playing the game well.
00:01:50Amongst students in our Lifestyle Business Academy,
00:01:52which is like my online business school,
00:01:54they're all newcomers to creating content
00:01:57and a big mistake they make
00:01:58is that they don't look enough at competitors
00:02:00to get a feel for what is working
00:02:02and how their content could be better
00:02:04by modeling what is working.
00:02:05If you're a complete beginner
00:02:06and you're already struggling to post consistently,
00:02:09you don't wanna let the need to optimize
00:02:12based on competitors hold you back from posting.
00:02:13Assuming you've got the foundation
00:02:14of taking consistent action anyway,
00:02:16looking at what the competitors are doing
00:02:18and trying to model your content based of that
00:02:19and trying to sort of get inspiration
00:02:21from the channels that are growing
00:02:22or the channels that are big
00:02:23is a very reasonable way to adjust your strategy.
00:02:26Everyone is sort of extending the meta together,
00:02:28which is why I'm just not a fan of like,
00:02:30hey, here are eight things
00:02:31that are working on Instagram right now
00:02:32'cause it's probably out of date.
00:02:33Like the way you figure out what's working on Instagram
00:02:35or LinkedIn or YouTube is you look at what is working well
00:02:37on Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube
00:02:38rather than taking someone's word for it.
00:02:40You don't wanna be copying someone's idea.
00:02:42You wanna be sort of like taking inspiration from the idea
00:02:45and doing it in your own way.
00:02:46Now, when I'm doing this,
00:02:47I very rarely watch videos from people in my niche
00:02:49because I don't wanna accidentally plagiarize
00:02:51the content of the video,
00:02:53but I'll certainly look at the titles.
00:02:54As a YouTuber called Nisha, who's a friend of mine,
00:02:56she did a video called something like 17 Tiny Habits
00:02:58That Made Me Rich.
00:02:59And that was an outlier for her channel.
00:03:00I'm like, okay, I'm not gonna watch that video
00:03:02'cause I don't wanna plagiarize it,
00:03:03but I'll be like, okay, that title did well for her.
00:03:05Let me do my own take on that title.
00:03:06So maybe I'll just straight up do a 17 Tiny Habits
00:03:09That Made Me Rich video.
00:03:10Maybe it'll be a One Minute Habits
00:03:12That Made Me More Productive.
00:03:13Sort of it's taking the format
00:03:14and doing my own version of it.
00:03:15And then you can kind of see this work
00:03:17on LinkedIn and Instagram as well.
00:03:18Oh, by the way, quick announcement.
00:03:19On Saturday, the 4th of April,
00:03:20I'm gonna be hosting my usual
00:03:21completely free quarterly reflection workshop,
00:03:23The Spring Reset.
00:03:24The idea is that this is a totally free workshop.
00:03:26There's a link down below to register if you'd like.
00:03:27And I will be hosting it and me and hopefully you
00:03:29and several thousand people from all around the world.
00:03:31We're gonna get together on a Zoom workshop.
00:03:33Together, we're gonna be reflecting
00:03:34on how 2026 has gone so far.
00:03:36And we're gonna be setting some goals for the next 90 days.
00:03:39It's The Spring Reset.
00:03:40It's gonna be fun.
00:03:41It's gonna be vibey.
00:03:42There's more details linked down below
00:03:43if you would like to join.
00:03:44And I will hopefully see you on Saturday, the 4th of April.
00:03:46On LinkedIn, for example,
00:03:47what you can imitate is the hook and the format.
00:03:50If a piece of content was an outlier,
00:03:52the hook must have been really good
00:03:54because if the first one or two lines are not good,
00:03:56no one's even gonna click read more on LinkedIn,
00:03:58and so they're not gonna engage with the content.
00:04:00If there's an outlier on Instagram or TikTok as a reel,
00:04:02you know that the first five seconds
00:04:04of that video must be good.
00:04:05Even if you wanna use that hook word for word,
00:04:07you could totally use the hook,
00:04:08like the first line of the reel.
00:04:09Now it would be a bit plagiaristic
00:04:11if you were to just copy the whole reel,
00:04:12but if you were to just use that line,
00:04:14what's a piece of advice you could give
00:04:15that could follow from that line?
00:04:17If I look at Alex Formosi's channel
00:04:20and I see that he's got a reel that went viral
00:04:22where the first line was something like,
00:04:24these are three lessons I wish I'd learned in my 20s.
00:04:26I'm like, huh, okay.
00:04:27I'm not actually gonna watch his reel
00:04:28to see what those three lessons are,
00:04:29but I'm gonna do my own three lessons
00:04:31to help you in your 20s.
00:04:32This video is an example of an experimental video.
00:04:36I don't know how this video is gonna do.
00:04:37I'm filming it while having lunch
00:04:39in a random restaurant in Hong Kong.
00:04:41I don't have a fancy camera.
00:04:42I'm looking into this with a fork.
00:04:45I don't particularly have much of a structure
00:04:46other than thinking, you know what,
00:04:47I'm just gonna speak from the heart about this thing
00:04:49that I know some of our students
00:04:50in the Lifestyle Business Academy struggle with,
00:04:52so what's the kind of video I wanna do?
00:04:53The thing that advances the meta
00:04:55is people doing experimental content,
00:04:56and then most of the time it doesn't work,
00:04:58but some of the time, an experimental piece of content does,
00:05:00and it's in those moments that like,
00:05:02you then get the outlier for your channel,
00:05:04and then other people start to copy that because it works,
00:05:06and then it becomes part of the meta,
00:05:06and so it's no longer experimental,
00:05:08and so I think 80/20 is a good level
00:05:10of imitation versus innovation to strive for
00:05:13as you are building your sort of content engine.
00:05:14Now, if you are watching this
00:05:15and you happen to be an entrepreneur or a creator,
00:05:17then you're gonna wanna check out ManyChat,
00:05:19who are very kindly sponsoring this video.
00:05:20Now, the way ManyChat works is that
00:05:21if you have ever seen someone posting on Instagram
00:05:24that comment X to get Y resource,
00:05:26that's not a manual thing that these creators are doing
00:05:28where people are sending comments,
00:05:29and then the creator is manually sending
00:05:31these thousands of messages.
00:05:32This is all made possible by ManyChat,
00:05:34which is an automation platform for social media.
00:05:36We've been using ManyChat for many years now,
00:05:38not only to send links, but also to ask new followers
00:05:41about what content they'd like to see,
00:05:42or guide them through a personalized conversation,
00:05:44or collect emails for a marketing campaign.
00:05:46We've also built in a few Easter egg keywords.
00:05:49For example, you try commenting the word Angus
00:05:51on any of my Instagram posts,
00:05:52and then you'll see something interesting pop up in your DMs.
00:05:54But yeah, if you're an entrepreneur or a creator,
00:05:56then obviously you know you need to grow on social media,
00:05:58and obviously you know that you can use social media
00:05:59to drive leads to your business and make money,
00:06:01and ManyChat makes that process way more seamless
00:06:03and way more automated
00:06:04than you just having to do it manually yourself.
00:06:06So if you would like to grow your audience,
00:06:08connect with them meaningfully,
00:06:09and also potentially monetize them more effectively,
00:06:11then check out ManyChat for free
00:06:13using the link in the video description,
00:06:14or use the code Aliabdaal
00:06:15for a free 30-day trial of ManyChat Pro.
00:06:18So thank you again, ManyChat, for sponsoring this video,
00:06:20and let's get back to it.
00:06:21Another key tip that I would say
00:06:22is that content is a compounding asset.
00:06:25It's not gonna happen within the first week
00:06:26or the first two weeks,
00:06:27or even the first month or the first three months.
00:06:28Oh, lovely, thank you so much.
00:06:30Can I grab another fork, please?
00:06:31Oh, can I steal this one?
00:06:32Thanks, for my little firecracker salmon.
00:06:34But especially if you're trying to do a YouTube channel,
00:06:35it's a compounding asset.
00:06:37I've been doing this shit for nine years now.
00:06:38It's a compounding asset that builds trust.
00:06:40Yes, competitor analysis is important in seeing what works,
00:06:43but the single most important metric to optimize for
00:06:45is you enjoying the process enough to keep going with it.
00:06:48If you only do content for three months
00:06:49compared to doing it for three years,
00:06:51compared to doing it for 10 years,
00:06:52you'll have drastically different results.
00:06:54I find, for me, getting away from the desk,
00:06:56and I filmed a video of the local kebab shop the other day.
00:06:59We did one that was sort of just walking around my office
00:07:01the other day.
00:07:02There's something about being more chill and experimental
00:07:04with the format that keeps the process more enjoyable for me.
00:07:07And so I'm willing to take the hit
00:07:09in terms of views slightly in the short term
00:07:12for the sake of maximizing my enjoyment of the craft.
00:07:14There's all sorts of things to keep in mind.
00:07:16There's the foundational baseline of consistency,
00:07:19and then there's like the strategy that goes on top.
00:07:20But it's also worth recognizing that your own enjoyment
00:07:22to stay consistent with it for years to decades
00:07:25is also a really important part of this.
00:07:26So it's all like a balancing act.
00:07:28Sometimes doing stuff that is under-optimized
00:07:31for the sake of you enjoying the process a little bit more
00:07:33is 100% a worthwhile trade to make.
00:07:35I have a lot of kind of big YouTuber friends,
00:07:38and a lot of them feel this pull of like
00:07:42there is content that will do well in terms of the views,
00:07:45and then there's content that they'll enjoy making.
00:07:47And over time, their own enjoyment often will diverge
00:07:50from the stuff that they know will get the views.
00:07:52And so you get this balancing act
00:07:55between doing it for the views and doing it for the vibes.
00:07:57This is an example of a video that I'm doing for the vibes.
00:07:59If I cared about views in this video,
00:08:01we would have thought harder about the packaging.
00:08:02We would have thought harder about the title.
00:08:03I would have thought harder about
00:08:04like the framework of the video.
00:08:05But I'm doing this for the vibes because I'm like,
00:08:07you know what, this is a video that I think could be
00:08:09just kind of interesting to do in the middle of lunch.
00:08:12So as you're embarking on your journey of content,
00:08:14don't forget that your own enjoyment is the most important
00:08:17part of it.
00:08:18But the nuance there is that like, if it's not working,
00:08:20you're also not gonna enjoy it, right?
00:08:21Like if your goal is to get leads for your business
00:08:23and you're like, the most important thing is for me
00:08:25to enjoy my content, but your content's not working,
00:08:26you will actually stop enjoying it.
00:08:28In our Life Club Business Academy, people like students
00:08:29will ask questions about content like,
00:08:31how do I improve my content?
00:08:32Can you give me feedback on my LinkedIn profile?
00:08:34Like, oh, I'm struggling, I'm not getting enough leads.
00:08:36Like, what's the problem?
00:08:37And then we diagnose and then a lot of it is actually
00:08:39just asking lots and lots of follow up questions
00:08:41because the advice given to one person,
00:08:43the complete opposite advice might actually work
00:08:45for someone else depending on what their situation is.
00:08:47So I'm trying my best in this video to give you a feel
00:08:49of like, what are the trade offs?
00:08:50Yeah, so I think if you're right at the start
00:08:51of your journey, you wanna not think too hard
00:08:53about the enjoyment part because it's like,
00:08:55when you're a beginner to anything, it will kinda suck.
00:08:57You have to get sufficiently good to start actually feeling
00:09:00the enjoyment of the thing.
00:09:01It's sort of like playing tennis, right?
00:09:02You know that when you're a noob at tennis,
00:09:04it's actually not that enjoyable 'cause the ball freaking
00:09:06goes out half the time and hits the net
00:09:07the other half of the time.
00:09:08At a certain point, you become good enough
00:09:10that you're able to reliably hit the ball over the net
00:09:11and you have a partner who's able to hit the ball
00:09:13back to you.
00:09:14So now in that world, when you can actually have a rally
00:09:16and that rally is interesting, tennis starts to be fun.
00:09:18It's the same with content.
00:09:19Yes, your own enjoyment is important.
00:09:20And also, you wanna not think too hard
00:09:22about your own enjoyment of it when you're at the beginning
00:09:24of the thing and at the beginning of the journey,
00:09:26you wanna really just focus on getting your first 30 posts
00:09:28out there or your first 50 things,
00:09:29or just doing it consistently for three to six months
00:09:32because the enjoyment can totally come later once you feel
00:09:34like you have a little bit more of a sense of,
00:09:36mastery is the wrong word, but like mastery of the craft,
00:09:38if that makes sense.
00:09:39By the way, if you are enjoying this video so far,
00:09:40I would love it if you can leave a comment down below.
00:09:42This is a little bit experimental, like I mentioned,
00:09:44and I don't know if this format's gonna work
00:09:46or if you like this sort of stuff,
00:09:47but I quite enjoyed making it.
00:09:48So let me know what you liked, what you didn't like,
00:09:50what you think could be improved for next time
00:09:51down in the comments below.
00:09:52Cool, thanks.
00:09:53And by the way, if you've been wanting to start
00:09:54or grow a YouTube channel, but you're not sure where to start,
00:09:56I have a completely free seven-day crash course
00:09:58that talks about the strategy, the skills,
00:10:00and the systems you need to succeed on YouTube.
00:10:02Another big tip I would say, and a mistake I see
00:10:04my Lifestyle Business Academy students make all the time,
00:10:06is overusing AI.
00:10:07When you suck at doing content, i.e. you're a beginner,
00:10:10the temptation is there to just put stuff into ChatGPT
00:10:12and get ChatGPT to generate your content.
00:10:14You haven't yet developed the skill
00:10:15of actually doing the content
00:10:17or the taste for what makes good content.
00:10:19And so you just outsourcing it to AI
00:10:20means the AI is doing the work.
00:10:22And increasingly people are getting very good,
00:10:24especially with text content,
00:10:25immediately telling whether something is written by AI or not.
00:10:28Content is basically relationships at scale.
00:10:30It's a way of increasing people's trust level with you
00:10:33without you necessarily having to know or meet them.
00:10:35Right, like back in the day, pre-content,
00:10:36the way you would increase someone's trust level with you
00:10:38is you'd spend time with them.
00:10:39This is what networking is.
00:10:40This is what building a professional reputation is.
00:10:42Now it's called a personal brand,
00:10:42but that's professional reputation.
00:10:44You're going to networking events, you're speaking to people,
00:10:46you're adding value to people, you're being helpful.
00:10:48You're exchanging numbers,
00:10:49you're adding people to your Rolodex back in the day.
00:10:51The more helpful you are,
00:10:52the more people's trust level with you increases.
00:10:54Now in the world of content,
00:10:55you're able to get this trust with strangers
00:10:57through putting useful stuff out there.
00:10:58With my stuff, I've been building trust with strangers
00:11:00on the internet for the last nine years.
00:11:01There's a certain trust battery that you have
00:11:03with every person that engages with your stuff.
00:11:05And it takes a long time to build up that trust battery,
00:11:07but it's also very easy to lose that trust battery.
00:11:09And increasingly, I think,
00:11:10if your stuff comes across as if it was written by AI,
00:11:13'cause no one wants to follow channels
00:11:15where they can tell that it was written by AI.
00:11:17It's not a flex anymore of like,
00:11:18I used AI to write my content.
00:11:19In a world where AI content
00:11:20is like expanding on all these platforms,
00:11:22you kind of want to be the voice of humanity,
00:11:24the voice of authenticity,
00:11:25not one of the other 5 zillion people
00:11:27that are just outsourcing their LinkedIn post writing
00:11:29to chat GPT.
00:11:30So I would say be very careful of where you're using AI
00:11:32in your process.
00:11:33And at the start, doing things manually
00:11:35is a better way of building up the skill
00:11:37than using AI for your stuff.
00:11:38Another big thing around content is over time,
00:11:41you inoculate yourself against feeling cringe.
00:11:43So at the start,
00:11:44everyone feels cringe with the content that they post
00:11:46because we all fear social disapproval.
00:11:48We're all worried about what people are gonna think of us.
00:11:49As you get more comfortable with the content stuff,
00:11:51what it takes for you to cringe
00:11:53gets like higher and higher.
00:11:54I'm filming this in a public restaurant.
00:11:55Thankfully, there's not that many people around,
00:11:57but if there were more people around,
00:11:58I would cringe at myself for filming this kind of video.
00:12:01If I vlog in public with the camera out,
00:12:03I cringe at myself still,
00:12:04even though I've been doing this stuff for nine years.
00:12:05I have a friend, Simon Squib.
00:12:06He goes out on the streets and approaches random strangers
00:12:09and he asks them, "What's your dream?"
00:12:10Oh, and I imagine myself at the thought of doing that,
00:12:12I cringe, I'm like, "Oh my God, that feels so scary."
00:12:14I'm not judging him for doing it.
00:12:15I'm not like Simon Squib's so cringe
00:12:17for like approaching strangers on the street.
00:12:18I think it's fucking amazing what he does.
00:12:19And I wish I had the confidence to do that.
00:12:22But if I just think about it,
00:12:23like I feel the palpitations of like, holy shit,
00:12:26like will they think I'm creepy?
00:12:26Will they think I'm weird?
00:12:27Especially if it's a girl that I go up to,
00:12:29I mean, that's weird.
00:12:30Oh my God.
00:12:30But Simon doesn't cringe at it.
00:12:31He's in his 50s and he's been doing this a long time.
00:12:33And this is why he's got like zillions of followers across all
00:12:36the social media platforms because his willingness
00:12:37to do things that will make other people cringe.
00:12:39He doesn't feel embarrassed about it.
00:12:40I don't feel embarrassed about sitting here
00:12:42in this like restaurant where there's not that many people
00:12:43around and opining about content.
00:12:44Most people would feel weird about even this sort of,
00:12:46even this sort of video.
00:12:47Cringe is a feeling that you fear social disapproval.
00:12:50That's not to say that the thing is actually,
00:12:51is wrong to do.
00:12:52Now, there are some instances where you cringe
00:12:54at doing something and it is also the wrong thing
00:12:57to do morally or whatever,
00:12:59but you got to make that decision for yourself, right?
00:13:00Like, are you afraid because there's actually a problem here
00:13:03or are you afraid because your brain is wired
00:13:05for like caveman era where we evolved over millions of years
00:13:08to really, really care about the approval of people
00:13:10in our tribe.
00:13:11And now we're not in that world anymore.
00:13:12And in fact, the people who are able to do things
00:13:14that are more cringe are the ones who stand out
00:13:16and standing out is how you grow on social media.
00:13:18All right, final tip I'd like to share.
00:13:19It's really useful to lean into your unfair advantages.
00:13:22You don't want to be vanilla ice cream on social media.
00:13:25If you have unfair advantages or competitive advantages
00:13:27that you've picked up over the years
00:13:28or things about you that are slightly different
00:13:30or unique or interesting or novel,
00:13:31then it's very much worth leaning into those things.
00:13:33This is hard to do initially because you might not even know
00:13:35what those things are for you.
00:13:37You might not know how to lean into them.
00:13:38You might think I don't have any unfair advantages.
00:13:40You might think I'm not unique.
00:13:41I'm not a special snowflake and any of this sort of stuff,
00:13:43but everyone has a unique combination of advantages.
00:13:46This is where actually the competitor analysis comes in again.
00:13:48So when you are analyzing competitors,
00:13:50when you're looking at other accounts that are doing well,
00:13:52you want to start developing a sense for asking yourself
00:13:54what advantages are they leaning into?
00:13:56And usually the accounts that are growing,
00:13:58the social media profiles that are big,
00:13:59there's usually something quirky about them
00:14:01rather than just everything is beige
00:14:03and everything is non-offensive.
00:14:05You cannot be a big social media account
00:14:07without offending some people.
00:14:08You cannot be a life-changing presence to some
00:14:10without being a total cringe embarrassment to others.
00:14:12I think my content is fairly vanilla.
00:14:14It's not that controversial.
00:14:15I don't have that many hot takes,
00:14:16but I do have some haters who say that I'm toxic productivity
00:14:19or I can't believe he listens to stuff at double speed.
00:14:21Oh, I see such a terrible person for leaving medicine,
00:14:23but I think I would actually do better on social media
00:14:26if I leaned even more into quirks into like the sharper edges
00:14:30but I'm afraid of what people will think of me
00:14:32and I don't like getting negative comments
00:14:33and so I don't do it as much as I probably could.
00:14:35When you lean into your quirks or your flaws,
00:14:38your character flaws,
00:14:39it makes you more of an interesting character.
00:14:41So if you look at someone like Sherlock Holmes,
00:14:43Sherlock Holmes is this like savant level,
00:14:46super genius level guy.
00:14:47And also he's a drug addict and a bit of a dick.
00:14:49But the fact that he's a drug addict and a bit of a dick
00:14:51is what makes him a magnetic character
00:14:52because if he was just someone who was like a know-it-all,
00:14:54that's kind of insufferable, people don't like that.
00:14:56When you're thinking about building a career on social media,
00:14:59you don't need to be an asshole.
00:15:00It is useful to think, what are my quirks?
00:15:03What are the things that my friends like about me
00:15:05that are slightly different
00:15:06from everyone else in the friendship group?
00:15:08And how can I just like lean more into those things?
00:15:10One way of figuring this out is sort of like,
00:15:12what do you have a strong belief about
00:15:14that is a little controversial
00:15:15or that other people might disagree with?
00:15:17Now for me, as I was thinking about this,
00:15:18like one of the things that I strongly believe
00:15:19is that you should use productivity systems
00:15:21in your personal life.
00:15:22And so I did a couple of Instagram reels
00:15:23about like how to date productively,
00:15:25dating or sort of relationship productivity system.
00:15:27That is something that I actually do stand by.
00:15:29Like I didn't do that.
00:15:30I don't do that content just for the sake of the views.
00:15:32And yet people found that somewhat controversial.
00:15:35So that's a sign that like, oh, that's interesting.
00:15:37This is something I genuinely believe
00:15:38that sort of goes against the grain a little bit.
00:15:41Interesting.
00:15:42What can I learn from that data point
00:15:44as like a way of sort of leaning into my quirks
00:15:47when I'm doing content?
00:15:48Like it's not like I'm encouraging you
00:15:50to do something massively controversial or whatever,
00:15:52but you probably hopefully have some kind of opinions
00:15:54or views that go against the grain
00:15:56of what most people would believe.
00:15:58And so once you figure out what those are,
00:16:00which happens over time as you do more content,
00:16:02you can then start actively leaning into those
00:16:04a little bit more and sort of doing a little bit of molding
00:16:07of your personal brand around like the sharp edges,
00:16:09because the sharp edges are interesting.
00:16:11It's what makes you stand out.
00:16:12Now, if one of the platforms
00:16:13that you wanna make social media content on
00:16:14happens to be YouTube, I've got a video over here,
00:16:16which will be about my top tips
00:16:18for growing a YouTube channel this year.
00:16:19So you should totally check that out.
00:16:20Otherwise, thank you very much for watching
00:16:21and see you hopefully in the next video, bye bye.

Key Takeaway

To succeed in content creation in 2026, one must balance strategic competitor modeling with authentic personal quirks while prioritizing long-term enjoyment over short-term metrics.

Highlights

Competitor analysis is unreasonably effective for strategic growth and lead generation.

The 80/20 rule of imitation versus innovation helps balance proven formats with unique experimental content.

Content should be viewed as a compounding asset that builds trust and professional reputation over long periods.

Enjoyment of the process is the most critical metric for long-term consistency and avoiding burnout.

Overusing AI can damage the "trust battery" with an audience by removing the necessary human element.

Leaning into "unfair advantages" and personal quirks makes a creator a more magnetic and memorable character.

Timeline

Introduction and the Power of Competitor Analysis

Ali Abdaal introduces himself as a doctor turned entrepreneur and shares his journey of making over a thousand videos since 2017. He argues that competitor analysis is unreasonably effective and is a secret weapon used by almost every major creator's team. Instead of making things up as you go, he suggests looking at what is working in your niche and modeling your titles and formats after successful 'outliers'. This approach is not about plagiarism but about understanding the current 'meta' of platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and LinkedIn. He emphasizes that while hobbyists can ignore this, those seeking business leads must adopt a strategic mindset.

Strategic Imitation and The Spring Reset Announcement

The speaker announces a free quarterly reflection workshop called 'The Spring Reset' to help creators set goals for the next 90 days. He transitions back to strategy by explaining how to imitate hooks and formats on LinkedIn and TikTok without copying the actual core message. By analyzing why a reel or post went viral, creators can extract the 'hook' and apply their own unique value to that proven structure. He introduces the 80/20 rule, suggesting that 80% of content should be based on proven models while 20% should be purely experimental. This balance ensures that a channel stays relevant while still searching for the next big innovative breakthrough.

Automation with ManyChat and Content as a Compounding Asset

Ali discusses the importance of automation for creators, specifically highlighting ManyChat as a tool to drive leads and engage followers through automated DMs. He shifts the focus to the long-term nature of content, describing it as a compounding asset that builds a 'trust battery' with the audience over years. While strategy is important, he claims the most vital metric is whether the creator actually enjoys the process. If a creator doesn't enjoy the craft, they won't stay consistent enough to see the results that typically take years or even a decade to materialize. He admits to filming this specific video in a restaurant to maximize his own 'vibes' and enjoyment of the task.

The Skill Gap, Mastery, and the Dangers of Overusing AI

The speaker addresses the trade-off between content that gets views and content that provides personal fulfillment. He uses a tennis analogy to explain that beginners might not enjoy content creation at first because they lack the skill to hit a 'rally' with their audience. True enjoyment often comes after a period of three to six months once a baseline of mastery is achieved and the work becomes more fluid. He warns against the common mistake of overusing AI tools like ChatGPT to generate content before developing a personal 'taste'. Relying too heavily on AI prevents the development of the creator's voice and can lead to a loss of trust from an increasingly savvy audience.

Overcoming Cringe and Building a Personal Brand

This section explores the psychological barrier of 'cringe' and the fear of social disapproval when posting content. Ali explains that content is essentially 'relationships at scale,' a modern evolution of networking and building a professional reputation. He notes that as creators grow, they must inoculate themselves against the feeling of embarrassment, citing fellow creator Simon Squibb as an example of extreme confidence. The people who stand out are often those willing to do things that others might find cringeworthy or unconventional. Ultimately, building a personal brand is about increasing the trust level of strangers by consistently providing value and showing humanity.

Leaning into Unfair Advantages and Sharp Edges

The final tip focuses on identifying and leaning into 'unfair advantages' and personal quirks to avoid being 'vanilla' on social media. Ali explains that being a magnetic character often involves having 'sharp edges' or opinions that go against the grain. He uses the character of Sherlock Holmes to illustrate how flaws can actually make someone more interesting and relatable to an audience. He encourages creators to find their controversial beliefsβ€”such as his own belief in productivity systems for datingβ€”and share them authentically. By leaning into these unique traits, creators can move from being generic to being a life-changing presence for their specific target audience.

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