Week 2 of 10 - Show up

Armory of contents:

1. Stealing Like An Artist. A piece of content that inspired us to create this week

2. Our Response, Unfiltered. Responding to a controversial comment.

3. Early to the Party. A small creator on their way to stardom.

4. Big Picture. Looking back and thinking ahead.

5. Roasted. A light dig at each other’s content.

6. You Decide. A topical poll

A well-crafted hook earns engagement. Every creator knows this. But sometimes you see why - and The Haunting of Hill House demonstrates it. The show kicks off with a bang - at the story’s pivotal moment - but cleverly hides revealing perspectives. It immediately sets up all the questions and takes 10 episodes carefully answering (and subverting) them. Cutting the fat, and starting at your story’s critical moment is so powerful, and something I’m consciously employing recently - see an example here.

A very close friend of mine in the industry said this to me a couple of weeks ago, “Tejas, to be honest with you, I think your content is good, but not good enough to make it into a full career path. I think it’ll serve you well to get into business opportunities like it already has but, I don’t think it’s there to make it into a career itself.

As you can imagine, this hurt to hear. The two things I’ve obsessed over every minute of every day are…

1. How can I tell impactful stories and form a community of like-minded individuals?

2. How can I make a sustainable living from it?

And for someone –a person who is incredibly smart – to tell me that what I’ve done thus far is not there yet, made me lose hope. Fuck man. I’m not fully over it yet but coming to the realization that its part of the whole journey – it’s the game of being a dreamer.

Something about the shoot-from-the-hip nature of @joshanglooo’s videos makes me reminiscent of early YouTube - or even deep cuts on Vine. His videos are off-the-wall yet tasteful, as he masterfully places cuts precisely where they’re needed for maximum comedic impact. It does take the fun out of it to overanalyze, so sit back, relax, and follow Josh’s day through his zany vlogs.

It’s been quite a period of change for me. I quit TikTok, moved city, and now spend most of my working day standing up. That’s a lot of change for little old me. But I don’t plan on stopping - in three weeks’ time I hope to have met some like-minded creator folks (anyone in London??) and feel comfortable amongst the deadlines that are currently clouding me. I love my job more than anything but damn, if it isn’t stressful sometimes. To future Danny: please have a nap.