CONTENT CREATION

Podcast 13 min read

Viral Isn’t Luck, It’s Structure

with Brendan Kane (Part 1)

Chris Do and Brendan Kane (Part 1) explain how storytelling formats turn content creation into deliberate practice.

Chris Do

Founder, The Futur™ · May 29, 2025

A full calendar can hide an empty strategy

A creator can publish constantly and still practice nothing. When every post changes the rules, effort accumulates without a clear understanding of what works. Brendan Kane, who describes beginning his social media work in 2005 and studying filmmaking before it, brings that distinction to his conversation with Chris Do: content creation deserves the same deliberate study as any other storytelling craft.

The familiar response to disappointing reach is more activity. More posts, more trends, another attempt to catch whatever the platform appears to favor. Kane challenges the premise behind that response, not simply the tactics themselves.

His argument is that creators often confuse using a distribution channel with understanding a medium. Recording and publishing are accessible. Holding a stranger's attention remains a demanding creative task.

That distinction matters because the apparent simplicity of social media conceals the work involved. A person speaks into a phone. Someone asks a stranger a question. An expert stands beside a whiteboard. The visible setup looks easy to reproduce, so the underlying storytelling decisions disappear from view.

Kane calls social media “just another storytelling medium.” It is a useful demotion. The platform stops being an inscrutable machine requiring constant appeasement and becomes a place where a familiar creative problem must be solved: give someone a reason to keep watching.

Do recognizes the same problem in his own practice. He describes concentrating on the story rather than rebuilding his approach around every new feature. Platform tactics can sit on top of that foundation, but they cannot substitute for it.

The distinction is not between short attention spans and long ones. Kane points to long podcasts, extended videos, and television binges as evidence that people will stay with material that holds them. Getting attention and sustaining it are different challenges.

A startling opening can earn a moment. The rest of the story has to earn the next one.

This is where the conversation becomes more demanding than the usual instruction to tell better stories. That advice identifies an aspiration, not a practice. A creator still needs a way to recognize structure, study execution, and distinguish a useful creative decision from an accidental success.

Repeatable storytelling begins with a format. Kane uses the term to mean a blueprint that can carry different ideas while retaining a recognizable underlying structure. The content changes; the vehicle does not need to be rebuilt every time.

That shift also changes the role of scrolling. Instead of consuming a successful video and moving on, the creator investigates whether the same person has used the structure repeatedly. A single popular post is interesting. A recurring structure gives the observer something more substantial to study.

Kane's standard is not merely whether a video looks impressive. It is whether there is enough repetition to investigate how it works. Without that distinction, a creator can mistake an isolated result for a dependable method.

The broader subject has a companion in The Futur's Storytelling Is A Superpower. Here, the emphasis is narrower and more practical: storytelling becomes useful when it can be examined, practiced, and improved rather than admired from a distance.

The problem is not a shortage of things to post. It is a shortage of understanding about what makes those things watchable.

Originality does not require starting over

For many creatives, the word format sounds suspiciously like formula. A recognizable structure appears to threaten the very quality they want their work to express: a distinctive point of view. Kane treats that objection as a misunderstanding of where originality lives.

A format does not supply the creator's knowledge, judgment, or personality. It organizes the encounter between that creator and an audience. The same arrangement can hold very different subjects, just as a familiar recipe can accommodate different ingredients without becoming an entirely different cooking method.

Do sharpens the point through his experience teaching creatives. The desire to invent everything can become an attachment to chaos. What feels original to the maker is not necessarily unprecedented; it can simply reflect limited familiarity with what came before.

His alternative is not obedience to a template. It is freedom inside useful constraints. Once the beginning, development, and destination have a workable relationship, the creator has more attention available for the decisions that distinguish the work.

“So believe it or not, structure and creativity go really well together,” Do says.

The formats Kane identifies demonstrate how much variation that relationship allows:

Man on the street: A creator approaches someone and builds the story through an encounter.
Two Characters, One Lightbulb: One person plays two characters whose exchange delivers an insight.
Walking listicles: A creator walks while presenting a sequence of points.

These are not interchangeable visual costumes. Each organizes information differently. The street encounter depends on another person's response. The two-character exchange turns explanation into dialogue. The walking format gives a list an ongoing physical setting.

Borrowing one of those structures is different from borrowing another creator's message. Kane explicitly separates adopting a storytelling arrangement from copying the substance inside it. The structure can be shared while the knowledge remains personal.

Do's seminar-style content becomes an immediate example. A whiteboard and an educational exchange create a recognizable setting, but the lesson can change from one piece to the next. Familiarity in the delivery does not require repetition in the insight.

The danger, Kane argues, is not repetition itself. It is changing so many variables that no skill has time to deepen.

He compares trend chasing to attempting a different musical instrument every week. A little piano, then violin, then guitar, then drums creates exposure to several activities. It does not create the same opportunity for refinement as sustained practice on one instrument.

The analogy explains why a consistent format is valuable even before a creator has substantial reach. It supplies continuity. The next attempt can build on the last instead of requiring a new set of assumptions about how the piece should work.

Consistency, in this sense, is not a publishing frequency. It is a learning condition.

That condition also makes creative choices more visible. With a stable structure, changes in the opening, pacing, interaction, or delivery become easier to examine. Without one, the creator has to untangle a different collection of decisions every time a post succeeds or fails.

There is still room for experimentation. Kane's argument is that experimentation becomes more useful when something remains stable enough to learn against. Otherwise, the creator is not refining a craft so much as restarting it.

The handbag is not the whole story

The conversation's clearest example involves Tanner Leatherstein, a leather expert whose videos dismantle expensive products. Kane describes working with him on a format called Is It Worth It? The premise turns specialist knowledge into a question an audience can understand immediately.

A handbag is taken apart. Its materials and construction become visible. An assessment follows. The format supplies a reason to begin watching and a reason to wait for the conclusion.

Do notices the tension inside that sequence. These are coveted objects, and the act of damaging them violates the usual relationship people have with expensive possessions. Scraping, pulling, and taking the object apart make the examination consequential before the explanation is complete.

The spectacle attracts attention, but the expertise gives it somewhere to go.

That distinction keeps the example from collapsing into a simple instruction to destroy costly things. A damaged handbag alone is an event. A leather expert revealing how it was made is an argument supported by a visible process.

Kane's description also shows why format comes before ideation. Once the central question is established, the next idea does not require an entirely new creative mechanism. A different bag, shoe, wallet, or belt can enter the same structure.

The product changes. The audience's reason for watching remains legible.

For a creator, that is a meaningful reduction in uncertainty. Instead of asking what kind of content to make from scratch, the task becomes selecting an object that can sustain the established inquiry. The format narrows the creative problem without emptying it of possibility.

It also gives the creator a way to demonstrate judgment rather than announce credentials. The audience sees the analysis being performed. Materials, finishes, and construction are not abstract claims about expertise; they are the subject of the action.

Do then raises the business question that spectacle tends to obscure. Buying expensive objects only to dismantle them has a cost. The relevant issue is not simply whether the videos attract attention, but what makes that expense sustainable.

Kane's answer points beyond platform payouts. In his account, the content builds familiarity and trust that can lead people toward Leatherstein's own products. The videos serve a commercial purpose without functioning as conventional product advertisements.

“Your social media profile is not your website,” Kane says.

That statement separates the audience's immediate experience from the business's eventual objective. Someone can watch to understand leather goods without arriving ready to shop. The commercial opportunity follows the demonstrated value rather than interrupting it.

The distinction sits beside the business question posed by You Don't Need a Personal Brand. You Need an Offer. Attention and an underlying business are connected, but they are not the same asset.

Kane does not present expensive destruction as a universal strategy. He returns to available resources and the economics behind the creator. The useful lesson is the relationship between expertise, a compelling premise, and a business capable of benefiting from the resulting interest.

Copying the spending would miss that relationship. So would copying the spectacle without the knowledge required to make the verdict credible.

The transferable element is not the handbag. It is the structure that makes expertise visible, creates anticipation, and delivers an answer worth waiting for.

The frame decides where attention goes

A creator can recognize a format and still misunderstand its source of tension. Kane describes that gap through a puppy yoga business whose content focused on activity inside the studio. The obvious assumption was that puppies should be the center of everything.

His diagnosis was more specific. In the footage he describes, opening captions competed with the action, while the edit devoted too much attention to the puppies and too little to the people responding to them.

The business did not need a new identity. It needed a different emphasis.

That is the more useful part of the example, independent of the performance figures Kane reports. The material already contained a story: people attempting an activity while puppies introduced unpredictability. The presentation was not consistently directing attention toward that interaction.

A puppy is a subject. A person trying to continue a yoga session while a puppy interferes creates an unfolding situation. The viewer has a reason to anticipate what will happen next.

Kane uses this distinction to separate content from context. The general subject can remain unchanged while the experience of watching it changes substantially. An editor's decisions about where to begin, what to emphasize, and whose reaction to show are storytelling decisions.

The elements he asks creators to examine are concrete:

The opening promise of value.
The pacing of information and action.
The reactions of people involved.
The placement of title cards and captions.
The tension that carries attention toward a payoff.

None of these elements functions as a universal trick. Captions are not inherently wrong because they distracted from one sequence. Their usefulness depends on whether they help the audience follow the story or compete with the moment that matters.

That is why a visible feature of a successful video is not automatically its cause. A creator can copy the whiteboard, camera angle, or interview setting and still miss the reason people stayed.

Kane returns repeatedly to tension. In a street encounter, it begins with uncertainty about the stranger's response. In a challenge, it develops through obstacles or escalation. In an expert demonstration, it can come from withholding the conclusion until the examination earns it.

Tension does not require hostility. It requires something unresolved.

The editorial implication is practical: a piece needs movement, even when its subject is educational. Information delivered at one unchanging level gives the audience less reason to anticipate a next beat. A developing situation creates that reason within the material.

This is also where the difference between expertise and communication becomes uncomfortable. Knowing the answer is not the same skill as arranging the experience of discovering it. A capable professional can still be a beginner at the second task.

The Futur's coaching session with Chris Do and Brendan Kane is a related reference for this question of uneven content performance. The issue is not simply what a creator knows, but which parts of that knowledge become visible and compelling on screen.

Kane's approach asks for a close reading rather than a broad judgment. Not whether the topic is good. Whether the telling makes its value apparent, sustains curiosity, and gives the audience a meaningful resolution.

Analysis belongs before the brainstorm

The practical sequence Kane proposes reverses a common production habit. Ideas do not come first. They arrive after the creator has recognized a format, chosen one that fits, and studied how it performs.

This order matters because an idea without a structure still leaves most of the storytelling problem unresolved. The subject has been selected, but the creator has not necessarily established how it will develop, where anticipation will come from, or what makes the ending satisfying.

Format selection begins with two constraints: available resources and genuine interest. Kane rejects the assumption that serious content automatically requires a large team or elaborate equipment. He also warns against selecting a format solely because another person has generated impressive numbers with it.

A format that cannot be sustained is not a practical choice. Neither is one the creator dreads producing.

Once a candidate is selected, Kane introduces the gold, silver, bronze process. The creator gathers examples of high, average, and low performance within a format, using work from a single creator for comparison.

The point is not to collect inspiration. It is to expose differences.

Studying only winners leaves an important question unanswered: which features also appear in the failures? If both strong and weak videos use the same setup, the setup alone cannot explain the distinction. Comparison forces attention toward execution.

Kane describes assembling several examples in each performance group, then watching the strongest against the weakest. The observer examines the promise, rhythm, reactions, and presentation rather than treating a high view count as a self-explanatory endorsement.

In practice, his sequence has five connected stages:

Recognize that recurring storytelling formats exist.
Select a format and analyze its performance differences.
Enter the ideation phase with that structure in place.
Produce one video at a time while learning.
Analyze the result and refine the next attempt.

The sequence turns an abstract ambition to improve into a cycle with identifiable work at each point. Observation informs selection. Selection gives analysis a focus. Analysis shapes the idea. Production tests the understanding, and the result sends the creator back to the evidence.

That structure is especially important when a video succeeds. Without prior analysis, success can remain as confusing as failure. A large audience has appeared, but the creator still cannot identify which decisions deserve to be repeated.

The opposite outcome becomes more useful too. A weak result can be compared with a working example rather than interpreted as proof that the whole endeavor is hopeless. It identifies a discrepancy to investigate, not an identity to accept.

Do recognizes how uncomfortable this standard can be for an established team. Activity and occasional wins are easier to point to than a clear explanation of what has been learned. A production schedule can demonstrate effort while concealing uncertainty.

The crucial move is from collecting outcomes to interpreting them. More examples do not automatically create better judgment. The creator has to ask what differs, form an explanation, and let the next piece test that explanation.

The brainstorm still matters. It simply stops carrying responsibility for problems that should have been addressed before it began.

Efficiency is earned after the lesson

Batch production promises relief: sit down once, record a collection of videos, and fill the calendar. Kane's objection is not to efficiency itself. It is to making an untested approach efficient before learning whether it works.

His cake analogy makes the cost obvious. A baker puts ten cakes in the oven using a new recipe, discovers the first is too dry, and then faces nine more versions of the same mistake. The batch has multiplied output without creating an opportunity to correct the recipe.

For a developing creator, the equivalent is recording a series before understanding why the first piece loses attention. Each additional video can preserve the same weak opening, misplaced emphasis, or flat delivery.

Do adds a consequence beyond wasted production. The audience still receives those pieces. What looks internally like a completed schedule can become repeated disappointment externally.

One video at a time is therefore a learning strategy, not a permanent restriction on production. Kane leaves room for batching once the creator has developed a dependable understanding of the format. The order is the point: comprehension before acceleration.

After publishing, he recommends the Hookpoint mirror process. A strong reference video sits beside the creator's weaker attempt, and the two are played for comparison. The purpose is to make differences harder to explain away.

The review returns to observable decisions:

Identify what the reference establishes immediately.
Compare the pace and progression of both pieces.
Notice which reactions or actions receive emphasis.
Check whether text supports or obstructs the story.
Carry the clearest correction into the next video.

Do raises the human obstacle inside this apparently straightforward exercise. Creators are attached to their work. Effort, hope, and professional identity make it difficult to judge a piece as dispassionately as a stranger would.

Kane's response is to separate the person from the presentation. A disappointing result does not settle the value of the creator's knowledge. It can indicate a problem in how that knowledge has been delivered.

That separation is not an excuse to avoid criticism. It makes criticism usable. If the verdict is that the creator lacks worth, there is nowhere productive to go. If the opening obscures the point, the next edit has a specific task.

The emotional side has a companion in Dealing With Negative Feedback. Here, the immediate challenge is to remain honest enough to see a weakness without turning it into a personal indictment.

Kane also resists treating persistence as a sufficient explanation for improvement. Making hundreds of pieces matters only if the process develops understanding. Repetition can deepen skill, but it can also preserve an unexamined habit.

The relevant evidence is what changes between attempts. A clearer promise. A better-timed reaction. Less interference between the viewer and the central action. A conclusion whose value has been built rather than merely announced.

That leaves a demanding but manageable assignment for the next piece: choose the structure deliberately, identify the lesson under examination, and leave enough room to respond to what happens.

The next video should not merely be finished. It should prove that something was learned.

TRANSCRIPT

So you've tried chasing trends, you've tried hashtags, you've tried posting multiple times a day, but you can't seem to break through. So today, we're gonna ignore all of that noise and we're gonna focus on how to make you a world -class storyteller, because that's the only thing that you need to consistently succeed on social media. Hi, I'm Brendan Cain, and you are listening to The Future. Brendan, we've seen countless people get on the box, whether they have a year experience or 10 years of experience. They're all promising this or that, you can get a result on social. What makes this different? Well, I've been studying this for two decades, and our team has done over 10 ,000 hours of research. And the only thing that we focus on is not tactics or tricks or any of that stuff, but purely what makes somebody stand out at the highest level? What makes them a great storyteller? What makes the algorithms want to favor them and partner with them over every other content creator out there? Why does storytelling even matter in the first place? Because everybody will tell you story, story, story, but is it the same as we're talking about on social? So storytelling matters for a few different reasons. Number one, simply, we have to look at the world that we live in, and that is the world of attention. And it's not just social media. If we think about Netflix or Amazon Prime, all these streamers, we have more content than ever before. So stories matter because they are the only thing that can grab and hold your attention. Now, we live in a micro -attention economy, but just from grabbing attention. Once you've grabbed it, people will stick with you for a long period of time. Like you have long -form videos that millions of people consume. People will listen to a three -and -a -half -hour podcast. People will binge -watch Squid Games or a Netflix show. So stories are the thing that are primed to grab and hold our attention. Now, why does that matter? Well, social media platforms, and we'll dive deep into this today, have algorithms. The algorithms only care about one thing, and that's keeping people on the platforms longer because that allows them to serve more ads. And we are the fuel that runs these platforms. It's not like Netflix or Disney where they invest billions of dollars in content. So they want to see us succeed. But they only want to partner with the best storytellers because the best storytellers can hook people in and get them to view content and stay on the platforms longer than other content creators. Brendan, we've heard so much. platforms longer because that allows them to serve more ads. And we are the fuel that runs these platforms. It's not like Netflix or Disney where they invest billions of dollars in content. So they want to see us succeed, but they only want to partner with the best storytellers because the best storytellers can hook people in and get them to view content and stay on the platforms longer than other content creators. Brendan, we've heard so many people talk about certain trends or do this right now. I don't believe in any of that BS. Why is this different? What are we going to do that's going to stand the test of time? So we're going to break down five steps to social media success. And all of these steps are rooted in storytelling. And the interesting thing is, as we dive into this, a lot of the storytelling frameworks and formats that we dissect were actually invented decades before social media. So the things that we dive into have stood the test of time and we know will continue to work for decades to come. So are you saying that the cavemen by the fire were using the exact same story framework that you're talking about? Not exactly. So now you're roasting me. I said decades. I said decades. I said thousands of years. Well, we have... But I mean, there are some principles. Yeah, well... You have like a beginning, middle, and an end to a story on a cave wall drawing. Well, I know you're connected to the Mindvalley folks. And one person I do listen to on the Mindvalley content is a guy named Eric Meads. And he says something that's really interesting that ties together with what you're saying, which is the human mind was designed to consume and understand the world through stories. And that's why stories are so important. It's how we relate to the world. It's how we are able to recall certain memories. And when you master storytelling, you're going to have a much higher probability of hooking people in your content and then getting them on board with what it is that you do. Yeah. I mean, you just even think about how do we raise young children? We read them bedtime stories. And we're trained as a young child that once we hear the beginning of a story, we want to hear the end of it. So it's ingrained in our society as human beings to unfold that way. And that's also how information got passed from generation to generation. It was typically through story. It wasn't through textbooks. So Brandon, let's get right into it. What's the first social media truth? So I want to just do a pretty hard level set here because you and I were talking beforehand and now we're at a place, you know, you and I've been in this since the beginning. You know, I started social media in 2005 and there's a lot of these social media experts or gurus that have only been doing it for two, three, four years. And there's a lot of talks about hacks and tricks and frequency. But the number one thing is it's just storytelling. People forget that that social media is just another storytelling medium. And the people that win at social media are the ones that tell the best stories. Now, as we know from doing this for decades, telling a great story is not necessarily easy, but it is simple in terms of what drive. But the number one thing is it's just storytelling. People forget that, that social media is just another storytelling medium. And the people that win at social media are the ones that tell the best stories. Now, as we know from doing this for decades, telling a great story is not necessarily easy, but it is simple in terms of what drives success. So I want everybody to just forget about algorithms, tricks, hacks, how many times you post. And let's just get to the core of what tells a great story. Well, I can certainly back that comment up because people ask me, what are you doing? Like, I don't know. I just write a story and I don't really care what the algorithm is doing or what the new features are because story transcends all. And you can layer on top certain whatever the hack of the day is. But at the core of it, the foundation part of your post should be a really good, compelling story. So do you have a formula for what makes a good story? Yeah, I think that the first place that I want people to start is people are endlessly scrolling social media. We all use social media, but we're using it more from a passive perspective. And I just want the audience to make this active creator mindset shift, actually starting to look at content to start seeing like, oh, this has 10 million views. Like, why does that 10 million views? Oh, this only has a thousand views. Why does it have a thousand views? And what I really want them to start looking at is what we call formats. And what is a format? It's a storytelling blueprint or structure that has been used repeatedly over and over again. So one of the things that we created at Hookpoint is called the Hookpoint Format Finder. So let's just say that you're scrolling through TikTok or Instagram Reels and you see a video that has 10 million views. Well, you want to click on that creator's profile and go, have they used that same structure at least five or 10 times? Because they haven't. It's not a blueprint for success. It's either a trend or maybe they got lucky. So we really want to make that shift from passive to active to understand that there's this thing called formats. Because most people, as they're creating content, what do they do is they're just jumping to idea, to idea, to idea. They're not looking for like, what is the blueprint? So for example, I started my career in the movie industry. Now, the interesting thing about the movie industry, almost every movie over the past 100 years is used the same format. And that is the three -act structure. They don't deviate from it. Why? Because it works. Now, in social media, there's hundreds of these formats. At Hookpoint, we've spent 10 ,000 hours. To date, we have about 300 formats in our library. We hope to have about 500 by the end of the year. And I just say that because there's so many options out there. So that first step in terms of that blueprint is just making that shift to understand there are these things called blueprints and then going through and identifying them. So what you're saying is, and this is a Jim Rohn quote, success leaves. spent 10 ,000 hours. To date, we have about 300 formats in our library. We hope to have about 500 by the end of the year. And I just say that because there's so many options out there. So that first step in terms of that blueprint is just making that shift to understand there are these things called blueprints and then going through and identifying them. So what you're saying is, and this is a Jim Rohn quote, success leaves clues. When you see something that works, go and figure it out. Don't just be passively consuming, be an active learner. Look at their profile, see if they've used this multiple times and see what the commonality is between what they're doing and figure out what the format is. And you to date have discovered over 300 formats and hopefully by the end of the year, 200 more that you're going to figure out, right? Yeah. And you know what the fascinating thing is about some of these formats? People think that social media is like this new innovative thing that it's so original. But if you look at some of the top formats and top creators, they're using storytelling structures that were invented pre social media. So let's like go through a few. Man on the street. A lot of people use man on the street. We have like Alex Stemp that uses it for photography. We have School of Hard Knocks that uses it for business advice. We have Body by Mark that uses it for fitness. It's used in all these different sectors. The man on the street format was an invented in 1954 and the first season of the ever since. Another one that's popular is called Two Characters, One Lightbulb where it's the same person that plays two different characters. So we have like Erica Kohlberg that uses it to break down what happens when your flight gets delayed or your AirPods break or Mark Tilbury does it for finance. If we think back to 1997 in Austin Powers, he was doing Austin Powers and Dr. Evil and doing this banter back and forth. You think about Mr. Beast. He does these challenge videos. Well, you go back to 1995 when they had the road rules challenges on MTV or in 2000 where Mark Burnett introduced Survivor. So you have all of these examples of storytelling formats working pre social media. So that's where it just shows you again that it's not about these tips or tricks or hacks. It's just how do we become a masterful storyteller? And that's why you see some of these structures play out over decades. Why? Because they work. I think it's pretty obvious the benefit of figuring out a format versus going from one type of content to the next to the next idea. What is the compelling reason why anybody should want to figure out what a format is? Because it gives you a blueprint for success. Now, I know some people and we hear this from clients and some people may be thinking this, Brendan, it sounds interesting. I know formats are successful, but I want to be authentic. I want to be original. So they think that formats restrict creativity when in reality they unlock creativity. So what do I mean? Again, starting my career in the film industry, I went to film school and you have to study the top filmmakers in the world. So if you think about like one of the best storytellers of our generation, Steven Spielberg. So he's used this single format to tell stories like E .T. versus Jurassic Park. Jaws versus Indiana Jones. strict creativity when in reality, they unlock creativity. So what do I mean? Again, starting my career in the film industry, I went to film school and you have to study the top filmmakers in the world. So if you think about like one of the best storytellers of our generation, Steven Spielberg. So he's used this single format to tell stories like E .T. versus Jurassic Park, Jaws versus Indiana Jones, Lincoln versus Saban Prime Orion. They're so distinctly different when we sit down the experience that we have with it. It allows us a massive amount of creativity. But what he did and most film directors do is they spend decades mastering the nuances of how to master that specific type of format. So what a format does is like you were mentioning, success leads clues. What it does is it gives you a structure to become a master of something. So another analogy I can give you is a lot of people talk about trends and trends. Why I advise against them is they're fleeting. Like you think about one of the biggest trends back in the day, the ice bucket challenge. Nobody uses that today. So you're switching from trend to trend to trend. So let's just say as an analogy, we wanted to learn a musical instrument and there's two paths we could take the trend route or the format route. So the trend route would say week one, we're going to start with a piano. Week two, we're going to move to the violin. Week three, we're going to move the guitar. Week four, we're going to move to the drums. Like how are you going to master any musical instrument if you're changing the goalpost each time versus a format says, well, let's spend six months learning the piano and let's master all the nuances of it so that we can, our creativity can flow within it. So that format gives you a tremendous amount of creativity, but it also gives you a foundation for success. We don't want to reinvent the wheel. We want to master the nuances within the wheel to become an expert storyteller. I want to add to this. A lot of creatives, and I taught creatives for many years prior to getting onto social media, they swim in chaos and like this idea, like, I'll just figure it out. I'll invent things. And they're delusional because what they think is original is just a lack of history, what's come before. And so that expression is cliche at this point. Don't reinvent the wheel, reinvent how it's used. And that becomes much more interesting. What structures allow us to do is to have a higher probability of success and removes a lot of like, what am I going to start with? Where does it end? And then it allows you to play within the variables themselves. If we think about like cooking, there's a recipe, there's a formula. And if you want to have success and you want to be able to not only do that dish right one time, but a hundred times, especially when it's critical, if you're trying to impress the in -laws, if you had an important guest over, you want to be able to make that again and again. So believe it or not, structure and creativity go really well together. Whereas chaos and creativity, it's just a mess because you don't know what. It's probably one of the reasons why a lot of super creative people struggle with creating consistently and getting consistent results. So I'm all for that, by the way. Yeah. And you can even see the success that you have, especially in your short form content is you. want to be able to make that again and again. So believe it or not, structure and creativity go really well together, whereas chaos and creativity, it's just a mess because you don't know what. It's probably one of the reasons why a lot of super creative people struggle with creating consistently and getting consistent results. So I'm all for that, by the way. Yeah. And you can even see the success you have, especially in your short form content is you use like a seminar format that has worked for you and you keep going back to it. But even within that format, the unique value you provide each time feels unique. It feels different. It's not like you're repeating the same thing over and over again. So again, it's more about and people say, well, I don't want to copy other people. You're not copying other people, copying a structure. And oftentimes that structure was invented before social media. And you're using that structure to deliver your own unique insights, your own unique value to it. Okay. Is there anything else you want to say about formats? Well, so that's the step one of the process. And you talk about recipes. This is my favorite recipe. It's the recipe for success in social media, the recipe for virality. So once we kind of made that mindset shift and at least understand that formats exist and what they look like. And we talked about a few. We talked about man on the street. We talked about two characters, one light bulb. And there's another one called walking listicles. I don't know if you know Robert Croke, the founder of Silly Bands, but he just walks around with an iPhone around the block and lists things out. So once we have understood what a format is, the second thing that we need to do is select a format and then analyze it. The two questions that I give clients in terms of selecting a format are very simplistic, but super critically important. The first is what resources do you have? Social media and formats, you don't need to extend beyond your resources. You know, I think a lot of people will tell you, well, you need a fancy camera. You need a social media manager. You need a big team or a big budget. But there's literally formats like we work with this hand doctor, Dr. Ernance. Literally, she had no experience in social media. And we're just like, OK, we're going to design a format around that. And she's just recording it on her iPhone. So I want people to start with the resources they have. You don't need to extend beyond that, because, again, there's hundreds of these formats out there. And then the second question is, well, what format excites you? What like you look at it and you're like, I would love to wake up every single day. And create content with this format, because if it doesn't excite you, you're going to burn yourself out or that inauthenticity is going to come off on screen. And again, there's hundreds of these formats to choose from. So don't just jump at the first one and be like, you know what? He is generating tens of millions of views with this. So I'm going to do it just because he's having success. That's a recipe for disaster because you're just not going to keep up with it. So those are two key questions to ask yourself. Now, once we have gone through that process, we found our format, this is where 99 % of people fail in this process. And again, there's hundreds of these formats to choose from. So don't just jump at the first one and be like, you know what? He is generating tens of millions of views with this. So I'm going to do it just because he's having success. That's a recipe for a disaster because you're just not going to keep up with it. So those are two key questions to ask yourself. Now, once we have gone through that process, we found our format. This is where 99 % of people fail in this process. They will look at like the man on the street format and they'll be like, oh man, that's super easy. Or they'll look at your format. Oh, he's just sitting there at a whiteboard, just writing down things. I know what he's doing. You got 50 million views on that video. I can do the same. The reality is you don't understand why it had success. So we need to analyze that format and study it in the same way. When I went to film school, you have to like sit down and watch classic movies, write screenplays and things of that nature. So we created a proprietary process called gold, silver, bronze. So we'll take a format. Let's just take man on the street for right now. And we'll open up a Google spreadsheet. We'll put five to 10 of the high performers in that format from a single creator. In that format, it's at least 5 million views plus. That's the gold standard. Then we have the average, which is like 500 ,000 to a million. We'll do five or 10 of those. And then five or 10 of the underperformers, the bronze. So once we have that, then we're going to do a cross analysis. What that means is we're going to watch the gold, the high standard ones, and then we're going to cross analyze it against the low performer, the bronze ones. And we're going to look at what is the difference? And oftentimes it is not the content, but the context. So it's like, is there a promise of value? What's the pacing? What if it's a reaction -based thing? What are the reactions of the person you're interacting with? What are the title cards? What are the captions? These small nuances that make up the telling of the story. Because if you don't take that process, you don't really understand what drives success, but more importantly, what detracts from success. Because without doing that analysis, maybe you hit it once, but you won't be able to repeat it. So again, step two of the recipe is how to choose your format and then making sure that you analyze it. Wonderful. I get nervous every time I talk to you because I keep thinking about a content, Drago. We're bouncing from things to things. We have more bronzes and silvers and every once in a while we get a gold. So I feel so called out right now. It's time for a quick break, but we'll be right back. Just a few months, we're going to hit our 400th episode of this podcast. And before we get there, we want to take a moment to really listen to you, our loyal listeners. If you're open to chatting with my producer, Rich Cardona, or someone on his team, we'd love to hear from you. Just fill out the short form in the show notes. It takes less than 20 seconds. Want to make the most of the opportunities coming your way this year? I'd like to invite you to join me inside the Future Pro Membership, your ace in the hole for 2024. With expert guidance and a supportive community, the Future Pro Membership was created as your Just fill out the short form in the show notes. It takes less than 20 seconds. Want to make the most of the opportunities coming your way this year? I'd like to invite you to join me inside the Future Pro membership, your ace in the hole for 2024. With expert guidance and a supportive community, the Future Pro membership was created as your ultimate business lifeline. We have years of testimonials for members to prove it. Check it out at thefuture .com slash pro. This episode is brought to you by PayPal. You know how a mom's bag has everything? Sunscreen? Snacks? A stapler? The new PayPal app is like that, but for your money. Shop, pay, manage your account, and earn rewards all in one place. And with purchase protection on eligible items, biometric security, and pass keys, you're protected at every step. Download the new PayPal app to get started. See paypal .com slash protection terms. And we're back. Welcome back to our conversation. Is it now we're on point two? So that was point two. So point three is now we come up with the ideas. It's the ideation phase. So where do most people start with social media? Well, they just come up with ideas. Well, why does coming up with ideas first typically lead to lack of success? Well, one, there's no format in mind. So you're just coming up with ideas. There's no format or structure that you're putting that idea into. And number two is if you're going from idea to idea, idea, idea, idea, how are you going to master storytelling? It's like the analogy we just talked about with learning a musical instrument. If we're changing the goalposts and changing from instrument to instrument to instrument, how do we ever get good? So once we have a format, it becomes the vehicle for ideas. So to give you an example, we worked with an amazing guy. His name is Tanner Leatherstein with a leather expert. And he has a fascinating story. Is that his name? No, it's not. I knew it. It's too good of a name to be. It's amazing. But like he has an amazing story. At age nine, he created his first leather jacket. Like he just loves leather goods. But before coming to us, he was struggling with social media because he was doing like everybody else. He was just creating ads to promote his products. So we helped him design a format called Is It Worth It? Where he'll take very expensive handbags, like $3 ,000 Chanel handbag. He actually buys these things. He pays for it with his own money. Deconstructs it on screen and tells you whether it's worth the money you have for it. So we have this container, this format of Is It Worth It? Now that we have this format, high performing ideas are super easy. So one week, it's a Chanel handbag. The next week, it's Louis Vuitton shoes. The next, it's a Prada handbag. It's an expensive wallet. It's an expensive belt. You have this container that makes it super easy to find high performing ideas because it's vetted through this structure to the point where like he didn't even really feel comfortable being on camera. He has 94 videos with over 1 million views. Why? Because it makes the... ideas are super easy. So one week, it's a Chanel handbag. The next week, it's Louis Vuitton shoes. The next, it's a Prada handbag. It's an expensive wallet. It's an expensive belt. You have this container that makes it super easy to find high -performing ideas because it's vetted through this structure to the point where he didn't even really feel comfortable being on camera. He has 94 videos with over 1 million views. Why? Because it makes the ideation process coming up with high -power ideas a lot more effective and a lot easier. I think one of the reasons why his videos work is there's some shock value. These are coveted objects that he takes. So somebody's probably having a fit just watching him rip these things apart. He scrapes the coating. He sets them on fire. He's just pushing and pulling every little thing. Then he goes into the cost, the material cost, the finishes, the trim, and then the labor cost to make a point. Like when you buy this thing, you're not buying it because it's this value you're buying because of some other reason, which he doesn't get into, but there's shock value there. If you're watching that or if you're listening to this right now and you're thinking to yourself, well, how does a guy afford to buy $2 ,000 to $3 ,000 worth of bags for each video and then to be able to do this sustainably? Do you have an answer for that? Yeah. So it's a great question. One of the things, and I'll just insert this brutal truth into social media because most people don't get it. Your social media profile is not your website and your organic content is not your ads. People do not log onto social media to see you sell things. So what Tanner is doing through that format is he's building a strong relationship with them. He's getting people to know, like, and trust him. And because the format is so high performing where he has 94 of these videos with over a million views, he has a bunch over 10 million views. He's getting so much exposure on him as an individual, building that relationship, building that trust that they ultimately want to take that next step with him. So if you watch his content, there's no calls to action. There's no visit the website. He just has a link in his bio. And before this format, he would pay per every click going to his website. He was generating 10 ,000 visitors. After this, he was generating a hundred thousand visitors a plus organically. And his most expensive products, the ones that were handcrafted would sell out. So I'm not suggesting that every person goes out there and buys a $5 ,000 handbag or piece of equipment and deconstruct it. Again, match the resources to where you're at. But he has a fundamental business model behind it that he understands that translates into people that want to buy from him. Again, you can look at like Mr. Beast, where he'll spend $5 million, $10 million on a video. Again, we're not recommending that people do that, but he has an underlying business model that he has proven out over time. It's not like Tanner or Mr. Beast started at that point. They just built into it and knew that they got a positive ROI from it. I thought the answer was going to be because social media rewards them financially so that they have a positive return on that investment. million dollars on a video. Again, we're not recommending that people do that, but he has an underlying business model that he has proven out over time. It's not like Tanner or Mr. B started at that point. They just built into it and knew that they got a positive ROI from it. I thought the answer was going to be because social media rewards them financially so that they have a positive return on that investment. So if they spend $3 ,000, TikTok or Instagram might pay them five. And so they can just keep doing this infinitely. But there's the real business, the business behind all the social is he makes bags that you can buy. Mr. Beast's model is he actually makes more money in ad revenue and sponsors than he spends on making the videos, right? That's what I understand. So that's a really great point. So Mr. Beast hit a saturation point where he was generating so many views that a sponsor couldn't underwrite it. For the value that he was providing, he wasn't getting enough return out of it. So that's where he started building his own companies. Like he built Beast Burger was the first one. Feastables is like the fastest selling chocolate bar in the world now. I think it's projected this year to do 500 million in revenue. So it hit a saturation point. And this is another kind of brutal truth that I talk people through because you bring up a really valid point that we get asked a lot is like, well, what is the true ROI of social media? Like if I'm going to invest my time or energy into social media, if I'm going to hire a social media manager, if I'm going to hire Brendan or Hookpoint, like what is my return I'm going to be? The reality is the return is the size of your vision. How big can your business scale? Like I'll give you an example. I don't know if you know Michelle Phan, but she was one of the original beauty influencers, a friend of mine. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So she's amazing, brilliant woman. She started in YouTube in 2007 and she got in very early. And where most people saw it as like a novelty of YouTube, because it was still like karaoke videos and cat videos. She's like, no, like the people, the future that are going to lead industries are the people that have the largest audience. So I'm going to invest into it. And she was very successful. She built millions of subscribers, millions of views, but instead of just doing what most beauty influencers do, which is do brand deals. She's like, no, I'm going to do something bigger. So she founded a company called Ipsy with a few of her friends, which was a quarterly subscription box and community where they would deliver beauty samples to you. In the first three years, it ramped to 120 million in revenue. At one point it was valued at 800 million in revenue. Then from there, L 'Oreal was like, we see the value you're creating. We want to partner with you, not give you a brand deal to create a brand new cosmetics line from scratch. Now, before this, L 'Oreal had never done that. The only brand they created was L 'Oreal. They would just acquire businesses. So where most people get stuck in a kind of short -term mindset of like, well, what is my ROI going to be from AdSense or ad revenue or my next client or brand deal? Like the reality is social media is a platform for creating something truly extraordinary. And your ROI, your true ROI is as big as. that the only brand they created was L 'Oreal. They would just acquire businesses. So where most people get stuck in a kind of short -term mindset of like, well, what is my ROI gonna be from AdSense or ad revenue or my next client or brand deal? Like the reality is social media is a platform for creating something truly extraordinary. And your ROI, your true ROI is as big as you can humanly think, as big as possible. Drugo, I don't know about you, but I'm feeling even more called out. But we're only on Brutal Truth number three. What Brendan is saying is, if you're too cheap to pay for this stuff, it means you have a really small, small vision. That's what you're saying. It is, but it's also, it's like, if you want a small vision, that's fine. I'm not telling people you have to have a large vision. I'm just saying. Well, Brutal Truth three, and I don't know if I can make it to number 20, you guys. I just feel so called out right now. Okay, let's get into this, right? So here's the thing. We've been speaking to some people recently. One person in particular is Dan Martell, who's only in the last couple of years has grown his social media presence. And he said something at the dinner table. He said, what I've come to realize is, as much as it's against all this stuff, brand is a force multiplier. It takes whatever you're doing, it grows exponentially. It ramps faster. It reaches more people, and you can do it organically. So all you thoroughbred, hardcore entrepreneurs, like the Hermoses and the Martells of the world, sit there and think, maybe this is the day of the year that I invest in this. And almost to the person, their biggest regret or the insight is I should have done this earlier. I should have done this sooner. And I'm part of that camp. I started doing social about 10 years ago. And the number one question is, what would you do differently, Chris? I would just start it when I was 19. Because if you start earlier, you can really get the really amazing place now. So we're all playing this game in a very long, long timeline. And we're not looking at it just like as a substitute for advertising or marketing, which you still need to do everybody. But this is a great alternative that you can do in parallel. Well, I think that, and I want to pull up, because I did some research on it, because I think it plays to what you were saying of kind of the mindset going into. And this is kind of like another brutal truth is like, how long does it take to get to a million subscribers on YouTube? So the average is 492 videos. On the low end, it's 123. The highest is 1 ,600. Now, if you would ask a lot of people that have scaled their audience that it would take that long, there'd be a good percentage of them that would just probably like give up or quit. So like to your point, there is a long game to this. Now, that doesn't mean that you have to hit a million subscribers or a million followers to make a living, to build revenue, to sustain yourself, to do whatever you want. But it's just to kind of have that mindset shift of like, I think people see like a Mr. Beast and they don't realize, well, he started 10 years ago at 12 years old in his bedroom. You started 10 years ago. I started, I don't even know what I started. Okay. revenue to sustain yourself to do whatever you want but it's just to kind of have that mindset shift of like i think people see like a mr beast and they don't realize well he started 10 years ago at 12 years old in his bedroom you started 10 years ago i i started i don't even know what i started okay so on average on youtube to get to a million subs because that's a pretty important threshold to break it's going to take you 492 videos we don't want to worry about the outliers the ones who takes a really long time and the ones who get there really fast let's just look at averages 492 videos i want to reference something by south god and the dip the dip is like there's this thing where it's fun in the beginning you get a lot of followers and attraction attention and energy and return on investment then you go into the cul -de -sac or whatever and it starts to get harder and harder and it feels like you're putting a lot of work and not getting a lot of results and then you get into the valley the dip this is where most people quit i'm just saying this to everybody what if you're at video 400 you're like i'm not making progress it could be 92 more videos where you actually have that breakthrough the question i have to throw at you is what do you think happens in creating almost 500 pieces of content that allows you to get to that breakthrough it's pure learning so i'll give you another kind of brutal truth that plays into this and it's you know what is one thing that people don't know about mr beast you know because everybody looks at mr beast today and they're like oh yeah he's just spending five to ten million on a video it's easy to have that level of success but the reality when he first started out you know he was going to university and he's like you know what i'm quitting like i love youtube i just want to create youtube videos and it wasn't an easy decision because his mom kicked him out of the house like if you want to do this then you're going on your own you're going to support yourself so when he did and made that decision he spent he got three other youtubers or college dropouts and they spent a thousand days straight eight hours a day on skype breaking down every single nuance about youtube videos like they would look at a thousand thumbnails they would look at you know the first three seconds captions title cards and things of all these small nuances so even if you're at 50 video because we work with clients all the time where it doesn't necessarily need to take 400 500 videos but if you're at 100 200 300 400 500 or beyond and you're not seeing success well i would take a step back and say well what are you learning with each video how are you becoming a better storyteller how many other creators have you studied to understand what makes them successful that is the biggest contributing factor and i had the luck of actually going to film school where i wanted to be a movie producer but even going in being a movie producer they make you take acting classes they make you take directing editing they make you write a screenplay why because you need to understand all of these elements that go into making a movie it's not just one thing and the same thing applies to social media and i think it gets lost because social media is a relatively new thing and i think the downside of social media is anybody can pull out their phone click record they make you take acting classes. They make you take directing, editing. They make you write a screenplay. Why? Because you need to understand all of these elements that go into making a movie. It's not just one thing. And the same thing applies to social media. And I think it gets lost because social media is a relatively new thing. And I think the downside of social media is anybody can pull out their phone, click record and post something. So what does that mean? Not a lot of thought goes into it. Now there's a massive upside in terms of it democratizing communication to the masses, but because it becomes so easy, I think it forces a lot of people not to put a tremendous amount of thought into it. One step forward. Yeah. So step three is ideation, coming up with ideas. Step four is one video at a time. So what do most people do when they create content? They batch produce. They sit down and they produce 10 pieces of content, which I'm not saying like once you become a good storyteller, you can't do. But when you're starting out, it sets you up for failure. And let me give you an analogy. Let's say that we are trying a new recipe for a cake and we're baking 10 cakes at the same time with the new recipe and all 10 are in the oven. We pull the first one out and it's too dry. Well, what do we do with the other nine? We have to throw them out and start from scratch. Now, most people in social media won't throw out the other nine. They'll just post it and learn absolutely nothing and just repeat that process over time versus if we're going to cook the perfect pasta sauce. We want to really impress our in -laws with a pasta dish. Well, what do we do is we're stirring the pasta sauce. We put in a little bit of salt, a little bit of vinegar, just these ingredients, and we just keep tasting it along the way to refine it. So with content, as you're starting out and mastering storytelling, you want to just produce one video at a time so that you can actually analyze what you're doing and testing your hypothesis, testing your ability to become a better content creator as you go along. Yeah, you want to iterate and learn and adapt because otherwise you're just pushing it out there. Like in the example, when you're going to make 10 pies or 10 cakes at a time, what people don't realize is it's pretty crappy and you serve the other nine cakes too. And that changes the relationship you have with the viewer or your customer at this point because the people who are showing up are going to say it was not good, but now I've got nine more not good things to deal with. So maybe I'm giving up on this person and you've lost that opportunity. Absolutely. Right. So guys, before you get into it, really you want to innovate and you want to learn as you go versus moving towards efficiency. Efficiency is good once you figure out your formula and you can repeat it over and over again. But until then, stay away from that. Yeah. And it may slow you down in the beginning and that's fine. Like you want to crawl before you run. So just start with one video at a time, learn, master. And then once you master it, if you want to speed things up, then you can. Okay. Okay. What's step five? So step five is now we've produced the content. Now we want to do the analysis and really understand what happened. So remember in step two, we did that gold, silver, and bronze process. So if we have slow you down in the beginning and that's fine. Like you want to crawl before you run. So just start with one video at a time, learn, master. And then once you master it, if you want to speed things up, then you can. Okay. Okay. What's step five? So step five is now we've produced the content. Now we want to do the analysis and really understand what happened. So remember in step two, we did that gold, silver, and bronze process. So if we have a video that succeeds, well, now we have a blueprint. We actually understand why it succeeds because in the TikTok era and YouTube shorts followed, Instagram reels followed, it made a little bit easier to have that quick win. You'll see people that'll get a million views, a 10 million views on a video, but they can never reproduce it. Why? Because they don't understand what elements of the story that worked. Now, as I mentioned before, if a video doesn't perform, we're not sitting there and be like, oh man, it's the end of the world. I suck as a content creator. My team sucks, all this stuff. It's no. Now we have a blueprint to benchmark it again. So we use what's called the hook point mirror process. So when we did that gold, silver, and bronze process, let's just say it's man on the street or one of yours, the seminar education format, we have the high performer. So we can pull out one of those high performers, put it on one side of the screen and put your low performer on the other side of the screen and play them side by side. And if you're really honest with yourself and you're open, you'll be able to spot the differences. It'll be pretty clear. And that gives you a benchmark to understand, well, what did I miss? Did I just execute something wrong? Or maybe I just missed something in that initial analysis. I just didn't see this one thing that the gold video did that I didn't do in my video. So then I'm going to perfect it for the next time around. So it kind of closes the loop there that once you're producing, you're producing one piece of content at a time, you give yourself space in a platform to really learn and refine. And that's what the best content creators are doing is they're constantly learning and refining as they go along. Have you heard that expression? It's hard to read the label when you're inside the jar? No. Well, easy for you to say, but most people are not that objective when they're making stuff because they're involved. They have a attachment, subjectivity, biases. Like I worked really hard on this one. I wanted to do better. And it's very hard for them to be objective. That's why people hire coaches and consultants. So for someone who's listening to this and that feels like what they're going through, what kind of advice, if any, do you have for them? Well, I think that one of the things that potentially holds people back from that is being honest with themselves because they don't want to be hard on themselves or they don't want to look at glaring gaps. And kind of one of the things that I would just tell people that if something's not performing, it's not about you. It's not really about your message. It's just the context of how you're delivering it. And I'll give you an analogy. How many movies are there about World War II? Countless, it feels like. Yeah. And there's great ones and then there's bad ones. The content is the same. We're talking about the same thing. It's just the way that we tell the story. kind of one of the things that I would just tell people that if something's not performing, it's not about you. It's not really about your message. It's just the context of how you're delivering it. And I'll give you an analogy. How many movies are there about World War II? Countless, it feels like. Yeah. And there's great ones and then there's bad ones. The content is the same. We're talking about the same thing. It's just the way that we tell the story. And a nutritionist, a fitness instructor, a real estate agent. It's not about the content. It's not about you. It's just how you're delivering it. And if you just look at it from that lens, it's like, hey, I'm one or two tweaks away from figuring out how to really break through. Because I think oftentimes, and it's hard. I don't know if you experience it. Sometimes I do. It's like you'll take social media personally because you're exposing yourself out there, whether it's the comments or the numbers or things of that nature. And sometimes you get caught up as a human being in emotions that you get caught up in that emotional side of it. And I know it's hard, but just trying to detach yourself from that and not look at it from the standpoint of what that you're bad at content creation. It's what can I learn to ensure that I can continuously improve? Because like everybody that is trying to do social media is probably an expert in another field. And like the question I have is, well, how long did it take you to become an expert in that field? It took time. It took practice. It took refinement. So the hook point mirror is like when you look yourself in the mirror and kind of have an honest conversation, like that shirt makes you look fat. Well, it's not that harsh, right? But like to give you an example is like we worked with a puppy yoga business and everybody thinks dog videos go viral. Well, they don't because they don't all follow formats. And she's really struggling. And like her content is a format where she's just capturing content of puppy yoga in her studio. But she was struggling to break through. She's getting like 10 ,000, 15 ,000 videos. But when we did the mirror test against the gold standard, we saw a few things. One, there was like captions, like the first thing on the screen, which was detracting from the actual action that was happening, the reactions of the people, the chaos that the puppies create. And then number two, there was just a mislined focus. They were focusing too much on the puppies and not enough on the people and kind of like, what are these people going to do? How are they going to respond? And once we just gave these small insights, her next video did 59 million views. She went from a few thousand followers to 134 ,000 followers. She did 250 million views total. And like she's getting asked to go all over the world. Now, we didn't completely change like who she is, what her business is. We're just making small tweaks in terms of how she's telling those stories. Okay. So you're saying that it's nothing wrong with you per se, not even anything wrong with the things you're creating. You're maybe one or two tweaks away from getting the results that you want. And it's your ability to look in the mirror and have an honest conversation to say, what if I change that? That's what's missing from this. And it's usually it's human connection and emotions that really drive things, right? terms of how she's telling those stories. Okay. So you're saying that it's nothing wrong with you per se, not even anything wrong with the things you're creating. You're maybe one or two tweaks away from getting the results that you want. And it's your ability to look in the mirror and have an honest conversation to say, what if I change that? That's what's missing from this. And it's usually it's human connection and emotions that really drive things, right? Yeah. So one of the top aspects that we mentioned earlier with the brutal truth part is one of the key elements to going viral is tension, is you need to build tension in it. And if you think about like an analogy in like most hero movies, what happens in a hero movie? They go out, they do a battle, they fail. They go out, they do another battle, they fail. They go out and they keep going until the climax of the end of the movie where they finally succeed. And Kurt Vonnegut, the writer, you know, says it's somebody gets in a jam and they get out of a jam. Like that is what kind of what we're looking for in terms of storytelling. Now, if we think about Mr. Beast, one of his videos is $1 boat versus $1 billion boat. There's added tension with each boat that you go through. Or you look at like Mark Rober, who is a former NASA engineer, and he does like, I'm going to make a pool out of jello. Like, well, he doesn't start at the end results. He's building that anticipation. Or if you think about a man on the street, like why does man on the street work is because there's this initial thing, you're approaching this random stranger, like what's going to happen? How is this person going to respond? And a lot of this stuff happens on a subconscious level, but there needs to be that inherent kind of tension throughout of that ebbs and flows, even if it's in like a 60 second video, because if it's just monotone or flat, it's going to fail. And you just think about like that one person, you know, in the office or that one friend of yours that just has that monotone thing where it's like almost difficult to stay awake during the conversation. It's the same thing with social media content. So are we done with the first brutal truth? I think we're through like 10 or 15 at this point. Okay. Okay. Thanks for catching this first part with Brendan Cain. We got into why formats beat trends and unlock creativity, but this is just the foundation. In part two, we'll move into the fun stuff, choosing formats and building ideas that actually land. Stay tuned. Thanks for joining us. If you haven't already subscribed to our show on your favorite podcasting app and get new insightful episodes from us every week. The future podcast is hosted by Chris Doe and produced and edited by Rich Cardona Media. Thank you to Adam Sanborn for intro music. If you enjoyed this episode, then do us a favor by reviewing and rating our show on Apple podcasts. It will help us grow the show and make future episodes that much better. If you'd like to support the show and invest in yourself while you're at it, visit thefuture .com and you'll find video courses, digital products, and a bunch of videos. Thank you to Adam Sanborn for our intro music. If you enjoyed this episode, then do us a favor by reviewing and rating our show on Apple Podcasts. It will help us grow the show and make future episodes that much better. If you'd like to support the show and invest in yourself while you're at it, visit thefuture .com and you'll find video courses, digital products, and a bunch of helpful resources about design and the creative business. Thanks again for listening, and we'll see you next time.

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“So believe it or not, structure and creativity go really well together.”

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