E18: Ten years ago, FouseyTube was:
- Consistently viral on Youtube - I even met him a bunch of times at conferences we were both invited to.
- Making a lot of money.
- Recognized and YouTube famous.
Two years ago, he was:
- Universally hated.
- Broke.
- Overcoming various addictions.
- Still YouTube famous, but irrelevant.
Now he's:
- Loved, even by his haters.
- YouTube and Twitch famous. Relevant again.
- Making money.
Here's what he did:
- Started streaming live on Twitch 24/7 - even while he sleeps.
- Became humble.
- Frequently admits he was a PoS.
The main takeaways:
- Be nice.
- Find a unique spin on a niche.
Nobody with Fousey's unique story streams EVERYTHING and shares EVERYTHING. He literally shares EVERYTHING... all the time... 7 days a week. This is the same thesis I have with my podcast. I'm doing it daily. Why? Very few people of my experience and charisma do daily podcasts. Most do 2x/week or 1x/week. In fact, this pairs well with a content philosophy that changed my life when I learned about it one year ago. The Content Inc. Philosophy Basically, there are 4 variables to center your content around:
- Niche
- Spin on the niche
- Platform
- Content type
Let's take Miss Excel (who's now building a several hundred million dollar Microsoft Office empire) as an example.
- Niche (when she started): Excel training.
- Spin: Fun, non-corporate style.
- Platform: TikTok.
- Content type: Mobile video.
In Fousey's case - his SPIN is 24/7 streaming. For my podcast, my spin is daily episodes. The high-frequency spin is hard to do but typically results in learnings and growth FAST. Two days ago, I did a deep dive to see daily podcasts that failed. They all failed because they made it too much work, and it stopped being fun. So if you take on this high-frequency spin, make sure to keep it fun and easy enough for you. Otherwise, you won't make it. It's an important lesson to avoid burnout.
As for MrBeast: he was certain his Reacts channel would be far bigger than his Gaming channel.
He made this prediction two years ago. It was wrong. It turned out to be the opposite.
Even MrBeast gets content predictions wrong - so if you get something wrong, don't beat yourself up!
Keep on going.
Make it fun and stay consistent.