The Creator Playbook
Nov 27, 2024

The Creator Playbook V1
The creator playbook is an accumulation of everything I've been sitting on over the last two years working with 150 of the biggest creators on YouTube. It serves no great purpose and it will just sit here for anyone who may find something valuable in it. I will up date it on occasion. You are reading V1, which I threw together waiting for my flight.
Many of the creators who leverage our software already know most of this, but there are some golden nuggets laying around as you read deeper.
Start with your avatar
This sounds so basic but so many creators don’t get this down.
Being clear on who you are speaking to and the value your content provides them is going to be like a set of glasses for you to be able to see what the hell is going on. Without it you can make it work by squinting and getting closer to the page, but it won't be as easy.
Who is it that you are targeting with your content?
What do they want?
What value does your piece of content provide them?
You need to be clear on what the purpose of every piece of content you make is. What are you building towards? What value does your viewer get from watching it?
Now that you have your guiding principles for the content you are making it is time to establish what your goals are with your content.
oooo badddd, we are trying to get something out of this. Yes we are.
Are you simply trying to get AdSense? (Lowest opportunity optimization)
Are you trying to get brand deals?
Are you trying to convert people into your service or course?
Are you trying to get them to buy stuff through an affiliate link?
Are you really just doing this for fun and don’t even care if you ever make a dollar?
What is the purpose of what you are doing?
You need this in order to establish what your “Stack” will be as a creator.
Again, I know many of you already know this or have this set up, but sometimes a reminder can bring clarity.
What is your “Stack”
[Nugget] I was yet to see any other creator talk about this until I saw @kallaway on youtube. We have no affiliation with him, but I just thought it was cool to see someone else bringing this topic up, and I see him providing consistent value to newer creators. He will be a good resource for any of the gaps between being a complete beginner and operating a full team.
Once you have your guiding principle of who your avatar is and what you want out of being a creator we can move into what the best set of platforms will be for this.
We have a few mediums to choose from
Long form
Short form
Newsletter
Photo posting
They all serve their purpose but the way you interconnect them is what matters.
If you are not providing access to information you don’t need a newsletter
Newsletters are used to continuously hit on the point that you provide value and will 1. Build your authority 2. Give people the proof they need to be primed to pull the trigger if you ever make a clear CTA.
[Example] If I had a newsletter send me weekly action items that were guaranteed to boost my channels performance I would love that - Subscribe to that here ;)
I think having CTAs in your newsletter is a big risk.
The email inbox is a privilege, and you want to respect that you are there…
Value is the only thing that has a place in the email inbox if you are not doing Cold Email, because otherwise people will ultimately unsub or block you ruining your reputation.
“But if that's the case then how do I get people to take action?”
You should have it well known what it is that you do and link a way to access it. The value you provide for free is proof that the paid stuff is gold. People will go out of their way to find this gold if they are aware you provide it and do have an easy way to access it. It’s just the CTA that triggers sales resistance.
Read about how you can maximize your Newsletter privileges (Open this in a new tab to save for later)
^Link to another newsletter here.
The goal is to strategically leverage each medium
Short form videos are used to grab peoples attention and continuously reinforce your brands identity
Long form is used to provide mass value which then funnels people into your preferred… well funnel. Including your newsletter - But again newsletters are a privilege and only intended for value. Mozi Money Minute is a great example of this.
Newsletters are used to have an exclusive way to provide value to your audience. This is one of the most exclusive. Makes me think if we will ever see the introduction of newsletters sent as SMS directly to phone numbers.
Packaging goes over everything else
Ok, now that we established where you are posting and why we can actually move into creating it.
The first thing we need to establish is effective packaging.
No matter how good your content is you are missing out on your true potential if you do not get this one singular thing dialed in.
You must set the proper expectations for your audience and deliver on your promise
Thumbnail
You must be able to visually understand exactly what the video is about. With ZERO text. Any text added must be extremely strategic and also visually appealing.
Text in a thumbnail is the lazy way of getting your point across. It works, but is not optimal.
Why is it lazy? Because it requires creativity to effectively create visuals that express your video.
Read about sourcing and effectively leveraging a thumbnail designer
Title
The title should reinforce the thumbnail. Not the other way around.
The majority of people will look at your thumbnail before ever looking at your title.
All you need to do is tie the thumbnails concept in with the title so that it provides reinforcement to the feeling the thumbnail provides.
Read a detailed guide about the psychology of titles and tying them into thumbnail concepts.
The First 5…
The first five seconds of your video should immediately confirm the feeling felt from the thumbnail and title.
This is essentially your first way of delivering on your promise.
The first five should also provide context of what the desired outcome of the video is.
This means people should feel like they are going to get the desired outcome that made them click the video in the first place.
Read a detailed guide on how to effectively tie the big three together.
Batch Everything
Rather than trying to think of your content creation as segmented videos, think of your entire stack in time frames. And even specific campaigns that have a clear purpose.
Batching allows you to strategically plan out how one piece of content ties in with another.
You want to be able to clearly articulate how one piece of content ties into another and how they all tie into the overall purpose of why you make content.
Imagine every single thing you create as an interconnected network that serves a specific purpose. One piece of content connects to that one, and that one connects back to another, etc.
Again, all with the purpose of providing value.
To effectively batch we first need to segment the different aspects of creating content and understand what the creative process looks like
Strategy Batching
Content purpose (Who are you targeting and what is your desired outcome)
What is the specific purpose of the content you are posting
You should have this predefined from what we have laid out above.
This is something that should not change a whole lot, but is something you want to reassess on occasion.
You want to make sure what you originally went in to accomplish is still valid. If it is then keep creating content with the purpose you defined.
Content Ecosystem Strategy (How one piece of content is connected to another)
This will also tie into content ideas
This is how you plan to structure the architecture of your content network and how everything ties together.
Time -
Block out 2 hours weekly to review how your current network is connected and make any necessary changes.
When coming up with content ideas, think of how they tie into the larger purpose of your value network.
Learn about how to tie together your content network.
Deliverable Work Batching
Content ideas
These are general topics about the different types of value you can provide to people.
This topic is more dynamic than you think as you scale, because everything is interconnected to your content network.
Learn about creating content ideas that tie into your value network
Time -
Random, as they come up throughout the day.
1 hour blocked out per day to focus on producing them.
Thumbnail and title combos
You want to start by gathering a list of general content concepts you could create a video around and then think about how you will package it.
You want to block out entire day over the week to focus on creating thumbnail and title combos
You will have to figure out what allows you to create enough combos to keep up with your content ecosystem schedule. So the number of days per week will fluctuate.
Research/Outline/Scripting
Now that you have a list of value you can add, and a list of ways you can express it in the thumbnail and title, you can now move into laying out how the video will connect with the thumbnail and title.
Again, you want the first 5 seconds of the video to confirm what the person went in expecting.
Time -
Take out entire days to focus on this.
The number of days will differ depending on how much content you are producing, content complexity, how fast you are, etc.
Recording B-Roll (Version 1)
Depending on the type of content you produce you can record all of your B-Roll for the month in one go.
Pick one day during the month that you will record all of the B-Roll for your next month's content ecosystem.
Filming the content
You want to “set up” as few times as possible. Filming requires a specific state of mind for many creators and if you can stay in your flow and knock out multiple videos at once this is going to be monumental in your growth.
During your production days you will strictly focus on
Filming the content
Organizing your files
Beginning the process of sharing them with your video editor
Time -
You want to pick entire days to focus on this.