Any Gary Vaynerchuck fan has heard him state this over and over again. Document instead of Create. But what does it really mean and why is it so important to understand, especially when you are still early in your career?
My first experience with promoting myself on YouTube was early on in my kitesurfing career. This is about 12-13 years ago.
I was building up my personal brand to become more interesting for sponsors.
I understood from a young age that the only thing you should focus on is positioning. The power of positioning is so underrated and understudied by most entrepreneurs.
Knowing how to position yourself in the market or around the right people, is what's going to influence the outcome of your life.
If you understand this, you can become whoever you want to become. It's all about your mindset and your positioning.
I had my own website, my own platform and I used YouTube as a hosting provider for all my video content. I didn't know that you could subscribe to someone and actually follow a person. Just like they are their own show on a TV Network.
YouTubers are individual TV Stations. If they manage to gather enough attention, they can make money (not directly from YouTube but I'll write more about that on another blog, and you don't need a lot of followers).
A few years later I quitted my life as a kitesurfer and started playing online poker. I valued anonymity. Living in a country like Brazil, in a poor area, I didn't want people to know who I was and how much money I made compared to them. I was afraid of social media. I was afraid of people getting to know me.
I deleted all my friends who I had on FB that I didn't know on a personal level and befriended me because of kitesurfing.
I wanted fewer friends, not more.
When I discovered Veganism in April 2016 I found a new passion. So many world problems and so many ideas I've got to make the world a better place. I became an Activist. I went on the streets, doing interviews with strangers and knew I had to find a way to promote them.
That's when Social Media really became on my radar.
I promoted them through YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. I started to look into marketing my content. Just like kitesurfing, you are nothing until you are something. You will not be something if you don't promote yourself and connect with the communities you want to be something in.
I was documenting my process of becoming a better activist and I created videos as a form of entertainment for vegans and people who are interested in this topic (itsnotsalad.com).
After one year I accumulated, organically, 336 people.
In November I discovered Entrepreneurship and what it actually is.
It took me 6 months, after discovering veganism, to know that I wanted to become an Entrepreneur.
Activists raise awareness. Entrepreneurs create solutions.
I started my new Channel, The Vegan Entrepreneur.
Documenting and vlogging my journey of building up my businesses.
I don't care about the viewer. I care about the documentation.
People don't care about something until it's really successful. That's why you pay $10.000 for a Tony Robbins event and almost nothing for a digital packed package (course) from a guy you met in a FB Group. Even though the guy from the FB group might be more advanced about that specific topic then Tony Robbins would be. Tony is a brand. He's got trust.
Now, what if...
Imagine the documentation of Tony Robbins. Starting with him giving his last money to this kid who cared for his mom when walking through the door in a fast food restaurant.
Tony walking out of the door, talking about his feelings, his fears and the journey he's about to go on. A lot of people would want to watch that, today.
However, when he started out, nobody cared about him.
Nobody was interested in what he was doing at that point in time.
In time, his name got bigger. His reputation got stronger and his service fees went up.
If he would have documented this. More people will be able to discover him.
It becomes a lead generator on automation.
The more work you put in, the more results you'll get.
That's the value of documentation.
It becomes valuable when you become valuable.
After 3 months I currently have 27 people subscribed to my channel.
2 of them are clients of mine. 2 of them I got to work with and they help me shape and color my business with awesome graphics.
All of them came through discovering me in some way or form on social media.
It's not about the numbers. It's about having the right people following you.
Documenting takes years before it pays off (before people start looking for you instead of you looking for them).
Creating something goes faster.
Creating something means that you create service or a product that brings value to your customers.
If you are selling vegan apparel, it's not about your apparel.
It's about creating content that people would like to see.
People that are interested in your apparel.
This could be a funny meme, a video about an animal foundation that did something meaningful, or the latest news about the winning burger in the United States that is a 100% plant-based burger.
When creating something, create value for your customers.
The goal is to attract their attention.
And the result is an increase in happy customers and sales.
We all know how to create something. We just have a hard time figuring out 'what' we should create.
I started experimenting with this about three weeks ago, through a software platform called BuilderAll (https://goo.gl/9DtSyD).
They are the best and most special SaaS company that I've come across right now. They created a business in a box.
All internet marketing tools for only $1 a day.
This company is awesome and if they continue on this mission, they might take over the internet world like WordPress or Wix did earlier.
Every single user in this platform is an Entrepreneur or does something with the internet, with the intention to be successful.
These are my customers. These are the people I, as a Brand & Content Strategist, want to work with.
So I created a short course on how you could work best with the BuilderAll software. This drove over 300 people to my channel within 2 weeks without any Ad costs.
The BuilderAll platform has so many tools that I will have a lot of content to make and 'serve' that community. Every time I learn something new, I can teach and share it with my community.
At the same time, on the same channel, in the same community, I make daily video's about marketing, brand and content strategies. I teach for free what I get paid to teach for to people in private.
Just like documenting, the longer I will do this, the more it will compound and the quicker my business will grow.
So what did I learn from this?
When you are 'creating' media, you have to know the people you are serving. Be extremely involved in that community and help them grow through your knowledge.
Your numbers will grow if you can create fans instead of viewers. Mouth to mouth is still the best strategy today.
When you start documenting, don't focus on numbers.
It's only valuable when it is valuable. When you did something of meaning to a big enough group of people.
Expect that nobody wants to watch you. It's why they say that being an entrepreneur is the loneliest job in the world. You have to believe in something months, years and something even longer before you get other people to tap into your vision and be curious enough to follow you along.
The only mistake you can make today is not to participate in either documenting or creating content on a daily basis for your community.