20 minutes of my best advice for creating consistently & authentically

Hi everybody. So here in one video, I'm going to try to give you my top advice about content creation. And just for some context, I've been consistently creating content since 2014, and by this point I have recorded over 2,000 videos on my YouTube channel. I have written hundreds of blog posts, about 300 of which are on my website. I have self published five books and I have taught dozens of online courses. Currently about 24 of them, exactly 24 of them are for sale on my website. So I've created a lot of content and I've had to learn how to make shifts of mind and way of working over the years so that I can continue being sustainable and joyful when making content. So here are the top pieces of advice for content creation at this point in my journey. So number one is the three stages of content creation. Some of you have probably heard me talk about this, but I'll kind of address it briefly because it's, it's really important. This is core to how I think about creating content in a, in a, in a successful way and a sustainable way. So number one, stage number one is whenever you create content, no matter how short of a time or how long of a time you spent on it, the first time that piece of content touches another human being outside of your own head. I call that stage one content. Again, I don't. Doesn't matter if you spend a lot of work on this. Some people say, well, George, this is more like a stage two piece of content. I said, no, no, no, it's not how much effort you put into something that calls it stage one or stage two. It's simply the first time it touches another human being. I don't know if you've noticed this. I have. In my own journey, sometimes I just, you know, record some, Something random, seems to me random on a video or I quickly type up an idea that came to me or an experience that came to me and people love it. People find it so helpful. And other times, many times I, you know, trust me on this. I have spent a lot of effort creating a blog post or making a video. I put it out there and people don't get it. So it's not about the amount of effort you got me. It's not about how refined something is. It's about whether it's the first time that whatever you put, whatever you created has touched another human being outside your head. That is stage one content. Got it. Stage two, therefore, is to then take a look at the stage one content you've made recently. And then choose your best, let's say best one of four or best one of three. Let's say you, you made six pieces of content this past month, will choose the best two of them. Best one or two of them. And by best, I mean what other human beings thought was entertaining, uplifting, educational, impactful for them. Okay, choose what the audiences has liked the most from your stage one and then you could take it to stage two. What do you do in stage two? First of all, you made the choice of what was best in the last month or in the last week, depending on how much content you create. Maybe you create every single day, you publish every single day. Then once a week you look back and go past week, what were the best two out of seven, two out of six. One out of six, something like that. Ones that were dramatically more likes. Right. Compared to your average. Even if your average is like zero. Let's say you post things out there, typically get zero, but this one got two likes. Two is greater than zero, isn't it? Yes. So that would be considered better than zero. If you typically get 20, then this one got 30 likes or 40 likes and obviously that one is considered one of the best. So stage two is to select one of your best stage one pieces and then what do you do? You lightly improve it and then you reshare it again. Try to wait, you know. Well, first of all, you write it down. You write down this is one of my best, here's the link for it. And then three months later, three months or, or more later, you reshare that piece of best content. So therefore you start having this rhythm of not only experimenting and creating new stage one content, but occasionally in your written, your content mix, you also put in one of the best from at least three months ago. Make sense? That's the second stage. And then the third stage is to categorize the best of your stage, the best of your content, your stage two content, put it into topical categories now and then make each category into a product. This is what my books are. If you notice, once you buy my books, you'll notice, oh, these are all on George's blog. Except I would have to dig through and figure out which where to find these chapters. But these chapters, these are all George's blog posts, just curated based on topic and put them into a book. Or you put your best videos into a playlist or into even a low cost product. So stage three is to categorize and productize. So that's three stages of content. I'll put links Below this video to explore more on these ideas if you want to. That's one of my top frames of mind when I'm creating content. That's one of the things my clients have most appreciated about my content teachings is this three stages of content. I really hope you will consider it and consider how you can implement this too. All right, next piece of advice is to create lightly. Create lightly. This I cannot tell you how important, ironically, how important it is to create lightly. This is why I'm still creating more than 10 years later on every sustainable basis. Whereas a lot of people who started, you know, I started business in 2009 and I had a bunch of peers start with me around that time. And many of them are no longer in business now. Not because they, they weren't successful. Some of them were, did reach some success, but they burned out. I mean, some of you may have been following me since many years ago and you noticed some of the people you followed in the early years when you followed me, they're no longer around. Why? Because I think the key reason is that they never learned to create lightly. And this is something that I have learned myself. After the first couple years, I was, you know, kind of burned out because, you know, work really hard, intensively, and then bur out and then work hard. And then now I realize, oh, if I want to be sustainable for another 15, 30 years, I must create lightly. So every time I show up to create, I don't attach a heavy sense of expectation to the result of that creation. Like, for example, this video. Well, gosh, you know, the, the title of the video may sound amazing. Oh, the top pieces of advice. But still, what I'm doing here is I'm recording is I'm recording it lightly. I'm not placing a lot of burden on requirement on this piece of content to do really well. I'm just doing what I can in the lightest way possible, knowing that, gosh, if the ideas and if my energy is, is going to be resonant with somebody, then they will, they will share it, they will like it if, you know, only if it's resonant, but if it's not, then I move on to the next thing and experiment with the next thing. So creating lightly, it's my mantra. Whether I'm making content or making courses or writing an email or newsletter or what, I'm always creating lightly. That's key. Next one is related, which is it's sort of the other side of the coin, which is I am strict about showing up, but I'm Lenient about the results. I've already said that I'm lenient about the results, creating lightly, but I'm strict about showing up. What I mean by that is I plan a regular rhythm of showing up to create content, to, to launch courses, to improve my group programs to da da, da da. I have a, I just, I have a calendar that I follow. And of course, I'm often adjusting that calendar to make it even more efficient and even more strategic. But I don't show up in a given day, look at my calendar and says, oh, it's too much work today, or, or it's I'm too stressed out today or I'm not creative enough, or whatever other excuses I make. No, if I've planned the calendar for that day, I follow that calendar. Now, I'm not saying this, this. I never change anything during a given day. Sometimes I do, but generally I don't anymore. Whereas I found myself making excuses many, many times in the past where I'm like, well, I'm not really creative, that creative today, so I'll skip this. And then I don't get around to it for longer than I expected. So I know that about myself and maybe you know that about yourself too. So I make it a rule to be strict about showing up, show up for whatever I planned for today. But I'm lenient about the results for any hour of work. I, I work lightly. If it's the end of the hour and I, I plan to publish something, I'll publish it, I'll post it without attaching myself to whatever, let it be after this hour is done. I plan for an hour. I let it go. Lenient about the results and then gentle about refocusing during the hour. I might be distracted, say, oh gosh, maybe I'll check my email. Now, I know that I'm probably avoiding the work. I'm probably avoiding the playful wrestle of the work itself. So I'm like, gentle about refocusing. Okay, now come back. Come back to this. Refocus. Refocus. So be strict about showing up, lenient about the results, and gentle about refocusing. Next one. Creativity. Fitness. This is one of my mantras as well. And whenever I create content, I look at the entire thing as kind of like I'm exercising when I'm, you know, having a walk or when I'm doing particular workouts. That's exercising my muscles. I'm not training for the Olympics or I'm not training to show off my body. No, I'm doing it for my Health. And it needs to be done sustainable. It needs to be done consistently. It can't just be whenever I feel like it. Same thing with content creation. I show up even if I don't feel like it, because I know that if I'm consistent with it, I stay fit. I stay fit mentally and I stay fit in terms of my knowledge about my field. I feel like every time I create, I also, I stay fit about exploring myself even more. Okay, so I'm exploring myself, but I'm also getting, staying in touch with the knowledge in my industry and getting smarter, hopefully by creating content and, you know, doing some research and putting it together and all that and then, you know, sharing my thoughts. Creativity, fitness. That's really why I, I create. That's, that's one of the top reasons. Next one, when I do show up to create, I don't think about judgment. Judgmental people. This is. Maybe some of you don't even realize that you may have some judgmental authority figure in your head that has, that has integrated itself into yourself, into your inner critic. So your inner critic is very strong about. That's not a good enough idea. Who's going to find that useful? No, everyone's already talked about this. Well, who are you to also talk about it? You don't need to talk. All these judgments you might make of yourself. I'm not creative enough. Whatever judgments that I've often made of myself is because I notice if I change who I am creating for in my mind, who is the audience I think about caring, creating for one caring person. So I imagine my mind the most ideal reader, the most ideal viewer, maybe one of my ideal clients who just about everything that I share with them from the heart, they, they, they feel so meaningful that they really, really am grateful for it. That's the person that I'm recording this video for. That's the person that I write my email, my blog posts for and my email newsletters for that one caring and really open and ideal client. And so with that one person, I'm really joyful to be here with you because I'm super grateful for your acceptance and your openness to whatever I'm sharing that might be positively transformational for you. So create for you when you create, think about that one caring person. Next piece of advice, make all the mistakes now while your audience is small. Let's, let's think about this here. Is your audience going to be bigger now or in three years, five years? Well, I hope you agree with me that your audience is probably going to be Much bigger in three to five years, especially if you keep consistently creating and showing up and doing the three stages of content and everything I've said, your audience is going to be much bigger now. So would you rather be making mistakes and be embarrassed to make mistakes when you have a big audience, or would you rather practice and get over that embarrassment now? Well, the answer is clear right now. I, I'm grateful I have a decent sized audience, about 20 as of this recording, about 20, 000 YouTube subscribers and you know, 10,000 Instagram f. Whatever. But I think in a couple years it's going to be bigger still. So I'd rather if I'm. Whatever imperfections that I have, which we all have and for the rest of our lives we will have imperfections, but whatever imperfections that I can get out now and practice and, and become stronger and wiser now and make the mistakes in order to learn, I would rather do that now. So that's why I said I don't mind experimenting and practicing and trying out different things now and sometimes failing a lot, but knowing that my future audience is going to be bigger and I will be, I'll be wiser and, and more impactful at that point, hopefully after all this practice. Next. I, I mentioned earlier that creativity fitness is one of the key reasons I create. Well, sometimes I call the creativity fitness, public journaling, the process of public journaling. Because what I'm doing is I'm exploring my thoughts, my true self, my experiences, what I find useful, what clients have found useful. I'm journaling that, except I'm doing it publicly because I'm practicing my authentic voice, speaking voice, but also writing voice and you know, artistic voice or whatever. I'm publicly journaling and practicing my authentic creativity in, in the public. The other reason that I create. So there's inner exploration, public journaling, creative, creative creativity fitness. It's really for me on the one hand is why I create, on the other hand, why create is content as ministry. Content as ministry. I'm creating for that one caring person. I'm creating because my public journaling, my intention is that, well, I could be privately journaling, obviously, but I journal publicly because this may be of benefit to somebody else. Not just somebody else, that one ideal viewer, that one ideal reader, one ideal viewer. This may really benefit them. So that's why I'm doing this. On the one hand, inner exploration, creativity, fitness, public journaling and on the other hand, content as ministry, service to other and combined is why really I, I create. All right, so the last Piece of top advice I'll share with you here is, I don't know about you, but when I grew up, people always said you've got to make a great first impression. Have you ever given, given that advice and has that sunk into you such that you are making sure, gosh, by the time I post this piece of thing, it better be really good. It better not embarrass me or by the time I publish my website, by the time I this service package or this course or whatever, it better be really good. So I think that is the trap of trying to be instantly impressive with a person who doesn't know you yet. Because you know, you know, when you post things out there, people who don't know you yet are going to see it. Probably especially on social media, your current friends and fans will see it too. And no matter what, you want to make a great first impression about this thing that you're putting out there or for the people who don't know you, a great first impression because they're seeing you for the first time, Right? I've let that go a long time ago because I realized whenever I was nervous about making a good first impression, I would become inauthentic, I would become performative. I couldn't create for that one caring person because it's the make a great first impression. Sounds like I'm making it for someone who's got their arms folded. This is prove to me that you're worth my attention. And I let that go and I said, I can't. It's not sustainable. If I'm, if I'm, if I'm, if I have that fixed mindset of what identity, the great polished identity I need to have in front of someone who's just getting to know me. So I said, well, instead of instant impressiveness, what's the alternative? I said, okay, I'm going to take on the mindset of consistently authentic. So instead of first impression, I said, no, I'm going to be consistently authentic. I'm going to show up as I am today, the best of I am today. And you're always the best of you are of who you are today. If you have the intention of genuine exploration and service, you say, no, I'm, I'm here. I'm genuine about doing what I can to explore myself and to serve the one caring person or the one true fan, then you're authentic. And if you show up consistently with that intention, with that sincerity, then you're consistently authentic. And guess what? The person who, the first time they they heard about you or saw you, they weren't impressed. This has happened to me several times, by the way, I should tell you. I've had, I've heard from many people over the years. I've been creating since 2014. I've heard from many people over the years that the first time they came across me, they, they didn't follow me, they didn't think much of it. It wasn't until like the third or fourth person who told them, no, no, you got to check out George Kao's stuff that they said, all right, I'm gonna go and check it out again, maybe for the third or fourth time. And that's when they really saw the benefit that my content could have for them and they started following me and they started commenting and they started, you know, becoming a true fan. Third, fourth, sometimes fifth attempt of checking me out. So that's me being consistently authentic. I'm not going to worry if you don't aren't impressed the first time. I'll let you hear about me. You trust me, you're going to hear about me. If you're meant to follow my content and be part of my audience, I trust that you're going to hear about me from friends, from colleagues over the years or, or just the algorithm, I guess. I, I really, I believe in destiny, right? I believe that if we're, if we consistently, consistently show up and express our energy signature, our soul mate audience, I have this fantastical idea, you know, you could borrow this, you could use this myth if it's useful to you, that before we came to Earth, we connected, we had our soul group said, hey, let's go to Earth. And if you, we're going to let you practice expressing your energy signature because, you know, apparently part of your purpose is to be a content creator. That's why you're watching this video and as you keep expressing it, you're going to res, you're going to resonate with, with us. But the more that you show up consistently and authentically, and therefore a stronger being more in touch with your energy signature, the more we're going to hear you, the more we're going to discover you. And the social media algorithm will help with that. Because the algorithms, what, what are they doing? They are showing you more of what resonates with you. And so if, if what you're sharing is going to be resonant with a true fan, by definition it will. Your future true fans are many. They will discover you through the algorithm over the years. If you just keep showing up authentically. So there's my top advice as of now. Anyway. I perhaps we'll make another one of these in a year or five, but I really hope this is helpful. I hope you'll let me know below which of these pieces of advice particularly resonated with you and that you'll aim to integrate and implement. Thank you so much for joining me for this. I really appreciate your your viewership and your kindness. Thank you so much.