George Kao urges viewers to "tithe" 10% of their attention to support small creators (video makers, bloggers, podcasters, Instagrammers with small followings). He defines "small creator" and explains why attention from large influencers matters less to them, then asks viewers to pledge a small portion of daily content time (example: 12 minutes out of 120) to engage with friends who create content. He lists three concrete actions: (1) engage by commenting, liking, and sharing (especially thoughtful comments), (2) occasionally spend money on their products/services (weekly or monthly), and (3) post reviews/recommendations on platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Maps, iTunes, and Amazon. The overall tone is encouraging and practical.
Questions this video answers
Give 10% of daily content-consumption attention to small creators (example: 12 minutes out of 120 minutes per day).
Chapters
Most of us understand how important it is to support small businesses, right? Because without supporting small businesses, all of our money goes to big corporations. And they are, you know, taking away a lot of true livelihood because the small business is really where people get to apply their creativity and to make a determination for their own destiny. So we all understand how important it is to support small businesses and how money shouldn't just float to the hands of a few, because if money went to only a few people, that erodes democracy because the most rich can use their campaign dollars to influence our elections, influence our minds, brainwash us essentially through advertising, et cetera. So we, we all know it's important to support small businesses, but what we often forget is that it's also important to support small creators. Okay, so let me describe what a small creator is. It's probably you. Actually, it is a video maker, a blogger, a podcast maker, someone on Instagram with few followers. Basically, it's anybody who is trying to create content, who's trying to share their passion, some kind of helpful message, or their experience or their art on. On the Internet, who don't have a huge following yet. You probably, you, those of you watching this probably are a small creator. And when I say small creator, I don't mean somehow that you think small or that you are somehow less worthwhile. No, no, what I mean when I say small creator, I mean it's like small business. When we say small business, we don't mean a business that's not less worthwhile. We just mean it's just a business that isn't. Hasn't huge revenues like the corporations do. Okay, so you are a small creator, probably. And you probably know friends who are also small creators. Now, I would consider myself like a small medium creator. I'm not just starting, and I'm not a big influencer yet. So I'm a small, small medium creator. But what I want, this video is really to encourage all of us to tithe 10% of our attention to small creators. Let me explain. Tithing is this idea of giving 10% away to support a good cause. Okay? Tithe literally means 10. So tithing, 10%. Usually people do that like the church. They give 10% to their church or they get 10% to nonprofits that they care about. But what we don't think about that we think about giving our money right to support causes. But what we don't think about is giving our attention. Okay, so I want you to just stay with me for a moment here. You know how you, as a small creator, like, you probably get almost no comments on your YouTube channel. On your YouTube videos, you get very few. You get some comments, but relatively few on your Facebook or on your Twitter or on your LinkedIn post or on your Instagram posts. Compared to the big names like, you know, Marie Forleo or Joe Dispenza or Brene Brown or, you know, Tony Robbins or Gary Vaynerchuk, you know, or Seth Godin, all these big names, whenever they post something, they get tons of comments. And because they get tons of comments, each comment means relatively little for them. It doesn't. It's like a drop in the ocean. Whereas when you make a comment for a small creator who has no comments, for them, it's like finding an oasis in the desert. It's like they've been thirsty for days and they finally find some water that nourishes them for the next few days. That's what your comment does for your fellow small creators. So my encouragement and pleading you to do is to take 10% of your attention and give it to small creators. So here's what I mean. Okay, let's start with our own friends. So do you have any friends that are trying to create content consistently? They're trying to write consistently, or they're trying to make videos consistently, or they're trying to show up on Instagram or on Twitter or on LinkedIn or on a podcast consistently? Well, think of that friend. Maybe you have two or three friends like this. And think about just giving 10% of your content consumption time. Let's say in a regular day, maybe you spend, I don't know, two hours, an hour, at least an hour. Most of us spend an hour at least scrolling through Facebook or get this, watching Netflix, watching YouTube. This is all content consumption time that you're probably giving to big corporations, to influencers that are famous, to the Gary Vaynerchuk of the world, to the Marie Forleos of the world. You're giving all this attention away to them, when to them it doesn't really matter because they already have millions of followers. And your attention and your comment and your like means almost nothing to them. So let's say you spend. Most of us probably spend more like two hours a day if we count Facebook, YouTube, Netflix, you know, if some of us have Hulu, some of us have, you know, other subscription services that we watch, videos, we read, articles, we read, our newsletters. Again, most of our newsletters come from big influencers, not from the small creators. I know some of you are subscribed to small creators. And that's wonderful. So let's say you spend 120 minutes a day, right, Giving your attention away and maybe sometimes making comments or whatever. All I'm asking us to do, make a pledge. I'm making a pledge and I hope you'll make the pledge with me to take 12 of those 120 minutes a day. I'm just asking for 10%, 12 minutes out of your day to go to one of your friends who is a small creator who is trying to work hard to build their online following, to build their presence and put a comment where they have probably no comments or very few comments. And you, you would be one of the only comments that they, that they get that day, maybe that week. Seriously, it makes such a difference for them. Okay, so 10% of your time giving attention to a small creator, maybe two or three small creators. Okay? So that's the pledge that I'm making and I hope you'll make with me. Now let me invite you to go even further a little bit once a week or once every couple weeks, okay? Look at your friends who are small creators and try to spend a little money with them because they are probably creating products or services and very few people buy from them. That's why they're still a small business, a solopreneur. So every couple weeks, just instead of only spending money on the Amazons and on the Netflixes and on all the various Costco's and the Trader Joe's and all the various things that we buy, try to spend a little bit of money on a friend who is a small creator. Yeah, just it is such a life giving thing for them because they're like, oh my God, I worked so hard on creating these products, services and I get one sale this week and that's from you, right? Or I get one sale. Some people are getting a few sales a week, but it still makes such a difference for them. Maybe it's only their one sale a month for that product sometimes. So that's the second action. First action is to engage, to comment, to like, to comment particularly. And if you don't, if you, if you really like the thing, share it forward. And by the way, when you comment, be supportive. Say something that you really liked about what they wrote or what they said. Just like quote something they said. Like, I really liked when you said this. That's all you have to say. It makes such a difference for them. Okay? So engage by commenting and sharing. If you really want to share that thing forward, that's up to you. Second is to try to spend a little bit of money every week or every couple, like once a week if you can. But if not, then once a month, spend a little bit of money with a small creator buying one of their products or one of the services. And then third is to review, give them a review and you can review them on their Facebook page. Okay? If you go to someone's Facebook business page, there's usually a reviews tab. Go there, put a review. Yours will be one of the few reviews they've gotten all month or all year. Okay? Review them on Facebook, go to their LinkedIn profile and add a recommendation for them. Again, this is a friend. You believe in their work, you know their work, you know their character. Give them a LinkedIn recommendation. Yours is probably like one of three LinkedIn recommendations they've ever gotten. So it makes such a difference for them. So Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter is so easy, right? Tweet them. It's like, I want it today. I want to recommend, you know, and, you know, put an tag and put their Twitter handle in there. Just a simple tweet. It takes you, you know, three minutes and can make the whole person's, you know, it can make that person's whole day. So Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, look up, look them up on, get this, go to Google Maps, okay? Bring up Google Maps on your laptop or on your phone, type in their name and see if they have a Google business profile, because that's how you find someone's Google Business profile is the easiest way is to go to Google Maps. You can also try to Google them, but sometimes it doesn't pop up right away unless you put their town also. But Google Maps, put in their name. See if they have a Google profile that you can add a review to. Then you're adding a Google review for them, which again, it's going to be one of few that they've ever gotten and they'll be so grateful to you. So Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google. If they have a podcast, review them on itunes. It makes such a difference for them. If they have a book on Amazon, you'll be one of the few people who review their book, okay? So just know that if we spend just 10% of our daily or weekly content consumption time, gift that to a small creator. Start with your friends. You are really making a difference for people. You are encouraging them, you are helping them to say, you know what? My work is worthwhile and I should keep doing it. Like I said, you are like water in the desert, very small creator. Just your 10 minutes of consumption and reviewing of what they do or if you can spend a little bit of money with them. I hope this is helpful. I'm making the pledge, and I hope that you will also make the pledge. If you have any comments. Well, I'm a. I'm. I'm not. You know, when I say all this, I don't really talking. I'm not talking about me. I'm a small medium creator, so I don't need comments as much as some of your other friends do. So please go and go do that for a friend today. All right? I wish you well. Take care.
