Jason Levin suggests making content for a younger version of yourself. He wrote about digital apprenticeships in 2021, which led to hiring someone who became a close friend. Most posts won't go viral, he says, using baseball's .300 average as a metaphor for accepting that reality.
The number one question I get asked: What should I make content about? I've grown my Twitter to almost 20,000 followers and have ghostwritten for dozens of clients. Here's my answer: Make content for a younger version of yourself. I'm 25, so with my content, I try to talk to a 16-year-old version of myself that was trying to win on social media but didn't know what to do. I had no idea how to make money online, build an audience, or get responses from entrepreneurs so I make content now showing all the younger versions of me out there how to do it. There are millions of younger versions of you out there on the internet who will love your content and need a guide to show them the way. Think about what questions you had when you were 16, 17, 18, and what you've learned since then. You don't have to be an expert, you just have to be a few steps ahead of them. Let me give you an example. Back in 2021, I wrote a blog called Digital Apprenticeships about how I started working and apprenticing for different creators on the internet. The goal was to show younger people that you could find people with your dream job online and go work for them if you play your cards right. You don't need a college degree or take a bunch of marketing classes when you could just DM somebody and work for them. So I posted the article and then forgot about it for a few weeks. But then I got a message on Twitter from a young college kid saying he read the post and wanted to grab lunch because it helped him a lot. I thought, alright, that's cool, no big deal. We got burritos, you know, we became friends, that's about it. But then a few weeks go by and another college kid hits me up and says the post helped him and he wanted me to be a guest on his podcast. Alright, 2 people hit me up from this post, that's cool. I went on the podcast, it was fun, we became friends. Alright, 2 people hit me up from the post, that's cool, nothing crazy. But then a 3rd person messages me saying they want an apprentice for me. So I hired them to write on some of my ghostwriting projects. We've now been friends for almost 2 years and he's coming to my wedding. Insane, right? All because I made content for a younger version of myself. When you make content for a younger version of yourself, you turn it into a magnet for all the millions of younger yous out there on the internet. Here's some examples of tweets where I thought, you know what, a younger version of me would love this.
Note to self, not every post is gonna be a banger. The best baseball players hit.300. Keep publishing. Trust the process.
The younger version of me was so worried about my post analytics that I forgot what was most important: having fun and playing for the long term. That's why in this tweet I explained to myself, really just a younger version of me, that not every post is going to be a banger. You're not always going to go viral. Remember, the best baseball players only get hits 3 out of 10 times. Over the weekend, I tweeted about Israel because of the war that's going on. If you couldn't tell by my last name and nose, I'm Jewish. And my tweets about Israel got some hate comments underneath, and I lost a couple dozen followers. But I was happy I did it. It brought me some peace.
I've been losing followers and finding peace, but honestly, that sounds like a fair trade to me.
I knew not everyone was going to agree, and I knew with this tweet specifically that not everyone was going to get the Drake reference, but I knew there were younger versions of me out there who would love it. I was right. I got a bunch of comments on the tweet, everybody appreciated it, and they agreed I was doing the right thing. Here's another post that was meant for a younger version of myself.
Keep digging, thinking of content ideas. That one good idea after 9 bad ideas.
My peers and the people ahead of me in the creator game probably didn't find this too helpful, but that's not who this was for. This was for people who are younger than me who are struggling and need to keep digging and finding more ideas to find success. Don't worry about impressing the people so far ahead of you, just focus on helping people a few steps behind you. That'll impress the people ahead of you. Whoever you are, no matter if you're 60 or 25, there are younger versions of you out there on the internet who would love to learn from your wisdom. So I hope you go out and make some cool shit, and remember, make content for a younger version of you.
