TJ Walker argues that experts should prefer creating video over writing books because video is easier to get in front of people, faces less competition, and can be more profitable and faster to produce. He supports this with a personal Udemy anecdote (10,000 books vs. 3 courses on storytelling; his course reached #1 within a month) and ends with a direct call to action to start recording.
Chapters
If you want to be more successful, then improve your communication skills. The best way to do that, smash the subscribe button right now. So you've got a great idea, you want to help people. You have a message you want to share with the world. Should you start by writing a book or making a video? Now, first blush, it seems easier to write a book you've been typing your whole life, right? Well, it's not just about what's easy for you. It's about what's easy to get in in front of people. That's why I like video. It's just easier in the modern world to get video in front of people for a couple of reasons. Human beings like watching video more than they like reading. Now yes, I understand some of you like reading, but it's easier to attract people to watch video. Ask yourself this, how many novels do you read per year versus how many movies a year do you watch on Netflix? Chances are you watch more movies or sitcoms or entertainment in video format than you are reading novels. Doesn't mean you're a bad person. It's just the way a lot of human beings are wired. Now the other reason I love for experts, for gurus, for thought leaders to share their content with video is the tail seat secret. It's easier if you're lazy like I am. It's so much easier to compete in a video format. Let me tell you a story. A few years ago I was thinking, you know what, I know a lot about storytelling. Let me write a book on storytelling. So I went to Amazon and I typed in storytelling and there were 10,000 books on storytelling. A lot of them were really good. And everything on the top page, first page had four and a half star ratings, thousands of reviews and okay, that means there's a marketplace for this. It's gonna be a lot of work. What do I do if I really want to share that expertise? I then went to the Amazon of online courses platform called Udemy, which which then five years ago and now is the most popular platform for online video based courses. I typed in storytelling and you know what? 10,000 courses did not pop up. Instead only three courses popped up. So I asked myself, where would I rather compete? Would I like to compete against 10,000 people? Maybe write a great book for a year, rewrite it, find a publisher, self publish, hire editors and graphic arts people? Do I want to do all that and maybe, just maybe crack the second page of Amazon and get better than 9989 books and maybe make $5, maybe make nothing When I've added up all my expenses, do I want to do that, compete against these 10,000 booksellers, or do I want to compete against three online course creators on the topic of storytelling on this Udemy platform and make the course in a day or two and get it up by the end of the week and start making money by the end of the week? What would I rather do? I'm going to take the easy way out. I made the video, I talked expertise. You know, I didn't even do any editing. I hit record, I shared my expertise. Didn't script it out. I just worked from a simple outline, and I hit stop. And I uploaded those videos and I hit publish. Did a little promotion, and the course went to number one within a month. And it continues to sell and sell and sell these days. And I'm pretty sure it's been more profitable than 99.9% of all the books ever published on storytelling. Now, are my ideas that much better than all these books on storytelling? I think I have good ideas, but truthfully, I don't think I have that many better ideas than what's in all those books. What I had going for me was I decided to compete in a different arena where there was less competition. Only three people at the time made courses in a video format on storytelling. 10,000 people had written books. That's why I like video. It's because so many people who are knowledgeable, smart, educated, talented opt out. They say, oh, I don't have a face for video. I don't like my voice. It's technically, it's too hard. They come up with all these excuses, and that just means more opportunity for me. It means more opportunity for you. That's why I'm urging you. If you have a particular type of expertise, you help people. It's how to information. Whether it's teaching them how to cook the perfect roast, whether it's teaching them how to tie knots, whether it's teaching them how to pass a CPA exam, whatever it is, I urge you, be lazy. Don't compete in the arena that already has the most competition, which typically is the realm of books. I'm not saying don't write books. Look, I write books. I've written, you know, several books here. I don't want to sound like you shouldn't write any books. I do want you to think primarily about how you can reach people now, easily, faster than a book. Less competition, where, number one, you can help more people by reaching them. Number two, if you're trying to make money, whether for yourself or charity or your family, it's easier to do that. I'm not guaranteeing you're going to get rich making a video about your area of expertise, but it's a lot easier than writing a book. So hit the record button today to share your expertise with the world.
