 Here's a trick question. Now that I have 14,000 YouTube subscribers, is it easier or harder for me to upload videos compared to you, assuming you have fewer than 14,000 YouTube subscribers? I think probably most of you, some of you have more and I'd like to know who you are. Please comment below. It's a trick question because it's both easier and harder for me to do it compared to you. Why is that? Well, you could say it's easier for me to do it because I've had practice doing it, but it's harder for me to do it because whenever I upload another YouTube video, it gets seen by at least 100 people, sometimes more, sometimes less, but you know, somewhere around 100 to 150, something like that over time anyway. Some of most, you know, a lot of my videos now get to several hundred or 1,000 views, but it's harder for me to do it because I'm essentially making a fool of myself in front of more people than you or than my previous self. So as you build an audience, as you get more well-known, it becomes paradoxically harder to create and publish because now there's more at stake. More of your reputation is on the line. So you should be grateful honestly if I could tell, if I could talk to myself from five or 10 years ago, I would say please be grateful and take the opportunity that is so precious right now to be creating and publishing as much as you can while you are in relative obscurity. Before you have lots of people in front of you that you'll be making a fool out of yourself in front of. So because up to now, maybe you've been thinking, gosh, every time I upload a video or every time I write an article, just a few people see it. Me and one of my friends and my sister and my supportive classmates or whatever, but that's only for supportive people that you're making a fool or you're testing out material in front of. So let me tell you a quick story. Years ago, I went to a Robin Williams comedy event when he was alive, bless his whole. And you might say, wow, that wasn't an expensive ticket. No, it was actually really, I don't remember it was really cheap or if it was free, but you had to claim the ticket as soon as possible like when it was announced. So I think I was lucky to have heard it on the radio and then claim the ticket right away. And we got in to see Robin Williams live at a really cheap rate. And afterwards I realized why it was so cheap because his jokes were terrible. I mean, I was really surprised because as most of us are, we probably enjoyed Robin Williams movies. He's really funny in his movies. He's made so many of them and lots of fans, probably tens of millions of Robin Williams fans around the world, right? I was one of them. That's why I went to see him because I thought, gosh, what a rare opportunity to see him live. But I was really disappointed at him after that event because most of the jokes were terrible. A lot of the jokes were very, very dirty jokes. And I enjoy a dirty joke every now and then but not if the jokes are terrible also and they're terrible and they're dirty and it's just gross. And so, but later on, I heard that Chris Rock does the same thing. And Richard Pryor when he was live did the same thing. They do these things called work in progress gigs. So they're famous, right? So they could just do a quick brief announcement on local radio, wherever they're gonna be. Quick announcement. Hey, Chris Rock is gonna be in town. You can see him live for $25 or whatever. It's like, really? Wow. Go see a celebrity for, go be one of the 100 or two. In the event I went to with Robin Williams, I think there was something like 250 people in the audience. I remember it wasn't small. It wasn't huge, it wasn't a stadium, but it wasn't small. But probably 250 or so people in the audience. So I'm like, wow, he's telling these terrible jokes in front of all these people, essentially disappointing a lot of us. But if we think about it, 250 people is nothing compared to his usual audience of millions. Every time he puts out a movie, millions of people go see it, went to see it. Same thing with Chris Rock, right? So these are called work in progress gigs where famous comedians go and test out their new and raw material. And I'm sure they have a producer on the side, like noting down which of the jokes got the biggest laughs from the audience. Like, okay, that was a good one, okay, that was a good one. Oh, this one didn't get any laugh and then even some weird heckling from the audience, or whatever, you know? And so this is how they test out material. They have to test it out in front of a small, for them, a small live audience. So this is how a lot of us, kind of professional content creators think in terms of our content as well. This is why I have taught this idea, which you can Google and find, the three stages of content creation. Google it and you'll find my article about that. The three stages of content creation. Where the first stage is where you are testing out new material. You're just putting it out there. You don't spend a whole lot of effort on it, just like Robin Williams didn't spend a whole lot of effort perfecting the jokes that he told that night. He was just trying out new stuff, right? And playing with the audience a little bit and see what worked so that he could take it to the next level for his bigger shows and for his movies, et cetera. Okay, same thing with you. How do you test out new stuff? Do you think that every time you make a blog post or write an upload video, it's supposed to go viral or it's supposed to be shown to a lot of people? I hope not. Because then you're not testing out new stuff. Did you think that every idea that comes out of you is supposed to, just because you think it's brilliant? Do you think that everyone else, even your ideal clients are gonna think it's brilliant? I'm not, well, I didn't used to be this humble, right? I used to think probably like some of you do here. Yes, every time I write a blog post or make a video, it really, I should put it out in front of as many people as possible. That probably not a good idea because you're still, it's a work in progress game. That's why I teach the three stages. Stage one is to test out your new material. Stage two is to notice which of your new material, your blog post, your videos, your podcast episodes, whatever, which of them did well, which of your ideas did well, and meaning it got more of a reaction from your initial audience, take it to stage two. Stage two is where you develop that idea further, make it even better, and then you distribute it out to a lot more people. Maybe with Facebook ads, Instagram ads or any other kind of paid advertising or put it out in your email newsletter, et cetera. And then stage three is where you integrate your best ideas into paid products like books and courses and coaching packages, et cetera. So my question for you today, how do you test out new material? And you might say, George, I didn't even know that was a thing, right? I'm just putting everything out there, thinking that I'm supposed to gather an audience by putting, no, you have to test out your new material. Right? And it's, remember, like I said, you are lucky right now if whenever you post on Facebook or on your blog or on your Instagram or wherever on your YouTube, that whenever you post something, relatively few people see it, that's a good thing while you're practicing testing new material and building confidence in your ability to create. Because by creating, you build confidence and you explore your ideas and there's the, like I said, the natural result of testing it with the market, testing with other people to see if they react to it. And like I said, even Robin Williams, right? A lot of his initial jokes were terrible. Even I saw him a few years before he died. So he was already Uber famous by that point. He was already a really skilled comedian by that point. And still most of his new material was terrible. So what about you? Do you think that most of your new material is gonna be good? Probably not. And I don't expect most of my new material to be good either. It's just, I'm trying this out, okay? If it works, I'll develop it further. So let me tell you now how I am testing my new material. So I noticed that for years, okay, for years I've been on Twitter, okay, Twitter. And for years, I've gotten almost no engagement on Twitter. And some of you who are also on Twitter know what I'm talking about. You probably get very little engagement on Twitter, probably surprisingly little, right? Some of you have hundreds of followers or thousands of followers on Twitter and you still are surprised you get so little engagement. So after a while, I made it, I just, just last month, I realized, wait a second, why am I putting stuff on Twitter and very, very few engagement? Whereas when I put stuff on Instagram, I get a lot more engagement. Instagram gets the most engagement and the most love. It's the most like loving platform, right? If you want to get engagement through Instagram, right? So I made a decision that I would stop treating Twitter as a content distribution platform because it's useless. I shouldn't have tested it for years like that. Now I decided I'm going to use Twitter as a content testing platform. It's a way for me to test if my ideas will work or not in relative obscurity. Like I said, I put this stuff on Twitter, almost nobody engages. And so therefore, the reframing here, I should feel liberated to share more of my raw ideas on Twitter, knowing that probably no one's going to see it, not no one, but relatively few people in my audience are going to see it. So that's what I've done. Now, ironically now, of course, one thing I'm a little bit concerned of is more of you are going to start following my Twitter and then start engaging with me there, which gives me less freedom or less confidence to just put out some random stuff there. So I use Twitter now as potential blog ideas for the future. That's what I've put on there now. And here's the last thing I want to say before we complete this video. It's really important to have a regular practice of creating, of using your idea muscle. Some of you only use your idea muscle once a week when you write that weekly blog post or make that weekly video. And you've, of course, if you only put out one thing a week, you have so much attached, well, I mean, naturally, you have more attachment to that one thing a week because you only have four things a month that you put out there. So of course you have attachment to whether those four things do well, whereas now I've recommitted to a daily act of creating. So every day I'm putting new ideas on my Twitter account as a test for future potential blog posts. I'm just putting stuff. And that daily rhythm of creating and testing ideas keeps me sharp. It keeps my idea muscle good. And with a strong idea muscle, the muscle, the capability of generating ideas, with a strong idea muscle, you have more optimism and confidence and hope. Why? Because when you know, when you realize after trying it out day after day after day, that you can come up with ideas just like that for many different topics, then you realize that you can solve any problem in your life. Any problem in your life, current and future can be solved because you can come up with ideas on the spot or at least every day. So that's what I'm doing now. I'm putting my ideas on Twitter. And the other benefit of putting stuff on Twitter is that there's a timestamp, right? Every single tweet has a date and timestamp. So that way I can't wait to put my new ideas out. I even have a backlog of lots of ideas on my phone that I'm gonna drift out to Twitter gradually because of the timestamp so that in the future, if I develop that blog post further and not like anyone has done this, but if anyone ever says, George, why did you take that idea from me? I'll be like, what are you talking about? I tweeted about this idea, three months ago, nine months ago, a year ago. I already put it out there as a potential idea for me to develop at some time in the future. So the Twitter thing is a nice timestamping device. Not that I mentioned this before too, I don't copyright my content. All of my content is uncopyrighted, which means you or anybody else, you have my permission to take any of my ideas, any of my writings, any of my videos and call them your own. You could take any of my ideas and develop them further and just call them your own and never give me credit. It's just freed me up that way. If you're wondering why I do this, isn't that stupid? Please Google, why I don't protect my writings and you should find my article about that, why I don't protect my writings. But anyway, Long Story Shorts liberated me for a lot more creativity over the years and I'm very happy. I have a great business, I'm very happy. My business has only gone up ever since I uncopyrighted in 2014. Yes, I uncopyrighted my content seven years ago, ever since then, everything's been uncopyrighted. Then my business has only gone up and up and up every single year. And my true audience has also gratefully continued to grow or at least not decrease, continue to grow or at least continue to be fresh every year. So anyway, I hope this is helpful. Again, the action thought, the action for you to take is to find a place, maybe you already do. Maybe it's like, yeah, every time I post on my Facebook business page, nobody sees it. Well, guess what? That is a good thing for now while you are practicing your raw ideas, practice creating and publishing. That feeling of, okay, I'm pressing publish or I'm pressing post is a muscle to practice creating and publishing every single day. It doesn't have to be long. Just be like, okay, this is the idea I wanna share today real briefly for a potential future blog post or video. So I hope this is helpful. I do this on Twitter, you can also do this on Twitter too. Like I said, it has a nice timestamp. So with that, I hope this helps. I look forward to seeing your comments or questions. And in fact, I'm just gonna take a moment right now. Some of you are listening to this as a podcast episode sometime in the future. But you can always, by the way, check out the comments on this episode by looking at the show notes below and checking out the comments underneath the video. Thank you, Gregory Vahanian. And Tamara Hurl for your comments there. I'm only able to see a few comments right now. There's probably more by the time this is published. But anyway, thank you for joining me and I will see you in the next video or episode. My name is George Cao. I love talking about creating an authentic business, which is a business that is based on our meaningful expression of our passion and of our desire to serve and benefit humanity. All right, I'll see you in the next video. Take care.