Why You Should Make Content About Getting Good At Something

Why beginners have the biggest creative advantage.

The number one question I get asked is: what should I post? One of my favorite content pillars is documenting the process of learning something new, or getting better at something.

It’s a concept that links back to a moment in my blog that really helped a lot of people: Document, Don’t Create. The original “Document, Don’t Create” blog post was a wake-up call for people. The idea was, if you want to be seen or heard on social media, you have to put out valuable content on a regular basis. You should be doing a YouTube vlog or podcast or some sort of long-form audio/video series at least once a week. You should be posting on Instagram and/or Snapchat stories at least 6-7 times a day. Most people think they only have one “at-bat”—that they have to create one perfect, polished masterpiece. That hunger for perfection is actually what’s crippling them.

Even I, today, struggle to document and blog. For some people, their life wasn’t as conducive to that as mine was at the time — when I was traveling a lot more, speaking, and being GaryVee more than Gary Vaynerchuk.

One easy way to start “documenting”more is to create content about getting good at something.

During the writing session for this article, I asked the four people sitting around me what skill they are trying to pick up. One is a rapper and creative artist known as Ice WRLD, and he is picking up piano.

We live in a world where a lot of people know there’s incredible upside to posting content on social media — it can change your life. Most people under 20 aspire to it.

It’s starting to change now because people are getting more anti-digital, but I just think consistent daily video, every day— I just know that one in every 10,000 people doing that around cooking, skiing, piano, guitar, ceramics, wine tasting — it’s fucking gonna change your life.

If you’re an unhappy construction worker curious about piano, and you come home at 6:00 PM to film and post one or two pieces of content a day across seven to ten platforms—200 days later, weird shit can happen. I know that because I have the DMs to prove it for the last 15 years.

The Power of Storytelling

What I need everyone to understand with this is that what’s foundational is storytelling. Telling a good story matters. We all have friends and relatives and acquaintances that we know are better at storytelling than someone else. We all have friends that are bad at storytelling and you’re like, “Oh, here we go. Nine minutes of gibberish. We all gotta get through this.”

As we continue to go into an AI world, the people that are better storytellers are gonna win even more.

And it’s not just picking back up the guitar; it’s the why. Maybe you’re picking it up because your great uncle, who taught you, passed away, and you got re-inspired at the funeral. In your 19th post, you edit in a photo of you and your great uncle. Now, all of a sudden, this is content creation. You gotta make the world care.

Don’t front. The number one mistake people make is trying to oversell themselves because they think they need to look like an expert to get attention. It is much smarter to talk to the world about your process than the advice you think you should be giving.

The Death of the Facade

Vulnerability makes content creation easier. I think we’re done with the fucking facade. We want to see the struggle; it makes people more human.

And the topic doesn’t matter. You don’t need to be the pretty or jacked person. Someone saying,“I want to be a good woodworker” might seem boring, but there could be 5 million followers there. It goes deep and it’s really a pyramid, like “I want to be good at cooking” should be thought through the lens of “I want to be good at baking cookies because my grandma used to do it or because my boyfriend likes it or because I watched one clip and was inspired and I want to give the flowers to the content creator who inspired me.”

Or, a writer or a journalist becoming a better songwriter. That’d be really cool to document going from a pure journalist or like writing books for like engineers, to something completely on the other side. If you have a creative bone and you start documenting, the one post is like you buying a master class and you’re just learning, like it’s just a whole journey. From you writing a song that some emerging artist decides to use… if you have that documentation it’s over.

Training Wheels for Every Age

I’m always looking for “training wheels” for content creators. This puts almost everyone in the game, especially the 50 to 90-year-old set. There are so many people that are inherently curious. There’s some people who are always up to something. And some people are really genuinely interesting. I have a Russian uncle who’s really into new gadgets, and it’s deep — he would crush on Facebook.

Parents looking to get closer with their kids

Documenting yourself getting into your kids’ stuff is a huge opportunity. A lawyer mom or dad documenting getting better at Fortnite to play with their son or daughter? Picking up basketball because your child plays basketball? That’s a sweet thing.

Breaking the Plateau

If I sold everything and wanted to be a full-time content creator today, my pillar would probably be me learning how to fly a kite. I’m still baffled by kites. I’ve tried 30 times in my youth; they’re impossible.

Golf could also be big for me. My brother’s been killing me in golf. I think if I documented myself getting better at golf, it would be a massive thing for me. I would pick up tens of thousands of fans. Now, I’m obviously on platforms with millions of followers already. But let’s say you have a million followers and you’ve been literally stale for three years. Well, this is perfect for you because this will open up a whole new audience for you. So you don’t need to create a new handle.

But what if I want to play golf and wine?

While you don’t need to create a new handle, you still can. I have these alternate handles that have garnered millions of views with less of an audience than my main account have. This account youresomebodynowdaily has now built up to 10k followers, but have videos with millions of views across Instagram and TikTok.

Document Document Document

My life is about thinking about the feedback I’m getting from everybody. I used to think it was tactics, 10, 20 years ago — if I just tell you what to do on Facebook and Google, you’ll all win. And you start to realize it’s really about where you’re at.

But this comes from everyone being baffled on how to make the amount of content I’m asking them to make.

From my standpoint getting good at something is one of the easier things to be the pillar that you do your content on.

Why do you want to get better at it? Over communicate it and over document yourself doing new things.

Again, I want to emphasize this… what’s foundational is storytelling. If you’re picking up wine because you have a new relationship and she loves wine, that makes it more interesting. What I think I do well, and what I think is misunderstood, is that the storytelling matters. Telling a good story matters.