In December this year, It’ll be 5 years since I started creating content.

• 200+ videos

• over 7000 Tweets

later, and I’m still just beginning to scratch the surface of what’s to learn.

Why am I telling you all this?

Because I’ve learned a lot over those years.

And I wanna use that to help you:

Create content people love

In December 2018 I started making videos.

The only apps I used were

• YouTube

• a shitty recording App

• the mobile games I’d record

There was no music, editing - and for a bit, not even commentary.

By definition - this was terrible content.

And when my friends found it, they said exactly that.

It hurt…but, it helped too.

Because they gave me the gift of FEEDBACK!

I got a lot of feedback over the years (most of it was negative)

But I just kept using it - what else is there to do?

If you avoid feedback, it’s just gonna make you stuck on your level.

No, I knew I had parts to improve. So I kept using the feedback I got.

And every time a new video released - the point they criticized would be a bit less bad or sometimes completely gone!

Now, I didn’t realize this while that happened - but I was steadily learning and improving from their feedback.

Every time I applied it, I got just that little bit better.

Oftentimes I made a mistake so many times that I finally removed it.

And while it’s unnoticeable on your journey - looking back, you grow a lot.

So,

Lesson 1: Adjusting to Feedback is the best way to create what your audience wants.

Now that wasn’t even the beginning of my video-making journey.

Because, in 2020, I dropped the whole gaming thing and started making my own skits and movies.

I also started my favorite project ever - a series with my friends.

I cut out their and my photos/videos and edited us into action movies and different environments (even changing our outfits)

If you’re confused what that means, here’s me as a character:

This series is basically a mix of a bunch of Anime my best friend and I watched (and some action movies).

We took a bunch of plot elements, stories, characters and music and mixed it all together with our own unique style.

Now, I wanna teach you 3 lessons, both came from last year.

In total, me and my best friend made 36 episodes so far. I made 26 of those.

While I started the series and made most episodes, mine were on average worse.

Why?

Last Summer, I started working on it again after a half-year “hiatus”

And I found my passion for it again…but

I was pumping them out

Before, one episode would take me weeks up to months.

This time, I could make one episode in a few days.

And - they were pretty average.

Some were great, but most were mediocre.

“But isn’t mediocre okay?”

Not for me.

If I make a video, I want it to either be batshit insane or creatively amazing.

And weirdly enough, my best episode ever was one of my first.

I was wondering “what did I do right with it?”

So, in September 2022 I reflected.

And I found out.

That episode had taken me 3 months to make (not consistent work, but spaced apart). I had been extremely creative with that episode because I spent time and focus on every single shot. I allowed myself to go crazy with my ideas.

And a bunch of smaller things.

But now I knew what I could do in general.

So - I started applying that. And the next 4 episodes were great!

They

• had style

• were creative

• were fun to make and watch

And my friends loved them.

But I was still lacking something - ACTION.

See my best episode had an amazing fight scene - so for my next episode, I wanted to make it almost only action.

Crazy right? And it took me ages to make.

I started that video in January this year - and only finished it two weeks ago😂 

It was almost only action with some amazing dialogue on the side. I allowed myself to go crazy with it.

And when I showed it to my friends, they LOVED it!

One called it the best episode so far.

So, I brought 3 lessons from that:

Lesson 2: Focusing on the details is important. It creates a better creation in the WHOLE.

While perfectionism can get in the way, it should be used for your best creations.

Perfectionism in limits is a creator’s strongest weapon

Lesson 3: More time = Higher quality

A pretty simple lesson but it took me time to figure out.

Don’t rush the process and allow yourself full freedom with it.

Lesson 4: Creativity makes the best content

I was allowing my mind to roam free with insane ideas.

And people loved it.

Creativity will make people see something they’ve never seen before - which attaches them a lot!

Now, these lessons are great and all…

But that’s not really actionable for short-form content (like Tweets), is it?

So, here are

7 ways to create short-form content that makes people feel

Quick note: This can get you a bunch of likes and followers. But never forget that you’re doing this out of genuine interest and passion, not Metrics.

Now, let’s begin!

1. Create FOR and FROM yourself

The best content resonates deeply with people.

The best way to do that?

A: Create content with your passion and genuine interests. FROM yourself

B: Create content that you’d love to consume. FOR yourself

See, the episodes people loved most - I loved them most too! And I had a blast making them.

When you have like-minded friends or fans, they’ll enjoy the same things you do.

If you wanna write advice, write advice

• you’re interested in

• you’re passionate about

• your past self would need

If you wanna create a movie, create one that

• has a tense story

• has creative visuals you love

• has elements you love seeing

In my last episode, I even made the characters behave in a way I love which made them cooler.

You can apply this anywhere!

2. Mix experiences, your story and opinions into it

The easiest way to be relatable?

Share your own life and thoughts.

I’ve mentioned this before:

Your audience won’t care about your content if there’s no story or message behind it.

You wanna show them

• “I struggle too”

• “I’m not perfect either”

• “everyone experiences this”

• ”it’s a natural part of this journey”

That makes people feel heard and shows them “this person I look up to knows me” which ultimately connects them to you.

I bet your favorite creator also spoke to your struggles and helped you with them.

That builds loyal fans!

Whatever you do, show there’s a human behind it.

3. Do Inner and creative work outside your main work

Most of my life is spent

• being in school

• making videos

• watching content

So, even though I create content on Twitter, I only spend 1 hour a day on it.

I’ve tried the “Obsessive worker”/”Work-all-day” approach.

And while it works for a while…your results end up flopping and you burn out.

See, content needs fuel for good ideas.

Imagine your content like a train.

You might have the coal to rush it for a few days, but then you exhaust it.

And now you have to get new coal which makes your train ride at snail’s pace or even stop.

You need at least some breaks to get or mine new coal.

And you need to find a way to balance your train’s speed with the coal you have.

In this case, Coal = Personal Growth, Insights, experiences and life in general

If you’ve created content for a bit, you know the best ideas don’t appear during work but at random times like walks.

Your mind needs some space to think, to mine coal.

The more time you spend on mining ideas and doing personal Growth, the better the coal is gonna be!

Now, don’t forget this:
Don’t use your sudden great ideas to work all day again.

That’s just gonna make you stop the train (burnout) again.

No, this time, drive slowly and sustainably and take some stops ;)

For me that’s

• meditation

• taking walks

• going to the gym

• no Twitter during school

• reading/watching content

• making, editing, uploading videos

This means I never have a problem getting high-quality coal while keeping the train alive :)

Spend most of your time doing other stuff!

4. Mix your personality into it

If you haven’t read it, I wrote about this 2 weeks ago (my favorite post btw)

But your personality is your strongest weapon as a creator.

It’s something literally no one else has.

So, use it!

• write like you speak

• disagree, be controversial

• use personality, even in value

• share all your genuine interests

• when sharing advice, add a sentence with just personality

if you’re confused by any of these points, go check that post out, it explains everything in depth.

Your personality is the easiest way to stand out and have fun :)

5. Offer new ideas and perspectives

This is an important one!

And something I rarely see on Twitter.

People love to share the same advice and platitudes, maybe with a story behind it

But people never really offer new perspectives

I’ve actually started writing unique perspectives and they can blow up!

but they can also flop…

Some of them get 100 likes, some only 6.

It’s really unpredictable.

So, if you have a great idea, just write it ;)

Allow yourself to be creative. It might not give you the most Growth but it’s gonna be the most fun!

6. Drop the logical and perfectionist mind

(As I mentioned before, perfectionism is great for details in long projects, but not short form)

If you write on Twitter, you’re bound to know this:

Tweets you write quickly are some of your best.

Tweets that are a drag to write are some of your worst.

That’s simply because:

The perfectionist and overthinking mind ruins short-form content.

It destroys flow and makes stuff take way longer than it should.

And another big reason is:

Overthinking cuts your voice out.

You see this with the “Authentic” movement on Twitter.

Raw, honest, (Authentic) thoughts tend to perform way better than value-packed Tweets.

This isn’t because people don’t care about value, THEY DO!

It’s because those Tweets have a stronger voice and a story behind them.

So, how do you achieve this effect?

Overcome the perfectionist mind, at least for a bit.

When you write, just get that thought out without editing while writing.

Hell, most of my Tweets aren’t edited after I’ve written them.

It can be extremely beneficial for both your performance and efficiency to overcome that inner resistance and just write pure thoughts.

Even for long-form - my best ideas came by just writing my pure thoughts and ideas down without limiting myself.

Drop the Overthinking for a few minutes!

7. Don’t hide your real self

If you don’t like a movement/opinion, share it.

If you’re genuinely passionate about sth, share it.

If you’re genuinely happy about a small win, share it.

But the opposite is true too:

If you don’t like/care about something, DON’T share it.

Way too many people on Twitter create what they hate just for engagement and Growth.

I used to guilt myself into not doing what I wanted to.

Saying stuff like

• “Celebrating this makes me look shallow”

• “I don’t want to be “negative”

• “People won’t care/agree”

And while there can be value in recognizing that, it’s useless overthinking it.

You can’t pretend to be a different person.

If you wanna do something, that’s not anything you can suppress.

People always notice when someone’s faking it (like accounts that advertise themselves as “Only positive thinkers”)

That’ll just make you look shallow because you can’t embody it yet.

Authentic accounts blow up exactly because they don’t hide anything.

Controversial opinions? They share them.

Miniscule wins? They celebrate them.

That’s exactly what makes them so authentic.

You can’t be positive without being negative.

You can’t have “normal” without “crazy” opinions

There’s always gonna be something weird about you.

And the funny thing is:

Your audience always likes when you share that.

If you’ve only shown positive sides, I can guarantee (from my experience) that your audience most likely also shares your negative opinions.

Accept your many different shades and show them!

So that’s it!

I hope you liked me finally showing some parts of that series and the rest😂

This was a lot of fun to write (and make photos for ;) )!

Make sure to apply some of what you’ve learned here!

I can guarantee it’ll improve content quality and engagement.

But for now, I wish you a great rest of the weekend and until next Saturday :)