So baust du 2026 eine Content-Strategie auf

0:00What do you think the cheat code is in 2025 to win at the game of attention? >> Like there's got to be some new rules here because we've got AI, we've got new platforms, we've got new media. >> You know, I'm give you a hypothetical business idea. I'm going to be a personal trainer. >> Okay. >> And I picked that because everyone can do it and it's it's a saturated industry. If I'm if I'm a personal trainer in the 2025, how should I be thinking about building attention?

0:27>> Mhm. So, I'll tell you what I wouldn't do first, which is I don't think I try and outscience the science people. Uh, because like unless you have some PhD, there is a PhD guy who's already jacked, who's making content, and so he's more knowledgeable and more jacked than you. So, you're not going to win there. And so, I think in the game of attention, it's trying to find what is unique, right? And so, how do you how do you quote stand out when everyone's loud?

0:52And this is going to sound trit, but your fingerprint is unique literally from a biological perspective. But so is your life and your experiences. And so there's there's real alpha or or benefit to be had above normal level of effort by leaning into you. And so what makes every person unique is what makes their content unique. And so trying to be like, "Oh, I want to make content like Alex is probably not the best way to do it because you're not going to beat me at being me, but you'll beat me at being you." And so it's basically your flavor of media. So like for me, it's like, you know, what is, you know, my brand to to to model this. It's like, well, I have elements of philosophy that are in my brand. Well, do I need that? No. But that's like kind of me. Um, I obviously talk a ton about business, marketing, and sales, promotion, conversion. Those are all things that I spend a lot of time thinking about. And so a lot of my content is about that. um fitness is a component of my life and so there's light sprinkling of fitness uh in my content also I come from a background of fitness um with the the with gym launch and and the companies that I owned before that and so that would make sense that and I've my wife Leila and so that's sprinkled in and so like those are basically the components of my life um and so that's what kind of shines through in my content I consume a ton of comedy and so sometimes you'll see some dry humor and dark humor that that shines through um but that's me now you have all of those little buckets of you and not only are those buckets It's unique, but also the proportions of those buckets will be different. And so maybe your philosophy is way bigger or maybe fitness part is way bigger. But I think what makes the truly unique personal trainer or fitness brand is leaning into people being interested in you for being you. And then being like, by the way, I have fitness stuff if you want to buy it from me. And I think the key part is the vast majority of products and services are commoditized. there. You're not You're probably not going to be significantly better than other trainers. Just being real. You probably aren't, but you will be different than them. And we want to lean on I I want to buy fitness from somebody and so I might as well buy from her or I might as well buy it from him. So you're taking basically this audience that would buy from anyone, but your brand premium gets them to want to buy it from you. If we think about Prime for example with the drink the drink company like it's a it's a drink that there's other products that already exist in the marketplace that satisfy the same thing as Prime. But if you are agnostic to that brand and you have brand affinity with that that creator, then you're like, well then if I have two things that are basically equal and I just like this guy better, I'm just going to as long as the prices are comparable, I'll just vote with my dollars here. And so I think that if you're a personal trainer in 2025, um it's going to be long-term it's going to be building the content. Shortterm it's going to be outreach to people that you know and making a compelling offer to get people to try to work with you. This overarching point you said there about being yourself. As I was thinking about it, I was thinking, gosh, do you know what? The thing that all of my favorite creators and the really successful creators have in common is they all have, and I use these words intentionally, the courage to be themselves.

3:59>> Yeah. >> Because I'll tell you what, when I was starting out as a content creator, and I look back, I was showing one of my team members the other day the things I used to post, it was like everything happens for a reason. It was cringe, >> cliche fluff. And it took me several years to almost relax into just realizing that the game here was to get to the point where I could be myself on the internet. And actually that was the most high value because of you know of what you said. It's the uniquest part of me. But the courage to be yourself and it's it's it is the winning strategy for 2025.

4:29And it's I think um it's leaning into it. And the thing is is that everything in you wants to not do that. I'm not really sure why. Um, but I was having a conversation with Ila, I want to say two nights ago or three nights ago. Um, I got a bunch of flack for uh some ex post that I made and she just looked at me and she was like, "Never dilute yourself." Because I was like, "Maybe I was like, "Maybe I shouldn't talk about this stuff. Like, maybe I should just like, you know, I'll just lean off." And she was like, "Never dilute yourself." like there are so many more people who need that message than people who are hating that message. And she was like, "And if you're actually going to make a difference in a lot of people's lives, there's going to be an equal and opposing force of people who want to reject that." And she's like, "This just comes with the territory of like how big of an impact you want to have." And it was just such a great, you know, wife talking to husband, you know, conversation. Um, that I guess for me at the end of the day, I'm like, as long as she thinks I'm cool, like, [laughter] you know, I I'll keep doing it. But, um, but yeah, it was just, uh, because the diluted down version all of a sudden becomes everyone else's stuff.

5:38>> Well, you said a second ago, you're not sure why that is, but by very definition of it being unique, that that means that there is no blueprint. >> Yeah. There is no person that's come before you and proven that it works. So the courage of being yourself, there's only one Steven Bartlett. So if I'm truly myself, it's never been done before. That means that the risks are unknown. The upside's also unknown. >> Yeah. >> But so again, going back to our hate of uncertainty, it makes much more sense for me to try and copy you because I can see a blueprint there than to run the risk of being yourself. And you are someone I have to say, who is running the risk of being yourself. And actually, as someone who's observing you

6:17>> now, I know who you are and I now know who you're not. >> And it's important for me as someone that follows your work. >> Yeah. >> That actually I see consistency because I've established Alex's values. >> Yeah. >> And anything that diverts from that is actually less valuable because as you say, it's more like everyone else and the things I've had before. But it's also it wouldn't feel true anymore. >> Yeah. >> And um and this is something that even as a creator myself, I I have to fall back on is my audience knew who I am now. for better or for worse.

6:45>> Yeah. >> They don't want to learn anything new. [laughter] >> Yeah. >> You know what's really interesting is navigating the gray. And so there are contradictory ideals. And this is what I kind of come back to when I'm when I'm like worried about these types of things, which is like you've got mercy and you've got justice. They are somehow opposed and they are both ideals. So how can we believe in justice and also believe in mercy at the same time? And so, and I mean there's you can have variety and consistency like there there's there there's tons of examples of this, right? Um, and so we have these diametrically opposed ideals, which means that if you ever say, "By the way, I'm a little bit more of a justice guy." Like, I understand they had a hard time, but at some point you got to take your own personal accountability. So, like, no, you're not going to get out of the speeding ticket.

7:34You're going to get like that's what's just. On the other hand, it's like, "Hey, single mom uh gets pulled over uh for driving too fast. You know what? Maybe we let her off today." Both of those stories, fair, but you're going to get attacked by the other side that has an ideal that all humans try to strive for and it will feel terrible because they are right. And so what? And so I think that like understanding that that conflict will always exist between two apparent ideals that and this is fund this is foundationally what politics is [laughter] right is that there are two apparent ideals that that all of us I would say 99% of people would say justice is good mercy is good variety is good consistency is good right respecting values is good so is innovating and doing new things

8:20>> how can we have both of these contradictory ideas and at the same time like navigate that without conflict you can't because how much becomes comes the question. And so I think that your thumbrint as a creator is that when someone presents a scenario and says, "Does Alex choose mercy or justice in this scenario that your audience says gets it right?" And so I think about um branding in general as basically a mosaic that you get to create. And so like each piece of content is a little tile that has a single color on it. And if you just see one piece of short content of of Steven Bartlett, you'll have you don't really have an idea who Steven Bartlett is. But if you see a thousand of them, all of a sudden you zoom out and you get to see the whole picture. And I think that the the colors that are in those mosaics and the and the proportion of how many yellows, how many reds, how many greens, and where are they is what ultimately creates the brand. And so um because people want to try and turn this into, okay, so I make one post about family, I make one post about finances, I make one post about whatever, right? It's like I don't think that's how it works. I think you just be you and then those proportions will naturally shake out and also over time you will change.

9:29>> And so it also makes sense that your brand will change and that was also another thing that I had to to reconcile which is like wait I don't know if I agree as much with some of the things that I said 10 years ago because the thing is in the digital world like my first podcast was 2017 July of 2017. Wow. Episode 8 is called Stop Branding. I have changed my views on branding [laughter] to be clear. Yeah.

9:53>> But that first podcast is 90 days from when I lost everything. >> And so the entire the entire like Hermosi journey, if you want to call that, from zero to billion, is actually documented 90 days from zero. It's all there. And so you can see how my my my views on business have changed and like what I was thinking about at every kind of portion of my life. And so I had to just be okay with the idea that like I will change my mind because I will get new information because let's take the alternative stance. If I get new information, do I just keep paring what you did before? This is also an issue with politics, right? Is that like he's flippy floppy? It's like so they're not allowed to learn.

10:31>> Yeah. [laughter] >> You've been in politics for 20 like you haven't learned anything. Like no stance has changed. Like I feel like we should be able to do that and obviously brands don't work that way. So it has to be gradual over time which I think if you are always you at all times it will be gradual over time. Real quick I'm going to show you the exact 10stage road map from zero to 100 million plus that less than 1% of companies finish I've now done multiple times and so I can say with a lot of confidence that these are the stages as headcount increases that you need to get through. And I broke each of these down by eight different functions of the business. what the constraint feels like, like what are the symptoms of it when you're going through it, and then what steps we actually took to graduate. And we've done this across software, physical products, uh, service, businesses, brickandmortar, all of this, and it works. And it's my gift to you. It's absolutely free. And so the link's in the description, but you just go acquisition.comroadmap.

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