In this brief episode I want to talk about one of the biggest ironies in all of content creation , and that is a paradox . Your highest performing videos are probably the ones that you will care about least . I've found this to be true across podcasts , social media videos , emails that I write pretty much everything I've created . The things that I didn't think would take off took off and the things that I tried to have take off didn't take off . And then I've even gone so far as tried to not put in effort while still putting in effort , hoping that my lack of effort somehow still made it take off . To give you an example , I was like what if I just recorded a super loose version of a YouTube video ? So I set up a YouTube account and I just kind of off the cuff , talked about different things but , like , put no effort into the editing of the videos . What happened ? Absolutely nothing . I even gave it a couple months on the videos . Nothing happened . The videos got no traction . I even tried to incorporate some of the best practices , like titles and the topics I was talking about . They just weren't interesting .
Speaker 1It's funny how you can't exactly force this , the amount of effort we put in , the authenticity that comes through and just the human psychology of how we consume content . Back in the 1950s there was a man named Arthur Godfrey who was one of the biggest radio stars back in the day and his most successful broadcast was a show where he was so frustrated with the sponsors that he started making fun of the products . Now we've heard a bit of people do this these days , especially on podcasts . I believe Bill Burr the comedian . On his podcast he makes fun of the products he talks about . The audience loved it and they did studies on this In the 1970s . They found that TV hosts who stopped trying to be perfect actually connected better with their viewers .
Speaker 1This is what we can call the authenticity paradox . The moment we try too hard to become authentic , we become less authentic . If you think about it , your brain can tell when you're overthinking . We can tell when we're talking to someone that's overthinking . You're too focused on your performance . You activate your whole analytical brain centers instead of just your natural social circuits . You start talking funnier and not in a way that is easy to listen to . This is why if you open TikTok right now and you just casually scroll through , you'll see there's no way these people plan these TikToks out . They're just speaking from the heart , but they have a way of speaking on camera that is just so natural and authentic , that resonates with so many people and it gets millions of views . Mr Beast , he's even talked about how his first viral video was one that he made when he was sick and barely even trying and there's a lot of data to back this whole thing up .
Speaker 1In 2023 , a study of TikTok engagement showed that imperfect videos often get two to three times more engagement than highly polished content . Just like I shared my example of , I tried to make imperfect content perfectly and share that in hopes that it would resonate and kind of take off , and it didn't work . That's the mind bending part . Once you know that authentic , imperfect videos are better , you can't fake the imperfect . You can't intentionally care less to get more views . That's like trying to fall asleep faster by thinking about falling asleep . So what can you do instead , now that I have inflicted this information on you that you didn't even know that you were going to be inflicted with ?
Speaker 1Really , I think it's about finding the sweet spot . You want to hold your audience in your head , so you care about your audience and the content that you're making for them . But you also want to hold your content a little bit lighter . For so many creators , there's so much that happens before they press upload and they hold their content so tightly . It's wrapped up in their own self-worth and what they're making in their heart and their art and everything that they want to bestow upon the world . But what if you just held it lighter ? You still cared about all those things . I'm not saying don't care , but just held it lighter .
Speaker 1And examples of that would be focusing more so on the message of what you're saying , letting go of the metrics and holding your audience at the forefront of your mind , closer than the critics , meaning the people who might disagree . Meaning , in the case of , like Arthur Godfrey , when he was making fun of the products on air , he wasn't thinking about what the executives were going to say , or maybe he was , but he just didn't care . At that point he stopped caring and that helped his message resonate with more people and , I'm sure , ultimately sold more products . And the same thing is true for the content we create from down from a TikTok video to a podcast episode , to an email that we write .
Speaker 1People wanna connect and it's hard to connect with someone who is so consumed in the process of connecting that they just forget how to connect . It's almost like if you were trying to set your friend up for a date and your friend's playing out every scenario of how the date could possibly go . At a certain point you have to think about that stuff and then you have to just put it out of your mind and let it be how it's going to be . It's going to do what it's going to do . You got to live how you're going to live , and while it can be beneficial to try really hard , it can also be beneficial to let go of everything and not try hard and just experiment with the idea of making imperfect content .