The episode, in writing
by Richard Lovatt · from the episode above, checked against what was said
Right, we're back. This is going to be a bit of a different episode because I'm about to start recording some ads over on X. I was looking at the creatives, and I think anyone doing this is not always going to be happy with them. One of the keys is don't be so involved in making it look perfect, just put stuff out into the market and see how it does. What I've got going now I think will do well, I think it's pretty good, but I do want it to feel more real. I want it to show the app more, show the reality of using the product, because right now they're all just AI generated motion graphic type stuff. That's good because it gets to the point, but it doesn't show me doing this.
So this episode is actually going to be me recording some things to go in. It's going to be kind of weird to follow along, but at the same time kind of cool, because it's a documentation of me creating these ads that are then going to be sliced into some motion graphics to show how it works. One aspect I've got with Underway is for every video you do it can create questions for you, you can write in the questions you want it to ask. One thing I like is above my screen is just a note section, so I can see some notes I've written. I find that easy to follow along, it just reminds you of certain things, and you can freestyle, which comes across more natural.
How many times have you tried to document a build before this, what happened each time. The amount of times I've built businesses in the past and thought, hey, it's going to be a good idea to document this, and after a couple of days I'm just like, I either forget or just give up. It's too much friction to think about.
What happens when you sit in front of a camera and nobody asks you anything. Most of the time, every time I sat down to record and create some content for documentation, I just blanked out, like what am I going to say. And not only that, if I think of something to say, is it going to be worth saying, is it something people want to listen to. That's the key.
How long did editing take. The biggest thing about documenting everything I've built in the past was the editing part really put me off, because I could create a bit of content and the editing part would take me thirty minutes, sometimes an hour. To think about that every day, or multiple times a week, put me off completely.
What would you have filmed back then if you could have kept it private. I really wish back then I'd just filmed everything without thinking about the connotations of how it will do when it goes out and whether I should be private or not. I think the problem for founders is you do things and you want to document, but some of it is private, and it makes you think, I'll leave it to the right time. And the problem is that right time never comes around. If I could have kept it private back then, I would have just filmed every single thing I did. Some of it was so interesting, and some of the problems I faced and solutions that I found are just gone and lost in history now, and I kind of wish I could use them as selling points, and use them as ways to help and coach people through the same problems that they face.
Why keep filming to no audience. One of the hardest parts of documenting is the fact that sometimes you create a new idea, a new business, and you document it and film it to a sea of no one, and it's really hard internally to do that and not get any reward. I think the key is looking at this as, it's not content, it's not a hook, you're not trying to create virality. It's about documenting and just being consistent, so in a year's time you look back and you're so happy that whole structure is there from you building, and you've come so far.
What do you do on the days you're camera shy. I'm not camera shy, but some people are, and even some days I don't want to be on camera for whatever reason. The cool thing about Underway is it enables you to run a podcast where it's either just you talking and answering questions, or you talking with an AI co host where it's asking you questions intuitively. It's so easy to do on those days where you don't want to be on camera but you do want to stay consistent and document.
Where have you actually filmed episodes from. Most of my episodes have been filmed from here, on my laptop, in my office. But I did film one episode, one podcast, on a plane, on Virgin Airlines up in the sky. That was pretty cool, but the Wi-Fi wasn't great. And right now I'm in Vegas, in a hotel, doing it in more of a landscape format on my laptop.
What would investors learn from watching eighty of your episodes. I think an investor looking at this down the line, or even now, would get to see the true and transparent sense of what it's like for someone, and someone who's talking about it so organically with no customers at this point. That's going to change massively, I know. But an investor getting to see these little interactions, and this bit of growing it where you're not really anywhere right now making any money, I think this is still important, and having this compared to another company is going to be key in the future.
What comes out of one episode besides the video. I think the cool thing about repurposing each of these episodes is they can go into a directory so people can watch along, but they also go in one click to YouTube, to Twitter, to LinkedIn, to TikTok, all in one click, and it even writes up your captions. So no longer do you have to start to think about posting everywhere, and how to structure it, making sure the thumbnail's on each. It's all done and dusted without you having to think, which is great for founders.
And there you have it. Now I'm going to take this, it's going to go out like normal so everyone can watch it, but also in the background, notice I said I hated editing, I'm not going to edit this, the AI is going to edit this into creatives to use.