The episode, in writing
by Richard Lovatt · from the episode above, checked against what was said
I found a post on X this morning from someone who comes up a lot in my feed. I do follow him, and I don't want to make this about bashing him. I just think it's a take that concerns itself with what I'm doing with Underway, not that I have much of an audience for it at the minute. But I think it's good to talk about differing opinions.
Social media in general is about harsh takes, hyperbolic takes that get people talking. That's what content is at the end of the day, whether it's written or spoken, it's about getting that reaction, that virality, having people talk. It's hard for me to take anyone seriously making a post like this, because a lot of these takes are in reality way more nuanced. When I see something like this I think you have to be so low IQ if you are serious about this position.
I'll read you through it. Document your day, clip your coaching calls, do a fake podcast clip. It's arguably the worst advice for any B2C personal brand unless you're an influencer. And it almost exclusively comes from people who built their brand selling to a B2B audience. Here's the reality, he says. Selling B2B, it makes sense to document because the awareness is really high, and what you do is quite literally what your audience wants to do. B2C however is so saturated that for people to give a shit about your offer you need specific angles, hooks and topics to send out. Truth be told, ninety five percent of brands don't have motion like that, meaning their documented content isn't actually interesting or inspirational to the average person. Make the effort and be intentional, instead of modelling after outliers you can never replicate.
It's such a damning statement to anyone creating something and building. You suck, you don't have an audience, don't even do it, it's saturated. Can you imagine offering that take to Steve Jobs when he started, or Jeff Bezos. And look, I am taking outliers, but even people who've made a good living and created B2C businesses and become successful, who we don't know about, imagine saying that to them. Do you think it would have been pointless and their content would have sucked if they'd just documented it. It'd be so cool to see, wouldn't it. Not only for them personally, to look back and say I remember those times, the damning times, where it was really difficult, where I nearly quit. It'd be great for them, but also for us, looking back, being able to watch their day to day from the start, the years of it being just an idea, getting the first customer.
Documenting your day and then doing a fake podcast clip are different things with different goals. They're not always the same. The distinction I want to make is that documenting is a much different concept than putting content out there to get virality, to get a reaction, to get views, to get customers. I think they're two different things. Telling people that B2C is saturated and your content sucks is so hyperbolic, because documenting isn't about hooks, it isn't about virality, it's about documenting. Yes, you're doing it without an audience, and it's hard, and it is saturated, more saturated than it was before because everyone can build now, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't document.
It's like saying you had a child, and at eighteen they got into the England squad. Was it ridiculous for you to document their training and their build all the way up to that point. There's no one watching, no one knows them, they haven't made it yet, but is it pointless. No it isn't. You're doing it for yourself. But when that child gets into the England squad and becomes a great player, and everyone knows them, do people getting into football connect to that person more because they can see their whole journey and what it took to get there. Everyone can document once they're viral, once they're successful, and most people do it that way because documenting with no audience is scary and makes you anxious and nervous.
What I'm trying to do with Underway is show you don't have to be public with it, you can do it in stealth, but it's about doing it for yourself regardless of win, lose or draw. When you are successful in any way, are you going to be happy that you've documented the journey. Yes you are. Are your customers or your fans going to connect to you more because, among others doing the same thing in your industry, you're the one who documented the struggle and the grind. Yeah. I think in the future it's going to be even more prevalent, that being able to go back and watch that journey is going to be valuable, even to investors. That's going to be one of the things that makes you stand out. People are going to connect to it much more.
So documenting and then creating bottom of funnel content, whether B2C or B2B, I really don't agree with lumping together. Maybe for B2B I get where he's coming from, but it's still a bit damning, a bit more nuanced, and it's polarising to people doing B2C. Document what you're building, you are learning. You should ignore the whole saturation thing, ignore the whole giving a shit about your content needing specific angles. Documenting is so different from the fact that, if you are a B2C founder and you want customers, of course, especially with organic content and even running ads and paid media, it is about making people give a shit, thinking about your angles, your hooks, your topics that stand out, maybe being hyperbolic, I get that. But you've semi got to do both.
For me, right now, documenting all of these days is probably just noise to people, and they're watching going what's the point of all this. But I don't care about the virality of how this content does right now. This is for me, in reality, in a year or two years' time, to look back and be glad I did it. But I'm also doing the other side of it. I'm running ads now, I just started, and the ads themselves have to have specific angles, we have to test those out, we have to use hooks and search for virality for top of funnel to attract people in. So there are two different ways of doing it, and documenting is not about that virality and getting customers, although it is going to help you down the line, I can assure you of that.
I know this guy isn't low IQ, and maybe he'll see this one day and be offended and make a post back. But I'm not really making this video about him, it's the topic itself, because I do think, as we're in this AI era where it's so easy now for everyone to create businesses and brands, the hurdle of starting has been taken away. So your new moat is going to go back to being you as a person, being transparent and honest. Everyone can do a launch video. Not everyone can be themselves on camera, just talking and documenting. That's going to be the real valuable thing. It's valuable right now, but in years to come it's going to be about looking back at the brands that have been built, who the people have been who haven't used AI so much, who have been documenting transparently to the world and talking about their hardships. That's what I think is going to be valuable. But we will see.