Packaging > Product
Packaging is more important than the product
When studying great creators, you often hear the same thing over and over…focus on the packaging of your content.
In my mind, packaging applies both to how you share your message, as well as the medium you share it through.
Certain mediums are better than others because they take advantage of digital leverage.
I didn’t use to understand this, but it’s been a super important frame shift for me. Feels like I’m on easy mode now.
Here’s a little thought spiral I went down around packaging and how more people should think about it to make money online.
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Everyone in the world is talented at something.
Most spend the majority of their day working for money in an area that doesn’t overlap with their talents.
And the reason they’re doing this is because they are unable to package the output of their talent in a way that’s sustainable to monetize.
For example, let’s say you’re amazing at pencil sketch art.
Most people would think, “I’ll draw pictures and sell them on the internet.”
They’ll quickly realize it’s super difficult to make enough money to live on because this packaging method doesn’t give them leverage on their time.
Each picture takes hours to make and they can only speed that process up so much.
A better way to package your skills would be to film yourself drawing.
The videos become the packaging that you post on social media, and the pictures become a byproduct.
This will work because the current packaging paradigm that the world most willingly accepts is short-form video.
Social media gives you an unfair advantage through leverage because your videos (and therefore art) can get in front of thousands of people without any incremental effort.
You’ll be able to monetize your videos through ads and have an easier time selling the pictures themselves because of the increased traffic.
Now I have to admit, you would have to learn a bit of video editing, which is a net new skill, but you could do the bare minimum on the editing and it’ll work.
A good example of this is Marko Terzo.
He makes custom sneakers out of unique materials.
If he just sold the sneakers on a website, it’d be hard for him to make a living.
Instead, he makes YouTube videos about the process to make the sneakers and is able to monetize 1000x more because of internet leverage.
In his case, he gives the sneakers away for free, but if he wanted to sell them, he’d have a much easier time with his videos than without.
He realized that the current version of the world prefers video content over everything else and adapted his packaging accordingly.
If you have a creative talent/interest and are struggling to find traction online, ask yourself, “What packaging does the market like in this current era” and how can I lean into it?
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