The 80/20 Rule for Content Creators | Creating More Time, Refining Your Format, and Letting Go of Perfectionism

Welcome to digital creator. I'm your host, Dylan Schmidt, and I am glad you were here today. I've got a meaty episode lined up. This is like 1 of those thick chilies that people make. This was a chili cook off, you were going down the line, you would stop at this chili and you'd be like, wow, that's a thick 1. It's not super watery. It must be a lunchtime because I'm referencing chili in reference in, relation to this episode. In this episode I'm gonna be talking about 3 things. Number 1, I'm gonna be talking about how to have more time to create. Number 2, I'm gonna be talking about finding a format that works. And number 3, I'll be talking about how you can stop obsessing over details that your viewers don't notice. If you noticed a theme amongst these 3 topics is that they're all addressing challenges that content creators face across the spectrum of content creators no matter if you're an AI content creator, throwback to a couple weeks ago or if you're a UGC creator or if you are a podcaster, whatever type of creator you are, we all struggle with these 3 topics. How to have more time to create, finding a format that works, and how to stop obsessing over the details that really no 1 else besides you cares about at the level that you care about. Right? Because there's some drawbacks to all of these. There's like a healthy spectrum if you will. There's the unhealthy tendencies we can lean into that can cause burnout, stress, and for us just to not do our best work, there is this medium balance where maybe we're not as optimized as we could be. We're kind of getting by and then there's the high output where we feel like we're in our sweet spot. We're doing our best work and we're making an impact and sharing our message with the world, which I think we can agree we all want to be in that spot. Right? So let's hop into it. How to have more time to create? I have a running list of, like, problems. I don't have a running list of compliments or, like, solutions. I keep a list of problems because I like talking about problems on this podcast so that I can hopefully offer a different perspective on something that maybe you've been struggling with or you've been thinking about, but you just need like a outside kinda angle on the thing. It's been top of mind for me lately because especially since having a kid, time is of the essence. I have seemingly none of it. And starting my business a few years ago, I really started to see how quickly time could evaporate. And it doesn't matter if you have a full time job and you create content on the side or if you have no kids. Creating content is almost as much of a game of time management as it is anything else. Let me explain. You have endless options when it comes to creating content. Right? And you have things that you maybe wanna make a podcast or a video about, but you can't do them all. Like, realistic, you can't do them all and you're always gonna have new ideas flowing in. And very quickly, creators will run into this wall of I don't have enough time or I'm overwhelmed by the whole idea of doing all of this, and so they find themselves not happy with the work they're putting out. And if they had to pinpoint whose problem it was, it was time's problem. Does this sound familiar at all? So I'm gonna offer a solution for you on how you can create more time and unless your name is Beyonce and it's gonna be simple, just change your name to Beyonce. Wait, no, she has 24 hours in a day too. Isn't that what they always say? Beyonce has 24 hours a day or they it's usually Beyonce or Oprah. I don't know why those 2 2 get chosen the most. It's kind of an outdated. I don't know if that's an age thing. I'm using that as a reference, but all jokes aside here's the mind bender, you create more time by doing less. Creators like myself are guilty of chasing these productivity hacks, trying to squeeze more into each hour, trying to optimize, maybe multitask maybe using new apps to really streamline every workflow. I've talked about this a lot. I think there's a huge benefit to streamlining your workflow or worse, creators will, like, cut sleep so that they can work more on this thing that there'll be some payoff in the end, but it's gonna come back to bite you 1 way or the other. Right? It's not sustainable to work at a pace that is gonna burn you out. It's not sustainable to putting out your best work. Eventually, you're gonna resent it. Eventually, if you if you have a family eventually they're gonna resent you for choosing what you're doing over, you know, spending time with them and more multitasking is not gonna be the answer, right? Streamlining workflow only goes so far. So what can we do? Really, there's only 1 solution. We can use the time we have better and we can use the time we have better by focusing on what matters, which as much as it might pain you to hear it looks like doing less. But the things that you do less of have to be more important. So instead of saying yes to 10 activities, it's saying no to 7 activities and yes to the 3 most important. Or another example, instead of posting to 5 platforms, somewhat good quality content, it's narrowing that focus in on 2 or 3 platforms, extra high quality content. Think about your absolute favorite creator that has a huge huge following and has been very successful. I'm just gonna throw out some youtubers that, like, pop into mind. Marcus Brownlee, Casey Neistat, these types of creators. If you look at how many platforms they're really active on, it's only like 1 or 2. And these are millionaire creators we're talking about, right? They're not everywhere all of the time. They're really only showing up on a couple platforms, but doing a really good job. They know those platforms better than, you know, 0.5% of the population if not a smaller fraction. Right? And when you think about your own platforms that you're on, how good are you really at all the platforms that you're trying to show up on? What if you didn't show up on a couple of those platforms and you just let them go but you took that time and energy and focused more on 1 or 2 platforms? What if you said no to how you've been putting out content in a way that you know, you know, in the back of your mind is like this is not moving the needle forward. It's not serving people how I want to serve them, how they're asking to be served, and instead you double down on doing less but did more on quality. And this really comes back to a quality over quantity conversation. As AI starts to infiltrate every area of the Internet especially content creation, especially text based things where you know you're hearing my voice, this is really Dylan. But there's AI out there now that can do this stuff, especially when quantity has taken over the whole front of content creation. Quality is gonna be where it's at in terms of standing out amongst the AI. 1 great piece of content from you will be a million pieces of AI generated content. So I offer you this, can you stop churning out content just to hit some type of quota that you might have set recently or even years ago that you just felt like you had to do it a certain way because you always done it that way? And can you spend more time on your best ideas? Polishing those ideas that you know you'll be proud of in another year or so. Can you create content that lasts it's not just quick? And the cool thing about this because it kind of sounds like I'm asking you to do more, but really the theme here is to do less. And I'll give you, like, a 80 20 rule that you can think of to kind of, like, wrap around this. So I think about some youtubers, for example, on how they make some simple content. I can tell it's simple because they're not doing any fancy graphics or editing like that, but they get millions of views a month and then other creators will spend so many hours a whole week on a video that gets, if they're lucky, a couple hundred views. And we'll talk about this more in the next subject, but it really comes back to this 80 20 rule of finding your 20%. What's the 20% of your content that gets the most engagement? What's the 20% of your tasks that lead to real growth? What's the 20% where you actually are adding unique value that other people want more of? And these are the areas where you don't wanna start to double down on. I recently did this myself with I went back over the last year of my Instagram because I was looking at some of my reels and I'm like I haven't really spent much time on Instagram. And I was like, am I gonna just ditch this platform? And what I thought was the content that was getting the most engagement and what actually was getting the most engagement, I would have not actually been spot on had I not taken the time to actually focus on that and run the numbers and compare the high performers against the low performers and what do you know? I make a video that utilizes my findings where I could put 20% of my effort and it gave me 80% of the results. It was a top performing reel in the data set I'm looking over the past year. I'm like, ah, that's the light at the end of the tunnel that I need to see because it's just a little shift. It's not some huge shift. It's just a little shift to the right and I go, okay, now I know where my target is. I've been aiming over here. I need to aim over here. And if I can double down on the right target, well, then I'm not gonna miss, and my impacts will be more impactful. So if I had to wrap this up in, like, a homework, number 1, list out everything you're doing right now for your content. Number 2, identify the 20% that creates the most value, and you're gonna want to look at at least 1 platform to start. Don't try to do all of the platforms that you show up on. Start with just 1 platform. And then number 3, cut or delegate 3 tasks that don't serve your goals. And number 4, use the freed up time to focus deeply on your most important work which usually ties back into number 2, studying the 20% high performers and how you can make more of those. This is how you're going to create more time because you're choosing what truly matters versus hoping that it will get easier or hoping that you find more hours in the day. Next, let's talk about finding a format that works. So many creators and this ties into the last thing we were just talking about, but so many creators feel like everybody has their format or niche but I don't and it looks like watching your favorite content creators and they make it look so easy and then when it comes to you you're like, I don't even know what I'm doing. I don't I like my new here even if you've been doing it for a while you're like, am I doing this right? I don't feel like you know, an impostor syndrome maybe pops up, you're like, they've been doing it maybe shorter than time that I have but they make it look better for some reason. And this is like most content creators fall into this especially in the beginning, especially when they're doing it solo, spinning their wheels looking for trying to find this perfect format. If I could just find this perfect format, I did this too. I'm like using Instagram as like a reference. I'm like should I just post all reels? Should I just post images? Should I use this type of quote? Should I use, you know, how to's, listicles, all these different things. And it's confusing and it's taxing mentally because you're thinking about like how do I do this versus what am I doing and who am I doing it for. So I'm gonna offer you like a simple 1, 2, 3, 4 kind of framework or solution on how to find your format because if this is you or maybe you want to like kind of redo things and you wanna like maybe freshen things up and you know you don't wanna admit that you need to find your format. Just kidding. Just kidding. Alright. So here's how you're gonna find your format. Number 1, you're gonna just start creating. You're not gonna analyze it too closely. You're just gonna put out stuff. You cannot find your format when your car is parked. Let's use a car analogy. If your car is parked and you're trying to get to a destination, you will never get to the destination. Right? You need to start driving the car even if you're driving in the wrong direction. I know for myself there's 1 street I like taking in my neighborhood and there's 1 street I don't and the street I don't like taking because there's like some blind corners and things like that. It's usually in the direction I need to go but I will go in the opposite direction first because it's easier and less risk of a car popping out and having some type of collision. So I will go backwards first in order to get to my destination safer. I'm not sitting in the driveway going, how am I gonna get there? I just started driving. So number 1, start creating. Number 2, pay attention to what feels natural. When you're in the process of recording videos, do you like? Do you like to record videos where you're talking to the camera like I do? Do you like just recording podcasts and you actually don't like recording videos talking to the camera? Do you like not recording videos at all? Maybe you just like doing audio only podcasts and you maybe like writing emails and you like that type of connection that just text only and audio only helps you have. Number 3, note which content your audience responds to. If you're creating content, you're publishing regularly, your audience has to be involved in the equation of, like, what you're gonna double down on because if you're just doing it for yourself, which this goes against what Rick Rubin talks about, he says, like, don't involve the audience. We're talking about creating content. We're talking about growing a platform. We're talking about making money from what you're doing. At a certain point, you'll have carved your own lane. But in the very beginning, if you want attention, you need to cast a net and then figure out what it is that you're catching. Right? So note which content your audience is responding to. And then 4, refine based on feedback. 5 is repeat. So let's go over that again because I kind of took some pit stops. Number 1 is start creating. Number 2 is pay attention to what feels natural. Number 3 is note which content your audience responds to. Number 4 is refine based on feedback. Number 5 is repeat. And as I kind of wrap up this thought about finding your format, I want you to know this, it's not as hard as you think it is. People get stuck in this idea of I just can't find it. I don't know. It's like have you ever looked for something that you knew was in the pantry and maybe you know, you're like, I knew it was there. Someone must have moved it. No matter how hard you look, you're like, I'm not finding it. And then you ask somebody else and they come and they look and they're like, it's right here. No. Oh, I just missed it. Just like finding your format, sometimes when you focus so hard on it, you're making it bigger and harder than it needs to be. Really, it comes to taking a step back and tying in the first section I was talking about today about focusing on that 20% so you get the 80% of results, but it all ties back to the action not perfection. So start today, keep going, your format emerges as you create, refine as you go, and repeat what's working and less of what's not working. Makes sense? Last thing I wanna talk about today is, is this you? This sounds almost like a, prescription drug commercial for a second. Do you spend hours tweaking your content? Obsessing over every little edit, thinking it won't be good enough until you add in all of these images, b roll, sound effects, think it won't be good enough and people won't matter that unless you put in the work like mr. Beast puts in the work is that you I'll I'll never forget I heard mr. Beast say in an interview something like, you know, and it's it's funny because like mr. Beast is like what the most followed youtuber in the world and he said something about like, you know, obsessing over videos and putting in every little detail just like anybody else, you know, like you have to kind of filter advice and who it's coming from and how it applies to you and we're so, you know, here I am like I guess giving advice but we're so inundated with advice that it can be a lot if we like take it on even subconsciously. And, I think a lot of like what Mr. Beast might say is like kind of plays in the perfectionism. It's kind of like if you're learning you know, sports from like only the top guy and you're like, I'm gonna listen to this guy and it's like Michael Jordan and you're learning basketball. It's like, yeah, but Michael Jordan like skips over so many things at his level because it's been so long and he's been doing it. It's great to hear from guys like him, but you also want to hear people that are not just at the point 0.001% of the population on a certain subject. Sometimes, like, overextending yourself putting in all these little minute details really just leads to, again, burnout, stress, draining your creative energy, slowing down your output, stopping you from hitting publish. The truth is done is better than perfect anytime. It doesn't matter if you end up publishing it, just calling it done and it gets 1 view versus 0 views. Like, I'll take 1 view any day of the week over 0 views and we all run into this crossroads of, like, we want to make our content better but at the same time we know we can only put in so much into it. So if you utilize what I talked about in the first segment around how to have more time to create, we're cutting out the fluff which means we don't need to get fancy with it, right? You can always get fancy later on but sometimes I think creators get stuck with trying to make their project today also look like how it will look in 4 years versus just making the best it can today. I made a YouTube video earlier this week that I made in about an hour. Is it perfect? No. Absolutely not. Did I want to add more b roll shots to it? Absolutely. But I gave myself a time limit and I was like, you know what? I only have an hour to do this because I have to wrap up at this time. If it doesn't get done now I know I'm gonna lose steam and I'm just gonna let it go. And you know what? Got a few 100 views and it gave me enough motivation to be like, you know what? I might make some more YouTube videos because I saw the interest in that and I saw that people were digging that. So like, you know what? Maybe I could make more. So maybe I'll spend you know another hour next week because the hour before this I did not spend an hour on YouTube. I might go more in there because I saw the results of just putting in 1 hour on it. And I was thinking, you know, like how many times I've stopped working on a YouTube video because I felt like I need to add in like little text effects. And I've been actually experimenting with this on my TikTok videos that I've been publishing where prior if I was making the video I would add in little animations and just like little, you know, they all add up. All these little clicks add up. So I was adding in, like, little animations when something would slide in. I was, like, what if I just actually removed all of that? What if I made the whole video in just a script? I started giving myself these containers of, like, I'm only gonna do it in this program and that's gonna be it and let's see how it does. And if it doesn't do well, well then I'll know the problem was the editing software not anything else because I have enough data from moving my car, moving my wheels, publishing consistently that I can start to narrow in on, like, where the problems are. So I did it in just a script and what do you know? Still got thousands and thousands of views across multiple videos. So now I know, like, I don't need to obsess over these details that previously I was spending an extra few minutes on each little thing that adds up to hours and hours over the course of a few months. So being able to cut that out, I'm able to spend more time again on like the things that actually matter because it's clear the data has shown for me and I guarantee you it will show for you too that your viewers care more about your message than any pixel perfect edits. They want to connect with you. That's what we're all craving right now. If they're admiring your editing skills and they tell you that they still wanna connect with you. So if you're connecting with people through your editing skills that's 1 thing which most people that I talk with that's not what they're trying to connect with people is through the editing, it's through their message. What what they're saying in the videos or in the podcast. So here's how you can stop obsessing over details that your viewers will never notice is setting a time limit for editing. Give yourself an hour, give yourself an hour and a half. Maybe it's even less if you have less time, but when the time's up you have to publish what you have. And guess what? You'll likely find that your content performs just as well or even better and you'll feel better about it when it does perform well because you spent less time on it than your over edited pieces. Focus on creating value. Don't focus on perfection. Your audience is gonna thank you for it. You're gonna thank me for it. So I'll just say right now, you're welcome. Alright. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. I'll catch you in the next 1.