Baka Breakthroughs Ep 1

Quote I’m living by

14th March: I saw myself hitting a ceiling with my jiu-jitsu improvements. I do get frustrated by getting caught in the same thing over and over again. Then I see people around me working so hard, just trying to absorb whatever they can to become better. Shoutout to Ramit, Vansh and Achin. I do get inspired by you guys everyday.

15th March: I’ve been going through lots of ups and downs recently, not just at work, but in my personal life as well. Finding a new place to rent, sudden changes and increases in our bills. Cursing myself for not being able to complete all tasks. Not being able to do much outreach for my agency.

16th March: I’ve been questioning myself, regarding my content agency.

Lead generation has been slow right now, since I'm focusing on so many avenues: Content for whysaksham, metromediahouse, 2 of our existing clients, finalizing an editing position so I can hire a youtube editor for the client I’ve been working with for over 2 years now, innovating in each area. On top, learning new stuff so I don’t become stagnant with the value I give out. That leads me to asking myself this frequently":Am I selling something that’s not valuable enough? Maybe I need to repackage it better?

17th March: Had the team member I work closest with, Aman, come across a complete block in terms of his work. He is a massive part behind everything that I’m able to produce video wise, he’s the one doing the edits. We’re all facing issues in our daily lives, either we can solve them or not, depends on whether we have control over the factors leading to those issues. Had a productive talk with him, identified where the root cause of the problem is, adjusted workload. Hoping to see some great progress now.

18th March: Woke up feeling dangerous today, gonna take care of all tasks before training today. Crazy how I started the week with doubting my self worth.

19th March: The newsletter should’ve been sent yesterday, but I wanted to link my youtube video, which got delayed due to internet reasons ffs. Not the best start, I thought the video would be done within the deadline, but it didn’t happen. Anyway, everything else was finished, and I’m happy about that.

One thing to remember is, you are not your feelings. The things that are needed to be done, must be done, regardless of how you feel.

Every single day, I just try to remind myself, that this is character development for me. It’s just another training arc, and I’ll come out of this phase, a better man, a more capable man.

It’s all for a better reason. 

Lessons from books:

Been reading “You are not so smart”, CH1 (Priming): Talks about the fact that you think that you know when you’re being influenced or not, when the reality is you are completely unaware of the constant nudging you receive from ideas formed in your unconscious mind.

You’re actually unaware of how unaware you are. Everything around you is influencing your brain in some way or the other.

1. The sounds you listen to on the road, or inside the club.

2. That reel you just scrolled past after watching the first 2 seconds.

3. The indecisiveness behind you trying to read a book but not doing it eventually.

4. The way your work setup is created.

5. The color combinations of lights around you. Everything.

Although advice like (whenever you’re in a situation, ask yourself_______) doesn’t really work, because you probably won’t even remember to do that. But every once in a while, think about your day and try to ask yourself, whenever you’re just passing time, “Did X have an influence over me in any way?” It could be a conversation you overheard while walking on the road, some movie/tv show you watched, even that standup video on youtube.

It actually gets you thinking, and in the end, you’ll understand your understanding in a better way. I’ve been doing it with the music I listen to, and the videos I’ve been watching on youtube, and in some cases, it has actually led me to not waste time in some instances, although not significantly, but enough for me to notice..

The untethered soul: My flatmate, Chaitanya was shocked when he saw I received this book. It’s one of the biggest behind his mental & spiritual breakthroughs and him being able to live on his own and become self-dependent. Was going to spend time with this book, but I’m picking up Expert Secrets by Russell Brunson now. Gotta refine my knowledge so I can scale my agency and deliver the best service for the clients. Plus talk about my experience to you all so you can do something too.

Interesting resources:

Bento: Saw this and instantly cancelled my linktree subscription. Looks way better, is cleaner, and it’s free. It’s an alternative to linktree. Although I lose analytics, I didn’t usually care about it anyway.

RyanMscnitzler on twitter, I’ve been studying this guy’s work recently on organic lead generation and using twitter auto-dms, and it’s genuinely interesting how much value he gives. This is what my aim is with my brand too, give so much value, that people are in disbelief, and curious to know what happens when they actually receive when they pay me. Will try to implement whatever I can take from the value he puts out.

New thoughts and approach to my work:

I’ve established my dynamic of me to audience, need the other side now.

A big reason why I started my newsletter, I want you guys to be with me on this journey, and sharing my learnings and resources may help you take a step ahead.

I do get a lot of enquiries for brand promotions, and even though they offer a good amount, I’ve rejected about 15 deals until now. I’ll never sell something that I don’t vouch for, 100%. I can’t differ in action from the values I preach.

I’d rather sell once in a month, which is of absolute value than doing it 5-6 times, not caring about you all, just so I can make that buck and increase that number in my bank account.

In terms of metromediahouse, I’ll be uploading way more there, and film in batches, mainly answer questions and address pain points regarding building a brand and leveraging it for your business. Probably by the end of this week, I’ll have 1-2 sessions where I record with the aim of posting 5-7 times per week on there.

Honestly, it’s not easy at all when you potentially have so many income sources, and you try to manage it together. In the ideal scenario, I can have 4-5 income sources, when, when I’m able to create a base and an actual system around managing everything I’ve got. (Big reason why I don’t do brand collaborations yet)

Had one brand reach out, that I thought would be a great idea to work with, but eventually when I saw the product, I was not really convinced on the vision of me promoting it. Product was great, still the vision wasn’t there initially.

(If there’s a solution that I finalized after this part before publishing, I’ll mention it)

Yes, I’m gonna move forward with this project, even though the pay is less than expected. This will open up an opportunity to build a good network with people I look up to👀👀

On top of all of this,

Even though I’ve got experience freelancing, running my agency for a while, then sales, then being the head of content at AOS Media; doing this full time takes a mental toll, since I’ve got to have a balance between 1) figuring out 2)execution of tasks 3) innovating.

Pls send help if you’ve got any suggestions on what I can do…

Food for thought: Creator economy

Think about it, how many creators you follow actually have a DUAL SIDE DYNAMIC?

Let me explain (as in the picture in the last section):

1. Creator has a dynamic with himself, where research, idea creation, execution, improvement comes in.

2. The audience dynamic: Feeling after consumption, negative/positive feedback, relatability, inside push to help the creator, and most importantly, connecting with the creator in some way.

3. The Creator-Audience dynamic:

   1. Creator takes feedback, improves in real time to give people what they like to see, and align that with what the creator wants to produce.

   2. Modes of communication: DMs, Emails, Discord Server etc.

   3. Acknowledging the audience for their effort. Making them feel loved.

Let’s see KSI, one of the biggest in the world, even he does it regularly, with his reddit videos. Even though he’s at a point where he does not necessarily need that connection, yet he makes it the focal point when it comes to his content and even his various businesses. Why do you think Prime does so well? I believe it’s 90% of KSI’s dynamic, with his audience.

Over time, newly blown up creators lose their identity in this wave of influencer marketing. Their sole purpose becomes to post free content, which is parallel to their future collabs, so they won’t get restricted, and money making with this one source becomes easy.

Majority of the creators right now, specially info/entertaining creators have just one aim, produce with the aim of direct monetization through brand deals. Not saying that should not be the purpose, I will do collabs in future. I just can’t get myself to accept the fact that majority of creators have a slight bit of idea as to how much responsibility they have because of their increasing influence.

99.9% of the “online gurus” have their profile built just for the sake of selling. Do you really think they actually care about the people consuming their content? It’s all meant just for selling. They have a common ecosystem in terms of followers and content and conversion (will talk about it in next week’s edition). These guys hardly login on social media, because their team does all the work, they see the back account get fatter and fatter, and enjoy their life. These guys suck out every single dollar they can make from a platform, then move on to the next big thing or create a new course with the same marketing. (Great short term + exit strategy)

Still nothing wrong with this ecosystem. People are just unaware of these facts.

I saw Dan Koe address it beautifully, Your brand is your story. Your content is your school. And your product is a holistic system to help get people where you are from where you were, with LESS TRIAL AND ERRORS. (It’s up to the creator on how they’d take care of the students)

Always aim for creating a connection with the audience, ask for feedback, implement it. Hear their opinions, involve them in your projects, in one way or the other. (I’ll involve you guys in a project with me, we’ll make it exciting , you all will know soon). It’s the best for the long term. Although it sounds like these creators are doing God’s work, the thing is, the uncertainty behind a platform can royally ruin this plan.

So if you want to become a creator, try to separate yourself initially so you don’t abandon the audience you create if your aim is primarily money making.

Nothing wrong with monetizing your audience, still, how long do you think they’ll stay if they’re just thinking that they’re the givers while receiving nothing but the same old boring content?

(specially with short form content, audience trust is hardly built)

I do plan on selling you guys as well, only stuff which is tried and tested audited by some great individuals that I look up to. So you guys have the least amount of buyers remorse when buying a product that I made.

(Don’t worry I won’t sell you a $1000 course and a sketchy money back guarantee haha)

On the flip side, when creators become popular, but their main focus is making money, and that avenue is different from their brand, that’s when they can powerfully leverage all the power of social media. See Iman Gadzhi for an example, he always had his agency, but he documented every step of the way, giving value, sometimes flexing on us, a lot haha. But his main money generating avenue was different from social media. (kinda what I’m doing as well).

This is the path I want to take as of now, let’s see how things unfold.

Habit Changes:

I rent an apartment with my good friend. On Tuesday we made a proper schedule for our diet.

1. To help predict monthly expenses.

2. Increase protein since both of us want to be in better shape.

3. Reduce decision fatigue.

4. Hold each other accountable.

Actionable items for you:

Honestly, watch my Jordan Peterson Reel. Whenever I see that I’m slacking in any area, I go back to this. It always the choice that you don’t want to make, that should be made.

I was spending way too much time scrolling on autopilot. Aside from filming, posting, doing work-related stuff on my phone and taking calls. There’s nothing useful in that device, yet I spent too much time on it.

We all know that the worst feeling is when you know you could’ve done better. What better way to call yourself out, daily? Every night before sleeping, I write on the blank side of my to-do list. Was I a pretender or a relentless action-taker today?

On days when I’m a pretender, I’m fully honest with myself, and that bit of disgust comes into my head whenever I stop to scroll. I remind myself, that this isn’t the activity that will put me in the best position for my future self.

You don’t have to put yourself on a pedestal when you’re trying to make yourself better. Be ruthless in picking out mistakes you’re making, THAT YOU CAN FIX, and decide not to. Just because you fear the temptation to change and still daydream about the other side all day. And stay stuck in that loop.

Latest YouTube video:

In this week’s video, I talked about 3 uncommon income sources, that I’ve made money with, that YOU CAN TOO! Directly or indirectly (it was a medium, I didn’t get paid directly, I was involved in a different aspect of the process)

Click the image to access the video:

(This video was the reason behind the delay, won’t happen from this week)

Make sure you subscribe, I’ll be sharing stuff from my life experience, that you don’t usually hear “creators” say, because that doesn’t give them the numbers needed, so they can appeal to brands hahah.

I probably won’t know you personally, but if what I produce on any platform, makes your life better in any way……… my purpose is fulfilled.

Do send me feedback either on Substack or via email reply, or send me a DM on IG saying “you’re a baka, Saksham”. I’ll read every single one and become better in the next one.