Baka Breakthroughs Ep. 2

Quote I’m living by

20th March: Surprisingly unproductive day. Woke up late, started work late, had to get myself to work 3 hours later than usual. A prospect I was about to close said no at the last moment, instead of feeling bad or reacting, I just let it sink in. Accept that it’s a part of this journey, and moved ahead to the next project. Only managed to do like 20-30% of what I aimed to finish up within the day, kinda disappointed in myself, it is what it is though.

21st March: Spent the morning getting the dressing done for my roommate because of his injury. Got to work late today as well. Don’t know why, over the last few days, my drive has been shaky, I feel really good after working out, but somehow since I start work late, I discredit myself. I’ve been planning to wake up early every day, but just can’t do it, this is it, from today I’ll change my schedule. There’s a reason behind the quote above, I’ve been misrepresenting myself, a lot over the last couple weeks, and I need to remove that completely. I was getting easily distracted, no more. Starting today, things will be different.

22nd March: Woke up earlier today, got a good amount of work done already. Definitely feeling better. One thing that has been eating me up from inside is self doubt, obviously I observe people around me, who are doing similar things. That gives me inspiration in a lot of ways, and it comes with self doubt. “Am I good enough? They’re doing it too, is there any point in me trying to do it?” Whenever I have these doubts, I recall what Alex Hormozi said, “ You don’t have to do something unique, do what others are doing, and do it better than them.”That has become my escape from self doubt. I know that if I put in enough effort, get over my limiting beliefs, learn diligently, protect my mental peace and stay focus, it’s inevitable that I’ll steamroll over my competitors. (Don’t take me as a douchebag lol)

23rd March: Woke up around the usual time. Didn’t start off with full energy, took care of easier tasks first and writing this in the afternoon (2.40pm currently). Do feel great since yesterday, had a 2 hour conversation with a fellow entrepreneur running a service agency. Bro is almost the same as me, we were watching the same podcast before the call, support Bayern Munich, both into MMA, both graduated as CS engineers, we both create content, have similar inspirations, it was mad. He gave me quite a lot of insights to help improve my agency too, it hasn’t been a long time since I started Metro Media House. Talked about future collaborations. Overall great vibes. The progress so far looks good, got another 3 hours before training, will take off as much as I can beforehand.

24th March: Did some self reflection today, called myself out on things that I was procrastinating on. I knew I wasn’t doing the required amount of outreach and getting on sales calls for my agency. This is the initial phase I’ve had to go through 3-4 times now, it’s about time I learn from it and make sure it never happens again. I take full responsibility of my team members and making sure they’re never out of work. Also landed a potential big opportunity for the potential video editors, the client made it harder for the process to move forward in terms of finalizing the edit style etc. If you’re reading this, and you’re one of the 2 editors I’ll be hiring, welcome to Metro Media House. This is a big big client, and can seriously level up your portfolio.

(This next paragraph is only about for football fans) Bro I woke up in the middle of the night to drink water and picked up my phone to randomly check twitter and saw that Nagelsmann is getting sacked as Bayern’s head coach out of nowhere. He was meant to shape an entire era at the club, being a youngster he made the team look almost flawless in the champions league this season againt big opponents. So why sack him just because Tuchel is available and he might go to another club. At least give the guy this season to prove himself. Making him the most expensive coach in the history was for nothing? Man is a Bayern fan through and through, I wanted him to win the 2025 CL final at the Allianz arena. It is what it is, I’ve been trying to not let football affect me in any way, but this sport has been my life since I was in 3rd standard in school. I can’t make it not affect me. Similar thing happened 3-4 weeks before JEE Adv in 2017 when Bayern got robbed against RM. CBA with this sport. But it’s my life, haha, guess this is what it feels like being a full fledged fan.

25th March: Stayed up late in the night, just didn’t feel like sleeping. Ordered some food at 2am and watched The Night Agent, so far a decent series. Went to the Jiu Jitsu session at 9 am on like a 5 hour sleep, it was a great session. Took it a bit easy today. Now writing this at 4pm, will film the setup video now and head off to a party in the evening.

26th March: Partied too much yesterday, came back in the morning. I think I’ll be sending these newsletters on Sundays or Mondays, because i get time to film YouTube videos later in the week and it becomes hard to get the edits done by Saturday.

Will spend the whole sunday working.

Lessons from books:

Currently reading “Expert Secrets by Russell Brunson”. I always wanted to learn how to build funnels and convert people into customers. Well I have an idea, but where I am in my career, this book made sense before “Traffic Secrets”. It talks about how nobody is a born leader, it’s an acquired skill.

If you want people to stick with you, you have to go through the entire transformation yourself first, and create a tangible process for others to follow. You have to be the amateur, learn everything you can directly. Then learn from other people since there’s only so much you can learn by yourself.

A big problem we see these days with “experts” on social media is the fact that they read or consume stuff related to a topic and present themselves as an expert. Fake it till you make it isn’t really the best way to grow online these days, people see right through your bullshit. You have to apply that knowledge for yourself, help others with it first then spread wisdom. There’s a difference between advice that lacks substance and actual wisdom.

Interesting resources:

Got a couple of books from Harvard Business Review: 1) Stats and Curiosities 2) Management tips.

Really short reads, credible source, interesting topics and definitely something to read.

Plus they’ll give you a lot of conversation starters in gatherings. I got them from a crossword store nearby, go get them if you can too, or just order them online.

New thoughts and approach to my work:

I saw the analytics of my brand after a month, and there’s a really intriguing pattern. I’ve been getting quite a lot of unfollows. So I sat down and started thinking why?

I’ve been posting about just my experiences since day 1, because it’s a PERSONAL brand right? But that’s just me thinking about myself, what about the viewers?

Every person has subconscious expectations regarding everything. Whether it’s the amount of chips from a lays packet, or what they’ll get out of a conversation or what kind of information they prefer to consume.

Thinking about my audience, it’s very broad. I’ve got people who are interested in freelancing, building one person businesses, readers, people interested in martial arts and fitness, college students and new graduates. They all have different expectations from me.

I gained a new insight after asking myself why. There’s a new side to my theory regarding my brand. I’ve not seen anyone, just posting about themselves, and accumulating such a big audience, that too in a short amount of time.

Every person has 1 specific niche, 1 core pillar that’s based around their work. Varun Mayya has Saas and AI. Prakhar has psychology, Vinamra has podcasting, Dan Koe has writing and there’s countless examples.

I’ve been missing that pillar, while posting about my life and experiences, I forgot to post more and more about my expertise, things I obsess over. If you’re reading this, head over to my IG once, and see I’ve changed my bio.

I’ll dive deeper into storytelling, video creation, sales, martial arts and how I’m building a life for myself, aiming for full self dependence, creating something of my own, so people know more about who I am.

Thinking about it, just having “Martial Arts | My Learnings” was too vague to make people stay, I’ve got to get you guys more involved with what I do.

If you’re reading this, I own a content agency named “Metro Media House” where I work with online coaches and businesses, real estate entrepreneurs and help them with post video production and distribution, and on top, consulting on building their own personal brand so they can leverage it to diversify their income streams. At this moment, my client pool is very targeted, and for people from my audience, who want to work with me, there’s a 99% chance you’re not a fit for this service.

As I’m gaining expertise, I would be more than happy to create something for you all, the only thing that’s holding me back is I don’t want to break the trust you all have in me. Of course my aim is to monetize and make this a pillar for my living, but I don’t want to just milk it for the sake of making money.

I’ve seen countless brand lose the trust of their audience because they only came with the aim of direct monetization. Let’s see, a few years in future, if need be, I’ll create something for you all that’ll be paid. But until then, almost everything I put out, covers majority of the aspect of my learning and I want you all to have that for free.

As I’m making this for you, and for my past 2017 version, who didn’t have any guiding light for his future.

It’s 24th March, and I just put up a story regarding people collaborating with me and creating stuff that other creators haven’t even thought of.

Currently working on those ideas, will make something happen real soon.

Food for thought: Creator economy

There’s 2 types of personal brands (as far as I know): One built on themselves, one built on their expertise. First one is long term as they have infinite chances to pivot, second one is also medium to long term, but they have a primary aim to monetize their expertise through their medium.

I solely come in the first one, but seeing the analytics behind my brand, I didn’t get upset, but curious as to why so many people come, follow me but then leave? Do they want me to build this brand on expertise.

How can I find a mix between the 2, create my own unique brand value. That’s a question without a definite answer, and you just uncover the hidden parts, like the map in open world games.

I’ll make it my purpose to create the most unique brand, where people feel valued too, and I can make that one of my pillars of living.

I look up to writers like Dan Koe and Zach Pogrob because these guys have done something I want to do, with my medium of communication, which is video. They do it in writing and audio.

These guys are creating what I aim to create.

For you, aspiring creators, find good sources of inspiration. People who build things in a way you want to. 100% of it might not align with you, but that’s the only direction you need to take the best next step.

Habit Changes:

Waking up early, that’ it. That’s what I want to do this week. (It’s 21st right now, and I woke up at 9am, but started work at 12, so kinda disappointed)

And reading more, I’ve been slacking too much on reading and consuming knowledge, I’ve been distracted too much recently, and that changes right now. I’ll just think and ideate next steps regarding my business, content etc, and spend the nights reading and learning.

I’ve made a pact with myself, that I won’t be watching any TV show, or entertainment basically apart from Sundays. (UCL doesn’t count haha)

And I’ll drown myself in information, content and influence, based on what I want to achieve in the short term, and long term. That way I’ll prime myself to be hyper aware of opportunities and come up with thoughts and take action in the most efficient way possible.

It definitely feels weird to not watch a sidemen video while eating, but after I’m done, I don’t take any buffer time before starting work again.

End of the week, seriously consuming content for your purpose is a game changer. Although I binged The Night Agent over the weekend, I had way more ideas and implementations around my content and agency than usual because I just drowned myself in only relevant information

Actionable items for you:

Think about what I talked in regards to building a personal brand. Whatever you’re trying to create, is that purely you (1st case, like me) or a mix of “purely you” and “expertise” (What I’m pivoting to now).

Create a routine around consumption of entertainment & information. Set times and days where you’ll watch everything you want to (to catch up basically), you won’t start any new show or movie, until you achieve 1-3 short term goals (Which can be finishing a book, waking up consistently for 3 weeks, eating a healthy diet, working out consistently, finishing a course, or an income goal you have). Then reward yourself with some time to consume entertainment.

Put up a story once you write these 1-3 goals, and tag me in it and I’ll reshare all your stuff. (If you’re a content creator, I’ll curate some kind of shoutout for you in my story). Big shoutout to Pratham Bhagat on IG for coming up with this idea. Love seeing people give feedback and ideas that I can implement to make these better for you.

Do send me ideas on how I can involve you guys in this newsletter more. Maybe from the next edition, I’ll have one person write a section and I’ll give them a shoutout in the newsletter.

Latest YouTube video:

This week I showed you guys my work setup and everything you don’t actually see in my videos.

This is a quite expensive setup (For me too, although the aim is to make one 10x better soon), I talked about everything that’s involved in my work setup and how I think about buying equipments.

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.

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