When you have too much supply, what happens?

The economy that's coming into the world of content and social media does not actually support high value for individual creators.

What you're seeing right now is a lot of creators get squeezed and squeezed in terms of value.

And it’s because there's so much saturation.

Like with any economy, when you have too much supply, what happens?

The price goes down.

It's easier than ever to go viral and gain millions of views on a video, but because of that, there's always a new shiny thing for people to watch instead.

The endless list of creators who had their 15 minutes of fame are now all but non-existent.

You've got the cream at the top - which is decreasing - but what I would call the working class creator set is drastically increasing.

Even creators who were doing okay before, when they were relatively close to the top, they didn't quite get up to that scale which creates intrinsic value.

A lot of the time it comes down to the fact that virality is a curse, because it is so short-lived.

You're only as good as your last video.

Everyone's trying to monetise in 15 minutes, and there's no real connection there.

10 years ago, a viral moment might have given you a big base of followers who'd wait for your next thing because there was scarcity of creators.

Now it's a content culture where people are waiting for the next video and they'll forget about you immediately.

The creative prison

A lot of creators got stuck with the Mr. Beastification style of content - bigger, bigger, bigger.

More scale, more scale. But the economics don't match up.

If your videos require months of planning to get up to that scale, how do you top it?

How do you afford that?

Because YouTube is their primary revenue stream.

Your payroll is funded by the type of content you're making.

What does that mean?

You're trapped creatively.

You can't experiment because your audience expects a certain type of content.

If you change, views might dip.

Who's willing to take that risk?

Who's funding the gaps?

There's a massive funding and bridge financing problem for risk-taking.

Without it, creators are trapped on the treadmill.

The way out (for those smart enough to take it)

Specificity is now more important than ever.

The broad entertainment banner has been squeezed, but there's room for winners in specific categories.

There's going to be a winner in the drain unblocking category, you know.

The key is understanding that audience is always the gold.

Brands want to advertise to audience.

But if you simply optimise for short-term revenue, you're missing the flywheel effect.

Focus on the audience more than anything else.

Make content that is authentic, that has specificity.

Content you actually want to make and create.

The incentives should be entirely governed by how you satisfy your audience - not chasing the next viral hit.

The bottom line

Most creators are fighting for scraps in an oversaturated market while a tiny elite captures most of the value.

The only escape is building something that can't be commoditised: deep audience connection in a specific niche, with sustainable economics.

Stop chasing virality.

Start building for the long haul.

Remember, the creator mindset is all you need to grow 🌱

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