My Time at the 2023 Forbes Top Creators List Launch

E128: Last night I went to the 2023 Forbes Top Creators List Launch. Most people who tried to come were turned away. Somehow, I was let in.

Here's what I learned and what it was like.

#creatoreconomy #creatorlessons #forbes #lessonslearned

Transcript:

Last night I went to a very special event. A very exclusive event. From, from your favorite publisher, Forbes. The event was called the Forbes Top Creators List Launch. I made it to this creator event. Somehow, somehow your boy made it. Somehow I made it. And I'm going to talk about what I learned at this event, what it was like.

I'm going to give all the details. I don't hold anything back. And then I'm going to answer the question at the very end of this podcast. I'm going to answer the question. Do you need events like this to be successful, to make it as a creator?

Episode 128 of the Edward show. Let's jump into it.

There were two big lessons. That stuck out to me at this event. Maybe three. Maybe three. Let's say three. Let's say three. Three big lessons that stuck out to me at this event. So, the first speakers were Drew  Afualo, and Drea Okeke. I'm definitely mispronouncing their names. They're big creators. And  hosts, podcast hosts.

I don't know who they are, but I know that they're big. They have tens of millions of followers each. They're making millions of dollars each. As creators, they said the number one most important thing was authenticity. I agree with that. That's something that I found. I think my TikToks are a lot more likely to go viral when I am at my most authentic, when I feel like I am really keeping it real, when I am just off the cuff, free flowing, in the zone, speaking.

That's when my content does best. Someone that I follow, someone that I like a lot, said that good content is just energy transference. And so you want to be in a good... Place to transfer your energy. You want to be in a good zone. So you have good energy to transfer. And what these creators said on the stage corroborated that that was less than one.

Less than two. Let's go, let's go deeper. Let's go deeper. Lesson two. This is from Matthew Rife, very well known comedian. I put him speaking on my Instagram story and some friends were like, I love that guy. Wow. You're seeing that guy.

Matthew Rife, he's blowing up, making tons of money, he's doing multiple shows a day as a comedian. And he said he's sleeping two hours a night. Maybe some nights he's sleeping one. He's able to get such little sleep because his life is very exciting, however it's very draining. And he's like, you know, I'm 29.

This is my shot. I worked for years to get this shot and I'm going to make the most of it. And I'm not going to sleep if that's what it takes. And it was just cool hearing that because you guys know, you guys know me. I put out a video a day, a podcast today. I haven't missed a day.  In over a year for the tick tock and I have never missed a day for the podcast.

I put out a weekly newsletter, haven't missed a week in many, many weeks and I'm going hard. And for me on day on some days I'm like, Oh my God, I can't believe this workload. This is crazy. And it's just, it's refreshing to hear from a fellow creator. Who is doing so well and who is working so many hours, who doesn't have a life.

He's like, I don't have a life. You hear this from people like MrBeast too and a lot of the top creators. You think they're living the most glamorous life. It's a lot of work because you work so hard to get to a point where everyone wants you and then everyone wants you and you want to jump on as many opportunities as you can.

So you make the most of. The shot that you are given. Is this the best method? I don't know. Some people would say double down and just focus on what you're best at and what you like doing the most. Maybe that's good as well, but it is nice to hear from someone who is a very top creator, who's very recognized.

And this person is putting in the hours and it's not 100 percent party city. That was lesson two. Lesson two, value of work sounds silly, especially on a growth hacking podcast where I discover hacks that you get so much more rewards

for the effort that you put in. The

comparison between awards to effort is very asymmetrical. You get a lot more rewards compared to the effort.

But I also think

a lot of people work that hard as well. In jobs where they have a very low cap, and they're working that hard too. I know somebody who's a lawyer. She's doing that. She has IBS because she is working so hard as a lawyer, and her cap is very low. And this guy, this comedian, he's working the same amount.

Again, very hard. A lot of stress for sure. But his cap is so, so, so, so much higher.

So the creator route, look, you guys know, I'm a huge proponent of being a creator.

The creator route to me, that seems like a growth hack. As long as you go hard, as long as you're willing to put in the time. Lesson number three. One of the very first people that I followed on TikTok, it was one of the first people that I followed is this chef, Zachary Neiman. He makes cooking videos, incredible cooking videos.

I would recommend them. I love watching them. And he was there and I went up to him and I'm like, dude, you were one of the first people that I followed and we talked for an hour and he told me what he thinks the most important. He has half a million followers growing a lot. He's growing so fast. Almost 400, 000 on I G So half a million on 000 on I G growing so fast. And he told me what he thinks the most important traits are in a viral video. And he gave them to me in order. Number one is relatability. That is the number one thing that is most likely to make a video go viral, to make a piece of content go viral. The reader can relate and the reader shares it.

Number two, learning. Second most valuable. The viewer, the reader, the listener, learned something really valuable and is sharing it for that reason and appreciates it for that reason. That is the second thing that is most likely to make a video go viral. And then number three is comedy.

Which I actually would have thought would have been higher, but according to Zachary, it was number three. Number three is comedy made the person laugh and the person shares it with his or her friends. Those are the three things, the three most important traits. For viral video. Talking to Zachary was awesome.

He's 23 years old. He started his TikTok two years ago when he was finishing college. Now he has enough followers. He's going full time on it. And this was really telling for me. I just finished my first year of TikTok. I have 67, 000 followers. Just finished my first year. Made several podcasts about that.

I haven't missed a day of posting since starting the TikTok. After Zachary's first year, he had 10, 000 followers. So I'm at 67, he had 10, 000 and now on his second year, he's up to 500, 000. Incredible lesson. He also said, and I I told him there are weeks or months where I have plateaus and it feels awful, but a friend of mine, her name is Avni.

She met with Sam Parr, founder of The Hustle, host of My First Million, and Sam Parr said, grow slower. Do what is true to your mission

carve out your niche Define that niche.

Don't worry about going viral and viral and viral and viral as long as you're sticking to the niche that is best for you the the best people The people who are most likely to like what you do and what you talk about, those people will find you. But if you go all over the place, you're less likely to find those people. And if they do find you and you're going all over the place, those people will not stick.

And so I said this. To Zachary Neiman, he's like, I totally agree with that. People are obsessed with super fast growth on social media. I mean, I myself am. I love that Instagram hack that I talked about on a recent episode.

But you still need to stay within your lane.

If you're making content about things that you don't care about, you won't be able to sustain that. And when you switch to something else, you will lose your followers. And you'll basically be starting from... Brand new.  And so even though Zachary Niemann only had 10, 000 followers after his first year.

He didn't get discouraged now. He's at half a million He's growing so fast. Cool. So that's what I learned. What was it like? Let me talk about what this was like and who was there So I already named some of the people who was there the founder of FuckJerry Eliot Tebele I don't know if I'm pronouncing his name either.

He was there Top Forbes staff was there. So many creators were there. I don't know many creators. Like I don't recognize many creators. I am in a very specific niche, which is startups and technology and marketing. I know top startup people. I know top marketing people. That is what I love the most. Those are the people that I pay attention to.

If Neil Patel was here or if Brian Dean from Backlinko was here, I would school girl , geek out. I would school girl geek out. Oh my God. Neil Patel, I got to talk to you. Like that's, that's what it would get to me. These are creators who are in very different lanes from me.

So it was just cool to talk to them as peers. And that's, there were also, there were CMOs here. Chief, a lot of chief marketing officers were here. And then there were heads of big talent agencies.

And everyone was here and they were doing deals and they were. Talking about collaborations and videos and potential sponsorships and people were drinking and there was Incredible luxury food. There were churros hanging from an umbrella There were these like mini cheesecakes being passed around there was a ramen station and a taco station free drinks Everyone was boozing up.

The food was incredible It's in this special Forbes location on 5th Avenue in New York City, next to Washington Square Park. Everyone was making content for themselves and for their channels. There were different photo booths for Forbes. It was really a good event. There was good music, good people, good conversation.

Like I said, I learned a good amount

and overall it was a great vibe. That's what it was like. You had top people in a top room doing deals together.

So this brings me to the third part of this episode, which is, wow, Edward, you like, you went to this event. You're really lucky. No wonder you have 67, 000 followers, which, by the way, isn't a lot of followers. I guess in my niche, it's a good amount because I'm in such a defined, small niche, like, Marketing for startups and creators, and growth hacks, like, that's not the biggest niche.

It's, I love this niche. It's a great niche, but it's not like makeup. So I'm actually pretty happy with the amount of followers that I have and the amount that I'm continuing to grow.

With that said... The following that I have, I've said this before, I'll say it again. I did all of this over the course of the last year, making my videos and editing them on an iPhone 8. I was shooting on an iPhone 8, editing on the iPhone 8 for the first three fourths of the year, and then I switched to editing on my 2014 MacBook Pro.

 I got my entire following with an iPhone 8. And a 2014 MacBook Pro.

And I did not get my following because I was put into people's videos and I was giving, giving deals. My videos sucked at the beginning. I said, I'm going to do this every day. I'm going to figure it out. And then they improved over time. I've made, like I said, many episodes talking about the top things that I learned that increased.

my base amount of views. I even just put out an article. You can see it at edwardsturm.  com forward slash articles. I think it's called how I got my Tik Tok following. You can read that. I just talk about everything. I share everything.

In fact, when I made the most viewed video in the world and the Silicon Valley bank collapse, I was living in Warsaw in Poland.

And yeah, like I said, there were owners of big talent agencies at this event. These people used to be really important back in the day. They had the connection to the brand deals. You needed these people back in the day. They had the connections, not just the brand deals, to the studios, to other actors and actresses, TV, movies, or whatever.

But you don't need that anymore. You can sit anywhere, anywhere, learn to make good content, and then have all the brands come to you that way. That's the reality of 2023. I think when I said, I'm going to answer the question, do you need this to be successful as a creator? I think when I said that at the beginning of the episode, you knew what I was going to give the answer as.

You knew that I was going to say, no, you don't need this. You can be totally remote. I am leaving New York City on Sunday. I'm going to a small city in Poland on Sunday. Because I so strongly believe that you can live anywhere. And make great content and people will pay attention to you. With that said, I'm very grateful to have gone to this event.

It was an amazing event. I met amazing people. Thank you, Forbes, for inviting me. And I will continue to go to as many of your events as I can. But at the end of the day, and I said this in a TikTok a few days ago, You can't fake good substance. This is episode 128 of The Edward Show, heading into Manhattan now with a close friend.

Gonna edit this. Thank you so much for listening. I will talk to all of you again tomorrow. Bye now.