Speaker A
I was born on February 24th, 1970. The day I was delivered, they said I would build a legacy. Picture me with influence that lasts generations. I was made out of love to keep you happy and educated.
Daniel Dalen explains his authentic video documentation blueprint for founders: sequencing (entertainment, documentation, storytelling), gear choices, and building leverage through a consistent person
Key Takeaways
- Authentic founder content requires doing genuinely document-worthy work, not just recording daily life.
- Sequencing (hook, documentation, entertainment transitions) is the structural backbone of the format.
- Gear and lens choice shape how intimate and immersive the viewer experience feels.
- Consistency and leverage-building matter more than any single video.
What the video covers
- Daniel Dalen returns to filming with a new collaborator, Valentine, and shares the blueprint behind his founder documentary content.
- A core principle: the person in front of the camera is half the work; the person behind the camera is the other half.
- Documenting must be built on document-worthy activity, since audiences don't care about a day-in-the-life unless it carries a lesson or skill.
- Video sequencing follows a pattern: entertainment and authority hooks, then raw documentation that puts viewers in the room, then back to entertainment with transitions.
- Strategic use of music, match cuts, and recurring visuals (office, travel in Asia) reinforces the entrepreneur-in-Asia authority narrative.
- Varied cameras and lenses (wide-angle, natural-perspective lenses) create intimacy and a sense of presence for the viewer.
- Leaving mistakes and unpolished moments in the edit is presented as part of authenticity.
- Building leverage (deal flow, talent, community) is emphasized as the goal of consistent content creation.
- Consistency compounds: showing up weekly with a creative format builds community over time.
- The creator urges viewers to identify their own strengths, such as hosting events or speaking, to choose a suitable content format.
Chapters
- 00:00Intro and personal backstory
- 02:30Reintroducing the channel and new collaborator
- 05:00Harsh truth: document-worthy work
- 08:00Format sequencing explained
- 12:00Entertainment and authority hooks
- 16:40Documentation style and raw moments
- 25:00Camera gear and lens discussion
- 32:30Leverage, compounding, and finding your strengths
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
educated. So, I haven't been posting a lot of videos recently because of many reasons.
Speaker A
So, I haven't been posting a lot of videos recently because of many reasons. Um, but we are now going to pick back up the camera, and Valentine, who's here with me, fresh from the Netherlands, arrived in Hong Kong, is going to help me pick things back up. With that in mind, I thought there's going to be a lot of things that I'll talk with him about. There's a lot of things that I'll explain to him: what is important for me to document when building a business, the learnings, the people around us, how to be part of all these conversations while still capturing everyone in their most natural way.
Speaker A
going to be a lot of things that I'll talk with him about. There's a lot of things that I'll explain him to, what is important for me to document building a business, the learnings, the people around us, how to be part of all these
Speaker A
I thought I might as well just document and show you guys and share with you what I would share with him, which is basically the blueprint that I've been following from the start till right now, and even innovating the things that we've already been doing. And, in again, I would say almost raising the standard for ourselves a little bit based on what we've done previously. So, I'm just going to take you guys through all of that, those learnings. We're currently on the way to the office. After that, we'll go do some camera shopping, um, to also run you guys through the gear and also stack up on some gear for the upcoming crazy travel schedule. Um, but yeah, we did one of these videos a while ago, but it was not that technical. I just talked about the setups. So, now I also would love to share a lot of the thoughts that have gone into, and to this day still go into, creating content and documenting my journey as a founder. Um, so yeah, we're going to take you guys through that.
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following from the start till right now and even like innovating the thing that we've already been doing and in and in again, I would say almost raising the standard for ourselves a little bit based on like what we've done
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At the office. The office. I love being in the office on the weekend because it's completely empty. So, I always tell anyone who does this personal brand stuff that the person in front of the camera is half the work, and the person behind the camera is the other half. And when documenting or creating videos, and specifically my type of style where you are building something and you document what it is that you do and you take people on that journey, uh, and the way I have been executing my format, that's what I want to explain to you today and take you through that structure. And I'd say the most important part is the sequencing. So, really understanding what kind of sequence we are dealing with now. The one right now is usually documentation. I'll explain them in just a second, and that's going to lead probably to entertainment. So, you just really take people through a storyline. That's kind of the way this works.
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some gear for the upcoming crazy travel schedule. Um, but yeah, we did one of these videos a while ago, but it was not that technical. I just talked about the setups. So, now I also would love to share a lot of the thoughts that have
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Now, before we talk about the sequencing, one really important thing that is just a really harsh truth is that a lot of people want to document, but you need to actually be doing document-worthy stuff. A lot of people try to document their life or day in the life, but the truth is that no one freaking cares. Like, even for me, no one cares about me, my business, and everything else. They just don't care. Why did it work for me, though, is that everything that I go through in my life is for me a vehicle, a learning, to just give that message to you. So, everything that happens, even this theme, this topic, and what we've been doing, it's a skill that I have been really crafting and working on for over a decade, that now I get to share with everyone. So, I give back, and it's again a new personal event in my life. Like, I brought a new creative director on, and we're having these conversations about what's important. Uh, [ __ ] I lost the chain of... I lost my chain of thoughts. Sorry.
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[music] [singing] [music] [music] At the office. The office. I love being in the office on the weekend because it's completely empty. So, I always tell anyone who does this personal brand stuff that the person in front of the camera
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So, as I said, no problem. [laughter] No problem. Keep it natural. This is also part of it. I know. I actually have kept a lot of the mistakes and everything in there, which, it's good to understand leverage, which we'll get to in just a second. But from a personal level, I brought on someone new. There's going to be a big part of training and working together and finding that feel and understanding how to be in these rooms and how to be the other half of the person in front of the camera. So, I want to share that with you guys.
Speaker A
take people on that journey. Uh and the way I have been executing my format, that's what I want to explain to you today and and take you through that structure. And I'd say the most important part is the sequencing. So,
Speaker A
So, one thing that's good to keep in mind, and I tell this to everyone, but usually... yeah, come. I'll show you. So, usually any kind of video that we make is like an entire timeline. We've got this pen that is not working, so we've got this entire timeline. And the first part that you've probably seen in this video as well is something that I always called entertainment and authority. And the reason why I called it entertainment and authority is because we kind of hint at and highlight some of the things that we are going to do in the video. So, there's a little bit of entertainment. I use music that I personally really like, and it just creates a feeling. The authority is, and many of you have seen my content, there's a lot of shots in my office where we do these match cuts. There are often shots in there where I travel, which goes hand in hand and ties into the bigger picture, which is the title and the packaging of the video. So, it's like, I'm an entrepreneur doing business in Asia. We show Asia. I show them an entrepreneur. I show the people. So, you really focus on that authority, which is a subtle touch, and it's just something strategic that you have to put in there.
Speaker A
a storyline. That's kind of the way uh this works. Now, before we talk about the sequencing, one really important thing that is just a really harsh truth is that a lot of people want to document, but you need to actually be
Speaker A
That usually leads into documentation. And again, keep in mind this is specifically for my format. But documentation is where you, currently watching here with me, feel like you're in the room with me. I'm going to explain to you that even the second layer that goes into that, by using different cameras and different lenses, creates that feeling. But that is just really raw, unfiltered, real moments, as if that person, as in you, is here with us. That usually leads back into entertainment. Um, sorry, a little bit of a weird... entertainment, which is just, you know, we document, we say, "Oh, we're going to go whatever." Like, the next sequence in this video would be, and again, this is something that I or the creative director just keeps in mind at all times: "Hey, we're talking about this now. The next step is for us to go and buy some new equipment, talk about the equipment." In between there, we're going to go there, and that's an opportunity to just create a lot of entertainment, break the sequence into a new sequence. Now, you can play around with switching between documentation and entertainment as much as you want, but that's usually how that goes.
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else. Like they just don't care. Why did it work for me though is that everything that I go through in my life is for me a vehicle, a learning to just give that message to you. So, everything that happens, even this theme, this
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Then, for those that know and follow my stuff, I usually end a video with a little bit of education. And the education part is where I use a different lens. Actually, we use this one, which is a wide angle on a different camera, where I talk and I really dissect the learnings from whatever I went through, or whatever the intention is within this section of the video. So, that usually just transfers back into the education. So, I talk a little bit about what I learned and what's in it for someone else. So, this is my literal blueprint of how I document. And this is the way it works for me as a founder who's building a business and documenting that.
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personal event in my life. Like I I brought a new creative director on and we're having these conversations and what's important and Uh [ __ ] I lost the chain of chain I lost my chain of thoughts.
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And then throughout all of this, there are things that we can leverage, which are personal to me. So, one thing, obviously, Asia: we're here in a cool part of the world, speaking Chinese. Um, Chinese. We've got, you know, vibey, nice aesthetic, high-quality production, really creative. I'll just call this creative. Those are all things that I
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understand leverage, which we'll get to in just a second, but from a personal level, I brought on someone new. There's going to be a big part of training and working together and finding that feel and understanding how to, you know, be in these rooms and
Speaker A
how to how to be the other half of the person in front of the camera. So, I want to share that with you guys. So, one thing that's good to keep in mind and I tell this to everyone, but usually
Speaker A
Yeah, come. I'll show you. So, usually um any kind of video that we make um is like an entire timeline. So, we've got this pen that is not working.
Speaker A
So, we've got this entire timeline. And the first part that you probably have seen in this video as well is something that I always called entertainment and authority.
Speaker A
And the reason why I called it entertainment and authority is because we kind of hint and highlight some of the things that we are going to do in the video. So, there's a little bit of entertainment. I use music that I
Speaker A
personally really like and it just creates like a feeling. The authority is and it, you know, many of you have seen my content. There's a lot of shots in, you know, uh my office where we do these match cuts. There's often shots in there
Speaker A
where I travel, which kind of goes hand in hand and ties into um the bigger picture, which is the title and the packaging of the video. So, it's like, you know, I'm an entrepreneur doing business in Asia. We show Asia. I show
Speaker A
them an entrepreneur. I show the people. So, you really focus on that authority, which is kind of like a subtle touch um and it's just something strategic that you have to put in there. That usually leads into documentation. And again, keep in mind
Speaker A
this is specifically for my format. But documentation is where you, currently watching here with me, feels like they're in the room with me. I'm going to explain to you that even that the second layer that goes into that by using different
Speaker A
cameras, different lenses to create that feeling, but that is just really raw, unfiltered, real moments as if that person, as in you, is here with us. That usually leads back into entertainment. Um Sorry, a little bit of a weird e.
Speaker A
Entertainment, which is just, you know, we document, we say, "Oh, we're going to go whatever." Like the next sequence in this video would be and again, this is something that I or the creative director just keeps in mind at all
Speaker A
times. Like, "Hey, we're talking about this now. The next step is for us to go and buy some new equipment, talk about the equipment." In between there, we're going to go there and that's an opportunity to, you know, just create a
Speaker A
lot of entertainment, break the sequence into a new sequence. Now, you can play around with, you know, switch between documentation, entertainment as much as you want, but that's usually how that goes. Then, for those that know and follow my stuff,
Speaker A
I usually end a video with a little bit of um education. And the education part is where I use a different lens. Actually, we use this one, which is a wide angle on a different camera, where I talk and I
Speaker A
really dissect the learnings from whatever, you know, I went through or whatever the intention is within uh within this section of the video.
Speaker A
So, that usually just like transfers back into the education. So, I talk a little bit about um you know, what I learned and what's in it for someone else. So, this is my literal blueprint of how I document. And this is the way
Speaker A
it works for me as a founder who's building a business, who's documenting that. And then throughout all of this, there is things that we can leverage, which is personal to me. So, one thing obviously, Asia, that we're here in a
Speaker A
cool part of the world, uh speaking speaking Chinese. Um Chinese. We've got uh you know, like vibey, nice aesthetic, high quality, high quality production, you know, really creative. That's like I'll just call this creative.
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Those are all things that I have to leverage. Then also a skill, storytelling. Telling.
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Those are all things that I can bring into this format. And the truth is, what I started with as well, is that all of these things are things that you can work on to create more leverage. So, these skills, speaking Chinese,
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understanding high production, storytelling, those are things that I can leverage within my format. And I'll touch on how important it is to find the right format that allows you to show up in your most natural way, or better
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said, kind of like flow state, where it's like you're speaking from the heart. I'm not thinking, I'm just going, I'm jamming. This is my freaking thing.
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And no one can do that better than me. You know, that's like the energy and the feeling that I have when I'm in moments like these. And having someone the other half of, again, you being in front of
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the camera and someone behind the camera needs to understand, that get you in a place where you can show up like that.
Speaker A
But we'll touch on that more. So, um this is the blueprint. This is what I follow. There's an underlying, really big mission, which is, for me personally, bridging bridging East to the West, which is basically what I'm doing,
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building businesses in Asia, uh China specifically, bring that to the West and create that bridge that no one is creating. And that's the underlying message. And one thing that I And then we'll go and go check out some camera
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gear. But one thing that I want to share with you that is really interesting is that um a lot of people are scared to start. And even for me to pick things back up now, there's a lot of difficult
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things that might pop up from from insecurities, um you know, like even me with my freaking hair, you know, like it it freaked me out even right now. But the truth is is that First of all, no one cares.
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Only you yourself usually care. Um and those are all things that are going to stop you from doing this. Uh no views, um so just being scared like, "Oh, no one's going to watch my stuff. They're going to find me stupid."
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And guess what? Everyone is going to go, "You stupid." until you do it. And all of those things are just going to remove you from changing your own life, building something great, and most importantly, documenting you actually doing
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what you claim you're going to do. So, this underlying belief, bridging the East to the West, is something that still has another at least 20 years of of extreme hard work for me.
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Whatever I say now, and every week of me showing up with this format, getting creative, building a community around that, that stuff is going to compound.
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And you saying, "I'm going to do A." and there goes, say, 6 months in between, and you have done A, that just builds authority. That just builds character and trust and respect within what it is that you're doing. Um this is
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for me the blueprint to what it is that I'm doing. And this is like a video format.
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The way that manifests for everyone else is like obviously very different and very difficult to like really find that out. Then one thing, cherry on the pie, to figure this out, and again, like play around with this. But what's really
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important for you as a person is use this in a lot of quantity to learn to get to your own quality. Because in the end of the day, this is my format. This probably would work for like a very different niche.
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And you being in something completely different, making your own style, the creativity, and making the format your own format, you know, what allow you to use this framework and not be associated with my videos or my brand, or do it in a
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complete different niche or whatever. Um but again, like you need to put in a lot of quantity, learn from that quantity to get to quality, to find something that allows you to show up in your most natural way.
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Woo! Nice bro. All right. Well, it turns out that this is not an actual whiteboard.
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Um Mhm. But at least we managed to do it all in one take. [laughter] Try to rub it off.
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Yeah, let me see. Maybe it's going to work. Oh, there we go. It it works. Oh.
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That's too good, actually. That's too good yeah. Yeah. Oh, one thing that I want to show as well, guys, is let me just put this one down here.
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Because I was going to say that I was going to do that. Let me set up um screen recording.
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Uh so we can add this into the video as well and get really creative with it.
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Um here we'll record the entire display. So, one thing that's really good to keep in mind, now that you know we've got entertainment, authority, we've got documentation, and then we've got education. What I do usually is like say
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we've got education. Say we've got So, we've got documentation, and we have uh entertainment, right? These are like the three pillars that I use to switch between all of these sequencing.
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Now, for example here, as you can see, this is entertainment. Right here. Um that's this, shot like this.
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And even, you know, like say What's a good example? Like shots like these. You know, like this.
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These are all This is all entertainment. And what we usually do is we just use footage from these two. So, we use footage from documentation and education.
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Uh and those are just like usually cinematic shots. So, some of the match cuts. It's kind of like it's own thing, which I don't really think much about what camera we use, any camera, um you know, we use VHS, we use uh the FX3 with
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uh the G Master, which is our main lens. Then we use the FX uh Oh, sorry, this is FX3. We use the FX30 with an 11 mm lens to get that like wide-angle look. So, we use anything. Now, for documentation,
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what I do is I actually use Let me just make this a little bit smaller.
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[snorts] For documentation, what we actually do, and I'll just take like a random clip in here from one of my videos, like these ones.
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We use a lens that feels most natural to the eye. So, for And and and again, like how you will use this is up to you. But for me, I only use this for the following reason.
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Because the FX3 plus G Master, how much millimeter is that one? This one is 24 to 70, yeah.
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24 to 70 mm. And the reason why is because 24 creates the most natural uh real-life look. So, the goal here with documentation is for people to feel like they're here, like they're part of, you know, this room. They're basically on
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the other side of the table. So, using a lens that makes it look like how anyone else would actually, you know, experience that if they were actually there, is why uh we chose this lens. And I just tried so many different lenses, and
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this was the look that felt most that felt most natural for those kinds of uh se- uh sequences within the within the the business. For education, I use a lot of, say, here, this one. This is like another shot where I speak to the
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camera. Actually, let me find another video of mine. Uh it actually doesn't really matter. I can use that here, like even Let me see.
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Let me see. Well, this is a good one. Actually, let me go to my channel, one second.
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Say this one. Cut. And So, for a shot like this, we use that camera because it creates a really natural feeling of [snorts] me actually speaking to someone. And usually we're able to capture a lot of background um
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plus 11 mm. Um it just gives a personal kind of touch, and it shows the environment. So, we can play around with the aesthetic. And it's just like as if I am talking to that person without the camera moving. Um and
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I switch just between those two. That's kind of like how I structured it. And then even for entertainment, one thing that I want to add there is you can play around with a bunch of cool, you know, like
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leveraged shots. So, for example, I usually do the top-down shot, where I go and stand on the table, hanging to something like that, and, you know, capture the top-down shot. We used a VHS shot. We used match cuts. We we used
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fonts, everything. And that's like how you really create a little bit of your own style.
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Um and that's for you to like really, again, use that uh quantity to learn to get to quality.
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And um just keep rolling with it. [snorts] Okay. Yeah, bro. Let's go to uh Mong Kok. I'm excited, bro.
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Yeah. Really excited. Yeah, you'll see. I think it's going to be a candy store for me.
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It's Yeah, it's going to be nice. So, this is one of the mounts that we use to get the in in the car shots, outside of the car, on top of the car, you know, like anything. So, we use
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these suction mounts uh just to like hang them up, screw the camera on, and then just like that's just like like right here.
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[music] So, I'm going to apply one right now. [music] [music] [music] [music] All right.
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What floor are we? Five. Five? You sure? Yeah. Yeah, look on the screen. Yeah, it's All right, all right.
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Yeah, that one. So, this is going to be a separate video that we need to shoot this week because I'm going to drop all of these new glasses, but I'm going to use a new I'm going to we're going to validate a
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new business with an entirely different, never-seen-before financial model in the CC space, which goes and ties into like an idea that I've had for a really long time, like a really long time.
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Like the next big play of Daniel D'Alin. Daniel D'Alin? Yeah. But, the the glasses are like iconic.
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They're good, eh? And they they they turn their photochromatic or something like I don't know what it's called. But, they they go um With the shade of the sun.
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Yeah, they turn into sun sunglasses like when you walk outside. Yeah. Holy [ __ ] I need I need a pair of those.
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I have I have so many in my in the warehouse, so we'll give you we'll give you some. So sick.
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That is bro. So, this is the FX30. That was the camera that I used to shoot with previously.
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And we use this one with a wide angle. This one is 12 mm. Which we usually just use for like the education shots with talking head or stuff like this or anything cinematic, any of the match cuts. And then this one
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is an FX3 with a G Master 28 24 to 70. 24 to 70 mm.
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Which we use for documentation like this. So, we're just going to check out some new lenses and some new some new gadgets.
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And then uh Yeah. We're going to check out one of Hong Kong's most iconic camera.
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Damn, it's sick. My first time. Yeah. Well, it's very clear on it. This is That's it's really wide. It is.
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That's one of the widest. This one is sick. This is so nice. This is so cool.
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Like top down. Great. I'm going to We could do a little compare with the the long one. Yeah, I want to compare with the bro.
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It's crazy. With the lens but this covering the whole shop, actually. Yeah, well. Yeah, look how close he is. Yeah, I see.
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Oh, crazy. Go wave your hand. It's insane. Yeah, it's super cool. I love this. So, you just scooped up one of these new lenses, which we use on the FX30.
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This is like on the FX3. [laughter] No, it's all good. We just keep it rolling. This is on like the FX3. And it's just like a really nice wide angle, which we can use for shots in the car,
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you know, match cuts, all of that. And then now that we're here, like one camera that I recently bought as well is just the Osmo Pocket 3.
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Just for you know, doing any kind of like running or snowboarding or any other kind of you know, exercise that just requires an easy camera to use for again, like moving from different sequences like you're entertaining and you
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you whatever in the entertainment sequence, sorry, and you want to just capture someone that exercise, it's very easy to just get one of those.
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So, we recently bought those as well. What else? Now, we're looking for like a really big zoom lens. Broadcast zoom lens, yeah. Yeah, just something uh Be careful in the way.
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Like that. Is this a big a big telescope? So, one camera that's really nice to add as well to the collection, especially for like um B-roll and like entertainment sequences where you use music and whatnot is like just one of
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those like old VHS cameras. I think it's uh Yeah, it's really nice to blend that in and to mix that with high quality like this.
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All right, guys. So, we just found a new lens. Zoom. Yeah. Yeah, this is nice.
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Ratatata. And also has autofocus. [laughter] All right. So, we uh just picked up a bunch of new lenses, some ND filters and whatnot.
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So, we're all good to go. We'll do like a little uh This This ND filter is so nice, bro.
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We'll do a little debrief on like all the cameras and like what shots we get with them and uh we forgot a little we forgot the magic arms.
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But, I still have some at home, so I have also one at home. So, we have we have two or three, I think yeah.
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Okay. That's enough. All right. All right. So, we got a bunch of new cameras.
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Sorry, bunch of new lenses. And honestly, guys, I think the best balance is just get a really wide angle like this and get a um like most natural to the eye or similar to what it look like what the
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eye sees, which is 24 mm, and this one is 24 till 70, which is one of my favorite lenses. I think between those two, a VHS, you can really just like have arguably one of the best setups to document. That said, I do
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think that you can throw in some iPhone here and there. I do that all the time.
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You can use the DJI Osmo Pocket. And you can really make it work. I think the most important part is that the first part of this video where I explained how to go through this sequencing and then use these types of
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cameras and whatever more as leverage like to make it aesthetic, make it nice, create a certain feeling. Um you can play around with that, you know, and you can try and make that your own style, find all of these different different,
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you know, ways to document. Um and this is just what I've always been rolling with and what I would advise most people that are, you know, documenting what it is that they're doing.
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Um but yeah, you can definitely play around with that and be a lot more creative. Um So yeah.
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You think we missed anything? No, man. I think it's uh so nice. This one as well.
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Also for vlogging. Yeah. Like when you hold the camera like this. Yeah exactly. So good.
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Look how Look how wide it is. Yeah, it's so nice. So sick. Even for us, for example, like traveling or me being with a business partner in the car or whatever, you can just so easily use a angle or shot like
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this to just capture conversation um and have like a like a really cool aesthetic shot.
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Wow, we should have turned [music] the camera the other way around. Yeah yeah. [music and singing] [singing and music] [music] Okay. So, to get a little bit more context on why I made this video and how this is relevant to you and how you can
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implement it, and most importantly, like the intention behind it, and you know, us kicking off an entire new season of uh Daniel D'Alin doing his thing and documenting this and sharing this and and growing growing the brand, you know,
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growing the online presence through all these different methods is for you to really understand that this method and the way you can implement this is really going to be a matter of putting in an obscene amount of quantity to get to
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that quality. And what that's going to look like down the line is a big question mark for me even with where I'm now, what I'm going to do down the line, the formats that I'm going to test out,
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but also probably for you watching yourself. Now, one thing that I have learned over the last couple of years, which is something that I am also guilty of myself in the process of putting in that, you know, effort with obscene
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amount of quantity to get to that quality is that good artist copy, great artist steal. So, it's really up to you to look at everything that someone like myself or other creators are doing, and how can you reskin that? How can you
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bring that to to to life, you know, within your own environment, with with the things that you are doing yourself.
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Now, taking you to the next thing, the things that you are doing yourself. I hate to say this, but I want to be as honest and as straightforward as I can be with anyone. And obviously I don't know you, but one thing that I do know
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is that I speak to a lot of people and I have a lot of really real conversations around what it is they're doing and how they can implement you know, online presence into what it is that they do
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for various amounts of reasons. Like deal flow, talent, whatever comes out of this, you know. Um and that is that you really have to build up as much leverage as possible.
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And in that process, you need to realize and understand that if you take me as an example, there has been a decade of my life where I was like, "I'm not ready to really go all in on this content thing."
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Because I was just constantly building up my my skill set, this leverage, the things that made me unique. And what this created was an environment for me to constantly keep trying and not trying to be right all the time, but just be
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right once. Because once you do, you can have one moonshot and everything else will just follow. You can try again, you probably, you know, elevated the starting point, you've got capital, you've got reach, and from there you move onwards, you know. So, building up
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that leverage for you as a person, developing those skills, doing stuff that is interesting, seeing gaps in the market is something that you just cannot fake because the audience will feel it, you will feel it yourself, and when
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those two are there, you're not going to be able to show up as, you know, an interesting person, as a as someone that has that leverage to actually deserve that attention. So, that is something that even me myself,
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I'm continuously thinking about that. And that, you know, comes down to skills, you know, the markets you're working in and the, you know, the opportunity within those markets, you know. So, it it it really just comes down to a very honest conversation with
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yourself. Where are we at? What do we do? And most importantly, what do we need to do to start building that leverage?
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Because there are so many people out there that that, you know, are putting themselves out there and it's like, you know, s- trying to say something in an empty stadium. There's no one listening and and that's really challenging, that's
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really tough. So, the way that I always explain this is like, you know, the the the clapping analogy where everyone is going to eventually join you clapping, but the first phase is extremely awkward. And I actually spent quite a
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lot of time thinking about this recently and and the way I kind of like framed it or described it is if you have the courage to be stupid for long enough, eventually you will be cool.
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Because everything that I did myself once was a stupid idea, people looked down on me, you know, you you're filming your life, you know, like you're documenting what it is that you're building, you're dropping out of school, everyone loves to point fingers. But if
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you really have the courage to just bite that bullet, be stupid, have people call you stupid, act stupid, act weird, you know, be cringe, at some point you will get there and everyone, you know, will look at you like, "Man, how
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did you do that?" You know, so again, combining that and again, taking you all the way back to that that quantity to quality, building your leverage, you know, even in the process of doing that will allow you to some
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point, you know, rise and and and things will fall into place. It's just you need to have an incredible long breath. Now, and then on top of that, one thing that's also, I would say, one of the most important things that I always
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advise anyone that I speak with about this stuff is what I shared with you is my blueprint. This is like how it works for me. This is how I do it. Um and the reason why I do it this way is because
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me in front of the camera right now and, you know, knowing how to operate this camera and, you know, like these fancy lights in the background and it looks really aesthetic. And and most importantly, the ability to speak and
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explain what it is that I do and really leave you with an emotion uh and and also being able to explain it to you in a way where it's where it's digestible. That's a format that really works for me. I'm able to show up as my
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most authentic self. This is me. I don't think, I speak from the heart and I show up in a way that is really natural to me. And that's taken me a lot of time and again, a lot of quantity to get to
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that quality, to understand and see that this is the best way for me to do this personal brand stuff. And you again need to have a really honest conversation.
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Where do my strengths lay? You know, it could be you hosting an event and documenting you on stage because you're not that friendly with, you know, being in a room by yourself and then speaking to a camera. You know, it could be that
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you're not comfortable with that, too. So, it should be something in writing or it should just be like your investor updates and just share those. I don't know what that looks like, but one thing that I do know, if you are your most
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authentic version of yourself, you escape competition. Because how can anyone else compete with you being you?
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No one can do that, you know. So, it completely removes the the thought alone of like, "Hey, this person is doing that." No, you need to do what you want to do. You need to do it in your way. And yes, you might look
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stupid, but just wait until it's cool if you really believe in this. And most importantly, if you actually keep, and again, I know I'm repeating myself, but if you keep sharpening that pencil around what it is that you do, what
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you're working on, and you're actually building cool stuff, and you actually have really remarkable skills that are admirable, I guarantee you it's going to happen. And then one thing to really put the cherry on the pie on everything is
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in the process of you doing this and growing and and doing everything that I just said is make sure that you have fun. Because the truth is is if this feels like play, you have already won.
Topics:documentary filmmakingfounder vlogpersonal brandingvideo sequencingcamera gearlens choiceentrepreneur contentauthentic storytellingDaniel Dalencontent strategy
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