Big Idea

The argument in one line.

Vlogs beat talking-head content because six repeatable formats, a two-style editing choice, and a three-shot capture habit turn ordinary days into a story anyone can film and cut on a phone.

Who This Is For

Read if. Skip if.

READ IF YOU ARE…

A creator or brand posting talking-head content who wants a format that doesn't get old as fast as straight-to-camera videos.
Someone building a personal or business account who travels, runs a physical space, or has a facility worth showing on camera.
A solo creator who owns a phone and wants a repeatable shot list instead of guessing how to fill a 45-second video.

SKIP IF…

You're building scripted sketch comedy or persona-swap content. This is about documenting real life and real work, not performance.
You want a fully hands-off content system. Every format here still requires the creator to go do or shoot something interesting.

TL;DR

The full version, fast.

Talking-head content is saturated, so the video argues vlogs stay effective because they force someone to actually do or document something, which is harder to copy at scale. It lays out six formats: Hero's Journey (frame a real problem as a narrative arc), Math (anchor the video on a dollar figure), Niche Guide with Expertise (share knowledge while out in the world), Insane Personality (lean into aggressive editing and energy), Shiny Object (anchor around one visually striking find), and Insane Concept (build the whole video around one outsized idea). It also covers two editing styles, talking on camera versus voice-over, and a three-shot capture method: close, medium, and wide angles on every subject, held two to three seconds each.

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Chapters

Where the time goes.

00:00 – 00:57

01 · Content-type landscape

Runs through the current menu of content types, yapping, green-screen, produced/hyper edits, podcast clips, carousels, one-shot/10-shot, and vlogs, and frames vlogs as the one format that requires actually doing or documenting something.

00:57 – 03:40

02 · Why vlogs hold up

Uses his own career, China product trips, seasonal travel vlogging, a viral Greece yacht-cost video, to argue vlogs became his edge once his green-screen format got copied everywhere.

03:40 – 08:58

03 · Format 1-2: Hero's Journey and Math

Introduces the Hero's Journey arc (problem, backstory, failed attempt, epiphany, breakthrough, cliffhanger) using a basketball creator and a burrito brand as examples, then the Math format, anchoring a vlog on a dollar figure, using his own Greece yacht video and another creator's apartment-hunt series.

08:58 – 11:19

04 · Format 3: Niche guide with expertise

Covers sharing real expertise while physically out in the world, examples are a hyper-edit lifestyle vlogger and an interior designer reacting to furniture in stores.

11:19 – 13:43

05 · Writing vlogs with AI (sponsor segment)

Pitches HubSpot's 'Teach AI Your Brand Voice' guide and shows how to prompt a brand's ChatGPT project for a Hero's Journey outline built around a real business event.

13:43 – 16:44

06 · Format 4: Insane personality, then a recap

Covers the insane-personality format, exaggerating normal moments with extreme editing and energy, using a Russian vlogger and another aggressive-energy creator as examples, then recaps the first four formats before the last two.

16:44 – 18:14

07 · Format 5-6: Shiny object and insane concept

Covers anchoring a vlog around one visually striking find (transparent leather, an ornate key) and building a whole video around one outsized idea (a one-day trip to Egypt, giving away a coffee shop's recipe).

18:14 – 20:44

08 · Editing styles and the three-capture method

Explains the two editing styles, talking on camera versus a pure voiceover, then the three-capture filming habit: close, medium, and wide shots of every subject, held two to three seconds, static or with a slow push/pan.

20:44 – 22:51

09 · Capturing yourself and organizing footage

Covers getting enough shots of yourself in a vlog (at least five), using selfie mode, a tripod, or a DJI Osmo, plus organizing footage into per-trip phone folders and flagging a hook shot.

22:51 – 24:19

10 · Cheat codes and sign-off

Closes with five advantages, location, facility access, personality, a love of fast editing, and willingness to painstakingly document, plus a plug for CapCut/Edits and the Cut30 bootcamp.

Atomic Insights

Lines worth screenshotting.

Talking-to-camera content is now so common that it no longer gives a creator an advantage, even though it hasn't disappeared.
Vlogs stay effective longer than other formats because they require someone to actually go do or document something interesting, which is hard to fake at scale.
The Hero's Journey works in short vlogs because viewers respond to the same arc as TV and film: a problem, backstory, a failed attempt, an epiphany, and a cliffhanger.
A math-driven vlog, what does this cost, how far does this money go, works because people are intrinsically curious whether something is a good deal.
Sharing expertise while out in the physical world, not from a couch or a car, is described as an underused advantage most creators aren't using.
A brand's ChatGPT project can turn a plain event, 'we're doing a product release,' into a full Hero's Journey outline by asking for a 60-90 second narrative arc built around it.
An insane-personality vlog turns a normal life event into content by exaggerating the physical energy around it, like running instead of walking, or singing loudly in an Uber.
A shiny object vlog anchors around one visually striking, curiosity-driving element and works even when it isn't expensive, like a vintage-style key or a see-through leather bag.
An insane concept vlog builds an entire video around one outsized idea, like flying to Egypt for one day, rather than a normal day-in-the-life recap.
Every shot should run two to three seconds, never longer, so the footage is easy to cut down and reorder later in a simple editor.
The three-capture rule: film every subject in a close shot, a medium shot, and a wide shot, so there's always coverage to cut between.
A static shot should be used when something in the frame is already moving; a slow push-in or side pan should be used when nothing is moving.
A finished 45-second voiceover script maps almost directly to about 45 one-second clips, since every shot should run roughly half a second to one second in the final edit.
Filming three angles of ten or twelve moments after finishing an activity, rather than stopping to shoot as it happens, keeps a trip or errand from feeling interrupted.
A creator should aim for at least five shots of themselves inside a vlog if they're the subject of it, not just shots of the surroundings.
Access to a physical facility, like a warehouse, a commercial kitchen, or a shipping operation, is described as a built-in content advantage most brands underuse.
Willingness to painstakingly document a normal day is itself a competitive advantage, because most creators default to the easier, lower-effort talking-head format instead.

Takeaway

Six vlog formats, and the shot habits that make them possible

WHAT TO LEARN

Vlogs stay effective because they force someone to actually do or document something, and six repeatable formats plus a three-shot capture habit make that documentable without needing production skill.

01Content-type landscape

Talking-to-camera content has become so common that it no longer creates an advantage on its own, even though plenty of it still performs.
A format survives audience fatigue longer when it requires the creator to actually go do or document something, since that's harder to replicate at scale.

02Why vlogs hold up

A format built around real travel or unusual access to a place (a product trip, a workshop, a city few people get to see) tends to outperform once a simpler format gets copied by everyone else.
Content is seasonal: audiences want less deep, optimization-heavy material in the summer and more travel or vacation-driven content instead.

03Format 1-2: Hero's Journey and Math

The Hero's Journey arc, a stated problem, backstory, a failed attempt, an epiphany, and a breakthrough, works because audiences respond to the same structure used in film and TV, compressed into a much shorter runtime.
Framing a routine update ('this is what happened in the business this week') as a problem the business is actively fighting makes it more watchable than a plain recap.
Anchoring a video on a dollar figure, what something costs, how far a set amount of money goes, works because people are naturally curious whether something is a good deal.
A cheap-sounding result performs better than an expensive one: a video explaining why chartering a yacht was less expensive than expected outperformed the assumption that it would be unaffordable.

04Format 3: Niche guide with expertise

Sharing real expertise while physically out in the world (a store, a job site, a location tied to the subject) reads as more credible than the same expertise delivered from a chair.
A viewer doesn't need the creator to be a full expert. Being an active learner sharing opinions in real time is presented as just as viable a stance.

05Writing vlogs with AI (sponsor segment)

A brand's own ChatGPT project, loaded with brand voice, product info, and personas, can turn a single real event into a Hero's Journey outline by asking for a 60-90 second narrative arc built around what's happening that week.
The advice is to use AI for the narrative structure only, not to write the full script, since a creator's own voice is treated as more important than polish for most content.

06Format 4: Insane personality, then a recap

Exaggerating the physical energy of an ordinary moment (running instead of walking, singing loudly instead of talking quietly) is one way to make a normal life read as more watchable, but it depends on actually having that kind of personality.
The opposite version works too: taking something genuinely boring and documenting it in extreme, thorough detail can be just as compelling as an aggressive energy edit.

07Format 5-6: Shiny object and insane concept

A shiny object vlog doesn't require an expensive object. A vintage-style key or a piece of transparent leather worked because it was visually unusual, not because it was costly.
Leaning on an expensive item as the hook (a luxury bag unboxing) is called out as a trap, since it puts a ceiling on how often that format can repeat.
An insane concept format builds the entire video around one outsized premise, a one-day trip to another country, giving away a signature recipe, rather than trying to make an ordinary day interesting on its own.

08Editing styles and the three-capture method

Choosing between talking on camera and a pure voiceover is a production decision, not a creative one: voiceover removes the need to be filmed talking, while on-camera segments are described as faster to edit.
Filming every subject three ways, close, medium, and wide, guarantees enough footage to cut a full sequence instead of getting stuck with one usable angle.
Every individual clip should run two to three seconds. Longer clips are harder to cut down inside a simple phone editor later.
A shot should stay static when something inside the frame is already moving, and should use a slow push-in or pan when nothing else in the shot is moving.

09Capturing yourself and organizing footage

A creator who's the focus of their own vlog should aim for at least five shots of themselves in it, not just footage of the surroundings.
Revisiting a location at the end of an activity to capture three angles of ten or twelve moments, instead of stopping constantly to film, is presented as the lower-friction way to shoot without interrupting whatever's actually happening.
Flagging one favorite 'hook shot' per trip or event, the single most exciting visual, gives an editor a ready-made opening instead of hunting for one during the edit.

10Cheat codes and sign-off

Regular access to a physical location most viewers will never see (an unusual city, an international trip, a warehouse, a commercial kitchen) functions as a built-in content advantage that's hard to manufacture.
A fast, chaotic editing style (cuts every 0.2 to 0.3 seconds) is one way to stand out, but it's optional. It only helps if editing itself is something the creator already enjoys.
A finished 45-second voiceover script maps almost exactly to about 45 one-second shots, which turns 'how long should this video be' into a simple shot-count math problem.
Willingness to painstakingly document an ordinary day, when nothing else about the content is unusual, is framed as the most durable advantage, since most creators default to whatever requires the least effort.

Glossary

Terms worth knowing.

Hero's Journey: A storytelling arc, borrowed from film and TV, that moves from a problem through backstory, a failed attempt, an epiphany, and a breakthrough to a cliffhanger.
Talk-and-edit: A vlog editing style where the creator talks directly to camera on location and cuts in surrounding footage around that talking segment.
Overdub: A vlog editing style where the creator records a separate voiceover and never appears speaking on camera, filling the whole video with footage instead.
Three-capture strategy: A filming habit of shooting every subject three ways, a close-up, a medium shot, and a wide shot, to guarantee enough footage to edit with.
Hook shot: The opening shot of a vlog, chosen for being the most visually exciting moment available, used to anchor the viewer before the story begins.
Shiny object vlog: A vlog format built around one visually striking or unusual find, used as the anchor that pulls a viewer into an otherwise ordinary video.
Money shot: The single most visually compelling moment in a piece of footage, worth planning a shot specifically to capture.

Resources

Things they pointed at.

11:19productTeach AI Your Brand Voice guide (HubSpot)

20:20toolBluetooth tripod

20:30toolDJI Osmo

22:10toolCapCut

22:15toolEdits (Instagram's editing app)

24:00productCut30 short-form bootcamp ↗

Quotables

Lines you could clip.

01:30

“vlogs will always be an advantage because vlogs require you to actually do interesting things and or document them in an interesting way”

clean thesis statement, works as a hook for any vlog-format pitch→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote

18:55

“that shot right there is the money shot”

short, quotable line about anchoring a shot list around one great visual→ IG reel cold open↗ Tweet quote

22:50

“your goal for all this content, half second and one second shots, every shot across your entire video should be half a second or one second long, never longer than that”

concrete, actionable editing rule stated as a hard number→ newsletter pull-quote↗ Tweet quote

24:10

“if you painstakingly document, you will have an advantage versus lazier creators”

closing thesis, works as a stand-alone motivational clip→ TikTok hook↗ Tweet quote

The Script

Word for word.

Read-along

Don't just watch it. Burn it in.

See every word as it's spoken — crank it to 2× and still catch all of it. The same dual-channel trick behind Amazon's Kindle + Audible.

metaphoranalogy

in this video we are going to talk about how to make vlogs on short form which overall will teach you about storytelling about creating content about editing and making something compelling and different And thank you to HubSpot for sponsoring this video. So there are a lot of content types out there.

We have yapping. Obviously the most popular right now, I did a full video guide on how to do that, just talking to camera. It is extremely commoditized.

Everyone is teaching or making content about it. There's way too much of it. There's green screen content, like what I got popular making, where you're talking over imagery.

There's produced edits and hyper edits where you're talking and you have all kinds of graphics and things going in and out of it. You have podcast clips, you have carousels. video breaking down strategy on that too you have short one shot and 10 shot content and you have vlogs where you tell a complete story with someone talking over and around footage so eventually i will make videos on all of these content types because not only have i personally figured out how to succeed with all of them you can see go to my pages i rip on every single type of these contents not only have i cracked that code i've taught thousands of people to do it inside of cut 30 and worked on hundreds and hundreds of high performing ads for that with brands in my at darkroom so in this video we are going to cover six types of vlogs that work that have a range of production quality and strategy that you can base on what kind of creator you want to make or what kind of content you want to make for your brand this is just as relevant for brands as it is personal brands then i'm going to talk about editing styles and give you the basics of how to shoot and edit for these you have a toolkit to go capture your first vlogs and then i'm going to talk about the cheat codes what the things are if you have them in your life or in your

your workflow will make this really easy for you. Let's lock in. So first, you've probably noticed content starting to look the same.

Yap after yap, people talking to the screen. People are using the same hooks. 10 out of 10 habits of a dangerous man.

Books to read for X performance. We are saturated with the same stuff all the time. And yapping in particular, the idea of talking to camera with little to no graphics or effects is particularly saturated because there's been so much talk about it and so many courses that only focus on it.

There is a wealth of that content out there, and the more type of content there is, the less it performs over time. People get tired of a certain consumption type, and we're already seeing the beginning of that shift. And it doesn't mean it goes away entirely, but it no longer becomes an advantage.

Now, I want to do vlogs today because vlogs will always be an advantage because vlogs require you to actually do interesting things and or document them in an interesting way. So you have to think, you have to write, you have to get footage, you have to edit, and none of those things individually are particular. particularly hard, but all put together, it's intimidating for a lot of people.

We're gonna break that all down today. And look, this happened to me. Vlogs were a big part of why I skyrocketed as a creator, because I began to notice.

I became really popular making green screen content about marketing and branding, and all of a sudden, there were hundreds of other creators doing the same thing. And I was like, what can I do? This is always your thought when you are influential in a space or you have a leading brand, is how do we stay ahead of what everyone else is doing?

And I was like, what can I do that others can't? And I had, at the time, a very interesting life I was flying to China to work on product all the time I was being brought out to speak and do workshops and all these places whether it's Paris Dubai Australia so I said I'm gonna learn how to make vlog content around that so I did a series going to China where I created vlogs around that all the places that people never would have seen is the unearthing hidden gems that designers would love and it went wildly viral and even today is a consistent part of my toolkit you will see every summer i have this theory that content is very seasonal in terms of what people want to consume in the summer no one wants your optimization deep business content so i always make a decent amount of vacation and travel content and just the other week i had a million view video doing the math of my trip to greece but even with vlogs you'll notice the basics of someone traveling to a place or doing a restaurant view has all started to look the same so how do you make stuff that stands out so the first and the most useful is what i'm going to call the hero's

Hero's Journey content. So a great example of this, you saw me do a collab with a creator the other week for Luma, this guy Jack, and he has an awesome channel about his journey to be basically a pro, an aging pro basketball player, where he documents his basketball journey. And you will notice every one of these videos runs through a condensed version of this narrative thing called the Hero's Journey.

So you will see it starts with a problem. Does my protein suck? I scored zero points on my first pro basketball game.

I'm going against this 6 '8 monster. Someone quit RT. He creates a narrative out of the things that he's doing and takes people on a journey around them.

I did this as well. I tried this on my Greece trip where I talked about my son getting stung by a jellyfish and going through a vacation and having to deal with that. And perhaps my favorite is the brand Bad Ambres.

They are a frozen bean and cheese burrito brand that tells the story of them working through things. And so in this video, for instance, they tell their story and how they have to spend so much on packaging. It's basically going to take all the money, if not far more in their bank accounts and issue they're dealing with.

What is Hero's Journey content and why does it work in the vlog format? So people are naturally attracted to narrative arcs. Basically, they see a problem, they get some backstory on why the problem exists, they see the person try to solve the problem, they see them fail at solving the problem, they see them have an epiphany, and then make a breakthrough trying to solve it again, and then get to a next stage where there's a cliffhanger for what happens next.

This is a arc that you will see in all kinds, whether it's TV episodes, YouTubes, short form, and it works just as well inside this content. And it works just as well for basically anything interesting you're doing. So everyone's always like, my life or my content or my business isn't interesting enough to make content about and for a lot of people I think they actually underestimate how interesting it is if they put in the hero's journey context so for instance if Jack was just making content talking about him as a basketball player what happened in the game is significantly less interesting than someone saying I have to go defend this 6 -8 huge basketball player same thing if they're just saying well oh this is what happened a week in our frozen bean and cheese burrito business is a lot less exciting them we're gonna go bankrupt paying for this packaging how can you take those moments even if they seem significant and run through that hero's journey arc.

And don't forget, at the end, we will talk through how to shoot these and capture these so you can get all those moments to create something like this. But that is style one of a vlog. And what's great about that style of content, and one of the great reasons vlogs are awesome in general, is that you don't have to create them constantly.

For a lot of creators, a lot of brands, you need to create content every day to succeed, or at least multiple times a week to really get that velocity and volume. But you have a great storytelling vlog. A lot of those brands, I think Bad Ombre's does one a week.

You can have less of a content posting velocity and see more efficacy. people are literally following your journey even though it takes longer to make and so for a lot of people who don't want to be in that constant grindstone of getting one out every day they may be better off trying to work on their vlog masterpiece every week now the second vlog category i want to talk through is math math is one that i use all the time so this is my viral video in greece this has a million views on instagram hundreds of thousands on tick tock and youtube where i talk about the cost to charter a yacht in greece i'm doing this in a vlog format i'm showing my entire trip i'm showing that footage i'm talking a bit over it i'm breaking down the economics now this is a really effective thing as well because people love math same thing here you will see my friend rye he has an awesome account he's breaking down the math of finding an apartment i love his content because he has very normal day -to -day content again for anyone who's like my life isn't interesting enough go watch his he's literally uh turning his apartment hunt into an amazing content series and yeah this apartment is five thousand dollars that's part of the appeal it might be unaffordable for him he's looking at things that are in his range or out of his range you can talk about how terrible the apartment he can afford is you know how cool the apartment

you can is and do it in a narrative but that math component gets people intrinsically interested if it's expensive how can this person afford it or is it actually worth the money is it cheap is it worth the money that greek charter video i did did really well because it was unexpectedly cheap people would think that chartering a yacht for a week would be significantly more than what it actually breaks down to when you do the math and another one from rye who's kind of a master of these thousand dollar budget going and doing a thing he takes a thousand dollars to universal studios how far does that get him now you can have that same thing with how far does a hundred dollars get me at air one i'm spending 200 on meta ads what are the results going to be just tracking the use of money and so i would highly encourage you think about vlog formats how do you get your story to stand out can there be that fiscal component can you be using a set amount of money to test something or are you spending amount of money on thing in your life that you can review and break down inside this vlog format number three is a niche guide with expertise this is from julia julia that makes amazing vlogs she does like a hyper edit style which means she's editing like every 0 .2 to 0 .3 seconds

we'll talk about that in the editing you don't have to do this but definitely helps your content stand out if it's like other people's but this video is literally her guide to how i stopped being a little bitch she is someone who's always active on the move she's making content she has her business and she's showing you how it does she's showing you her expertise when creating a vlog around it this is phoenix and he's doing a vlog inside a store lighting i would never buy as an interior designer but he is in a vlog format he is inside he like went to wherever this is i know he goes to home goods and stuff like that a lot and he will provide his expertise in a out and about format.

And I cannot state enough that getting out in the real world is an absolute cheat code for content. When so many people are yapping in their car or talking in their house or on a green screen, if you are out there in the world showing the world and adding your expertise or whatever you're learning, right? You've heard me say it a hundred times.

You may not be it. He's an interior design expert. You might be an interior design learner.

You can be going sharing what you think, trying to find out more, soliciting opinions as you try to learn is just as viable a strategy. Whatever perspective you're coming from, just be authentic about it. it same thing though when he has what i would avoid as an interior designer he goes to the stores and highlights things he has you see this a lot in cosmetics too people will go to alta or sephora and basically hold up products what i would avoid or not what i like or not it's then you're literally looking at it almost like a talking video you're just in the real world so you can capture some b -roll again we'll hit that in the editing section that's an awesome third content type you can use for vlogs it's one of the questions you may ask as you put this together is man if i'm gonna make a lot of content like this how do i write these how do i come up with it, especially if you're a brand and you're trying to apply these things to what's happening day to day in your business.

So for the majority of content, I highly encourage people to write in their own voice and do their own writing. For Hero's Journey content, I know a lot of brands that run their content through ChatGPT to help them with the narrative arc. Not to write their entire content, but that narrative arc in particular.

I think Jack has actually posted content about how he does that on his basketball videos. So there's a guide I developed with HubSpot. called Teach AI Your Brand Voice.

And inside this Teach AI Your Brand Voice guide I did with HubSpot, we actually teach you how to put that together and how to use different writing styles on top of it. So in this guide, it's like a copy machine for you to be able to generate things like landing pages, blogs, copy for ads, descriptions. product detail pages you can test.

And the key thing about this guy is we introduced copy frameworks. There's three frameworks in there for story -led, evidence -driven, and more direct response copy, which are three very important types of marketing copies. We show you how to build the project and apply those copy styles to do different things.

I'm going to add on a copy style specific to this video. If you have your brand information, your product information, your personas, all the stuff that you put inside this ChatGPT project, the cheat code to using it to make vlog content is to take whatever happened. Take what happened inside the brand's some ideas are really helpful hey we're going to a trade show we have our first consumer event we're doing a product release put them inside where we have the brand voice project and then ask them for hero's journey narrative ideas for this specifically i want an outline for a 60 to 90 second video following a hero's journey arc about what's happening in our business this week here's what's going on currently and provide as much context as you can what you'll find is you will get a very direct breakdown of start with this problem agitate this problem propose a sort right asking for that hero's journey arc will give you an exact recipe to follow as you go write a vlog for your brand for people that don't think like that right you're probably not a screenwriter you're not trained to do that use tools like this to help you you can find the brand voice project template and the full toolkit i put together with hubspot in the description and thanks so much to them for sponsoring this video all right we have three more vlog topics to go through then we're gonna get into editing styles then we're gonna get into cheat codes let's go so this next style is what i call an insane

personality style so this is a russian vlogger who is making again she's doing an ultra hyper edit her edits move extremely fast they are extremely chaotic and she is willing to go document her life in this way and even though it is uh like obviously this one she's like on a vacation or whatever but she does a lot of very casual documentation as well where she's willing to take her life with her friends and edit it to be as exciting as possible by really and these are like dizzying levels of editing it's what we call an insane personality vlog if you're the kind of person who's like you know what i want to just go all in i'm artistic like this i have some really unique ideas for editing styles i would really embrace that because something unique really stands out in the modern kind of algorithm feed note she's not even doing vertical content there another example of this if you have a really normal life it's a really aggressive version of it so this creator is incredible so she does these extremely aggressive vlogs right everything is you know instead of walking she's crawling along the floor instead of walking down the hallway she's running down the hallway instead of being in her uber she's yelling in her uber driver's ear singing taylor swift or whatever it is so

Everything is done at intense volume. Now, not everyone has an insane personality. I do not have this personality.

You may not. But if you are the kind of person who sees this and goes, yes, then this is something I would 100 % lean into. Don't be afraid to go completely overboard.

Because if you have a relatively simple life or you're doing relatively normal things, adding that aggressive level of personality on top of it is a really exciting way to do it. You've seen this the opposite way, too, with things like Hubs Life and accounts like that, where they'll take something so boring and just document it extremely.

thoroughly that's kind of the opposite arc of this the most interesting is the shiny object vlog easy win if you want to incorporate this in your other content you don't want to only vlogs this is mine one of the ones i did viral that i did in china where i'm talking about basically the craziest fabric market in the world you'll see now i've done this video i think twice you've seen people have replicated this video all up and down the internet they've gone here it's become a pilgrimage from how popular this video got but what i mean by shiny object going to something that people haven't seen before or having something people haven't seen before or are really curious visually about.

This is my friend Yaw. He has this transparent leather. This is a shiny object vlog.

He's just walking through the concept of this leather, but it looks so cool. And this, again, that shot right there is the money shot. The hand going in and being transparent, he knows what he's doing.

And it's like, what can you get or have access to that's really cool or interesting looking? And it doesn't have to be necessarily something crazy innovative or expensive. This first class jerk who does amazing vlogs as well about travel, he's basically telling the arc about this really fun dog inside this vacation.

spot that they have. But he's basically found the object inside the story that can anchor it. Really crazy looking food is another easy one.

Like all this amazing things they ate. I'm excited just looking at those ones that they came out there with. This is another great one.

I like to call this one out and be like, what is this hideous key? And people are just holding up a normal key. And then they go to a locksmith that makes...

crazier, more vintage keys. And so I want to talk about this concept for a few, because people get overwhelmed by this concept, because they think it requires lots of money. Because you'll see a lot of creators be like, my new Goyard bag.

They'll basically use money as a leverage for this. As a pit, you never want to get into that. You never want to be unboxing some crazy luxury thing, even relatively frequently, because that money is not going to catch up.

You want to say, how can I take interesting or relatively normal things or things in my work and do this? We had a blacksmith in Cut30 the other month. And that was an amazing one where I saw, I was like, oh, they have a facility full.

just crazy machines and they're now in their content using them to like crush cans and things like that and like or you know open bottles actually showing them in process that's an amazing one right if you have any kind of production facility we'll talk about that in cheat codes it's like what are those things you have around you that are interesting and visual and graphic enough and that can work with food that can work with locations but shiny object vlogs are great whenever you do get your hands on something interesting like that and a great way to anchor trade show content or going to places is finding the most exciting things there and the last one we're going to cover is what i call insane concept so once gotten really popular this guy kevin who does day trips he will do a i'm going to egypt for one day now again this is a he will break down how this is not as expensive as you'd think which i think is a key component of that like hey actually guess what if you go economy and you fly at this really weird time the flight is 670 dollars or whatever another example of the insane concept is this coffee shop what happens when you give your best recipes away for free this coffee shop had a really popular drink and they made a whole series around we're gonna let the whole internet build it we're gonna elicit all these other

coffee shops to be able to make the same one and we're going to tell the story of how we shared this really popular recipe took a lot of work but a really cool concept and this is the only look at we probably can't do this every week or every day but if you are doing something you're like all right yeah cool i'm gonna go on my spring break or i'm building this thing for my business i'm gonna try and finish this by staying up for 36 hours straight let's document it how do you add that kind of insane over the top variable on it to make it exciting and those are your six vlog concepts we're gonna talk about how to capture them just a reminder hero's journey how do you take something that's happening and build a narrative around Math.

How do you break down the costs or use costs as a lever on things to make the story interesting? Niche guide with expertise. What can you go out to in the world and talk about?

If an interior designer was going to talk about the home that I'm in right now or an architect, if you're an aspiring chef and you talk about the pans in the kitchen, whatever it is, go out in the world and share your expertise of the world. Insane personality, shiny object, and insane concept. Let's talk about editing.

There's two editing styles. The first one we call a talk and edit. This is what I did on my grease one.

where I'm going to talk like I do to the camera. I'll be standing up or wherever I am. And you're overlaying footage over it, but you also have your talking footage.

This also could be if you are in a place and you're talking while you're in the place. This is useful because it means you don't have to have footage for every second of your vlog. You can fill in some of that with you talking.

You will see people take this up a notch by taking different parts of their script in different places. So for instance, I could intro it here. I could be...

you know down the hill in a different place and i could do another segment it's not required to do that level of production for instance my greece one is a million views and i'm standing in one place in my house but that is an editing style we call it the talking vlog then there is an overdub this is when you purely you do you cut the audio and you just fill in footage underneath it and you are not talking on camera at all it's also a really common style so you have to choose which of those two styles you do if you're comfortable being on camera i recommend the first one just because it can be a little easier for you to edit if you rather not talk on camera and you just want to be on camera you can use the second or your documenting other people, that kind of thing.

How do I actually capture all this footage? So I use what's called a three capture strategy for everything. This would be teaching cut 30.

Anytime I'm filming a thing, I film three ways. So if I was here right now and I was, you know, have my phone out and I was going to take footage of it, literally just do it. I would film.

The close -up, I would film a close of this coffee cup, literally right here, maybe get the microphone inside of it. That would be my close shot. Then I would get a medium shot, maybe a shot of me sitting with the coffee shop and the microphone.

And then I would get a wide shot, literally just 0 .5 on my phone where it's showing this whole expansive A -frame that I'm in right now. And literally do that with everything. So if you are going to a restaurant, you would capture, say you're getting up to the door, big wide shot showing where it is on the street.

Closer shot of you walking up to the door. Close shot of you grabbing the handle. Same thing, once you get the coffee inside, you know what I mean?

the shot of everything, the shot of someone handing it to you, the shot of just the coffee. Capturing three of everything basically gives you max footage so then how long do you capture every single clip you will find on my phone is two to three seconds do not capture these long clips moving through it it's about having lots of little clips you can easily add on a timeline when you capture them what do you do the key to good clips is you either make them static if something is moving in the shot so if someone's walking by or a car is going or someone's handing something to you shoot static don't move your phone at all use the motion inside what's happening in the shot as your dynamic if nothing is moving and you're just somewhere i would use slow motions how we do it take the phone you push That's slow motion number one.

Very, very slowly move in or side. very very slowly to the side having that motion in there really helps get those clips so two to three clips pushing in pushing the side or capturing motion you see and you do this all the time usually if i go to a place a museum a coffee shop whatever i will go have my activity and i will run back through at the end once i know everything that's in there and take about five minutes to capture those three angles of 10 or 12 things that way it's less interrupting some people like to shoot as they go really depends on you your flow the people you're with bluetooth tripod also helps i have one of those from amazon you just literally search bluetooth tripod connect to my phone and i can just start the camera from there that's how a lot of people get shots of themselves walking in and by they'll have a little remote in their hands how do you organize this on your phone i do a folder for each trip i'm in idle wild right now i'm gonna have an idle wild folder and then i will favorite my hook shot so hook shots is the concept of what is gonna lead off your video what is the most exciting shot and think about that okay the shiny object things are a really cool thing that i can show from while we're here a cool building a cool place me holding something interesting me meeting somebody the mayor of idle wild is a dog that's a good hook shot if i

literally meeting the mayor and he's a dog that's a concept you could have right you have to think about what are those really good first couple shots you can use to anchor people in your video and there's capturing enough shots of yourself I would say if you are the focus of this, I would try to have at least five shots of you inside this vlog, if not some more.

So how do you do that? You have your shots you can do in selfie mode or side mode is an easy way to capture it. You can put it on the tripod and do your talking and intro.

You can put it on a tripod and walk by or hold something up or do something. I love the DJI Osmo for a lot of this because I can just put it down on like a shelf in a store and easily shoot and it's very nondescript. But you and your involvement and you being in the video is a bit of a through line.

So it's good to capture that video of yourself. And really the cheat code is like finding a good angle where you can and hold your phone out quickly like this or hold your phone like that and hold something up or throw the peace sign or just kind of walk around or do something is an easy way to work through it.

So now we're gonna end with the cheat codes. What are the cheat codes? Where should you definitely be vlogging if you have these things?

First, just in general, getting out in the world is a cheat code. If you travel for work, if you go on a lot of vacations, if you do interesting places, if you live in a city like New York or LA where everything is tight and people aspire to live there, Tokyo, international, if anyone is fantasizing about living where you are, you have a distinct advantage.

use it two having a facility is a cheat code if your brand ever has a warehouse or has machines or does it packs their own shipping people love to see that pack orders with me we're gonna pack 50 orders right now here's everything going out the door here's all the people that work in our commercial kitchen here's the blacksmith stuff getting made capture machines capture people and action it is just excellent content if you have a personality if you're extremely extroverted you're funny you're particularly good looking or you have a really unique sense of personal style another cheat code you can be making normal vlogs but if If you're really dressed to the nines in a lot of them, you can stand out.

Same thing if you're relatively funny. You can be making vlogs in Des Moines. If you have the jokes are right, you're going to make it work.

See, if you love to make content, you like to edit, you see those edits out there where it's like, oh, it's all 0 .2 seconds, et cetera. That is a cheat code too. And actually, you know what?

Let me go back to editing for one second before I do the last cheat code. We talked about capturing. I didn't talk about editing.

So I added 90 % of this in CapCut on phone or in desktop. CapCut is just easy. You can use edits app from Instagram is also great.

Whatever you like, but those are easy apps. Use easy apps. Don't overthink.

it and your goal for all this content half second and one second shots every shot across your entire video should be half a second or one second long never longer than that if you want to go shorter and do quicker clips you know what you're doing great but if not i would just focus on i'm doing a 45 second video i recorded this 45 second voiceover i'm gonna have 45 one second shots inside of it that is going to be the cheat code where you do that you find a good point in your motion that's why when i said all two three second clips it becomes really easy to cut them down inside those editors you put your audio in you drop in your clips And then you kind of move them around in order and cut them down to have your vlog.

It is quite literally that easy. I cannot describe to you how easy cat cut and edits is versus doing anything in like Premiere or DaVinci, et cetera. If you are not an editor, anyone can do this stuff.

And last, what I'll end with here is the final cheat code. If you are willing to painstakingly document your life, if you're willing to get those shots and just put in the time, if you have no other advantage, but the fact that you're willing to just take the time to shoot with your phone, capture those angles and do the stuff, that's a cheat code.

People hate to work and they want to make it. easy content, and they're gonna keep yapping. And if you painstakingly document, you will have an advantage versus lazier creators.

I'm gonna put all of this into a vlog guide that you can grab. We'll have all of the reference links and the breakdown of this we had here. That will be linked below.

As always, if you wanna learn this with us in over 30 days, the next Cut 30 will be coming soon. We run those every six weeks where you can do 30 days working with us on this specifically. Let me know if you want podcasts, one shots, 10 shots, other stuff coming up soon.

I'm gonna do one of these every few months, just like I did yapping a few months ago. and thank you all so much for watching.

The Hook

The bait, then the rug-pull.

Talking-head content has flattened into sameness, so the pitch here is that vlogs, formats built on actually doing or documenting something, are the one type of content that doesn't get commoditized as fast.

Frameworks