Harley Finkelstein’s question to Tim Ferriss about creators making their own products:
You talk about attention, and I think one of the things is that we’re sitting here in the Shopify Creator Mart where you have these content creators — primarily content creators — who then expand their business and actually build great products.
You’re sitting right in front of Feastables, for example, from MrBeast.
Tim:
The Beast.
Harley:
Which is — you know, what Jimmy has built there is unbelievable — but, it feels like something is sort of reversed.
Previously, you would start by building a product and then find the audience. When you kind of look around here, you see all these amazing products. First, these— these great entrepreneurs first had an audience, and then created products afterwards that was appealing— that was interesting to their customers, or their audience.
But, they did so in a way that doesn’t feel promotional.
And, you know, I think back about some of the, like, early kind of celebrity endorsements, and it felt a little bit like a white label. You know, J.Lo for Macy’s. No disrespect to J.Lo, but, like, did J.Lo actually create the clothing that was being sold in Macy’s, or did some third-party intermediary say, ‘We’re gonna buy your name and put it on these clothing?’
In many ways, I sort of view you as one of the original — you’re gonna sort of roll your eyes at this — but, one of the original contact creators. I mean, you had a podcast before anyone else did. You were doing these blog posts before anyone else did. And you also found that, ‘Hey, my audience cares about this stuff — maybe it’s cooking — I’m gonna create the 4-hour Chef from that.’
Can you talk a little bit about how you see content creation — as the OG creator — evolving?
If you’re kind of digging this OG creator rabbit hole I’ve been belaying lately, do not miss Tim’s response to the question* Harley is posing above. It’s important, and should actually play like a PSA the next time every YouTuber in the world fires up YT Studio.
*’You can get shaped — you will get shaped by your audience.‘
— Tang
Tim Ferriss’ owned platforms include: Tim.blog, The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Chef, and Tools of Titans.
Harley Finkelstein’s owned platforms include: Firebelly, and Big Shot.
