Bryan McAnulty: Welcome to The Creator's Adventure, where we interview Creator's from around the world, hearing their stories about growing a business. Today's guest is going to share his content, strategy, and creative approach that has helped him grow to almost a hundred thousand followers on social media. Hey everyone.

I'm Brian McNulty, the founder of Heights Platform. Let's get into it.

Hey everyone. We're here today with Smitesh Mistry. He is an illustrator, videographer, and designer. His designs range from simple hand drawn animations, up to abstract, brightly colored scenes that convey deeper themes. While he's not designing, sesh loves listening to music, lifting weights, and reading up on the latest track.

Smitesh, welcome to the show. Thank you very much. So my first question for you is, what would you say is the biggest thing that you, either you did or you are doing that's helped you to achieve the freedom to do what you

Smitesh Mistry: enjoy? So for me, like the biggest thing initially was just being able to create, so before I even grew an audience started teaching on Skillshare, anything like that.

It was initially just kind of, Giving myself the freedom in order to create whatever I want without the pressure of whatever's trending, what's popular at the moment, what's working, just kind of create in order for me just to kind of get myself out there. And then I think through that, just by me being myself and the audience, seeing that I was just being myself, that in itself gained the traction for which then I can, then I grew the audience.

And it's kind of like once, it was kind of while the audience was growing. Which allowed me to kind of have opportunities like teaching like say example when I was teaching, it wasn't something that was given to me or someone reached out to me. It was kind of a, like a speculative email where skills share sent out and there was like, We're looking for teachers.

And I actually missed the deadline by three days. But like within me, I was just like, you know what? Still I still want to teach. I'll still send him an email. I was like, Hey, I do apologize. I missed the email. I missed the deadline. I'm I okay to still teach. And then looked at the, the people skills chat.

That was really nice about it. But I think it was a mixture of just me being who I am without changing it, just to kind of get views, get light in order to grow an audience, but then also. If you are wanting something, like regardless if you miss a deadline or you don't know where to reach out to a person, it was just kind of just pursuing the things that you do feel that you want.

And I think after doing like all these things, like still checking in with myself, making sure like I'm still doing things I want to do. One thing for me that I did find hard was like being able to like have the courage, like it's okay to change something. You started initially, so let's say when I started illustrating.

It was something that I was like, it wa I wasn't fully sure like the reason behind it. I was just creating because I wanted to create. And then obviously the more I started doing it, I kind of like changed the way in which I started creating. And then I kind of like started focusing more on like the video side of creating the illustrations, which then again, kind of like created some traction.

But yeah, the biggest thing to kind of like that has allowed me to, to gain the freedom was just being true, true to myself.

Bryan McAnulty: Awesome. That's a great answer. And I think there's a couple really good points in there. Not only about the being true to yourself. So first with that, I think that it's so important and I think that's a theme that's been brought up on this show a few times before and it seems simple.

It's like you can just say that, but it is a challenge for a lot of people to. To, to do because when you're, you're first starting to create there's a lot of battling with imposter syndrome or, or worry about like, oh, what if no one's gonna like it and, and all of that kind of thing. But it's not only extremely liberating to just create the thing that you enjoy and just put it out there, but it's also.

It's extremely powerful to be able to do it that way because that's really what can get you the traction better than, than trying to do what you think people will want anyway.

Smitesh Mistry: Yeah. Yeah. That's the thing, like mentioning imposter syndrome, like that was definitely something that kicked in. Like I was creating my own stuff and then I was like, Hold away what people are liking this or the audience are looking for this.

But then it is just kind of that internal battle of no, like obviously this is, you're creating something because this is kind of like coming from you compared to like getting influenced by whatever's trending, whatever's working. So it is important to kind of like for me, like acknowledging imposters in jobs, kicking in and then kind of like discarding it.

Bryan McAnulty: Yeah. Yeah, that's true. I also like how you mentioned about. How it's okay to change what you are creating and your, your goal and your vision as you go. Because this is something that I've seen a lot of people also get stuck on, and I've, I've battled with that myself as I've grown that you think, okay, I have to exactly know this before I start doing it.

It has to be exactly this thing, and I have to keep with this theme. But the reality is that most likely something's gonna change or be refined as you start creating. And the way that you explained it is great because it's just another reason why you should start creating now. Because if you're saying like, I wanna start posting on Instagram, I wanna start making YouTube videos, whatever it is, whatever you're thinking about doing.

It doesn't matter how much time you spend brainstorming and thinking about the exact theme or whatever beforehand, because once you actually start doing it, it's going to change over time anyway. And, and you probably will never get to that point of realizing how that change will happen until you start doing it in the first place.

So it's a, it is a great reason to just get started, I think.

Smitesh Mistry: For sure, for sure. It's always, I always do find like that initial like getting started cuz there is that, like, there's a whole analogy of like, everyone tries to make the perfect hamburger rather than selling the hamburger. So I feel like a lot of creatives do kind of get stuck on like the little nitty gritty, like whether it's videography, figure out what camera, how to use lighting, rather than I've got an idea, let me just create something.

And then once I've done that five, six times, then I would've learned way more rather than just trying to make her make sure I have the perfect. Sort of setting equipment before even making anything. So I do feel it's important just to kind of like, just get stuck in. Yeah,

Bryan McAnulty: I think that's a good point too.

And it's making me think of a different way to kind of phrase it that. Yeah, I, I look at it as you have the creator, you have like the online marketer, and there's two very different types of personalities in how you look at things. Whereas the creator typically is more of like the perfectionist that this has to be exactly this perfect way that I imagine it before I can let anybody see it or I sell it to anybody, or whatever the online marketer says, I have this great idea.

I wanna promote it to everybody, and there's no shame at all, even if whatever the thing is just really kind of sucks. Yeah. The, the balance, the perfect balance is somewhere in between those two, I think, where you have something that's good, maybe it's not perfect yet, and you choose to go and, and promote it, and release it to the world.

And so the online marketers maybe sometimes struggle with it, the quality of their product because that maybe not having any shame about promoting it. So, There's maybe not as much focus on the product as there should be. Creator's focus so much on the product and the appearance and everything that they never get it out there.

And so realizing, realizing where, which one of those two buckets you fall into and then the deciding how can you be balanced and aware of that. Like, yes, it's good to have a good product, but if no one ever gets to see it then your creation is not really providing value. Yeah, yeah. No, definitely. Cool.

So can you tell us about if there is one, a specific moment or experience that really helped you to realize you wanted to pursue a career in graphic design illustration?

Smitesh Mistry: Ooh. So it kind of, it kind of stemmed from my final year of university. This was like going back, I think like eight years now. Wow. Uh so like we had a graphic design module.

So at university I didn't do graphic design. I did product design and I had a graphic design module. I think it was. We, we had to make a, I think we was designing our finding a project. We had to I put it into like a document advertise. I would to use it like a, like a natural, if it was creating like an natural product.

And it was then that I realized like I want to go more into graphic design. But then went with, with asset illustration. It was like, at the time, so I graduated. I didn't get a job straight away. I was kind of just like in and outta jobs just to come and get money whilst I was still applying, obviously like not not wanting to go into what I studied.

So I spent some time trying to create a portfolio together. So at the time I was working, I was working at the cinemas. Just trying to get some money and I found myself just wanting to draw and illustrate just like any customers coming in, just anything I was thinking. And it was actually like, whilst I was working there, like on shift, I think it just hit me.

I was like, I actually just want to create, like things that I'm thinking as opposed to kind of creating like client briefs and like all this type of stuff. Like, it was like a, a deep. In a thing where like I just want to create. And just like going back to the, the initial point where just creating without the influence, I think that helps a lot.

Cause like I just wanted to create what I was thinking, what I was imagining, what I was feeling. So I feel, I feel like from there it's just like a, a deep feeling of like, I feel like I need and want to just, just create an old forms, like drawing illustrations, graphic design, video. And yeah, recently teaching.

Bryan McAnulty: Awesome. Yeah, I, I can relate to that myself. My business before Heights, Platform started as a design agency and it was multimedia design. So we did graphic design web design and even like video production. And eventually that became more and more specialized into just web applications specifically.

And then as, as you're saying, the, the main goal behind that and the desire was like creating for myself and the things I wanted to build. And I found over time it became more and more frustrating to work with clients that wanna ruin things or, or change things in ways you don't like. And, and also of like solving similar problems that are not the problems that you're trying to solve with, with the product you're building.

And so we were trying to figure out, well, how can we start spending more and more on of our time to work on some of our own products, which now eventually became a Heights Platform that we're building today. Yeah, but I, I think it's true for like any kind of creator in a way that when you, you have this like creative spark or, or feeling inside you, you want to.

Focus and create on that thing.

Smitesh Mistry: Yeah. Yeah. Especially, I, like, I, I do feel like it's, it is a mixture of like a feeling, but also like, we always, like I I, I describe it as the, the inner voice. You know, that person who's like, kind of telling you like, like, like you get most joy out of creating for me, like when I'm creating, it doesn't feel like I'm doing work or like, I'm like, I'm exhausted.

I can go for hours. And then like look at the time and I'm like, well, it's time for bed. But it is kind of, it is kind of something that. It just kind of brings joy and because of that, I feel like doing it more, you get like deeper, deeper into it. And like they do say like it is a muscle. So in like just creating, like I feel like the more you create, the better you get it and the quicker you kind of like be able to think on your feet, which is good.

Bryan McAnulty: Yeah, definitely. And I think that's a reason why it's also good for. Yeah, people, especially early on to like experiment with different things. If, if you're, you're really early on that you're not quite sure, like what is it that you're able to just sit there for hours and, and focus on in your business then just really enjoy.

Yeah. And like you said, cuz now you're, you got more into video and things like that. That's a reason why I, I really like that. I started, I. In, in like offering all those different kinds of services to clients because like we did video too, but like the amount of video proj projects we had compared to like design or web design, it's like so small, but it still got me to be able to do that.

And it got me to be able to experience like, well, what is it like to work on these video projects? And then I kind of learned for myself like, well, what do I enjoy the most out of this? To figure that out.

Smitesh Mistry: I always told myself like, it is important just to taste a bunch of stuff. And even if you don't even pursue, it's like going back to the whole change, like it's okay to kind of like change where your interest lies currently.

But I do feel like, like over the, over the years, like the experiences and stuff or like even just understanding different, different aspects of the creating industry it's definitely helped me like today whether that was like understanding like cuz like back in high school I did fine art and in college.

So just understanding lighting from there is like helping me with creating videos now. And then like the realism back from, back from fine art is helping me like light my illustrations. And then obviously the color parts and color combinations from graphic design is helping me. So it's like I feel like having tastes all the different, different sort of industries within the creative industry.

Yes, it's giving like a broader knowledge, which I can definitely apply, apply today, which is kind of benefit of tasting a bunch. Yeah,

Bryan McAnulty: yeah. It all connects, so it's not, it's not wasted energy definitely to uh Yeah, yeah. To try those things. So can you walk us through a little bit of, How does your creative process work?

Cuz we read on your website that you like to create content that's both fun and abstract, but still conveys a message. So how does the, the process work, if you can describe it and I guess you already mentioned a little bit, but where do you get the inspiration for your work?

Smitesh Mistry: So my general process, like when I'm creating one of my illustrations generally, like this is something I've realized recently.

But most of the characters within my illustrations have been me without realizing. So generally it's like the idea comes by me feeling or going through something. So I'd say if there's like a new challenge, like one of my illustrations is a character climbing up a mountain. But the mountains like the shape of the guys.

I think it's, yeah, this one, her, uh But this idea came from like, trying to conquer my own mind. So this was like when a bit of imposter syndrome was kicking in and it was like, I've gotta conquer my mental state in order to kind of like get to the next step. So that's like roughly where my like majority of my inspiration kind of comes from.

Either things that like, I just like look up and I'm like, cool. Like I said, this one for example, that was just like, I saw someone wearing a jacket and I was like, that'll be cool. That'll make a cool illustration. So sometimes it's like, the meaning is more of like a, like a personal thing. Like, I like it.

And then some of like much deeper and like abstracts in a way where it's like, it, it takes a little bit of like thinking to get there. But that's generally like where my inspiration and ideas come from. And then once I've got the idea, then I just kind of like brainstorm. So like, I like to call it the diamond methods.

Like I start off with like an idea and then like to go super broad as in like thinking like, where's I can associate with it? How else can I like capture? Or like represent the idea that I'm thinking visually and then like to narrow back down again and kind of chop those, chop those, like the brainstorming part of it into a much more confined idea before, before I start illustrating.

That's like my rough, rough process that I kind of applied to kind of everything recently. Cool.

Bryan McAnulty: Okay. Yeah, that sounds good. Another thing I really wanna talk about is social media and branding. So you have, I think, almost a hundred thousand followers on Instagram now. Is that correct? Yes. Yeah. All right.

So how do you approach creating your content for social media? And can you share any like specific strategy or process you might follow? Because I think for a lot of people out there, they can probably relate to a lot of what you've talked about so far. But I think that where more people struggle, even than some of the first topics we were talking about is how can they promote themselves successfully on social media.

Smitesh Mistry: So one thing, one thing that I found that helped for me was this was kind of by an accident. So initially I started creating things that I want to create. Then by people like, people like started commenting on myself, like one or two people being like, this was like back at the beginning when I had like four, 400 followers started commenting like, oh, how did you do this?

Or, it'd be cool to see a breakdown of this. And then realizing that people, like people consume social media content. To either be entertained off educational purposes and then recently kind of like to be inspired. So those are like the three main, three main things. And like with regards to like the creative industry and like visual, like visual stuff I feel like education.

Especially cuz like the people I'm trying to target is other creatives. As opposed to just like the average audience who like consuming like memes and like those sort of like, I feel like that taps into the kind of entertainment aspect of social media. Whereas like I feel like the creative industry a good strong part to kind of like grow or just build, build an audience is to kind of teach.

Through educational content, whether here's how you can, like, a few of the posts I've done is like, here's how I can use the gradient function within procreate, or here's how you can illustrate 3D shape. And teaching people the basics, especially cause like the attention span on social media is super short now.

So there is a mixture of the kind of capturing part of it, but then also like to build, to build an audience. I feel like teaching. The skills you have will kind of, it'll, it will bring the, the audience that you want. Something like the creative audience. So going back to your questions and like how, how to, how to grow, grow an audience.

It'd be, I feel like providing value like I mentioned at the beginning, like providing value is probably the biggest thing, but you can't focus on when. Posting on social media especially in the creative industry like entertainment, you kind of can, like I've, I've tried to include a bit of entertainment and education with the way that I edit my videos, like with transitions using like Malays and stuff.

But I feel like still the, the core of the, the content I'm creating is educational. Even though like, just by creating like a process video, that in itself, like, there's been so many people like, oh, I never knew. You could do this or I didn't think about creating this shape this way. So it's, it's kind of both.

Cuz there was a stage where I was like, I was being quite selfish with the, with the content I was creating as in like creating content. Like say if I was trying to push out a product of mine or get them to do X, Y, and Z. Like it was me being quite selfish and like, let me create this in order to convert you.

But then like realizing that, hold on, hold on a second. This isn't the part of social media I like, I enjoy, like, I enjoy just like providing volume. Cause the way I see it is like I've gained a bunch of skills over the years and there's, there's no part in me having it if I can't give at least some of it back.

So I feel like that's, that's like a, a key thing that I'd say to, to consider when you are or you are considering to like start social or to, to grow what you currently have. Think about ways in which you can provide value by kind of communicating the skills that you've gained. And people, some people may say, they may be like, oh, but I've just started, or I don't know, like how I can do that.

But I always feel like there's still someone just behind you. That exactly you could teach. And it may sound super simple. Like I just, like, there's been a few posts where I've just shown how to illustrate a sphere and that I feel like it, for me, that feels super simple. But knowing that some people don't even know how to make it look 3d, which elements to consider, how to select colors.

So just kind of like one was there's always someone behind you, but then also kind of if you think about what videos you would've wanna watched when you started and kind of like try to try to make content like that.

Bryan McAnulty: Yeah, that's great advice. That's something that we tell course Creator's often, and that's something that I think is so great about course creation.

You can say like, well, you don't have to be the absolute expert in your field because as long as you're one step ahead of somebody that you want to teach, then you can provide value to them. And often we even, I've said this so many times before, that you can even provide even more value to that person that you're only one step ahead of versus the, the absolute expert trying to teach that same person because the the absolute expert has like forgotten that thing.

That's just one step ahead so many times already. Whereas having just gone through that yourself, you're actually in a better position to know all these things that you recently learned that are gonna be valuable. To that person.

Smitesh Mistry: Yeah, yeah. No, definitely. Yeah. I do find that like, like reason I taught a class on the basics of drawing, and I've been drawing since like year nine, which I think is like, what, 14, 15 years old.

That's a good like 10, like short of 15 years. And like trying to remember like basic concepts that I had to pick up, that was really hard for me. Like part of me had to kind of like go back and look at my old work and be like, hold on, what was I thinking whilst creating this? But yeah, I definitely do agree.

Like once you get, like, once you've been doing something for many years, like trying to go back to the basics is kind of hard. But I think just reminding yourself of like the basic steps on how you got there and then trying to think of like how people can get value from this is, is very helpful.

Bryan McAnulty: Yeah.

Yeah, definitely. I think, I mean when it comes to course creation, that's a good time to. Also ask for feedback from your audience and, and try to find out like, well, what are the questions that they have to make sure you're answering everything? And I mean, you could do the same thing with social media as well to kind of figure out, well, what is it that people want to learn or, or don't know about?

But so to summarize, you're talking about giving value by creating content that in your case, you recommend educational content that still is entertaining enough to, to actually get the person to engage with it. But then you mentioned, what else did you mention about did you mention about something to avoid or Oh, yeah, to avoid, like just promoting yourself and like, here's a post about just buy my thing, this is my new thing or whatever.

Yeah, or just showing off or, or shouting rather than saying, here's something I have that I can teach you.

Smitesh Mistry: Yeah, yeah, exactly. Cause like, I feel like it's natural, especially like if you wanna make like a bit of passive income here and there. It is, it is, it does kind of take a bit over like, oh, here's a, here's a brush I made, or here's, here's a free template which you can download.

But I feel like, yeah, the best way is just kind of provide value for your audience. Cuz then you do, you do kind of want to build a community, like you wanna be known. Cuz if you're trying to grow on social, you obviously you want to create an audience or a community which resonate with you. So obviously like having your personality come through.

While it's teaching. Like I feel like that's kind of like one thing, which is, which will helped me in order, like just providing like super, super basic. Which some people may be like, okay, this is super simple. Why are you teaching this? Cause you obviously get, you get comments from time to time as in like, oh, this is super simple.

Why, why? You made a whole video on this. But then there is the people who got value from that, which. That video was kind of targeting. So I think it's just knowing, like having a fine balance between, like it's still okay to kind of like promote yourself cause obviously you didn't grow. Like that's kind of like marketing side of it.

But then also you do wanna provide, provide value with the content that you're making.

Bryan McAnulty: Okay. Great. So with that said, can you think of any other mistakes that you would see other business owners or Creator's make when it comes to. Either they're branding or especially when creating like video content for social media and how that can maybe be avoided, those mistakes.

Smitesh Mistry: Ooh. I'll say, I would say with the current, current state of social media, like with the regards that video content, I think sometimes like I feel like we have to kind of incorporate a hook. In order to hold the attention before we can provide the value. Cause a lot of people I've seen, like some people are like really valuable and really like interesting videos, but the initial section of it, like they come in and like, Hey, I'm Smit rather than a here's five ways you can improve your drawings.

So I think just switching up the way in which you managed to captivate the audience without it sounding like quick Beatty or like just trying to hold them just for sake of views. But I feel like that's one way, which I've definitely seen like a lot of, a lot of creatives just kind of, they kind of miss an opportunity where they could be like, they could be growing, they could be providing like a lot of value, but with the initial, initial, like an initial like one to two seconds of the video they've lost, they've lost the audience just because like the current state of social media and like how everyone just wants, I feel like definitely like, I think TikTok definitely.

Had an effect on our attention span. Cause I remember the content I was making like before, like lockdown that was a lot more slower, a lot more easy paced. And then as, as the time went on, like my content's got a lot more like choppier, a lot more like quick transitions just to kind of keep the audience.

But that's definitely something I'd say. But one thing that I'm, I'm like currently focusing on is, Trying to hold an audience's attention without the need of speed. Or like flashing lights or text pairing on the screen or transitions there, there interview. But that's like a, that's like a whole different, whole different ballgame altogether.

Just trying to figure out, cuz you, you, you get a kind of if like, cuz you always obviously have a target audience, but you can get in the head or the mindset of the people you're trying to target and figure out what they would want. Kind of reverse engineer your content in a way. But I'd say with current video, video Creator's or people who are making video content on social media, I do definitely pay some attention to those initial one, one to two seconds of your content.

Yeah. And make it, make it as clear as possible. Cuz you get some, which like, like you said, like say they've been doing something for a while. They kind of forget little steps here and there, which is crucial for the beginner. So really dialing it back. One thing I do is sometimes I just like run the video by my dad.

I'm like, did you get this or Mm. Just to kind of like get, get, get someone who's like, not even in the creative industry to, to, to have an opinion on it. That's definitely help me. Like when I'm showing my process videos, I was like, oh, what do you think? And then like, wait, how did you get from here to here?

I was like, okay, that's a good one. And I go back and include it. But yeah, that's really helpful.

Bryan McAnulty: Yeah. Yeah, that's a, a great way for feedback, especially for something like that. I, I've done the same thing with my, my family and parents and showed them things that I know that, that they don't normally understand, just cuz they're not involved in that.

To see if they do understand what it is that I'm talking about. Yeah, I like the point that you mentioned. Well, okay. First of all, recapping. If, if you're a creator posting on social media already, your content might actually already be great. It's just you're not delivering it in the right way with paying attention to those first one to two seconds.

So make sure that you're, you're really delivering the hook and the reason to watch there, rather than saying something else about yourself or, or having other, some kind of other introduction. But I really like what you said about. Trying to find a way to do everything without just being super fast.

And I think that I've seen myself falling into the same thing recently. I mean, I, I haven't had time even to be creating like YouTube or, or TikTok content or, or any of that kind of stuff too much recently. Most of it is actually like clips from this show and everything that's been going out. But still I see myself thinking like, how can I be faster?

How can I communicate this more, more quick and everything? And I think that while that works, it's not necessarily the best way to do it. And if you can do it while going slower, then you're, you're unstoppable, I guess. Yeah. And so it, it made me think of this because one of my recent interviews I was talking with Arthur Samuel Joseph.

He is a famous vocal coach probably the most famous vocal coach in the world. He's had clients like Sylvester Stallone I think George Clooney. Tony Robbins, like any, anybody who you think is, is good at speaking. Like he's, he's the one that's helped teach them. I learned a lot from him in that, that interview, but he talks very slow and very deliberate.

And I was curious because like, I think in, in one sense, like I. That is not what, like TikTok and, and everything is like captivated by it. It doesn't seem like that at least. But like I'll tell you like I was captivated during that interview of like everything that he said even though he was slow and deliberate and so yeah, it made me think that maybe, maybe it's an excuse that I'm just thinking, oh, I should try to be fast.

And I think that there is a path and a way to. Be slower and, and still capture the same, if not more attention. And be just as if not more entertaining.

Smitesh Mistry: Yeah. But I feel like the, the underlying, the underlying thing behind all that is, is again, value. Cause if you like, whether you're quick, slow I feel like if the value's there, like people are gonna be sticking around.

Bryan McAnulty: Yeah. Yeah. That's true. Yeah. Being, being fast is a way maybe to. It's almost like a crutch to fix how you're not maybe communicating perfectly. Yeah, yeah. Whereas if you're able to be slow and do it, that means that you've gotten all the, the right words and the right story and the right, the, the right way that you're even expressing yourself.

This is another thing that, that Arthur Arthur was saying of just like, Saying the same exact word, but slightly different in a way that is communicating it or emphasizing it better with your, your real meaning and intentions behind it. So yeah, I think that's really interesting. Any advice you would give to somebody who's just starting out, other than what we've talked about before, of like just putting something out there?

And, and trying to do what, what you enjoy. Anything else you would suggest to say, maybe to somebody more specifically who, maybe they're a cr more creative type, maybe they're a designer illustrator and they're saying, I wanna start to post on social media.

Smitesh Mistry: But I think, I think, I think like with that one, one thing I like to ask like, say, say my brother, he's, he's recently started posting one thing I asked him is like, what's your reason behind it?

I feel like that helps. That helps a lot in itself, whether it's to grow, whether it's just to kind of have an outlet to kind of put your creativity whether it's to get clients, whether it's to, to convert into sales. Like I always feel like that in itself is such an important question that a lot of us don't.

Have, like, have the answer for straight off the box. A lot of it just kind of like post a bit here, post a bit there. But say for example, if you are, if you are committed to kind of like growing an audience in order to hopefully later in the future, like use the audience for something I definitely think like spending a little bit of time cuz there is the aspect of creating, but you can still create but not post.

But that's in order to kind of like get your skills up. But then if you are wanting to grow, then I would say definitely, especially in this area where a lot more people, like, it's a lot more saturated now compared to, say, five years ago. Is having a, a tiny thought about a strategy, whether that's visual, like visual sim, like what do you call it?

Making sure all looks the same, all the branding, whether that's a color palette, the font you use. The types of illustrations or graphic design or what, whatever type of creativity or whatever industry you're in. I'd definitely say spend some time just trying to figure those, those aspects out. And then when you do start creating, like, cause I feel like a lot of people want consistency.

When you follow someone you follow for whether it's something they do, whether it's like, say food reviews. There's one guy recently started following, like he just does food reviews in his car, but all of his videos are in his car. And so you know what you're in for. Hmm. It's almost like a TV show.

You're gonna go back and watch the TV show because you kind of know what you, you're in for. You like the genre, you like the actors. So I feel like that's one thing that people don't think about the social media, like it's called a social media channel, but like, if you think of it as if it is an actual, like TV show, create like your own TV show where people know what they're gonna get, what they're gonna like, what the character's gonna hold, what type of like journey he's going through.

Any challenges? I feel like that's helped me a lot recently just to kind of like turn it into a show like it is technically, it is your output into the world. Turn your channel, turn your like social media platform into a channel where people know what they're gonna get, where that's processed videos, where it's cooking videos you talking about say finance, anything, whatever it could be.

But I'd say stick to stick to one thing initially for a decent amount of time. Then I'd say like people build that trust within you and then you can kind of change a little bit.

Bryan McAnulty: Yeah, I like that because also I. When people know what they're gonna get like that, and they see one of your videos and they like it.

Then when they see the next video, then they know what they're in for, as you said. And they're, they say, oh, I wanna watch this. I know I wanna watch this. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna swipe to the next one because I know that this is, this is Smith's video. This is is style. This is the thing I wanna watch.

Yeah. And so that will, that alone can help them watch your future content, even if maybe the, the hook in your next video is not quite as good as it was in your. Previous one.

Smitesh Mistry: Yeah, yeah. Just by like seeing your face or like whatever intro you normally do, people would be like, oh cool, yeah, it's him. Oh yeah, I like this guy.

I'm gonna follow him. Oh, I'm gonna watch it again. Cause we all have that. They all have those, like people on social media are like, oh, I like his content, but guard so what he posts. And you're gonna sit down and watch it. Yeah.

Bryan McAnulty: Yeah. That's true. And I really like what you said about taking a moment to think about the why of why you're posting the content and.

I think that definitely can't be understated because that's something that I was only able to do more on creating content myself once I really realized that for myself, because personally, like I have no desire to say I just wanna be popular on social media or, or be known or whatever, I. I actually have a desire against that.

I'd rather just hang out with my family, do the things I like and, and create, right? Yeah. So I don't, I don't wanna be known on social media in particular, but when I realized that the reason why, the why for me is that I wanna help other Creator's learn how they can build this course business, a community business, how they can create and, and share all of this with other, other Creator's, that reason is way more stronger than.

The the deterrence of not wanting to be known on social media. So yeah, once I realized that reason, that has become the motivation to say like, well, this is why I, I have to do this. I want to get this content out there. Yeah. Because I, I wanna share this and make this impact in the world. And so, despite me not wanting to, to really be on a video or, or, or be the face of anything in particular in that way realizing that y made all the difference for me, so I think it, it can for a lot of other Creator's as well.

Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Cool. All right. I've got one more question for you before we get going and on the show, we'd like to ask every guest if they have a question for the audience. So if you could ask our audience anything, whether it's something like more introspective you want them to think about, or something that you're just genuinely curious about, what would that be?

Smitesh Mistry: So I think my question's gonna be we kind of, we kind of just tapped on it. But yeah, what is, what is your reason for that? First, it's like a, it is two part questions. Firstly, what's your reason for creating, and then secondly, if you're posting what's, what's your why?

Bryan McAnulty: Awesome. Yeah, that's great question.

Great thing to think about. All right, Smit. Well, thanks so much. Before we get going, where else can people find you online?

Smitesh Mistry: So there's my Instagram which is that design with Smit . You can find me on YouTube at the same handle too. Um recently on TikTok. You can find me at a different handle.

It's Smit Visuals.

Bryan McAnulty: All right. Awesome. Thanks.

Smitesh Mistry: Thanks a lot.

Bryan McAnulty: I'd like to take a moment to invite you to join our free community of over 5,000 Creator's at creator climb.com. If you enjoyed this episode and want to hear more, check out the Heights Platform YouTube channel every Tuesday at 9:00 AM US Central.

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