The first question I ask everyone

When I get on a call with someone for the first time, I always start the same way: staring blankly at them, remaining silent and expressionless until they crack under the pressure and start blurting out deeply personal things I can use to blackmail them.

Just kidding (although now that I think about it, maybe I should try that).

I always start by asking them about their goals, because your goals will determine essentially every other decision you make about your product & content.

And when I say “goals,” I mean specific, time-based objectives like “sell $500k of t-shirts within 18 months” or “have 4 retainer clients at $10k each.”

Once we have that, we can work backwards and figure out how to get there— including what platforms you want to be on, what kind of content to make, what your offer should be, etc.

There’s essentially 4 potential business models:

→ CREATOR (MrBeast)

The goal here is to maximize views/impressions, and monetize those with ads and brand deals. You don’t really care who is watching— this is quantity over quality.

Because your goal is to maximize views, you need to make the most broadly accessible content possible— and that can be a bummer to people who want to go deep, talk about niche stuff, etc.

→ B2C BRAND (Randall Pich, LiveFit Apparel)

Since you’re selling a product that’s probably a lower price point, you need to move a lot of volume. Therefore, you need a big audience— but it needs to be a little more targeted than a pure creator strategy.

For example, if you have a fitness brand like Randall, then obviously you need people who are least a little interested in fitness.

→ B2B BRAND (Rand Fishkin, SparkToro)

This becomes an even more targeted strategy, because you’re selling a high-ticket product to B2B buyers. LinkedIn is usually the better fit here, but YouTube can work too.

Unlike the first two models, in this one you want to optimize for quality over quantity.

Meaning, if you have a SaaS product for brick-and-mortar retailers that costs $500 a month, you have a pretty narrow ICP— getting attention from anyone outside that audience is basically pointless because they’ll never buy from you.

→ CONSULTANT/AGENCY (Tas Bober)

Similar to a B2B brand, except you can generally get results with an even smaller audience.

For most consultants, they can’t even handle more than a few clients at a time, so you can be really laser-focused with your content— maybe you only need 10 clients to have a great year, so there’s no need to get 150 likes on every post.

LinkedIn is usually the best platform for this strategy, but YouTube is a really powerful channel too if you’re willing to put in the work.

→ The point:

Any of the above are totally valid strategies— but it all depends on your goals. If you’re a B2B consultant, don’t start a YouTube channel for a mainstream audience. And if you want to be a creator, don’t make niche content a tiny B2B audience.

So if you’re wondering where to go, the answer is to clearly define your goals, then the path will reveal itself.