I crossed 1,000 followers last week.

I did this in 2 months of posting on X.

It’s crazy to think about, considering that in July I had no idea if I wanted to quit Instagram or not.

I’ve built my presence through crafting content that pops. Or “standout” content.

I mention this a lot but have never dove deep into it before.

This week we’ll be doing exactly that.

But before we dive into standout content, we need to tackle what isn’t standout content.

To do this, we’ll travel back to early August.

The Time Leap

I finally wrote out my first tweet.

I just went through Dan Koe’s Digital Economics course for the first time. The hype that surrounded posting fueled me.

Posted. Nothing.

Posted again. Nothing.

Okay, well, I didn’t expect results right away. But my head raced. My thoughts ran. The same feeling from Instagram popped up.

“What if I’m not cut out for this?”

My head grabbed onto a spark. I realized Dan’s way of writing sounds nothing like me. It’ll never work because I’m not him.

I can try to write the way he does for clicks. But it won’t work.

Shoot, I’m on my own.

But this made me realize something. If Dan has his own way of writing, I’ll make my own way of writing.

So I ditched the templates and went all in on finding my own flow. I gained inspiration from certain creators, but I knew I needed to find my own stuff.

And I did that.

You see, copycats and templates are all over the timeline.

There’s a reason behind this. They see what works. They try to imitate. They get results (kinda). The cycle repeats.

These posts are what we’ll call top-level posts.

Transformations
Milestones
Failures
Wins

They’re proven to work, but everybody uses them (as they should; you just need to put your own spin).

But if you want a real connection with your readers, you’ll want to do this…

Drown Out The Shallows

Depth is a powerful tool.

People resonate with depth because very few are able to think deeply. They’re too busy chasing numbers, eyeballs, and fluff.

It’s like seeing someone share a story of them nearly dying versus a post asking if you drink cold or hot coffee. The reader connects a lot more with the dude who writes the near-death story.

Depth is seen in all aspects of life.

It’s what makes interesting people interesting.

It’s what separates Avengers Endgame from The Justice League.

People love things with depth. They love interconnected storylines and points bouncing off one another.

But you don’t need to be an interesting person to thrive online.

Everyone experiences the same universal emotions.

Fear
Regret
Doubt
Sadness
Happiness
Excitement

It’s just human nature. But people overthink it. They’re all in on the shallow stuff.

But what are the shallows?

Shallow Propogranda

There’s tons of noise on social media.

On one hand, you hear surface-level propaganda:

“Use this content strategy.”

“Long-form vs. short-form”

“Piss people off to get clicks.”

This is the stuff that’s mainly on the timeline and for you page.

On the other hand, there’s the stuff that people aren’t willing to admit.

We’ll call this underground propaganda:

“Clickbait with the show more button.”

“Spam failure content for impressions.”

“Share a flex for every 100 followers gained.”

There isn’t anything bad about any of these things. They’re all things everybody does. Everyone’s in the same game. It’s a fight for eyeballs.

But here’s the thing.

They won’t make up for the fact that if your stuff stinks, it stinks. There’s no other way around it.

Your show more button is pointless if the rest of your post sucks.

Your polarizing post is pointless if it’s irrelevant to your brand.

Your failure content is pointless if you don’t have an offer in place to help people who are in that exact spot.

It’s all shallow and directionless.

Depth is the only direction. The masses gravitate toward creators with depth.

Think Dan Koe.

Think Dickie Bush.

There’s always something you can leave away with when you consume their stuff.

They don’t spam questions asking if their audiences like water or coffee.

Chasing depth is the only way.

The Power of Depth

We’ve established that depth is a rare commodity.

Very few creators unlock it.

But what does it look like when you unlock it and why should you even care?

The Greener Grass of Depth

Depth makes you stand out.

More eyeballs to your page.

More leads for your offer.

More loyal diehards.

People know a post is yours right when they see it. Your stuff is so unique that people can pinpoint that it’s yours even if your name and profile picture aren’t there.

That’s the power of depth.

Now let’s dive into how we’ll conquer X with the power of depth together.

The Holistic Creator

Versatility is powerful.

I’m not talking about your skills online. I’m talking about life as a whole. Most view versatility as a bad thing.

“Focus on one skill and learn it for a year.”

“Focus on one goal and focus on it for a year.”

Sure. But I’m impatient. I hate waiting.

Instead, I zoom into one thing for each area of my life at once. I argue there are six core areas of every human’s life. I’ve made a newsletter about this in the past, but here are the six areas:

Work
Physical Health
Headspace
Relationships
Self-improvement
Hobbies

Read How To Fulfill Your Human Potential Here.

But why am I telling you this?

The reason why is simple. The more you work on your flaws, the more you work on improving your life, the more lessons and stories you’ll have to talk about.

Your content of depth comes from a life of depth.

It’s tough to come up with stuff when you aren’t building. Work is cool, but there’s more to life than work. (5 other areas)

Think of it like this:

Chad hits the gym every day. He only consumes gym content and all he thinks about is the gym. He has no hobbies. He has no other interests.

All he does is gym gym gym.

Now let’s take Jimmy. He hits the gym, but he also runs an agency. On top of that, he’s really into chess and he’s read tons of books.

Who's going to have more things to talk about?

Jimmy.

Why? He’s done more things than Chad.

The cool thing about this is you’re in total control. Nobody’s forcing you only to do one thing. You have the complete freedom to evolve over time.

But lucky for you, most people stop.

They stop once they reach a certain point.

They stop once they nail a skill.

They stop once they start seeing numbers.

So now what?

Be Depth To Write Depth

Depth comes from newness.

Try new things.

The secret to unlimited ideas is to do more stuff. In, my free guide Ideation Mastery we discuss the The Idea Time Machine.

This is where you move around to certain points of your life to find events and mindsets to write about. But you can’t make use of this concept if you’re doing the same things as you were 5 years ago.

It’s up to you to seek out new adventures and new challenges.

It’s all about leveling up to new heights.

Tying The Knot

Depth is the wave.

But the only way to achieve depth in your content is to throw yourself into new situations. From there, you’ll gain the lessons and experiences you can mix into your content.

It’s an ongoing cycle that keeps you winning.

Why?

You’re learning while teaching at the same time.

You’re learning lessons and skills from your screw-ups and then relaying those points to your audience to guide them on their journey.

It’s the loop that never ends.

This is the path of depth.