Gatekeepers still exist in the internet age

The Netflix reject to YouTube superstar

I was reading an interesting indie hacker post. About the growth of Andrew Schulz. A very funny American comedian. The indie hacker post documented his journey from a Netflix reject. To a popular social media comedian racking up millions of views per video.

The indie hacker post starts with his first custom special. He filmed his own special, but Netflix did not want it. So he put the video up on YouTube. He got some nice reception on it. But let’s be honest lots of people are not going to watch a one and half-hour comedy special on YouTube.

So he tried more stuff.

He started getting highlights from his stand-ups and started putting them on YouTube. People started to watch them a lot. A type of video that was gaining traction for him was roasts. So, each night he was doing stand up. He would try to roast a few people in the audience. So he can add that to YouTube. So, every week he has content.

While he was doing that was gaining more and more views. Then a turning point happened when coronavirus hit. As all comics can’t do stand-up acts anymore. In great creativity, Andrew started a late-night style show. Where he jokes about topical events. Compared to many late night tv hosts which struggled without an audience. As the audience did not act as a laugh track. And had to appease network executives. Their jokes were soft. Andrew Schulz did not hold back. And roasted everything. Nothing was too far for him.

This show led to raking in millions of views.

This great story that we all learnt about building an audience. If a traditional gatekeeper does not allow you to get in.

Then you need to make your own audience.

While this is a great lesson.

Online Gatekeepers

I would like to add a caveat. YouTube and Instagram are still gatekeepers. If you say lots of horrendous stuff you will get kicked out. So the lesson may not be don’t rely on one gatekeeper for success. Try multiple. A bit like diversifying your portfolio. You want to be invested in many things so if one asset doesn’t do well. Then the rest will.

A great lesson from Schulz is that you tailor your content to the platform. This is the ground rules when the gatekeepers let you in. His custom special was great. But people don’t watch 2-hour videos on YouTube. So he moved to doing clips of less than 5 minutes. And gained more success. When on Instagram. He starts his intro with and funny or interesting hook. Then asks the watcher to turn their phone around. This is a cool way to get your audience’s attention and keep them. His topical roast show can’t work well for vertical video. As many of the pictures on the side are the joke.

This could not work on vertical video

In that article, it said “Schulz realised he was going to have to make it alone. So he started analysing how people actually watch comedy.” So you go to places where people are actually watching comedy. And tailor your content.

Many creators mention this. You want to move your audience from an open platform to a platform you own. Normally email. Due to the fact, you don’t have control of the platform. If you have a million Twitter followers. But you get banned you have no recourse. And it will be almost impossible to contact them again. So, you much leverage platforms for your own benefit. Maybe create a private community where you and your audience can share more work.

This is the cost of dealing with other gatekeepers. You are following their rules. And they can kick you out for any reason. It’s their house. Their rules.

This is why you want to deal with many gatekeepers, so you are not finished when one kicks you out.

If you are a sane person. You don’t need to worry about that. What’s likely going to happen instead of kicking you out. Is toggling your traffic. And tell you, you need to buy ads on our platform. (Cough cough Facebook.)

If you don’t want that happening to you. Have your own place like a website. And a mailing list. It’s a pretty raw deal to pay to access your own audience.