Solo Creator Successful Creator S1EP1 [Part 1]
Learn about emerging tech & media as the journey is documented and solo creator insights on the web are provided.
Whiz Pill, a seasoned filmmaker and tech enthusiast, delves into current trends, tech news, and reflections on the creator economy.
Follow & Support The Work On YouTube, Patreon & Medium.
Live Session originally hosted on Twitter (Now X).
Chapters
Title/ Introduction
Introducing WhizPill
Over 17 months in podcasting
Intersection of arts, culture, and technology
Professional filmmaker for 15+ years
Strong tech background
Title/ Regular Sessions
Recurring schedule for newsworthy topics
Focus on latest tech developments
Title/ Current Trends
Discussion on trending topics
Artist/model gaining sudden popularity
Artists drawing her, "curing art block"
Title/ Tech News: Amazon AWS Breach
Vulnerability in Amazon AWS services
Unauthorized requests causing charges
Response from Jeff Barr, Chief Evangelist at AWS
Title/ WhizPill Manifesto
Introduction to WhizPill Manifesto
Origins as a research tool
Expansion into podcasting and other platforms
Title/ Guest Interaction
Introduction to Nilo
Discussion on being a creator and founder
Preference for solo work, but network collaboration
Title/ Creator Economy Reflections
Reflections on the creator economy
Sustainability of influencer model
Need for authentic connection and platforms
Title/ Future Platforms
Search for a platform solution
Critique of current search and discovery methods
Comparison to early Yellow Pages concept
Transcript
00:01
This is WhizPill, otherwise known as Whiz, W-H-I-Z, as someone who's been in this game for well over 17 months and counting now, especially on the podcasting side, it's been an interesting kind of progression to see how things are possible from here on out. So yeah, it's mostly an open panel. I cover the intersection of arts, culture, and technology. I've been a professional filmmaker for well over...
00:31
15 years now, and I also have a strong background, technically speaking, in tech. So that's basically the summary of who I am, what I do, and what I'm here for. And this particular session for today is gonna be a regular occurrence, but what I do have is a recurring schedule in terms of things that are newsworthy. But also...
00:56
in some capacity even to what's currently happening most on the blockchain side. I actually had the chance to hear on the previous Twitter space today from people who are heavily involved in the Bitcoin side. So I figured, hey, it would be a good time to kind of like summarize my thoughts about everything in one neat package and kind of keep that format going from now on. So each time that I hop on here to do this, that's going to be basically that. And
01:23
As soon as I'm done and I wrap this up with the Twitter space specifically, both the recording but also different versions of it will be available across platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, you know, the whole show, you know how it goes. Peace David also just popped in as well too and tuning in from Nigeria it sounds like. But as far as like going back to the current cycle of stuff I've seen here and there, stuff that stood out to me.
01:53
Let's get into it. I saw a few tweets of that personally. I had a vested interest in exploring and talking more so about how I feel about it. Impact wise. And one of, one of the ones that's currently in Larry tweets right now is yeah. The one about this artist, I'm assuming in model.
02:20
I've seen their face all over my feet all of a sudden. I don't know what that's about. From the looks of it, they seem to be a someone who does fashion and stuff like that, which is pretty cool. But for the most part, I don't really see any correlation as to why all of a sudden someone like that is all over my feet and they've exploded in popularity. And not only that,
02:48
I've also noticed that a bunch of artists, specifically visual artists, are engaging in this trend where they're drawing her. And there's this running joke on Twitter specifically where people are saying that this person cured their art block. So I can't help but think, is it so that you need something to break you out of an art block? Do you need someone to make you feel better about yourself?
03:18
and I guess make you feel better about your art too. I don't know, like artists are people who are predominantly emotionally, they move through the world with emotion as far as I can tell. So I'm never really surprised that a bunch of them will say that, you know, and a model cured their art block. I don't know how Wadden's would feel.
03:46
personally, or even coders, because even coding can be a very intensive kind of endeavor, I think. But yeah, that's the first one that stood out to me in terms of like, just understanding the general what's happening here in terms of how did that come to be, you know, what were the sequence of events that has led to people specifically latched well to that person, because I don't really understand what that's about. And I actually pinned it in the Twitter space.
04:15
for context, if you're curious to look into it. And I'm gonna be pinning more and more stuff as I go along, but it definitely does feel like to me that, you know, it's a lot going on in that sense. As far as the other topics, so news-wise, more so on the tech side of things, there's been news about a breach that has occurred on the Amazon AWS services.
04:45
Long story short, there has been a vulnerability spotted where effectively someone can hit you with a bunch of requests, unauthorized requests, and it's going to cause you to basically take on unnecessary charge or cheese because of that. I'm not going to get into the technicalities of what this is about, you know, too deep off the bat, but I did pin it for context. This is from user.
05:15
Jeff Barr, G-E-F-B-A-R-R. And yeah, they responded by saying, quote, thank you to RevMod who brought this article to our attention. We agree that customers should not have to pay for unauthorized requests that they did not initiate. We'll have more to share on exactly how we'll help prevent these charges shortly. And they proceeded to make a media article that points to these topics. So.
05:44
If you're someone who, you know, you care about your data, you care about online uh, services, you know, like, um, by all means, um, look into that because, you know, security online is very important. Also, let me check real quick. Who is Jeff Barr, chief evangelist at Amazon. It looks like web services. Follow me for AWS updates and chatter. Actually, I am going to follow you for
06:11
updates and chatter. And speaking of updates and chatter, this is me debuting a brand new season for what I've been working on. It's essentially a follow-up to the podcast I started a year ago to the dark, in further reference for those that are listening on different platforms. You can learn more about it by checking out my article called The Whispale Manifesto. You know, I launched the podcast mostly as a research tool, to be honest.
06:38
I was very interested to see what was going on in the tech space and the art space. And culturally I saw that things were changing as well, but I wasn't exactly sure how to make sense of it. So I basically started to document relentlessly. Initially, I would first write on Google Docs, but then every time I would chime in on something, someone would go, how do you know all that? And I would say, hey, I have a document I've compiled about this information.
07:08
public. So I've been publishing my research from Substack and Medium respectively, and eventually a podcast emerged out of that. And I've published to date, well over 500 hours of stuff across all platforms, including YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, and obviously here Twitter, or otherwise known as X. So- Hey, Wiz. I'm Nilo. By the way, nice to meet you. Finally, just here to support you and your podcast and-
07:37
You give a good perspective, a different perspective to the culture here. I definitely would be interested in hearing more about your, if you can share some of your impressions, but yeah, it's being a, so being a, uh, uh, creator as well as a founder is. It's a, it's a journey. Uh, it takes time. Yeah. Nilo, thanks for, thanks for popping by. But a full disclosure though, in terms of like.
08:03
you know, communication wise, email is gonna be the number one way to get a hold of me without a doubt. If you subscribe to my stuff on Substack and Medium specifically, it actually gives you access to me directly via email. So just ping me there if something comes up. I code, I write, and I design. I'm just passing by, but when I see you doing this alone, I didn't want to just leave like that.
08:31
We didn't you like invite people to your space? Oh, so quick context. So what I'm doing currently, I'm running a test. If you want to call it that, where basically I used Twitter spaces as a format where I kind of give my thoughts on the news of the day or the news of that day.
08:53
and basically then compile and condense that into something proper to then distribute on my platform, such as Medium, Substack, YouTube and so on and so forth. But yeah, I have other stuff as well kind of popping up. I have a video I just pinned on the Twitter space for context, but basically it's a video of the actor that played the role of Dr. Octopus and the well-acclaimed film Spider-Man 2 from Sam Raimi, the director.
09:20
And yeah, he was giving his thoughts about like what it is like to be a creator and what it is like to be someone who is trying to achieve their goals and kind of telling a story about how their dads was telling them that when he was pursuing acting, he basically kind of gave him this look of, why would you do that? You know, like acting is not necessary, you know? But dude has gone on to become a well-known actor. So I don't know, man. Sounds like he won to me, but...
09:49
That's when they did really for another day, but I was hoping to kind of make a more long-form response to that in my own time later, in terms of what it's like to be a solo creator, the sacrifices that it takes to be a solo creator, but also the reality of what it's really like in terms of, you know, it's not sunshine and rainbows, emphasis on the solo part. You mentioned I was solo in the space, and I don't mind solo, to be honest. I've been solo for a b****.
10:17
quite some time to be honest with you. So I kind of got used and learned to basically enjoy my own company. And there's something to be said about being able to be comfortable with yourself, so much so that you don't need people around to still do what you need to do. So much of the culture of Twitter spaces specifically is full of people who they would much rather just do things as long as people are watching.
10:46
That's not really my vibe personally. And again, that's actually by design. It's because early on I understood that, you know, I can be a creator, but I'm not gonna pursue the validation that comes with being a creator. In other words, I focused more so on, you know, providing the substance of what it is I'm about versus trying to package that into a format that's accessible or that's digestible for a general audience for them to stick around. I've always...
11:15
intended my stuff to be found by people who actually are serious about what they do. And you know, to that point, fast forward to a year and some change when I started the podcast officially, I did go on to partner with several individuals, you know, one being a very talented video editor and filmmaker like myself. And we've collabed several times. So funny enough, right, like
11:42
what you see me do in public, it may seem as if like I'm on my own when really I have a built-in network of people that I can reach out to on the bad channel at any time. So I don't know, like this is like a debate for another day I think in terms of what is the real value of being a creator in this day and age? Do you need people to be more visible on the more social media front or?
12:07
Do you only need them to be around you in the sense of, you know, private messages, private emails and stuff like that? I think it's a very interesting kind of dynamic in that personally, I think, especially in this new age of the creator economy. In other words, this idea of how does one as a creator make money and sustain money, you know, like that's a big topic that's going to need to be figured out because it seems to me that right now, without a doubt,
12:36
We are in the influencer era economy of this creator economy, where basically if you're someone who has a big enough platform, that's what gives you the cloud necessary to make money from it. I'm not so sure that's sustainable because the creator economy basically to make influencers viable for you to be of influence, you need someone to give you that influence. Right. In other words, you need someone who.
13:04
will chill into what you do day in and day out to validate that influence. So I feel that as time goes on, actually, it's called it's only a matter of time before people kind of get to their senses and basically say, you know what, maybe me spending 10 hours a day supporting this person and not pursuing my own venture is not a good idea. And who could blame them in this scenario, to be honest. So there's a trade off, right? Like I feel that for me, there's a time exchange that happens where
13:33
when you're someone who you want to be a creator, but you also want to support other creators, you know, you can only go so far in doing so. And I feel that similarly, you know, just normal people, you know, they will have to choose in terms of like, okay, do I want to support the creator that already has 10 million people already following them? Or do I want to support someone that relates to the stuff I actually care about or stuff I actually want to do? I don't know, like,
14:03
The future remains to be seen, but I'm very optimistic though, because of the fact that people, all in all, it seems to me that the need for connection is there, the need for authenticity is also there, and also the need for a platform to solve those problems is still there. Sure, we have Instagram, we have Twitter, we have Facebook, we have YouTube, but no one really has figured that out yet in terms of like...
14:32
building a platform that on one hand gives the users the sovereignty that they deserve to all their data, to be able to do with it as they please, and on the other hand, solve the mass distribution and network effect that's necessary for that platform to catch on. Because right now, and I'm sure you can relate with this, some of it out currently here, is that like how many times you've asked someone about, you know,
15:02
their contact info and they'll probably tell you, hey, like, follow me on Instagram at insert username or follow me on Twitter at insert whatever. I feel that long-term it's not really sustainable to kind of do that because some people don't use Instagram. Some people don't use Twitter. Some people don't use YouTube, you know? So it's like, what's going to be the thing that's going to really step into kind of like the way I think about it, the early days of the yellow pages, you know, and I'm kind of
15:31
dating myself here by mentioning that, but the yellow page was a good example of that. You know what I'm saying? Where it's like, if you're someone who does something, you can actually go in that book and you looked up, you know, services, you know, places, people, and whoever came up, you know, you would reach out to them. Currently the internet is not really built like that. Even Google currently, you would think Google would make it easier for people, for you to find people. The problem comes with the fact that right now,
15:59
Google's main, main, I'd argue main flaw is that it can be gimmicked. If you're someone who offers a particular service, it's actually going to come down to your search engine optimization in terms of you being able to take what it is that you have to offer and package that in a format that's easily searchable. For me, I don't think that's sustainable at all.
16:25
because now it puts the burden of discoverability on the user and not on the platform. So hopefully someone figures that out along the way.
Solo Creator❓ Successful Creator✅ S1EP1 [Part 1]