I’ve been thinking a lot about our YouTube channel lately.

Tara and I started it as a kind of side mission to add more value towards our ultimate goal: getting our scripts made into movies and TV shows.

It’s an indirect path towards what we really want to do. Here’s the plan I laid out about a year ago:

Step 1. Build an audience (female, millennial skewing under Tara’s name) with short-form comedy content.

Step 2. Use that audience as leverage in Hollywood for money to make our larger scripted projects (movies and TV shows)

Now, we are literally pitching a TV show right now based on a viral sketch we produced. So that plan, so far, is kind of working. I’ll know more about how well it’s working in a couple of months when the pitch process is further along.

The only problem I see about this indirect path is this: I like making sketches, but I don’t love it.

So how much time and energy should I put into this indirect path (sketches) vs. the time and energy I put into the direct path (writing more movies and TV shows and getting better at the craft)?

Here’s the answer: I DON’T KNOW.

I read an article last week on Naval Ravikant’s blog and it’s been niggling at me. It’s called “In the Arena,” and in it he talks about direct and indirect paths to success:

“If you want to get rich, you don’t directly just go for the money… if you’re building something of value and you’re using leverage and you’re taking accountability and you’re applying your specific knowledge, you’re going to make money as a byproduct.

The same way, if you want to be happy, you minimize yourself and you engage in high flow activities or engage in activities that take you out of your own self and you end up with happiness…

The things that are either competitive in nature or they seem elusive to us—part of the reason for that is that those are the remaining things that are best pursued indirectly.”

What’s interesting about this in the context of Hollywood is that it seems like creators and influencers with an audience are getting more opportunities to break into the industry than actual actors and writers!

They’ve done everything Naval says to do: build accountability and leverage with free media online… and it’s opening doors.

Podcasters are getting comedy TV shows, influencers with no acting experience are being cast in movies, and on and on it goes.

But what about craft? Will the work they do be any good? Will they get another opportunity if the first one doesn’t go well?

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I was chatting with a friend over the weekend who has a pretty decent following on Instagram. He’s coming out with a vertical series in the vein of what Tara and I made with “Hot Ghost Roommate.”

And we talked a lot about distribution on social media. It’s kind of a chicken and an egg scenario. You never want to distribute bad work. And there’s no point creating great work if no one sees it. You need both.

Ideally, you build an audience with great work.

But which one is easier to do? Distribution is probably easier than learning how to write for a visual medium and cheaper than hiring a really great writer to write something for you. Basically, you can buy impressions cheaper than you can buy a great piece of writing.

So how do I split my time appropriately between building distribution vs. working on my craft and writing more of the kind of stuff I actually want to make?

Again, I don’t know. But I think you follow the seasons of the work.

Because this work is so project based, I think you just go where the momentum is.

Last year felt like the year of YouTube. We consistently produced sketches and wrote and produced “Hot Ghost Roommate.” We had a few sketches go viral, so we turned it into a TV pitch. Boom — follow the momentum.

At the beginning of this year, a well-known director read our movie script and is interested in directing, but has some notes. So we’re rewriting that movie right now as fast as we can — we’re following the momentum.

You don’t know where it’s going to come from. Seeds you planted years ago may sprout today and become your No. 1 priority.

Keep creating and keep throwing stuff at the wall. Just keep enough slack in your line to spot the momentum wherever it comes from.

Start now, and thanks for reading.

-Thomas

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