How I’m Refocusing My Content

In the last month I’ve been thinking a lot about what my vision for content is.

For the 4 years I’ve been making videos on YouTube, I’ve not spent much time thinking about the person who’s on the other side of the screen.

To make videos (or any content, really) that is valuable, you need a deep understanding of who you’re speaking to.

I’ve had the vague idea of ‘people who like tech’, but that’s not descriptive enough.

My recent pivot has been to talk much more about coding and how I use various tools to build things more efficiently.

I’ve broken down what I want my content to be in one sentence:

How to get the most out of tech & software to build things.

Thus, my target audience is other people who want to build things: engineers, students, or anyone who’s interested in programming

This came from thinking about what I enjoyed making the most, and what has performed the best.

A metric I’ve looked at for a while is the subscriber percentage - calculated as the # of new subscribers / video views

On average, this lands around .3% for what I consider a ‘good’ video.

This one in particular got 1.4%.

I looked back at very video I’ve made in the last 6 months and consistently, the videos related to programming brought in the most subscribers.

My theory for this is that my experience with a MacBook or other product from the context of building software is MUCH more unique than a random guy on the internet talking about his iPhone.

Because I have a clearer picture of who will be watching my video, the scripting and planning process becomes much easier.

I have a much stronger idea of what sorts of things the viewer expects and wants to see.

The ULTIMATE VS Code/Cursor Setup - Extensions & Settings for 2025

I’ve played around with a lot of themes and extensions in VS Code/Cursor, and talked about the best of them in this week’s video.

Things I’ve found interesting

links to valuable stuff I thought was worth sharing

MrBeast: If You Want To Be Liked, Don't Help People & I Lost Tens Of Millions On Beast Games! - The level of obsession that MrBeast has in everything he does is super inspiring. I always enjoy listening to podcasts he’s on.

Andrew Huberman: You Must Control Your Dopamine! The Shocking Truth Behind Cold Showers! - A fantastic 4 hour conversation with Andrew Huberman. I’ve been watching a lot of his podcasts recently, specifically about learning and productivity and they’re incredibly actionable.

1-800-PIZZA - I’ve set up a landing page for my first indie game that I’m releasing a demo for in June. I’ll talk more about it in future letters.

What's Your Dream?: Find Your Passion. Love Your Work. Build a Richer Life. - I’ve just started listening to this audiobook and it’s a very inspiring listen. I’m a big fan of Simon’s videos and this has been very actionable.

Have a great week.

Cole

P.S. If you found this letter helpful, please consider sharing it with a friend :)