In July 2021 I was in Las Vegas with Alex Berman and a creator named Pablo. They were recording, and I pulled out my phone to shoot a one-minute video of them doing it, with the Cosmo sign right there in the frame so people know where we are.
Why shoot content about content
The why is to give people an idea of who we are, so they can connect with us. When they see us creating content, they know what topics we care about, and they can engage on those same topics.
It's kind of weird. It's Inception, because it's content about content about content. You're telling people what you believe in. That leads to your product, because your product is driven by a mission. You started the business for a certain reason.
And shooting content with somebody you just met is a profound form of relationship development.
The hack: interview them, then tag everybody
Pablo wanted to create some content. So guess what? I interviewed him. I asked him questions, then I turned to Alex and asked what he was doing as a content creator. He was filming both of us, trying to capture it all.
Then the loop:
- I tag Alex in the post, because I know he's got millions of people who listen to him.
- When Pablo shares his piece, I share Pablo.
- When Pablo creates content that features me, he tags me, and I share that to my audience. I have an email list of 5 million people.
Your promotion, your growth comes from other people talking about you, instead of you being a douchebag talking about yourself and how awesome you are.
So when somebody interviews you, turn it around and say, "Well, I'd like to interview you now." Or vice versa. That's all relationship. I wrote about the same idea in the fastest way to grow is to be endorsed.
Alex is the proof
A few minutes later I sat down with Alex for a longer conversation. He was 29. He went to Florida Gulf Coast, Dunk City, and as graduation got close he had no idea what he was going to do. He wanted to work in Silicon Valley or at a New York agency, and he knew absolutely nobody.
So he emailed people and pitched himself. Within two weeks of hitting the ground in New York City, he had a job at a funded startup. "You don't need connections," he told me. "All you need is a good, well-written email."
Later he used cold email to become the top sales guy at a multi-million dollar New York agency. The founder made a video about how Alex drove a 16% revenue increase, and Alex used that video to grow the agency even more. Today he books agencies meetings with big brands through cold email, and he teaches courses on cold email and LinkedIn.
Look at what did the heavy lifting there. A video of somebody else talking about Alex. Same loop.
I told him I've always called myself a world-class opener and a mediocre closer. I can get into any room. What I'm starting to understand is that it's less about being a shark closer and more about how you structure what you say, and being willing to ask. Alex put it simply: "I'm just pretty good at opening doors."
Both of these were quick clips I shot on my phone that night. That's the raw material for everything we publish now. Here's how a phone video becomes a content factory.