Audience Avatars Are Overrated

Hi Friend 👋

March is almost over again and April is knocking on our doors.

For me it’s been an incredibly busy but very productive few weeks. Recording 2 new conversations. Scheduling a few more and getting the ball rolling on a few big projects.

And that’s all on top of opening the first community for solo creators. I already learned so much about making this the best space for people ready to embrace the creator lifestyle.

But more on that next week when we dive a bit deeper into the community topic again. For now let’s chat about what your viewers are interested in.

💛 Valentin

New in Orbit:
📺 What is a European Creator? 
📝 AI is replacing Creators - Just not the way you think

Stop Solving Problems. Start Creating Interest.

One of the hardest thing as a YouTube Creator is getting people to click. When searching for advice on that it is often about targeting problems, pain points and desires. But more often they click because because they’re curious. Intrigued. Or just want to see what happens next.

That’s the power of creating interest and I think it’s the key to gaining traction in an algorithm era.

Audience avatars are overrated. Let me explain.

When you study traditional marketing you learn to focus on demographics, pain points, and personas. Creating an audience avatar. It becomes all about figuring out what problem your ideal viewer has and how your content can solve it.

But on YouTube (and TikTok, and pretty much everywhere else), problem-solving alone won’t build a loyal audience.

You already know this instinctively. Just think about the last video you watched.

• Was it because you had a pressing problem to fix?

• Or was it because it looked... interesting?

That’s the difference between a solution video and an interest-first video.

Here’s a quick example:

Early on, I made a video answering common creator questions. It was helpful and I was sure people wanted that information but …

Nobody watched it.

Meanwhile, my most viewed video hit a niche of women interested in seeing another woman effortlessly succeed. Not because it solved anything but because it aligned with their curiosity and identity. It sparked interest.

That video wasn’t a tutorial. It was a rabbit hole.

Laura Kampf is a perfect example of this.

I don't have a workshop. I don’t build things out of wood and metal. But every week, I watch what she’s creating because I’m fascinated by how she does it. That’s interest. That’s sticky.

So here’s the mindset shift:

Stop thinking like a marketer. Start thinking like a creator. The algorithm doesn’t reward content that solves problems. It rewards content that holds attention.

Mini Framework: Audience Curiosity Map

If you want people to click, you need to understand what genuinely interests them.
Here are a few ways to find out:

1. Ask your audience to share their feed/homepage with you.

   You’ll learn more from five screenshots than five hours of research.

2. Borrow the brains of your friends.

   The only reason my TikTok isn’t pure brain rot is because I asked people to send me the most interesting videos they’ve seen

3. Hang out in communities.

   In the Creator Orbit Commiunity, we constantly share content that starts an interesting conversation.

4. Ask yourself

   1. What are they googling at midnight?

   2. What books, YouTube videos, or podcasts do they binge without being told to?

   3. What would they do or learn about even if it never made them money?

   4. What’s a topic that instantly lights them up in conversation?

When you align your content with interest, you’re not just getting clicks you’re creating a connection.

It’s the difference between a helpful but forgettable tutorial and a fascinating rabbit hole you didn’t even know you needed.

So here’s the challenge for your next video:
Don’t start with a problem. Start with a spark.
Create something they’ll want to click even if it solves nothing at all.

My favorite things this week

I randomly saw this reel at the beginning of the week and been watching it every day. Seriously. Maybe it just hits my personal taste perfectly but the editing, the aesthetics, the imagery is just so on point. And even tho I don’t watch any basketball and have never heard of Nika before I want to know more now. This video absolutely captured my interest.

What have you been obsessed with last week?

Packaging Swipe File Update:

To make copy and pasting good packing easier I build my first website with chatgpt this week. Two days later a community member improved it to send interesting videos to notion with a single click.

Now we are thinking of turning this into a public tool. Would you be interested in that?

PS: Wednesday was the 10 year anniversary of Casey Neistat starting the daily vlog.

In case you missed it:

⬅️ Last week we had the first official guest post.
Showing you how to make your first 10K
➡️ Next week I’ll be somewhere in the Austrian mountains.

Thank you for reading 💛