← Ahead of the Curve with Coco Mocoe
Ahead of the Curve with Coco Mocoe
How to find viral inspiration without stealing from other creators: "Steal Like an Artist" by Austin Kleon
00:33:43
Loading summary
Transcript1 lines
- [00:00]
Coco Moco
Did you know that the Beatles started out as a cover band? They were covering famous artists like Elvis, and then they wanted to create a set that no one else that was a cover band could copy. And so they started making their own music and then they became the most famous band in the world. So today's episode of Ahead of the Curve with Coco Moco is going to be me summarizing for you guys the book Steal like an Artist by Austin Kield. And if you're Cleon, sorry. And if you're watching the podcast on Substack, the video version, I'm actually sitting in my car right now. I'm holding up the book. I have my little post it notes in it. I've got my notes. This is going to be a little bit more of a casual type of filming versus, like at my desk. So I've got my notes here and I am going to break down half of the book for just all of the listeners and then I will do the last half of the book. And I kind of separated it to not just in chronological order, but I also took some moments where I felt like they were saying where you can find inspiration, specifically where good ideas come from, like things that you can do while sitting at your desk, whatever, to kind of source these ideas. And that is going to be in the second portion of this podcast for the paying members. If you're paying Coconut on Substack or if you pay on Substack $9 a month, you get to unlock all the episodes wherever you listen on Spotify, Apple, et cetera. But if you guys want to see the video version, I am sitting in my car. If you like this kind of casual feeling. I don't usually do life updates. I'm actually pretty private, but I'm just going through a little bit of a change right now. And yeah, this year has been really hard. I'm taking a little bit of a break from TikTok. I might post like podcast clips. It's just been. I just need a moment. I just need a moment to recoup. So I'm filming from my car. I can't film from my desk right now is what I'm saying. So I hope that I. I'm not hoping for anything. I'm really just honestly grateful that Substack in this podcast has given me structure and a purpose to keep going. So thank you guys. If you are listening from Spotify and Apple and you have a moment while you're listening to leave a review of the podcast. It really helps me if you want to let me know maybe do you want me to do more of these book summaries and how they apply to creators or brands online, specifically taking that advice and turning it into, like, marketing advice for you? Let me know if you want more episodes like this, and I'm happy to do them. I actually love reading, so this is a, you know, we could start a little coconuts book club. I'd be happy to do that. I don't want to make the title. I know so many people on YouTube are like, I read this book so you don't have to. I actually think that's like, kind of a mean way to frame it because I'm a big believer in buying physical media, supporting people putting things out there so they can keep putting them out there. So I encourage you to buy the book, steal like an artist, highlight it, write in it, do whatever it takes to get your brain running while reading it. I'm a huge believer that I might give you advice here and you might take something from it, but then if you read the book in a month from now, you'll take something new from it. So that is how I feel about this book. And I will leave my Amazon associate link in the show notes of this if you want to buy the book. And if you use my link, I get a percentage of the profits, which I really appreciate. But you can also just search steal like an Artist, Austin Kleon, wherever you buy books as well. So that is what this episode is going to be about today. Thank you guys for sticking by me through life's crazy ups and downs, transitions, heartbreaks, betrayals, all of it. You guys have been a constant in my life. So thank you. Now we are going to get into the episode and the first lesson that I took from this book, and I will be looking down at my notes if I'm not making intense eye contact with you the whole time. That is why. Okay, so number one from Steel, like an artist. And what is the difference between taking inspiration or blatantly copying with malice intent? That's kind of the thesis of this whole episode, is how to know the difference and how you can find inspiration. Okay, so the way that the author Austin Kleon describes copying versus inspired work, and this is in the chapter where he talks about the Beatles and how they were a cover band, is he says that when you're copying someone's work, you are usually aware of that and you're giving credit wherever you can. The great artists of our time, they always will pay homage to the people that came before. Them, people who plagiarize or knock off work, they usually try to hide the source of where they got the inspiration from, or they don't try to remix it or add things, their own thing to it because they feel entitled to that original work. They're like, you know what? I'm just going to steal it. And usually, even though sometimes it might be profitable in the short term, it's no good way to build a brand. And audiences can see through that and they can understand that what you are doing is quite surface level. So in the book, he says that copying is plagiarizing and kind of hiding the credit from where you got it. But inspired is always saying who inspired you and why, and understanding what their motives were, why they did it, and do you resonate with that? And if not, what are your motives? But why did you feel connected to their work? He also references a quote in the book where he basically says that stealing from one person is plagiarism, but stealing from 100 people is considered research. And the difference between a research paper and plagiarism is the research paper is credible because they list in the footnotes all of the credit and where they got that source from. So he talks a lot about the. Also the. Okay, so if I'm a little like talking in circles, by the way, it's because I'm doing a new style here, so there'll be a little bit of adjustment phase. I'm not like reading completely off my computer. So just thank you for giving me Grace. The quote about if you copy one person, it's plagiarism. If you copy multiple, it's research. That is from Wilson Misner. So he writes that. And the portion about copying versus plagiarism is briefly around page 35 of this book. And he says that eventually you must break past blatant like copying and find your own style. The analogy I think of that came to my head is like, shoot for the stars. And in the process you might form your own kind of stardust to land on from your rocket ship. So aim for the greats and then see where you land. I think that as a creator, you know that you've done something great on TikTok or YouTube, whatever it is, if people start copying you and if they start doing the exact same thing that you're doing. And yes, it's frustrating. And yes, I've lost money over people copying my work and me finding out that they copied me, not only like, obviously I saw their videos, but them using me in their creative pitches. To brands and getting money, allegedly. So I understand the frustration that comes from hard work. I think as a creator, if you've ever put anything out there online that you really believe in, whether it's a brand, a product, or a video, you understand that that light bulb idea that changed your life, it didn't just come overnight. It wasn't just luck. The greatest creators out there will spend years talking into a void of no one listening until they find that that one thing that changes their life. So when someone copies you, they didn't have to spend months or years getting to that viral format. Instead, all they did is they saw that it worked for you and then the next day they copied it. So that is why it can be frustrating. But if someone's giving credit, if they're paying homage, if they are telling their audience where to go to get more of it to go to that person and maybe what they're doing differently and why they're doing it differently, that is different. In my podcast, you guys know and Ahead of the Curve, I always say that my biggest inspirations online are the Colin and Smear podcast. They do marketing. The Middle Row show that I do where I sit in a movie theater and interview music artists. That is inspired by Chicken Shop Date from Amelia Dims. But I love that she took celebrities and put them in a new setting that you wouldn't normally see them. But I knew that I wasn't really that funny. Like, she has the comedic chops, I don't. And so that is why I was like, okay, well, I can take the idea of taking celebrities and putting them in a setting you wouldn't see them, which is like sitting next to someone in a movie theater. And then in terms of like the questioning and the format of the interviews, very inspired by Hot Ones. And he does so much research, which is something I try to do. And I took that inspiration from Hot One. So that's why I bring up those two shows so much. On my when I'm talking about Middle Row and the process of it, but ahead of the curve. My videos were very inspired by Colin and Samir. Robin Del Monte with Girl Boss Town. Very inspired by her videos. I always say, like CocoMoco and the trend predicting and marketing wouldn't exist if Girl Boss Town didn't exist. Like I'm her son. Like she was the first person online that showed me that people actually cared about marketing and PR stuff. I always just saw it as my 9 to 5 and I never knew it was something people wanted. So I always try to like, pay homage to those people. And not just the people that came before me, but people that might come after me and that I might find inspiration from that are doing something different from me. So the difference between copying and inspiration is giving credit when you can and explaining where it came from. So the Beatles, for example, they were a cover band, and they realized that they couldn't do that and be unique anymore. And so they started making their own music to add to the sets so that other cover bands couldn't copy them. And they ended up becoming one of the most successful. The most successful band in the world. So be okay with copying in the beginning. Just give credit, and eventually you're going to get bored from copying and you're going to want to do your own remix. Now, that leads me to another thing that he said, which is on page 30, and he talks about pretend to make something until you actually make it. So I'm paraphrasing here in that the first step of becoming whatever it is you want to be is you kind of have to just like. And this is so, like, elementary level thinking. I've been laughing right now at the TikTok clips where they grab, like, podcasts from straight men where they're like, I just realized one day that I can look at someone and I can, like, kind of understand what emotion they're feeling. And someone's like, not straight men learning, like, empathy and social cues. So I don't mean to be like that. Okay. But these are just good reminders. He talks about how you should pretend to make something until you actually make it. And not feeling like you always need certain credentials to show up and at least try. Unless, obviously, you're like, a doctor or you're trying to put man on the moon, and you're giving out advice if you want to be an artist. Like, of course people put years into learning the classical training behind it, but you can also still show up and just try. I have worked with people on the back end of marketing who have the, you know, master's degrees in marketing, and they were a straight A student. And unfortunately, they don't really understand the Internet. They don't understand what's happening because they spent so much time on the classical side, which that's a skill set in itself. I'm not saying one is wrong or the other, but I actually prefer. Whenever I'm building out a team is I love hiring people around me that they might not have the best college education, they might not have been an A student, but they're willing to Try. They tried and they failed, but they kept showing up. I always say I'll take consistency over talent any day. So that is what he's saying about pretending. And he also talks about this kind of overlaps with like the copying versus inspiration conversation, which is that some of like the best artists in the world, when you're in art school, they learn how to make that art by part of their practice is that they have to, for example, take a Picasso work and they have to try to replicate it with the exact same brushstrokes in the exact same places, using the same painting, the same type of brushes. And it's not that they're trying to pass off Picasso's work as their own, but that part of the learning process is emulating the greats and learning from their techniques until eventually you find your own way. So if you want to pretend to be the most famous creator in the world and you don't know exactly where to start, pretend that you're a makeup artist for one day online. And then what do you learn from that? And then pretend that you're, you know, a vlogger. Try that for a week. What do you learn from that? So be willing to try. Be willing to pretend. Especially if you're doing something like, we work in marketing. We're online. There's no right or wrong answers, okay? It's okay if you make mistakes. We're not trying to sell people medicine. We're not trying to put a man on the moon. We're just making entertaining videos. It's okay. No one is should ever be able to tell you that you are not credentialed enough to be here. I've been told that I'm not credentialed enough to do marketing because I don't disclose all the time, you know, where I've worked before this because I'm a very private person. But we are not putting men on the moon. You are allowed to be a creator if you decide to be a creator, but willing to be consistent and put in the work. Most talented creators are not always the most successful. It's just the ones that keep showing up every day. Think about like a Jake Paul and a James Charles. They might not be the most great human beings, but the reason that they're successful is because they keep showing up whether the Internet wants them there or not. That is the key. Keep showing up. Okay? You don't have to be the funniest person and you don't have to have the best personality. Now the next thing that he talks about Is again, it's kind of similar to the like copying versus inspired, but it is on page 45. And he says, write the book that you want to read. Make the art that you want to see. Make the music that you want to hear. And this, when I read this book, that was the first piece of advice that I took from it. And it really struck me because for so long online I was like a silent observer. And I used to kind of complain and get bored and be like, God, I wish people made more vlogs. Or I wish people made more. Even now I wish there were more marketing podcasts that were a crossover between, like, marketing and pop culture and maybe astrology and woo woo stuff and now books. And I could never find those. Like, I felt like I always had to choose. It was very black and white. And if you guys have any recommendations, please let me know in the reviews or the comments on Substack. I always felt like I had to choose between either listening to a strictly pop culture podcast so it would be a podcast where they react to whatever happened at the VMAs or on a popular reality show the night before. But they, like I always say, you guys know, this is my, my pet peeve. They were never adding new information, right? They were never adding new information. They were just recapping what I had already seen. And I'm like, oh, my God, this is kind of boring. So I would have to listen to these pop culture podcasts that are not adding new info if they're interviewing, like, someone who was on the show. Love that. Or I would look up marketing podcasts and I'd be like, I really want to listen to a marketing podcast today. But so many of the marketing podcasts out there are like, how to Run Ads on Facebook. And I'm like, I don't really. There are people out there that care about that. And those podcasts get thousands of downloads. And that's amazing. But it's not for me. That's not the type of marketing I want. There's different types of marketing advice out there. And I just really felt like marketing podcasts were very much catered to traditional media lens. There was no one who was combining the two. And so that is what I really have been trying to do with Ahead of the Curve. So I just decided, instead of being desperate to listen to an interesting podcast and being bored and complaining, why don't I just create the podcast that I want to hear? And that's what I did with Ahead of the Curve. And it's been a blessing I've loved making it. Is it hard work? Yes. Is there a little bit of, like, the magic is kind of gone when you're the one creating it? Yes. But that's why I love reading the comments, getting messages from you guys. Like, whenever I post a new episode, if you guys post it on Instagram Stories and tell me, like, your thoughts on that episode, I love reading those. I love sharing them out, because that really resonates with me. So here are a few things that were inspired by other media because they were so desperate for a sequel or they wanted more of that work that they ended up just making their own. And then sometimes that creation ends up being even bigger than what inspired it originally. So Inception by Christopher Nolan was inspired by James Bond movies. He really, really loved the James Bond universe that he was like, I want to create my own version of this. And Inception is one of the most popular pieces of media that has come out in the 21st century. And of course, James Bond movies are as well. But it's really interesting that we got that from James Bond World. Another one. One of my favorite shows that I watched in high school when Netflix first came out and I realized that I could binge tv. Lost. The show Lost was inspired by the movie Castaway. So that is another one where in the book, it's around page 45 where he says, write the books that you want to read. He says, when people love a piece of work, they are desperate for more. People want sequels. Like, do sequels always go over well? No. Look at Joker 2. That I got a bunch of hate for saying I hated, but it's fine. But, like, people want sequels. Like, it's why Hollywood is leaning into so much nostalgia bait. But it is impossible for one source of that art to constantly put out quality work. So instead, you, as a creator, find a way to fill that void for people, but putting your own twist on it. So look at a creator right now that's making really great videos that people want more of, but maybe they are taking a break or they are not. It's not possible to put out, you know, multiple podcast episodes a week. Can you fill that void? Can you show up and think, what type of topic would they talk about today if they were making an episode? And can I fill that void? And always remember to give credit when you can, because, again, that's the difference between plagiarism and inspiration. Now, another piece of advice that I want to give to you guys is, oh, this was a good one. This was a really good one. I love this so in the book he talks about, and I think I'm going to take a picture of these and like post this one to my Instagram to get your guys's thoughts in the comments. Because this really resonated with me and I put a little green post it on this page so I could go back to it. It's on page 64 of steel. Like an Artist, he quotes Jessica Hisch and she said, the work you do while you procrastinate is probably the work that you should be doing for the rest of your life. And essentially what he's saying in this chapter is like, give yourself reasons to procrastinate. And you do that by like, don't quit your day job. Like, still value having boring things about your life or your work, because the things that you do to avoid that boring work is where the true virality, the big moments come from. He said it is the side projects that take off. And then he quoted an artist, Maria Common, and he says, avoiding work is a way to focus my mind. This chapter really stood out to me because whenever I started making my most viral videos online, it was whenever I was working at my job, at my 9 to 5 marketing job. And what I would do is I would, on my lunch breaks, if I had 30 minutes an hour, I would film so many TikToks. And it was exciting because Tick Tock felt like a mistress. It was like, oh, this is a side project. Like, this is something that is kind of my little secret. I didn't tell anyone I was on Tick Tock. Like, my co workers only found out about it if they saw my viral videos and they're like, are you Coco Moco? Because they knew my real, like, government name and some of my most viral videos, you guys, my trend prediction that changed my life, where I predicted that the rise of like Tumblr aesthetic would come back like that grunge Tumblr aesthetic. That video was filmed because I had like a 30 minute meeting and then that 30 minute meeting ended like 15 minutes early. And then I had a meeting right after it. So I had like a 15 minute grace period between two meetings. And I was sitting there on my phone and I'm like, well, I can't really like start a project right now because I need to be in a meeting in a few minutes. So I was just sitting there like staring at my laptop board and I'm like, oh, let me film a TikTok really quick. Like I have a really quick moment. Let me just pump this one out. I. I posted the video, I didn't refilm it a bunch. I didn't edit it a bunch. I literally just posted it. I didn't think anything of it. That is when the best work happens. Because I was kind of in a rush and it was supposed to be kind of a secret. I posted that video and then it changed my life. Within a week or two, I had talent management. I was flying to New York City for ad week. I got a huge brand deal. Like, that video changed my life. And it was something that was like the mistress. Like, let your art projects be your mistress. Let your art projects be that little side thing. That's kind of a secret, but it's still exciting. I noticed a difference in my work when TikTok became my full time job. I no longer loved making the videos because it was my job now and I didn't have that excitement, that like little secret mistress feeling about it anymore. So make sure that you continue to have those things that feel boring to you, those things that still feel routine to you, so that when you are creating your videos, they still feel exciting. It feels like that one thing that you're maybe not supposed to be doing because you're procrastinating. And so this whole chapter, he talks about how your best work comes when you're procrastinating something you're actually supposed to be doing. So people think that their dream life is that they have an amazing schedule, that they don't dread any of their work. But actually the most creative people understand that they still need those things that they dread because their best work comes from the things that they are avoiding. Now let me see if there's anything else here that I want to add before we get into the. Oh yeah, there's a couple things and then we will get into the more practical advice here. This is. I'm gonna give you guys a quote that comes from the Colin and Smear podcast, but it was inspired by one of the chapters in this book where he says that the secret to the Internet is to invite others to wonder with you. That is page 81. And it reminded me of the Colin and Samir podcast where they said that you should treat the Internet and every video that you post not like you are performing, but that it is a group chat. Your comments are equal to you. I always say a community is where everyone is on kind of equal footing. And so if you are constantly the one that feels like you have to perform or if you show up online because you feel like you always have to have the answers, I struggle with this. I feel like, as a creator, I am not valued online unless I'm giving a TED Talk or amazing advice. But that is not really always the truth of it. I'm allowed to show up online and ask a question and not really have an answer and not know what's happening. Or also, like, if you show up and you're posting a vlog or something, you don't always have to start filming and know what's going to happen that day and what the answer is going to be. Some of the best creators that make lifestyle content, they are filming videos as it's happening, and they don't know what the answer is going to be. They don't know that there's going to be a plot twist in the next video. They're just showing up and documenting. So it's okay to show up and document. You don't always have to create. And in this chapter, the author, Austin Kleon, talks about how you can be, like, a listener as well. You can show up to forums, and sometimes you're gonna get your most viral videos or, like, as an artist or whatever. Oh, my God. I have, like, someone watching me film. I feel awkward, but it's okay. That's part of filming in your car. But, like, you can, like, show up and you can. Okay, this is, like, the realness of the video. I think I'll just, like, keep this in so you guys can see how awkward it is. Okay, we're good. We're good. He's leaving. Okay. I don't know why I'm, like, in a public parking lot. Like, I'm allowed to film. It's fine. But, like, it's just so awkward. I'm used to filming in the privacy. Oh, my God. I was just talking about not knowing what's going to happen, and that's me right now just sitting here. Like, I didn't know that was going to happen, but it happens, and that's okay and still rolling with it. Show up online, don't always have the answers. And this kind of reminds me of, like, kind of this, like, kickback analogy that I use in marketing, where what really frustrates me sometimes when I'm working with brands and I'm okay with explaining this to them, it's my job is that they will show up online. And they're like, all right, we're going to post our first TikTok video, and it's going to go viral. And I'm like, have you spent any time online looking at that niche or understanding what Conversations are happening. And I just did an episode about why you shouldn't watch creators that are in your same niche a few episodes ago. But that is like, once you're more established and you've been doing it for a while, the people that show up online right away, though, out of the bat, and they're like, I'm just going to, like, go viral. They are not doing the work to listen to the conversation. And I think that's where marketers come in and why they pay people. Like, I always think when someone pays me for consulting, they aren't even necessarily paying me for the videos that they're going to create. They're paying me for my time because it is my job to spend X amount of hours online studying and understanding what the trends are, understanding what the conversation is. So then I can relay that information to them in like five sentences or less, like five hours of being a silent observer and relaying that info to them. But I use the kickback analogy, and I think this coincides with, like, the secret of the Internet is to wonder and invite others to wonder with you. Show up online whether you're an artist, whether you're a brand, and if you want to be in a specific room, if you want to be with the cool kids, show up to that room. It's like a kickback. You are not going to walk into a kickback in a cool, trendy New York City apartment. And you're going to walk in with a megaphone. And the moment you walk in, you're going to say, hi, everyone. I'm the coolest person you're ever going to meet. I'm so funny. I'm really, really fun. I think you should all follow me on Instagram right now. I promise that you're going to love me right away. No, like, they will laugh you out of the room. They'll think it's rude. Like, it's rude you interrupted the conversations they were in to say that. Instead, the coolest person in a room, they walk in, they're a silent observer. They're listening to the conversations happening. And then if they feel like they can add something to the conversation of value, a new piece of information that hasn't been said yet, then they will interject and then they will say their piece. But they are not going to walk into a kickback, a small gathering of cool people that they want to fit in with with a megaphone, stomp down the door and pitch about why they are so amazing. The best creators, the best artists, they sit there and they Wonder about others. My mom works for a car company. She's an accountant, but she was telling me this is like public knowledge. But their car company, every year they buy every single car that came out on the market that year from every single brand, I think, except Jeep, because Jeep, they think Jeep is like, not a safe brand. And they don't want to emulate it. But they will get every single car that has ever come out, the engineers, and they will disassemble the car, and then they will reassemble the car and they will do that so that they can understand how did they build this car? What is good about the build, what is bad about the build? Build. What is safe about it, what is unsafe about it? What works good? What did they do differently from others? That is how you should be as an artist or a creator. You should sit there and be a silent observer. You should respect others enough to disassemble what they're doing and then reassemble it. Understand what you want to emulate about it. Maybe what do you want to leave behind? That is how you become a good creator. Creating is 10% making videos, 90% listening and understanding the zeitgeist and understanding if you have something new to add to the convo. So that was the first half of this podcast from Steal like an Artist, the book. I always encourage you guys to buy physical media. If you want to, like, highlight it and mark it up like I did, I will post a photo of my favorite quote from this book on Instagram. If you want to continue the conversation over there at cocomoco. And again, if you're listening and you made it this far and you're a free listener, thank you all of you guys. Means so much to me. I really appreciate it if you enjoyed this book review because maybe you don't have time to read books yourself and you want more of it and how you can apply it to yourself and being a creator, please let me know in the reviews and I read those and I will take that feedback. And if you are a paying subscriber, if you're paying coconut and you are excited for the last part of this podcast, where I'm gonna give you the more tactical advice that he talks about in creating art and media, then you can keep listening. And if you want to hear it and you're not a paying subscriber, if you go to cocomoco.substack.com you can become a paying member for $9 a month and you'll be able to unlock every single extended episode that I've ever done. If you're in a binge listening kind of mood, if you're going on a road trip or you're doing emails or you're going to the gym, you'll get to listen to all of the episodes. And you will also get the Friday Trend Report that comes out every single Friday where I talk about three things trending online and how you can apply it to yourself, or things that I think are going to trend or like my predictions for what is coming up. So thank you guys so much for this more casual style that I'm filming in my car. If you're watching on the substack the video version of this, I'm going to get into the next portion and paying coconuts. I will see.