ok some of you are thinking it, and a few of you have said it straight to my face:
“didn’t the yap thing kinda... peak?”
yeah. it did. 😅
this summer the whole internet would not shut up about me and this challenge. you saw my face 4,000 times a week. your friend wouldn’t stop talking about “day 7.” i was mortified and sick of myself and i said so.
and then the feed did what the feed does. it moved on. honestly? relief.
but now i’m hearing the other version:
“so i’m late. everybody’s doing it now. it’s saturated. why would i start NOW?”
ok. let me split this in two, because two different things are getting mixed up.
the hype was a trend. talking to a camera is not.
talking to a camera is communication 101. it’s the oldest skill humans have... holding someone’s attention and making them feel something. it was valuable before instagram existed and it’ll matter long after whatever replaces it. you’re not jumping on a bandwagon. you’re finally building a fundamental.
and did you see instagram is gonna double down on video and bring longform back? that's longer yapping!
and “late”? when i started this account 10 months ago, talking-to-camera content was already EVERYWHERE. i wasn’t early. i was just willing to show up in a way that some weren't. that’s the only timing this has ever needed. for you to just show up.
and “saturated”?
you can’t saturate real. there’s only one you.
25,000 people have been through this challenge and not one of them came out sounding like me. that’s the whole point of it. the curriculum is built to pull YOUR version out, not make 25,000 copies of mine.
and to be honest, a feed full of real humans being real isn’t a threat. it’s the cure. for the fake-perfect stuff, for everything sounding the same, for the ai slop. the more people who talk like actual people, the better the internet gets. i’m not scared of that. i’m rooting for it.
💪 @amyfowler.co - 52,000 followers, cohort 2
there are a million hairdressers on instagram. there’s one amy.
💪 @alex.abrandt - 1.6M views, 31K follows on one reel, found my people at 54
“found my people at 54.” not late. right on time.
“saturated” is almost never about content. it’s the fear that there isn’t enough to go around. not enough attention, not enough followers, not enough money. somebody already took it.
there is enough. nikki (tiktok’s creator of the year, coming into yap 3) told me there are people you’ve never heard of quietly doing $10K, $20K, $50K a month on tiktok shop. no fanfare. just... playing their game. getting your cut of the creator economy doesn’t mean somebody else loses theirs. there’s room at the table for all of us. that’s the entire reason the special edition exists.
one more thing...
this round opened with zero viral chatter. no wave. no trend. just an email. and thousands of you walked through the door anyway in the first 48 hours. 🤍
the trend’s over. the thing isn’t.
so get sick of the buzz. i did. just don’t let being over the buzz talk you out of the skill underneath it.
💸 JOIN SPECIAL EDITION
doors close saturday. we start nov 1.
see ya inside, homie.
— jessi