The Power of Formats

There isn’t a great formal definition for a show format, so here’s how I would describe it:

Consider shows nearly everyone has seen - Jeopardy, Law & Order, Survivor - the most successful shows on Earth all have formats anyone would recognize. 

Formats don’t just apply to TV - or even to video. Many successful Creators have formats as well! Previous guests with formats include:

• Chenell Basilio’s Growth in Reverse - deep breakdowns of successful newsletters’ growth tactics

• Justin Moore’s Creator Debates - Topical debates between two Creators, moderated by Justin and broken into 3 rounds with different angles / topics per round

• Nathan Kennedy’s Employee-Employer Convos - dramatic short-form conversations between employees and employers, where Nathan acts as both

Tiffany’s Anti-Ableism Series format is simple:

She did make a lot of videos:

Consistently creating a format over several years enabled her to make over $100,000 in brand deals and a six-figure book deal for a few reasons:

Momentum 

We’ve all had Creator’s block; wasn’t it hard to get going again after a few days of not creating? By having a series with a simple set format, Tiffany knows roughly what she  needs to make, has a narrower window in which to ideate, and can more easily build momentum by consistently releasing content over a longer time horizon.

Opportunity

If you release lots of content under the same format, your odds of reaching someone who will like you, your voice, or your content increase. Any brand looking to work with the disabled community, for example, is likely to run across a video in Tiffany’s series and immediately understand exactly what they will get if they work with her. Often, companies are willing to pay a premium for knowing what to expect.

With 285 fairly consistent and similar “episodes” live on TikTok, each has a closer to equal shot of converting a viewer than they would if they were all different formats.

Intellectual Property 

Formats are IP, and they can be monetized as IP across a bunch of different products and media. If Tiffany made a bunch of random videos about disability advocacy, it would have been much harder to pitch her book. 

Since all her content was bundled under the same concept, brand, and structure (The Anti-Ableist Series of short videos about how people can show up for those with disabilities) it made it much easier to pitch and close the deal for her book (The Anti-Ableist Manifesto book about how people can show up for those with disabilities). 

The easier something is to understand, the more valuable it is because the more people are likely to want it - and formats make creative projects easier to understand.

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