Sam Gaudet On Creative Habits And A Simple 3 Step Content Process

This is a short cut from my conversation with Sam Gaudet, Dan Martell's creative director. If you want the whole interview, including how his team grew Dan's channel, read How Dan Martell's Creative Director Built a Media Empire.

In this part we talked about where Sam started, how a creative person builds habits, and the simple process his team runs every piece of content through.

He Started Young

Sam was 23 when we talked, and he had already worked with Dan for seven years. He gives a lot of credit to his dad, who built a business in insurance and brought Sam along to seminars and events.

I was 14 years old going to business seminars, right? Where my classmates were going out drinking on weekends, I was out in a theater with my dad.

He always thought he would go into finance or insurance like his dad. Then he started snowboarding, messing around with GoPros, and editing short videos. The first time he made money with video, a friend of his dad's needed a 60 second video and paid him 100 dollars cash. At the time he was mowing lawns for about 10 dollars an hour. That was the bug, and he never looked back.

Dan had moved back to the same small town in eastern Canada. Through people who knew his dad, Sam ended up working for Dan's videographer, then applied, did a test project, and came on as Dan's videographer.

Constraints Make You More Creative

I asked Sam something I've wondered about for a long time. A lot of creative people hate standards and habits. How does he put creativity and consistency together?

He said most people believe creativity comes from space, and he agrees. But a lot of people think space means watching TV, scrolling, sleeping in, and not keeping the promises they make to themselves.

His calendar is full. He goes hard for about eight hours a day. But the two hours between 5 and 7 in the morning have nothing work related in them. That's where he thinks, dreams, and analyzes, and he says that's where a lot of his ideas come from.

Every single time in my life that I've introduced constraints, it breeds creativity.

Guard rails give you a box to solve problems in. Without them you get stuck staring at a thousand options. He calls that his biggest strength as an entrepreneur inside Dan's company.

The Three Step Process

When we talked, Sam had about 12 people on the media team. I asked how they figure out direction on the creative side. He said people overcomplicate it, and laid out three steps. He used fitness to explain it.

1. Measure. A lot of people don't want to measure because they don't want to see how bad they are. Sam tells his team he doesn't care if the number is red. He just wants to know they're going to make it green. If you want to get leaner, you step on the scale every day, the same way, so the number means something. Measure with precision.

2. Find the fundamentals. Distill what you know is true into principles. That comes from your own results, and from studying people who are already winning and pulling out what made them successful. In the gym, that's watching the leanest guy, counting his reps, and seeing what he eats. For fitness the fundamentals are progressive overload and tracking your food.

3. Lock in the learning from outside. If you only use what's inside your own four walls, you'll stall. Sam pushes his team to go outside for answers. He uses masterminds and consultants who can look around the corner for him, because he doesn't know what he needs to know for the next level. In fitness, that's hiring a coach.

You won't take action if you're not held accountable.

What I Took From It

I love how simple this is. Measure honestly, learn the few things that are true, and get help from people who have already done it. That works for content, and it works for almost anything you're trying to get better at.