Cracking Online Distribution with Jay Feng (Interview Query)
The secret to making great content? Be genuine, stay flexible, and test a lot. Shocker!
Well, it’s a bit more complicated than that, but at Seeking Solutions Collective‘s “Cracking online distribution” event with Jay Feng last week, those were some of the major takeaways.
What struck me about Jay’s approach to content was how genuine and to some extent, serendipitous it was.
Early on, he realized he liked writing. Flexing that skill, he started a blog about his experience with data science interviews that eventually took off. Gradually, he moved to YouTube because “that’s where his customers were”.
Initially, the videos were just Jay reading his own blog posts... they weren’t that good.
But, over time and through constant testing, he learned by repurposing written content into video, exploiting niche content areas like big tech interview guides, and using AI tools to help him edit.
By focusing on something he actually cared about (his own personal experience), leaning into a skill he was already good at (writing) and staying flexible to adapt to new channels (YouTube), Jay scaled his business from 0->$10K MRR completely bootstrapped without spending any money on ads.
As our very first SSC guest speaker, I have to say you’ve set the bar high and given me a lot to think about. Thank you Jay!
A full recording and transcript of this talk is available to SSC members.
Key Takeaways
SSC Takeaways
Content works best when its genuine, Jay wrote about his own experience
Pick a medium you feel comfortable with, for Jay it was writing which he’d explored most of his life.
Exploit a popular but under covered niche, for Jay it was big tech data science interview guides.
Waterfall content: Don’t have a lot to post, make one post and re-use it across multiple platforms.
Be careful with AI: Useful for “transactional content” but be careful about using it for “influential” content. Jay recommends using it to edit, not to create for most things.