Hey friends,
Sunday feels like the right day to talk about this…
because it’s the day most people either overthink everything or feel quietly behind.
For a long time, I thought I was doing “proper” research.
Saving posts and watching breakdowns. Following people who were clearly winning. It looked disciplined from the outside, but inside, it mostly felt noisy.
I’d consume a lot… and still sit there unsure what to create next.
If you’ve ever felt like you’re doing all the right things but nothing is clicking yet — this is for you.
This issue is about what finally changed my relationship with research and why it stopped feeling heavy after that.
I was just bad at paying attention.
Back then, my idea of research was volume.
More platforms.
More creators.
More “inspiration.”
But most of it never translated into clarity. So I simplified.
First thing I changed.
I curated my Instagram feed on purpose.
I only followed people in the same space as me because I wanted my environment to sharpen my instincts.
When your feed matches your direction, you don’t have to “do” research.
You notice things naturally.
The bigger change came after that. I stopped studying big creators.
Because once someone is big enough, Instagram will push their content anyway.
At that stage, it’s hard to tell what’s working because of craft and what’s working because of distribution.
So I started looking at smaller creators instead.
Usually under 100,000 followers.
And this is where things clicked.
When someone with 9,000 followers posts consistently and one reel suddenly does way better than the rest, that’s not random. That’s the content doing the work.
Those are outliers and they teach you more than viral accounts ever will.
I’d save those posts.
Drop the links into my notes.
Study what changed — the hook, the angle, the framing.
That’s when research stopped feeling overwhelming and started feeling useful.
The biggest takeaway for me was this:
Research is about training your eye to recognize what already works before it becomes obvious to everyone else.
If you want to try this this week, keep it simple:
Clean up your feed so it reflects what you want to create
Study creators smaller than you’d normally look at
Look for one outlier post, not their entire library
Ask: What changed in this one piece?
If something clicks, reply to this email and tell me what you noticed.
I read every response.
You’re not behind if things feel slower right now. You’re just building discernment — and that takes time.
Clarity comes from noticing better.
Talk soon,
Kien
P.S.
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