The townhouse stands pale and butter-yellow. It is silent on this Tulse Hill street, on this October morning, the kind of quiet that finally lets the trees hear themselves and lets falling leaves make their own kind of music. I walk up the driveway; you are unknowing. Little indicates what lies behind those doors, except perhaps a ticket.
A winding staircase, and 5 fire doors later, you enter a different kind of world; one where open brick and suitcases of lighting equipment litter the shelves.

The participants trickled in, engaging in shy introductions and hushed conversations around the room. As they settled down, Jess Bruno took to the front. Bruno introduced her talk with a (self-proclaimed) slide from hell: a five-point agenda for a seminar that would honestly suck the soul out of anyone.

• Going viral
• Algorithm hacks
• Overnight success
• Engagement pods
• Girlboss behaviour

And there I sat, already dreading the next 45 minutes. As a stubborn, socially appointed SJW and humanities graduate, I have little patience for gimmickry and influencer culture has, to me, always felt phoney and stale. Admittedly, we can add judgemental to the aforementioned characterisation.

The only thing I knew about Jess before the event was that she was a content strategist, and the aim of the workshop was to get people to join the club that was the social media algorithm. I expected her to champion a strict regimen: 3 square posts a day, to show Instagram that you’re serious about being an influencer.

It took Jess Bruno 5 seconds to dispel all of my beliefs.

She was quick to clarify; nothing on that agenda is attainable. She exclaims to a rapt room, ‘It’s all bullshit”. In those five seconds, Jess Bruno proved that the journey is unlike what content creators say online. There is no grand formula; there is no guaranteed virality; there is only you and what you want to share in the world.

As the attendees shared their “Why?” with the class, I saw the shared goal. As humans, we are programmed to connect and acknowledge each other. Do you understand me? Do you see my identity, and do you resonate? It was exactly what Bruno went on to teach them.

Niche vs. Identity
For Bruno, the first thing to make clear is your Why.

Don’t tell me about the handbags you want to share; don’t show me your tarot reading; show me the guiding belief that makes you put yourself out there. What truly makes you, you. Therein lies her distinction between niche and identity. She says, “Niches and algorithms put us in boxes we cannot fathom or understand”, and reveals that your core identity is the only jump-off point for anything you end up doing.

In her words, “A niche will help the algorithm categorise your content; identity will build the relationships that help people understand your context”.

The Guiding Mantra: You are the Niche, You are the Strategy, You are the Business.

Sorry, rising content creators, everything you have been taught to believe is wrong.
Jess immediately dispels any notion that mathematical formulas will grow your following or- God forbid- get people to listen to your new song.

No quantity of posts, trend hopping, or algorithm boosts will create any tangible value. She even exclaims, “Do not worry about the aesthetics of the page!” What makes a content creator successful is being yourself.
“You are the niche, you are the strategy, you are the business.”

Constantly having to post is not the struggle people have with content creation. The real struggle is the mindset that you need to begin your journey. A plethora of limiting beliefs hinder your journey, something the attendees also discussed. During a short discussion time, they revealed their deep-seated fears: “No one's gonna care”, “ I'm not good enough”, “ No one's engaging with my work”.

Bruno lets us know that these are perfectly normal human feelings.

To her, making content is intrinsically a mind game. That is why having limiting beliefs will limit your reach. We then started a form of shadow work that involved repairing your limiting beliefs. They added an addendum to their fears: “No one's going to care, but I care, and that's what matters”.

The attendees understood that truly enjoying making content involves surprising their subconscious by being nice to themselves. Bruno highlighted that it would soften the blow: “You won't wake up feeling like you're the shit tomorrow, and honestly, the fears will never go away, but every day your bounce-back rate will become a little better.”

Jess’s Questions
So you want to be a content creator.

Maybe you're a business owner needing to reach customers; maybe you're a burgeoning musician; maybe you just feel like you say funny things sometimes. Whatever your journey, ask yourself two questions.

1. What is the content doing for me?
2. And given what I do and who I want to serve, what should my content reliably do for people outside of them seeing/buying my work?

According to Bruno, these two questions would be the most pertinent to answer before you begin your journey. Each one brings you closer to better understanding your identity and therefore, what you have to share with the world.

Warmth and energy were palpable in the room, especially during the discussion times. All speakers received empathy and understanding whenever they stood up to share; conversations created more space for everyone to share their point of view. The attendees understood they were all in the same boat, so they worked to keep each other afloat through their fears.

As the first half of the session came to a close, Jess took a moment to reassure the attendees, “People are incredibly diverse; trust them to understand where you're coming from and who you are”. In this sentence, she revealed the empathy that powers her content creation. She trusts the community she has built to choose to understand her.

As the Q&A session brought eager eyes and questions filled with trepidation, I reflected on the journey that I had taken through her presentation. Jess Bruno disarmed me, surprised me, and eventually changed my mind. It was the first time I wasn’t jaded by the digital landscape; I remembered why we initially had social media and the internet: to connect.

The room erupted with applause.
Jess's session was over, but the workshop was far from it. The second half of the workshop immediately put Jess’s teachings into practice. FORE and Young Creators UK gave them access to an amazing studio setup with every tool they could need to realise their content.

I spent the entire time as a fly on the wall, watching people who had met just two hours ago come up with ideas and execute them together. FORE and Jess Bruno hadn’t just hosted an event; they created a collective of people committed to learning about themselves and each other. The sparkle in the room was palpable, with everyone having a compliment to share and feedback to give. Community in the truest sense.