Get Going, Get Good, Get Smart
Sequence action, craft mastery, and commercial strategy
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 99%
Get Going, Get Good, Get Smart is a three-level progression for building a creator career. Get Going breaks perfectionism by requiring a small number of real releases. Get Good develops the underlying craft until the creator no longer reflexively cringes at the work and receives evidence that viewers value it. Get Smart begins only after production competence exists: the creator decides whether the project is a hobby or business, defines the audience, and designs revenue and positioning around serving it. The sequence matters because sophisticated strategy cannot compensate for an inability to produce, while premature commercial pressure can prevent the experimentation needed to learn the craft.
Origin
Extracted from Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal, where Ali described the three-level framework he teaches creators.
Core principles
- 01Action precedes reliable strategy
- 02Craft competence should precede heavy commercialization
- 03A business exists to serve an audience
How to run it
- 1
Get going
Make and publish a small handful of pieces to cross the gap between thinking and doing. Use them to experience the real production process.
Pro tip Treat the first three releases as orientation rather than a career-defining launch.
Watch out Do not wait for a complete strategy before producing anything.
- 2
Get good
Practice the craft while maintaining another source of income where possible. Improve until the work clears your internal bar and begins earning meaningful external responses.
Pro tip Use both personal judgment and audience behavior as quality signals.
Watch out Internal pride alone does not prove the work serves viewers.
- 3
Choose the game
Decide whether the project is primarily a hobby or a business. A hobby can follow personal preference; a business must serve customers or viewers.
Pro tip It is acceptable not to know the answer at the very beginning.
Watch out Commercializing creativity changes how ideas are evaluated.
- 4
Get smart
Apply audience research, positioning, platform strategy, and monetization after you know how to make good work.
Pro tip Design the business around a repeatable process you can sustain.
Watch out Do not use business optimization to avoid improving the core product.
In the wild
A consultant publishes three simple explanatory videos, then spends several months improving scripting and delivery while keeping her job. Once viewers consistently return and ask for deeper help, she defines the channel as a business and develops a paid workshop tied to the same need.
→ Commercialization follows demonstrated craft and demand rather than speculation.
Common mistakes
Starting with the business machinery
Brand systems, funnels, and products cannot rescue content that the creator has not learned to make well.
Is it for you?
Best for
New creators who need a staged roadmap from first publication to commercial operation.
Not ideal for
Established media teams that already possess proven production skills and audience data.
From the transcript
“Level one, get going, level two, get good, and level three, get smart.”
“If we're treating it like a business, a business exists to serve an audience.”
From the episode
The Full Story of Colin and Samir