Document the Journey
In a world of surplus information, people follow stories, not facts.
- Difficulty
- Starter
- Time to result
- ~months to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 90%
Barry's single most actionable piece of advice is to document your journey. In an age where facts are a surplus and ChatGPT answers any factual question, what people actually want is stories — to learn something by following a real human on a journey. Documenting what you learn, on a daily post or weekly newsletter, builds your skills even if no one watches, and typically attracts a following of people who want to help you succeed. It also solves the 'what do I share' problem: you simply share what you learned this week. Publicly documenting also gave Barry help, accountability, and customers when he built ConvertKit in the open.
Origin
Barry built his entire company by launching it publicly with $5,000. He knew an audience following his journey would help him (copywriter Amy Hoy jumped on Skype to help with his sales page after he asked publicly), hold him accountable to his habit of abandoning projects after a couple of weeks, and eventually become customers. Years later he treasures the blog posts capturing exactly what he was thinking as he landed his first customers in March 2013.
Core principles
- 01Information is now a surplus; stories and human journeys are the scarce, valued thing.
- 02Documenting builds skills even if no one else ever watches.
- 03Sharing publicly attracts help, accountability, and eventually customers.
- 04Facts belong to ChatGPT; the human experience of learning them belongs to you.
How to run it
- 1
State your starting point
Publicly declare who you are and what you're trying to learn or build so people can follow along.
- 2
Share what you learned, consistently
On a daily Instagram post, weekly newsletter, or similar cadence, document each lesson as you learn it.
Pro tip This single habit removes the 'what do I share?' paralysis — you just share this week's lesson.
- 3
Lead with the human, not the facts
Offer the story and lived experience of learning, since anyone can get the bare facts from AI. Ask before publishing: is this unique to me, or could anyone share this anecdote?
Pro tip Personal stories and connection are what algorithms can't generate for you.
Watch out Generic, AI-generatable content won't stand out in a world flooded with noise.
- 4
Let the audience compound
Keep documenting; over months the audience delivers help, accountability, introductions, and customers.
Pro tip Even if the only reward were the skills you build, it would be worth doing.
In the wild
Building ConvertKit in public, Barry posted that he was struggling to write a non-generic sales page for a software company. Copywriter Amy Hoy, who followed his journey, offered to jump on Skype and help him with it.
→ Documenting publicly turned his audience into an on-demand source of expert help — and accountability that cured his habit of quitting projects after two weeks.
Barry follows a roughly 19-year-old on Instagram documenting his journey to fly a plane to every continent. Barry loves it because it's a real person doing something hard and sharing every lesson along the way.
→ It illustrates that audiences are drawn to a documented human journey, not to a polished expert reciting facts.
Common mistakes
Waiting until the journey is finished
Sharing only a polished end result forfeits the accountability, help, and audience that accrue from documenting the messy middle in real time.
Sharing anecdotes anyone could share
In an AI-saturated feed, generic or fact-only content is noise; content that isn't uniquely yours won't build connection or stand out.
Is it for you?
Best for
Anyone learning a skill in public who wants to build an audience, accountability, and standout content in the AI era.
Not ideal for
People unwilling to share work-in-progress or whose work must stay confidential.
From the transcript
“Document your journey... Even if it's just for you, you'll be blown away at the skills that you build”
“if we want the facts, go to chat GPT... But I want to learn it from the human experience and I want to learn it…”
From the episode
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Nathan Barry