At the beginning of the project, every part of learning how to create content felt like standing at the foot of a giant mountain and looking up at the peak. The peak is somewhere just below the cloud line. There is a path that traces its way up the side of the mountain. I can see some of it, but a great majority of the path is obscured by tree cover from my vantage point. And at the very top, I can see a person up there. I follow that person on social media, and they are sharing their message.
One message is a selfie picture at the peak of the mountain with a caption -- “I FEEL SO ALIVE!”
The next is a post with a step by step on how to get up the mountain. “The path is very easy to follow. Just get on the road and start walking. Make sure stay to left and beware of the flesh-eating squirrels.”
Another message is a motivational message “You only have one life to climb mountains! Start today!”
All of this content is really helpful, but it doesn’t stop the questions in my brain.
“Do I have the right shoes? What if I’m too out of shape? What if I get lost? What if I can’t tell the difference between normal squirrels and flesh-eating squirrels?”
I’ve felt that way every step of the way with content marketing. I remember looking at people that seemed to have mastered the craft and thinking, “How in the world do I become that guy?”
Then I read their books. They broke it down step by step. Start with video. Take the transcript and make it into a blog post. Take the blog post and use parts of it for a social media post…
It all felt like reading Greek to me. They’re talking about videos. What kind of camera do I use? Which software do I use for editing videos? I’m not very good a visual media forms, how do I overcome that?
But I can see that they’re on social media getting a lot of responses. I listen to their podcasts, and it seems like the whole world is listening to them.
I don’t know if the feeling ever goes away. Every time I start a new form of medium, the game evolves. I’m trying to figure out YouTube thumbnails right now. It’s not hard to go on YouTube and find a lot of great tutorials on how to make them. There are even some free resources on places like Canva. Even with that help, my Thumbnails end up looking janky. They look like a first grader cut out a picture of their Dad and pasted it on a professional postcard. If you go to my channel, you’ll know which one I’m talking about.
I try to persuade myself that is part of the charm of my YouTube channel…
But let me pause for a moment here and send a message down from the top of the mountain.
2 years ago, I had all these feelings. I started writing LinkedIn posts, because I felt most comfortable with the written word (and I still do). I didn’t know what to write. When to write. Or how to make it interesting. That’s where I started.
In the last year, my posts have made more than 2,000,000 impressions. It used to take me several hours to write my posts for the week. I now make more content in less time than ever. I meet new people every week because of my content. It makes it easier for me to introduce myself to new people on LinkedIn because I have a track record on the platform. There is a flywheel effect.
I started by sharing articles from Insurance Journal with thoughts. Nobody looked at them. The algorithm probably suppressed them because there were links in the body of the post.
I just kept writing. I learned a little bit about it every day. I kept listening to the people that do it better than me.
I think there’s a formula in there for anything.
I know nothing to start. I’m terrible at first. I get better a little bit at a time. I refined my systems. I share something genuine and meaningful to me. Eventually, people will gravitate to that message. Then I can build off it.
I’ve got several new things that I’m working on right now. Some of you have been to my personal website. I’ve never made a website before. I’m sure there are 40 website developers that want to send me personal DM’s about how they can improve it. But it’s mine, and I’m proud of it. I spent 6 hours on Black Friday learning how to make it on Wix. It’ll get a little bit better all the time.
Just to wrap things up here, I’ve got a couple of unconnected thoughts:
First:
In my humble opinion, the goal of content and social media is not to impress people with how amazing you are. It’s to give people a chance to see the real you. People crave that. If you give them the real you, warts and all, it’s easier for them to see pieces of themselves. Funny as that sounds, I think being genuine sells more than anything.
Second:
The difference between success and failure in many situations is who decides to stop staring at the side of the mountain and start climbing.
Third:
If you don’t know where to start for yourself, here is my suggestion:
a. Don’t overthink what you should create content about. Answer your customer’s questions. If you don’t know what they are, just start writing them down after every conversation during the week.
b. Pick a medium where you are most comfortable. I like writing, always have. So I started there. You might like videos, or gifs, or pictures, whatever. Do you. Go the path that feels the least overwhelming.
c. Commit to doing it for 2 years. It’s not a short game. It’s a long game. But you’ll find that the content you make will become an asset for you. You’ll point prospects to it as a way for them to get to know you before talking to you. People will find you based off that content. It will help you build trust.
Fourth:
Here’s my worst cold call of the week. I called a CEO on their cell phone and I introduced myself:
“How did you get this number?” The prospect asked.
“I paid for it with my hard-earned money. I bought it from Dun & Bradstreet.”
“I have no interest in switching insurance. They’re selling cell phone numbers now? Gaaawwwwwddd.” (click)
Here’s the other content I created this week:
YouTube:
How do I know I’m getting the best deal on liability and workers compensation insurance? https://youtu.be/GMm3iQ1BnJk
Blogs:
As always, thanks for reading. Thank you for the support. If you find it helpful, please share with friends. I’ll talk to you next week.
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