Daily Content Machine

Every 7th week, I stop working for a week. I don't make videos, podcasts, or publish new posts. My output goes on hold.

I work really hard for 6 weeks and then I take the entire 7th week off—not only that but I also pay my employees to take off every 7th week.

They're no longer limited to a week or two of summer vacation, no more just a few days in the summer to regain their sanity, but now they get an entire week off every 7 weeks.

I'm an all-on or all-off kind of guy. Working 18-hour days is normal for me. I like my work and I like working hard.

But what I realized was I was heading towards burnout.

A lot of people act like there is this line between life and business. They talk about work/life balance. The reality is every minute of your day—whatever you are doing—is your life.

Listening to this show is your life. Commuting home is your life. Spending time with your family is your life. Working on your business is your life.

The key is to align your work with what fulfills you. If you can successfully align those two things, there's no stopping you. That is where your hustle level will be at peak.

There's a lot of things. There's a lot of things you could be doing right now. Some things need to be done, others should be done, and some that would just be nice to have done.

Even if an entire week opened up for your tomorrow, there are likely more things for you to do than you can accomplish in an entire week.

I know because this is what happens every time I'm on my sabbatical week. I've got a sabbatical week coming up (I'll tell you more about that in two days), and every time I take a week off, it seems like I can conquer the world. It seems like a week is so much time and you can do so much.

But somehow there are so many things I want to do, need to do, and should do that it's just not possible to accomplish it all. I can't catch up on everything even if I had a week.

Choosing a niche can be scary. Narrowing your focus can be overwhelming.

I’ve talked a lot about how people will put you in a box. It's going to happen. No matter what you do, people will put you in a box. They have to in order to survive. There's too much complexity in the world and people are forced to simplify.

You can't avoid being put in a box, but what you can do is define the box they’re already going to put you in. The way you do this is by curating what you share.

Here’s the deal: there will always be more in a day than you can accomplish. You will never get to the end of the day and think, “Wow! I finished all the work!” That’s just the life of a business owner.

This can feel discouraging because it can seem like you’re chipping away at an ever-increasing mountain (in a way, you are). But the way to survive mentally is to set specific tasks for yourself. I’m not talking about your never-ending task list, but rather the 3 most important things you will accomplish tomorrow.

You’ve heard me talk about this before, but it’s extremely important and that’s why I need to tell you again (and probably because you’re still not doing it):

You need to write down the 3 most important things you will accomplish tomorrow, today.

So you've got this thing you want people to know about. It's really great and people would love it, but you feel awkward telling them about it.

I’m going to help you feel more confident about promoting, and not just feel less bad about it but actually feel good promoting!

Right now, you feel guilty promoting your stuff. It makes sense. It seems selfish at first, right? You feel like an attention hog. You feel like you’re taking advantage of people who are giving you their attention. Yet at the same time, you’re concerned because it feels awful. You actually do want to provide them with more value, but they don’t even seem to know that it’s there. You announce it but nobody cares because people don't notice announcements they notice consistency.

Do not go into debt. If there's one thing I can do for any young person out there wondering if they should go into debt or take on a loan, it's to tell you do not go into debt.

I virtually do not see this advice offered anywhere. Everyone makes excuses for what they call "good" debt. They might say "Don't go into debt except..." or "Don't go into debt unless..." or other excuses for what is "good" debt.

You might be expecting a horror story of how I went deep into debt and it ruined my life and after years of saving and hard work, I managed to crawl out of that dark hole and experience freedom.

That's not my story. You can find plenty of stories like that, but that's not my story. I made a choice at a young age never to go into debt.

A lot of times, I'll answer someone's question by linking to a video that I made. Whether it's about failure, pricing, writing, conferences, or how to keep your passion from turning into a job, I'll often reply with a link just seconds later.

It seems like magic, but really it's just listening. I have these videos readily available because I made them in response to a question I got a lot. Even this video! It's a bit meta, but often when I reply to multiple questions in quick succession with links to videos that I made, people say, "You have a video for everything!" So because people said that so much, naturally I wanted to make a video about it.

Whenever I get an email or a comment or a tweet with any kind of question, I write it down. I have a list of questions people ask me. When I start to see a trend or frequently asked question, I turn it into a podcast or a video—usually both!

People don't notice announcements, they notice consistency. You'll hear that phrase from me a lot because I don't expect you to hear it the first time I say it.

We live in a noisy world. Your business or your brand may be the center of your universe, but you are barely even a blip on other people's radar. If you want people to notice something, the only way to do this effectively is to show up every day. You must talk about it consistently.

Consistency is the frequency with which you put out content. You have this thing you want people to notice—maybe it's your podcast, your video show, your course, your new product—you've decided on the thing you want people to know about and care about. Now the question becomes: how often are you going to put something out? How often are you going to share new content surrounding this thing you want to promote?

People don't notice announcements, they notice consistency.

Have you ever been talking to someone and notice they’re not really listening so much as waiting for their turn to talk? It’s pretty frustrating and it can make you feel unimportant.

There’s a difference between listening and waiting to talk.

Some people just want someone to be their sounding board and they feign interest only in as much as it gives them an audience.

It’s easy to spot in real life, but what we don’t realize is that we’re often doing this with our content. We’re just talking about whatever we want to talk about and hoping people care. Sometimes they do and we’re happy, other times they don’t and we’re sad.

But there’s a more intentional way to go about it. I call it reading minds.