Daily Content Machine

We all want to be known for something, we all want to make a name for ourselves, but there’s a harsh reality we’re up against:

The reality is people put other people in boxes.

We are cognitively limited to maintaining 150 close relationships.

What does this mean? It’s means people are forced to categorize. They’re going to put you in a box. There’s nothing you can do about that—it’s going to happen.

What you can do is define the box they put you in. Embrace the fact that you will be put in a box and define what that box is.

You have an opportunity to shape the box others put you in. How do you shape it? You curate what you share.

I have some good news: self-discipline is not an innate trait. It’s not something you have or you don’t; it’s a skill you develop.

Tell me if this happens to you a lot: you want to do something but you just don’t feel like doing it a lot of the time.

The people who are disciplined have learned one thing that others haven’t: don’t wait until you “feel like it.”

A common misconception is that disciplined people must somehow feel like doing things more than others do. This simply isn’t the case.

To help you develop the skill of discipline, we share 6 tips in this episode that will help you take the next step—whether it’s eating healthy, staying fit, waking up early, or showing up consistently.

I launched Learn Lettering one year ago yesterday. It was my very first product launch and it grossed six figures in the first three days of launching.

How was I able to do this? Well, I have an exhaustive case study in e060 with all of the details, but essentially I owe it to a year of immersion in the world of marketing!

I learned everything I could. I studied countless examples from other people. I searched the web and read articles, listened to podcasts, watched videos and gleaned whatever wisdom I could from those who had been there before me.

I learned two things:

1. How to make sure you’re building what other people want (and will pay for) and not just what you want.

2. The absolute, undeniable power of email.

In the last episode, we looked at Getting Started With Email Marketing. Today, we’re taking things to the next level and I show you how I use email marketing to launch a product.

I share things I learned, what worked, what didn’t work, and everything from validation, to lead magnets, to what to put in your emails, to evergreen launches so that you too can nail your very first product launch.

You’ve been hearing that you should be using email to build your brand and market your products, but how exactly do you do that? Where should you get started? How do you even start an email list? How do you take the one you have and supercharge the growth?

In this jam-packed episode, I give you a crash course on email marketing. You’ll learn how to get people to sign up, what to send, when to send, and why using email gets you more than 10x the engagement Twitter does.

We talk about effective ways to incentivize signups without adding spammy popups to your site and whether it matters what type of lead magnet you use.

We answer a ton of questions from the chat, so you’re bound to hear something that resonates with you whether you’re just thinking about using email or if you’ve been marketing for a long time.

I say this with the utmost sincerity as an introvert: conferences are one of the best values you’ll ever get.

I’ve had some of the best conversations and experiences in my life over meals, coffee, or park benches at conferences.

If you’re going to a conference in the near future (or even thinking about it), this episode will give you the rundown on preparing for your next conference, how to engage with people, what to bring, and how to stand out.

You’ll learn what conferences are NOT for, why a cheap business card is worse than no business card, and why you shouldn’t worry about acceptance from your heroes—even if you get to meet them.

I’m a big believer in charitable giving. I think it’s fantastic to give to good causes. I’d highly encourage going out of your way to donate to organizations you believe in.

Where things get a little fuzzy is when someone asks you to work for free “because charity.” Sometimes it’s a non-profit, other times it’s a for-profit business masquerading as a non-profit. While they’re making money and paying their staff, they hope you’ll work for free because they say they give “proceeds” to charity.

Why is it that their accountants, organizers, and managers get paid even when good causes are involved, but art is treated as a hobby? Why are you expected to work for free?

Artists are often exploited because they enjoy what they do. Businesses or organizations often try to “pay” you in exposure and many creative people end up working for free when they should be compensated.

Don’t get me wrong, there are certainly times where it is appropriate and right to work for free. I think it’s fantastic to donate your services and your skills!

It sounds stingy to even talk about not doing free work when charities benefit, but the situation isn’t always so clear and people are often taken advantage of.

We navigate this sensitive issue and discuss when to be altruistic and when to be wary. We answer the question: Should you always work for free if a good cause benefits?

Do you know where your next client will come from? What if you don’t get any inquiries? How will you pay rent?

When resources and opportunities are scarce, this can breed desperation. When we’re desperate, we’re more likely to compromise on things like our morals or professionalism.

What’s more, Scarcity Mindset doesn’t go away with scale. Even at five or six figures in monthly revenue, the desperation will follow you.

Maybe you’re running a business that brings in a lot of revenue, but you also have a lot of employees to take care of. What if next quarter’s sales are lower? How will you take care of your employees? How will you make payroll?

It doesn’t matter what level you’re at. Scarcity Mindset only ever breeds more of the same. You’ll never get ahead by trying to run from it because it will always catch up with you.

You have to start by making conscious decisions. You have to start with actions. Your mindset has to change even while you’re in the circumstances you don’t want to be in.

Changing the way you think and recalibrating your mindset is what’s going to be the thing that gets you out of the circumstances.

You’re in a job that pays well and has good benefits but you don’t want to be there. It’s not your favorite thing, or you may even actually hate the job, but it pays so well that you feel bad leaving it.

You’re scared of abandoning the stability it provides or fear that you would look foolish to your friends. Maybe you try to do something you’re passionate about on nights and weekends, except you come home from your job exhausted and spent. It feels like you’re spending all of the wrong kinds of energy and it’s taking everything from you.

Maybe you don’t have the time or energy after work to do what you really enjoy doing but it seems silly to leave a job so stable to do something else—especially if you’ve been at that job for years.

Maybe you have a lot of friends at the job or friends that know you work there who would wonder why you left: “What are you doing? We would all kill to be you! Why in the world would you leave?”

Golden Handcuffs. They come in many forms.

Sticking with something is hard. When you make a commitment to do something consistently (like blog or podcast), I’ve found that there’s a mental block that comes around episode 20.

You’re going to feel like you want to throw in the towel. You’re going to wonder why you ever started this thing. What’s the point? Is it even worth doing anymore?

A lot of people quit here. They lose sight of their WHY and the reason they go into it in the first place. You’ve got to grab hold of your WHY before you go in.

Knowing this mental block is coming is half the battle. In this episode, we talk about preparing for the “Episode 20” hurdle, share some tips for sticking with commitments, and why I don’t plan for failure.

Do you ever feel like what you have to say has already been said? What’s the point of putting your work out there? Why does your voice matter when everyone else is saying the same thing?

If people have written entire books on a subject, who are you to blog about it? Should you even try?

Yes. Emphatically yes!

We’ve all heard that there’s nothing new under the sun but it also takes hearing new information 7 times before it’s retained.

So even if someone else is saying the same thing and even if they’re doing it better, your voice can still be the one to resonate with people. Because of the Magic of 7, your delivery of a message might be someone’s 7th time hearing it.

When you are someone’s 7th time, they actually attribute the value of that thing to you—even if someone before you might have said it better already.

It’s the same with your clients and customers. Competition is a good sign and not anything to be afraid of. They’re actually priming people who are even more ready for you to close the deal.

We’re going to talk about how the Magic of 7 applies to competition, repurposing content, growing an audience, getting clients and selling to customers.