Daily Content Machine

Too young to be taken seriously? Too old to be relevant? Where does adolescent inexperience meet youthful ambition? Where does late start meet experiential wisdom?

I think if you're asking the question, you have what it takes. It definitely takes hard work, but you're not too early and you're not too late.

Are you living for 2 weeks out of the year or are you making the 52 worth living?

We buy from those we trust and we trust those we know. You may have the solution to someone's problem but if someone doesn't know that your solution can be trusted, it's going to be a tough sell.

Familiarity is key. You want people to be comfortable with you and you want to make a personal connection. In relational terms you want to court them—flirt with them even! It sounds crazy, but people crave this.

We get so caught up in pitching and teaching and providing samples that we forget one of the biggest hooks: story telling.

You'll hear more on that analogy (along with riveting story of 3rd Grade Ben & The Note), but I'll also be talking about the 3 modes a client or customer is in.

Most people are only reaching customers in 1 or 2 of these modes. Sure, you can still make some sales and land some gigs, but you're missing out on so many opportunities. You'll learn what those are and how to attract people in each one of those modes.

You know what’s frustrating? Seeing someone make something hard look easy.

What’s worse is when you don’t know that it’s actually hard to do and you think that it should be easy. Then you just end up feeling bad about yourself for not being able to do it.

They make it look so effortless. Surely they’re not spending hundreds upon thousands upon tens of thousands of hours working at it.

But in fact, they are.

The easier they make it look, the harder they’re working. As you read this, no doubt those people are working on their craft.

I want to demystify the process for you. I’m going to take you behind the scenes and show you exactly what it takes and all that I’m doing to make everything happen. You’ll witness the things that aren’t normally visible to you.

I’m going to get real and I’m going to tell you how many hours I work a week (hint: it’s not a two-digit number). In this episode, I’m also going to be fully honest and tell you that I often forget to eat. Neither of these are things I’m proud of and neither are healthy. I’m not censoring any of this, I’m simply showing you the reality that is behind the curtain.

I’m not promising it’s going to be pretty (it never is behind the curtain). You’re getting a real look inside the well-oiled machine. I’m showing you because I want you to see that it’s not a machine at all.

You walk into your favorite coffee shop. It’s a bit early and you’re somewhat groggy. Standing in line, you already know what you’re going to order. It’s the same thing every time.

“What can I get started for you?”

Startled, you come out of your daze and place an order.

Stepping away from the counter, you look around to take in the scene. “Why are people up at this hour anyway?” you wonder. Your thoughts are interrupted. Wait a minute.

Is that… is that Sean and Ben?

You're dreaming big. You have huge aspirations for where you want to be, and you have a vision for how to get there. But for as big as your vision is, the results don't seem to be aligning.

You feel like you're spinning your wheels. You feel like you're working hard to show up and create content but it doesn't seem to be resonating with anyone. Your audience doesn't seem to be growing very much or even at all.

There's a problem here. I'm going to tell you what it is, and I'm going to tell you why you have it.

I'll show you how to create insanely loyal followers who will become your personal ambassadors. I'm going to show you the key to your next 10,000 followers.

It starts with one person. All you need is one person. You can change someone's entire perception of you with this one, single conversation tactic I'll be sharing in this episode.

How do you stay motivated? How do you become the person you want to be? How do you keep commitments to yourself? How can you achieve the kinds of things the people you look up to have achieved?

You want all of these things, but you can't seem to stick with something. You want to commit, but every time you try to start something it doesn't really go anywhere and you just give up and move on.

These people you look up to seem to be prolific in their output. They’re successful, they’re consistent, and they’re constantly putting things out without fail.

If you feel like you’ve wanted to get to this point and you just aren’t there yet, accountability is what is missing.

Now the big question: how do you find someone?

Note: This episode happened before I made the decision to start practicing Small Scale Sabbaticals. A few days after this episode was recorded, I decided to take off a week every 7 weeks. It’s interesting to listen back to some of the thoughts that were going through my mind beforehand.

Do you feel like you’re making an effort to say no to things, bringing on help, not doing too many things at once, and somehow you’re still overloaded? You’re still exhausted, you still feel like you have no time, and still don’t seem to be getting any more done?

It seems like no matter how much I say no and regardless of whether I’m hiring people to help, I somehow don’t end up having more time. What I’ve realized is I consistently tend to ramp up everything until I’m at maximum capacity. I’m bad at slowing down. I’m bad at taking breaks because I fall prey to the idea that they’re unproductive.

We talk about why breaks are actually helpful, the two kinds of breaks, the importance of thinking time, being able to take breaks even when you have kids, the piano teacher that always knew, and leveraging procrastination to get more done in less time.

Eagerness to do a lot of things at once. It's an ambition many of us struggle with: being good at many things but not perceived as an expert with any one of them. You feel like you're never really able to get traction.

Do you often pick up something to learn and end up gaining just enough knowledge to be dangerous?

I believe there are two kinds of Jack of All Trades: a permanent Jack of All Trades (you don't want this one!), and an intermittent Jack of All Trades. The latter is a result of the journey to becoming a master—a good thing.

I want to talk about how to know the difference so you can determine which one you are. You'll find out if you're on your way to mastery or simply floundering about in the novice world of mediocre proficiency.

You have ideas. Great ideas. They come at you all day long but you aren't able to pursue them. You have a task at hand that needs to be done. Maybe it's your day job. Maybe it's a project you're busy working on.

You can't engage these ideas because you're supposed to be working, but they keep distracting you! A concept for your painting, a solution to your engineering problem, a way to relate to your students—they're all begging for your attention.

We're going to unpack all of this in a DYNAMITE episode. I'm going to tell you the way to get your focus back, show you how to apply that focus to becoming an expert, and explain how to do all of this while having a happy family.

A tall order? You bet. Let's dive in.

The playing field has now been leveled. The middlemen are slowly fading away and you no longer have to play by the rules of the gatekeepers in order to reach your audience.

However, with the disappearance of the middleman comes many equivalent software replacements. Many platforms are seeking content creators and teachers like yourself to create, sell and teach on their platforms.

They bring the appeal of "wider reach" and "large audiences" that you will gain access to. But in exchange for this exposure, there is a very significant downside: lack of control.

When you build your own platform, you are the master. You own the domain and you set the rules. This means you can control the pricing, you can control whether or not your products are discounted, and you can design the entire experience.

Yes, building your own platform is a lot more difficult, but what does the alternative look like? Is the incentive of exposure enough for you to compromise your control and potentially devalue your products?

With the middleman gone it also places a lot of responsibility on you. The brunt of the marketing and distribution work is now yours to deal with. This can sound scary but it's also extremely empowering.

I want to empower you: You are an independent marketing firm. Let me tell you why that should excite you.