I came up with Everything Is Content back in 2016.

I turned it into a hashtag: #everythingiscontent, and now you can find that hashtag used across social media. Was I the original creator of that hashtag? Who knows, but when I started using it, you couldn't search it.

I created it because I discovered how incredibly true it was.

This was after I had been writing as The WordPress Chick for eight years and knew I was moving towards pivoting to my personal brand.

Two primary factors contributed to growing my personal brand, even before I made it official. Both were because of writing:

My podcast (The WPChick Podcast => The Kim Doyal Show)

My 'almost daily' emails

I'm going to go more in-depth with both, so sit tight.

I've said this before, and it's a hill I'm willing to die on 👇:

The BEST thing you can do to grow and scale your business online is to learn how to write and do it as often as possible.

You don't have to want to become a writer, but if you're going to create the type of business that supports you without trading time for money, you need to create assets that work for you when you're not working.

In other words, content, courses, ads, etc.

Even if you only want to produce audio or video content, you still need to know how to write compelling copy to attract the right people.

Off the top of my head, here is where good writing comes into play online:

Content (your website)

Emails

Social content

Website copy

Sales page copy

Email sequences

Courses

Podcast posts (show notes)

Engagement

Worksheets

Ebooks

Video headlines and descriptions

I'm sure I'm missing plenty on that list, but you cannot grow an online business without learning to write.

Period.

End of story.

And if you're listening to this and feeling resistance (i.e., maybe you're feeling a bit pissy?), then it's time to do a little entrepreneurial adulting and get really honest with yourself.

How badly do you want this?

In other words, are you willing to do the work?

I'm not preaching hustle here; that's not what I'm talking about.

I mean, are you willing to get comfortable with being uncomfortable?

I have yet to meet a single creator/entrepreneur who doesn't experience fear.

It's part of the journey.

I also haven't met one who doesn't have to write (even if you have a ghostwriter or your content is primarily audio and/or video, you still have to write headlines, captions, descriptions, etc.).

When I was getting started, I had plenty of fear but was so ignorant of the entire online marketing space that it was much easier to stay out of my head. I wasn't terribly worried about other people's thoughts because I didn't know many people online.

Ignorance was bliss.

As my business and brand grew, I worried a little more, but it wasn't until I felt like I had to "niche" down that I started really getting in my head.

I ranted quite a bit about this in episode 121, where I referenced Dan Koe's video "The Most Profitable Niche Is You.

So, instead of ranting more here (as fun as that can be), I want to give you a more straightforward guide on how to get started with "Everything Is Content, 2.0."

A quick backstory on Everything Is Content

I actually taught a workshop on this (it was a paid workshop, and yes, I'm doing a brand new and completely updated version of this in January 2024) because I was so passionate about it.

I had begun using the Everything Is Content hashtag because of my 'almost daily emails' (I called them almost because I didn't always send emails on the weekends).

My 'almost daily emails' was something I decided to do after having been a subscriber of Ben Settle's for a year and watching how he did it (and because of that, I became a customer of his Email Players physical newsletter).

I committed myself to figuring out email marketing regardless of the results.