Useful Creator

Hello Useful Content Creators, and this intro today is mainly for the people who will be listening to this in audio only.

Why is that important for me to mention? Because today we're going to look at Home Studio Buildout. And there's going to be a section in the middle. Where there's going to be a lot of visual references. And the only way you're going to see that is if you go check the video out. Now, this is going to stream to LinkedIn and my personal Facebook, as well as the Relate Studios YouTube page.

So go check it out there if you're listening to this audio right now. But if you are content with only hearing and not seeing what we're talking about, you could do that as well. Or you could listen to it twice. You could listen to it here, then go and check it out. In visuals thereafter, but we're going to be talking with a home studio expert and we're going to explore his seven stages of home studio build out and the five things you need to focus on when building out your own home studio.

And in the middle, there's going to be a really cool lighting demonstration. So if you want to see that and not just hear it the episode is dropping at noon on the day of release of the audio. So you could hop across at that time to see it live, or you could check it out thereafter. But in the meantime, let's talk about home studio build outs and let's make useful content. Hello and welcome to the Useful Content Podcast, and today we have a new teacher in our useful content classroom, Junaid Ahmed. Hi 

Junaid. 

Hey, Jima. So awesome to be here. Thanks for the invitation and bringing me on.

Yeah, it's good to have you on, man. I think, um, we would've actually met on a live stream. Um, can't remember. DJ was there. A couple people were there and we um, we were doing this joint live stream together and that would've been. Some like, like two years ago or something like that. Uh, so it's, it's great to have you back on.

I know you've been doing good stuff in the studio building space. So we came to talk today about some of that, but before we get into that, could you tell the people what you do and how you help your clients make useful 

content?

absolutely. So what I do is I'm a home studio architect, meaning I help you figure out your lighting, your camera, your microphone, your audio treatment, your room treatment, all basically it's all around. Hey, what gear do I get? There's a ton of questions people throw around. Hey, what camera are you using?

What microphone should I get? Uh, what do you have going on with the lighting? Like people are always asking these questions because number one, they're stepping into the space or they've been doing it, but they've been doing it, you know, on their phone because they wanted to get the reps in and get. So I helped them figure out the gear.

I helped them design their space. So it resonates with who they are and. Where do they want to take it? 

I saw that when you were helping, um, a guy, well, people wouldn't know who this is, but I'm going to call his name anyway. Andy. Andy, with his home studio, you asked a really interesting question. The question you ask is, if you got invited to speak, uh, on the news in 10 minutes, Would you be able to join and look your best?

And I guess inside of that, what you've said too, without saying that the sound your best to, Oh, why might it be important for someone to be able to get on camera fast and look and sound their 

best? 

You know, a lot of the times we have a ton of things going on. We were, we were talking in the green room and we were asking, Hey, how many tabs do you have? Do you leave open? Right? So just like we have so many tabs open, we have a lot of things...

Hello, useful content creators. Today, we have a bit of a different episode. I talk with Ian Reed of Reed Designs, and we discuss how he has been using AI generated images in his design work. We talk about his AI tools of choice. We touch on how he deals with his commercial clients.

When it comes to AI generated images, whether or not graphic designers should charge the same as photographers for AI generated subjects. And the big mistakes ad agencies make when they are trying to use AI generated images in their client work. So fair warning, this is a conversation between two trainees.

So it gets really local, both in speech. and examples. And we mentioned a location in Trinidad and Tobago called the Bamboo Cathedral, a whole lot, which I eventually described badly in the podcast. So for my international listeners, you might want to look that up as well. All in all, it's a great discussion.

And if you listen carefully, you'll get some great insight into how graphic designers are using AI generated images and how you can use them. Let's make useful content.

Hello and welcome to Useful Content, and today we have a brand new teacher in our useful content classroom. Ian Reid. Hi Ian.

Hey Juma, how's it going?

It's going well man. It's going well. It's good to have you on. Uh, you were one of the harder Pokemon to catch, um, because I've been inviting you on for a little while, but it's good to have you on. No, and you know, it just so happens that today is a holiday, so that makes it a little bit easier. You know, even though when you have your own business, you'd already get a chance to go on holiday.

Yeah, it's true. No holidays for us. That's, that's how it is.

Very much so. Very much so. okay, great. So, people may not know who you are. So could you tell the people what you do and how you help your clients make useful content?

Well, first of all, thanks for having me on the show. What do I do when you're asking a bio? I started writing my bio as Failed marketer, failed graphic designer, failed art director, failed advertising. Uh, pretty much everything that I've done so far has a level of failure.

When I look back on it, uh, I started on my career as a graphic artist. Uh, so at the core, that's what I do. That's who I am. That's, I can't seem to eject that from my being. Uh, I've, I've been in business for so long. It's been almost 30 years. Since I've been doing graphic design since, since the beginning.

I am an advertising marketing person. That's because I worked with one of the largest ad agencies in the Caribbean. I was at McCann for almost 20 years. 

My work has always been specifically clients come to me and they say, Ian, we need a press ad. Ian, we need social media posts. Ian, we need, um, I need a book designed, or I need an annual report. And that's my core business. But within that, there is a growing change. There is a different, there is a, no longer am I bound to having to sit down and stare at a, at a blank screen and try to figure out, crap, I can't, um, I can't think of what to do.

I, I, I, what, What do I do? I'm reading this brief and it doesn't make head to tails of it. I, I can't, you know, I put it into chat GPT now, I say, here's the brief, tell me what to do.

right, right. So things have changed. 

that's the level that we're reaching, 

you that's the level that we're reaching. So I kind of see you as I refer to myself as this a lot too. I kind of see you as like the middle child of the Internet where you're old enough to have done these things physically. Um, but you're also old enough to have, um, experienced this, well, AI, which is over the last few years has become the, it t...

Hello and welcome to the useful content podcast. And today we have a new teacher in our useful content classroom, Nick McGraw. Hi, Nick.

Hey Juma, pleasure to be here. It's nice to see you again. I'm glad we have another opportunity to do this again.

Yeah. The first time we did it was on your show and that was what else? 2021 or 22. That's

so long ago.

But now we get to do the Useful Content Show, which I'm really excited about.

Yeah, those are the early days, you know, as you know, and that was how we met. We met through LinkedIn and, um, and you're doing good stuff there and you still are doing good stuff. That's why you're on today to talk about brand design. So could you please tell the people what you do and how you help your clients create useful content?

Yeah. So, um, the content that we help our clients create, um, is always mission focused, and that mission is to make sure that their message, um, whether that's their services or the solutions or the answers that they get, uh, for their clients, that their message is spread, um, in as many places that are applicable as possible, um, as many platforms that will help them succeed. You know, um, if your business is. primed for LinkedIn, it may not be perfect for say TikTok. That's not always the case, but we want to make sure that our message is in the right places in front of our audience, where our audience is hanging out. Um, what I like to tell people, um, what I like to tell my clients is that social media is just a place to waste time, right?

People are doom scrolling. People are looking to take, to get a hit. They're going on Facebook. They're going on Instagram. They're going on TikTok. They're doom scrolling. They're just doom scrolling, doom scrolling. They're looking for a dopamine hit. It's a place to waste time. It's a place to hang out and kill time. Not everybody who's going to these places is looking to be hit with an ad or with some sort of message of your service. But if you already know your clients, your ideal customers, are on those places hanging out, then it really is to your advantage to be in those places. and I always, always explain to my, my clients, and I always try to encourage them and teach them if we're not doing video, we are totally missing out for two reasons. One, If you're not doing video and your competitors are doing video, you're being left behind, right? If you're not doing content of any kind, forget video, if you're not doing content of any kind, your competitors probably are.

So you're missing out on all the customers that are gobbling up. But number two, let's say your competitors aren't doing content. You should then do content because that means you're going to get ahead of them, right? Your message is going to be spread much, much more easily. It's going to be picked up by your customers first.

Right? Those who look like they're first in this space, those who look like they've been early adopters and they've taken to this content game quicker and earlier and more seriously, they're going to get all the clout and they're going to get all the attention. And attention is the biggest currency of today.

Attention is the only currency that matters, especially in the social media game. So the content that we produce for our clients, we help them produce it. It's their message, but we try to bring it to life. And we're always, always trying to explain the value of doing video, uh, Explain the value of what it is their clients need to see from them.

Maybe it's like behind the scenes stuff. Maybe it's polished final solutions of what they achieve for their clients. Maybe it's client testimonia...

I've been in the personal branding space for a long time. I mean, my first talk about personal branding was back in 2013, 99 problems and my brand ain't one. 

This is Cher Jones, a personal branding expert, corporate trainer, and speaker with over 25 years experience in communications, marketing, and broadcasting. She helps professionals excel in their roles. Elevate their careers and amplify their influence both in person and online. And in this episode of Useful Content, we drop right into the conversation on personal branding. No intro, no fluff. No waiting.

Because this is not the first time I've spoken with Cher in this long content format and the last time we spoke that way, the Clipse from that video got the most engagement of any video I had done up to that time. So, you know, Cher knows what she's talking about. And today we talk about why leadership of a company needs to lead with their personal brand.

I think that the leadership does need to put, their brands out there. They do need to lead because there is power in brands showing up the personal brand showing up as a collective, that brand advocacy is very real

We talk about the five KPIs of a well built personal brand.

because of your brand, because of the feeling, the stories and the expectations, People want to work with you.

They're excited about working with you. There's something about you that this alignment feels good. 

and in the conversation, she gets me to admit to something about LinkedIn that I've never said before publicly. 

Well, here's the thing, uh, here's the thing I have, I have tried desperately to not become 

Let's make useful content. 

as we're talking here, we'll figure it out. We'll start officially, but you could go ahead and talk.

Okay. Um, yeah, we're, when I think about my clients and what they want to accomplish, they're not trying to be superstars on LinkedIn. Yes, I have a set of clients that are, because it is, they're more in the individual creator, um, in that mindset and that space of, of they want to get that upper echelon of thought leadership, but the average corporate professional Who is crushing it in their jobs or wants to get to that next opportunity, wants to be seen and more visible.

LinkedIn's not necessarily their biggest focus. I would say, you know what, let me, let me even take a step further and say LinkedIn is not their plan. It's a part of their plan, but they're not just trying to build their brand on LinkedIn to get the stuff that they want. It's just a tool. And what's interesting with that is they're recognizing the power of their message.

So when they're showing up, when they are, when they are introducing themselves, what are they saying? What are they saying? So that people in the room are like, aha, I see you, I see your value, I see how I can work with you. I see what value you have to add and when you add that value and I know how to work with you.

And those are the things that. Are often lost when we're talking about personal branding, because, especially because we are people who are building our brands and leveraging LinkedIn heavily in our brand strategy. We, you know, in this, dare I say, incestuous space of creators and, and the thinking, when I say incestuous, it's more like around the, the thinking we all are in that same mindset.

And, um, most people don't see LinkedIn the way we say LinkedIn. It's just a tool where we are seeing it as a space that we live. So it's just different. Anyways, that was just a little tangent. Um, but I'm excited to have this conversation with you.

Well, here's the thing, uh, here's the thing I have, I have tried desperately to not become a LinkedIn person, l...

Hello, welcome to useful content. And today we have a brand new teacher in our useful content classroom, Tamara Mon Louis. Hi Tamara.

Hello. Hello. Hello. I am super excited to be here. I am tomorrow. We I am the founder of Monovan digital marketing solutions where we really help businesses, you know, go beyond those likes and follows to get to that place of creating relevant content so they can grow their businesses. Super excited to be here today.

You have that talk track down Tamara. I must say you haven't locked all the way down, all the way down. Um, go beyond the likes. And I know that is something that came out of when you started your business, you first started your business. That was like the foundation upon which you started it, which was, well, October will be six years now that you have been in business and, uh, go beyond it.

Like, so they explain before we get into all the other stuff about how I know you and the, the great content you came to share. Could you explain what go beyond the likes means to you?

Yeah, 100%. So truly, when I started the business, the 1st workshop I did was actually called. I launched the business with a workshop called Beyond the Lights. Um, and as I was in corporate America, I've worked for brands like St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and Hilton Worldwide. They've flown me all over the place to work for them, which has been exciting. One of the things I learned as I work with these corporations, and I met with CEOs, you start understanding that, uh, likes and follows do not connect for them because it's not revenue driven. It's not business goal driven. So, the more you talk, we talk to them, and this was when digital was like, super early, right? Um, when we talk to them, it would, we would present them with likes and follows, and they would say, okay, where are the heads in the beds? Or where are the, you know, where are the leads? Where, where's the stuff that I need to say that my business is growing through this medium that I have to spend a lot of money in. So when I started my business right away, I understood that that was something that business owners needed to connect with. I have a degree in economics, so I connected the dots of business goals through digital, and then it was, so I simplified it by saying. Beyond the likes. And then I got a trademark.

So I trademarked go beyond the likes, um, which allows us to have a really robust conversation. When someone hears that right away, they're thinking, ah, this is more than just social media.

Yeah. And that's so true because I think, uh, over the years with digital marketing and with social media, uh, there's only been a whole focus on how far we've You can reach as opposed to how this thing really impacts the bottom line. And I know you are somebody who is acutely focused on impacting the bottom line of businesses.

And that is something that I know, um, you take great pride in as a digital marketer at Monovan Digital. There's the, I mean, I've known you for a while. I think we met. back. I think the exact date was February 27th in 2020, right before the pandemic, where you did the best photo shoot ever. But here's the thing. The thing is that there are two aspects of your content, the content creation choices that I find to be very interesting. And this is before we get into the main things we came to talk about, right? There are two aspects of your content creation choices that I find to be very, very interesting.

I'll talk about the first one and then I'll talk about the second one right after, right? And so you could have a chance to explain why you do things that way. Cause I think it's important for. I still look at why things are done a particular way and then why it works. So the first thing is that you start in long form content a lot of times, and interesting.

Hello, useful content creators. I'm just about to head out to a dance rehearsal with my daughter and it's pouring cats and dogs here in Trinidad and Tobago. And of course, as far as priorities go, dance rehearsals trump having fancy intros, so there are no fancy intros today. But what we do have is a discussion about storytelling and how to ace your on stage talk.

We talk about how to sharpen, reorder, and cut the fluff From your own stage talk so you can deliver it very well and that you can win over your audience. Enjoy the podcast today and let's make useful content. 

Hello, and welcome to useful content. And today we have a brand new teacher in our useful content classroom, Toveet Nysa. Hi Toveet,

Hi, Gemma. 

technically, this is the first time we're talking face to face, which is highly unusual for when we're doing podcasts, but this time it worked out really great because I checked you out. I looked at your content and what you do, and I know this is going to be a great conversation. So I'm really excited to, to talk about, um, this public speaking stuff, because I've never had anyone on the podcast like you before, and I know it's going to be very good and helpful for the people who are listening. So glad to get into it. So could you please tell the people what you do and how you help your clients make useful content?

Sure, yeah. So I, um, define myself as a business storyteller. I own a consultancy boutique called Yellow Bricks, where I help companies and executives tell better stories either for their startup tech company, B2B Company, fine tune, what's their offering, what's their unique value proposition, and tell it.

So they would become a brand and for executives, I help build the content for effective talks, conferences, uh, meetups, event, uh, companies, events. People cannot just go on stage. How do You know, they can speak very well, but it doesn't matter. They need to fine tune the content and build it in a way that resonates with the audience, the relevant audience, which differs between events and in a way that it's captivating and memorable.

So why is, storytelling important anyway? I mean, can somebody just go and talk about themselves or their products in any, how they feel like why is storytelling important?

I think the definition is that stories are glue. This is what keeps us as a society. This is what keeps ideas from one generation to the other. I think. Want to look at the broader spectrum and stories are a great way to connect and share ideas. If you talk with someone and you just tell them the specs, this is the, these are the figures, this is the data, all the things that you do so wonderfully and you are very well, um, professionally in this space or whatever you do.

This is boring. And the other thing on the other side, there's so much information. There's so much content around us that you're competing over the one thing that people will never get back in their lives, which is time. So if you want to get that time and be memorable and people will, um, resonate with the idea would resonate with them.

You have to, to play it and deliver it in a way that it's interesting. Or different or personal. There's so many levels and, and different manners that you can do that. But just to give them a list, it's not working. Part of the things that I do, I do consultancy and I also do workshops. And in my storytelling workshop, I always start with something very creative and interactive.

And I just read a list of things. I'll just say, this is a, I don't know, my kid, or this is my teacher who left a voice message, and these are the words. And I read. Twenty words. Then I stop and I ask my participants to tell me the words. What do you, what do you remember? What did you pick up? And they hardly come up...

Hello, useful content creators, and thank you for joining me this week on the podcast. And this week we don't have any fancy intros, but I do want to give you some reminders. Now, if you're watching this on LinkedIn or Facebook or YouTube, you're going to see the video part of the content, but this content also comes in audio only on Spotify and on Apple Podcasts.

All you have to do is search for useful content and you'll find me there. If you're into that, I normally would listen to podcasts while I exercise or while I'm doing some chore. I will listen to it in my ear when I can't look at it. And the audio is just as good as the video, except of course you have no visuals.

So if you prefer that one, that is one way you can engage with the podcast as well. And I want to thank you all for being faithful listeners. We're coming up on to the end of season two and approaching 50 episodes, which is going to be a great achievement. I have some great people coming up in the future that I'm booking right now, and that's going to be very exciting when we get there. but on this episode of the podcast, we're going to be talking with content coach, Lindsay Burgess. And she's going to teach us how to create content that leads to sales without using discovery calls.

Asking people to buy

or sending any DMS. And if you have ever been on LinkedIn or Instagram or any place that allows you to DM people, you know, how DMS can become very, very annoying. So it's going to be a great episode. We get into it and I hope you enjoy this week's podcast. Let's make useful content.

Any

Hello and welcome to useful content. And today we have a brand new teacher in our useful content classroom, Lindsey Burgess. Hi, Lindsay,

Hello. Thank you so much for having me on today. 

it's good to have you on Lindsay. And, um, the reason you're on today is because our good friend, Candice recommended that you be on the show. Normally when I have a podcast interview or conversation, I send a form and at the bottom of the form, it says, who would you recommend to be on the show? And she recommended you.

So that's a great way to get to meet somebody and to have them in your space talking about important things at the same time.

Yes. I love Candace. She's amazing. Um, it's just incredible how I met her on Instagram and how powerful social media can be. Uh, we're in two different parts of the world and I just feel so blessed and honored to know her. 

Yeah, she's great. And the episode is yet to be released, but that episode was a great episode as well. So I can't wait to release it. Uh, but let's find out more about you. What could you tell the people what you do and how you help your clients? Make useful content.

Absolutely. So for those who don't know me, I go by my, my name is Lindsey, but I go by content.

coach, Lindsey on Instagram, and I focus on marketing as I've been doing it for almost eight years now, uh, actually a little over eight years showing my age here, but, um, it's, it's really been.

interesting because the approach that I take is for service based business owners to learn how to attract their ready to invest clients. So this is someone who is actively already looking for solutions, which makes sales a lot easier. So when I help my clients, it's typically through their content, through their messaging and through their marketing.

So those three components together really help them to create cohesive strategies. So we do that pretty much in a customized way. So I asked them a series of questions. I just ask as many as I can. And some of them might seem irrelevant, but it all comes together in the end so that I get to know more about their core values.

And then through tha...

ften we feel when we put content on social media it's like throwing a bottle into the ocean. We don't know if people are going to see it or not. But at its best, we can create reach through social media that will bring people to our content and hopefully they'll subscribe to it. That's a higher emotional connection because now people in a virtual way have raised their hand and said, I love what you're doing.

I want to hear more. 

This is Mark Schaefer, a globally recognized author, keynote speaker, futurist, and business consultant who authors one of the top five marketing blogs in the world. Mark has written 10 bestselling books, has served global clients including Pfizer, Cisco, Dell, Adidas, and the U. S. Air Force, and has become one of the global authorities on all things marketing.

And on this episode of Useful Content, Mark and I are going to talk about brand building and community and his latest book, Belonging to the Brand. Why community is the last great marketing strategy. We talk about how building a brand can draw community towards you. 

Oreo is the most popular cookie in the world, but it's a copycat. There was an original brand a hundred years ago called Hydrox It's still kind of around. Oreo literally copied it! But nobody's heard of Hydrox because Oreo has built a brand. 

Three ways in which building a community can benefit your company brand.

When people become friends in a community, that emotion and goodwill transfers to the brand. It's the highest emotional connection possible. And yet most companies aren't really exploring that. 

And we get a unique insight into how Mark successfully runs his own online community. 

the goal of my leadership in my community is there's really three things. Number one, 

Let's make useful content. 

Hello and welcome to useful content. And today we have a community building teacher, in our useful content classroom. Mark Schaefer, welcome, Mark,

I am delighted to be with you. You and I have sort of circled each other on social media for a long time, so I'm glad that we're meeting face to face here today.

Mark, you have been quite influential in my developmental process. I've read or listened to, cause I do audio books a lot of times, at least three of your books, and I'm kind of in the middle of getting through belonging to the brand, which we are talking about today. But before we dive into that, could you share with the people a little bit about who you are and how you help your community and your clients make useful content?

Sure. Well, uh, I spent most of my career in in the corporate world and really was a bit of a digital pioneer in the early days of of the Internet. And, uh, about 15 or 16 years ago, I started my own company. and started to blog and the blog sort of got some attention and that led to me writing books. I've now written 10 books and uh, the success of the books led to speaking.

That's where I make most of my money today and I've also done consulting, continue to do consulting and I teach at Rutgers University. In terms of My contribution to helping people create content, you know, I think hopefully I set a good example where I think I'm, I'm, I'm bold. My definition of bold is, um, is that I'm honest.

Uh, and, and courageous because it takes some courage to be honest. I don't really have a specific agenda. I'm not trying to, like, sell people on on anything. So, um, yeah, I try to set a good example through my content. I try to teach through my content and literally I do teach content marketing as a strategy at the university.

I think the way in which you approach how you interact with people is also very encouraging because a lot of times you would find that,...

Hello, useful content creators today on the podcast. We're going to be taking a detailed look. A customer interviews. And to help us with that, we'll be talking with marketing coach and social entrepreneur, Callum Armstrong,

Callum, and I had a great conversation and he shared his process on conducting successful customer interviews.

including understanding the purpose,

identifying the right audience, setting up the mechanics,

and then using the data for content creation.

This will be a very useful episode for any small business who wants to attempt to conduct customer interviews for themselves. So enjoy the conversation, and let's make useful content.

Any

Hello, and welcome to the useful content podcast. And today we have a new teacher in our useful content classroom, Callum. Armstrong. Hi Callum.

Hello, Juma. Thank you so much for having me here.

Yeah, it's good to have you on Callum. Um, I know we discovered each other on matchmaker. fm for all the people who want to know that is a podcast, a matching website with a very funny name. Uh, and so I know you reached out to me and, uh, you know, and we kind of had booked this for a while. So it's, it's really great to have you inside to talk about, uh, content marketing and customer interviews. So could you please tell the people. Uh, what you do and how you help your clients make useful content.

Yeah, definitely. So I'm really excited to talk about our customer interviews, but my background in content marketing started about six years ago. I. Had this vision to use business to bring more resources to the environment. I've been through a various iterations of different businesses over the last few years.

Um, and that, that evolved from creating content for clients as a freelancer, uh, blogs, websites, emails, newsletters, that kind of thing into a content marketing agency. We built a team around the COVID lockdowns of 2020 up until about mid 2022. And since then I've been a coach. So I help B2B businesses to, to, uh, turn their websites into 24 seven customer getting machines and also use those skills to help environmental projects to get more awareness and more airtime so that they can make a bigger impact because you need to be known before people can care and take action.

Right. So you run a content marketing agency and then you transition to, to coaching. Why the transition? What was the, what was inside of there that made you transition?

Well, there are a few reasons. Uh, the first one was knowing where your identity is, your place in the world. Um, I found that in running the agency, I've got a lot more joy out of coaching my team of writers on how to perform doing strategy with clients, training the client staff, then actually delivering the work.

And obviously the work was great, but part of it was where do I get joy? The other part was about setting up foundations for longevity. One of my promises as an agency owner was we will set up your business and your marketing so that if we keep working together for a long term, great. But if, if we stop working together at any point, you're set up for the future.

And I felt that when we got results for clients, the scope would grow and grow and grow as we got better and better results. And that would mean that we will become very reliant on the client and the client will become very reliant on us. It's sort of too much of a good thing. And I saw that the logical ending here is, is not an ending that I want.

And if I can focus more on building the capabilities of clients, businesses, Then it's just a lot more resilient, long term for the clients. And I get a lot more joy out of building people's capabilities and then, and seeing them thrive rather than owning the whole process myself. So I guess that's in a...