Useful Creator

Hello and welcome to the Useful Content Podcast. I am Juma Bannister. I am your host and the teacher in the Useful Content Classroom today. And today we have a special episode, a bit of a different episode. You know, I'm a big believer of building things in public.

And from time to time, I will have ideas and I want to share them. And this time, what I did... Is I did a live show which is unusual for me these days because I do my live shows recorded And I have them played back, but this time I was on live on LinkedIn and two other platforms, Facebook and YouTube sharing these thoughts I've been having.

And the thoughts I've been having are some thoughts about how every single business owner should approach content. And it revolves around affirmations or things people need to say to themselves. before they attempt and while they are making content. And so these are 12 affirmations for content success.

And I think in the video I say of content success, either way, it means the same thing and is a great, great live show I've edited for you for the podcast. Please enjoy. Tell me what you think. Here we go.

So good morning, everyone. Thank you for jumping on and joining me as I share these 12 affirmations for content success. The 12 affirmations for content success. Now, uh, let me tell you the origin of this real quick so that you can understand why this thing exists and why I feel like I need to share it.

So over the last few years of making content and being able to share content with people and help them. I've noticed some very specific things that come up over and over again. Uh, when I talk with people in private consultations, when I talk with people in the comments of my content, when I scour other people's content, I noticed some particular trends.

And this is specific to people who run businesses, who own businesses and who wants to be better at the thing that they do. Everyone wants to make content. Many people, when they're first starting off. have a very hard time actually getting into the habit, the practice and getting good at creating content.

Everyone is telling you to make content. No one is telling you exactly. How? So the encouragement is great, but then you have to think about what are the standards behind the encouraging things that you encounter when you're creating content and how are you as a business owner are going to navigate those things in order to create content in the most efficient way?

What are the standards? What are the things that you can follow? in order to be a good content creator and come out on the other side of this journey of content creation with results, not just talking about how it makes you feel, but you actually want results after that. And so the 12 affirmations of content success is 12.

Now it may change. And this may, as I said, may become a bigger piece of content. The 12 affirmations of content success is designed to calibrate your mind, to shift your mentality as a business owner, as a CEO, as anybody who is inside of making content so that you know that these are the things that I must stay within.

These are the guardrails for me as I create. These are the things I must always reference if I want to make content well and be successful at it. And I think people need these affirmations because It really is something that is not always said and affirmation is something that affirms your position that you can put it up on your wall.

You can, you can look at it, you can read it, and it's something that you should read weekly and every day it will encourage you to do the right thing. So you affirm these things so that you can create content correctly. So it's not a how to, it's not technical advice. It is something that if you look at it, it will shift your mentality.

And so let's get into the 12 affirmations o...

The buzzwords of personal branding have exploded in recent years. But if you're someone who uses LinkedIn as your main platform, how do you build a personal brand that isn't just fluff? What are some of the important things you need to consider to position yourself correctly? Today in our lesson, we're going to answer those questions and look at some of the other practical things you need to know

that will allow you to put yourself out there with a solid personal brand. 

Hello and welcome to the Useful Content Podcast, and today we have a brand new teacher in the useful content classroom. Michelle B. Griffin. Hi Michelle.

Hello. It's so good to be here. Thank you for having me.

Yeah, it's, it's great to have you. has been a long time coming. We met on LinkedIn and I was on your podcast all of two years ago.

Yes. That seems like forever, doesn't it?

Yeah, and I think at that time we were talking about the colors. You know, I wear red, you wear yellow, and and so

Here we still are yellow and red,

yeah, we still are

Consistency.

consistency. And that's a good, a good segue because today we're gonna talk about branding. Because you are a branding expert. What type of branding do you specialize in, Michelle?

Oh, thank you for asking. Yeah, so I call myself the brand therapist, and I really work with personal brands, entrepreneurs, industry experts, who are just really ready to stand out, step out, stand apart as leaders in their space, but they just need . Someone to help 'em pull it out and then to show 'em the way.

So as a brand therapist, I had this seven step visibility branding framework called Brand, g p S, much like A G P S, that points us to where we wanna go. It helps you build a brand that takes you places and helps you own your future, because that's what I'm really about. Put yourself out there, build that brand and own that future.

And so and so brand g p s is your thing, is trademarked it's special. How did you come up with brand G P S? What was that process like?

It is a process that got me unstuck and outta my job, which I was stuck for five years, wanting to get out to, I had a burning desire to start my brand consultancy, but I was just, as I say, living in professional clarity prison. I was, look, I didn't really know the ways I was consuming content courses, credentials, and I should have been out there building my brand 

but I, I spoke at this conference, this local event, and I wrote this entire presentation back then. It was called, own Your Message, how to Step Out and Stand Apart in Your Industry. And then I realized I could apply it to myself. Those were the exact roadmap and lo and behold, six weeks later, I. Resigned for my job or put the resignation letter in and didn't leave till six months later.

But it put me on the path. And now I'm here to teach people and show them the way, get them unstuck and then get them on their way. Because I know, as we're gonna talk about today, we all have a message. We all have expertise that needs to be out there, that needs to be shared. 'cause you're gonna be able to impact someone and even just one person, but obviously way more people when you, than when you stay silent and stuck.

And that's a good thing because we are gonna talk about, people owning their expertise and sharing knowledge through original content so that they can become sought after in their, industry.

So let's, let's talk about that a little bit. Why the term unstuck in particular.

Because I feel, and I know firsthand that all have something to share, but we are just way too close to ourselves. You know, we have too many ideas. We have that . Crazy imposter syndrome, doubt what we as humans are wired to hav...

Hello, and welcome to the useful content podcast. And today we're going to be talking about what the customer journey is and how you can use videos to take your customer from not knowing who you are. all the way to being a loyal buyer and advocate for your products and services. Here we go.

I am Juma Bannister. I am your host. And today I am your teacher in the useful content. Classroom. Now, if you run a business, you know that everyone who buys something from you at some point did not know your product or service existed.

So they may have a need, but they are ignorant that you could help. With that need. Now when they finally decide to buy from you, if the product or service that you are offering meets their needs at the price that they are willing to pay and is given with great service obviously, or in other words they get value from that product or service, then two things happen.

first thing that happens is that when they need that particular product or service, again, they will continue to buy from you because you've provided them with great service. You've given them value for their money and you've continued to show them that you are someone who they can trust in order to get what they need to solve the problems that they have.

And so they become a loyal customer based on that experience that they have had with you. The second thing that happens is that they most likely will not keep that good experience to themselves. If they have friends or family who need a similar type of service, or even sometimes the general public who need a similar service, they will be happy to share their experience because it has been a good one and recommend you so that they will become an advocate on your behalf.

They will share the experience that they've had with your business and they will advocate for your services because they have had such a great experience. So if they are friends and family, they'll talk to them directly. And that is something that you as a business owner, you don't get to see, but it is quite possible. That they may also leave a public review, which you will get to see, they may rate you five stars. And then they may share the reason why they love the service, or they may even create something we call. user generated content, which is basically when a customer likes your service so much that they create their own content, whether that is text or video, a lot of time it comes across as video on how great your product or your service was or how they had a positive experience with your product or service. now having a loyal customer who privately advocates on your behalf, who recommends your service to others and who publicly endorses you and may even make content about how great your services is the ultimate customer. To have

these are the types of customers we should be aiming to create as business. owners. But here's the thing. A customer does not just end up there. A customer does not just end up as someone who is a repeat buyer and who shares their good experiences they have had with you. There is a process in between them not knowing that your service or your product exists, moving all the way down to being a loyal customer and advocate for your business.

And that something is called the customer. Journey. And that's what we want to talk about today because the content you create impacts the customer journey.

So let me explain further and let's think about it. Another way, your ideal customer, the person who you would love to buy from you has hundreds, thousands, and sometimes even millions of options that they may not know about. What works in your benefit is that most of these options, the majority of these options are positioned badly in the market, which means that they don't know who they are.

So they come across as. Generic and they look and sound the same as everyone...

Many marketing experts say building small online communities is the future of marketing. And we all know that LinkedIn is the platform of choice for business. Today in our lesson we're going to marry those two things and look at how to build an online LinkedIn community. We're going to look at how you build and monetize your community and the three essential steps to get you there.

Teaching you to make useful content so that you can build long term relationships with the people That matter to your business.

Hello and welcome to the useful content podcast. And today we have a brand new teacher. May I say a professor in the useful content classroom, John Espirian. Hi, John. Thank you very much. That's a lovely description, Juma. Thank you for having me on the show. Delighted to be here. So I've been looking at your work for a very long time and we know each other from LinkedIn.

You have one of the, the deepest set of technical LinkedIn content from your website to the newsletter to Espresso to the content you share on LinkedIn. How have you been able to gather? I I'm amazed. I, you know, I'm kind of at a loss for words. I'm going to, I'm amazed at how, how have you been able to gather all that content over the years?

Cause everything is so well connected and laid out and cataloged. Well, I appreciate that. Thank you. Uh, I think it's mostly longevity. I've been blogging regularly since 2016. So, you know, when you've been doing something for, for several years, it becomes easier to, for it all to compound. I call it a content estate, and I'm paying into that estate every time to build the interest in it.

And, um, I've just been really obsessed with learning how LinkedIn works for many years. So I've. I'm focused on being known for that topic and it means I can go really deep with my research and I know what my audience wants and that's what I've been building on my website and then putting out through my LinkedIn posts and through my email list and now through my paid community.

So I guess it pays to focus on one thing for a very long time. You end up building a really big body of work. Yeah, it's a fantastic body of work. I mean, you could just basically ask any question and it can be answered by doing a simple search. I love the fact that that was the case. And today we're going to talk a bit about building a personal brand and trust.

And clearly that body of work is reflecting the fact that you've taken time to build this, uh, this personal brand in your own explanation. What is a personal brand? A personal brand is the set of thoughts and feelings that are associated with either the, I think either the perception or the actual experience of dealing with a person or an organization.

So it's what you think and what you feel about what a person is going to be like, and then what they're actually like when you deal with them. All of that makes the personal brand. So it's not just what people say about you when you're out of the room, but actually when you're in the room and you experienced that and you come away with a feeling that captures what the personal brand is.

For some people, it's really brash and machine gun and right in your face and really energetic. And for other people, it's really laid back. It's really thoughtful, knowledgeable, and you know, there are a million different types of personal brand out there. Mine is really centered around this idea of being relentlessly helpful, which you will have read about in my book, I know.

And so I try and focus everything on that idea. So I think, what does it mean to be relentlessly helpful? And I try and show that in everything I do. So for example, my content is not going to be full of ads and lots of rambling stuff. I want to help you and get out of your wa...

Building a relationship with the people that matter to your business is extremely important.

And in today's lesson, we're going to look at some of the ways you can do that with content marketing.

Why content marketing is like dating and how you could take someone from not knowing you at all to ultimately buying your product or service.

Here we go.

Hello and welcome to the Useful Content Podcast, and today we have a new teacher in the useful content classroom. Nancy Nunguri. Hi Nancy.

Hi. Hi Juma.

So Nancy, we, we actually met. On the podcast collaboration Facebook group I had put out a call for, for guests, and somehow you turned up.

When you saw the, post, what did you think?

I was

intrigued by the fact that you asked for us to have something that we can teach. caught my attention that you need to have something tangible or something that you already are using that you can teach in your class. And I think the fact that it sounded like class, it wasn't just like, Come on my podcast and talk about anything that also fascinated me, and I'm very interested in content. All things, you know, content marketing and the name of your podcast, useful content that also caught my attention.

I like that you pointed out the teaching part. 'cause that was one deliberate choice that I made about how I wanted to structure the podcast. And I know you're a content person because you once owned a bookstore. How happen come about?

How did that come about? Well, I'm an immigrant, so I am originally born and raised in Kenya, East Africa. And I've been in Germany for about over 25 years with some interruptions. When I first moved here, I was in the fashion industry and for a while, and then had a back injury, so, I was not able to continue working in that job anymore.

So when I was at home spending a lot of time just recovering from the back injury, I read lot and back then I on, I could only get books like in the library. They have a very

small selection of English books and so I quickly out of all the English books there were for me to read from our local library because TV was in German.

And you know, I loved to read anyway. And so during that time is I thought what if I opened a bookshop with English books and so I'm sure I'm not the only one who has this problem. So that's how the came to be. It did take a while before that vision became reality, but I believe within less than two years, then I opened the bookshop. 

That's, that's a great story. 

Today we are talking about, how to build strong customer relationships with content marketing. And the way you describe it for yourself is content marketing is like dating Could you tell us why you look at it that way and why you've developed that view of content marketing?

Here's the thing. I think, um, any business, whether we are from the consumer side or from, the ones who are, creating, you know, human beings, are cautious about something. We like buying things, but we don't really like being sold to. So there needs to be some kind of a relation. Either somebody told us about the product or we've been seeing it, we got some kind of information. And so I see content. Basically when somebody buys from you, there's a kind of conversion, like with dating, you get know somebody first. You know the name. You see them from afar. You think, oh, I think I like this person. There's some attraction. Then you get to know each other. Hey, what's your name?

Can we exchange contacts? And then you exchange words. You're having conversations and content. The way I see it is essentially having conversations. With your audience, you know, not just telling them, buy my stuff, but adding value, just like in dating, you add value to each other a...

Hello and welcome to the Useful Content Podcast and today's podcast is going to be slightly different. So what we're going to hear and look at today is a recording from a pop up live stream. I did with one of my favorite creators to live stream with Sri Mahabir.

She's a video coach and a video marketing producer. So we got on the stream together to talk about live streaming and about live streaming strategy and the conversation went so well that I asked her to send me the recording and then I just cut the recording down so that you can hear her asking me questions and I'm responding to that. Some of the live streaming things that you will need to know in order to get started and in order to have a co host and some of the other practical things surrounding live streaming. I think it'll be a very good episode and you'll learn a whole lot and to help us along what I've done is that after I get asked the question by Sri and I respond to the question I'll add in some more information just to make it a little more robust.

So enjoy today's lesson in the useful content classroom about Live streaming. Here we go.

So I want to ask you, like, why did you start adding live streaming to your strategy?

So at the time when the live streaming came about, of course most people were still inside. It was that time of our life where everyone had to stay inside for the most part. and one of the best ways that we could have connected with people was by live streaming because we couldn't go out in person to have these real time interactions.

And so live streaming had developed as a tool rapidly in that period. And I felt based on our content strategy, it was important to add it so that we could have real time interactions and build community and relationships with the people who were important to us and with people in our peer group and our ideal client as well to come and look at what we were sharing and the, how tos, tips, tricks, strategies.

Live and because it was such a big community building tool and a big interaction tool, we kept it as a part of our content strategy. And so now that's the way we work it into the overall marketing.

so obviously what I'm referring to here is the pandemic and the fact that we were inside and of course at that time everyone had a lot of extra time on their hands to focus on things they could do remotely and it was a good time to test out live streaming for us.

it turns out that that was a really great idea that it got us a lot of mileage and we even won some business. directly from the live streams and the format of the live stream I was doing at that time was an interview live stream. So it's this very same show. It used to be called the useful content creation show and it was very visual.

It was focused on looking at the actual content. Of the individuals and so it was hard to turn that into an audio podcast because it was basically Leveraging looking at content particularly video content With the person in the studio and there was a really nice structure to it And maybe one day i'll go through the exact structure one of the segments included a new short tutorial, whether that was a piece of equipment, whether that was a method, whether that was a lighting tutorial, something to help people practically produce video content or some other type of content. And so during that time the live stream really developed. It got a massive following as far as I was concerned starting from zero and we developed a language around the live stream So the reason I have a bulb here and for those who are listening to the audio You can't see my studio. There's a bulb shining behind me a neon sign of a bulb The reason I got that bulb because part of the language was Throw your bulbs up and people used to spam bulbs in the comments and that meant we were shining light On how...

Juma Bannister: So short form content is a big deal. Every major social media platform allows for it and in some cases prefers it.

But what is the best way to use short form video? And what's some of the practical things that you should know in order to get the maximum benefit out of using short form video content?

Today in our lesson, we're going to answer those questions and explore some other practical things that you should know in order to get the most benefit out of using short form video content.

Juma Bannister: Hello and welcome to the Useful Content Podcast. I am your host, Juma Banister, and today we have a new teacher in the useful content classroom. Alex Minor.

Alex Minor: How's it going?

Juma Bannister: going well, Alex and we are by no means strangers you were on my previous version of the show and that went really well. So now you're back

So, Alex, tell us a bit about who you are and your journey to creating useful content.

Alex Minor: Well, I live in the. Infamous state of Florida in the United States, and I run a company called Eye Am Media. We're a video marketing and podcasting agency, and the way that I got here is kind of a long winding road, but suffice it to say I've, I've been a long, a lifelong creator. Just the method of creation has changed over time.

First it was writing, then it was music. Now it's the videos and, you know, I have a particular set of skills and, you know, to some folks that makes me valuable and I try to give as much value as I can and just, you know, use the things that I've learned to help other folks benefit.

Juma Bannister: Excellent. Excellent, excellent, I didn't know, I didn't realize that you had added on podcasting to your service offerings. That was all the way back in 2020?

Alex Minor: I think it started more towards the end of 2020 or maybe early in 2021, and it, and it just came from client demand. I had one client who . You know, approached us and asked, Hey, can you help us create a video podcast? This was a client that we had already done previous video work with, and we were like, yeah, we can do that.

And so we helped them launch their, their podcast and then, you know, another contact referred somebody to me because someone had approached them to help. Do a video podcast and they were actually getting out of video production and more into just doing coaching. And so they referred that person to me and that person's been a client for probably like two, three years now.

So it's, it's been good. It's been good. And it's really just been the demand of the market and then us having those video skills that other podcast agencies lack or, you know, didn't have the capacity to handle. Because, you know, a lot of people still think of podcasts as a audio format, but it's moving more and more.

Into the video realm or into the multimedia realm where you know, just having a audio podcast, it can be enough. But if you're trying to grow quickly and you're trying to increase your reach and increase your impact, then the video component is really important.

Juma Bannister: Yeah. So would you consider yourself uh, still a video first agency?

Alex Minor: Oh yeah, definitely. And, and when I say we're, you know, a podcast agency now, it's a specifically video podcasting. I'm, I've tossed around the idea of producing audio podcasts, but I'm just not interested. The technical part isn't a, isn't a challenge. It's just really when it comes to being able to give people a service that'...

Is this podcast for you? Should you follow and listen to new episodes every 2 weeks? In this first official episode, I give a deep dive on the Useful Content Podcast. Why it exists, what is the mission, the definition of Useful Content, who this podcast is for and the types of topics we're going to cover, every time you listen to the podcast. I even describe a bit of the structure of the podcast for those who want to geek out on that.

All in all this is a great primer episode if you want to know if this podcast is a fit for you.

Everyone should listen.

Produced by Relate Studios:

Music by Relate Studios

Host: Juma Bannister

Should you get professional headshots? I'm glad you asked. YES YOU SHOULD. Today on this live stream we'll tell you why.

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