stand out

You know it’s been more than 20 years now that I have been “self-employed.”

A lot has changed, for instance when I first started there was no Facebook or Twitter, in fact it was amazing if as a small company or solopreneur you had any kind of a functional website.

I had no idea what I was doing, so I did like everyone else, I put up posters in the gym, I printed brochures and business cards.

And I had no customers, in fact over the first few years I’d bounce between jobs trying to make ends meet in hopes that sometimes I could take up personal training full time.

I didn’t know anything about email marketing, I guess that existed back then but it wasn’t something I knew about.

But somehow, I still stumbled upon the importance of content.

Soon my brochures became articles that I’d leave at coffee shops, etc.

From there someone put it in my head to reach out to the paper and see if they’d give me a column, I did so relentlessly until they finally said yes.

That lead to a couple random contacts from people asking if I’d come present to small groups in their offices, which low and behold lead to customers.

From there I began to try to speak more, and over time my website became more and more cluttered with articles and resources I developed and posted for people.

Kind of by accident for a long time in my city of then 70,000+ people I was “the fitness guy” if you wanted to get in shape or learn how to you sought me out.

As time has went on this hasn’t changed, except that it’s easier to reach more people faster and harder to keep up.

In fact it’s almost too easy to reach people now, so easy that we are inundated with more content than ever before.

And there are more places to post and deliver your message than ever before (Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, Instagram, Email, Website, etc.)

Just thinking about it is exhausting and a daunting task, and I’ll be the first to admit I find it easy to burn out.

And with that has come some hard lessons.

Content truly is king, when you lose your focus, burnout or become inconsistent with your content your business will suffer, whether that’s a little or a lot only you will know but it happens…without fail.

Truly that should be obvious, I mean there’s just so much now, so many businesses, services like yours, people doing basically what you’re doing.

It becomes harder and harder to differentiate yourself except that only you can be you, and people want to buy “you,” I want to buy you.

What you have to say is important, what you have to give is golden.

Only first, define who is the ideal person for your message. Know their age, what they like, the clothes they wear, the places the hang out, the things they like to do, the products they buy and more.

Craft an image of that person that you can “speak to” every time you step in front of a camera, add text to a page or through whatever means of deliver.

My challenge to you is from today forward try to post something every single day, but don’t get spread to thin trying to service all the mediums.

Focus on your blog (which also goes to your email list), your Instagram account (which also goes to your Facebook page) and if you have a private group for your clients that rounds out the third.

If you can commit to this every day, even 2 posts a week in each of those places (take Sunday’s off or give one channel bonus attention) in time will have a significant impact.

Total truth, I find generating new content very tough to do each day, and I prefer to write which seems to take the most time for me, but what I see from my mentors is like anything else this is a muscle, work it out and it will get stronger.

In time try to increase your frequency to each channel once per day, I can do it, you can do it.

Here’s some tips and tools I use to help you get started:

• Spend 30 minutes brainstorming topics you could talk about confidently with no preparation for 10 minutes. Set a goal for 10, trust me you will easily come up with 20. Use this list each day you’re stuck for an idea what to write on/talk about, even using the same ideas over you’ll share new things.
• A great little app I’ve found I like for generating Memes for blog post images and social media posts is called “Typorama.”
• For Instagram I always use the “Hashtagger” app for my hashtags posted in the first comment and have had good success with this.

Finally remember, and this is the tough one for me, your content doesn’t need to be perfect, it just needs to be you, authentic and come from the heart. If you really find yourself stuck for a day, take the day off instead take those 30 minutes to go read your current professional development read I find this helps me get back to creativity sooner.

Oh and maybe one last weird suggestion that truly does help me, I’ve fallen in love with a supplement from Perfect Sports called Onset, a blend of Agmatine Sulfate and NAC etc that helps with focus, I find it has a tremendous impact for me when it comes to creative tasks.