Welcome to another enlightening episode of Stark Raving Entrepreneurs!
Today, we’re diving deep into a critical topic: “Why Content Creators Fail – How To Change.”
Join us as we uncover the common pitfalls that many content entrepreneurs face and provide actionable strategies to ensure your content creation not only survives but thrives.
In this episode, we discuss the importance of starting with clarity and having a well-defined direction for your content business.
We also emphasize the necessity of understanding your audience, consistently creating high-quality content, and using AI tools effectively for research.
Furthermore, you’ll learn why you shouldn’t wait for perfection but instead, start now and continuously refine your efforts.
Hear about practical tips for maintaining focus, scheduling content creation, and engaging authentically with your audience.
Plus, discover why managing creative blocks, leveraging analytics, and understanding algorithms are indispensable tools for success.
Towards the end, we have a special gift for you – a treasure trove of AI tools that can elevate your content creation process.
So, buckle up and get ready to transform your content game with insights on this episode of Stark Raving Entrepreneurs! ???
Recommended AI tools for business growth.
http://AItools4biz.com
Here’s a link to the video:
https://youtu.be/PPV-bFdtimE
Listen to this & other episodes on our podcast
https://bit.ly/sre_podcast
Here are some timestamps that can be useful for you:
- [00:01:12] Beginning with the End in Mind
- Gina discusses the importance of starting with a clear direction and understanding the problem you solve for your audience.
- [00:02:38] Understanding Your Audience
- Terry emphasizes the need to deeply understand your audience and leverage AI tools for effective research.
- [00:04:15] Consistent Content Creation
- Gina talks about the necessity of regular content creation and repurposing content across various formats.
- [00:05:23] Avoiding Perfectionism
- Gina highlights how waiting for everything to be perfect can lead to failure, urging listeners to start creating and refine along the way.
- [00:09:36] Earning Recurring Revenue
- Gina explains the importance of creating recurring revenue through coaching programs and done-for-you services.
- [00:14:41] Engaging Authentically
- Terry stresses the importance of authentic engagement with your audience and the advantages it holds over AI.
- [00:16:06] Analyzing Weekly Analytics
- Gina suggests scheduling time every week to review analytics, understand engagement, and refine content strategies accordingly.
These timestamps should give you a good overview of the key points discussed in this episode.
I’m studying the Spanish language and loving it! If you would like a summary of this episode in Spanish, here’s a goodie for you:
En este episodio de “Stark Raving Entrepreneurs,” titulado “Por qué fallan los creadores de contenido y cómo cambiarlo,” los presentadores Gina Carr y Terry Brock discuten las razones comunes por las cuales muchos emprendedores de contenido fracasan y ofrecen estrategias para evitar estos errores.
Puntos clave abordados:
Claridad y Dirección
: La falta de una visión clara y un objetivo definido resulta en la dispersión y falta de enfoque en la creación de contenido.
Entendimiento de la Audiencia
: Muchos creadores no hacen suficiente investigación para entender lo que su audiencia realmente quiere. Recomiendan usar herramientas de IA como ChatGPT para realizar esta investigación.
Consistencia en la Creación de Contenido
: Es crucial crear contenido de manera consistente y encontrar formas de reutilizarlo en varios formatos.
Entrega y Calidad del Contenido
: La entrega y calidad del contenido deben ser altas para destacar entre la multitud.
Acción y Perfección
: En lugar de esperar a que todo sea perfecto, es importante empezar e ir mejorando con el tiempo.
Proposiciones de Valor y Pruebas
: Utilizar conceptos como el “producto mínimo viable” para probar ideas y asegurarse de que hay un mercado dispuesto a pagar.
Ingresos Recurrentes
: Buscar formas de generar ingresos recurrentes a través de programas de coaching o servicios de “done for you”.
Planificación y Análisis
: Establecer una planificación de contenido bien estructurada, mantener registros de lo que funciona y analizar regularmente las métricas y algoritmos de las plataformas.
El episodio concluye con una invitación a los oyentes a que compartan sus estrategias de éxito en la creación de contenido y a que visiten la página web del podcast para más recursos y herramientas, incluyendo recomendaciones sobre herramientas de IA para negocios.
Además, se anima a los oyentes a suscribirse, compartir y dejar comentarios para mantener una interacción valiosa y continua con los creadores del podcast.
Here’s a transcript of this episode for your convenience:
Terry Brock [00:00:00]:
Being a content entrepreneur means you’re creating audio or video or text and pictures. You’re doing something to help people understand about your business. They see that and the content that you create converts into cash. That’s critical. What we talk about here at Stark Raving Entrepreneurs. But speaking of that, the stark truth is that many content entrepreneurs fail, and we’re gonna show you in this video how to avoid that. I’m Terry Brock, and I’m joined by Gina Carr, my partner in this venture to help you. Gina, what are your thoughts on being a content entrepreneur?
Gina Carr [00:00:31]:
Well, it’s certainly something that is important, and it’s a great way for people who have expertise or passion in a specific area to get their message out into the world and to make money doing so, which is just amazing thing that’s been happening over the last few years and is really coming into its own, this whole thought of not just a content creator, but a content entrepreneur that makes your living by creating content.
Terry Brock [00:00:56]:
Yeah. I think that’s the key that you’re you out there, you’re creating content, and this is how you want to earn a living. So we’re gonna give you some of the specific steps that you can get into, and we’ve got a very nice gift for you at the end. So stay tuned with the rest of this. We’ve got something that can really help you in many, many ways.
Gina Carr [00:01:12]:
Now over the years, we’ve worked with 100 of content entrepreneurs, and we’ve seen what works and what doesn’t work. So today, we’re gonna share with you some of the best tips and strategies that we’ve picked up, and let’s get right into it. So some of the common reasons for failure, I believe one of the main main ones is that people don’t begin with the end in mind, as Stephen Covey told us. They start creating this part of kind of content, and then they start doing this kind of content, and they don’t have this overall direction that I need to be headed in a specific direction. You need to get a lot of clarity on who you serve and the problem that you solve with your content entrepreneur business and how you’re going to make money. So as you’re creating content, it’s not that every piece of content goes directly to asking someone to buy something, but it is with that end in mind that you create your content and get it out into the world.
Terry Brock [00:02:10]:
Gina, I’d have to agree with you on that. I think that’s very important that you get that out there. And I think another thing that really plagues a lot of the people that fail in content creation is they have very poor audience understanding. They don’t, know exactly what people are looking for. They think, hey. I’ve got a nifty groovy idea. Boy, this is really cool. But the audience is going, we don’t care about that because, hey, when you produce content, you’re competing with, well, let’s see, everybody on the Internet, all the messages that are out there.
Terry Brock [00:02:38]:
So what you wanna do is you wanna come up with something that people are really looking for. You might think, well, Terry, how do I find that out? Well, the way you find it out is you ask. You ask them and you do your research. Our friend Brian Fanzo talks about doing your own damn research, and I think he is so right. Hi, Brian. Hope you enjoy this, but, there’s a lot of wisdom in that statement. You gotta look at what you’re doing and how to do it. Now doing that research today, you can use AI tools.
Terry Brock [00:03:04]:
The AI tools give you the ability to go out there and track here’s what people are looking for, here’s what they’re not. Using chat GPT, very important for that. I’d recommend using the 4 o version of it right now. We talk about that in our Stark Raving Entrepreneurs program. Also, perplexity, a very good one, and one that we use and love a lot through perplexity is called Claude. And there’s a component of that called SONET. Now if you don’t understand that, that’s okay. We got other videos to help you on this, and you can drop us a note and ask on that.
Terry Brock [00:03:32]:
But these are what you wanna do. Do your research and use AI tools to get the right answers.
Gina Carr [00:03:38]:
Well, one of the ways that you can do that is you need to have consistent content creation. So lacking this consistent content creation is definitely one of the big mistakes that we see people making. And so as you have that clarity on who you serve and the problem that you solve, and what is their urgent need that you can can help them with, You wanna create videos. You wanna create audios like we’re doing right now. We’re creating a video. We’ll pull the audio from this. We’ll pull some text from this and repurpose that, and then we’ll create some images. So video, audio, images, and text, and you can certainly use AI to supplement what you’re doing.
Gina Carr [00:04:15]:
It’s never been easier to create content using AI and using your own ideas and merging the 2.
Terry Brock [00:04:23]:
Yeah. You know something, Gina, as you mentioned that, that reminds me. A lot of times when people say, oh, it’s so easy now, but they’re producing poor content. And they’re doing it because, number 1, like we said, it’s not what your audience wants. And also poor delivery. If we stand here like this all the time and speak like that, that’s not going to be good. You know, that’s not good either. Again, you’re competing with the entire Internet and a bazillion, I think that’s the exact number, a bazillion videos that are uploaded onto YouTube all the time.
Terry Brock [00:04:49]:
It’s good that there is a large variety of content out there, but you gotta make sure that it’s got good content, good delivery, and also not so predictable. Too often, people fall into repeating exactly what has been said before over and over, and that does not work. So you wanna make sure that it’s unique. It’s something that people go, hey. That’s brand new. I like that. Oh, I can use that. I’m gonna watch her channel.
Terry Brock [00:05:13]:
I’m gonna watch his channel. I like what these folks are doing at this place. That’s what you wanna do, and that will help you to avoid failure in content creation.
Gina Carr [00:05:23]:
Well, when I think about people who really have have not succeeded with their becoming a content entrepreneur, it’s, one of the big reasons is because they just keep waiting and waiting until everything’s perfect until they get started. They gotta feel like, oh, I have the perfect offer. I have the perfect content. I have the perfect way of creating that content. But you don’t need to have all that. You just need to get started. You try a few things out. You figure it out.
Gina Carr [00:05:48]:
You improve. You tweak. You pivot. You make it your own, and you you watch what’s happening, and you are constantly refining. I did think often to the time when I was learning to ride a bicycle. And I got a bicycle when I was about 5 years old for Christmas and had training wheels and my dad behind me to push me along a little bit until I got stable. And then he stopped pushing me, and I just used the training wheels, but then I got rid of the training wheels. And so similarly, you can use your own testing and trials to get your content out there and to figure out how to do it better all the time.
Terry Brock [00:06:27]:
Yeah. Do not have to agree on that. And by the way, some know I ride a unicycle, so I had the one wheel. I didn’t have anyone pushing me along as I was learning. I had to learn. But, you know, the principles are still there. You try something, and, yeah, you’re gonna fall down. You definitely will.
Terry Brock [00:06:40]:
But when you do, you get back up. And then what you wanna do is analyze what went wrong. You can sit there and go, oh, woe is me and cry and really waste your time. Or you can say, okay, we messed up on that one. What went wrong? How can we take care of that? And that means what you gotta do is you gotta test, then test, and test. You never stop testing to say what worked well on this, what didn’t work well on this one. Always do it and keep records of it. By keeping records, you’re gonna be able to do it.
Terry Brock [00:07:06]:
And I think too often, we’re waiting for that perfect moment, and the perfect moment really just doesn’t come. So what you wanna do instead is you wanna be able to say, okay, I’m gonna start with something that I can use and try something real simple. I know a lot of people like to use x, formerly known as Twitter. Be able to put something there, and if people resonate with it, then you could say, okay, I’ll do more of that. The idea of a minimum viable product is a term that’s been around for a long time. Frank Robinson came up with that back in 2001. It was and then it was popularized a lot by Steve Blank and Eric Ries. They talked about a minimum viable product.
Terry Brock [00:07:40]:
I think that’s a great idea. Let’s take it into the area of content creation so you can have a minimum viable idea. Minimum viable idea that you say, okay, this is something. Let me try it out there. Try it in different ways, and then pack in, excuse me, pack in a whole lot of capabilities and power and value that you’re gonna have there. Because what you wanna do is have a real key to success, and that key is gonna start with a unique value proposition. You wanna give them something that people are ready, willing, and able to pay for, not something you think is a grand idea, and you’re gonna lose money on it. That’s not any good.
Terry Brock [00:08:16]:
But you also want something that they can afford, and they go, this is real value. I like the way that Noah Kagan also says it in his book, The Millionaire Weekend. What you wanna do is you wanna ask people for money up front. Ask them to pay for something right now. He even says, ask for $1. Yes. $1 that they give you. Why? It’s a psychological barrier that you get over.
Terry Brock [00:08:39]:
And Noah Kagan, if you ever watch this, we’d really appreciate what you’ve said on that. It’s really good that you can find something that you think is a good idea. But too often, we think, hey. This is just a real dandy idea here, and I can do it, and I’m sure the world will just love it, but the world doesn’t really care. You wanna get something that people have said, yes. I like that, and here’s money for it. Too often, we get people that are well meaning that can say, oh, that’s a great idea. Find out, are they the ones that are actually gonna be buying it? And if they’re not, be careful.
Terry Brock [00:09:08]:
It’s like the same thing we see with many professional speakers. They’ll say to each other, you should raise your fees. Yes. You should raise your fees. Really? Are you gonna pay for it? Let’s find out what people who are paying for it have to say. And sometimes, yeah, they would value it, might even value it more if you raise your fees because it creates even more perception of value. But at the same time, listen to your audience. Get in there and find out what they want, and don’t stand by with just what you think is a dandy idea.
Gina Carr [00:09:36]:
I love that, and, I love Noah Kagan’s book. That’s a great one and his philosophy. That’s terrific. And speaking of that, you wanna earn money, and, ideally, you wanna be earning recurring revenue. So I don’t know about you, but my bills come every month. There’s a lot of monthly bills that are out there, and so I like that recurring revenue that also comes every month. And it’s, you have some expertise. If you’re a content entrepreneur, you have expertise.
Gina Carr [00:10:05]:
How can you package that into coaching programs? Not just a one off hourly consult, which there’s a place for that. But as much as possible, you wanna get folks on a retainer such that they’re paying you on a monthly basis for a minimum of 3 month commitment, maybe even a 12 month commitment, so that you can help them make the transformation that they’re trying to make in their lives by working with you with your expertise. And then secondly, think about is there a service that you can provide, such as some sort of a done for you service that you can provide that will help folks to meet that transformation. For example, we’re doing some done for you work with folks who want to create an online course. And there’s a lot of nuts, bolts, and wiggle pens, as Terry likes to say, that have to be all calibrated correctly in order to get an online course off the ground. And so we have a done for you service that helps people with that. So that’s just an example. Think for yourself.
Gina Carr [00:11:03]:
What could you do that would be a higher end offer so that you can help people and get that cash flow going?
Terry Brock [00:11:09]:
Yeah. Gina, I like what you’re saying on that. I think that’s real good, the idea of a a 3 month minimum. Because in the real world, stuff happens. You say, okay. This is what I’m gonna do this week or this month. Oh, this emergency came up. Over 3 months, you can usually smooth those out.
Terry Brock [00:11:24]:
I think that’s really good so that you can then create really valuable content that people are going to look to. What it is going to be, whether it’s a video, your audio, pictures, whatever it is, you want that to be valuable. And by the way, here’s who gets to decide what’s valuable. They do. The the people who are paying, the buyers, not so much you. Yes. It’s a good idea that you understand what’s valuable, but you’re gonna hear from them and you want to make sure that it helps them and really is helping them because they’re paying. Even if you got free content, they’re paying with their most valuable resource, time.
Terry Brock [00:11:58]:
Time is that most valuable resource that is always getting away. And so you wanna make sure that you’re making it worth their while to stay there and listen to pay you with that most precious of resource, time.
Gina Carr [00:12:12]:
Well, over the years, we’ve seen and experienced ourselves some practical strategies that will help with success. And one of them is to have that, to be focused on your content planning and scheduling. So one of the things that’s helped me is that I have a Google Doc that’s set up with story ideas. And every time I think of 1, I just make sure that I’m disciplined, and I go there and I write it down as soon as I can. And I have it on a Google Doc because that works for me if I’m on the computer, if I’m on my phone, if I’m out and about. I can open that Google Doc and I can insert it there so that it doesn’t get lost. And, that’s that’s been a real key. Also, you need to block in the time when you’re gonna create your content.
Gina Carr [00:12:59]:
You need to put it in your schedule and treat it as the important appointment that it is. One of the things that I have done over the years is I’ve been part of a writing group, and the writing group would meet twice a week early in the mornings, and it was called shut up and write. So it was filled with some of my colleagues from the National Speakers Association, and that’s what we did. We got together. We blocked in the time. A couple hours is what we did. We had a little chat at the beginning, then we turned off our cameras and mics, worked, and then, regrouped. And that was a really good office hour type environment as an entrepreneur, solopreneur to get that work done.
Terry Brock [00:13:39]:
Gina, I remember when you were doing that and they shut up and ride. I thought, I love that name. Where you’re getting together, you’re engaging with other people that are helping each other. And that’s something we wanna do in our groups too. When you have people working with you, you wanna make sure that you engage with your audience in an authentic way. Engaging with them that way really actually gives you an advantage over AI. Today, more than ever, we want people who are authentic, not putting on some kind of a front. They’re not being plastic.
Terry Brock [00:14:07]:
They’re being real. The more authentic you can be, helping people really being there for them, the more effective you’re gonna be in business. So we wanna do it and not say, oh, gee. I’m gonna if I can fake authenticity, then you really got it made. No. No. No. No.
Terry Brock [00:14:20]:
This means you really are because people are gonna see right through it. And so what you wanna do is look at what’s working for them. And then that means you gotta listen and ask more questions. I love the way my buddy, Chris Brogan, says it. You want to grow bigger ears. Listen more carefully to what people are asking for, where they’re hurting. And then here’s a concept, ask questions. Don’t just go in there talking about it.
Terry Brock [00:14:41]:
I’ve noticed so many times in conversations, see if you ever noticed this. You’re talking about something, you go, oh, yeah. Recently, I went over to Los Angeles, and I had to do da da da da, and somebody jumps in interrupting, oh, well, I remember when I went to Los Angeles and da da da da da. They’re not asking quest they’re not listening. They’re only paying attention to what they can do. You will get an advantage when you can interact with your audience by asking them questions, getting feedback. We wanna hear from you. We wanna know what you like.
Terry Brock [00:15:06]:
Please leave comments wherever you’re getting this below and just send us some notes. And, also, here’s another key that can really help you. Keep records of what’s working and what isn’t working. When something didn’t work, it’s easy to be feel to feel down about that. Oh, it didn’t work. Okay. Got it. But take advantage of that.
Terry Brock [00:15:23]:
Write it down. Document it. What didn’t work? What went wrong? And ask the questions about that. This is the key. Matter of fact, we learned from psychologists and those wonderful people who are in the mental health care space. They’re asking questions. They’re asking helping questions. They’re in there saying, well, really tell me more about that.
Terry Brock [00:15:41]:
Not just, did you like yellow or blue? Okay. That’s alright. But it’s even better to say, and why did you like the blue? What was it about that blue that you really enjoy? Probing in-depth questions, not interrogating someone, but listening to what they want. The more you can do that, the closer you’re gonna be to finding out what your audience really wants, and you’ll be there to help them out.
Gina Carr [00:16:06]:
Well and to your point about keeping records of what worked, this is another thing you wanna schedule, practical strategy. Every week, you’re going to schedule time to look at your analytics. So choose the platform or platforms that are most important for you to reach your target audience, and you’re going to want to go in and see how did you do. Did you have new followers or new likes and new new people that are paying attention to what you’re doing, and did you have interaction and engagement on those posts. So you’re gonna want to check that out and keep track of it so that you’ll know what’s working and what isn’t. And you’ll get, you’ll get more informed about what works for your audience and what type of content you really like to create. And I’m betting that the content you like to create is gonna get better results and better engagement.
Terry Brock [00:16:57]:
Gina, I think you’re right on that because when you get that better engagement, you’re getting better results, then you feel good about it. You wanna continue doing it. Your audience wins, and you win by practicing these, key areas. 1 we haven’t mentioned yet that is still important is and very more important today very more important, yeah, very more important, there’s a good phrase, than ever before. And what it is is watching the algorithm. YouTube has really done a good job, I have to say, on putting into algorithms and measuring what, works. How many people are watching? How long do they watch? And where do they start dropping off? Ouch. That can hurt, but it’s good information to know.
Terry Brock [00:17:33]:
Hey, Every time you said this, right here at that, look how many people jumped off. Okay. This is good information to know for the future. So pay attention to it, but don’t obsess on it. You don’t have to think, oh, gee, I gotta live and die by the algorithm. No. Be aware of it. See what’s going on.
Terry Brock [00:17:48]:
You want the input from real people saying, I like what you said about that. Or I didn’t care for that one. That didn’t do a thing for me. And you wanna see what the algorithm is doing as well. Make sure you’re monitoring all of that. And so don’t try to out algorithm everyone else. And they go, if I get that down, then I’ll be okay. Use it.
Terry Brock [00:18:04]:
It’s a tool like AI, but you are the one that is in control of all of it.
Gina Carr [00:18:11]:
Okay. And one of the things that you’re going to want to do is to manage those creative blocks. Consider batching your content. A lot of folks that we know will go in, and they’ll have a whole day scheduled for one creating one video right after another, and that works really well for a lot of people. And you wanna schedule under uninterrupted time for that. You wanna get your inner circle to agree that this time is official. It’s sacred, I might say, and you wanna make sure that they’re gonna honor that you’re not gonna be interrupted when you have this sign on the door or during this time period. And you have to also manage yourself so that you don’t allow interruptions.
Gina Carr [00:18:54]:
You don’t get pop ups and notices. I use a little tool called the, it’s a clock. The technique is called the Pomodoro, technique. I got this from Amazon. It might have been called the Pomodoro clock. I’m not sure. But, basically, I will come in and set it for, say, 20 minutes, this side of the clock, and then I will say I’m gonna focus on this specific task right now and not let anything else interrupt me until the 20 minutes is up. And you’ll be amazed how much you can actually get done.
Gina Carr [00:19:26]:
I’ve been amazed at what I can get done during a focus period like that.
Terry Brock [00:19:32]:
And one of the things you wanna do is while you’re working on that, you’re focused on it, Gina. I really like that idea. That Pomodoro method and using the clock is a good way to really do it. You hear that alarm going off. And I think what you wanna do is you wanna look at how can you be on time and make sure that your viewers are finding out about what needs to be done in their life to make their better their business better. You wanna have these strategies. Implement the strategies that people can use in a prominent way. So, Jada, I think we’ve covered a lot of ground today on how people can avoid the failures and then get in there and start, looking at it.
Terry Brock [00:20:06]:
We’d love to hear from you, dear listener. Have you ever been listening to this? If you’re watching it on video, if you’re listening to this on the podcast, we wanna hear from you. What are you doing? Because, as a content creator, you’re doing a whole lot of good. And I think those are the keys today. The get ahead, you provide real value, and you make sure that it’s something people can use in their own business.
Gina Carr [00:20:30]:
Yes. So let us know in the comments below. What are your keys to creating content that converts to cash? We’d love to hear from you.
Terry Brock [00:20:38]:
You know, being a content entrepreneur is one of the fastest growing keys out there, one of the fastest growing ways people are making money. So it is a noble cause. What you’re doing as a content creator is something that is helping others. You’re giving them ideas. You’re giving them content that can help them in their business, in their life. Whatever it is that you’re talking about, this is going to be the real key. And we really appreciate you being with us, being here to help out as we’re doing this and leaving a comment below letting us know what you think. Matter of fact, one thing you can do really help, like this, share it, and also subscribe to this.
Terry Brock [00:21:12]:
That’ll let the algorithms know, hey, people like this idea of live and let live for content entrepreneurs. And you can also bounce over to starcravingentrepreneurs.com. Find out what we have going on and how that can benefit you. And here’s that gift I was telling you about. We wanna make sure you get this. We put this together and we keep updating it. Ai tools for biz.com. That’s all in lowercase, ai tools, the number 4, biz.com.
Terry Brock [00:21:41]:
And also you see we got our QR code there. You’re gonna find out about all kinds of tools like chat GPT, like DALL E 3, and what DALL E 3 can do. It’s amazing for your content. Canva, a tool that we love to pieces. Use it for creating our graphics, creating so much of what we do. Also, you wanna look at the lexica dot art, a great little tool for creating graphics that would be good for you, along with other tools. One that we like particularly, Yoodly. Now if you want to get better at interviews and communicating, Yoodly is a great tool as a speech coach that can help you on that.
Terry Brock [00:22:16]:
OpenAI is, of course, the company that gives us both ChatGPT and DALL E 3. I get over there and watch what they’re doing. And one other tool, stable diffusion. It gives you a lot of capability to get a lot done. And like I said, here’s a QR code that you can grab if you’re catching this on video. Ai tools for biz.com is right there for you. And we’ve got even more for you. Because right now, we’ve got some other videos that are gonna help you specifically relating to what we covered here in this one for you to use and to get ahead in your work.
Terry Brock [00:22:47]:
You are embarking on being a content creator. That is one of the most noble things you can do. We cheer you on for that, and we look forward to hearing from you.