Find Fitness Content Inspiration Everywhere -- Even at a Taylor Swift Concert. PLUS: 15 Tips to Always Have Ideas.

People often ask me where I get ideas for content.  It's a good question and I want to talk about it in this week's episode of Optimal Aging, the show to help fitness professionals grow their business with people over 50. 

Today,  I'm going to give you 15 tactics to ensure that you always have plenty of ideas for your blog posts, social media accounts, email newsletters, and other content channels.

But first, I want to tell you a story that will illustrate the broader point I want to make. And that is this: Take inspiration wherever you find it, and once you train yourself to start looking, you’ll see it everywhere.

I spent last week at my mother’s house near Nashville, where a bunch of my family had gathered. Now, the gathering wasn’t anything unusual, but the date was determined by something a little bit different: Taylor Swift.

Resources
Life Priority Supplements -- Affiliate Discount  here
Naamly – Support our advertiser, who helps you keep in touch with your members
Functional Aging Institute -- Use FAIMM50 discount code
Prime Fit Content – Engage the over-50 market

Transcript

People often ask me where I get ideas for content. It's the number one question I've received over the years as a reporter, writer, and content creator. Where do you get your ideas? Well, it's a good question and I want to talk about it on this week's episode of Optimal Aging, the show to help fitness professionals grow their businesses with people over 50.

I'm your host, Jay Croft from Prime Fit Content, which provides the only fitness content specifically designed to help you engage people in this overlooked, lucrative market. Today I'm gonna tell you about 15 tactics to ensure that you always have plenty of ideas for your blog posts, social media accounts, email newsletters, and other content channels.

Of course the easiest way to take care of all of that is to subscribe to prime fit content, which you can do@primefitcontent.com. Before we get to those 15 tactics, I first wanna tell you a story that will illustrate the broader point I wanna make, and that is this. Take inspiration wherever you find it.

And once you train yourself to start looking, you're going to see it everywhere. Now I spent last week at my mother's house near Nashville where a bunch of my family had gathered. The gathering itself wasn't anything unusual, just a very nice coming together for a week or so of family who lived far away.

But the date was determined by something a little bit different. Taylor Swift. You see, my sister and her adult daughter live in Alaska, and while they were planning their visit to moms this spring, they learned of Swift's concert in Nashville in early May. So they planned the trip around that. And got tickets.

It makes sense, right? Because Alaska doesn't get a lot of big name musical acts, and Swift's tour wasn't going anywhere near there, so why not?  My niece is a huge fan, like countless young women, and they plan to fund girls' night out and looked forward to it for months.

But on the big day, the weather stepped in with a massive thunderstorm pounding Nashville and delaying the concert for more than three hours. Thousands of fans who paid top dollar of course, stayed in the stadium to wait it out, hoping the lightning storm would stop and Swift could start her show. Now this was in  an open topped stadium where the NFL team, the  Tennessee Titans play.

So this was many thousands of people, I dunno, 60 or 70,000 people. It was a real mess. And back at my mom's house, we were checking Twitter for updates to see if there was a cancellation or if the show had started. And you know, texting with my sister and my niece to see if they were going to keep waiting.

Well, after more than three hours, the fans shook it off. Swift took the stage and delivered her world class. Three hour spectacle of hit after hit after hit. My niece and my sister were thrilled as were many, many thousands of other people. They were wet and they were tired, but still somehow elated by more than just a pop show by the whole experience, which a lot of them viewed as some kind of mass bonding event based on tweets that I saw.

That's how devoted these fans are to Taylor Swift, to her music, and to the community of followers that she has formed and that they've all joined. Now, are your fans. So devoted. Maybe not. Maybe they don't need to be, of course. But there are lessons for gym and studio owners in all of this. Lessons for any small business really, including mine, prime fit content.

Here are four. Number one. Build passionate fans by consistently delivering expert products, services, and experiences over time, like Swift has done with her domination of country and pop music for the last, I dunno, 15 years or so, her fans call themselves swifties. They know every word to every song. They would, as we saw the other night, do just about anything to be a part of what she's selling.

Number two, plan for a crisis Stadium concerts are huge, complex undertakings. They're big business, they're not a girl with a guitar, right? Someone plans out every possible detail, including thunderstorms. So when to cancel, when to wait out the lightning. during the storm, the swifts were sequestered inside packed concourses.

Looked really awful and yet some of them posted videos of themselves singing her songs like Shake it off and you need to Calm down. Number three, communicate. Throughout the crisis, Taylor Swift's Twitter account updated fans on efforts to make sure that the show could go on safely. She even gave a shout out to those singing fans in the hallways.

 Nissan Stadium. Also tweeted updates and both were important to managing the crowd and preventing misinformation and even greater anxiety from taking over an already stressful situation. Number four, deliver the goods. After everything Swift gave fans what they came for. A ton of good music and showmanship for a feel good sing along.

They'll be talking about for years after it was over, she tweeted, quote,  Well, we had our first rain show of the ERAS tour and it was so much fun. The dancers band crowd and I all pretty much turned into little kids joyfully jumping in puddles all night. I wanted to thank the crowd again for waiting for the weather to clear and my amazing crew for keeping the stage lighting and equipment all dry and working so we could play.

That was a late great night. I won't forget. End quote. Now, here's the biggest takeaway for me as I watched it unfold from the warm comfort of my mother's living room, and it's something you and I should always remember. Our businesses are not about ourselves. They're about our customers, our clients, our fans.

If you provide leadership, a sense of connection and awesome experiences consistently, they'll stick with you through the sunshine. And forgive me. The rain, whether we're selling fitness to people over 50 or pop music to mostly young women, we can all learn from what the star delivered in Nashville the other night.

A masterclass on brand loyalty, crisis planning and communications, and a commitment to our customers. Okay, after a break, I'm gonna come back with those 15 ideas to help you see that content ideas really are everywhere.

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Back to the show. 

These are things you can do, things anyone can do to generate material on an ongoing basis. There's no inspiration. There's no muse. There's no mystical quote unquote, creativity involved. Whether it's writing or making other forms of content. The key for you is to understand what all professional writers know it's work.

We don't sit around waiting for inspiration to strike or some kind of idea fairy to magically deliver our material. We rely on technique and discipline. It's a lot like what a trainer might tell a new client. If you exercise every day and watch what you eat, then you'll get in better shape and lose weight.

Not if you exercise when you feel like it, not if you exercise. When Arnold Schwarzenegger visits you in a vision. Creating and managing content is in many ways, just like staying in shape. It's just something you do by doing it, not by thinking about it or talking about it. So use these 15 tips that have worked for me and other professionals countless times.

Here we go. Number one, jot them down. Good ideas can come at any time while you're working out, trying to sleep, watching tv, and if you're like me, you probably won't remember them later unless you scribble them down in a notebook or make a note or a recording on your smartphone. I compile them later in a Word doc and refer to that regularly.

Number two. Tickle yourself. A tickler file is an extra reminder system that's connected to your calendar for planning. It's full of upcoming events that could yield good material. You can separate files by the month, even by the day of the month if you want to. You can do it electronically or on paper, and then you're able to easily look ahead and see what's coming up at any time.

You might include things like a neighborhood association meeting or a 10 K run in your community. You could even put in letters and ticket stubs and receipts, whatever works for you. The point is just to have a handy place to put reminders and then find them easily. Number three. Follow the news. This includes niche sources about your specialty industry and community.

You should stay informed, of course, for other reasons, but events and headlines are also great sources of content ideas. But be careful. You want to avoid politics and sharing opinions about specific leaders or controversial issues because it's not going to serve you. It will only distract from your purpose.

Number four, include sports and pop culture. Think about the Super Bowl, one of the biggest sports cultural media events every year, even if you don't care about football. You should know who played and who won, who performed at halftime and which commercials blew up on Twitter. Be aware when cultural figures pass away and what they might mean to your audience.

Look ahead to annual awards shows like the Oscars. All of these big events are talkers, which means they're ways to continue conversing with your audience in a way that's not focused on selling all the time. Number five, revisit your own content. You should periodically go through your existing content of all kinds, not just articles, and see what you can dust off.

Chances are readers won't remember. If you've already covered a topic and you can easily find a fresh way to top update or present the information, just think about the last year and how the pandemic has provided not just an excuse, but often a really compelling reason to revisit a topic. And it's a great way to remind people that you care about their health and safety.

Number six. Repurpose from others. When you see something in the media in advertisements on a competitor's website, maybe, um, on the website of a friend who has a similar business in another market, and you think, gee, that's a good idea. Well think about how you can apply that to your own situation. Right, and go ahead and borrow that Good idea.

Whenever you see one, I don't mean you plagiarize it, of course, but by the time you see that good idea, adapt it to your own, uh, needs and situations, you will have made it your own unique piece of content. Let's take a short break. We'll be right back.

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Number seven, curate content. This means gathering it from other sources. We don't have to write or create everything all the time. Sometimes it's best to share what others have written or produced. If a newspaper or TV station shares a relevant story, pass it on. If you find a good recipe, share it. And of course, gladly say where you found it.

You know, think about if your trade association publishes some new market data. There's gonna be relevant parts in there that you might want to talk about and share with your folks. Number eight, get out of your own space. Now, before the pandemic, I would advise people to go to community events, conferences, speeches, ball games, things like that, and pay attention to what people are talking about.

Granted, this is much harder now, but you can still find ways to leave your own business and connect with a broader community, whether that's in parks, at outdoor art events, or virtually through online groups that aren't necessarily affiliated with your industry. Number nine, remember the basics. Whenever you're producing or sharing any content, always ask yourself, what am I trying to say?

To whom and why. That will help you focus, which will help you think of ideas. Number 10, do one thing different. Try a different grocery store. Toss a football instead of the Frisbee with your kid. Read instead of watching TV one night a week. It doesn't really matter what, but you'll be amazed how even the smallest new experience can help you look at things in a new way.

Number 11, search for keywords on Google. If you wanna know what people out there are curious about, you can open your browser's search window and start typing in keywords. Go ahead and try it. For example, when I type in fitness over 50, Google populates the field with fitness models over 50. Fitness hacks for over 50.

Fitness for golfers over 50 and lots more. Those are good ideas. Number 12, use content, idea generators. Just type in some subjects and look at the suggestions you get from online tools like the blog Ideas generator available on hubspot.com. Go ahead to hubspot.com, find the blog ideas generator and type in some subjects and see what it gives you.

It's a great way to get some new ideas flowing. Number 13, write a product review. Tell your audience about something new and useful. You've discovered that they might wanna try or review a new device or piece of equipment that you're using in your business and describe how it's a benefit to them. That note, you want to promote things you like and avoid bashing stuff you don't.

Number 14. Share a personal story. Content is all about storytelling in one form or another. Some business owners and entrepreneurs like to get personal all the time while others find it awkward. It's up to you, of course, but remember, That you're telling the story to provide value to your listener, not just to promote yourself.

I'll share one now. Years ago, I was up for a job at a large private company owned by a few famous people, all of them well past the age of 50. At some point, I asked my interviewer about plans for handling media calls when each of the owners. Inevitably died. It seemed like a smart question to me, but the PR executive across the desk was mortified.

It was an awkward moment, and I was sure I had just obliterated any chance of getting hired, but I got the offer. Turns out it was a good question after all, and it leads to number 15, have a crisis communications plan in place. If we've learned anything from the pandemic, it's that shit happens, and all we can do is try to be prepared for it as best as possible.

It doesn't have to be a global catastrophe, but you and your team should have a written idea of how to respond in case of say, violence or a natural disaster or some other unexpected event that could affect your business. And out of this plan, you'll probably generate some good ideas for content. To use it anytime 

Thank you for listening to the Optimal Aging Podcast. I'm your host, Jay Croft. And I hope you enjoyed it, and if you did, I hope you'll subscribe, tell a friend and write a review. All of that helps us grow our audience. I also hope you'll share any comments you have with me in an email or on social media, including suggestions for people I should interview, or topics I should cover.

You can learn more about me and my content business@primefitcontent.com. You can send me an email at j prime fit content.com. That's J J A y@primefitcontent.com. I'm also on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram. So find me anywhere you like and be in touch. And again, thanks for listening. Join us next time.