A Return To Content Marketing, & 100 Pieces Of Public Facing Content

For the past few months I have had an inner voice saying to me “Content is the key to the next season in your life. Content is your path.”

Recently I have been listening to much of Gary Vaynerchuck’s podcast where he has been talking about publishing content to the top 7-10 platforms centered around your passions or interests. This message has resonated deeply with me. 

In this episode of the podcast I discuss the why behind my return to content marketing, and a personal challenge I am engaging in over the next 30 days. 

Tune in today and let me know how you are using content marketing in your business and your life. 

Let's connect! I'd love to hear from you.
Subscribe on YouTube, join my mailing list, or send me an email!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Part of my marketing strategy for the remainder of the year is to go deep on content marketing. Recently, I've been listening to a lot of the Gary Vaynerchuk podcasts. I've been consuming a lot of his YouTube videos. It seems like every algorithm on every platform is pushing Gary Vaynerchuck towards me. And that's good. It's actually kind of what I've been needing to hear because recently, at the time of this publishing, he has been speaking a lot about going deep on content marketing, on putting your voice out and your opinion out into the world around topics that you are deeply passionate about. And this isn't to say I won't be doing other forms of marketing. This is still, you know, um part of the greater plan, the greater scheme. So there'll still be direct messaging, there'll still be cold calling, cold emailing. I'll still be attending events and networking. I have something coming up that I'm gonna be talking about very soon. I'm continually building my website and refining it and revising it in order to attract new customers, new visitors. And pretty soon I will be doing things on other channels that I'm just not gonna go into here. All of those other channel channels are still part of the overall marketing strategy in this season, but the one that I feel that I've neglected over the past few years is content marketing. So right now, for the remainder of the year, I am actively working to change that. Thank you for tuning into this episode of the Johnny Boy Studios Podcast. I am Johnny, and I am so excited to be bringing you a new episode of the podcast. This one, as you can see from the title, is a return to content marketing. And later in the episode, we're gonna get into a new challenge that I've given myself surrounding creating 100 pieces of public-facing content. Now, what is content marketing? Well, let's go with Google's definition first. Google has this to say content marketing is a strategic approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent material like blogs, videos, and podcasts to attract and retain an audience. Instead of directly pitching products, it aims to educate, build trust, and ultimately drive profitable customer action. I like that definition. I think it fits perfectly into how I am moving forward with content marketing over the next few months. And in previous episodes, I've discussed what and how. In this episode, I'll touch on those a little bit more, but mostly I want to dive into why. Why am I making a public statement that I am making a return to content marketing? Well, mainly it's because content marketing is still the era that we are in right now. So interest marketing, more specifically, which is creating content around areas that you're interested in and publishing it to the masses. Whether you are a business, a solopreneur, a creative, a hobbyist, you're putting out content en masse around areas you're interested in to attract an audience interested in the same topics. That's how you succeed right now. It's how you succeed on social media, it's how you succeed with YouTube, it's how you succeed in podcasts, it's how you succeed with your website, it's how you grow your audience, it's how you change jobs or careers, or how you get brand deals, grow sponsorships, how you get ads. All of this is happening from publishing content. Think about it. Why would someone follow a page or a podcast or channel that is effectively dead, that hasn't published any new content recently? That is not it, you know, not even recently, because I know there's one thing that um Cliff Ravenskraft talks about. He created it's something like 38 episodes for a virtual assistant podcast, published it years ago. People still find that. But and it leads those people to his greater ecosystem. So the reason I wanted to bring that up was because I had just said that isn't publishing content regularly or lately or consistently. But what I mean is if they're not putting out content, they're not gonna attract those people. So because Cliff Ravenscraft had put out all of these episodes around virtual assistants, he attracted those people into his world. And he continues to attract those people into his world. It's a proven system. It's what Gary Vaynerchuk has been talking about so much over, I would say, the last couple of years, honestly. And it's something that I've been hearing more and more recently. You know, I've said before, I keep hearing that voice in the back of my head saying, Content is your key that will unlock the next season. Content is the way out or the way through. Content is what is next. Focus on publishing a large amount of content right now around what you are interested in and what you want to achieve. That is why I'm publicly declaring a return to content marketing. And in the past few weeks, I'll tell you, I've been diving deep into Gary Vanderchuk's podcast, The Gary V Audio Experience. It's very good. You should definitely check it out. I started reading his book, Day Trading Attention, and I've already picked up a few incredible nuggets from that. I'm still reading through Never Play It Safe by Chase Jarvis. I'm listening to the Think Media podcast and watching their YouTube channel again. I'm remembering all that I learned from um Smart Passive Income with Pat Flynn and from Cliff Raven's Craft and from Entree Leadership with Dave Ramsey and all of these other things. And even my marketing courses all through college and all of the the um the things that I studied afterwards and even the I Love Marketing podcasts. I've been going through some of their old things as well, and all of the other various brands that I've followed over the years, I'm putting it into practice right now. But why does this matter? Why does it matter to you? Why did I pull out my microphone, hit record, and publish this episode? Well, there's a number of reasons. There's a number of things that have come into play recently. One of Gary V's key messages right now is about putting out a massive amount of content around your passion, around your interest on the seven to ten top social platforms and doing so consistently. That's what I'm leaning into right now. But it also goes a little bit deeper. All of those platforms that we have today, and you can think about like Facebook, YouTube, Threads, X, Discord, uh, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, all of these, right? There's so many out there, and there's more and more and more happening or just appearing every single day. And with that, more people are turning to AI as a means to create massive amounts of content. That's not gonna sit well with me, okay? Over the past few years, we've seen a huge rise in AI generated content, AI generated images, AI generated voice. And even now, there is a lot of content coming out that is AI generated video. And what I personally feel is that with more and more people and more and more businesses turning to AI, we are Simon simultaneously seeing more and more people speak out about craving true human interaction and true human content. And I've I've spoken at length about this with my private photography community, VBA, Visual Business Academy. People want real images, and they want it with all of the human imperfections, not AI-generated images for their brands. They want real images of their products, of their locations, of the things that they are doing. Each one of us in this community, we we've been leaning into that more and more and more and making a conscience, conscience, conscience effort. I can't even get that word out, uh, to to combat just AI slop. So I do use AI. I'm not even going to um like try and sit here and say that I don't and in front, like I don't. But what I use it for is I'll take a blog post and I'll take it and I'll put it into AI and I'll say, does this flow in a logical pattern? Or I'll say, um, here are my four bullet points. Are they in the correct order or should I rearrange them? And then once AI gives me its feedback, I go back and I rewrite it myself by hand. That's how I use AI. I've used it to uh rewrite the copy on my website, johnnyboyphotos.com, as I like I wrote it, and then I go back and I rewrite it with AI, and then I rewrite it a third time by myself and take out all of the AI language and make it more myself, right? And I feel like more and more people are are wanting that human element in their content. They want it in their copy, they want it in their videos, their audio, they want it in their images, and and I'm I'm seeing the need to make that return to putting out that content. And with this new season, I'm leaning into it. I'm lean, I'm leaning into creating human content more than ever before. And just listen, I'm not talking about taking one piece of content, creating that, and then repurposing it across the seven to ten different platforms. The only place I do that is with my newsletter. And the only reason I do that is because I'm sharing what content was published over the week. What I'm actually talking about right now is creating unique content for each platform and publishing it natively to that platform for that audience. It's a big undertaking, but it's one I'm capable of, and it's one I believe you're capable of too. Content is your way out, content is key. Make more content. That's still in the back of my head. I keep hearing this voice over and over. I've heard it more and more and more over the past year, and it's something that I absolutely have to lean into. And recently, over the past couple of weeks, I've decided I need to listen to this voice, and I need to listen to my intuition, my gut, and I need to go after what I know is possible. Content is my key. It's the key to unlocking the next level of where I need to go. One of the big hurdles that I've been facing, I would say over the last year or so, with all of the changes that happen in my life, all of the things that just kind of shook my foundation, one of the biggest hurdles that I still face today is this insecurity around what to publish. Who am I? What do I have to offer? Why would someone listen to me when I don't look like so-and-so, and I don't have the following like this girl or the connections like that guy? Why would someone want to listen to my podcast? Why would they watch my YouTube videos? Why would they visit my website? Why would they follow me on social media when I don't look like, I don't have the receipt for, I don't sound like X, Y, and Z. Sure, I can take an amazing picture. Absolutely. There is no question about that. But I don't have a magazine cover. I know what it takes to build a massive social following. But right now I'm sitting at somewhere around 4,000 followers across all platforms. That that's where I'm at. Just pure honestly, I am not where I want to be. And it makes me question if I if it's okay for me to put out content, the content that I want to put out. And when I look back over the past few years of my life, one thing has been true. I have done some amazing things. I've done some creative things and I've made moves. Many people in my own circle, my own age, people I interact with, they would have been too scared to make some of the moves that I've made. And I know because I've heard the chatter from every side. I've heard the people on the sidelines talking about that guy in the game, talking about who does he think he is. I've heard it, I've seen it. I'm okay. Having a creative brain, it makes me see opportunities to create content everywhere. And sometimes it gets annoying, but most of the time it keeps the date interesting. This is why I bought the DJI mic so I could record audio when I'm out and about. It's why I upgraded my camera system. It's why I um keep my phone fresh so and plenty of storage so that I can go and I can record video on the fly. It's why I have the switch pod, so I have a mobile um uh tripod I can take with me anywhere. It's why I've invested in mobile lights and I have a backpack that can carry all of this stuff at a moment's notice. I am here to share my journey. That's it. This is my journey, and I am putting it out there, hoping something I share along the way motivates someone, encourages someone, instructs someone to do something they want to pursue. I'm sharing my journey via podcast, via YouTube, via TikTok is something I've been leaning into recently, via Instagram, via my blog post, on both uh Substack and my photography website, and even in my email newsletter. I am here to share my journey, my experiences, my insights as I go through this thing called life. That is the content that I am making. And if someone somewhere gets something out of it, it's worth it. Of course, you know, I do have goals of growing my followings, of sharing the creative things, of making income from all of this. But overall, I'm just sharing who I am, what I'm doing, my hopes, my dreams, the cool things that I experience along the way. And I hope that resonates with someone somewhere on something. So a return to a season of content marketing, which in turn means a season of content creation, it means I have to be disciplined. It means I have to have a creation schedule, a publishing schedule, I have to try new things, explore different ideas, um, collaborate with new people, and just generally be plugged into the goals that I have for the season I'm in now. This is a return to content marketing, but it is it's different this time because this time I'm plugging in all of the knowledge and all the experiences I've gained over the years, and I'm really leaning into it. I'm really, really leaning into it. So, one thing that I want to share with you is that over the next 30 days, from August 15th to September 15th, I will, I will, will produce 100 pieces of public-facing content. This means YouTube videos, it means podcast episodes, blog posts, short form videos on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube. Heck, I'm even including LinkedIn in this, okay? I'm including LinkedIn. This episode of the Johnny Boy Studios podcast is the first piece of public-facing content included with this 100 pieces that I am producing over the next month, the next 30 days. This is a time when I am making an intentional push to get things moving in the marketplace again. This is a time when I am putting out content in my areas of interest, my areas of expertise, my opinions in order to attract my ideal audience and to continue building my brand and growing my reach. I found over the years that when I make a commitment like this, I follow through. When I give myself a crazy challenge, I follow through. Giving myself 30 days to produce 100 pieces of public-facing content as part of my return to content marketing seems right now to be the correct move. I feel it in my gut and I'm trusting my gut, I'm following my intuition, and I'm going in the direction that I keep hearing. Content is your key. I am making that return to content. I I just want to encourage you, I want to, I want to tell you this is something this is for me. This is what I'm doing. You can do your own version of it, and it could be similar, it could be the same thing. It may be 10 pieces of public-facing content over the next week, it may be 1,000 pieces over the next 90 days, it may be 10,000 over the next year. I don't care. Whatever works for you, but but make it somewhat of a stretch. Because I know over the next 30 days I could produce 50 pieces of content, no problem. 100 pieces of public-facing content, it's gonna be a little bit more of a stretch, but I'm here for it. And when I say public facing, I mean this is out in front of people in mass. This isn't one thing that I'm not including with this, I'm not including small text-based post. And what I mean by that is X, uh, threads, Facebook, anything that's short form under that, what was it? What uh 144 characters, I'm I'm not considering that. I'm talking big, meaty, chunky pieces of content put out to the masses in order to attract my ideal audience. And like I said earlier, yes, I want to grow my following, yes, I want to put out my creative um expression, but also I want to make some money, which is why so many of us do so many of the things we do. Now, uh a hundred pieces of public-facing content for me over 30 days is just enough of a stretch where it seems like I don't know if I'm gonna hit that, but I'm gonna get it done. I think it would be very beneficial to you, as the listener, this far into this episode of the podcast, to think of giving yourself some sort of challenge similar to this. Now, you may want to go with I don't know, like I said earlier, it could be 10 pieces over the next week, it could be uh a thousand pieces over the next 90 days, whatever it is. But give it, give yourself kind of that unrealistic challenge and then go for it. Absolutely go for it. Think of the channels that you have that may be lacking, or where you may be able to better utilize content marketing more effectively than you've been doing it right now. What can you start posting about to lead to the job you want? Get on LinkedIn, get on Indeed, start publishing that content today. What can you uh create to attract the clients and customers that you desire? Put those images up on Instagram, put that content out in YouTube and in podcast form. Put the things out on a website. Do what you need to do in order to start drawing in the people you desire to do work with. Where can you share your creativity more? Where can you express yourself? Where can you find your tribe or your community that will let you just unplug from life and they'll wrap your their arms around you and support you and love you and hug on you and just be that community that you need that isn't related to your day job, that you're not trying to monetize, that maybe you guys just meet up and you talk Star Wars for a couple of hours, or you talk a sports team for a couple of hours. Where it where are they gathering that you can start putting out content in order to find those people? Think about it. Where can you return to content marketing to further your business and your life towards your own goals? Guys, I am super excited about this. I I am so stoked for what this means for me, for what it means for Johnny Boy Studios. I truly believe I am on the edge of something really, really good. And I am so excited to see where this is gonna go. I am making a public return to content marketing, and over the next 30 days, I am producing and publishing 100 pieces of public-facing content across all of my platforms. And at the end of this, I'll come back and I'll talk about it a little bit. But that's what I wanted to come on and share with you. This return to content marketing, because I feel right now for me, it is key, it is it is the key that's gonna unlock the next stage of my life and of my business. And I I think there's something there for others. I truly do. I truly do. So on that note, I am going to end this episode of the Johnny Boy Studios podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in. We are back, guys. There is so much content about to be coming your way in podcast form, in blog form, in YouTube form. And I just I cannot wait to share some of the things that I have planned and get this content out to you guys because I'm I'm excited about where life is right now, but I'm even more excited about where it's about to be. And I know content is going to take me there because content marketing, and as Gary Vaynerchuk put it, we're no longer in um SEO marketing, we are in interest marketing. And I am so interested in what is coming up next. So until the next episode of the Johnny Boy Studios podcast, thank you so much for tuning in. I appreciate you. Until next time, I'm Johnny. Go out and create a great day.