Are You Talking About What You Love?

Let’s talk about self-awareness in marketing and why truly loving your topic is your secret sauce for both content creation and business growth. I have a question for you today: what’s that one thing you could jump on national TV and feel confident sharing? Because when you tap into that area of expertise, your excitement lights up your audience, and your content becomes magnetic. We’ll walk through real examples where you can sense the creator’s passion, and discuss how borrowing popular words, phrases, or brands can help make your content relatable and attention-grabbing. If your social content feels bland or forced, this episode is your permission slip to reset, pivot, or even rebrand if what you’re talking about no longer excites you. 

In this episode we’ll be covering:

• Self awareness in digital marketing and creating content you genuinely love.
• Discovering the one topic you can passionately talk about, even on national TV.
• Going beyond simple tips and creating genuine connection that your audience can feel.
• Using popular phrases, brands, and hooks to make your content more relatable.
• The importance of being the go-to expert in your unique area of expertise.
• Ways to make content relevant to current events and seasons for increased engagement.

Links to reels in this episode:

• Reel: Build Your Grown Woman Wardrobe
• Reel: Color Combos that Look Expensive in Summer
• Reel: McDonald's Migraine Hack
• Reel: Never Order an Uber to the Airport

Other episodes you might have missed:

• Episode 021: Getting Your Audience to Care About Your Content
• Episode 027: Let Your True Personality Shine
• Episode 037: Personalization is the Key to Your 2025 Content Strategy
• Episode 054: Is There Enough “You” In Your Content?
• Episode 058: Embrace the Content Creator Mindset
  
  
  

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Transcript

Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:05]:
I am your host, Shannon McKinstrie. Welcome to Good Content. The podcast where I remove the never ending content creation guesswork and overwhelm, so that you can actually enjoy being on social media again and growing your business with what has always worked, good content.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:24]:
I just got off an awesome podcast recording with Candace and Jennifer of The Social Circle. And we talked about so many things, but one thing we talked about, I want to talk about on here because it's so important. And I talk about it a lot on in my stories often, and it's just self awareness with marketing. Because I think what especially a lot of people who got into digital marketing or showing up on social media and an expert in something you've already been an expert in for a long time, you're being told all this stuff. Right? You're being told things from marketing experts like me, but, like, you know, they're talking in absolutes and telling you you have to niche down. You have to only talk like this. You need to only provide value blah blah blah. Right? Then when you're showing up, it doesn't feel exciting to you.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:07]:
It doesn't feel like you're truly talking about something you care about. So I wanna pause for a moment, and I really want you to ask yourself, what is something that if you got a call tomorrow from, let's say, The Today Show or CNN or someone, and they're like, we need you on a segment. What is something that you're like, I would get on there and crush it because I can never stop talking about this one thing. I was actually watching the Today Show this morning, and I was seeing how, like, you know, all the experts, they have a lifestyle expert giving hacks on traveling. They had a health expert talking about these mind blowing new tests they can do, for cancer. They had a money guy come on and talk about the tariffs and how to save money and things, you know, giving advice. Obviously, they had politics, they had pop culture, they

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:53]:
had Right? So when you

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:54]:
think about that and especially with my background in news, I thought it'd be fun to kinda go this route with today's podcast. And we talked about it a lot in our last podcast. So And now I'm all hyped about it because I'm like, what is something that when people come to you and they've come to you for it for a long time, and it's something you actually enjoy that people come to you for. Right? I always joke back in the day, I was the friend who people go, Shannon, what should my caption be? Shannon, can you take a photo of me? I've always been the content creator of the group even in the nineties with my video camera. Right? And I've said it before in this podcast over here and down on our recent, we have boxes of just VHS tapes that I need to get digitized because I've been the content creator, quote, unquote, since before cameras were on our phones. So it's very natural for me to love, and I took marketing in college. I took TV production classes in high school. I worked at CNN.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:38]:
I interned at C SPAN. I love talking production and content and editing and video. I can't shut up about it. If I had to come on social media and talk about something I'm not interested in, it's going to come through my content. People are gonna tell that I am not excited. So I need you to ask yourself because a lot of people, like, we were saying I was talking about with Candace and Jennifer. A lot of people who got into this, especially the day digital marketing course who took, like, those MRR courses were told to, like, stay in this one box. And they're getting online and they're talking about stuff that they don't care about and we can tell, or that they're not actually an expert in and we can tell.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:14]:
So what are you the person who all the moms at the school come to for maybe you make custom fun t shirts for all the time or you have the best cookies for the bake sale? Are you the realtor who

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:24]:
oh, not only do you sell homes, but people know that

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:27]:
you know all the hot spots in your city to go to, or you know all everything about all the latest developments and things like that in in the area? Are you a health coach who's known for their whatever do you have some workout that you swear by or that you've coined that's yourself? What is it that if someone called you tomorrow or right now and was like, hey. We are doing a segment on blank. We need you there. And what is it that you would be like, cool. And I'm gonna talk about it forever. Right? That you can't shut up about. Because I'm telling you when you get on social and you start talking about something that you can't shut up about, we're gonna feel it, we're gonna love it for you and for us. Okay? So I have a couple examples in the show notes.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:04]:
And you can tell like this guy talking travel tips is hyped. You can tell the girl talking style is hyped. And the doctor talking about a migraine hack is excited to tell you. I want you to watch them. Okay? I wanna beg you to watch them because the one, two, three ways that I saw their reels going crazy I think they're all on TikTok too. One is to talk to camera very professional. The other is a girl sitting in her car. The other is the guy just flipping the camera and showing his computer.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:31]:
All three of those could be featured on a news segment. I see it all the time because I watch the news every day. They feature other people's TikToks. They also do interviews. So as one, it was a little more polished like an interview. The other was something that I can easily see them pulling to put on TV to be like, hey, guys, have you seen this? This is what is going on. That Today's Show especially features TikToks and reels all the time because they're talking relevant stuff. So I want you to ask yourself, what would they come on to talk to you about, number one.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:55]:
And number two, how can you make it relevant right now? Right now is spring if you're listening in April. Right? How could you talk about something in your field relevant to spring or relevant to summer coming up? Right? And what is something that you can't shut up about? Because if you can't shut up about it, and you're excited about it, we are going to feel that and we're going to want to follow you because we're like, they're an expert. So watch those reels in the show notes because each one you can tell they

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:18]:
are an expert in this. They know

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:20]:
what they're talking about. And they're also like I always say, borrowing words, phrases and brands that make us stop the migraine doctor. I'm gonna let it play just for a second so

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:29]:
you can hear ready? Ready? Here we go. McDonald's migraine hack explained by neurologists. I'm doctor Jessica. I'm a double boarded neurologist

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:38]:
Again, watch it. 66,000 likes. So she used the word McDonald's because us average people who don't know anything about health are gonna be like McDonald's. That makes what she's sharing approachable and something that

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:50]:
would be on a new show.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:53]:
The stylist. Ready?

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:54]:
All the women that want their summer style to whisper in luxury and do not scream for attention.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:00]:
So then again, she's using the words luxury. So not just here's some style tips. That's boring. Style tips that whisper luxury. How beautiful is that? And then here's the travel tips person. Ready?

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:10]:
It blows my mind that more people don't know about this. You should never call an Uber straight to the airport. Instead, take a

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:18]:
Again, he's talking casually in

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:20]:
his house, giving you a quick what I always say the three s's. Right? Simple, shareable, and specific. Right? He mentions Uber. That is a brand we know. If he just said travel transportation tip, board. Right? So, again, words like luxury, words like McDonald's, brands we're borrowing. So the two big things I want you to take away from today's podcast, how to borrow popular phrases, words, brands, etcetera, that we know and love to get our attention and to come off as an expert. And, of course, with this podcast today, I'm talking helpful content.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:51]:
Right? It's not value is beyond tips. It's human connection. It's this and that. But today, I'm talking helpful. I just wanna make that very clear with the four h's just so you know. So typically, when we are being asked to be an expert, whether it's an article and they need a quote or it's you've been asked to speak on a panel, what is that thing you're so excited you can't wait to talk about? That's what you need to talk about online. If you feel like right now your content feels bland, I want you to check back in with yourself and be self aware enough to say, I actually don't wanna talk about that. I tell people all the time, and I said it on the podcast I was just on, and we talked a lot about this.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:27]:
I was like, Instagram comes out with a new feature thing all the time. There's so many things

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:31]:
I could cover. If I'm

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:32]:
not excited about that new feature, I don't care about it, I'm not going to talk about it. Even if it's in my niche and it doesn't excite me, I'm not creating a con a piece of content on it. Even if it's super popular, I know it would go viral, It's not interesting to me, so I'm not going to create it. I am so excited to hit post every time I hit post on a reel. I am so excited, and that's how I want you to feel too. So, again, I know I've talked a lot recently about, like, approaching social media as a content creator. Again, that's why people love the term comfort creator and content creator right now rather than travel advisor, travel content creator because we wanna follow someone who is passionate about what they do, and you're sharing it because you want to share it. So take a moment.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:09]:
I will make sure to segue this into next week to give you guys some hooks based on all of this. Really check-in with yourself this week and ask yourself, what excites me? What do I love to talk about? What would I be so stoked that a radio show, a publication, someone reached out to you and said, we wanna do a two minute this. We need 60 words about this. What is it you

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:27]:
would write? And let's create content around that. Check-in with yourself. Have some fun on social media again.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:32]:
I can't bug you enough because, again, it is the summertime. We're about to be the summertime. We are not going to create content that does not light us up because you're just gonna get frustrated. So there you go. What is something you can talk about all day long? And if that's not what your account's been about and you went another way because someone told you to, you can completely rebrand or find a way to segue what you've been talking about into something new that you've been talking about. There's a girl in my reels lab who she was teaching marketing, and she's like, it just it's not my thing. I'd rather talk about my weight loss journey. I go and totally pivot because the people who are already following you probably wanna follow that too or they can leave.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:05]:
And we wanna give you permission today. This is not so much of a teaching episode. It's like I wanna give you permission to check-in with yourself, create content based on things you actually care about and love. Don't feel like you have to niche so far down into something that you don't care about talking about. We're gonna feel it. With that said, study those reels over in the show notes. And next week, we will get more into really tactical, practical things to take after you kind of have this check-in moment. Just wanted to kind of regroup for a minute, especially after the podcast I was just on.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:32]:
I was like, man, we really need to talk about this stuff because I know if they're hearing it, you guys are feeling it too. So I love you, friend. Take a moment, check back in, and I'll talk to you next week.