Your Boring Life Moments are the Shortcut to Success

If you feel like you are boring, or your niche is boring, I need you to hear me: you are not boring. Those random and mundane life moments are exactly what we are craving on social media right now, and if you feel like you have nothing to say on Instagram, get out of the house, go for a walk, meet with a friend, read a news article and take note of what lights you up. Go do something interesting and talk about it. We see all this content on social media and it’s so edited and perfect, sometimes we just need to feel something real. Our brains are dying for more mundane and boring, and to just connect with you over the silliest stuff.

In this episode we’ll be covering:

• The value of “boring” content and how seemingly mundane things from your day can actually be the key to more conversations.
• Remember how I’ve been begging you to document your day with photos and video clips? Now is the time to use it!
• How to get out of a boring content rut and find some inspiration in your day. 
• Get outside your niche, your life isn’t all business, we want to see and hear about your day.
• Sharing your journey helps connect with people who are on a similar path, or share the same values and beliefs. 

Featured content in this episode:

• grace_lanker: How to pick the perfect watermelon
• Doctora_edith: Unhinged things I’ve recommended as a pediatrician
• Laurennortonbeauty: The art of knowing when to stop
• Hollydawnkuni: Your toddler does not care if the craft is aesthetic 
• Shannonmckinstrie: The Anti-Edit Edit

Recommended episodes:

• Episode 103: Hot Take: We’re Following Accounts Where We See a Reflection of Ourselves
• Episode 104: How to Create Viral Reels From Everyday Video Clips
• Episode 106: Spark Conversations with Reels Your Audience Will Want To Respond To
• Episode 108: Why You NEED To Take Content Creation Seriously
• Episode 109: The Human Side of Content That Sells
• Episode 116: Easy Content Ideas for When You’re Not Feeling Creative

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Transcript

Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:00]:
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. All right, so this is going to be an interesting one because we're at the beach for the next three weeks and I forgot my microphone and unfortunately, for some reason, Amazon, like won't deliver to us. It's weird. I think it's because we don't have a mailbox yet. I don't know.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:34]:
It's something weird. So where am I gonna get a podcast? I'm like, I already checked Target. I'm like, we're just gonna go. I hope the audio is okay with this one. My poor podcast manager is probably like Shannon. Anyway, so my aunt, uncle, luckily live around the corner, so I'm gonna get it shipped there because they are able to get Amazon, you know, we're in full vacation mode. So of course this would be what we're doing. So I hope the audio is okay.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:00:54]:
But it's kind of fun. Cause it's actually kind of like what I wanted to talk about, which is, I mean, look, if you're watching on YouTube, you know, I'm just sitting here in our beach house bedroom. We haven't decorated in here yet. It's pretty boring, right? It's a boring background. Doesn't matter. I hear it all day long. My life's boring. My niche is boring.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:13]:
I don't have anything to talk about. Yes, you do. And you are. I'm here to tell you you are not boring, my friend. Do you guys realize the videos and photos in your camera roll right now are your next big breakthrough on Instagram or wherever you like to post, but because you think it's boring, you're not going to post it. And that's crazy. Your boring content is what's going to win, and I'm going to prove it today. I.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:01:36]:
Especially when I look back on the early days of sharing content, I leaned a lot on Instagram stories because I had, I was just so busy, I barely posted, right? I wouldn't post my feed a lot. We're talking like 2017, 2018, when I first started showing up on Instagram and I really didn't post, I leaned on stories because stories to me are low lift, right? They're very easy. I can document my day. I. I would literally show the creamer I found at Trader Joe's and I'd get DMs I would show Cam and I sitting at Starbucks while I'm writing captions for my clients and she is reading a book. And I would get people DMing me. That's boring, right? We love boring. We want mundane.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:15]:
Our brains are dying for mundane and boring. And just to connect with you over the silliest stuff, I want you to think about, okay, it could be a coworker, it could be a bestie of yours, whomever. And you sit down for coffee. What are you guys going to talk about? You can talk about that stuff in stories. It does not have to be business all the time. And I'm so tired of these gurus making you think you can't talk about things outside of business or your niche. I have shared so much content over the years outside of my niche that has gone viral. And I mean, I did did one a few weeks ago.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:02:45]:
About this is your sign to get a hotel room for the night. You know, have like a little staycation with your girls. And it was like, my girlfriends and our daughters and they play in the pool all night because our husbands were away for a golf trip. It went viral and people are all in the comments sharing it. Da, da, da, da. That has nothing to do with my business. Almost a million views, and last time I checked, I think I got like over 300 followers from it. Nothing crazy, but I know we're, as an Instagram user, we are using this app differently.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:11]:
We are not following everybody. We. I think during COVID everyone was following everybody. We're pickier with who we follow now. So I think one of the biggest things missing from your content is the boring stuff. I think the boring stuff is what is gonna get you to more followers and to more sales. I really do. I know it because I've experienced it.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:03:30]:
So like I said with that reel. But what happens is when people see that, they connect to it on some human level. They go to my account, they see, oh, she teaches content and Instagram, I'll follow her, right? We're not blind, in my opinion. I do not believe we're just blindly following people, but I do believe we're following people whose lifestyles emulate ours, who we connect with. On again, whether it's your values, your beliefs, your location, where you're at, the journey you're on. You're on a journey to lose a certain amount of weight. You're on a journey to have a 90s summer. You're on a journey to quit the big law firm and start your own.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:04]:
We love it, right? So what I wanted to say in this podcast to really bring it home is that I started on TikTok, sharing this journey that we're on right now of living at our beach house for the next three weeks, right? We're basically, we're like Outer Banks, locals for the next three weeks, now If you're new around here, I'm so glad you're here listening. I appreciate it so much. Just, I. I'm very off the cuff on these podcasts because I just want to remind you that we're all just humans on these apps, right? So I thought it'd be fun to be like, oh, maybe people want to see this on TikTok. It's not my normal content and people are loving it and I'm just showing them the places we like to go, the story of the beach house and how it came to be. If you're feeling in a rut, and I have been feeling in a rut on TikTok for a while now. I literally am like, I don't know what I want to share on TikTok.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:04:49]:
I don't want my content on TikTok to look like what I share on Instagram. It's Instagram. Instagram is my happy place. It is my favorite. But I like sharing social media tips over there. I don't really like sharing social media tips on TikTok. I don't know why. And every time I do, they don't do.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:03]:
It's funny. I think it's because I know when I'm putting that content up on TikTok, I'm not excited about it. When I'm putting it on Instagram, I literally have no drafts in my phone. I get so excited about the content I put out and that's because I got outta my head thinking, this is boring. I'm sure there's a lot of people who find my content boring. They're not my people. So I know this is a little, like all over the place. I just thought I'd get on here and yap and just kind of get out.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:25]:
Some feelings I've had for a while because I hear all the time my niche is boring. I'm boring. Da, da da. I'm like, guys, I barely leave my house during the week. And yes, right now we're on an exciting journey and adventure because we're living at the beach for three weeks. But typically I'm in the house working on a laptop, and then over the weekend we usually get out and have fun. So let me just tell you what to do when you feel like your content is boring. You feel like you are boring, you feel like your niche is boring.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:05:47]:
I want you to like ask yourself or get out of the house, go with a friend, like I said, a coworker, a friend. Get talking about things and then something will come up, whether it's about your work, your life, whatever it is, and you can turn that into content. I tell everyone you are stuck and you're bored of your own content. You feel like you have nothing to say. Get out of your house, go on a walk, pick up a book, read a news article, read a Substack, go hang out with a friend and take note of things that lit you up to talk about. And then you can literally pick up the phone and go, I was just talking to a friend and something really crazy happened. Or I just read this Substack and this and this happened. I was just at the grocery store and look what I found.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:26]:
These in the moment type of content. Like what I'm doing right now on this podcast too. I'm like, we're about to go to the beach. I was like, let me just record this real quick. This is what we're craving. Because everything is so edited and perfect and da da da. And we love that too. I love beautiful reels and beautiful carousels, but sometimes we just.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:06:44]:
And I'm seeing more and more of it where people are doing. And I'll put it down in the show notes, the anti edit. Edit is what I'm calling it, where you're literally just talking and there's no cuts, there's no fancy pop ups, it's just you talking to the camera and that's it. And there's a lot of creators doing it that are doing it really well. But again, you're probably gonna go, but Shannon, mine will be boring. I know you're saying it, I know you're already saying it. And this is how we fix that. Make it something interesting.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:11]:
Go do something interesting and talk about it. I think the more that you remember this is your life, your life has meaning. You have had lived experiences that we haven't and we want to know those. So I didn't want to make this a long one. I wanted to make this a quick and short podcast that makes you really think about what you share. And if you think you're boring, I want you to always listen to this. You are not boring. So what I'm trying to tell you.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:07:35]:
And I'll put some in the show notes, people are turning their everyday, lived in Basic moments that you think it's all about framing. It can be boring. If you're into cooking, what'd you make for dinner? If you're a nutritionist, what'd you make? We actually want to know this stuff that is not boring to us. If you are a doctor, what medicine did you buy at Target this week for your kids that you swear by your life, your opinions, your hot takes are not boring. And the stuff that you think is boring is what's probably going to go viral. So let's look at a couple to talk about it. All right, here's one. How to pick the perfect watermelon from someone who bought 25 watermelons last year. I am no scientist, but this method works almost 7,000 likes.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:17]:
And it's just basic photos from her camera roll. Here's another one. Slightly unhinged things I've recommended as a pediatrician mom. And then she just puts a list. Boring. Five seconds of her just typing away. But not boring. Do you see what I mean? You think it's boring because someone told you it's not interesting enough.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:34]:
If you find it interesting, if you have an interesting conversation, you see a cool quote, you have a cool breakthrough. We want to see it. And here's another one. And I can tell you right now, this creator's content booked a client, me, because I have a speaking event in Savannah in July. And I wrote her, I'm going to put it again in the show notes. It says the art of knowing when to stop. And she's a makeup artist. So she starts with the brides with fresh face.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:08:56]:
And then she just shows her process, you guys. And then of course, you know, we emailed, I found her and I went to her Instagram profile. Cause I was like, wow, that's a gorgeous makeup look of this person. She did. And I see she's in Savannah. I have a talk in Savannah in July. So I went right to her website. I booked it and she emailed me.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:15]:
She goes, wait, I've been following you. Da, da da. And I was like, oh my gosh, I just saw your reel. And I have a speaking engagement. She's like, just shows post the content. I'm like, there it is. Literally the art of knowing when to stop. And she shows the final result.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:27]:
I go to her account, it says, savannah makeup artist. I book she's got a new client. That reel just made her money. It got her followers. Cause it has over 26,000 likes. So again, this is boring quote unquote content that you have already in Your camera roll. Because if you're doing what I've been begging you to do, you're recording little clips and videos and taking photos and documenting your life. That's it, right? Let me find one more of a different niche.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:09:50]:
So y' all really, really know. Oh, I love this reminder. Your toddler does not care if the craft is aesthetic. Today's activity was literally painting a box. It was the greatest thing ever. I know I talk a lot about identity and taste, right? So obviously I'm a, I'm a mom of a five year old. Like the algorithm is showing me this because it knows I'm a mom. And I love content about kids and activities and things like that.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:11]:
This is just an everyday morning in her house. And it is six second video. And she got over 9,000 likes, over a thousand shares, 65 reposts. You guys, your boring life is the shortcut to success. All my B roll is boring. All of it. All of it's boring. I use the same B roll over and over again.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:28]:
And that's where you take that. Boring. Your idea of boring. You put the identity, you put the taste, you put the story, you put the something that sticks and it just all of a sudden went from boring to viral. Boring to clients, boring to followers, boring to changing your freaking life. If I never started posting my boring, mundane everyday life and stories, I wouldn't be here. I would not literally be in this house. We wouldn't have built this house.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:10:54]:
I wouldn't. I don't know, who knows where we'd be. Definitely not doing the things we love. Definitely not meeting all of you and meeting so many incredible people. And I mean, I like, I love to say one of my first clients was a title company. I blew up their Instagram. A title company. Talk about boring.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:14]:
Cause we shared the people, we shared the closing stories. We shared things about Washington D.C. cause that's where they were located. So people from D.C. started loving the their content. Cause it wasn't just about a boring title. You.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:25]:
I will turn. Give me your camera roll. I'll take your boring videos and push them to go viral. I've done it so many times, you have no idea. I was at a, I was talking at a conference or a retreat in Florida in March and I took someone's video. She had 600 followers. I put it up there with some interesting quote unquote text. She went viral overnight.

Shannon McKinstrie [00:11:45]:
Overnight. So trust me, do not let you thinking you're boring hold you back. Your boring, mundane lived experiences are inspiring and beautiful to others. I love you, friend.