Capture the Demand | Will Steiner | Full Battery Media

In this episode of the Full Battery Media Podcast, I sat down with Will Steiner - financial planner, former startup marketer, and one of the sharpest thinkers on content creation I've had on the show. 

Will breaks down why the best storytelling always comes down to intention and obstacle, why you should never create content for a niche but always for one specific person, and how the triple Venn diagram of education, expertise, and entertainment separates good creators from great ones.

We also got into the business side of content: the difference between chasing impressions and actually generating revenue, why your job is never to create demand but to capture it, and how to move people from social media into a place you actually own, like an email list.

 If you've been posting consistently and wondering why none of it is converting into real dollars for your business, this conversation is going to completely reframe how you think about your content strategy.

What's one thing you've been creating content about that genuinely fires you up, and have you ever stopped to ask if it's actually moving people closer to buying from you?

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

I don't think you have to post every day. I don't know. I don't think you have to force it. You know, there's probably some algorithmic reward. I know there's some algorithmic reward for a cadence of, you know, some degree of frequency. Um but as we've discussed, like the organic off-the-cuff stuff can be significantly more higher performing on social than this sort of like stiff B2B client case study testimonial type stuff. Um which you know this kind of gets us into the territory of like, are you getting impressions or are you getting revenue? And that's a tricky one. Like it doesn't behoove you to have an amazing social media following and engagement and impressions, and none of it's converting into actual dollars for your business. So I think that the question is that a lot of people also have to consider is like, how do I get people from these channels where it's like, you know, social media or LinkedIn, for example, where it's like, okay, I've got an eye on a post into a place like an email list where you have a bit more control over the messages that are getting to them.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

All right. Welcome everybody back to the Full Battery Media Podcast. Uh, I'm your host, Sean Trace, and I have an awesome guest with me today. Can you tell people who you are and a little bit about what you do?

SPEAKER_03 1:36

Yeah, absolutely. My name is Will Steiner. Uh, I'm a financial planner, but kind of came to this path through a non-traditional route. I ran marketing at a super fast growing startup for about four years or a big chunk of the marketing department there. Um, I was a writer before that. Uh, have my own sort of fun newsletter projects going on now. And yeah, just happy to kind of crack, crack it open with content and just some sort of get into some of the strategies that I found really work for me uh and some of the failures and lessons I've learned along the way.

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Yeah. It's interesting too, because I think that learning content is a constant um revision process. You know what I mean? Uh I I thought that I understood shit, but then then something comes along, I'm like, this is gonna succeed. Yeah, this video is gonna do so well. And it doesn't. And I just have to go, yeah, man, what happened? Because like I made something like that before and it did well. But then, you know, you're just constantly having to adapt.

SPEAKER_03 2:36

Yeah, it is and it isn't. Like, in in one regard, yes, the formats and the algorithm is constantly changing, but in another, it's like on the other side of whatever you're doing is another person. And I think people care about quality, people care about craft. Not everybody. And maybe I wish more people did. Um, but I don't know. I think if you have some sort of personal driving principles and you care about the work that you're doing, you'll at least be around long enough to benefit from consistency.

SPEAKER_01 3:05

Yeah, I agree. I I think too though, like storytelling is great storytelling. Like if you're really aiming to tell a great story, I mean, if it's caveman times or now, you know, people are gonna stick around for a good story, you know. And I think that that's something that I try to lean in on is like good storytelling, because I remember one of my favorite videos of the past 10 years or 20 years, I don't know when he did it, but it was Casey Neistad did this video that was uh him, and he went to uh it's like a ski slope, and he had a giant drone dragging him around the ski slope. And it was when drones were just getting popular, and it was this massive drone, and he's just like he was like snowboarding behind this huge drone, and I was just like, this is pretty cool, man. I don't know what's happening here, but I want to try to like have a giant drone pull me around a ski, like a snow. We're all looking for our giant drone, okay, in some way or another. Right, right, in some way or another, man. But then all of a sudden, the Samsung logo popped up, and I was like, damn, that was an advertisement the whole time. They they got me, but it was like it was packaged in great storytelling, you know? So it's just it's interesting that, you know, uh if you have a good story, people stick around.

SPEAKER_03 4:22

Yeah, and and yet storytelling is one of those words where it's like everyone's saying it. It's sort of like thought leadership. It's like everyone says the words, but the best definition I've heard of like what makes great storytelling, I think is actually like Sean Perry uh quoting Andrew Rossorkin, who once said, like, you know, I worship at the altar of intention and obstacle. And it's like, oh, that's such a great quote because it's like, you know, it's like, well, what makes a good story? It's like, well, someone wants to do something and someone is something is getting in their way. And I think that's just one of those sort of like heuristics where it's like, okay, you have that in the back of your head. Um, it can be applied to anything, a social media post, a newsletter, a book, whatever. Like it's universal, it can be universally applied. And it's just one of those useful things where it's like storytelling, great, helpful, not really a helpful word. Intention versus obstacle, helpful framework.

SPEAKER_02 5:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

I I in a previous iteration of my life, I studied acting. And I got to study with the really cool acting teacher, Ivana Chubbuck. Now, Ivana taught some great Oscar winners, and she's got really cool stuff, and she's got the 12 steps of the actor. And she's one of the coolest people I know for in that in that field. And she's you she reminds me of Marge's Sisters from The Simpsons. Sit down, you know, sits there and smokes in class and all that. And let me get to the point though. Um what her technique teaches is that you have a goal, like an overarching goal, and like every character has like the overall goal. Like, what is it? Power, love, to be loved, to be worshipped, and then each scene you have a a goal and objective, right? But then you have an obstacle. Like, so and like when I started learning about film, I I did you know actual movies before I got into you know short form content and vlogs and stuff, vlogs and stuff like that. But I love writing. So let's take a story. I live in my house, and there's a big apartment building next door. Let's put my wife and daughter on the top floor, and I need to go get them. So I take the elevator down, walk across the street, press the elevator button, go up. Hey guys, it's time to go home. Okay, dad. Go back. We're home. It's a shitty movie, man. And it's really a horrible movie because there's no obstacles, you know. I just walk down, I go up. Now let's take that and put me over in that movie and or in that in that building and turn the power off. All right, now I've got to walk up 23 floors in the dark, and it's kind of an old creepy stairwell, you know, get up there. Then I've got to walk them down in the in the dark. But you know, I've got my phone, I can do the light. Still not that great of a story. Now let's do that again. And now we're gonna add dudes who can do martial arts. Okay, so as I'm walking up through that building, I have to fight my way through each floor, right? All right, that's kind of hard. Now, instead of like martial arts and there's zombies, and there's like a mob boss at the top who controls the zombies. Now we're getting somewhere.

SPEAKER_03 7:24

Now we're getting into a three-year-old sort of like fantasy scape, which I like personally. You know, I'm like, this these are the conversations I'm having with my kids, except it all starts with, hey, what if, you know, right? I'm like, what if we added me to the movie and I'm actually at the top trying to seduce your wife? You know, there's an interesting twist that uh kind of comes in play here. Um yeah, but the point is well taken, right?

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Like oh, well played, man. Well played. Now that's a plot to a movie and that twist right there. You know, I love it, man. And like the thing is, is I think that like we as content has gotten bigger, like people are forgetting some of these points. You still gotta have a good story. But like, I want to ask you this like, if someone that shit was funny, man. If someone wanted to start creating content today, what's the easiest way to begin without overthinking it?

SPEAKER_03 8:24

You know, there's like all the the textbook answer, which is like, well, like think about what you like doing and maybe what you have a perspective on and the mediums that you prefer. Like, do you want, do you want to be on in front of a camera? Do you want to write? Like, if you hate writing, you probably shouldn't do a writing project, right? So, in some regard, like there's wisdom there where it's like, if you want to start, the goal of starting should just be figuring out something that you can keep doing. Um, because who wants to start something and then just be like, f this kind of sucks and and stops. So I think you have to start with the knowledge that like it's not gonna go great at the beginning. But if you can build some sort of habit around it, like you will eventually get better. Like this is this, you know, this suffering period as a beginner in and and anything where it's like, oh, I'm seeing people around me doing a great job and I'm not doing that. So, okay, like coming back to the actual question, like what would I start doing? Like, I think the first thing you have to do is just do some observation. Like you want to be creating something, you need to consider what you would want to create about. And so I think it's first finding that topic or that theme that is like just something that sparks, creates a spark inside of you as like, uh, I like talking about this. Um, so observe your life. Find something that gets you fired up, and then think, okay, well, what's a medium that is gonna be really low friction for me to get my thoughts out there? The second piece, so if the if it's sort of like choose your topic, choose your medium, great, nothing crazy about that. But I think the the next sort of step here is like consider one person on the other side. Don't think like, oh, I'm gonna write this for an entire niche of people, you know, even if you're like, oh, niche down, riches and niches, whatever. Like, don't think about a group of things people. Think about writing for just one person or recording a video for one person. It's much easier to put yourself in one person's shoes and think, okay, if I'm on the other side of this, like, is it interesting? Do I have a reason to keep watching or reading this? Am I getting something out of this? Um, and I think those two things of like, what so far as you up, also respect the person on the other side is like probably two things worth considering for anyone who's starting out. Like, you have to have answers to that, or at least thought about some of those things before you hit go.

SPEAKER_01 10:45

I have I've seen people have challenges by going too far to the extreme on either side. And it was interesting because I I knew one guy who was like, I only want to make what I want to see. It's like, well, you've got an audience of one, you know?

SPEAKER_03 11:01

And it's like, Yeah, the one person can't be you, right? The person you're writing for probably can't be you if you have commercial intent with this. And and maybe that's another thing. It's like, do you have commercial intent? I don't know. Is it a passion project? Is it a business? A lot of this stuff starts somewhere in the middle uh and and takes shape, you know, reactively.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

Yeah.

unknown 11:22

Right.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

And it's interesting too because, you know, then the opposite side would be people that are always trying to please others and they don't have any identity of themselves. You know, it's like, well, let's see what everyone wants online. Like, I I was building out one of my financial podcasts, and it's like, it was like I went to the YouTube section about like what other people that are doing like financial podcasts or like YouTube channels are doing, and it was like straight up doom and gloom. It's like the crash is coming. You're fucked because content, like it's just gonna go downhill. And I was just like, whoa, that's pretty hardcore. I don't even know about that stuff that I would be able to do that, you know? Oh, yeah. I yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:04

I they're at different scales, you know, once once you sort of hit like absolute top of the food chain, like you you abstract yourself and you become so general that it's like, okay, you guys all sound like you're you're hashing the same platitudes right there at the tippy top. Um at the very bottom, it's like, okay, I don't I don't know if everyone needs to know this level of detail about your life, but like, cool, you're creating and you got started. And then there's this huge middle section of like drastic variations in creator revenue. If we're talking about sort of that creator economy business model, um, I think someone who's really hit the nail on the head here on is Jay Klaus, who kind of has uh a great perspective on the value of the sort of like 1,000 true fans, you know, mantra um creates for sort of he's got many thousands of true fans, but he's got also gotten a community. Um, he's found his sort of a message, his core messages, and he's expanded into several channels to distribute that message. Um and along the way, like he's taking us on his journey. So I that's like a good model if you're looking for someone who's sort of, I think, in a happy middle ground between like totally lost sense of self, but serving the masses, and you know, that sort of creating for one, but the one is them version at the very bottom. Uh, but you know, it's in evolution for anybody at any stage. Like there's no perfect formula for how you should go forth and create content, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_01 13:37

Right? It'd be nice if there was, but yeah, there's really not. And like it leads me to understand like uh to the question like, why do some people's content, why does some people's content feel fun and interesting and others feel boring even if the topic is the same? Is it the person and how they present it or is there something else going on?

SPEAKER_03 13:56

Yes. It's the person. Like for these creator businesses, like if you don't have some fucking verve or moxie or like, you know, whatever that je ne sais quoi is, like if you don't have that, which is not to say that it can't be developed, but it's like, again, put yourself in the audience's shoes. Do they want to watch someone mumble through something, or do they want to watch someone who's like passionate about the topic, like clearly emoting interest uh in a way that grabs you, like in in in explaining something new to someone else, it feels new to you, right? It's like with kids, you show them a new thing, you almost get to experience it as a new thing yourself. Um, and I think that's the the differentiator um between the people who really thrive as content creators. It's like clearly they have a spark within them about what they're talking about. Otherwise, like there's too much other, too many other good options for me to waste time watching someone who doesn't have that.

SPEAKER_01 14:57

I I love that. One of the things too, I think is yeah, I I totally agree. Like the people like succeed, they have something about them that is interesting, at least at least is not like absolutely obnoxious and horrible to watch. I uh I remember what was his name, um was it Tom Green? That guy, that really weird comedian from the 90s. That sounds like this is gonna be a Tom Green thing. Yeah, super awkward, like comedian. But one of the wild things is that Tom Green was the person, and like Tom Green's podcast did not continue going. The Tom Green show faded away because Tom Green was kind of a weird dude. But do you know who came on his podcast and was like, this is pretty interesting. Podcasts are really interesting. Rogan. Rogan. Rogan was there. That was where Joe Rogan got like, this is pretty rad. I get to sit here and talk about whatever I want. And like right there, you see this difference in personality starting at the same time. One guy had a very hard to interact with style, and one guy is just like, let's talk about whatever, you know, and Rogan was crushing it because of the way he just was easy to connect with, you know.

SPEAKER_03 16:10

Well, and he and he crushed it for a really long time because and in part because had he all he had all these wacky interests, like black belt and jujitsu loves aliens, right? Like has read up on all the conspiracy theories, like uh, you know, Graham Hancock stuff, uh, cares about nutrition and fitness and and was genuinely curious. And I feel like Rogan's podcast, like I listened to the Joe Rogan experience for a long time, and I just don't listen to it that much anymore. Um and I think part of that is because like his curiosity of he's he's gotten very like he's got his stories, like he's got his point of view now that feels less curious and wandering and a little bit more like you hear his takes kind of over and over, um, which is we we wouldn't be doing this. Is not to rag on on Rogan, like I'm a he there are fewer guys whose lives have been more shaped by Joe Rogan, I feel like, than me. I'm now a black belt and Brazilian jujitsu. I sauna every single fucking day. Like the dude changed my life. Um, but I just don't listen, I can't listen to his podcasts anymore.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

It makes sense, man. Like, I I think that, and that's like it's really challenging to like. I was watching a an interesting commentary on Mr. Beast yesterday, and I'm not one to comment on Mr. Beast, but this was really fun. A really interesting to watch this guy go down this path. He's like, Mr. Beast is falling into this this trap of becoming like a game show host. And like what got him like to be popular was he did weird shit with his friends, and like they're less, they're their less. And now he's like, he's become like was it the Bob Barker of like the Gin Gen Z, you know? He's like their version of Bob Barker, you know. Let's do the prices right. It's like, and like it's interesting that people can evolve in ways that don't always, you know, have the same draw.

SPEAKER_03 18:09

Well, you and this is not a problem that you or probably well, but I don't want to speak for you. It's probably not a problem that I'll have to face as far as audience size and you know reach, but like it's almost like you become a caricature of yourself. Uh, and that is to me, like uh pretty undesirable as far as paths go. I feel like the litmus test is like, am I doing like am I still doing this for the reasons reasons that I I don't know. I wanted to say, like, am I doing this for the right reasons or the reason and which isn't to say you have to keep doing something for the reason you started doing it or for, but it's like, are you doing it for reasons that uh maintain some amount of importance or like uh worth in your spirit? You know, which again, good. Making money is good, like thriving and doing shit and building amazing businesses is good. Like that, you know, rising tide lifts all boats, sort of thing. Um, but then you get to a point where you're like, okay, how do you know you if you become a caricature of yourself or not? Uh I hope to one day have to ask that that question because my creator business is so successful.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

Right? Oh, that's interesting, man. And you don't have to think about that, but like, yeah, I think you have to think about the core concept. Like, think about this, right? Um someone comes up to you and has a a bag of dog shit, and they're like, Hey, would you eat this for a dollar? And you're like, fuck off, man. Would you eat this for five dollars? I don't know. Oh, sorry. I mean, no. We're a hundred. You know, you know, there's a lot, right? Yeah, might some people be like, yeah, dude, just give me that dog shit. It's gonna looks fucking fine as hell. Um, but you know, like, you know, no matter what, there's gonna be a line where most people are gonna say yeah at $25,000.

SPEAKER_03 20:11

Yeah. Or more.

SPEAKER_01 20:13

I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 20:13

Did I just reveal something about myself?

SPEAKER_01 20:17

Right? Hey, dude, 25k right now, I probably that that that would be, you know, yeah, I probably would, you know, probably cross that line about there too. But you know, I think that's one of the cool things that Mr. Beast kind of answered. Like, I think Mr. Beast, that was the core part of his channel. But what would you do for money? What would you do for, you know.

SPEAKER_03 20:36

Yeah, which it's like in in his own way, he's saying something true about the human condition, which I feel like that's where uh great creative, you know, content creation, like ultimately there's you know, there's a million ways to create content. It can be educational, it can be inspirational, it can be so many things, you know. But like I like when you learn something about the human condition. Um, it's one of the reasons like I write my one of the newsletter that I write is sort of like a passion project, it's called parental advisory. And it's just funny. I have three kids under five, uh under four currently, actually. And it's like funny shit is happening around my house constantly. But it's like all the time. So it's uh just an endless stream of potential content. And I just document it, you know, through my own lens and ask like, is there something that I can learn from these hilarious interactions? Um, but it's like I in those interactions, I feel like I am seeing truths, you know, kids being that sort of incredible source of wisdom in their own way.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

That's awesome, man. I love that. I I think that's a powerful way to do it, you know. And I think that like that's that personal experience is something that's powerful. Like I started, I have a I have a personal finance podcast where I talk to all these really high level financial advisors that I shouldn't be talking to, asking them advice. About money because one day my 10-year-old daughter said, Hey dad, what's this? And I was like, dude, I have no fucking idea. But let's find out. We'll show some creepers. I have no idea what it was. Just kidding.

SPEAKER_03 22:12

No, I don't even know what that is, dude. Was she asking about the Yen K trade? Yeah, just kidding. Yeah, no, it's good to have you. Did you tell her to go listen to your podcast? Is my question.

unknown 22:24

No. No.

SPEAKER_01 22:26

No way, man. But I mean, I wanted to like get answers to tell her stuff, you know. And so I I think at the end of the day, I started talking to people because I wanted to be sounded a little bit less like an idiot. And uh it looks like I need to go and when I'm rewind this back, I'm literally gonna Google the shit that you just said and figure out what the hell that was. So or chat GPT it. I can we even say Google stuff anymore? I don't even like it. Is that it is legal?

SPEAKER_03 22:52

Yeah, it's just uncouth, I think. Uncouth.

SPEAKER_01 22:57

Not really the preferred term. I wonder when clodding, clawed or GPTing is gonna become a verb. It doesn't quite roll. Um yeah, it doesn't really roll off the top.

SPEAKER_03 23:07

Clauding. But also, I feel like I'm on LinkedIn so much and on Twitter too much. And it's like everybody so this group of people call it like chat GPT, but like the non-super online people just call it chat, apparently. Like I had no idea. Really? I didn't know. Yeah. I do chat that, you know, and that's like that's a sensible approach to creating a verb out of this new thing. Right.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

I didn't know that, man. That's why I mean it was wild that we didn't call it Yahoo! And that was a time. There was a time. You are dating yourself, my friend. I did. Uh, do you need to be funny or creative to make good content, or can anyone learn it?

SPEAKER_03 23:49

Um no, definitely not. Uh I think if you kind of imagine like a triple Venn diagram of like education, expertise, entertainment, you know, like I think the okay people do one thing well, good people, really good people do two things, and the best people can find ways to weave them all together. So I don't think you need to be funny or entertaining to create super valuable content. It could be educational, it could be, you know, for a very specific niche where you have like expertise that is in total high demand and people just need your knowledge. Um, they can't get it anywhere else. So it's like, cool, that's you have a market. Um but I don't know, like the greats. I sound like such a loser. The greats of content creation. Um I think they can they kind of do it all. You know, and then there are outliers who are just so exceptional in certain areas, like Sal Khan on the education front. Like he was were those videos like entertaining? I don't know, but like, man, the education value of the video created this empire for him.

SPEAKER_01 25:14

Yeah. That's that's awesome, man. That's it's a great example as well. But I wanted to know, like, for yourself, how do you turn your normal everyday moments into content people actually enjoy?

SPEAKER_03 25:26

Um I think I like to look at my life. I'm I'm an observer, I think I'm a good observer of my own life. Um where I can kind of sit as something is happening, and maybe this comes at the uh cost of being present with my children, but uh as something ha is happening, um, I'm kind of thinking like, what is there a takeaway here? Or is there a uh uh something funny in inside of this? Or like, I don't know. I did a lot of stand-up in college, and that was like such a great avenue to just try being funny, you know, whether it worked or not. Like I was working at a secondhand shoe store. It was like all old ladies, you flirted with them, you made sales, like that was good fodder for like then going on stage at open mics and doing stand-up and all that stuff. And so um like the lens of like, hey, is there something here that's interesting? Like is um is kind of always on. It's such a thing I can't turn off. And you know, John Cleese of sort of Monty Python fame says creativity is just combining two previously uncombined things, you know, in a new way. You're finding something new by taking things that you wouldn't expect to come together and bringing them together. Um so I don't know, like uh the way I apply it to my own life is I spend time thinking about the things that are happening and I ask myself, like, is there something funny in this? Is there connection to some other thing? And then if I find that there is, I'll go write about it.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

That's awesome. I um I think that I try to find I think there's something powerful in those moments that that allow people to connect. One of my best, my best posts on LinkedIn, one of the posts that I think people connected with the most most was like about a month and two months ago, my daughter, she gets like, ever since she was a kid, she was she's 10 now, but she she'll get a like a cold, and then it will go into like her throat, and then it goes down, and then she gets vomity after like a week of the cold, and it's every single time. And it's like, and she's just like, and she's like, she'll look at you like, I'm feeling okay. Are you okay? Yeah, you you look a little green, and like it was like and it was like hours, hours of that, right? And my wife was traveling, I had finished some podcasts, got her to sleep. I'm like, okay, shit's okay. Go upstairs. I laid down, and I had just laid down next to her. She was up on the bed when I heard this, and then like boom, and I'm laying on the floor, projectile vomiting down the entirety of my fucking back. I'm covered in vomit, and I'm sitting there going, Oh god. And then I go and I get her cleaned up. I'm still covered in vomit. And my mom's like, How are you doing? Is she doing better? I take a picture of myself, just destroyed at 2 a.m. And I had had a long day at work. I'd been up since like six, you know, fixing stuff with clients. It was like a long ass day at work, and like, and then one of my like my friends was like, You need to post your business wins every day. And I was like, This is my fucking business win. I didn't murder anyone today, and I'm covered at vomit at 2 a.m. I posted that on LinkedIn, dude. It crushed it. People were like, dude, I can relate to that. That's the win that I can relate to. And I think that it was just like something that so many people were like, thank God someone's actually saying how it is. Oh yeah. And I think that that was something that I learned is like people can't relate to the guy who's sitting there going, I wake up at 5 a.m. and then I eat shit for breakfast and I eat shit for lunch, and it's fucking amazing, and no one paid me $25 to eat this shit, but I did it anyways. We can't always relate to that, but we can relate to someone who's covered in vomit at 2 a.m. Because we've been there, you know?

SPEAKER_03 29:35

Yeah, totally. I mean, now if it was $25,000 to eat this shit, I could relate. But um, yeah, because like what are we all doing here? You know, like LinkedIn, especially is such a dumpster. Like um the AI slot, such a dumpster fire, man. It's it's so embarrassing, uh, which I don't take LinkedIn seriously at all. And neither should anyone, like, no one really should. Um maybe I don't know. It's I'm it's a place where you can you should be posting funny stuff, you should be posting personal stuff. Like um, with how much AI has just filled the timeline. Uh, it's like you want to stand out. You want people to find you, you want to grow your business. Like you have to freaking open up the kimono to the weird stuff that's happening in your personal life. You know, open kimono is probably phrases of headline, you know.

SPEAKER_02 30:35

Not literally for LinkedIn. But you know, other platforms maybe, you know, but LinkedIn probably hold back on that, right?

SPEAKER_01 30:45

I don't know. Right? Speaking of mistakes, um, what's a mistake people make when they try too hard to sound smart or professional? Uh well, at a certain point, like the truth will come out.

SPEAKER_03 31:01

You will be, you've tr you've do something, you write something, you know, you've written, you've gotten AI or Chat GBT to make yourself sound smarter than you actually are. Like, at some point you're gonna be face to face with someone, and like you will have to show your true colors. So, like, what why build a facade that you that is anything other than who you are? That's like that's your mistake. Like, you can hide behind maybe you can keep up the act. Like, good luck. You're just gonna feel a deep sense of cognitive dissonance, which seems pretty miserable.

SPEAKER_01 31:36

I mean, everyone people are integrating AI into their workflows, but like I try to tell people that I do videos with them, like, just stop, stop reading AI like slop, man. Don't use these AI slop scripts, you know. Like, I'm here to tell you how you can succeed at your life in three simple steps. It's like I had I was asking Chat GPT something like the other day, and I was like, like, I got this thing where my daughter is like, she's a good kid, but she's an asshole to some of her tutors. Her piano and her teacher and her, they're just like adversarial. And I don't know what this shit is because her mom and I were teaching her to be respectful, but these two come at it and they go at it, and I'm like, Jesus Christ, what's happening in here? And I I changed piano teachers, and she's just a dick to the piano teacher. So I was like, I was asking Chat GPT, I was like, all right, uh, I don't know if you had anything in here. I'm dumping this. Do you have any tips on this shit? And it's like, dad to dad, I feel you right now. I'm like, you're not a fucking father, man. It was like funny, dad to dad, I can feel you right now. And it's like, really? Like, whatever, who who programmed this shit to say that, man? It's kind of weird.

SPEAKER_03 32:50

Odd. I also I heard recently that the latest model, uh, Chat GPT, the 5.5 model, is like weirdly obsessed with like gremlins and ghouls and goblins. Uh, and they have like they've written in some like very explicit instructions of like, don't mention the goblins, like, no gremlin talk, stay away from the ghouls. And I just that's so funny.

SPEAKER_01 33:14

Dodge accepted.

SPEAKER_03 33:16

Yeah, yeah. The thing you're like, hey, um, what's this like water pooling at the bottom of my fridge? And it's like, well, you have a fridge goblin, you know, like you might need to look into that a little bit. Um but yeah, the dad thing, it's like, I kind of want to you're like stay in your lane, like you're not uh you haven't taken humanoid form yet.

SPEAKER_01 33:39

Oh man, that's red. I um I did ask today. I was trying to get some help with an image generation, and it's like, and it was a picture, it was like a thumbnail thing, right? It was a picture of a person, and it says, uh, it was like a text across the top, and and then in the back, it was a chart showing the rising cost of healthcare. And so it was like some one of my clients was having me help with this, and I needed to like I wanted to isolate a similar background image. I was like, can you help me with this? It generated a picture, a cartoon picture of a puppy, and it was like the puppy from like up. It looked like the up puppy, you know, the dogs that are like walking around. And I was just like, the fuck is this? I was like, that's the up puppy, man. I was like, it's adorable, but like that's not what I asked for. And it's like, good call, Sean. Daddy Dad, I see where I made that mistake. I was like, no, dad to dad.

SPEAKER_00 34:34

Oh man.

SPEAKER_01 34:37

I'd ask you a question though. Why do simple stories usually work better than complicated explanations?

SPEAKER_03 34:45

Uh, I think it this comes back to like who's on the other side of this. Take what's the takeaway? You know, people like I don't, I remember hearing some stat where it's like people remember like 10% of what you tell them. And that's why the presenters will like hammer, like presenters and big keynotes will like, there's always just one thing that is like the main message, right? I want you to remember if I'm gonna remember anything from this presentation, like let it be this. Um, and so it's just like, what can how much can someone just ingest? Um, they can ingest more from in you know, video than they can from just hearing something through audio. Um, but based on sort of like the information richness of your medium, you're probably not gonna want to overload someone. You probably just want to make sure that you have a single point, which again is like a good way to think about content creation. Like all you need to do with in any given piece is make one point. You have your point, make sure you've made it, make it in a compelling way, but like it's so tempting to have, you know, like like tentacle out to these different areas and like try to tie things in that just don't belong. And I think the another distinction here is like who are you creating for? Um Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451, like amazing author, like has this great line in like the at the back of that book that's like um digression is the soul of wit. And that's always stuck with me. Like, okay, yes, great authors, like they take you on these tangents. They're just like, okay, we could go off for 15 pages and it's great, and then you come back and you're like, that was worth it. Um, but you're not writing like great fiction works of fiction, right? Uh that probably doesn't apply to you. Um it might, I mean maybe it does, like, but uh writ large, like that's keep it narrow, keep it focused, get in, get out, just do it great, do it in a in a way that is compelling. Um, there's there's the guardrails make I I'm really rambling here and I know that, but like um if you give yourself the constraint of keeping yourself focused, you will find that you can create better, more creative stuff too.

SPEAKER_01 37:15

I love that. Rambling's okay, man. My ID A D D A it was taking me down. Like when you said maybe you're writing fantasy, I was like, hmm, should I do that? Maybe I should be writing fantasy. Maybe I should. Those are my brain was going. I was like, would it be more Cimmerillian? Or am I arming teddy bears with swords? Like my brain went somewhere wild. So yeah. Um, I I'm not one of those people that has a problem with this next question, but some people do. Like, how do you come up with content ideas consistently without running out? And I don't know, I I'm thinking about teddy bears with swords right now. So how do you come up with content?

SPEAKER_03 37:53

Yeah. Um I work like in a client-facing business. Uh, which I'm a financial advisor, like or planner, whatever you want to call it. Like, so I have great conversations with people all the time. And it's like, again, my lens or what I'm listening for in these conversations is like, is there a lesson here or a question that someone's asking that everybody else is gonna, you know, or like 80% of the other people who I want to serve are gonna be asking. So um, from a business content creation standpoint, like look no further than your clients for a source of inspiration. Um from my sort of personal creative projects, it's like, yeah, my source of inspiration is the interactions I have with my kids. There's new shit happening on that front every day. Um so I think, yeah, like what I said in the very beginning, I think carries through to a lot of this stuff is like, are you an observer of your own life? Uh, or are you just sort of a passive participant and things wash over you, they kind of happen, then they're gone. Um, and are you thinking then on the other side of like who who is the audience? Like, what are they getting out of this? Is it as great of an experience for them as I as it should be?

SPEAKER_01 39:07

I love that. I I think that like thinking about coming back to other people's experience is great as well. But like, you know, I want to ask you a different like this question because like, what's the difference between content people enjoy reading and content that actually builds a business too? Because you know, like a lot of people watching this are sitting there going, these guys are making all these jokes, they're kind of being funny. But like, I I need to like I'm investing and I want to make, I want to get a return on what I'm creating, you know, or what I'm you know, return on my investment. Is there something that people should be thinking about there?

SPEAKER_03 39:40

Yes, maybe we should have started with this for the sake of your audience. Um fuck no. Sorry. Uh yeah, so uh just so I guess I shared at the beginning that I did mark I've done marketing for several years. And I think the um a good takeaway, a good realization for everybody in their content creation journey around marketing is that it's not your job to create demand. And what I mean by that is it's not your job to convince people that what you're selling is something that they should buy. Um, your job is to capture demand. So you don't have to create it, you have to capture it. So if you're writing for a business, you need to be thinking, okay, who wants what I am selling? Who already wants what I'm selling? Surely there are people out there who want what I'm selling. Otherwise, and if there aren't, maybe find a different business. But since there are, the next step is asking, is just thinking in a funnel. You know, this is just marketing 101. It's like, if someone wants what I'm selling, how am I gonna get their attention? Okay, I have their attention. How am I gonna convince them now that I have a solution to a problem they either have or maybe didn't realize they had, but you know, different layers of awareness there. Oh, they understand that I have a solution. How am I then gonna take this further down the funnel and show them the benefits of the differentiators of what I have to offer versus compared to what their competition, the competition has to offer? Now, there are layers of complexity to this that we don't need to get into now. But for anyone who wants to really nerd out, there's an amazing book called Breakthrough Advertising by Eugene Schwartz. And you can't buy it on Amazon. You have to buy it through his great-grandson's website or whatever. Uh, it's like 125 bucks, but it's like, it's from the like right after sort of the madmen era, where mail, direct mail advertising created the basis of sort of the science of advertising. Um, that was the point where we were, you know, that people were really starting to be able to collect a ton of data. And surely some historian of advertising who maybe listens to the show will be like, well, actually. Um but you uh Eugene Schwartz, his advertising framework, which the reason I'm talking about about advertising is because we're thinking, hey, as content creators, we want people to buy shit from us. Um but he's got this amazing framework that basically categorizes people based on their sort of awareness, sophistication, and sort of the competitive landscape. Like what, you know, how how saturated is your market? And based on those three things, you would approach advertising differently. So for the pros, you know, the the sort of the average business owner who maybe their business is a service and they don't consider themselves a marketer by trade, which is a lot of people, all you need to really know is that you should be marketing to the people who want your product. And your content just needs to answer their questions based on where they are in the funnel. Do they even know it exists? They know it exists, great. Do they know how to solve their problem? Okay, they know how it solves their problem. How is it different from everything else that's out there? What are the benefits? What are the differentiators? Oh, okay. Like you're moving them down the funnel. So does that answer your question?

SPEAKER_01 43:05

It's pretty fucking awesome, man. Uh if someone feels stuck or unsure about what to post, what's one simple thing they can do today? I don't think you have to post every day.

SPEAKER_03 43:16

Like just I wouldn't I don't know. I don't think you have to force it. You know, there's probably some algorithmic reward. I know there's some algorithmic reward for a cadence of, you know, some degree of frequency. Um but as we've discussed, like the organic off the cuff stuff can be significantly more higher performing on social than this sort of like stiff B2B client case study testimonial type stuff. Um which you know, this kind of gets us into the territory of like, are you getting impressions or are you getting revenue? And that's a tricky one. Like it doesn't behoove you to have an amazing social media following and engagement and impressions, and none of it's converting into actual dollars for your business. So I think that the question is that a lot of people also have to consider is like, how do I get people from these channels where it's like, you know, social media or LinkedIn, for example, where it's like, okay, I've got an eye on a post into a place like an email list where you have a bit more control over the messages that are getting to them. And that's where you, you know, there's certain profile optimization stuff that you can do, where it's like, oh, if someone sees you, clicks on your profile, what do they learn there? How are you then pushing them to the next stage of the process, which is perhaps viewing your newsletter or downloading something or taking a quiz, like whatever, maybe you have a lead magnet, something there. Um, but like that's a big piece here. So, which is again very off topic to the question of like what to do if you don't know what to post. Um, I see a lot of people just posting pictures of themselves, and I'm like, eh, okay, like good on you. Uh, but I personally am like, if I don't have anything to say today, like I'm I know I'll probably have something to say tomorrow or the next. And I know that my profile is optimized to the point where if I get profile views, people are gonna click view my newsletter. My newsletter landing page is optimized to the point where if the people land on it, a certain amount of them are can gonna convert. And then I have them in my on my email list. That's where I focus on turning that relationship into revenue.

SPEAKER_01 45:30

I love that. Well, I want to ask you um, where can people go to find out more about you and what you do?

SPEAKER_03 45:37

Please connect with me on LinkedIn. That's like my where I post all my most unhinged content. Um, so I'm Will Steiner. I think it's W. Steiner1. If you are looking for a specific, I don't know, the URL. But well, maybe we can include some URLs at the end of this. Um I also write my millennial, you know, funny parenting newsletter at parentaladvisoryletter.com. So parentaladvisoryletter.com. Um and then I'm launching my, you know, for anybody who's looking for a financial planner who's a high income millennial with young kids and aging parents, you'll be able to find me at stoneholtwealth.com.