13 – Creating Content Worth Making

Health Fit Business

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So how do you even go about reaching the 10,000 people that you’ve decided is your target? How do you get yourself out there and start positively affecting people?

Content.

Content creation is absolutely critical and it isn’t a haphazard process. No one just accidentally makes great content when they feel like making it.

We’ve already talked about how to use social accountability to get yourself committed to making regular content. But what kind of content can you be making? How do you know what will be useful for your audience and what won’t be useful?

Types of Content

There are 3 primary types of content you can focus on making to reach your audience. All of them are good and can be used as an overall content creation strategy:

1. Video
2. Audio
3. Articles

Some people choose to use a comprehensive strategy and include all three types.

For The Movement Fix, I use all three.

I use the podcast to connect on a deeper level with my audience and discuss topics off the cuff.

I use videos to show practical information that my audience can use for themselves or others.

I use articles to discuss specific topics in greater depth.

How do you know what is good and worthwhile?

This is the biggest challenge. Knowing the types of content to create is easy, it is just a fact. Knowing what to make is admittedly harder.

One of the things I will do frequently is use my interactions with clients as inspiration for posts. If i see two people in the week who are doing the same issue with deadlifting, I will make that a video.

If I have a conversation over and over with people, I will make that into a podcast, etc. etc.

If real people in the real world are getting value from these things, it makes sense that you can expand that to the larger audience. This is why it’s so critical in my opinion to work with both smaller groups and on a larger scale. It keeps you connected.

The other thing I will do is focus on getting into the mentality of my audience. I want to put myself in a frame of mind that they are in so I can address their needs. What do they worry about? What do they struggle with? What problem are they trying so solve?

Use the answers to those questions to help you figure out what you should be making. You don’t have to give them exactly what they think they need, you need to give them the answer to their question.

What I mean by this is, if I asked someone with back pain what they wanted, they would say a good low back stretch. That probably isn’t something I want to give them (a whole different convo if that doesn’t make sense..). What they WANT is how to help their low back. I then give them what I think makes sense given what they actually want, not what they think they want.

In review

We have 3 ways to deliver content: audio/podcast, video, the written word

We have multiple ways to figure out what is valuable: put yourself in your audience’s shoes, pay attention to conversations you currently have frequently, pay attention to questions you currently get asked a lot by clients, and then use that to help guide your creation.

This week’s challenge

Decide on a medium, solve a problem, and make something (and post it!).

Now get after it!

Podcast Transcript

Ryan: I’m Dr. Ryan Debell. Thanks for tuning in once again to the Health Fit Biz podcast. This is episode number 13. What we are going to talk about in this episode is content creation. What it is? How to figure out ideas of what content to make whether that’s videos or blog posts or articles. Whatever it is. How can you make content that is worth listening to or reading or consuming by the audience that you are targeting based on who your 10,000 is? So, in this episode we’ll cover some strategies on how to do that. Some fit falls that you can avoid and many other things along with a weekly challenge at the end. So, without further ado, let’s go ahead and tune in to the episode number 13 of the Health Fit Biz podcast.

Ryan: Welcome!

Anthony: Hi guys! Welcome to the Health

Ryan: Fit

Anthony: Biz-

Ryan: -Nes

Anthony: Pod-

Ryan: -Cassst

Anthony: Cast… And I’m your host Dr. Anthony Gustin.

Ryan: I’m your co-host, Dr. Ryan Debell.

Anthony: Right. Right. Hello Ryan! How are you?

Ryan: I’m good Anthony. Thanks for asking.

Anthony: So, this episode what we are going to talk about some people are saying “Okay. Great! You guys have all these time optimization things but…”

Ryan: Yeah… but waste of… whatever.

Anthony: “But you know, I should be providing value to all these people 10 or 10,000 blah blah blah blah.”

Ryan: But how do you provide that value?

Anthony: Yeah. Right. How do you provide that value? It’s called creating content.

Ryan: Yes. Content creation is how you reached your 10,000.

Anthony: Exactly! And so, people think content “Oh! That’s a blog post! Easy. That’s a social media post. Easy!” Not so quick.

Ryan: I wish it was that easy.

Anthony: If people… If it was just as easy as writing a blog post and posting it, that’s providing value for the people, everyone will be doing it and everybody will have his massive following.

Ryan: Ah a blog post that do not get read and nobody care about.

Anthony: And the reason why is because people care about their opinions more than they care about solving problem. We are creating content and the number one we always think about is “is this solving a problem for somebody else?”

Ryan: Yeah. Exactly! Is it solving a problem or is it providing value in some way to them? Maybe that’s the same thing but. So, tackle a little but about the Movement Fix because I create a lot of content for that and primarily, I created in three formats. These are formats that are you guys can use to reach your 10,000. So, I do podcast, I do videos and then I do blog posts. And what I think about essentially is when I’m trying to create something and creating stuff isn’t easy by the way. Which is why most people do it because it comes out of your head.

Anthony: Creating content is work.

Ryan: It comes out of your head, it’s work!

Anthony: It’s problem solving.

Ryan: Exactly! It’s challenging mental work. But what I think about is this, I think about “What would my audience find valuable? What problems do they have? What are the best things that I can provide them that addresses the things that they are experiencing day to day or in a week or whatever?” So, for example like when I go to a gym, I see people that they do not know how to warm up their hips before deadlifting or something so I’ll go “Well, I’m going to make a video called ‘The best way to warm your hips when you’re deadlifting.’” Because, that’s what people are having a hard time with and so that’s what I’m going to make.

Anthony: And so, these people as well may probably have asked you “Oh! My hips are tight when I’m deadlifting.”

Ryan: Right. So, okay, I want to make a video about it.

Anthony: That sounds like a problem to me. The solution is the content of the video and the blog post.

Ryan: Exactly! Right! Doing content creation in that form like let say, let say we’re talking about Instagram or yeah let’s just say we’ll try Instagram. No one follows my Instagram and wants just to like see me doing like something. Like “Oh look! Ryan’s hanging out.” That does not help anybody. Maybe if you’re like a celebrity like that’s what people want from you. Let’s say it’s Justin Bieber right. They want to see him right Justin in freaking bathing suit with like his tats. You know. But for me…

Anthony: Well, their problem there is just like…

Ryan: Their problem is they need eye-candy. I don’t know what the problem is.

Anthony: Yeah. Lack of teen pop stars.

Ryan: Yeah! Something like that. He’s, not isn’t he? He’s 20 now right? Not really a teen anymore but anyways.

Anthony: Grown up for me.

Ryan: So, anyways what I think about is when I’m posting something I want it to be valuable for the people that are watching or listening or reading. If I’m not doing that, it’s going to be a useless post. And I also think that it needs to be my voice. Now that took me, that took me sometime to be okay doing. (I’m waiting for the UPS package so that’s why I’m looking at the front door so much).

Anthony: It’s almost like sneaking I guess.

Ryan: (I want to sneak in that new camera lens) But so, it took me long time to get my own voice because it’s kind of scary to make a video or make a blog post. I’m sure lots of people can relate to this. It is scary to put yourself out there, right? You’ll try to conform. You’ll try to say the same stupid shit that everyone else was saying. I shouldn’t say stupid but yeah…

Anthony: It generally is.

Ryan: Well, I mean you’re just going to regurgitate the same stuff.

Anthony: If you regurgitate telling things that’s stupid and lazy.

Ryan: Exactly. But if you give your own opinion and you give your thoughts on a topic. That’s why people are following what you’re doing because you are providing value by using your own areas of expertise, by using your own background, by using your own experiences and then providing value through that sort of framework. So, that’s what I think about in terms of what am I going to make. Now here’s the problem though. What’s the famous quote that you like from fourth?

Anthony: If I asked my customers what they want, they want the faster horse.

Ryan: Exactly! But that’s really not what they wanted, right? They think they want a faster horse, but what they want is faster transportation.

Anthony: Right. Or better!

Ryan: Or better transportation. So, you may hear things, of people saying “Oh this is what I want. And this is what’s interesting to me.”

Anthony: “Oh, I can’t stretch my hamstrings.”

Ryan: Right. I want or they say “Oh! My hamstrings are tight” and I’ll go “Okay. So, you want to have in your mind, you want to have loser or longer hamstrings but in reality, you want to be able to bend forward more easily.” Right. So, I know what they are saying and I know what they want. I’m going to give them what they actually need and that’s a big difference. Don’t just give them the thing what they asked for. Give them what they need.

Anthony: Right.

Ryan: And communicate that clearly. But that’s how you take the idea that someone gives you feedback on to provide value because if you knew what they needed that’s not always, you don’t always know what you need.

Anthony: Exactly and the way that I have use tricks to help create content. So, I used to post a lot on my website The Paleo Fix but now it’s Dr. Anthony Gustin. I was way too busy running two different companies but now we’ll be starting to post more often on there.

Ryan: As you automate your businesses, right?

Anthony: Yeah. So, I’m not a great writer in general but everybody was commenting how much they like it and it was for two reasons specifically. So, I was… When I was writing posts, I would write on the top to the page, the tittle of the post until the post is done was the exact problem that I was trying to solve.

Ryan: Oh! Interesting! So, then the whole time you’re writing it.

Anthony: The frame is always there and so, let’s say you’re writing a post and you’re doing a video about hamstrings being tight.

Ryan: Right.

Anthony: You write in the post “Tight hamstrings solve with this or whatever” like people need looser hamstrings or whatever it may be.

Ryan: Yeah.

Anthony: And you’re always seeing that and every word that you type should be speaking to that in some way. You don’t distract them. You are not telling about some roundabout thing. You don’t have this me only post. It is very direct. You have a great explanation on that and have it people long and excellent with some illustrations if you want but everything should be solving someone’s problem.

Ryan: Right. If it’s not doing that, what’s is it really doing?

Anthony: That’s kind of great way to frame things so everything is to the point. Second and I think I’ve heard this a long time ago from Tim Farris which is you should be writing blog posts like you’ll be sending a good friend an email late at night after a glass of wine.

Ryan: Oh! That’s the voice that you should be using. Everyone wants to write like they are writing a freaking research article that’s going to go on a like a peer-reviewed published freaking journal. Nobody wants to read that. People who are clinicians do not want to read that.

Anthony: Nobody wants to read this. It’s not interesting.

Ryan: Like, how many friends of yours that are clinicians actually sit down like “I just want to read this technical thing.”

Anthony: Especially now when people expect to consume more social media. They want to hear your voice and so when they had to read big blocks of texts that aren’t in a voice, it’s terrible.

Ryan: No one’s going to read that. I mean…

Anthony: It’s uninteresting.

Ryan: Unless you’re like the person teaching the course on how to write technical writing.

Anthony: Yeah.

Ryan: Like then, yeah, you should do it. If you’re actually a technical writer like you’re the person who writes the help instructions on a computer. Like you’ll obviously, you’re not going to click help like “Okay. Here’s what you do.” It’s not going to be written on that tone. But for everything else like on the internet whether that’s a podcast, post or a video or whatever, people want that to be somewhat of infotainment.

Anthony: Yeah. I’ve got a lot of compliments on my writings saying it’s a lot like how I would speak to somebody. And even though I’m not a great writer I made my stuff edited and kind of organize myself sometimes a bit more. The way the voice come across and the way intention is set. How I tailor the post is more meaningful if it’s semi-colon, “Hey cure there or send instructions should be a little bit like this or that.” And so it’s more important to create compelling direct information than it is to worry about somebody judging a piece of writing that you do.

Ryan: I mean, it’s going to piss somebody off. Somebody’s not going to like it. Who cares?!

Anthony: Yeah and so, obviously in creating content is one of the big hurdles just doing it is leg work because people don’t know how to do it, and the answer to that is solve the problem and do that in a specific format. And the second hurdle…

Ryan: For me it’s not a freaking huge problem. It could be one person like I’ll use what I will find in a clinical ad. You know an athlete does this and well, I’m going to make a video about it because if one person’s going to have it, someone else’s going to have it.

Anthony: Second hurdle that a lot of people come to me with, is fear of someone going to judge of what they do.

Ryan: Of course, they are.

Anthony: Oh yeah. So, this goes back to…

Ryan: People who aren’t making shit who wish they were.

Anthony: Let’s say you are in a tribe of thirty people.

Ryan: Okay.

Anthony: Thirty thousand years ago. Of course, it matters if somebody judges you because you will be exiled and killed or left for dead. That matters.

Ryan: Yes. Does it matter today?

Anthony: Absolutely not.

Ryan: Who cares?

Anthony: And so, you can care about thirty people around you. Sure! You can’t care about seven billion people that could read your stuff.

Ryan: Because if you wrote something and everybody in the world thought it was awesome, congratulations! You’re the first person ever in human kind to ever do that and who’ll ever do that.

Anthony: Yeah. Good work!

Ryan: It will never happen again. It is unrealistic to think of that. I had the stuff like honestly for my stuff, I can’t even look at the YouTube comments anymore. Like I get little notifications when I go on like google and it’s like how many number I’m like someone else’s I’m sure are good. Like “Oh! Thanks for the video” but I don’t want to read the one where the person is like “Oh! This is kind of stupid.”

Anthony: “You’re a freaking idiot. You should actually do it like this.”

Ryan: Yeah. Exactly.

Anthony: But that’s great! Then go write an article about it!

Ryan: Yeah! That person can make a video. Like there’s some anonymous avatar on YouTube. So, of course there’s going to be… I’m never like … We were at your house I think and there’s some person you like “Oh! Someone commented on this post I made a year ago, and there was like some annoying comment and you haven’t even seen it. It’s like a year and a half later you commented back.”

Anthony: Oh! I posted a recipe. So, the problem recipe is.

Ryan: What did she say?

Anthony: Okay. Listen. Words backward. I made a recipe and I make recipes because the problem people have is they don’t know how to… It’s not that they don’t know they should be eating healthy but they don’t know how to prepare and cook tasty healthy things. Right?

Ryan: I’m saying what you mean like roll up and eat it. Have an apple.

Anthony: That’s why I make recipes. I wrote a recipe and it was very straightforward. It was like six ingredients and it was basically you chop it up and cook it. I wrote way more than that and I think she said something like, “This is the worst recipe ever.”

Ryan: Like, “Worst instructions for recipe ever!”

Anthony: Yeah. It’s like chop this onion, cut this carrot and add it to here and cook it. What more explanations do you need? People are going to find something about your stuff to complain about and it will be there so deal with it. We just laughed about it.

Ryan: Oh yeah! Like, first of all, I think that by knowing that nobody in the world is ever not been criticized or whatever for something they’ve made, it happens to everybody. And if that’s the thing holding you back, you’ll never do anything because that will always be there. And that fear is just what kills dreams. It kills dreams. But who cares? Because for every person that thinks you’re stupid, there’s like a hundred people who enjoy what you’re doing.

Anthony: If you can help one person and ten people think it’s silly, it’s stupid or whatever… Those people. It’s their onion and their problem in their head that they have with you. Like, it’s not your problem. You are helping somebody else.

Ryan: I forgot who I was talking about but it’s like let’s say you’re an ice cream store and you sell vanilla ice cream. You specialize in making vanilla ice cream and someone does not like vanilla ice cream, and they were like “the store sucks! You only have vanilla ice cream. ”

Anthony: One star in Yelp.

Ryan: Right, one star in Yelp and you go “Go to the chocolate ice cream store. This is for people who love vanilla ice cream. I don’t care that you don’t like it because I don’t make chocolate ice cream. I make vanilla ice cream. You don’t like it? Go to another freaking ice creams store.”

Anthony: People who like vanilla are going to be standing up in a line outside your store.

Ryan: They are going to love your store. These people have the best vanilla ice cream in the world.

Anthony: 17 types of vanilla. French vanilla, vanilla swirl, vanilla ribbons, vanilla … bourbon vanilla.

Ryan: You sure know a lot about vanilla ice cream Anthony.

Anthony: Double-triple vanilla.

Ryan: German vanilla.

Anthony: Oh, my God!

Ryan: I’m just kidding.

Anthony: Coffee and vanilla. This is vanilla mecca and people are going to go crazy about whatever content that you produce because you are going to have a bias and perspective that’s very unique.

Ryan: And someone else’s want, someone else will be great at making chocolate ice cream. But you know what, their vanilla ice cream will never be as good as your vanilla ice cream. Isn’t that freaking crazy?

Anthony: We are going to have a quote post and we will put that on Instagram to solve the problem of lack of inspiration.

Ryan: Exactly! Post a freaking quote for a reason. So anyways, that’s the general idea of like how do you figure out what to make? You first have to listen to what people are saying that are your potential reader or viewer. Hear what they say. Try to figure out what they really want.

Anthony: What they need.

Ryan: What they need. They don’t need a faster horse drawn carriage. What they really want is faster transportation, better transportation. And then, you just have to get over it. You have to get over the fact that people are going to think you’re dumbed but other people are going to appreciate you for the same reason that other people think you’re dumb.

Anthony: Can’t have it all.

Ryan: You can’t have it all!

Anthony: Right so, weekly challenge.

Ryan: Take out your sketchbook or other type of writing material that you have…

Anthony: Be creative!

Ryan: Identify a problem, write out a couple of solutions and then make something.

Anthony: Make…

Ryan: And post it!

Anthony: Either that be a video, a podcast. There is the Piberia thing or a blog post. If you don’t have a website…

Ryan: It’s like an Instagram video.

Anthony: That’s fine. Instagram, you have Instagram. You have an email. Right. Make an email list and send it out to thirty people or if you have a patient or a client database, send it out to them. A weekly newsletter.

Ryan: Post it.

Anthony: On Facebook.

Ryan: Just find the problem.

Anthony: Do it and tag us in it.

Ryan: @healthfitbusiness.

Anthony: We would like to see you guys take actions.

Ryan: Yeah! That’s the whole point of it. If you just listen to this podcast and you don’t actually do anything, I hope our voices sound good because that’s the best thing you are getting out of this. You have to actually do something. You know the action is the critical thing. So…

Anthony: You have to get after it.

Ryan: Get after it!

Ryan: Thank you guys for tuning in to this episode of the Health Fit Business podcast. If you find it helpful, please share with someone that you think it would also help and leave us a five-star rating on iTunes. Make sure also to go to healthfit.biz and sign up for the email notifications to which you can find right on the homepage so that you get all the updated podcasts and blog posts sent directly to you. Until then, we will see you next time.

End.

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