Give First. Sell Second.

I am blessed to have a few “best friends” who are those “I would totally jump in the car for you at any time day or night with whatever supplies you asked me to bring, even if it included rubber gloves and a garbage bag, and would not ask any questions but would be sure to bring wine with me” friends.

One of these friends if my girl Brittney. She and I were first introduced by someone else out one night in Palm Beach, FL. (This is when I actually used to go out past 7 pm and frequented places that don’t give out paper menus and crayons.) Anyway, when we were first introduced we didn’t take a warm shine to one and another. We didn’t totally click.

But then after running into each other a few different times and having a few more conversations, letting each other into our lives, seeing that we were on the same page for most things (except football… she follows it, I like the commercials) we became friends. We became closer over the months that followed, so much so that later that year when I met Ian, I asked Brittney to be one of my bridesmaids. She is now an Auntie to my girls and one of my dearest friends. We both know where the bodies are buried and nothing – no matter how gorgeous or delicious the bribes may be – will ever get us to uncover them.

Our friendship is probably very similar to yours in that the more we shared with each other and value we gave to one another, the more our relationship grew.

The same is true of the members of your tribe. Giving them value and opening yourself up to them over time will help you to build a strong relationship of trust. It is through building this trustful relationship that you can move to the next step of making the sale… happily and with thanksgiving from your customer instead of having to chase after him or her.

So when you begin to create your content, I want you to think of one of your best friends and if they had a need you could help them solve, how would you do it? What would you tell him or her? What might they ask that you could answer?

Begin to write your content like you are helping a best friend with a problem (Tweet this), and the draft should make sense if you sent it as an email to him or her. Write with this genuine authenticity and your messaging and its sincerity will come through and resonate with your target market.

Start by simply following these steps…

1. If (insert friend’s name) has a need for (my product, program or service) what questions would she ask me? How I would I answer them?

2. Flesh out each of your answers into blog posts.

3. Pull out quotes from your blog posts and turn them into social media posts.

4. Do a search for “social media post designer” on Facebook and have someone create images for you out of your posts.

Ta da! You now have authentic, engaging, and meaningful content for your target market to begin to nurture them and build trust. You will be helpful and I bet even find this process easy because when you are just yourself and helping out with the thing you know well and have purpose behind it, things are just easier.

Next week we are on to places for inspiration and content. Until then, start writing that content bestie ;).

Pst…. want a jump start on this season’s content? Get 113+ social media posts and images here: