How to Turn 1 Idea into 100 Pieces of Content

???? Thanks for stopping by, and welcome back to another Personal Brand Brief article. We’re now a community of 18,000+ founders, ideators, and marketers. If you want content like this sent straight to your inbox, subscribe here.

You’re a busy CEO, start-up Founder, or self-made entrepreneur. You know you should get into the content game, start sharing your story, and building online.

How to do that with limited time? You also have to run a business, take care of your kids, and stay on top of your mortgage.?

Here’s the solution: recycle your content. ??

I’m going to say it again for the people in the back… you heard me:?

Recycle Your Content

You’re allowed to mention the same idea you had more than once.?

You don’t have to put the pressure on yourself to always come up with a brand new innovative idea. That will burn you out.?

Something leaders do well, for example, like Gary Vaynerchuk, is that they take one idea and modify the delivery for different people, crowds, formats, social media outlets.

Different people are on different platforms and they respond to different messaging.?

It saves you time, you're reaching a greater crowd than you would otherwise, and you’re being aware of your followers' needs across different platforms.?Try it!

For example:

• You gave a 1-hour presentation. Turn it into a LinkedIn article or 10 tweetable moments.
• Your Instagram post went viral. Reshare the image with a lesson on LinkedIn.
• You put a lot of effort into your latest TikTok. Download the video and post it as an Instagram story.

Here are some more examples, thanks to Gary Vee.

This is a good storytelling practice: taking something that you love and believe in and then slicing and dicing it into multiple different avenues to hit different people in all the ways they choose to learn and consume information.?

Because a baby boomer in Montana might be looking at Facebook whereas an SF-based GenZer is probably looking at Snapchat.???

I personally do this. If one of my ideas gains traction on Twitter, I turn it into a LinkedIn post. Then I’ll do some more research and turn it into an article, and then my articles also get shared on Instagram in a visual format. Not everyone knows that I do this because not everyone follows me on each platform.

Meet Brand Builder Brittany Krystle

This week I got the chance to hear from a good friend of mine who’s been on the ground floor of helping build a personal brand for Gary Vaynerchuk. While I’d love to have Gary featured in the newsletter, I’m just as excited, if not more, to learn from the amazing mind of someone who helped build it for him.

JH: What's the best personal branding advice you've ever heard?

BK: People overcomplicate personal branding. You don’t need to be on every platform or post multiple times a day to see results. You can take the path of least resistance and do what’s easiest for you. (Already reading news about your industry? Share what you read and add a few lines about what you took away from it. Like writing? Focus on a blog.) You don’t have to be vlogging or have a team to get the benefits of personal branding.?

Whatever gets you to actually put yourself out there is the place to start.

JH: What's your process for refining your work/testing?

BK: Clarity comes from action. You just have to put it out there. There is no such thing as “perfect” content or a perfect personal brand. It’s about trying things, seeing what the response is, and then adjusting. Personal branding is a long game. You‘re not going to know what’s working from one or two pieces of content. I continually repeat this process of putting out content, seeing the response (and asking for responses!), and then tweaking.

JH: What’s the best book/podcast to listen to on marketing?

BK: Amy Porterfield’s Online Marketing Made Easy podcast is incredibly actionable (and of? course, Beyond Influential!). Some of my all-time favorite marketing books are Paco Underhill’s Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping; Ryan Holiday’s Growth Hacker Marketing: A Primer on the Future of PR, Marketing, and Advertising; Tony Hsieh’s Delivering Happiness; and Robert Cialdini’s Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.

JH: How intentionally do you build your brand? When did you start?

BK: I started taking mine seriously in 2016, but really went all in in 2017 when I started Beyond Influential. Building my own personal brand was truly the gamechanger in my business and opened doors to opportunities I never even dreamed of. I am intentional with my brand—I always think of the purpose of whatever I’m sharing whether it’s on the podcast, social media, or anywhere else I create content and who it’s meant to serve—but I also don’t overthink it. There’s always tomorrow to try something different.

JH: What do you think people often forget when trying to build a personal brand?

BK: Personal branding is not actually about you. First comes focus, then comes followers. It’s about your audience, not your ego. You need to care about people first so they care about you. Your personal brand goal is to be an obvious (and quick!) “hell yes” to the right people. The more clear you are on who you actually want to attract, the easier it will be to build a personal brand and share content that resonates with those people.

In short, your personal brand IS your business.?

Personal branding isn’t optional, it’s necessary. People will look you up online. No matter what you’re doing today or ever plan to be doing, you are currently trading on your name and it’s affecting the money you make and will make, the audience and the network you have and will attract, and the opportunities you’re getting and will get. Personal branding is a form of taking control and responsibility for your path and your future.?

And not just for when you’re “ready,” it’s for right now (because if you wait until you’re “ready”... you’ll never move on it). And for more personal branding tips, check out this best-of-personal-branding episode of Beyond Influential:?

JH: To stay up to date on her work, you can follow Brittany on LinkedIn or Instagram, check out her website, and tune into her podcast Beyond Influential (a top Management & Marketing podcast). Thank you so much, Brittany, for sharing your tips and tactics today!

?? ACTION BYTES?

• Get aligned on your values, so when you change platforms your messaging is consistent
• Get comfortable with A/B testing. If you try cross-pollinating your content across platforms and it doesn’t work (ie: doesn’t get attention), don’t worry about it. Try something new next time. Don’t lose faith in the concept.
• Check out other leaders like Tony Robbins or Oprah who post across different platforms and consider how they repurpose their content depending on the platform.

??RIFF OF THE DAY

Thanks to Centra Windows for having me this week. We had a great conversation.?

If anyone else has podcasts/events, I’m always happy to hear from you.?

Thanks for reading! I try hard to make it a newsletter you look forward to each week, so if you have any suggestions about content you’d like to see or ideas that sparked, let me know.

Stay outta’ trouble and catch you next week.

??? Joel

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