My 13 Rules Of Content Creation For Recruiters

I recently posted something in the #HERC about how spelling and grammatical errors really don’t matter in your content, or at least they don’t matter as much as people seem to think.

That post really touched a few nerves though, and my response to a comment ended up sparking a flash of inspiration that ended up in my 13 Rules of Content Creation for Recruiters. 

I just feel bad for my daughter, waiting on Dad to finish his 'in-the-moment' article so we could watch The Matrix together. Sorry Nika! (you can blame my readers)

Enjoy!

[COPY OF MY FB POST]

To those who think I’m complaining about my readers who correct my copy, I’m not. I don't get annoyed at all, and I often make corrections (not every time though).

So to you…please know that you help hone my raw skills as a writer. To you I say thank you. I need you to help me.

BUT, my point in that last post is this.... The content, the copy, the emotion it evokes, the movement and journey it takes you through is way more important than proper spelling or punctuation.

Sometimes a misspelling can be jarring, but done the right way it can be humanizing.

Often-times paragraphing and sentence structure rules are intentionally broken because it makes for a far better reading experience in a world of shrinking attention spans.

Ultimately, I want those recruiters out there who are afraid to get their message out because it isn't perfect and polished, to PUBLISH.

I want those recruiters who feel like that don't know enough, or can't compete with the big established names, to PUBLISH.

I want the recruiters who think they suck on video because they don’t know what to do with their hands (like Ricky Bobby in Talladega Nights) to PUBLISH.

Here’s my content advice guys, and in no particular order:

1) Realize that you are a media company first, recruiter second. Being the world’s best kept secret won’t pay the bills. Your content should do the heavy lifting of selling for you.

2) PUBLISH now, but you better make sure it’s authentic and speaks to the pain of your audience. Being an annoying mosquito…hell being the Tai Lopez of recruiting, won’t pay the bills either.

3) PUBLISH daily. Every damn day. Bang it out before the sun comes up and get it out there now. Don’t look it over a thousand god-damn times until it’s perfect. Done is better than perfect.

4) If your content sucks, then don’t stop. It means you need to put more out there and hone your ability to a razor’s edge. Quitters don’t win, and my content was laughably bad when I started.

5) Talk to your audience. Ask the hard questions. Find out their pain, their nightmare scenarios, their greatest desires.

Right now there’s a VP out there who’s afraid to lose his job because of a bad hire. There’s a brilliant start-up CEO who just lost funding because she was never trained to pick top talent. There’s a first-time manager who has to miss his third pizza and movie night in a row with his son, because he had the misfortune to inherit a bad team for his first management gig.

Your clients are real people. Don’t you dare speak for them. Let them speak through you.

..and realize that a bad Time-to-Fill metric is not a pain

6) Go buy Steven Pressfield’s book, The War of Art, and read it a bazillion-jillion times until it is hard-coded into your creative soul. You’ll learn that only amateurs get writer’s block. Professionals clock in and fucking write. Buy more copies and give them out to your loved ones when they’re ready for a kick in the ass.

7) Go buy Gary V’s book Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook and learn the art of giving first in a world of leg-humpers.

8) Go buy Recruit Rockstars and Hiring Greatness and learn what it means to be a master craftsman at recruiting, not just a flesh-peddler.

9) Read Jordan Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos. Learn meaning and responsibility. And for Christ’s sake stand up straight with your shoulders back.

10) Take advice for what it is, someone's opinion:

You will get people who correct your spelling mistakes. Thank them for helping you. They help make you a better content creator. You don’t learn from fanboys who think your shit don’t stink, and you don’t learn from your haters either.

However, you will get people who say to slow down, and not to email so much. Don’t listen. Bullshit monthly newsletters don’t clog up inboxes. They also don’t get read.

You will get people who say not to use foul language, or not to be offensive. You guys can probably guess my opinion on that…

..and you will get haters. When I was first trying to make a name for myself in the recruitment coaching space, I had a ton of shade thrown my way. I felt bad for them. Still do, even though I kinda think it’s funny when I see them in this group now. Don’t pay them any mind, and don’t let them scare you from away from creation. Their hate is a reflection on them, not you.

But I remember who you are.

11) Stop believing that you and your audience are unicorns. Yes your CFO audience is on Facebook, even though your CFO dad is not. When you believe you’re different, you’re buying into the bullshit story your ego is telling you. Don’t listen to ego. He’s a coward who wants to keep you from trying new things and risking failure.

12) The only way to know if something will work is to launch it to market, get feedback, and iterate. The field is king, and iteration is it’s queen.

13) Learn from the people making it happen now. Don’t let your ego tell you that you’re smart enough or experienced enough to ignore what’s being taught right in front of your very eyes, every time you break out your smartphone when commercials come on. Your ego will say anything to make you comply. Ignore him.

Besides, if you knew better, you’d be doing better.

If you’re afraid to put yourself out there, realize that confidence is the reward, not the requirement. I was scared when I started. Scared shitless. I still scare myself sometimes with what I put out there.

I'm scared to hit publish right now.

…and now do you realize why people are amazed when influencers are vulnerable online? We love it, because it’s what we crave. We’re sick of polish. Show me some god-damn passion and make me fucking give a shit.

Realize that you are so lucky to live now. This is a unique time in history, where anyone, no-matter how small, can day-trade attention (as Gary V puts it), and smack the big brands right in the nose.

BUT...no-matter how good your service is, if you don't have your audience's attention, you have nothing. Get it now before the big-brands realize how under-priced social media attention is. In a few years they're going to get in and jack up the prices, and it will be too late for you.

...and remember, the people who say Facebook ads don't work for B2B relationship building have never run a single ad.

So publish something small, right now. Let your ideas compete in the free marketplace of ideas. 

And if they resonate, and they speak to the pain of your audience, great. No one gives a fuck about your “7 Best Interview Tips” unless they know you care about their pain.

But if you teach them something real, and show them how they can transform their careers, and by extension their lives, through you and the talent you can provide, you win.

Then do it again. And again. And again.

You owe it to us, so give us what you’ve got.