Watch This BEFORE You Create Content!

Content is the lifeblood of our online businesses. It's how we get discovered, how we build trust and authority with a target audience, and how we can actually be seen as the experts so that people want to buy our products and services. And what's awesome about this online world is that you don't need to go viral in order to achieve a successful online business. You can have a small YouTube channel or a small podcast or small audience of any kind, and and still be able to make sales, but you have to build that trust and authority in every single piece of content. So it's not really about going viral. It's more about the slow burn of consistently showing up and doing the 3 things that we're about to cover today in every single piece of content so that you can be seen as an expert, build that trust and authority with your audience, and in turn make more sales and actually have a legitimate business. So without further ado, let's dive in to 3 things that you can do in every single piece of content to supercharge your content. Welcome to episode number 4 of the Profit Your Knowledge podcast. I'm your host, James Allen, here to help you turn your knowledge passions and skills into an online business and build a life of freedom. Today is one of my favorite topics. I feel like I say that a lot, but it's true. I love talking about content because this is the lifeblood of our business. Again, it's how we get discovered, is how we build our audience. And when you do it right with evergreen content like I teach in other videos, we can— we're not going to dive super deep into evergreen content and all that today. But when you do that, you can build basically an army of employees that you have with every single piece of content. And you can have these people or this little army you have bringing leads to your business day in and day out, 24/7, which is an awesome thing. But like I said, when we're creating content, we want to implement these 3 things into our online business, into our content strategy, so that we can make sure every single piece of content that we slowly develop over time is just rock-solid content. So that's what we're going to cover today. But before we get too deep into that, if you're thinking about starting an online business, maybe you've been considering going down the route of being your own boss and you'd like to be able to work from home or work anywhere you want for that matter. You can do it. And I actually wrote out an entire guide. Really, it's like an action plan, if you will. It's going to walk you through the exact method that is responsible for creating 5, 6, or even 7-figure online businesses by creating content just like this or very similar to this in your own way, and then bringing those people that discover you to your website, creating leads, and then nurturing those people and creating it into an automated system. So I condensed the entire thing, the entire process into an 8-page PDF, and I want to give it to you for free because it's really an action guide. It's concise, it's short. Because I want to respect your time. And most importantly, it's actionable. So you can actually read through it, take action, start with step 1, step 2, step 3, go all the way through to the 5 steps, and you can start building your online business today. If that sounds like something interesting to you, you'd like to check it out, just go to profityourknowledge.com/guide, or there is a link in the description as well. So let's get into these 3 ways or practices or secrets or whatever you want to call them that you can implement into every single piece of content that will supercharge your content. Number 1 is to give all of your secrets away. I know it sounds crazy. Give all your good stuff away. That's what I'm telling you to do as your virtual business coach. Give all your secrets away. What a lot of people do is they want to— well, it's this really popular ideology that is taught in marketing and business and sales and everything. Is to teach the what and sell the how. But what I want you to do and what I encourage you to do is to teach the why, the what, and the how. Teach it all. And specifically in that order. If you can open up with why it's important, that'll hook your audience, what you're going to cover, and then teach them how to actually do it. They're going to love you for it. And again, like I mentioned throughout the content so far of this piece of content is that it's really about building an audience. A great mentor of mine, Graham Cochran, someone I look up to immensely, has a great quote where he says, "With an audience, anything is possible, but without an audience, nothing is possible." Something along those lines, maybe the flip-flop where it's, "Without an audience, nothing is possible, but with an audience, anything is possible." And it really is true. So what we want to do is be showing up every single week or multiple times a week or even every day if you want to, but make sure you can actually stick with whatever content strategy that you have or content schedule, I guess. But every time you show up, don't withhold information. When we can teach the why, the what, and the how, or even the who, whatever it is in every single piece of content, then by the luck of God or the stroke of luck, whatever you want to call it, someone lands on your content. They finally click on your video or check out your podcast or read your blog or whatever it is, and you're giving them awesome content, awesome material that's not holding things back, they're going to say, wow, that's awesome. I love this person because they actually just got to the chase. They actually started teaching everything. Then they can tell that you're not holding things back. And it's really generous by you actually doing that. Okay? You showing up, giving away free content and not holding it back, not trying to hoard the good stuff, it's going to build so much trust and authority with you because people will be able to watch your free content without ever paying you a dime or a dollar or anything, and they will be able to go implement the things that you teach. Let's say, for example, that you teach online business or that you teach weight loss and you teach someone some way of eating or something new that they've never thought about and you inspire them to do it inside of your content that's running 24/7 because we focus on evergreen content. Someone finds that video or that episode that you have or post, then they go implement it and they're like, I didn't even pay this person anything and I'm already getting results. I've already lost 10 pounds. I've already started my online business. I've already deepened my relationship with my spouse or whatever it is that you teach. I've already become a better athlete in my sport because you're not holding things back. Okay. What a lot of people do and I see, I see these people who are like, these huge entrepreneurs, and I know that they are legitimately because I've talked to them, I've gotten to know them and whatnot, but I see their content and they hold things back. They're saying it, or it's very like surface level. It's very fluffy. It's not very deep. They don't go deep into it, which is— it's like a big reason why I started doing this podcast, because I get to show up and I get to go way deeper on these different topics instead of just being surface level with it. All right. So that you have a better understanding of what is actually going on with this. But a lot of people like even in short-form content, like on Facebook Reels or Instagram Reels or TikToks or YouTube Shorts or any of that stuff, like give people the thing that they really want to know or they'd be interested in knowing and tell them exactly how to do it. Just condense it into a shorter piece of content. So I focus on TikToks and Shorts and all that kind of stuff and just chop up this content that I do. But that's a topic for a different day. So if you're thinking, okay, James Allen, like teach the why, the what, and the how, teach them everything basically, and don't hold back anything, give away all my secrets, like how am I actually going to have a business if I do that? Well, what we sell is implementation and we sell transformation through our products and our services. Because you can watch this content all day and you could be one of those lucky people that could just watch free content and be able to go out and implement and get an awesome result. And I hope that you can. I hope that my content is able to inspire you to do that. And I hope that you create content that can help other people do that as well. But I know that when you take a course from me or you work with me one-on-one, we are going to get things done because I'm going to hold you accountable. If we actually work together, if we were sitting across from each other one-on-one, I'm there, I'm there to message you in a, in a Voxer chat and check in on you and see how things are going because we know that we have a regular meeting that we're showing up for. Every single week, and that if you don't have that stuff done, it's gonna halt the progress, et cetera, et cetera. So there's a whole like idea that goes into the whole entire process. But when I work with people, they're like, I've had this idea of creating content, making it into a course or putting it out there into the world, or actually just starting to create content and make a YouTube channel or a podcast or something, but I haven't done it until they started taking one of my courses or working with me one-on-one. It's the implementation, because I'm not here to really hold you accountable if you're just watching free content. And it's the same thing with your audience when they watch you. But the best thing that we can do is replicate our actual way of coaching, which is like me when I sit with a client doing the same exact thing I'm doing with you right now. Even though it's a one-way conversation, we have to be able to implement or, or transition our expertise into this one-way form of communication and give people the goods and give people this. Like, you have to just like, just give it all away. Please just don't hold back. That's really the biggest thing I want you to understand. Your course is, like I said in the past many times, it's a step-by-step system that people are able to follow to get a specific result. It's very focused and there should be accountability. There should be some, some form of coaching, even if it's just like a better, a closer form of communication with you in the comments section or closer access to email you or be in a private Facebook group or some sort of thing like that so that people can have a bit more of that accountability and actually get it done and go through all the content, etc., etc. Or if it's one-on-one coaching, it's you actually sitting down with them, working with them either in a group setting or one-on-one. And that's the transformation they're going to get is through, is through the actual work of working with you, being in that close proximity. Okay, so that's what we're selling. But your free content, the difference— and I've made videos on this, I have a video called The Difference Between Free and Paid Content where I go a lot deeper into, into all of this. But really, if people discover you and they see that you're not holding things back, they can feel that you're coming from a place of authenticity and that you have great information. And yeah, it's being authentic. They're going to have such a great amount of trust for you because they will see you as an expert because you actually are an expert and you're going deep on topics, etc. And they'll see you as an authority and they're, they're going to trust you more, which means they're going to be more likely to opt into your lead magnet and they're going to be more likely to actually consider buying your course or even buy the course or book a call with you, etc. All right. So when you give all your secrets away, you're really building that trust and authority. And another thing to consider is that If you're nervous about that, it's like, well, I'm gonna give all away. Like, I'm gonna run out of things to talk about. That's not true. You can, you should be able to teach way more than you can compact into one video or even like a 4-hour workshop or anything like that. You know, it's like you're putting out these small bits of you teaching and you're giving away awesome free content. And people are trusting you. They're starting to trust you because they can listen to that, go implement it, and actually get results from it. And then they're going to want to keep coming back. They're going to want to hit subscribe and continue to consume your content. But yeah, you can't teach everything in one piece of content. You shouldn't be able to. I mean, I could talk about tons of things that relate to email marketing or content creation or building products or making sales, all these different things, which is why we have a good content strategy with different buckets and all these different things that help us teach. But you have more than enough secrets to give away and to share with the world. And it's just such a generous way to be and to run your business, a way to run your business that it's really going to be magnetic. And if you can do that in every single piece of content, people are going to want to keep coming back. They're going to fall in love with you and you are going to be their go-to resource. All right. So give all of your secrets away, teach the why, the what, and the how, and don't hold back. That is rule number 1 or secret number 1, if you will. The next piece is to leverage edutainment, or you can call this infotainment or valuetainment. There's so many ways that you can, you can word this. Essentially what it is, is that not only do we want to give away information and inform people or educate them, but we want to make it entertaining. We want to make it as fun as possible for people to consume the information so that they want to keep watching the video or listening to the podcast, and there's a lot of different ways to do this. There's no real one right way or wrong way to leverage edutainment or infotainment. But how can you educate and entertain at the same time? So let's dive into this a little bit more and come up with a couple examples and ideas. Let's, I mean, if you, if you watch content yourself, which I imagine you do, and you watch a YouTube video, you could probably think of at least one creator where every time you watch their videos, it's so entertaining. And ideally thinking about like an education channel that's also entertaining. For example, a great one is called Film Booth with Ed Lawrence. It's an awesome channel. He does like insane editing and all like that whole crew of people, that little world of YouTube, that little, Corner, I guess, is just amazing. There's these people who have incredible film skills and like they, they actually have a business where they make films and they shoot commercials and things like that for these different businesses. And then they've translated that into creating YouTube videos. So the YouTube videos are just like insane. Like the production is phenomenal, the storytelling, all of that. And it's like watching a movie. It's incredibly entertaining, but they also teach you inside of that. Now, that's not for everybody. That takes years of discipline and practice to get to that sort of level, unless, of course, you like outsource some of it, but then expenses can get super high. So there's many different ways to leverage edutainment. You can go down that path of creating crazy high production videos, or you can do a bit more of a simple approach like what I do, where I just have my camera and I have a microphone. I have a nice microphone. But when, if you're thinking about making like a, like a one-on-one kind of video like this or a video podcast sort of deal, you can add different jump cuts or have an editor come through and do that. What I do personally is I set my camera to 24 frames per second. So it's a little bit more of that quote unquote blurred sort of motion to my video. So it's a bit more engaging because like, I know I have a black background. I'm in a little studio thing that I have right now. And I have a nice camera, but it's not like I have some crazy background or anything like that or any crazy light setup. I just have a couple of lights right here in front of me so you can see my face, my beautiful smiling face. But the 24 frames per second, that's a way of making the video more engaging. It's also shot in HD because that's what I'm doing with this. And that was kind of my decision when I was making my video podcast. I wanted to do this because I wanted my podcast to be a better quality, more real podcast. So if you listen to the podcast, it's going to sound like a real podcast instead of me having all these different cuts and jumps and everything, because that's what I used to do. I used to film on my camera and it looked HD and all that stuff. And then I would listen, I would upload it as a podcast and I would listen back to the podcast and it just didn't sound like a podcast. And I noticed that I actually used to do more of a podcast where I spoke into it and I just focused on the podcast and my listeners went up. And then I started focusing on the YouTube stuff and doing more of the editing and everything and then uploading those up to my podcast, my listeners actually went down. But now it's climbing again because I'm actually using a nice setup and I have good audio. So that's another thing is that even if you're not doing any crazy editing or anything, you can just have a nice camera, which is a great investment, I think, especially if you're in this for the long term, which you should be. And then a nice microphone and you can add the jump cuts, you can do the editing if you want to. But having just a crisp, clean audio is entertaining enough because it's soothing to the ears. And there's been studies that have shown that people would rather have crisp audio and clean audio than having super clean video. So if they had to choose between one or the other, they would go with audio over video, which is pretty interesting. But I think you should still have good quality equipment. That's just my opinion. You don't need to, but it is recommended. So I record like in this, the video podcast, I record my video and my audio separate because that's how movies are shot and everything. And yeah, I could go into my whole entire setup on a different day. But the bottom line is that you want it to be edutaining. Have your video, have your audio be very clean and crisp and entertaining to watch, whether that is having different props or things in your background or playing with your frame rates, getting a better quality camera. These are all great investments you can make as you go. Even what a lot of people do is they even have like their phone camera or they do have a DSLR camera of some kind, but they jump around in different areas of their house. So every, every, you know, section, if they, if they taught 3 points, for example, one point would be in their living room, another point would be in their home gym, And then another point would be outside in their backyard. So it's always the scenery is changing and there's a lot of different things to do. But really what I would love for you to have as a takeaway from this is to think about when you watch other people's content and you want to learn something, notice when it's being very entertaining and when it's not being very entertaining. Okay? And then you can get some inspiration from those different creators and say, I want to do something more along those lines. But the idea is that if every single piece of content that you're creating is you giving away secrets, it's not holding back information, it's giving away awesome free content, not holding back or just teaching the what and then selling the how. No, you give people everything that they need for that piece of content. You're doing that and then you're also leveraging that edutainment, you are going to be if you can do that consistently, you're going to be miles ahead of most creators out there. Okay? So find what you find entertaining, pay attention to that. And then the third piece, which is the most important piece, is to show more of your personality in every single piece of content. There is nobody else in the world like you. You are the only version of you. Your voice alone resonates in a tone in a way that is going to connect with other people. And there's only you have that effect on people. It's pretty crazy. We could go super deep into just talking about that, honestly. But people are attracted to you, your energy, your vibe, and they will listen to you and connect with you. And the more you that you can show in your content, the better off you're going to be, the more people you're going to be able to connect with. So even if people teach something similar to you, like if you both teach fitness or you both teach business, the way that you teach it and express yourself is going to be different than the other person. Therefore, more people are going to connect with you than that other person and vice versa. But there's no hard feelings. You know, it's just as long as you're showing up and you're, you're showing more of your true self, that's what really matters. So again, another reason that I started this podcast was so that I could just hit record, just go for it. If I trip on my words, then I trip on my words. I don't need to edit it out. Because it helps me be a better communicator and yeah, get better at all of that. So even if people teach things similar, it's okay. Just be you. That's really the biggest thing. And when you're creating your content, show the behind the scenes and your progress as you're building out your content. What's great is if you have content where it's more like mine, where I'm just talking to my microphone and my camera, and then every now and then you switch out and you have a little vlog video where you show your entire setup. It's something that I'm actually plan on doing soon. But if you can do that, people get to see what's going on behind the scenes in your content and they get to see how you see the world and how you structure your content or how you set up your meals or whatever it is that you teach. But teach the behind the scenes, show more your personality and show your progress as you go and as you grow. Okay. The next thing is to also just express what you like in your content. So if it's you wearing a shirt like a— if it's an Iron Maiden shirt, then that's going to resonate with different people that ultimately you want to resonate with. Now, I love just wearing blank shirts. It's pretty much just what I wear. I keep things very simple. So that's my clothes. But if you think about music that you maybe underlay in your music, in your videos or your content, if you like The Offspring, for example, then you can be playing The Offspring inside of your content and then people will listen to that and say, wow, I love that you played that, and then it boosts engagement because they're going to connect with you. Also sharing stories, share more of your personal stories inside of your content. That's a big reason again, why I started the podcast so I could share more of the personal stories and be a bit more raw because I understand the value of showing my personality, being authentic, really being me. And I know that that's going to connect with people better than me doing a bunch of highly edited stuff and being more like acting instead of just being raw and being me. So if you take anything from that, just be you and challenge yourself to be you as much as possible. Look back at your videos or listen back in your podcast and review it and be like, it doesn't sound like me because I have had plenty of clients where I work with them and then they start creating content and it doesn't even sound like them. It sounds like robotic. So that's what I tell them to do. Go out, listen back to your content and assess what you want to change. Like a sports team, if they play a game, they go back, they watch the footage, and then they get to see where they did well and where they messed up or maybe made some mistakes. And then that's how they're going to get that feedback so that they can get better every single time. All right. So to sum up, give all your secrets away. Don't hold back your information. Teach the why, the what, and the how, and then sell the implementation and transformation that people are going to get in your course with different resources and support that they're going to get that they can't get from just free content. Okay, so that's what's going to help you separate that. Leverage edutainment. Make sure that your content is educating for people, but also entertaining them in a way where they want to keep watching, they enjoy it, they want to keep coming back. And then last, show more of your personality. Be you. Challenge yourself to be more of yourself on camera, to get better at speaking on camera, speaking in front of your microphone. Or to show more authenticity in your blog posts, whatever it is that you do so that you can get better, you can connect with more people by just being you. All right. Now, again, if you're thinking about starting your online business or maybe creating more scalable income with what you already are doing with your online business, then do pick up my 5-step action plan. It is, again, my gift to you. It's going to walk you through the entire method that is going to help you sell your knowledge online and make it recurring, make it auto or basically on autopilot. Okay. Systematic. That's what we want to do. All right. So take what you learned here, get out there, start creating content and make sure that you are implementing these 3 things in every single piece of content. I guarantee that your channel, your podcast, your blog, whatever it is, will grow and you will grow an audience and be able to have more of an online business. All right. That's all I got for you today. Hope you have an awesome day and I will see you in the next one.