168. Content Won’t Get You Clients (Do This Instead)

If you know anything about me, you know that I go all in on content creation. I've written hundreds of newsletters, posted 1500 times on LinkedIn, and I've dropped hundreds of YouTube videos just like this one. So why am I telling fractional CFOs right now not to do content creation? In today's video, I'm going to share four reasons why most fractional CFOs should avoid content creation like the plague. Let's dive in. Reason number one. No niche, no message, no clients. Content Creation is a 3D game of chess in earning and keeping attention. For a content strategy to be even remotely effective, you must have a clear and focused message that resonates with your target audience. What resonates with your clients? Solutions to their problems. So if you're posting generalized content to anyone who listens, your message won't resonate and nobody will care. Without a well crafted, niche specific message, your content isn't going to bring in quality leads. It's a dead end and a waste of your time. No niche, no message, no clients. Reason number two is you have no audience. Content creation can be remarkably lucrative, but only if there's somebody around to consume it. The social following of Most aspiring fractional CFOs generally falls into two categories. One is friends from college or corporate America, and two is other fractional CFOs. And the truth is, neither of these groups are going to push your revenue higher because they're not potential clients. Now, I know that some of you are watching this and you're saying, sure, that's what my audience looks like right now, but if I don't start posting content, how will I ever get an audience? You've got to start somewhere, Michael. Now that's a great point. Which leads us to reason number three, the long game. If there's one thing I've learned from creating content, it's that the payoff is not fast. I posted on LinkedIn daily for nine months before I got any traction. And by traction, I don't mean revenue. It took nine months before I started getting any meaningful engagement. Revenue took even longer. And it's not just me. This is the same growth trajectory that successful LinkedIn posters like Justin Welsh and Nicholas Boucher also experienced. And here on YouTube, almost two years went by before the video started paying off. Building a meaningful audience takes a considerable amount of time. That's the reality of it. So you might be asking yourself, why can't I start on LinkedIn and YouTube? Now while I'm getting clients, I can treat it like a side hustle that'll pay off later, right? Kinda, but not exactly. The fourth reason you should avoid content creation is the time investment. Trust me, it's not what you think. I am guilty of grossly, I mean grossly underestimating how long it takes to produce even mediocre content. Regardless of platform or medium. It can take five to 10 hours to create a barely passable piece of content. Try to think of some bad content that you watched recently. It's hard to think of bad content, isn't it? And that's not because bad content doesn't exist. It's because when you see it, you just keep scrolling, skip past it, or unsubscribe immediately. You certainly aren't becoming a customer. Bad content is actually everywhere because it takes so much time to make good content. You have to invest meaningful amounts of time into things like learning how to make good content, ideating your content, producing your content, editing your content, scheduling your content, and responding to people who engage with your content. Then, after all that's said and done, you you've got to review the metrics and the process to determine what's working and what isn't so that you can level up and get improvement over time. Then you've got to lather, rinse, and repeat every single day. Because if you're not consistent with the content, it will never pay off. And there's no guarantee that it will pay off even if you are consistent. So you have to ask yourself, do you have the time to do that all day, every day? And even if you have the time, do you want to do that every day? If you're building a fractional CFO firm, the answer is probably hell no.

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Now you might be thinking to yourself that you can hire somebody to do a lot of that work for you. Maybe there are great admins and VAs who can handle posting and scheduling. Or or you could throw good money at AI platforms that create horrible content. Another option is to hire an agency to write your content, but I have yet to find an agency that creates passable work. In fact, in my experience, none of these options are worth your time or money. Out of the hundreds of firm owners that I've worked with, I've yet to meet a single fractional CFO who said, yeah, that agency is crushing it, or that AI platform is killing it. For me, my content is on fire, my target audience loves it, and I'm getting leads all day long. It literally never happens. I know dozens who have had the exact opposite experience. Wasted time, money thrown out the window, and nothing but headaches. Ultimately, content creation is Misdirected Focus for early stage fractional CFOs once you hit seven figures, I think creating content starts to make a lot of sense because you have the time and financial margin to invest. But if you're making less than seven figures, I would urge you to put your content creation plans on hold and redirect your focus to getting higher value clients. Which leads to the question, how do you do that? Well, more on that in just a second. First, I want to say that yes, there is a place for content creation, but it's not the low hanging fruit you might hope it is. And I don't believe investing time in that strategy will pay off in the short or even medium term. And I know you don't have that kind of time on your hands to land your first clients. The fractional CFO game is built on relationships and trust, and there's no clever LinkedIn post or YouTube videos that are going to do that. Can those platforms add trust and build relationships over time and Absolutely. But like I said, my guess is that you don't have that kind of time on your hands. You need clients now, not a year from now, not even six months from now. The clock is ticking and you don't have weeks and months and years to spare. So back to the important question. What should you focus on to get more clients now? Well, I'm glad you asked. You should go to local networking events. You should hop on podcasts or webinars. You should work existing LinkedIn network with a DM strategy. You instead of a post that nobody's going to read. Direct messages are much more likely to get a response. And finally, referrals from existing clients. Work with what you've got. Are these things sexy? No. Do they require you to interact with other human beings? Yes. But these strategies have generated millions of dollars in income for dozens of fractional CFOs when performed consistently. Some have even reached seven figures in under two years. By sticking to these basics, I don't know any fractional CFOs who have accomplished that seven or multiple seven figure run rate with content creation. So your options are millions of dollars or three followers in a YouTube channel with no profile picture. What's your next move? If you're going with the millions in revenue, then check out this video if you want to learn my secret weapon for explosive growth. It's the exact approach that I use to triple my leads and cross over that million dollar run rate. Check it out and I'll catch you next time.

All right my friends, I hope you found this episode helpful. If you did, it would mean the world to me if you would leave a five star review on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you're listen this episode. In the meantime, I can't wait to see you back right here next week. I'll see you then.