On 'hiring' you to do a job via your content (the July REPORT)
plus, the lines that live rent-free in my head.
Welcome to The Content Brief š¼, your roadmap to showing up consistently (with intention)ādelivered in brief, straight to your inbox.Ā
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āŖ Last time, I invited you to the live Mid-Year Content Roadmap Reset. Thatās here.
ā© Today, a curated report of content I found worthy of a dog-eared page corner over the past month. ā”Ģ
There's a smattering of movie/TV lines that live rent-free in my head:
"I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address.ā - Joe Fox, Youāve Got Mail, 1998
āOh, sure, I love Oreos. At home, I eat them with... I eat them with peanut butter.ā - Annie, The Parent Trap, 1998
āFlorals? For Spring? Groundbreaking.ā - Miranda Priestly, The Devil Wears Prada, 2006
āļø āAll these nightmares ā theyāre all telling you the same thing, which is what the evidence tells you.ā - Lorraine Horgan, Presumed Innocent, 2024
I know, I know. My taste in media is super refined.
But that last one.
THAT starred one (just finished the series!).
That's the line that kept popping in my head as I worked on this week's LIVE Mid-Year Content Roadmap Reset.
Because your goals. Your workflow. Your content. Your impact ā¦
... they're all nightmares telling you the same thing if you donāt know where youāre even headed.
Your content roadmap keeps you from committing random acts of content. ā”ļø
So tomorrow, I'm talking allllll about how to reset your outline for the rest of 2024. Scroll on for more (and a free ticket in).
And now I must know, are you ā¦
Hereās whatās in store in this REPORTā
š A user-friendly guide to growing your community.
š On āhiringā you to do a job via your content.Ā
š¤ The ever-evolving media ecosystem.
š„ What it really means to find freedom.
āļø Why you should begin substracting.
šŗļø How to know where youāre headed for the rest of the year.
I could never say it enough, but I am SO grateful for you. Thanks for being here. š«¶Ā
š Ā Reading
As I often say, when you are creating and sharing content of any kind, you are inviting others to connect with you. And Community Is Your Currency: 10 Steps to Creating an Engaged Following and Standout Brand Online by Daisy Morris is a user-friendly guide to doing so in a way that grows your communityāwith a side of confidence boosting along the way.
š Exploring
I came across this HBR article and have re-read it a couple of times, fascinated by the argument that we donāt need to know our customers as much as we need to know the customersā jobs to be done. Ā
āWhen we buy a product, we essentially āhireā it to help us do a job. If it does the job well, the next time weāre confronted with the same job, we tend to hire that product again. And if it does a crummy job, we āfireā it and look for an alternative.āĀ
This jobs-to-be-done theory āgets at the causal driver behind aĀ purchase.ā
So we have to ask: What are our readers āhiringā us to do via our content? What do they really want to accomplish in a given circumstance? What is the job to be done?Ā
š¤ PonderingĀ
Traditional media may have initially viewed Substack as a threat but actually, writes its co-founder Hamish McKenzie, the two can coexist and benefit each other. Take, for example, The Washington Post publishing Substack pieces and C-SPANās āSpotlight on Substackā series.
He says Substack can enhance the media ecosystem by providing a space for quality content and fostering a more engaged and sophisticated readership. And he calls for traditional media to explore new models and partnerships to adapt to the changing media landscape.
And on the flip side, journalists like Bob Dunning have moved their more traditional local publishing to Substack and found a much wider readership.
It will be an interesting space to watch.
š„ Obsessing
In a month when we celebrate freedom, I loved this piece by
where he proposes true freedom isnāt about escaping the human condition but finding contentment and peace within it.ĀāWhat if freedom is finally accepting the truth that there is no Easy Street?ā ā¦
āI used to think, freedom would be found in arriving. It isn't. Every arrival is just another departure, and the finish line, it turns out, is a fallacy. Thereās nowhere to get to but here. And here. And here. And hereā¦ā
āLife goes on. And we are free to go with it.ā
āļø RecommendingĀ
When things arenāt adding up in your content, begin subtracting. Showing up gets a lot simpler when you clear the clutter that makes it complicated. āØ
šŗļø Trekking
And on that note, come TOMORROW to the Mid-Year Content Roadmap Reset and come out of the oh-so-predictably-sloggy summer ready to show up consistently and connect with your community. Youāll leave the less than one-hour live workshop knowing where youāre headed for the rest of the year. š
šļøā”ļø This event is exclusively for members of The Content Brief but Iām extending a limited 7-day free trial to free subscribers whoād like to join. Grab yours below then follow this link for how to attend live (or catch the limited replay).
ā”ļø Finally, ICYMI:
Your favorite content researcher for hire,
AND FOR MORE ā¦
Join The Content Brief club to take control of your content. š
Looking forward to the replay Christin! Have so much fun hosting this workshop š
Thanks for the shout-out, Christin!