School Of Content: Recent Episodes
Clint Mally
In this episode you learn:
- What does the journey of creating content full-time really look like
- How to make entertaining content that is also informative.
- When should you not focus on SEO when creating content
Rued Riis' website and courses.
Rued Riis is an online teacher, helping educators turn knowledge into video. He believes in fun learning, and that all teachers must have the “ambition to entertain.
There are six ways a business can generate leads and get more customers online. Many businesses focus on only one or two of these techniques but the best businesses use all of them in some capacity.
In this episode, I’ll explain each technique, the types of businesses that should use them, and how to incorporate them into your marketing strategy.
Links mentioned in the show👇
- Check out the full blog post from this episode.
- Learn about the Social First Video Marketing Strategy
- Check out my Linkedin outbound lead generation process
Feel free to reach out at clintmally@gmail.com or at clintmally.com
If you want to get into video editing, but you don't want to have to learn some complicated software, I've got a really simple tool for you...
It's called Descript. It automatically transcribes your footage so that you can edit it just like a Google doc.
If you highlight the text and then delete it. It's cut from the video.
You can also cut and copy something from one section and then move it to another section and it will move in the video too.
Descript can even make subtitles like the one in this video, super easy.
nd you can remove filler words like, um, ah, you know, with just a click of a button.
Now you have no excuse to start creating and editing videos of your own.
contentcreator #video #videoediting #content #marketing
When people think about having a unique business or marketing their stuff, they tend to overlook one important point.
Most businesses talk about trying to niche down, or if you're making content, making all of your content around one thing, but businesses are made up of people and people are complicated and made up of a whole bunch of different stuff.
People trade stocks and they write poetry, people draw cartoons and fixed marketing budgets.
The uniqueness is in the combination. The flavor of food is in the combination of salt, acid, fat and heat. When you strip something down into its most basic elements, you do gain clarity.
But you also lose diversity.
Remember that diversity is how things grow best. Now notice that I didn't say diversity is how things grow most. It's how they grow best. You can get way more corn by making a cornfield, but also you cultivate the dirt until it's bone dry and stripped of all of its nutrients.
But you can grow better things longer when they are a part of a sustainable ecosystem that has a whole bunch of stuff in it, singleness or focusing on just one thing is usually shortsighted and farsighted.
At the same time. One of my favorite books is by David Epstein called range. It contends that for every single person like tiger woods. Who focused on just one thing to become a master.
There are actually way more people like Roger Federer who sampled a bunch of different sports that allowed him to play the game differently and better.
Your uniqueness is actually in the combination of your interests and experience, not in the singular focus of any one thing
marketingtips #contentmarketing #digitalmarketing
People, especially white dudes have a really hard time with this one word...
AND
you can be proud of the hard work that you've done. AND recognize that you've been cut a lot of breaks that probably wouldn't have happened to you if you weren't white.
You can understand that your Irish ancestors were mistreated when they arrived in America AND you can understand that people of color are systematically oppressed, right now.
You can decide that abortion isn't the right choice for you, especially if you can't have an abortion, because you're a guy AND you can want women to have complete control over their own bodies, because you would probably also like to have complete control over yours.
You can be straight as hell. AND love people who are gay.
You can identify as a man or a woman from birth AND love and support people whose gender is more fluid.
And before you go and start trying to name drop all of your gay or black friends. You can be surrounded by gay and black people AND still hold racist ideals in your heart, thoughts and actions.
You can make mistakes in the past AND learn from them and do better in the future.
You can believe things AND you can change your mind. You can believe things AND you can change your mind. You can believe things AND you can change your mind.
love #equity #equality
I heard about this writer that intentionally writes things in a complicated way.
And when people complained about it, she said, "yeah, my writing is complicated. You have to work to understand it."
Is that okay?
Is it okay to intentionally write things in a complicated way just because your content is complicated?
Complicated writing creates clubs.
These are clubs of people who have suffered through some complicated material and now know what it means.
It separates them from the people who haven't read the complicated stuff. And when you have separation, you also have power. After all the magician only really has magic.
When the audience doesn't understand how the trick goes done. People love initiation things.
Hot ones, rushing at fraternities, the military, they all put their club behind intentionally hard things.
But what if, when you knew something you sought to give understanding, instead of just knowledge, because knowing something that's complicated is cool, but helping somebody understand something that's complicated.
Well, that's even cooler. What if, instead of trying to build a wall around something that, you know, you sought to break the wall down.
contentcreation #contentcreator #contentmarketing
Have you ever stopped to wonder why fake plants exist?
Around 1500 BC, the Chinese who had perfected and invented the art of crafting silk began to make silk flowers.
Then around the 12th century, Italian merchants who sold goods along trade routes began to popularize these silk flowers, expanding them across the globe.
There is even this funny story of Marie Antoinette fainting after being given a silk rose because she said it was too perfect.
But how did we go from silk flowers to large-scale plastic palms in people's basements?
Well, here is a hint from famous artist and architect, Anthony Gaby from Barcelona. He viewed the natural world as perfect and modeled all of his art around it.
he made doors to resemble butterfly wings,
staircases to look like a snails.
Inmate gates that resembled Palm branches,
but by far his most famous work is the familiar. This was Gaudi's obsession and it's actually the place where he's now buried. He made the inside of this church look like a forest because he connected the natural world with the divine,
the large columns within the cathedral resemble a tree trunk.
the ceiling looks like a canopy.
And depending on the time that you go, the stained glass fills the church with greens and yellows and reds and oranges,
just like it might seem if you were looking up through the translucent leaves of trees.
This cathedral has been in construction for more than 130 years.
And it's actually scheduled to be finished in 2026. but this term for creating things that resemble things you can find in the natural world is called biomimicry.
It's where we've drawn inspiration for all kinds of things like needles from mosquitoes,
And Velcro from the burs of plants,
bullet trains, from hummingbirds
whether it's concrete or plastic,
much of what humans are drawn to most has to do with nature.
Every single culture features art that tries to capture parts of the natural order.
Sure. You can look at fake plants as the lazy person's way to make their zoom background look more vibrant. Or you could see it as part of our inner need to make the inside of our place. Look more like the outside of it.
biomimicry #arthistory #architecture
Alchemy was the medieval era's version of chemistry. But did you know that there are still alchemists today?
So the basics of alchemy are that you take common things, mostly metals, and stuff, that you just have lying around, then you heat or mix these things up in varying amounts to create precious metals or even an elixir of life.
If you're thinking.
Yeah, but that's not real.
That's magic.
Think again.
A novel is composed of 26 common letters. When used in combination. They create words when using these in combination, they create sentences and then paragraphs and then pages and then stories. These stories can build huge followers.
They can be traded for vast sums of money and they can grant international fame. Many people have access to letters, but few turn them into gold.
The magic is in the combination, the recipe, the code, the number of ingredients, the heat.
Computers are made up of Silicon. Copper and cobalt zinc. And yet they unlock vast stores of communication and knowledge.
Computers are put together by adding these materials together in varying degrees and using heat. So whether you're an author or a microchip engineer, Or really any creative field.
If you combine simple things together of varying amounts under different combinations and pressures than you are an Alchemist
alchemy #magic
Do you know what the book, The Secret and Sherlock Holmes have in common?
The Secret is a book that says that when you focus on certain things, you manifest those things into your life.
So if you focus on good stuff, good stuff will appear. And if you focus on bad stuff, bad stuff will appear.
Now. I don't really believe in manifesting to be honest, but that doesn't mean that the principle cannot be explained by the world's most.
Literary detective. See, in a short story, Sherlock is talking to his friend Watson about the details of the case. He says, you see, but you do not observe.
Then he gives an example. He says that you probably take a set of stairs on your way to work or on the way to your house on a daily basis. Right? But do you know how many steps are in that series of stairs?
Most people don't. We step, but we do not count. The secret says that you manifest things towards you, but Sherlock says the same thing can be achieved by just observing.
Sometimes this is just observing good things. Blessings or beautiful things that you experience every day.
And this also means that good things are already around you.
You just haven't observed them yet.
You see, but you do not observe!
manifestation #thesecret #lawofattraction
Have you ever looked at modern art and said, "Oh, that's no big deal. A kid could do that."
Well, I did too, until I learned about this one invention that changed modern art forever. This invention gave rise to things like impressionism, expressionism, and cubism. That's a lot of isms. The invention was none other than the camera.
It changed everything!
Leading right up to the Renaissance. The goal was to make things hyper realistic, but with the birth of the camera, there was no longer really a point now, portraits weren't just for the wealthy, they were democratized.
Therefore artist sought to show the essence of something. They wanted to show the feeling or the emotion connected with what they were painting instead of just trying to make it look how it looks in real life.
It made room for artists like Van Gogh, Monet, Kahlo, Goya, Picasso, and Pollock, and way more. And that's what kind of made me start to love modern art, because isn't the goal of art to really just make you feel something?
arthistory #artwork #art
Have you ever looked at modern art and said, "Oh, that's no big deal. A kid could do that."
Well, I did too, until I learned about this one invention that changed modern art forever. T
his invention gave rise to things like impressionism, expressionism, and cubism. That's a lot of isms. The invention was none other than the camera.
It changed everything!
Leading right up to the Renaissance. The goal was to make things hyper realistic, but with the birth of the camera, there was no longer really a point now, portraits weren't just for the wealthy, they were democratized.
Therefore artist sought to show the essence of something. They wanted to show the feeling or the emotion connected with what they were painting instead of just trying to make it look how it looks in real life.
It made room for artists like Van Gogh, Monet, Kahlo, Goya, Picasso, and Pollock, and way more. And that's what kind of made me start to love modern art, because isn't the goal of art to really just make you feel something?
arthistory #artwork #art
If you're a boss like me here is some stuff to think about when it comes to quiet, quitting and your employees. And just so we're clear, quiet, quitting is when you do what's in your job description. During the hours that you're employed and no more, which is really what most people sign up for anyways.
So... As a boss, you need to announce to your employees when you go on vacation, make it a big deal. Also use this time to encourage your employees to take vacations of their own. As a boss, you need to explicitly take the time to tell your employees to unplug and disconnect from work during their days off from work. As a boss, any time you send any kind of message to your employees outside of the normal working hours, you need to schedule it so that it doesn't notify them during their time off, unless you're reaching out to them just to tell them that they're awesome.
And that you appreciate. Which if you are a human, who cares about another human is a normal thing to do. Wow. That's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me. As a boss. If your employees do their job, then a three to 5% annual raise is the bare minimum. If not, then you have created a role that doesn't add enough value to your company.
And by the way, that's on you. The reason a three to 5% raises the minimum. It's because in addition to them just doing their job and inflation, they're gaining a ton of industry experience that is super valuable. As a boss. It's okay to communicate with your employees to see if they want to take on more responsibility.
And that is before giving them additional duties. Oh right. As a boss, you need to teach and model. How your employees can disagree with you ways they can give you honest feedback or refuse a request, basically how to say no, because having a diversity of perspectives helps you to be a better leader and to have a better team. As a boss, you should praise an employee in front of other employees when they disagree with you in a honest and helpful way. As a boss, it's important to have regular check-ins with your employees to see how they are feeling about their job. And it's also worth checking in how they're doing personally. With the caveat that they only have to share things that they're comfortable with, and they don't have to share anything personal at all.
As a boss, when the team is trying something new that may not work call out, that it may fail in advance. And that it's okay. As long as we learn something from it. As a boss model vulnerability, by admitting your mistakes. As a boss, you need to adopt the mindset that generally people want to do a good job at their job.
Really? And when you live in fear of being scammed or gypped or grifted, it's usually based on an insecurity that you have, that you just haven't processed yet. Leadership is about taking ownership over the stuff that you can control, not blaming or complaining about stuff that you cannot.
mentalhealth #boss #quietquitting
Understanding this one idea might change your perspective on a whole bunch of stuff. Rings on trees, ripples in water and Russian dolls.
Hello!
What do they all have in common? They all start with a start. A seed that makes a sapling, a pebble dropped in water, a little itty baby doll that goes into a bigger doll.
And then they reverberate out. Their origin is gone from sight. Buried deep within. They grow. They expand.
Until they no longer look like what they started as. Now, you might be tempted to think of this, like a family tree, and sure, I can see that,
📍 but it's more like a chain reaction started by an action.
You probably don't know who your great, great, great, great grandmother is. Even if you're one of those hardcore genealogy, family tree historians. You still probably don't know much. Yet, here you are a consequence of their actions, right?
And you will eventually fade to dust. Your kids, kids, kids, kids won't even know who you are. Even if you create
fancy mausoleum were write in autobiography.
📍 All that you really have is the actions that you do today. The smile that you give, the question that you ask, the kindness that you share, that's all that really matters. Your actions and really nothing else. Your business and house will eventually crumble to dust.
📍 But you and what you do, well that's gonna be causing a chain reaction long after you become a skeleton.
Understanding this one therapy technique could make you like an actual Jedi and a way better friend. It's called motivational interviewing.
And it's so powerful that it helped this guy. I was about that close to just cranking that pickup up and heading back home.
I'll let you know, I'm not real happy about being here. Who was court ordered to go to therapy after a DUI and did not want to be there at all.
Say this by the end one session. If I don't stop drinking, I'm probably going to be right back in this mess again. The basic premise works like this.
Have you ever had a friend who's told you about someone that they're dating and they're like, "Ah, he's so mean he treats me bad. He's not considerate." So naturally you're trying to give them advice.
And so you say, "Well, then you should just dump his ass." But then they say something like this, "Oh, but he's so sweet sometimes." Hold up. What just happened?
📍 Motivational interviewing or MI states that people are constantly striving for control and balance. When you try to tell somebody what to do, even when it's really good advice, then they push back in order to maintain control and balance.
It's like a Seesaw, the harder you push, the more they sink their weight in order to maintain equal footing. Instead MI says that you should help guide them to the answer themselves. It's like the difference between teaching and educating.
Teaching is imparting or giving somebody knowledge. But education well, it's Latin root where it means to draw out from within. Basically MI and education, believe that people already have the knowledge that they need, or at least the ability to come up with those answers.
We all have voices in our head. And they are always talking whether we like it or not. They are the echoes of what your parents said to you that one time that you have never fully processed.
They are the voices of your friends and coworkers and acquaintances. But oftentimes these voices are really just our voice.
And then we repeat it in our heads. We fill in what people meant, but didn't say. We say the message behind the words. And the thing about these voices, whether real or fabricated is that they're not usually kind.
So then we try to control these voices by covering them up with other voices. We listen to music or podcasts.
And we hope to get a song stuck in our head. Because songs feel .Better than voices of people that we know.
I heard one time that if you have a song stuck in your head, that the only way to be able to get it out is to say the last part of the song, to finish it. I think the goal here is to break through from the loop of the chorus, that kind
hypnotizes and repeats in your head over and over again. You have to see it through to the end. I think that the voices in our head are actually the same way. You have to actually engage with them to finish those conversations out to the end, whether inside of your head or in real life.
You need to not just hear them, but to listen to them.
Then after you've listened to them and processed what they are trying to say, they can be released like ghost from purgatory or just clouds that you let pass by. You don't have to believe what the voices in your head are telling you.
But in order to clear those voices, sometimes you need to listen to what they have to say.
Have you heard the story of the 30 second art creation that cost $10,000?
Legend has it that a woman approached Picasso at a restaurant and asked him to sketch something on a napkin?
She said that she would be happy to pay whatever he felt it was worth.
So Picasso created a sketch of the woman and then handed it to her and said, that will be $10,000.
She was shocked. She was like, but you did this in like 30 seconds. No Picasso replied.
It's actually taken me 40 years to do that.
Now I did some research and I couldn't actually verify that Picasso actually said this, which means that this is a sketchy story. Do you get it? the question is, does that make it any less true?
True story. I created and edited 25 podcast episodes without realizing that my microphone was turned backwards.
And the only reason that I learned this is because I was a guest on someone else's podcast and they told me it was backwards.
And I spent 24 total hours filming a video without realizing that my camera lens wasn't attached all the way.
See there was this click that I was missing.
The tools they worked just fine. I just didn't know how to use them.
When I learned that I had been doing this wrong and had wasted a ton of time. Sure. I was mad, but I was also relieved.
I would have never learned that I was doing stuff wrong if I didn't keep recording
and I definitely wouldn't have figured it out if I had never started at all.
Maybe just, maybe you are a couple mistakes away from getting it right.
Especially when you're learning something new.
However things will never click unless you start in the first.
In this episode, you'll hear from an expert speaker, trainer, and digital marketer Mandy McEwen. You'll learn:
Why you should be focusing on Linkedin
How to make LinkedIn Goals
How to build an outreach list and make connections
What kind of posts work on Linkedin
Check out the full course, video, and checklist from this episode.
More about Mandy:
Mandy McEwen is the Founder & CEO of Mod Girl Marketing, an award-winning digital agency. As a renowned speaker, trainer, content creator, and podcaster, Mandy has been named a Top 24 B2B Marketer by LinkedIn and a Top 20 Female Marketer by G2. Mandy and her world-class team increase social selling revenues for enterprise teams using LinkedIn and email.
In this episode, you'll learn from expert Squarespace web designer Christy Price.
She explains:
- Why scaling your business is not always the right choice
- When is it good and not good to have a Squarespace website
- How content can position you as the expert.
Learn more about Christy Price👇
https://christyprice.com/
Check out her Make Money With Your Blog Course👇
https://christyprice.com/mmwyb
Check out the Squarespace tutorials I've created 👇
https://www.clintmally.com/squarespace-school-free-web-design-courses
This is a complete guide to understanding content marketing.
In this guide you’ll learn:
- clear strategies to boost organic traffic.
- How to make your content stand out.
- Practical ways to make better content.
If you have been thinking about using content marketing for your business, or if you just want to use it better this guide is for you.
Chapter 1:
What is Content Marketing?
“Content marketing is a strategy where a company publishes helpful, useful articles [videos, graphics, or podcasts] as a way to attract attention from people who can advocate for them, refer business to them, or people who might one day need their services.
It's about being helpful on the internet, and usually, it's teaching something”
Andy Crestodina | Orbit Media
Teaching and creating content positions your business or brand as the expert.
If you show someone how to do something that makes their life better then they will be more likely to trust you for another problem.
The Two Types Of Marketing | Content and Advertising
Even the best of marketers don’t enjoy commercials or advertising.
They are distracting.
They pull you away from the thing that you want to focus on.
“Advertising is the hype and, and content marketing is the help.”
Jay Baer
Content Marketing helps people. It answers questions. It makes people's lives better. People seek out content.
The Connection Between Teaching & Understanding
You are only truly an expert in your craft when you can explain HOW to do something.
Level 1- You can recognize the difference between quality and not quality.
- Many of us can do this naturally.
- This is what it means to be a spectator.
- People are quick to give their opinion if something is bad or good.
Level 2- You can explain why something is quality versus not-quality.
- You can point to specific reasons and examples about why something is good or bad.
- This is what it means to be a hobbyist.
- This is more than a spectator, they have reasons to back up their opinion.
Level 3- You can create or do quality stuff.
- You can use your knowledge to make things or do things that are quality.
- Now, you are a practitioner.
- They are no longer in the stands, they are in the arena.
Level 4- You can teach others to create or do quality stuff.
- You can break a thing into parts and show someone who to do each part until they can do the whole thing.
- You are an expert or a guide.
- The arena has become a classroom
Learn more at ClintMally.com