I thought I was being so clever.
Early in my content-creating journey, I made a video and accompanying blog about how to use humor in your content.
It was…stupid.
For a post about humor, it was painfully unfunny. And I knew it at the time. Mercifully, it’s been buried in a place where it will never be seen or found.
But I learned a valuable lesson from that post, and many more: Your early content will be garbage. But you have to keep going.
Today, I like to think I’m pretty good at content creation. I post on LinkedIn every day. I interview people and share insights. I tell personal stories, and my audience is growing steadily.
In the process, I learned three things that helped me get to where I am today. These are three lessons that I hope will help you in your journey to building your personal and corporate brands through authentic storytelling.
Get Over It
The first thing you need to realize is that when you start, you’re going to be bad at it. Your content, your stories, your posts are going to suck.
Get over it. It happens to everyone. It’s a natural part of the learning process to be bad at something new.
You’ll get better the more you do it. And if you want to accelerate your improvement, I can help.
Test the Waters
If you’re just starting out, it’s probably best to not dive into rich content forms like podcasts and videos. Even developing a content strategy might be premature at this point.
A great way to start is to comment on other people’s content. Just make sure you’re adding value, not just saying “I agree!”
From there, you can graduate to sharing other people’s content on your own feed, making sure to add your 2 cents. Then you can start sharing your own original stories.
Over time, you’ll build confidence, as well as get a sense of your own voice and perspective.
It’s Low-Risk, So Experiment!
In his autobiography, "Born Standing Up," Steve Martin recalled his early days doing standup comedy. He played to small rooms with just a few disinterested people in the audience.
Instead of getting discouraged, he used that as an opportunity to experiment. He tried different bits to see what he liked, what the audience liked, and to refine his act.
You can take that same approach.
When you’re just starting your content creation journey, you will likely have a small audience. I like to call it, “Shouting into the abyss.”
At this time, you can try new things. Try humor. Try long-form articles. Try illustrations and graphics. Try short videos.
Find out what you do best. And what gets a response from your audience.
Keep Going
The most important thing is to keep going. Remember, you have important sh*t to say. Sh*t that has value to your customers, your employees, and/or others.
If you stick with it, you can become a trusted voice in your industry. And that
comes with all kinds of benefits.