Episode 56
Quick Hit: This Lesson From Ross Simmonds Is Going to Crush Your Fear
In our latest episode of Distribution First, we dive into the fear that holds many content creators back from effective distribution with special guest Ross Simmonds. Ross shares the importance of facing these fears head-on and provides valuable insights on how to overcome them to maximize the impact of your content.
Key Takeaways:
1. Fear can hinder content distribution: Many content creators fear that their content may be perceived as mediocre if met with silence, leading to hesitation in promoting it.
2. Distribution is limitless: Understanding the vast reach of the internet enables content creators to be shameless and strategic in promotion, reaching potentially millions of ideal customers.
3. Distribution influences content creation: Focusing on distribution from the outset serves as a crucial gut check to ensure content is actionable and resonates with the audience.
Tune in to the episode for in-depth discussions and practical strategies to conquer distribution fears and optimize your content's impact. Listen now to gain valuable insights and level up your content marketing game!
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Transcript
People don't distribute their content because of fear.
Ross Simmonds:They are fearful that they are going to realize that the content that they
Ross Simmonds:actually produced is mediocre because they share it and they get met with crickets.
Ross Simmonds:And when they get met with crickets, they're going to say,
Ross Simmonds:uh, I guess our content's not good.
Justin Simon:I think the number one thing I hear all the time with
Justin Simon:repurposing, distribution, etc.
Justin Simon:is like, Well, it's not as easy as just, you know, I'm like, well, of course it's
Justin Simon:not, you are creating something new.
Justin Simon:It's not, it's not just, I mean, if you're doing it right and it's not as
Justin Simon:easy as just throwing, you know, the transcript into, into chat GPT and saying,
Justin Simon:all right, give me a bunch of stuff.
Justin Simon:But it's hilarious when you think about the amount of time that gets
Justin Simon:spent on worthless activities.
Justin Simon:You know, or the time that gets spent, I mean, I know you've
Justin Simon:probably lived this life.
Justin Simon:I've lived this life.
Justin Simon:I work with teams.
Justin Simon:You work with teams.
Justin Simon:You see how much con, how much blog, how much video, how, how
Justin Simon:much content is getting created.
Justin Simon:Like and we don't even bat an eye at the time it takes to create a blog post.
Justin Simon:But when you say, well, you know, you got to take two days.
Justin Simon:Out of the week or, or, or, you know, like a couple hours of chunk to repurpose
Justin Simon:this and, and re get it out there.
Justin Simon:That's a ton of work.
Justin Simon:It's a ton of work.
Justin Simon:I can't do that.
Justin Simon:No, it's
Ross Simmonds:interesting.
Ross Simmonds:I think honestly, it's not even the work that is why people don't do it.
Ross Simmonds:I don't fundamentally believe anymore.
Ross Simmonds:People don't distribute their content because it's too much work.
Ross Simmonds:Think they don't distribute their content because of fear.
Ross Simmonds:I think they are fearful that they're going to realize that the
Ross Simmonds:content that they actually produced is mediocre because they share it
Ross Simmonds:and they get met with crickets.
Ross Simmonds:And when they get met with crickets, they're going to say,
Ross Simmonds:Oh, I guess our content's not.
Ross Simmonds:So that's probably the actual root reason why many do not share their content.
Ross Simmonds:Not because.
Ross Simmonds:Oh, I have to spend an extra 30 minutes to write a LinkedIn post.
Ross Simmonds:It's because they know if they write that LinkedIn posts and it reaches 10,
Ross Simmonds:000 people and they get two likes that the post probably didn't resonate.
Ross Simmonds:So they need to now go back to the drawing board to rethink their content
Ross Simmonds:strategy and whether or not they're actually created content that is worth
Ross Simmonds:reading, that becomes a real problem for an organization that thinks they
Ross Simmonds:have the best content in the world.
Ross Simmonds:Have gotten no results from it, but then when they started
Ross Simmonds:distributing it and they're met with crickets met with, Oh, wow.
Ross Simmonds:So all these years we've been producing content, but the content hasn't been
Ross Simmonds:working and it's not just because we're not distributing it, it's
Ross Simmonds:also because the content's not good.
Ross Simmonds:That's a problem.
Ross Simmonds:The other fear that I think people have is that they're going to be judged
Ross Simmonds:because they promote themselves too much.
Ross Simmonds:And this is just like a lack of understanding of the size and the actual.
Ross Simmonds:The depth of the internet, like there are billions of people out
Ross Simmonds:there you reach 20, 000 people.
Ross Simmonds:We've literally reached no one.
Ross Simmonds:You have reached no, you've reached 20, 000 people.
Ross Simmonds:Great.
Ross Simmonds:That's cool.
Ross Simmonds:Awesome.
Ross Simmonds:Put it in your deck, celebrate it, but realize in the grand scheme
Ross Simmonds:of things, it didn't reach anyone.
Ross Simmonds:Like you really didn't.
Ross Simmonds:Um, you didn't even feel like like that people need to
Ross Simmonds:recognize, like, The distribution element is literally infinite.
Ross Simmonds:If you play the game well, if you recognize that, yes, there are a lot
Ross Simmonds:of people out there who would fit into my ICP, you only have like a target of
Ross Simmonds:five customers, then whatever you get your five customers and call it a day.
Ross Simmonds:But if you have like thousands of people, tens of thousands, millions
Ross Simmonds:of people that could be your ideal customer, you need to be shameless.
Ross Simmonds:And you need to remove the fear of being judged because you're
Ross Simmonds:too promotional with your content.
Justin Simon:Yeah, and I, it's funny because that's, it's, it ties into a lot
Justin Simon:of the stuff that, um, I know Amanda over at SparkToro and they've been promoting
Justin Simon:with the zero click, but it's like when you're, when you're social and, and
Justin Simon:distribution on social traditionally was, Hey, it's Tuesday morning.
Justin Simon:We just, we just launched this new blog.
Justin Simon:Everybody go check it out.
Justin Simon:That does feel promotional.
Justin Simon:The flip side of that is that zero click where it's like.
Justin Simon:Is the content in this blog you created good enough to where you're
Justin Simon:not allowed, I've literally walked this through with marketing teams, you're
Justin Simon:not allowed to put a link, right?
Justin Simon:Can it survive without a link in that post?
Justin Simon:And I think that's kind of what you're saying too is when.
Justin Simon:It really does change, completely change the content you create from
Justin Simon:the beginning because when you're editing, you know, version one of
Justin Simon:the draft and you, and you've got it in your head that like, Oh, I've got
Justin Simon:to be able to create some LinkedIn content or some tweets off of this.
Justin Simon:And you're going through like.
Justin Simon:I could, nothing's actionable, nothing's, you know, there's no list, there's nothing
Justin Simon:I can take away, it's just information that you're putting out there and it
Justin Simon:really is like, when you focus on that distribution first, it is a sort of
Justin Simon:gut check, um, signal up front that, eh, your content you're creating might
Justin Simon:not be quite on point as you think.
