One Piece Of Content Can Change Your Career
“You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself. That is something you have charge of.” — Jim Rohn
Emotional intelligence is the real deal. Emotional intelligence, more than any other factor, more than I.Q., expertise or skillset accounts for 85–90% of success in our careers. I.Q. is simply a threshold competence. We need it, but it doesn’t make us a rock star. Emotional intelligence can.
For over two years now I’ve been totally immersed in understanding human behavior, helping innovate the financial services industry and leveraging the explosion of social media in business and tech. I’ve always wanted to stay ahead of the curve and capitalize on growing market trends. Staying ahead of the curve was taught to me in baseball! ;) Regardless, the evidence is all around us and increasing every day.
Allow me to explain. For musicians, all it took was one song to help propel their careers into stardom. She Loves You, the Beatles’ second number one hit, was the band’s biggest-selling track ever released in the U.K. The countless number of shows performed in Europe helped launch them into their first TV appearance on February 11, 1964. Their first U.S. concert took place at Washington Coliseum in D.C. in front of more than 8,000 screaming fans. Fast forward 40+ years, a single YouTube video was all it took for major talent to be recognized in our digital age. For investors and business owners, it was one big deal that put them on the map in the venture capital game. Think about Twitter for Chris Sacca, Snapchat for Evan Speigal, and Facebook for Mark Zuckerberg and Peter Thiel.
You, too, have the ability to produce that kind of memorable content. The $1,000,000 question is, “What will that one piece of life-changing content be?”
Creating Great Content for a Personal Brand
If you aren’t sure where to begin, don’t fret. It’s actually pretty simple: talk about or write about whatever you’re passionate about. Even if 1 or 2 people are listening or reading, you’re onto something. Remember, 1 viewer or reader is greater than 0. Even the most successful people in financial planning, real estate, law, franchising, startups or technology started off as nobodies (for the most part). Whatever you love, talk to the world about that one thing.
Creating Great Content for a Business Brand
The truth of the matter is that most big businesses just aren’t good enough to be making the kind of content they want to be making today. Don’t get me wrong some are yet some have to jump through entirely too many hurdles whether it’s compliance approval, human resources, or worthy of public relations time and efforts. I’m aware it’s challenging and tough to hear yet it’s simply the truth. The truth hurts 90% of the time.
As a former baseball player, I like to think about the influx of Japanese, Hispanic, Cuban, Dominican and plenty of other minorities of talented baseball players who have come to the U.S. in the past 10 plus years to play in MLB. Do you think they just magically got discovered? No! They were good enough players to earn the necessary attention. They, as well as many others, invested in their strengths and created opportunities for themselves and their families. As long as you have the self-awareness to do the same, good things are bound to come your way.
The quality and creation of value businesses bring with their content is equally as important. Content needs to have depth, not width. It must deliver value and resonate with a specific audience as opposed to being fluffy and for the masses. Trust me, no one enjoys that!
The best way to get depth is by paying attention, engaging your audience, talking with them daily, weekly and monthly, actively sharing views on subjects that are important to them and talking about similar areas of interest. This all may seem like common sense because it is. However, some individuals these days could use some more common sense in their brains. Always remind yourself, what’s going on in the world around you? And finally, how can you engage yourself in those conversations?
Pick A Platform
Logically you’re going to choose to put out content through the medium that best suits your strengths. Whatever your skillset is, put out quality content and share it on the relevant platform that’s winning the undivided attention of the people you want to reach. For example, if you’re a good writer, and went to a great liberal arts college as I did, start a blog. I’m not nearly as good in front of a camera which is why I don’t upload content on YouTube yet.
I’m sure you’re wondering, so how do you get discovered? The art of making content online, people's attention and the explosion of social media is that if one single piece is that freaking good, it has the potential to be big. That wasn’t the case 15 to 20 years ago as it is with today’s scale and desirability.
That’s why I love @Medium’s publishing platform. I just learned that Medium will handpick and feature top content from anyone, regardless of how many followers they have. The post simply needs to be good! This makes it possible to propel writers from nobodies into somebodies. The same is true today for YouTubers and videographers. Even photographers on Facebook and Instagram.
It all comes down to day trading attention for the people who enjoy your content. Gary Vaynerchuk says it all the time because he’s correct! He’s crushing it now and will continue to do so for decades. So what’s your excuse seeing as you have the same resources he does?
Don’t Lose Sleep Over People Who Are Negative
Keep in mind that you won’t hit a solo home run or 2-run home run every time you’re up to bat at the plate. You will swing and miss here and there. However, focus on your next at-bat because that’s your strength, as well as your ability to keep swinging.
Yes, you’ll get push back from friends, family members, co-workers or whomever it may be about why you’re documenting and creating so much stuff. That’s not normal for them and society's standards to see people grow beyond their mediocrity. But, when you’re right and you continue to be right and better yourself, people will start looking to you as a leader and someone to pull inspiration from. When you’re right, well…you’re right and the opportunities will follow. Before you know it, you’ll find yourself at the next level with more responsibilities and good people in your corner. We are the average of the 5 closest people we surround ourselves with so be careful who those people are.
If you take anything away from this article, it’s this: recognize that you have the opportunity to win the content game contrary to what people may think. Simply focus on your strengths and the quality of what you produce, why you produce it, how you produce it, and where you’re sharing it. By being emotionally intelligent you just keep swinging. You never know who’s watching, reading, listening or paying attention. That’s how you win.
My Very Best,
Donovan Vogel
