[00:00:00] Zach Hammer: In this episode, we’re going to be talking about. Why written content may be what you need, even if you’re used to producing videos, audio, whatever. Why written might be the ticket that actually takes your content, allows you to find your ideal audience, reach more people effectively and all of that.
[00:00:20] And so we’re going to be diving into that. I’m Zach Hammer with me I got Charlie Madison. No Hawaiian shirt today, but you are wearing a nice what, is that a a soccer Jersey? Is that what it is?
[00:00:29] Charlie Madison: It is a soccer jersey and I’m celebrating, I fit into it again. So, Hey,
[00:00:35] Zach Hammer: Oh, there you go. Love it. Good call. So yeah. So let me give you a little bit of backstory for why we’re talking about this. So this is a concept that I haven’t fully tested, but I’ve tested enough to at least have inklings around why things are happening the way that it is.
[00:00:51] So, You know, you and I we do this show every week. We also produce content with you every week as well. I’ve done, you know, [00:01:00] webinars, I’ve created videos directly. I’ve always found it interesting that I could put drastically more work and effort into a video.
[00:01:09] And then I put that out. I put it on YouTube or I send it out to my list or put it up on someplace like Facebook and the amount of engagement and consumption of that content compared to when I spend sometimes like five minutes writing just some thoughts on something, throw up. Slap a picture of me and my family and just let that rip on Facebook.
[00:01:32] The amount of comments, engagements, and interaction I get they don’t line up, right? Like there’s drastically more time and effort that I tend to put into a video. And I think there’s good reasons for that. And so what it’s unlocked for me is this idea of, you know, we, we already know this, right?
[00:01:49] We know this reality that like people consume content in different ways. Right. So like, you know, we just got done recording an episode with you. And one of the things that we talked about was the idea that I’m not [00:02:00] always in podcast land, right? Like, you know, sometimes you go through different seasons of your life.
[00:02:04] For me when I had a commute to work driving, you know, 30 to 40 minutes each way. And I was doing that five days a week. I have lots of podcast time, tons of podcast time. I listened to probably thousands of podcast episodes over, you know, by course of doing that kind of work because I had the time, right?
[00:02:22] It worked with my life. At this point in my life, I don’t have that kind of commute. I work from home. So I don’t have a ton of that time that I would normally put on a podcast. For me, it’s like, you know, I now have a lawn, so like I might throw out a podcast or an audio book while I mow the lawn. Right?
[00:02:38] You know, doing dishes, sometimes I can do it that way. Occasionally when I go out and like, you know, go pick up odds and ends, I’ll throw on a podcast, but you know, I’m in town now. So those trips are a lot shorter and I don’t have nearly as much drive time as I used to. So, but you know, like I still consume a ton of content.
[00:02:53] For me right now, it’s often, it is like, I YouTube videos, I’ll read posts on Facebook. Very often for [00:03:00] me, I’ll seek out the information that I’m looking for if that makes sense. So I’m not sure how it is for everybody, but does that concept ring true for you too? Do you find like different seasons of your life?
[00:03:08] You’re consuming different content, even if you’re still interested in the subject matter.
[00:03:13] Charlie Madison: Yeah, a 100% I mean, we talked about, I used to listen to a lot of podcasts and now I listen to very few and you know, I’ll browse some on social media. Normally like when I get a podcast or even a YouTube video, a lot of times now I’m using AI to summarize, you know? Which kind of leads to your credence of like, I can read stuff and a lot quicker, you know, I love transcripts more than watching videos a lot of times.
[00:03:42] Zach Hammer: Right. Yeah, exactly. And I think we’re in a phase of kind of the content world where written content has the potential to help you find the right audience for your message more readily than video but video still video, audio, whatever, still has a [00:04:00] big place and here’s kind of my working theory right now of how this works together.
[00:04:04] So, written is really good at doing that long term continual, I want to get a message out there. I want to make sure I’m top of mind. I want to be building influence, but I’m going to do it at more of like, one key thought at a time, right? Like it might be a deep thought, it might be a well structured in depth post, right?
[00:04:24] Like it might be something like that, where if somebody’s interested, they can really sink their teeth into other times. It might just be sort of, an observation or takeaway. And I think part of why that works is with the written people are able to dive in and engage with it quickly if they want to skim it, use AI to summarize it, that sort of thing really quickly, really effectively. And it feels like a lower ask than sitting down and watching a video, right?
[00:04:48] If I sit down and watch a video, like it almost doesn’t matter. I am expecting, if I’m going to watch this thing. I expect that it’s going to solve the problem that I’m looking for, that it’s going to be interesting.
[00:04:57] If it’s like a, even a three to five [00:05:00] minute video, I’m not going to sit and watch a three to five minute video unless I really think it’s going to solve my problem. Right?
[00:05:06] But I might skim a quick post, even if I’m not sure. Right? Because it’s a low ask. So it’s an easy way to do that. And then still much further with like videos, like long videos, like a 30 minute hour long podcast episode. Like the only ones of those that I typically consume at this point are ones where I really know the person that created it. And I know what kind of content they produce. And I know I want to hear from them. Right?
[00:05:31] So like, you have to have all those things going together where it’s like, what they’re talking about is something that’s relevant to me right now, and they’ve proven themselves out that I feel like it’s worth it for me to sit and listen to it. Right?
[00:05:44] And so, the value chain or the process that I’m working on right now is I personally, like in everything that I do, I suck at doing anything consistently, unless it’s tied to a meeting. So that’s why you and I meet together to do this so that we actually get it done. And so [00:06:00] everything that I do is built off of how can I create the things that I need out of what I’m doing readily and easily anyway.
[00:06:06] It’s easy for me to show up and create this concept, but the catch 22 on it is that it’s not easy to build an audience doing this kind of content. And so the process that I’m building and I’ve been working on building AI systems for, and I’m starting to put into practice is I start with something like this. I take it and I use AI to extract the key points, key pieces, summarize them into the key parts.
[00:06:31] And then I could take that and actually turn that into written derivatives of what we talk about on a show like this, so that by written stuff could go out, find my audience, nurture my audience and ultimately build that influence so that people will ultimately consume video when and where it’s relevant.
[00:06:52] So I still get that opportunity to build a relationship and it’s still worthwhile to do this because it’s actually the heart and the foundation [00:07:00] of what creates everything else. Now what’s like, what’s really powerful about I mentioned this, but you produce a lot of video as well.
[00:07:07] Right, Charlie?
[00:07:08] Charlie Madison: I’ve produced a lot. Yep. We have.
[00:07:10] Zach Hammer: How much written content do you typically make off of your video stuff as it stands right now?
[00:07:16] Charlie Madison: I mean, maybe an hour. I mean, like maybe I’ve got like a, I don’t write anything, but I’ll use AI to create a sentence or two for my captions. So very little written.
[00:07:29] Zach Hammer: Right, exactly. And that’s how most of us are, right? Because historically it has been really hard to take the crux of what’s going on in a video like this and distill it into a solid written post. And so part of why I’m excited about this idea of what’s going on right now, I’ve always known this.
[00:07:49] That it’s worthwhile to do the written, that like people consume in different ways. Some people will want an article, some people want a video, some people want an image, a caption a short video, long video, podcast, whatever. [00:08:00] Right?
[00:08:00] And people consume in different ways. And so the best approach is to do all of ’em if you can. What’s this thing like, you know? Sure, I would do all of those things except they cost time and money, right?
[00:08:11] Charlie Madison: You’re right.
[00:08:13] Zach Hammer: And so we’re always limited by those. And so what’s gone on with what AI is unlocking for this right now is it’s making it so that we can actually build out processes where you show up, you create video in the way that flows naturally for you.
[00:08:27] And through an automated process, we can take that and extract that out to a series of an episode like this could become anywhere from three to seven written posts that feel like you, sound like you, speak to the heart of the matter in a way that’s more than just a caption, but rather our standalone hosts that actually have the ability to go out and engage on a platform like Facebook, LinkedIn, twitter,etc., and the ways that actually matters.
[00:08:57] My recommendation is typically pick a platform that your [00:09:00] audience exists, that they’re actively on and go after that platform first and foremost, but for me, that’s going to be Facebook.
[00:09:06] Facebook is where I see a lot of my engagement happening. So I’m taking this stuff and I’m going to be turning it into written posts in order to ultimately drive toward the deeper content. While still being able to show up in the way that’s easy and natural for me. Because while I can write and when I do write, people seem to engage with it. I’m not good at doing it consistently but this I could do consistently.
[00:09:30] So, that’s the idea there. So far what I’m seeing in the process, I get drastically more engagement on all of my written stuff than I ever do on the video stuff. And so, this is sort of a working out loud episode of what I’m in the process of building in my own business of taking this thing that is an important habit of creating content consistently and turning it into what the market actually most wants in order to bring them into my world. And yeah, and that’s what I’m doing.
[00:09:58] So what are your [00:10:00] thoughts on that concept overall? Do you think I’m on the right track? Does that make sense to you?
[00:10:04] Charlie Madison: Yeah. You know, I’ve seen what you’re building on the back end. And I actually asked for your username and password cause I wanted to just look at it this weekend. Like it’s mesmerizing to be able to take one piece of content and because you’re not just like you’ve taken all your AI prompt engineering and like in this, like how many metaphors have you already used?
[00:10:30] And then how many different ways can we share this one story? You know, cause I mean, most great businesses they have a few core messages that they just say a bunch of different ways, but they pay different individuals, hundreds of thousands of dollars to say the one thing different ways.
[00:10:49] And you’ve created these, like you could tell the hero’s journey, you could create a list of cool, like you’ve built this out. So like one [00:11:00] hour can create so many different ways, and then you find out the one that responds the most and then, you can put like, it’s really powerful because there’s something to be said about.
[00:11:11] How do I get my voice out to the world in a way that my people are going to pay attention to it and respond to it? And you mentioned it, we know some people are audible, some people are visual, some people they read and what I’ve seen a lot of the busiest people, they’ve got a lot more time for reading than listening and they’ve got a lot more time for listening than they do YouTubing.
[00:11:40] And so I love the idea with this video, of course we can create audio content, but now to be able to create great written content that has the essence of what we say in, I mean, you know, I kind of think about it like Pixar. I mean, Pixar, they just got about five [00:12:00] stories, but they’ve got a brand new entertaining way to do it over and over.
[00:12:04] And that’s really what you’re able to do with your text.
[00:12:08] Zach Hammer: Right. Yeah my mom has mentioned this to me a couple of times about Pixar. Their basic storyline is toys have feelings, bugs have feelings, cars have feelings, fish have feelings, they even did feelings have feelings. So they’re going through everything that has feelings.
[00:12:23] But yeah, but you’re absolutely right. And thank you for bringing that up cause that really is a key part. There’s been aspects of this that have become really a lot easier with technology and AI that I think a lot of people are more familiar with. So it’s become a lot easier to take a long form video and turn it into short clips.
[00:12:42] There’s a lot of tools and technology that does that well. I think some people are still figuring out, how to do that most ideal. I think I’ve got that pretty decently dialed at this point for how I do it. I think you do as well. But I think people are still figuring that out a bit.
[00:12:55] But one of the things that I think people really have struggled with is, [00:13:00] how do I take something like this and turn it into something written that feels like what I said? Right?
[00:13:07] Not just a generic post, but that feels like me, that feels like the way I talk about it, that feels like what I was saying. Right? And being able to do that in a cost effective way consistently and automatically is really the thing that we’re working on.
[00:13:22] And it does, it requires extracting like what I would consider the core DNA of your unique position, which is like, what are the key ideas that were mentioned? Right? What are the concepts, the foundational concepts, whether it’s a step by step process or a foundational principles, that sort of idea. What’s the structure of the core concepts of a recording?
[00:13:44] From there, I’m looking at what are the illustrative tools? And that’s going to be things like metaphors, similes, anything where we try and make something clear.
[00:13:55] So like in this case, a good example of that would have been talking about Pixar. Right? Talking about Pixar as [00:14:00] a way to relate back to telling the same story over and over in different ways. Right? So that’s a good, that’s an example of comparison, that sort of idea.
[00:14:08] The other one that really comes into play is stories. So that’s the third component that I look for is the stories that are shared. Specifically talking about here’s what I’ve done, here’s what I’ve tried, here’s what a client has done or tried cause those stories are really a big part of what uniquely makes your position. Right?
[00:14:23] And it really adds to that clarity around how what you talk about is from experience and from reality and not just something that came from AI, right? So what we’re looking for here is we’re looking for as AI becomes more and more prevalent. We’re looking for what are those markers that really show that there was a human present in the creation of this content? Rather than just being completely straight out of AI ,because I think more and more people are going to be looking for that.
[00:14:52] They’re going to be looking for how do I trust this? As more and more things become less and less trustable, so those stories, they matter a ton.
[00:14:58] And then the last one that I look for is I look [00:15:00] for quotes. And quotes are very specifically. Is there something that was said, that’s a really powerful way of phrasing it? Right? That overall package and what are those specific words? What were the words that were used? Because reusing those words can be more powerful than trying to say it a different way.
[00:15:19] And when you analyze an episode for those key components, you could take them, package them together into a package that then with that package of information, AI can then restructure it into a well structured written post for you and often do that iteratively over different concepts.
[00:15:38] So anyway that’s what we’re building out, that’s what we’re working on, that’s how the sausage is made process. But the key idea that we’re looking for is how do we make it so that you get the benefit of written content seems to go farther, do better, be more engaging for people?
[00:15:55] But maybe it’s hard for you to sit down and take the time to sit and write something up, especially when [00:16:00] you’re needing to come up with it over and over again in different ways for different concepts and that’s what we’re working on.
[00:16:04] So over the coming weeks, you should start seeing more of my content come through that way. I mean, do note, it’s typically always going to be inspired by something like this, an episode where I sat down and I did think through, like, I have my real lived experiences and my real thoughts, those thoughts get put through a process that takes it and puts it into a format that’s easier for people to digest, share and engage with.
[00:16:28] But still at the heart of it exists the DNA that is me and my unique point of view, my spark of humanity that comes through that. And I think that’s the key of right now AI is most powerful use is in amplifying what you already bring to the table rather than trying to replace it.
[00:16:47] And the more often we could find those ways where you show up in the way that you have your own magic. And then AI takes that and just adds fuel to your fire. That’s really what we’re looking to do and what we’re [00:17:00] building out right now.
[00:17:00] So anyway, thanks for coming on and letting me share that process. Hopefully seeing behind the scenes of what we’re doing, how we’re thinking about it and why is helpful for folks who are looking to solve things in a similar way.
[00:17:14] So yeah, any final thoughts, Charlie?
[00:17:16] Charlie Madison: It just makes a ton of sense, this is perfect for people that are already creating content. And what’s cool is your clients, a lot of them don’t even realize the content they’re already creating that you help them know where to push record and then how to distribute it.
[00:17:32] Cause there’s something to be said, we want to attract the right fit clients. And we do that by getting our ideas out into the world. And then they come to us as compliant clients, right? They say, hey look, Zach, I like what you’re doing and I want you to do it with me.
[00:17:46] Zach Hammer: Absolutely. And in order to do that, you got to get your message out into the world. They got to see you doing it, they got to see it happening. Otherwise they don’t know it exists.
[00:17:55] So, sometimes making that happen is the hard work, but yeah.
[00:17:59] Well, there you go. That’s [00:18:00] this episode of the bag. Hopefully you found it useful. Until the next time we’ll catch you on the next one.
