You know what I find interesting? A lot of really smart business owners tell me they have no idea what to talk about when they're creating their content. And the funny thing is, you spend 10 minutes talking to them about their business, and they just don't shut up. Because some of your best marketing material is probably sitting inside conversations you're already having.
That's really the whole idea behind how we approach content at Podbro. We start with the knowledge that already exists inside your business, and the bonus is once you start doing this consistently, you're not just creating this week's content, you're gradually building a library of answers, of high value information
G'day. It's Adam from PodPro Australia, back again, and today, I wanna talk about something I see all the time when I'm talking to business owners about creating their content, and it's this idea that they've got nothing to talk about, because most of the time, that's just not true. You know what I find interesting?
A lot of really smart business owners tell me they have no idea what to talk about when they're creating their content. Then you spend 10 minutes talking to them about their business, and they just don't shut up. Suddenly, they're explaining what clients always get wrong, the question they have to repeatedly answer to everyone, why they handle something differently to somebody else, what makes them different from their competitors.
Well, guess what? That should be their content. I genuinely don't think most established businesses have a content ideas problem. I think they have a content capture problem, because every day, they're having conversations that are full of useful information. They're answering questions. They're handling objections.
They're explaining why something costs what it costs. They're explaining why one option is better than another. They're correcting misconceptions. They're helping somebody understand something they've probably spent 10 or 20 years learning themselves, and then the conversation finishes, and all of that disappears.
And then Monday comes around again, and someone goes, "Right, what are we gonna post on LinkedIn this week?" You're starting again for absolutely no reason. When I'm talking to somebody about their content, I normally start asking really simple questions. Why do your clients ask you this all the time? What don't they understand about your business?
What objection do you know is coming before they even say it? What are the things you constantly find yourself explaining when you're selling your service? What does somebody need to understand about you before they feel comfortable working with you? And usually, once you start there, the ideas come pretty bloody quickly, and the funny thing is, most of those questions aren't even particularly complicated.
They're just things you've answered so many times that you forget they're valuable. To you, the answer might seem obvious, but to the person considering working with you, it might be the exact thing they need to understand before they make a decision We did this when we were developing content around a solar business.
Now look, I'm no solar expert. I'm definitely not gonna sit down and pretend I know what somebody needs to hear about solar panels and batteries. But the people working in that business did. So rather than trying to dream up clever content ideas, we looked at the cus- questions customers were already asking them.
Are cheap solar panels actually worth it? How long should a solar system last? What aren't people being told when they're comparing quotes? Are batteries worth it? Why does the quality of the product actually matter? That's the content, because those aren't made-up marketing topics. They're real questions that real customers are asking while they're trying to make a decision.
And if one customer is asking it, there are probably plenty of others, other people wondering exactly the same thing who just haven't spoken to you yet. That's where I think businesses sometimes get content completely backwards. They think they need to become creative. You probably don't. You need to become more observant.
Start listening to what you already say. Start noticing the questions that keep coming back time and time again. Even keep a note on your phone. If somebody asks you something in a meeting and you think, "I've answered that three times this week," write it down. If you get an objection during a sales call, write it down.
If you find yourself explaining something and the client suddenly says, "Okay, that makes sense now," write it down as well. Because some of your best marketing material is probably sitting inside conversations you're already having. And this is also where completely handing your content ideas over to an agency beca- can become a problem as well.
Now, I'm not saying agencies are bad. A good agency can be an in- be incredibly useful. They can help with strategy, production, editing, writing, distribution, all of that. But they cannot magically know your business the way you do. They're not sitting inside every client meeting. They don't hear the same objection for the 50th time.
They don't know the little bit of information that suddenly makes a prospect go, "Ah, okay, now I get it." And they're also working across multiple clients. So if you're expecting somebody outside your business to continually invent your expertise for you, there's a fair chance you end up with content that's technically fine but could have come from anybody, and that's the problem.
Because technically correct content and useful expert content aren't the same thing You can have beautifully written posts, polished graphics, and perfectly edited videos, but if there's nothing in there that shows how you actually think, it's probably not doing much to separate you from everyone else.
Because the useful part isn't necessarily the information. A lot of information is easy to find now. The useful part is your take on it. Why do you recommend doing it this way? Why do you think customers get this wrong? What have you seen happen when somebody makes the cheaper decision? What have years of doing this taught you that somebody researching it for an afternoon wouldn't know?
That's the stuff people actually want from an expert, and it should come out of your mouth. Then let other people help you turn it into content. That's the difference. You don't necessarily need to write the blog. You don't need to edit the video. You don't need to create the reel. You don't need to spend three hours turning one idea into 10 different things.
But the thinking needs to come from you. That's really the whole idea behind how we approach content at PodPro. We start with the knowledge that already exists inside your business. We get the expert talking about the things they genuinely know, questions, objections, advice, stories, mistakes, opinions, things their clients need explained, and then we build the content system around that.
Because I'd much rather have somebody sit down for an hour and talk properly about things they understand than spend the next month trying to invent 25 social media posts from scratch. And the bonus is, once you start doing this consistently, you're not just creating this week's content, you're gradually building a library of answers, of high-value information, so that when somebody asks you that same question s- again in six months' time, there's already a video, there's an article, there's a podcast episode, or something useful you can send them.
That content starts doing some of the explaining for you. So if you're sitting there thinking, "I don't know what I'd talk about," don't start with a blank page. Think about the conversations you've had this week. What did somebody ask you? What did you have to explain again? What did somebody misunderstand?
What objection came up? What did you say that helped somebody finally understand the value of what you do? Start there, because there's a very good chance your next month of content has already happened. You just haven't captured it yet. And that's what we do at PodPro every day. We help businesses take the knowledge and expertise they already have and get it out of their heads and turn it into useful content that they can keep using across their business, across all of their platforms.
So if you'd like some help doing that, just get in touch. I'm Adam Bell from PodPro Australia. Thanks very much for watching this episode of The Content Engine, and I really look forward to chatting with you again on the next episode.
That's really the whole idea behind how we approach content at Podbro. We start with the knowledge that already exists inside your business, and the bonus is once you start doing this consistently, you're not just creating this week's content, you're gradually building a library of answers, of high value information
G'day. It's Adam from PodPro Australia, back again, and today, I wanna talk about something I see all the time when I'm talking to business owners about creating their content, and it's this idea that they've got nothing to talk about, because most of the time, that's just not true. You know what I find interesting?
A lot of really smart business owners tell me they have no idea what to talk about when they're creating their content. Then you spend 10 minutes talking to them about their business, and they just don't shut up. Suddenly, they're explaining what clients always get wrong, the question they have to repeatedly answer to everyone, why they handle something differently to somebody else, what makes them different from their competitors.
Well, guess what? That should be their content. I genuinely don't think most established businesses have a content ideas problem. I think they have a content capture problem, because every day, they're having conversations that are full of useful information. They're answering questions. They're handling objections.
They're explaining why something costs what it costs. They're explaining why one option is better than another. They're correcting misconceptions. They're helping somebody understand something they've probably spent 10 or 20 years learning themselves, and then the conversation finishes, and all of that disappears.
And then Monday comes around again, and someone goes, "Right, what are we gonna post on LinkedIn this week?" You're starting again for absolutely no reason. When I'm talking to somebody about their content, I normally start asking really simple questions. Why do your clients ask you this all the time? What don't they understand about your business?
What objection do you know is coming before they even say it? What are the things you constantly find yourself explaining when you're selling your service? What does somebody need to understand about you before they feel comfortable working with you? And usually, once you start there, the ideas come pretty bloody quickly, and the funny thing is, most of those questions aren't even particularly complicated.
They're just things you've answered so many times that you forget they're valuable. To you, the answer might seem obvious, but to the person considering working with you, it might be the exact thing they need to understand before they make a decision We did this when we were developing content around a solar business.
Now look, I'm no solar expert. I'm definitely not gonna sit down and pretend I know what somebody needs to hear about solar panels and batteries. But the people working in that business did. So rather than trying to dream up clever content ideas, we looked at the cus- questions customers were already asking them.
Are cheap solar panels actually worth it? How long should a solar system last? What aren't people being told when they're comparing quotes? Are batteries worth it? Why does the quality of the product actually matter? That's the content, because those aren't made-up marketing topics. They're real questions that real customers are asking while they're trying to make a decision.
And if one customer is asking it, there are probably plenty of others, other people wondering exactly the same thing who just haven't spoken to you yet. That's where I think businesses sometimes get content completely backwards. They think they need to become creative. You probably don't. You need to become more observant.
Start listening to what you already say. Start noticing the questions that keep coming back time and time again. Even keep a note on your phone. If somebody asks you something in a meeting and you think, "I've answered that three times this week," write it down. If you get an objection during a sales call, write it down.
If you find yourself explaining something and the client suddenly says, "Okay, that makes sense now," write it down as well. Because some of your best marketing material is probably sitting inside conversations you're already having. And this is also where completely handing your content ideas over to an agency beca- can become a problem as well.
Now, I'm not saying agencies are bad. A good agency can be an in- be incredibly useful. They can help with strategy, production, editing, writing, distribution, all of that. But they cannot magically know your business the way you do. They're not sitting inside every client meeting. They don't hear the same objection for the 50th time.
They don't know the little bit of information that suddenly makes a prospect go, "Ah, okay, now I get it." And they're also working across multiple clients. So if you're expecting somebody outside your business to continually invent your expertise for you, there's a fair chance you end up with content that's technically fine but could have come from anybody, and that's the problem.
Because technically correct content and useful expert content aren't the same thing You can have beautifully written posts, polished graphics, and perfectly edited videos, but if there's nothing in there that shows how you actually think, it's probably not doing much to separate you from everyone else.
Because the useful part isn't necessarily the information. A lot of information is easy to find now. The useful part is your take on it. Why do you recommend doing it this way? Why do you think customers get this wrong? What have you seen happen when somebody makes the cheaper decision? What have years of doing this taught you that somebody researching it for an afternoon wouldn't know?
That's the stuff people actually want from an expert, and it should come out of your mouth. Then let other people help you turn it into content. That's the difference. You don't necessarily need to write the blog. You don't need to edit the video. You don't need to create the reel. You don't need to spend three hours turning one idea into 10 different things.
But the thinking needs to come from you. That's really the whole idea behind how we approach content at PodPro. We start with the knowledge that already exists inside your business. We get the expert talking about the things they genuinely know, questions, objections, advice, stories, mistakes, opinions, things their clients need explained, and then we build the content system around that.
Because I'd much rather have somebody sit down for an hour and talk properly about things they understand than spend the next month trying to invent 25 social media posts from scratch. And the bonus is, once you start doing this consistently, you're not just creating this week's content, you're gradually building a library of answers, of high-value information, so that when somebody asks you that same question s- again in six months' time, there's already a video, there's an article, there's a podcast episode, or something useful you can send them.
That content starts doing some of the explaining for you. So if you're sitting there thinking, "I don't know what I'd talk about," don't start with a blank page. Think about the conversations you've had this week. What did somebody ask you? What did you have to explain again? What did somebody misunderstand?
What objection came up? What did you say that helped somebody finally understand the value of what you do? Start there, because there's a very good chance your next month of content has already happened. You just haven't captured it yet. And that's what we do at PodPro every day. We help businesses take the knowledge and expertise they already have and get it out of their heads and turn it into useful content that they can keep using across their business, across all of their platforms.
So if you'd like some help doing that, just get in touch. I'm Adam Bell from PodPro Australia. Thanks very much for watching this episode of The Content Engine, and I really look forward to chatting with you again on the next episode.
