Underrated tools to help you create better content: 

1/ A thought partner

How many times have you sat down to write a newsletter or LinkedIn post to build your personal brand and thought, “I have absolutely nothing new to say.” or “Nothing I have to say is interesting.” 

Of all the content-killers, this first roadblock seems to be the hardest to overcome. After all, the person who usually prevents you from building a highly-engaging personal brand is, well, you.

Many people attribute this to “Imposter Syndrome,” or that confidence-killing voice that says you have no place sharing your thoughts. 

In all actuality, it’s just as likely that you are suffering from “The Curse of Knowledge.” 

This is when you become aware of and readily engage with a piece of information or knowledge so it becomes “obvious.” You probably forgot that there was ever a time when you didn’t know this information, so you assume that others, like yourself, also know it and see it as obvious. 

If this is the case, consider engaging a thought partner or strategist. This is someone who will listen to you “dump your knowledge,” then mirror back all the bits of brilliance you just spewed out (that you think are obvious). Taken a step further, this person can help you frame ways to convey these thoughts so your “obvious” becomes someone else’s “aha.” 

Working with my clients to do this is one of my favorite parts of their job. I love watching someone talk for 30 minutes, then hear their own words reframed back to what is most illuminating to an audience. It drives content forward effortlessly.

2/ Timeblocks for thinking

Good writing is merely good thinking. If you’re writing or content is falling flat, it’s usually because your ideas are too.

To overcome this, I prescribe a strict regimen to clients:

Set aside 30 minutes a day to read a book on your area of expertise or listen to a podcast. After listening/reading, write down your 5 biggest takeaways.

Connect those takeaways to an experience you had or a challenge you’ve seen. The beautiful part of this is you may not even learn something new. The material may just reinforce a key concept that your audience should know and remind you of a situation that would be beneficial for them to hear about.

3/ The “save” button.

It’s common for LinkedIn users to read something, think it’s great, and “like” or comment on the post.

It’s rare that people think to hit the three dots in the upper right-hand corner of the post, scroll down, and select ‘save’ to come back to time and time again. 

One of the first things I do, when I sit down to write content, is head to my trusty “saved” feed on LinkedIn and study what attracted me to that post and what I learned from it.

Oftentimes, I see a format I can borrow or a nugget that resonates with me that I can then take and connect to another thought or trend that I see.

4/ Meetings

Look, you probably sit in enough of them that your content well should never be dry. Especially when it comes to prospect meetings.

The next time you’re in a meeting, I want you to try this exercise. In addition to attending the meeting for the sake of the meeting, keep a separate notebook or notepad and write down every “teachable” or “contentable” moment from the meeting.

The beauty of this is the takeaway doesn’t even need to be about the topics discussed in the meeting. The content takeaway could also be dynamics in the meeting. 

For example, say you attend a meeting where every department head must present. Consider what made some presentations better than others. Study methodologies and tools used. Did the presenter’s delivery leave an impact? Was it their visual aids?

Turn this into a piece of content about how to “ace” check-ins at meetings without boring people to death.

Sure, that’s hypothetical, but when it comes to moving through the day,  I tell my students, “ABC” - Always be “content-ing!”

5/ Typing your area of expertise into Google search, then click the “news” tab.

Merely googling your industry or topic to see what others are interested in is going to get you in a rabbit hole of SEO optimizers or paid ads.

But googling your industry and then clicking the “news” tab on results will show you what kinds of stories larger publications are picking up about your topic. It will show you what people are interested in *now* and where there may be a fresh hook or angle to explore with your audience.

Bonus: Do this frequently enough, you’ll start to note which journalists and publications cover your industry most and you can start to nurture a relationship and pitch your ideas. 

Some of my biggest media appearances were because I got inspired by a news story, posted a piece of content that elicited a good response; then I repitched the topic back to the publication showing them what resonated with my audience. 

The takeaway?

Sure, hooks, carousels, cheat sheets, and other LinkedIn post formats are great ways to boost engagement, but ultimate engagement comes from great, specific, timely ideas that spur your audience into action.

If you don’t nail this critical first step, all the fanciest copywriting hacks in the world won’t get you high-engaging content.