Shawn Buttner: [00:00:00] Most creators are missing this one ingredient in their content that is preventing them from releasing stuff. That is great. And that is your content is an argument for change. If you do not know what you want people to do through your content and work, it's harder to motivate yourself to do the work because you don't feel like it matters, and you're not giving people a reason to listen, read or follow you.
And even worse, because you are not moving people forward in their lives, in their businesses and their careers. It's hurting your reputation and business. You become irrelevant. If this happens enough, because there's no great reason to change anything to do anything different. there's so many things vying for our time that we'll just do something else.
Imagine the difference your work makes in people's lives. What if you knew for sure that your latest episode [00:01:00] helped people immensely live a better life? Would you put off doing the work because you didn't feel like it, or would you show up more, fired up, more confident, more empathetically because your work mattered and had an impact?
It. In today's episode of Creators That Crush, we will discuss the reason people consume content at all. The three ways to make your content quote good and the number one thing you can work on to help people love your stuff. Because when you see your content as persuading people into action, your life and career changes.
Welcome to creators that crush the show that helps you move from crushed to crushing it. As a creator. I'm your coach and host Shawn Buttner. I help content creators that struggle with imposter syndrome, perfectionism, and anything else that impacts their confidence in their content business. Let's jump into [00:02:00] the episode.
Why consume any content?
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Shawn Buttner: The first thing we're gonna do today is answer the question, why consume content at all? And the reason is to change. Recently for me,
I've been working with Kevin Chemin at Grow The Show and. his whole mission and the content he creates, the coaching he does, is to help you have a successful podcast and business. So for me, before in the Meaningful Revolution, which was the iteration of the podcast before creators, the crush, I thought that if I made a great show, people would show up.
And I was doing the solopreneur thing and emphasis on solo, and the audience growth was super slow, and I felt like I was using the force to grow my audience on the podcast and for my coaching business. So after working with Kevin, created [00:03:00] creators that crush, and I now know that if I have a strong premise or argument that the audience will grow that.
I'm a solopreneur, but a lot of the net gain in the audience and in my business is making friends with other solopreneurs or other businesses or other folks, and this has resulted in me 10 xing, my audience growth, having a more engaged audience. And I'm using proven thinking habits and strategies to set the show up for success.
So the takeaways from this little story here is that your content is an argument for change. So if your content isn't performing out in the world, you are not doing a great job enough of persuading people to change from your contentthis show premise is all important, so this podcast hopes to persuade you to crush it more as a content creator and not feel like you get stuck [00:04:00] or you're struggling and there's no way forward,
Or to feel like you've plateaued and you can't improve. That's the argument I'm hoping I'm making clearly in this show. Um, I'm still working through it and we all are continually working to get clarity But, um, second thing to take away from this is influence and persuasion comes from people you trust.
So I hired Kevin to teach me because I had seen some YouTube videos and. When he made his offer for coaching, he is helped o like over 400 podcasts become successful. So he's done this exclusively time and time again, and instead of winging it, I wanted that expert help. if you think about your life before we move on from here, every single person that you think has been very influential or very
Much a role model in your life has had influence and persuasion, right? You've [00:05:00] trusted your parents, you've trusted teachers, you've trusted your coach. you've trusted so many different people. Um, but if you're like, who is the person that influenced me the most in my life? You're going to find that when you're answering that, you're like, oh, this person taught me how to think about myself.
About relationships and other people and how they relate or how you see the world.
So how does content help us change?
Three Ways Great Content Uses Psychology
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Shawn Buttner: To answer that question, there's three ways. Content triggers our psychology, helps us build trust, and then actually delivers value to us. basically there's three different components. I was checking out a video that I'll link below here that generally talked about this, but persuasive content will hook the right people so that your people see it.
The people that your content is right for, they'll be like, okay, this is for me. And hopefully if you're listening to creators that crush, [00:06:00] you're a creator that is struggling and trying to break through. And we're giving you ideas and strategies and tips on how to do that, right? So that's the hook.
Uh, it provokes a desired emotional response. You want your audience to feel something, right? That's why nearly any big creator will have a signature story. Or a lot of people talk about storytelling in content because. That's how you get people to feel. If I ran off a bunch of facts about the creator economy, your eyes would glaze over, roll in the back of your head, and it would not work at all.
But if I tell you a story about how I've been struggling as a content creator with my podcast and how I hired someone and how it changed for me, just because I adopted the, the philosophy that I'm trying to persuade you to be a creator that crushes. It hits a little bit differently, doesn't it? So you want people to feel [00:07:00] right, so you hook the right people, so they see you provoke the desired emotional response.
So they feel, and then you move people into a mutually beneficial actions. So they do something different. They behave differently, they show up differently. and I want to point out, this isn't in a. S like sludgy salesperson type way. Like you have to really help someone show and paint the picture of why taking action is really good for them.
Or you have to genuinely care in, in my personal opinion, because if you don't care, that's when you get into that weird, salesy Jedi mitric stuff that everyone hates, quite frankly. So the question for you is. How, if you look at the last three pieces of content you released, how is it grabbing the attention of the right people?
How is it getting those people to feel something and how is that feeling [00:08:00] leading them to take a beneficial action for them? I say this because this is something I'm currently working on right now, so this isn't from a high and mighty place like I am doing the work right now with you.
and I'm trying to be open about where I'm at in the process,
How Great Content Connects With Character
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Shawn Buttner: so content that helps us change also. Helps us connect at a character and trust level, right? So trust is one of the hardest components to build and one of the easiest to lose as the sayings go,
I wanna tell you a story about a seminar I went to with my man, Brendan Burchard. And so I think this is High Performance Academy in like roughly 2009, 2010.we're there Friday night. He has a guest speaker, personal development, uh, Debbie Ford who does talks about shadow work or she talked about shadow work and she's doing her one hour talk to close up the first night of the seminar.
[00:09:00] And so I'm sardine in with like 300 or 400 other folks in this. ballroom at a hotel and it's dark out and the air conditioning's blaring, it's cold and kind of dark stage lights are super bright and Debbie Ford shows up on stage and starts talking about her stuff and introducing yourself.
And then almost like a lightning blow or something snapped like. She zeroes in on this woman that's sitting in the front of the audience. And this short woman, she's got like black hair, I believe, with a streak of blue in her hair And this person who has a captive audience of like 400 people, is being called.
Out by a public speaker and says that this person is unoriginal, is unprofessional, is just attention seeking with the streak of blue [00:10:00] in her hair. And really for 15 minutes goes after this random stranger who I don't think she had ever met before. you can feel how tense the audience gets as she's.
Going really hard. And I remember thinking like, we need to make sure that that person's okay because this is not okay. I remember thinking, if this is how Brendan Bahar events are gonna go, I don't ever want to go to this again. And so almost like 15 minutes goes by, it's almost like that switch flips off and she carries on with her presentation like nothing had happened.
But the tension in the audience is there and everyone's super quiet. And so she finishes and Brenda goes on like, okay, hey, we're gonna be back here tomorrow. You know, get outta here, everyone. It's like super late. this is where the, the trust and character can make or break you as a creator,
the next morning, Brendan comes in. He is like, Hey [00:11:00] everyone, welcome. You just got music playing. He's like, Hey, I wanna address something. Before we moved on with the seminar, this is something I hadn't had planned, but yesterday, we had a, a guest speaker signal at someone in the audience, but that person raise her hand please.
And this woman now wearing a ball cap kind of as a helmet, Bry. Way past, like sitting on the tip of her nose, trying not to be noticed by anyone after this horrific thing the night before happened to her, very meekly, raises her hand and he brings her up on stage and starts asking her questions.
She's like, Hey, I don't think it was right. What happened last night? why do you have a streak of blue in your hair?
And she goes, it's to remind me that I'm powerful and to remind me that I'm. I'm creative I've taken a big chance and, and it's a, [00:12:00] was a reminder that I, I was doing something brave and he goes, That is brave. And, and you are creative and everyone here sees it and everyone like standing ovation for 15 minutes, everyone's yelling.
And shouting as this poor woman with the hat down to the tip of her nose is crying on stage, but is touched. Right? And it was that moment where I'm like, okay, this person, this person who put together this seminar, this creation, um, is the real deal, That took a lot of integrity.
To not paper over it and just get back to what he was doing, but to, to slow down everyone and say, Hey, that wasn't right. Let's do something as a group to fix this, to give this person some love, so that we can move forward. And I remember the, the sense of relief and releases. Everyone was [00:13:00] cheering and yelling for this person and clapping and jumping and, and all that.
And. It made me a lifelong fan of Brendan, It was that particular moment where as an introverted guy in a seminar environment, I'm like, this is somebody that I could follow. This is someone that has integrity. This is someone that has character and the character that I hope to be right. I hope to aspire to those values, and so that built immense trust, and I'm sure Brendan had.
300 or 400 lifelong fans come out of that one event because of how he handled it with care and what I think was the right way And so that's the power of being and living with integrity, having a strong character that that's not compromising and connecting with the audience, So how is your content helping you build trust?
Where are those moments where [00:14:00] you are speaking out for your audience when there's that tension or when they need that release to have permission to cheer on someone that unfairly picked on in this particular instance, that's the power of, of trust and character. And I wish this for each and every one of you creators.
So how is your content helping you build trust
Sign Up For A Free Creator Strategy Session
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Shawn Buttner: Hey there. Are you a creator, struggling to stay focused to get ahead or to better influence your team or customers? Do you need more advanced tools and strategies for becoming more productive, influential, and successful? Well, I'd love to help. I'm looking for five new people to guide through my high performance coaching process.
This means I'll work one-on-one with you to break through your barriers and help you reach your highest potential and performance in all you do. All you have to do to qualify is in the show notes [00:15:00] below, or you can go to shop button.com back slash apply is you fill out a questionnaire for a free creator strategy session.
After you fill out that application, it'll be prompted to schedule your free call. And yes, this was. And yes, really, I'll help you for free on this one. On our first call, I'll share with you what I've learned about the world's most accomplished and influential creators. I'll give you five principles you can use to better master your mind, body, and ability to be more productive, influential every day of your life.
It starts by filling out that application. I look forward to working. With you. Let's make this your breakthrough year, and so let you know I have five open slots, so as soon as those are filled this month, I'll have to close this down. So don't hesitate. Go to shawnbuttner.com/apply to apply for your free strategy session.
This ends the business [00:16:00] section of this part
Actually HELP people
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Shawn Buttner: all right, so the third part of persuasive content is that, and the main part of it is that it actually helps people, It helps people make decisions because decisions are inherently emotional and when thought and emotion are in are, and when thought and emotion conflict. Emotion is wired to win. So in the story, sitting in that seminar with Brendan Burchard, I knew what was happening was terrible, and I felt like if I spoke up, I'd become a target of this really mean woman who was, was for all intents and purposes, not doing something not cool and signaling out someone in the audience.
So I didn't feel safe to speak up, and that haunts me a little bit. But what Brenda did that was masterful is. Helped rectify. I knew that that was wrong. I wanted to show support and he got the whole community to show support for this woman. so [00:17:00] how is your content helping people feel into a mutually beneficial action or something?
An action is beneficial for them. persuasive content also helps us be or do differently. like I was talking about with Kevin, he helps people. Create and, and have a different type of podcast. A profitable business with a podcast as the driver, or Brendan, aspires people to become high performers and to live with integrity.
So how is your content helping people think, be or do better Again? If you went back to the last three pieces of content you created, what are your call to actions or how are you challenging your audience? To think differently, to show up differently, or to live and be better. And I think if you find that you're lacking there, that's a huge unlock for your content.
So you want to make sure that you are thinking [00:18:00] about, how content helps you change, You're gonna be thinking about the psychology unlocks that need to happen, that help people see your content, help them feel. A certain way so that they do something different. You want to create content that develops and builds trust and character, and you want to actually help people live better, be better, do better through the things that you make.
I hope you loved this episode as much as I loved creating it for you. I hope you could sense the energy in my voice talking about this. I was really fired up doing this, if you really did love this, please go to Apple Podcasts. Leave a five star review and a comment and I'll look those over.
I love seeing how the community It helps the show grow, helps me out. And if you need some help and you're feeling stuck, burnt out or that. [00:19:00] Your momentum's fading. I do have those five strategy sessions, for content creators to help you get clear.
Focused and back into flow using high performance tools that are proven. So if you want to create with more energy, purpose, and impact, again, you can go to the show notes below or go to shawnbuttner.com/apply and let's make this your breakthrough, your guys. I hope this helps you think through your content a little bit more and we'll see you in the next episode of Creators that Crush.
And also real quick, if you loved this episode, you'll love the episode I did on the Psychology of Content, which you could find over here or in the show notes. Take care,