I’ve been getting a lot of emails lately along the lines of . . .
“How do you come up with your content?”
“How do you find the time to create as much content as you do”
So here goes . . .
Inspiration Sources:
1) I Leave Nothing To Chance When It Comes To Ideas! In other words, I’m prepared, at all times to capture an idea when it decides to show up (they never seem to want to make an appointment) I use a Dragon Dictation app on my I-Phone to record an idea and immediately email it to myself. I have a centralized “parking lot” for all of my blog ideas in the back of my journal. I write them in 1 sentence “memory cues” to refresh my memory later.
2) I Make It A Point To Visit All The Linkedin Groups Where My Target Audience Frequents Daily. I see what the hot topics are. If I catch myself with an opinion, I jot it down. Also, I won’t lie, having my own Linkedin group is pretty convenient too!
3) I Read An Obscene Amount Of Material! Reading mucho material can inspire mucho material. My journal is always at my side to not only capture blog ideas but capture the lessons I need to grow.
4) I also have the luxury of having kept journals for over 15 years so I can go back to a challenge I was having and report it to you with the clarity as if it were yesterday. This is yet another reason why you MUST keep a journal.
My Style:
My style isn’t an accident . . . it is quite intentional.
I want it to have a feel as if you and I were having a cup of coffee at the kitchen table.
I write the way I speak and make zero apologies for being me.
I’ve found that over time more people respect you for being Uniquely You instead of some fake. People sniff out fakes pretty quick.
I won’t be polishing up my grammar any time soon . . . I could give a sh*t about being perfect!
On Sunday evenings I go to my weekly activity notebook and create a page that reads “This week on the sales playbook blog” and I plan the content for each day.
Confession . . . I have a non negotiable rule when it comes to my content schedule for the week . . .
My heart has absolute editing power!
So let’s say that Tuesday rolls around and I have plans to write about Questioning Skills but all of a sudden I feel this burning desire to write about a struggle or give you a pep talk . . . screw the Questioning piece.
Always go with the heart as opposed to the schedule!
I don’t write for my thousands of subscribers . . . I selfishly write for the one person who will read my writing and believe again that they can do it!
As for finding the time, please allow me to get a bit arrogant.
My business is exploding, I am a dedicated husband, father, son etc
I am writing two books at the present time.
I have a monthly column in a graphics arts publication
Yada, Yada Freakin yada!
I have every excuse at my disposal . . . so I simply make the time!
Every night after dinner, I pretend I’m leaving for my night job and proceed to work my ass off creating content.
Content that costs me nothing more than my sweat!
As a business owner, I hate paying for things. I run Castain Training Systems lean!
Why the heck wouldn’t I take advantage of free?
Sadly most people would rather write a check than get their uniform dirty . . . I bank on that and outwork them!
And nobody’s throwing me out of the house and accusing me of being a lousy Dad . . .
I make sure I balance and more importantly . . .
Know when it’s time to put this all aside and hug my kids and take my wife out on a date.
After all . . . someday I’ll cross a finish line with all this Sales Playbook stuff.
It’s important to me that they’re still in my life when I do.
Well any who, there you have it.
One aspiring sales rock star’s system for showing up . . .
Day in and day out.
And thank YOU . . . for giving me someone to write for!
I hope you’ll join me on Tuesday October 25th from 1:30 pm EST to 2:15 pm EST for my webinar “Networking Socially Through Linkedin” Click here for all the juicy details!
