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- ✨ the SPARK 186 ~ Try This Content Exercise
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Welcome to the 185th issue of SPARK, a weekly newsletter that helps you transform daily experiences into compelling content that
captivates and sells.
There’s a guy on TikTok (GenX) who makes videos called “Things your teens say” and another series called “Texts from your teens.”
They’re both hilarious and a little frightening.
No doubt, because I’ve watched those, this other video showed up in my feed that was two parents sitting in their living room with their teenage daughter (about 17?), and she had told them that she went to the bank to open an account that day.
Her Mom asked her if they asked her for her social.
Her response?
Drumroll, please…
“Why would they want my Instagram?”
🤣🤣🤣
(also hilarious and a little frightening)
Talk about taking something literally (not that her Mom’s question wasn’t direct, but, to be fair, she didn’t ask if they asked for her social security number… but still).
Sometimes, I wonder that with “Everything is Content.”
Do people think I literally mean ‘throw everything and anything’ out there?
Because, on the one hand, everything IS content.
On the other hand, there’s a lot more to it.
The story, context, audience, all of it.
I want to give you a very straightforward example of an exercise I did with a coaching client based on her stories.
I knew she was a runner and triathlete (I didn’t know she’d won an Iron Man! HELL YEA, Lori! 🥳), so I suggested we start with analogies between running & business.
She provides marketing services for local clients (paid traffic management, social, and email marketing).
The goal of our session was to create a specific content plan that would lead to conversations with potential, ideal customers (her call to action) that all tie back to her “ONE Thing” that we worked on during our last session - which will tie all her content and ads together moving forward.
Much like #EverythingIsContent 😉.
We went into ChatGPT 4o, and I gave it all the relevant context—her business, our goals, who she serves, and what we wanted, which, in this case, was 20 analogies.
I then created a table on a Google Doc, and we went item by item; she came up with a relevant story (sometimes related to running, sometimes just a client story- which we uncovered through a related running story) and what content she’d create.
The image above was at the beginning of our session (why there are only two items on the Google doc).
By the end, we ended up with 16 (a few of which had two content ideas). ChatGPT gave me two columns in the table:
Running Analogy
Business Application
We then went into detail with the story and content she’d create.
We didn’t even get through all 20 analogies, and she has a TON of content she can use for organic, paid, and social content.
If she so chooses (cue Mission Impossible…), her assignment is to create two of the original pieces of content from our document. Then, on our next call, we’ll create the repurposed content (social posts, graphics, videos, etc.) together.
There are two points to sharing this exercise with you:
I hope you do this for yourself (or if you’d like to do it with me, let me know. I offer one-off sessions).
This is a perfect example of “Everything Is Content:”
I took something I was already doing and created content with it (coaching session became newsletter content).
I took a couple of screenshots (one vertical of just our chat window and screen share) that I’ll also share socially.
There is a lot more I can do with this (the full strategy is part of the ‘Everything is Content’ Summer Session), but my primary reason for showing you this exercise is that it’s the story that will make this content compelling.
Remember the analogy I shared earlier this week of the Costco Sample employee following you around the store, popping up in different aisles, attempting to get you to try their sample?
My guess is that some of you (talking to you, Larry, haha) actually pictured that happening.
This made it even more funny and made my point about sending too many emails being incredibly annoying. (If you missed it, I sent that email out on Monday with the subject line, “Are You Kidding Me? You Have to See This 👀”).
The beauty here is that you don’t have to be a master storyteller for this to work.
Our everyday experiences and stories are what make us relatable.
Try the exercise and let me know how it goes.
SPARK Spotlight 🔥
OMG. This tool made me excited to get back into Notion. For ONE reason only.
Look at the font size! WOOHOO! haha…
NotionPower lets you customize your Notion dashboard (more options coming) with a handful of features (colors, too). Increasing the font size made my day. This is a Chrome Extension and is 50% off for a lifetime license right now (a whopping $19!).
A Little Brainpower 🧠
Learn how to use Google’s NEW NotebookLM, which is a free (while in beta), new service that lets you apply AI to all your notes and documents.
Storytelling from Steve Jobs? Here’s a 42-second masterclass on the biggest lesson learned from Niall Ratcliffe.
I just started using Perplexity AI (which helps with research). Here’s how you can use Perplexity pages to elevate your content.
Grow your revenue with the predictive intelligence
Black Crow builds individual AI models for brands using 400+ signals from your website’s traffic behavior & purchase behavior.
Their newest tech is called Predictive Offer, which re-triggers your pop-up offer to high intent shoppers with the highest chance at conversion.
It’s free to try for 30 days and after that it’s a monthly contract you can cancel anytime.
If your brand does over $2M/year in revenue on Shopify, Black Crow will give you a $100 Amazon gift card just to speak with their team.
Tool Time 🛠
So many AI tools are coming out daily that do similar things. I’ll continue to share them because we all have different workflows, styles, and budgets. I’m always looking for different tools, so feel free to share.
Project Management: This looks pretty slick, and is AI-powered (safe to assume most things will be soon). Try kroolo free here.
Video: Find trending content, use an Avatar (not ideal for personal brands), and discover keywords. Try Syllaby free here.
Chatbot: Create a chatbot that can resolve 80% of your support queries (at least that’s what they say). Try ChatMate free here.
Descript Underlord: In case you missed their announcement this week, Descript has a new AI editor. An editing assistant that can do all the tedious stuff but leaves you in control. Check out Underlord here.
This is totally me 🤣 (thanks, Cheryl!)
I’m skipping the Content Snackz this week since the whole first part of the newsletter is basically a big Content Snack.
That, and I’m ready to get in the pool for a bit. 😉
I’ll share more about the “Everything is Content” Summer session in the next week and a half (even if you don’t have time to join us this summer, the emails will be applicable and have something you can use/implement immediately).
I’ll also share the dates of the sessions, the guest webinars, and more as we get closer- including the price (the cart opens on June 17th).
Don’t worry if you can’t attend them all live; the recordings, resources, and access to everything are yours to keep!
Have a wonderful day,
Kim
