The Biggest Mistakes In Content Creation In 2024 & How To Avoid Them

[00:00:00] Everybody who is online, everybody who's listening to this, wants to create better content. What are some of the biggest mistakes that you see? We wasted years trying to muddle after influencers like Gary Vee or Peng Joon or like the Russell Branson of the world, right?

[00:00:20] And we could not get our content out there consistently. People trying to out source their thinking. It just bothers me so much when I see people going into like, yeah, I created 3000 pieces of content with this chat GPT and all that.

[00:00:36] So I'm like, hey, it's a great tool. It definitely can help. But if you're telling it to create everything from scratch and you're not doing any of the thinking, like that's not the way to use it. Don't out source your thinking.

[00:00:55] Hi guys and welcome back to Content Is Profit. In today's episode, we grabbed this section of an interview with Ina Kovni. You probably know her from the show.

[00:01:04] We've done a couple of episodes with her and she flew all the way to from Boston to interview incredible people here in Jacksonville, Florida. And we're lucky enough to be part of her show on the second day.

[00:01:15] So she wrapped up the conversation with a question that was supposed to be a little short, but we extended for about 30 minutes with our thoughts process.

[00:01:25] And she asked us, you know, what are some of the biggest mistakes that people are making today in content and really how do we solve them? So as you know, we've had eight years of experience creating content.

[00:01:34] In the last three years, we've done a lot of podcasts, not only ourselves, but we own the physical studio.

[00:01:39] So we see a lot of different scenarios and we go over these mistakes that we keep seeing over and over and how you as a creator and a business owner can solve them. So with that said, enjoy the episode.

[00:01:50] Now, I can't let you go without asking you, do you guys work in the content creation industry? Everybody who is online, everybody who's listening to this wants to create better content. He's trying to figure out how to create abundant content. You guys live it every day.

[00:02:09] So I just have one question for you guys. It's going to like on top of the whole thing. What are some of the biggest mistakes that you see people doing out there with their content? I think we might have some different opinions, too.

[00:02:26] I'm going to put that disclaimer right on front, which is sometimes our opinions differ. We do as a business. We know what we're doing. Right. And we have our processes and how we help people on the content creation aspect sometimes.

[00:02:41] And, you know, we or opinions might differ, which is cool. Right. Because obviously, well, that brings different brings different opinions and different points of views, different points of value to for the clients as well. So I would like to hear your opinion first. You cannot live with that.

[00:03:01] And then throw me under the bus. Right. Go. That's very much what you just said. It's like whatever he's going to say, I'm going to vehemently disagree with. I was happy we were going to think, oh, this guy doesn't have anything.

[00:03:13] We're both pretty like firm in our opinions. And I think like we both have experienced a lot of things that make us think that way. And I think that's pretty is a testament on how flexible this space is.

[00:03:27] Right. Because, you know, we've worked now with like over 100 clients, which is in a different capacity.

[00:03:33] Right. From all the way from coaching to like fully servicing content ecosystems from people that have been on the biggest stages in the United States as speakers or authors to very small entrepreneurs. Right.

[00:03:44] So my personal point of view, and then we can start riffing off of this is people probably as I don't know if it's a bigger mistake because there's a lot of mistakes.

[00:03:56] But my point of view is like content is a constant hypothesis of like what can we put out there to continue to attract? And again, we have to define what the goal of that content is.

[00:04:07] So to be very specific with our podcast, the goal of the podcast is to develop really high quality relationships of people that we really want to hang out with and learn from and maybe partner with in some projects, including being a client, for example.

[00:04:21] Right. You were, I guess, on our show. We have not worked together, but it's totally OK. Now we are working together. Right. And you became like a really good friend in the industry. So that's goal number one for our podcast.

[00:04:36] But people assume that, for example, the podcast is a way to reach new audiences and then that audience to then translate into business, which it could be a really cool side effect of the main goal that we have.

[00:04:49] So I think number one is I just want to clarify. Some people do have that goal exactly for their podcast. Ours is not that one. That is kind of like a secondary goal.

[00:05:00] So I think like one of the things that we see often is the mislabeling of like content or what was the goal? People don't really know what they want to achieve with their content when we ask them. Right.

[00:05:12] With that said, let's say once is defined, right, we're big fans of creating your own process of content like we've spent. We wasted years trying to model after influencers like Gary Vee or Peng Joon or like the Russell Branson's of the of the world. Right.

[00:05:28] And we could not get our content out there consistently. Right. So once we decided on like, OK, this is what we're going to create, how we're going to create it that unlocked consistency and frequency, for example. Right.

[00:05:43] And he started to put in was trying to put in the reps. Right. Once you get that base, and I think this is where our opinions differ a little bit. Right. It's perfect. Like, are we being consistent? Is our message being heard?

[00:05:56] Then you can start playing with different levers on what type of content are we doing? How are we crafting the hooks? How are we, you know, as a short form versus long form, are we doing multipurposing? Are we doing focusing on YouTube?

[00:06:11] How do we like YouTube alone is a massive undertaking on how do we do the thing? But also deciding am I going to be creating low friction content or am I going to have a massive team behind to produce like a super high quality content? Right.

[00:06:27] Like what also I'm very I'm a big fan of like what do you like to create? Right. For us, or at least for me, Contenance Profit version one was literally going on Facebook Live and have a really cool conversation. And then that's it.

[00:06:40] There was no editing on the back end. I'm just going to say the good old days. The good old days. Those are some fun episodes of Contenance Profit. They're still really fun but they have evolved quite a bit. Right. Obviously we're now in a studio.

[00:06:52] We have a multicam setup. There's a producer in the back. Like which the essence is still there but it has changed a bit. But we never would have been able to get to episode 500 plus whatever pieces of content come out without that.

[00:07:05] So I think like there's all these elements that we need to start experimenting with to get to it's always going to change like growth, like the success thing. Like where you know and I think that's where Fonzie comes in like we need to structure this clip this way.

[00:07:19] Right. And I'm very more like let's just put it out there. Right. See what happens. Obviously he'll dive a little bit more into what he thinks. But that's the fun part. You can start experimenting.

[00:07:31] You know Fonzie mentioned in one of our talks is like 80 percent of you know what you know it works and what is what works. Well mainly what works for you to put content out there because if you don't put content out there nothing's going to happen.

[00:07:44] There's no feedback that you can learn from. And then 20 percent testing. So visually what would that example look like in our case like 80 percent will be the podcast and the clips from the podcast. Well now what's the 20 percent that we're testing?

[00:07:58] Are we testing trends on vertical content because that's what's happening. Are we testing ads on the podcast? Are we testing you know individual clips? My brother has been testing dancing videos so we'll see how those perform. Definitely not. Don't look for those. Not happening he wishes.

[00:08:14] But again you know you create a very unique type of content. Like you've been creating content since you got to the studio right. I admire you because of it.

[00:08:22] I would never get in a camera with a song to do what you do but it does and it works for you. And I saw it yesterday you posted the video and there are people responding to you and engaging with you. And that's perfect.

[00:08:31] If I do that probably they will laugh at me and they would not do that right. Like because it's probably not it doesn't go with my personality or what I want to do. I don't want to do that.

[00:08:41] We feel very comfortable and we love the process of the podcast and the clipping. So that's my point of view and we can riff if you want.

[00:08:49] I mean there are feelings there is a few overlaps in you know as a business we have a foundation that we both believe in right. Which the hypothesis like content is a constant hypothesis like is this going to work well let's put it out and test it right.

[00:09:07] And then if it works cool let's do more of that right. We both believe on finding your own how right.

[00:09:13] Which a lot of people get stuck on like oh but this person told me that I had to do it like this but there's so much friction I cannot create this.

[00:09:20] Cool well maybe you are a better writer than being on video why don't you just write you know like all this type of stuff that I think people need to do a little bit of you know introspect work and figure it out.

[00:09:33] We're well another one of our foundations with that we actually agreed on because of all the friction that we have put on the first time that we try to create a podcast. Fun fact before content is profit we had started a podcast called Bruce and Bros.

[00:09:49] And it was the two of us sitting in my room at the apartment that we were living in at the moment we had a few DSLRs that for those I know a little bit about cameras DSLRs for the most of them have a 30 minute limit.

[00:10:02] That you can record and then they shut down. It's actually 20 minutes. Yeah 20 minutes it depends on the file whatever we're not going to get technical 20 to 30 minutes you know they turn off once they stop recording once you hit that.

[00:10:14] So we had those cameras set up multiple camera setup we would start recording we were talking about marketing you know. And after 20 minutes while drinking beer and after 20 minutes I had to get up restart the cameras and then go back and recording well we recorded five episodes.

[00:10:31] We didn't edit any of those because of the friction that we have put into that. So when we decided to restart our publishing journey it was with 45 live the challenge that my brother mentioned.

[00:10:44] And one of the things the rules the foundations that we set in place was quality of the message over quality of the production right. Don't get me wrong I love a good production. I love you know a good set.

[00:10:57] I love great editing but at the bottom of it is quality of the message over quality of the production.

[00:11:04] Like I'm pretty sure everybody that is listening to this or watching to this right now you can think of somebody that you've seen on a talking head video for 30 minutes to an hour. And you've been engaged and loved the whole thing and had zero production value.

[00:11:20] And then on the opposite side I'm sure you have seen the most artistic production value out there and you didn't watch it at all right because the message wasn't good and vice versa right.

[00:11:32] Obviously they're stuck in hazard or terrible and you don't watch and then super good produce videos that you absolutely love. So it doesn't that means like you don't need a very specific thing to do it right.

[00:11:45] But the common thing on the content that actually works is quality of the message. Now you said what is you know the biggest problem the biggest mistake that you see.

[00:11:54] And I'm talking on expert based businesses primarily is people trying to outsource their thinking like it just bothers me so much when I see people going into like yeah I created 3000 pieces of content with this chat GPT and all that.

[00:12:15] So I'm like hey it's a great tool. It definitely can help. But if you're telling them telling it to create everything from scratch and you're not doing any of the thinking like that's not the way to use it right.

[00:12:26] Like for me again I've mentioned a lot honesty is important. And if you're leading with some content that you are actually not creating to your customer like personally for me that's a lack of honesty right. We had an episode it was kind of a rant.

[00:12:41] We saw a clip of a guy that is like this is a you create content it's like grab this video from somebody else running through chat GPT steal their ideas. But I was like no I was like that's so dishonest.

[00:12:55] And also if you're an expert you should have your own frameworks your own IP right there your own thought process your own you know like you should be sharing your expertise and your experiences and your stories with your customers and leading with that.

[00:13:09] So like that is my biggest thing. Now I do love clips. I think a big challenge right now is that a lot of people don't have enough bandwidth and they try to compensate with multipurpose in whatever content it is that they're producing right.

[00:13:22] And yeah let's blast it out of there.

[00:13:25] I think a problem there is that you're not Gary Vaynerchuk unfortunately you know you're not Alex or most like you're not this big people that as soon as people see their face they know who they are and they're going to stop on their track.

[00:13:39] To see what they do you know to hear what they have to say. Same with us. We just so you know we multipurpose a lot of content from our podcast right.

[00:13:48] It's part of our strategy but I'm not counting on it to go viral right for me is more of like I was going to stay top of mind for the people that are already seen some of our content that already like know us right.

[00:14:01] I think there is a lack of original ideas original content out there that people you know actually put intentionality into creating them.

[00:14:12] And I think that's a big mistake I think that's part of the 20 percent that my brother is talking about right for us because of our bandwidth or capacity in our processes 80 percent over content are those podcast clips but it's like do we have that 20 percent that is intentional right.

[00:14:25] That is our own ideas that we're sharing our own frameworks our own stories rather than having somebody else created it. Also understanding. I get very fired up about this. Mike Drop by the way. Mike Drop.

[00:14:39] I think it's also understanding like where's that content going like what what's the platform that we're publishing on like for example like a lot of the traffic in our YouTube specifically and again like we publish our episodes on YouTube with zero expectation right.

[00:14:52] We're like it's going to be out there it's going to serve one two three you know three ten two hundred people I don't care. It's going to be there but then you start learning a lot from from the stuff that you put out there be like OK.

[00:15:05] Reading at the data like consumption data are people actually watching the whole thing they're dropping a minute 10 why and you start learning about you know yourself and just keep a mind open right for the clips they're never going to be perfect right.

[00:15:18] But at the same time the clips drive 90 percent of the traffic and we see people transform from YouTube to the listener and a YouTube consumer is very different than our podcast listener right.

[00:15:27] So it also matters right so the way that I personally see it is like these data points that are just helping us kind of navigate this crazy thing in the vehicle that we enjoy creating right.

[00:15:39] So like to Fonzie's point that's how we've been able to develop our own frameworks because we talk about him on the show we talk about it on the content we have to think about those things before we put him out to the world.

[00:15:50] And is it again ever evolving content is a very good example is like this creator Casey Neistat are you familiar with Casey? No so he's had documentaries on HBO and his YouTube channel is very unique.

[00:16:04] He had a face where he was daily vlogging but his vlogging was like really high quality shoots and he has really good equipment and his studio is like very unique the studio itself is a character on its own right and he uses props.

[00:16:16] And he's like what do I have in my hand to create and he has a lot of tools and he draws and he puts camera in these weird angles and he's in New York so he has a ton of stuff to work with environment right.

[00:16:27] And then he has his older brother I don't know if you knew this but his older brother is also a creator but he's a very different creator he's a storyteller and he is also he has a workshop and he's a dad and his creation is very not catered to the algorithm.

[00:16:46] Like a modern creator could be but he's grabbing at an attraction because it's very unique but one video takes him is not a daily video.

[00:16:54] It's maybe two videos a month because it's all a burst but that's what he enjoys doing right so people have to find that and then companies I think finding their own voice like who's the person if they're if the company is running a podcast was the actual person that runs the podcast is it the same is it the CEO is it like who's there.

[00:17:10] Who's there that is the voice is it outsource talent why is it outsource talent right.

[00:17:17] Are we doing user generated content does that align with our goals right I mean there's an awesome case study of a chocolate company that they went mega viral right and they started selling a ton on tick tock on an Instagram.

[00:17:31] And the guy has a company he created the chocolate but then he gave full creative freedom to his creators so what he did is like hey guys here is the chocolate.

[00:17:41] You go do your thing create hard whatever piece of content you want to create there's no limitations you even create your own social handles.

[00:17:49] So it's not like a proof handle it's not a verified handle and you guys start putting content out there and you guys are all affiliates and whoever was the creator of the company.

[00:17:58] And whoever was good at creating content and driving sales will get a lot of money and that's how they get paid and he had pretty good editors that he will keep on payroll but the vast majority was.

[00:18:11] Am I good enough to create engaging content for that specific product so they sell and then the ones that were not with themselves out because they were not selling so they will go find a different thing.

[00:18:22] But that was a pretty bossy thing for that company to do to give full creative freedom how many companies out there will give full creative freedom to a creator to create whatever they think is going to work because they're connected to the industry to do that.

[00:18:35] So I think that's part of the big problem people hired production companies or whatever to bring this vision to life or maybe to they hire the expertise of the feedback and they're like okay perfect you guys are the expert in the industry what can we do and then ideas get pitched.

[00:18:49] This is the concept that we're going to go from like no I really want this to look and feel this way but why were you hiring other people in the first place to run that play if you're going to overrule everything that you say.

[00:19:02] And we see it with production decisions all the time right. So it's like this dance between ideas your thoughts the production who is in charge who's not in charge and I think that's why probably smaller creators and entrepreneurs and maybe the people that listen to this show.

[00:19:18] Have a big advantage because you can pivot very quickly and discover your medium whatever that is. It's an experiment a lot of people get too afraid of what others are going to think about me you know and then they're afraid of putting their message.

[00:19:31] I'm afraid of what people are going to think about you. About me? I'm 100% I'm scared what people are going to think about your legs bro. They are look at this. Some years of soccer. Soccer player legs. Soccer player legs. I was just kidding. I appreciate that.

[00:19:50] But yeah like people are afraid. I was very afraid at first I would get sweaty pits I would get super nervous and like my armpits would start getting sweaty and we have a joke about it's like oh Fonsi is getting sweaty pits and all that stuff right.

[00:20:01] I was very self conscious about my accent but the cool thing is the more you do it right then the more you realize that it really is not that way.

[00:20:09] So a big mistake especially for people that might be starting or might be thinking about alright how do I publish what do I publish is that that might be holding them back a lot.

[00:20:19] And I know my brother mentioned about structure and things like that there is definitely a technical aspect right. Tactical. Technical on the sense of like how do I structure a clip right. How do I create hooks right like copywriting knowledge all these things.

[00:20:35] Yes but I would say do not get hold on on that. Do not let you know your perception that you lack knowledge in certain skills stop you from putting the content out there right because the best way about learning is doing the thing.

[00:20:51] So put the content out there and then you're going to have information you're going to get feedback from the audience. And my brother mentioned on oh this is working let me create more of this people are attracted to the hook people are attracted to this topic right.

[00:21:06] Oh people are attracted when you know I actually don't start with a hook but I actually start with the story right etc. Like this structure is like there's not like a set in stone rule or how you should be creating these things.

[00:21:20] But the most important part is like you cannot figure any of those out if you don't put your content out there. Yeah. And think for yourself. Don't outsource your thinking I should have liked that one a lot you need to put that on a t-shirt. Yeah.

[00:21:34] Content is profit do not outsource your thinking. I like that. Outsource everything else. Just not your thinking. Outsource your production with us. Content is profit.