I write a lot of copy.
A lot of it.
I write so much of it that sometimes, it feels like the copy is writing me.
I hear the refrain from many people on a weekly basis that they do want to get started writing or sharing their thoughts or producing content but — they don’t have anything to say.
I challenge that.
There is content all around you. You have plenty to say. You have so much to share. I want you to stop thinking so hard and just start — publishing.
Most of all, everything has changed in the last decade. Nowadays, you no longer get to choose whether or not you want to create content and share it.
You have to produce content to survive.
I’m here to share an irrefutable truth with you today. Whoever you are, wherever you are, if this post is reaching you, I want you to lean right in and listen to me, before you go about the rest of your day:
You are in the content marketing business
As an entrepreneur, a founder, a creative director, a marketer and a creator, I’m in the business of driving awareness, harvesting attention, making social commentary, educating and entertaining. I have forged a career in advertising and product management over my adult life. But this doesn’t make me special. I am simply doing what is required of me.
Recently, I have had a few friends of mine (mostly 80s born millennials — arguably the demographic most palpably gripped in the throes of existential panic about the fast-changing times swirling around them), perhaps taken aback by my very public and unapologetic pace of content production, try to advise me that my posts on Instagram and Medium are too long, that I am “ranting” too much, that I am too “angry”, that I am using too many words or *insert whatever criticism* here.
The tough part is letting them know that, even though I love them and always will — I’m already thinking about 2025.
I’m in building mode.
I don’t know what tomorrow holds, or next week, or next year, but I am working as if time is running out, as if these are the last several breathes I will ever take.
Who knows what’s around the corner? Tomorrow is not guaranteed to us. None of us. Why do we live life as if it is? I want to have zero regrets when I am older. I am, most of all, committing to Jeff Bezos’ infamous Regret Minimization Framework.
There is no time to not be productive, to not be industrious, to not ramp your content output. There is no excuse. You have clients to take care of, ventures to get off the ground, brands to build, causes to call attention to, mountains to climb and families to feed.
I’m using too many words? Sorry, but it’s in fact the opposite. The number one mistake I see people making is NOT doing what I’m doing.
Not enough of us are writing.
Not enough people are making public commentary about the incredible societal issues that currently deluge us.
Not enough people are sharing solutions and ideas and thoughts.
People are still mostly sharing pictures of their babies and vacations and what they had for lunch as if this is 2006 and we are all still on Facebook 1.0 waiting for the News Feed to drop.
Think of your peers, your audience, your customers, your legacy at this moment in history and beyond.
Who are you?
We want to know.
We want to know what your principles are, what drives you, what your mission is, what you stand for. We can’t get enough of it. We want to know who you really are. Sure, once in a while I will share the human side on my Instagram or my Facebook — a visit with a dear old friend, a picture of what my dad looked like when he was a young man, my growing obsession with plant-based meat, my childhood nostalgia for skateboarding and graffiti — but my default setting is sharing content about my relentless search for truth, sharing insights about entrepreneurship and business, and my passion for helping people and planet.
Your new job, Sally, Bob, whatever your name is, now and forever, if you want your family to eat properly in 2037, if you are prescient about what direction the world around you is heading, if you haven’t been lulled into the 20th century delusion that because you are a doctor/accountant/lawyer/teacher that you will be fine forever (harsh truth? You won’t — we still want to hear from you or we will simply just go do business with a professional who is willing to give us the content ), if you truly understand that we are in the middle of the greatest communications shift of the last 2000 years, you will understand that you have to reach the world around you through writing, audio, visual artistry or film-making.
Whether that be through photography, video, podcasts, books, or blogs — we want to know why you started your business, why you practice the type of medicine that you do, why you got into criminal litigation or instead preside over wills and estates, why you teach Grade Ten History, and which of the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles would you change if it were you writing the accountant rulebook from scratch.
We want to know your why.
The age of silence is over.
What my friends don’t understand is that I long ago gave up caring about what other people’s opinions of me are and what they think I should or should not be doing. I don’t care if I get 1 like or a 1 million likes on any of these posts or articles or upcoming videos and podcasts.
I have committed to sharing thoughts and being on the edge of communication and innovation, being a provocateur and a truth speaker for the rest of my life
I am committing to building a library of thought leadership that in 2060 can be traced back to the 2010s. I’m playing for legacy. I’m playing long game. Because that’s what separates the greats — from everyone else.
Am I the best writer? No. Ryan Holiday kicks my ass everyday of the week — I wish I had his marvelous gift for putting together emphatic sentences and sounding like a sage old soul who once dined with Ernest Hemingway and sipped whiskeys with James Baldwin. Maybe one day I’ll get close. I sure as hell will keep trying.
Am I the greatest speaker? No! I would love to have the energy and verve and oratorical prowess of a Tony Robbins or a Gary Vaynerchuk. Perhaps one day I’ll share a stage with them. Perhaps not. I’m not going to stop trying to get there, though.
Will my upcoming podcast become as celebrated as Joe Rogan’s is right now? I don’t know. Maybe? Can anyone podcast like Rogan? Probably not.
Will my YouTube channels and content studio that debuts later this year ever garner the acclaim that the Casey Neistats or Matt D’Avellas of the world have gotten? Probably not — but I sure as hell will try because all I know is how to swing for home runs, and it sure will be a long, arduous grind — and maybe, by the time I have finally gotten any traction, the rule-book or the goal posts will have completely gotten changed by then.
But one thing is for certain. I know what business I’m in, because I’m simply a human being in 2019, on the precipice of entering the 2020s, critically aware that we are all required to be in the business of producing content.
Woody Allen once famously said, in what will go down as one of the most oft-quoted but seldom actioned quotes of all time, that 80 percent of life is showing up.
I’m committing to showing up. Will you join me?
