Shawn P. Walchef

The greatest fear nee creators have when starting is the desire to create “quality” content for their audience. We see what we like online and we want our content to stand out in the same way when we start. One of the most important lessons we have learned is the following content creation equation: Quantity Speed Consistency = Quality You must make a commitment to a quantity of content, with immense speed and with relentless consistency if you ever want to reach “quality” content for your audience. All the greatest creators you admire made terrible podcasts, videos, articles and creative work before they ever received traction.

We teach leaders and brands to, “Be the show, not the commercial.” By focusing on telling the lessons learned from stories instead of creating a sales commercial that audiences will tune out you will start to build a community of raving fans. Our brains are conditioned to listen when someone tells a compelling story and we are now conditioned to also tune out commercials. Start telling more stories using video about the “why” decisions you made to start your business. Try this instead of creating “buy my…” type of content and your world will change.

I love the features on Instagram and TikTok that allow me to save a curate the best posts that inspire me. I take these posts and share with my creative team to find ways we can tell a similar story specific to our niche. Keep a running list of inspiration but most importantly, recreate and publish your own original content.

I never provide a list of questions to my guests or the PR firms that make this request. The better question to ask a media outlet or interviewer is, “Why does your audience engage with your content? What do they hope to learn? Give me an example of one of the favorite guests you have had on your show.” Stock questions get stock answers and often lead to uninspired content. Stand out by learning as much as you can about the interviewer and their previous work before your appearance. The interviewer will appreciate your due diligence and it will lead to a better conversation.

Have you ever seen a world class comedian perform at a sold out stadium for their Netflix feature? How many times do you think they have practiced telling every story that they use in their set? One of the best pieces of advice I learned from my storytelling mentor was to not only live the story you speak on stage and in virtual events but to also practice it relentlessly. Get better at the emotional details around the story. Go deeper with the context of why the story should matter to your audience. Use dramatic pauses. Repeat the important stuff and summarize what you just told them. We all learn and remember lessons from stories. The craft of storytelling will set you apart in any industry.

We believe in Digital Hospitality when it comes to social media response times. How fast would you want to get a response if you were asking a question to a human in real life? How long do you like waiting for a text message response? There has never been a better time to stand out from the crowd by having unreasonable digital hospitality standards. Turn on notifications for the platforms that mean the most for your business and treat them like the digital heartbeat to your business.