Making content has been an interesting journey for myself, and the FCL team.
When I first started my lacrosse business with Ryan Brown, as a side hustle, content was continuing to make its way into our sport.
As first year pros, we started to learn the ropes and find the balance of self promotion/advocacy, through making personal content in the form of lacrosse training videos, workout reels, and other personal or brand related content.
However, what I quickly found to be the beauty of making content for FCL was that while, yes, there is an aspect of marketing involved for the business, I found it to be a platform to grow and develop as a thought leader, share insights, highlight and celebrate athletes we work with, and share honest analysis on other great players and plays. It didn’t have to just be about me.
There are many different styles and forms of content, and it’s always changing. While I am no expert, there have been things along the way that have helped us grow and have contributed to our small wins along the way. We currently are approaching 80k Instagram Followers, 12.5k on Tik Tok, 7k on YouTube (started this year) and 6k on Twitter.
Consistency has been key. It doesn’t always have to be perfect , but half the battle in 2016-2019 was just getting stuff out! We just needed to keep posting, keep sharing, and keep innovating. It felt obsessive at times, but I genuinely enjoy it.
Trial and error has been an effective strategy. I always loved the idea, “Ready, Fire, Aim.” How content performs can tell us if it’s quality or not, if it’s a value add to your target audience, and if you are delivering it in a way that is suitable to the platform. Always staying flexible and open to new ideas and styles has been important. We can’t get married to what we always think should work, we have to listen and observe too.
A “figure it out” mindset has been important for our team. You don’t need a degree in marketing or graphic design to create effective content. Some stuff I taught myself, some stuff I wish I taught myself more. For example, our first full time hire, Adam Lamberti, started cutting highlight tapes in high school. and has embraced the figure it out mindset, which led him to full time job in the space. I worked with Adam over his college years to keep trying content, testing styles, and as he taught himself more, he took on more responsibility.
We’ve evolved from my sling from the hip approach, to a more targeted & efficient system. We are scheduling posts, streamlining processes, and building the team. We run 4 accounts on Instagram, which combine for 130k followers. It isn’t perfect, but it’s evolving.
Below is a recent example of that. I hope you enjoy, and for the coaches or parent coaches on here, you’ll love this for your playbook!
The Rise of the Endline Flip and Seal Play
https://lnkd.in/e_yhYD4B
