Content creation and branding, Part One

In this two-part series, a book coach and a career strategist interview each other about best practices for professionals establishing expertise and credibility to get their ideas out into the world.

I (Amy G) first connected with my friend and colleague, Amy Santee, on LinkedIn back in 2013. (I swear we met at an anthropology conference in 2010, but Amy S can’t confirm or deny.) We both were relatively new to the freelance world as practicing anthropologists and researchers working outside of academia. The overlap in our interests, backgrounds, and approaches to problem-solving caused us to quickly form a friendship and partnership which led to co-editing a special edition of an anthropology journal in 2014. We continue finding ways to collaborate as our careers have evolved beyond research and consulting into coaching. Amy S now works specifically with user experience professionals (e.g., researchers and designers) on their job search strategy and partners with folks in the process of making career decisions with confidence. We discovered that career changers and aspiring writers have the common goal of demonstrating credibility and expertise, so here is an excerpt from our recent conversation.

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Amy S: Something I touch on with my clients is the value of sharing their ideas publicly to establish credibility and create professional opportunities. How does one go about figuring out what they want to be known for in the first place? What else is required before taking the next step?

Amy G: Writing a nonfiction book is a great way to do this. You don’t have to have an advanced degree or a fancy website to be an “expert”, but you do need a message aimed at a specific audience that addresses a particular problem or pain point. 

Here are two ways someone can figure out their audience and impact. The first is from writer and editor Allison K  Williams. She asks you to consider:

Who needs you? I would break this down to: Who do you want to help specifically? Let’s use an example from your own coaching practice. You could have said on your website that you work with “career changers”, which is a pretty broad group of people. Instead, you say you work with “user experience professionals who want to navigate their own path to success and impact the world for good”. This is more resonant and specific. Niching is important. In my case, I don’t just coach writers, I coach people who have charted their own career paths and have unique challenges - entrepreneurs. I focus on a specific type of person with specific goals.

What’s their problem? The writers who come to me have not written a book-length work before, nor do they know the ins and outs of the publishing industry, so they need guidance from someone with this expertise. I imagine the people who come to you need advice and feedback on figuring out what they want to do next and how to represent themselves to move in that direction. As coaches, both of us have to be really clear on people’s goals and challenges so we can do our jobs effectively and build our businesses. It also helps us know what kind of content will be most interesting and valuable to the kind of people we’d like to attract. 

What impact do you want your work to have in the world? For example, I help writers go from an idea in their head to a polished book proposal and sample chapters that are pitch-ready. They will know what their book is about, who it is for, have a strategy for reaching their audiences, and a roadmap for writing the book. They will also feel confident they know what they are doing and are capable of delivering what they promise. Those are the outcomes I promise to my clients. If you’re trying to have an impact, focus on what people will be able to do or how they will think or feel differently after reading your content.

Here’s another way of getting at it from anthropologist Sabrina Nichelle Scott. You can use this formula to generate a mission statement: 

Write out a sentence: I help X do Y by Z

And fill in X = who?, Y = what?, and Z = how?

Examples:

“I help hospitals (X) improve patient experiences (Y) by testing and implementing patient solutions (Z).” 

“I work with women (X) to overcome imposter syndrome (Y) by facilitating support groups (Z).” 

“I partner with nonprofits (X) to reduce their costs (Y) by helping them coordinate common events (Z).”

By clearly identifying who you want to reach and how you will help solve their problem, you will have a specific impact on specific people. As the saying goes, you can do anything, but you can’t do everything. So, ask yourself, what is your unique special sauce?

Amy S: There are numerous methods for getting your ideas out into the world, like blogging, posting on LinkedIn, public speaking, etc. What do you recommend for people who want to explore these different options?

Amy G: One good step is to figure out where your ideal audience hangs out. For you, it’s clearly LinkedIn. It makes sense that career changers would be on LinkedIn. One of my writers is a life coach and decluttering expert, and Facebook and Instagram are where her ideal clients hang out, so she meets them where they are. It’s useful to know that you can generate content that can be available on multiple platforms, so you’re not duplicating efforts. At the moment, my process is to write an email to my newsletter subscribers weekly, and I break that content up to go onto social media as well.

Amy S: There’s a clear connection between sharing your ideas publicly and building your network. They both feed into each other, in the sense that networking can be more effective if you post and engage in meaningful ways, and your ideas end up having a broader reach. What do you think about the relationship between these two activities?

Amy G: I totally agree. Successfully getting your message out is not a one-way street - it is a process of engagement by asking questions and listening to answers. It’s not just pushing content; it’s suggesting and responding and providing value. I like to share things I’ve learned or that I find inspirational, and invite others to share their perspectives.

Amy S: When it comes to writing and sharing ideas publicly, what do you struggle with? What do you always have a handle on? 

Amy G: As a writer, I have a hard time getting started. The blank page just paralyzes me. I have been spending a lot of time learning how to identify and overcome my internal resistance to doing it wrong, or doing it messily, or not having an easy time of it. Most of the writers I work with as a book coach have no problem getting started, but they need help shaping the material so that it has a point and a logical progression from beginning and end. That’s my superpower as a book coach - cutting through the clutter and finding the meaningful patterns. 

Amy S: What are some go-to resources you’d like to share with readers?

Amy G: First, I have a weekly email with tips, tools, and tricks for writers at any stage. If you sign up, I’ll send you an exercise called Brainstorm Your Book Title that will help you figure out what you want to write - and what you want to call it, even if you don’t have a single word written yet. 

Second, even if you’re not writing a book, the exercises in Blueprint for a Nonfiction Book by Jennie Nash will help you find your voice, identify your audience, and develop a message.

And third, here are a couple of books on getting over resistance that have been helpful for me: Positive Intelligence by Shirzad Chamine, Refuse to Be Done by Matt Bell, and On Being Stuck by Laraine Herring.

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In Part Two (coming next week) Amy S answers similar questions so you’ll get the perspective of a career strategist on creating content that aligns who you are with what you do.