Valuable content is dead. I know. I know. For years, you've been told, make your content more valuable. If your content is more valuable, you will grow, and that's wrong. Or maybe I should say the interpretation
or the execution
of valuable content is what you're doing wrong. Because yes, your content should still be valuable. I'm not encouraging you to post AI slop and brain rock content. But what I think so many people have been getting wrong over the last ten years is that valuable content has come to mean educational content. And ultimately, it's the educational content which is falling flat, flopping, and causing you to not grow. And so in today's episode, I'm gonna share with you the six things that you can do, things that are working, and things that you can actually do to educate your audience while entertaining them in the process. And ultimately, regardless of what niche you're in, I think the shift that needs to take place is instead of focusing on educational content, we should be focusing on entertaining content. And again, that doesn't just mean that it has to be superficial content. It doesn't just have to be vapid content, humorous content. I am not encouraging you to make AI Love Island with fruit. But what I think we all need to recognize is that the modern consumer doesn't go on social media to feel like they're back in a classroom. They go on social media to unplug,
to disconnect.
Sure. Sometimes we might want to learn something, but we only wanna learn something if it's going to entertain us and give us dopamine in the process. Something that I try to do on this podcast is make it as entertaining as possible through my examples, through my storytelling, through the tone and charisma in which I'm speaking, so that you can learn and be educated while also getting some dopamine and some entertainment as well. So if that's something you're into, if you want to grow your small business on Instagram or even on social media more broadly, consider hitting that subscribe button because every single week I put out helpful tips, strategies, and ideas to help you do exactly that. And before you throw a fit about how poor our modern attention span is, I would argue that this isn't necessarily new. This is just a phenomenon that's been exacerbated
because of social media. Think about Robin Williams character in the dead poet society. He was the most captivating and most beloved teacher in the school because he didn't just teach, but he entertained in the process. Think about mister Rogers and all of the life lessons that he shared without ever asking you to open a textbook. Think about Neil deGrasse Tyson, one of the most famous astrophysicists
of our time who has made learning about super complex,
super out there, literally and figuratively
topics
approachable,
digestible,
and entertaining. Think about Bob Ross and how much you enjoy learning about art from him and listening to his storytelling compared to reading the little plaques that are at museums. Or Brene Brun, one of the most famous and beloved therapists and researchers in history because she's a great storyteller. The list goes on and on. And again, this isn't something that is necessarily new. This is just something that has become so much, I guess you would call it worse because of social media. Because now we live in a day and age where you don't have to have an entire production crew and professional camera and a studio and a contract in order to tell stories and get your messages out to the world. We all have smartphones in our pockets that can reach people all around the world, and so the bar has simply been raised. There's more competition,
both in terms of people who are creating and total number of videos being posted. And so the same old boring
three tips for blah blah blah, two ways to do x has just become overdone and it doesn't grab attention like it used to. So number one, we have more competition. Number two, information is less scarce not only because of the increased competition,
but also because of the proliferation of things like Google and YouTube and chatty p t. Number three, yes, attention spans are shrinking. And number four, way too many people are creating boring ass content. I'm sorry. I said it. But with that being said, I'm gonna share with you the six ways that you can captivate your audience, and that you can educate them while entertaining them in the process. And like I mentioned, entertainment should be the focus because according to Thomas Fineto, who is the head of Instagram for business who I interviewed on this podcast about a year ago, the number one thing that small businesses, brands, and content creators should be focused on is entertainment,
not education.
Again, it's fine to educate, it's fine to teach, but if your focus isn't first and foremost on entertaining your audience, you're never going to have their attention in the first place, and you're gonna be talking into the void. So let's get into the six a's. A number one is analogies.
Analogies of course are short stories or examples of things that might not directly relate to or obviously relate to what it is that you're trying to teach, but you can use them to illustrate a point. So I want you to start using more analogies in your content, and there's two real ways that you can do that. One is by using super popular or commonly understood analogies that already exist. Like, if I'm talking to someone about staying consistent on Instagram, I might use the analogy of the tortoise and the hare, and how slow and steady wins the race. Rather than posting a bunch of times today and tomorrow because you're fired up and have ideas, pace yourself so you can spread out those posts and not burn out. Or I might use the phrase the snowball effect and talk about how one positive action on Instagram can often lead to the other. These super popular analogies work because people can connect to them. They know them. There's stories from their childhood. There are quick examples that they've been hearing their entire life, and so you're just taking this message that people already believe and understand, and simply connecting it back to your niche. The other way that you can use analogies is through your own personal storytelling.
In a lot of those famous educators who entertain examples that I gave earlier, those people are famous for their little anecdotes, their little stories that they're telling from their personal life. Now, of course, you have to find a balance because with short form content, be it YouTube shorts, reels, or TikToks, you don't have that much time. So you can't really go down a rabbit hole and tell a five minute long personal story from your life, but if you can tell a quick one to three sentence story about something that's happened to you personally,
it will not only allow your audience to understand and stay attentive to what you're teaching them, but it will also allow them to get to know you on a little bit of a deeper level and possibly relate to or resonate with you stronger.
The second a in the six a's is acronyms.
Kind of like calling something the six a's. Acronyms can be sticky. They can be recognizable.
They can be shorthand ways of saying longer more complex things, and they do a little bit of what I like to call mystifying the mundane.
Because if I told you that I had six tips for making your content more entertaining,
that wouldn't be as entertaining as if I said the six a's of entertaining content. It's the same idea with my STD strategy. The acronym that I use to teach how to get your most viewed story ever.
I intentionally chose the acronym STD
because it's recognizable. Every time I talk about it, I get a few comments like, STD? Do you know what that means? And I say, yeah. I do know what it means. And I call it the STD strategy because you're never gonna forget it. Which by the way, if as I'm talking right now, you're like, what the f is the STD strategy?
I will link up somewhere on the screen or down in the description below the episode that I did about how to get your most viewed story ever on Instagram
by using the STD formula. But the awesome thing about acronyms is that it only takes a few extra seconds before you hit record to come up with what they're going to be. If you have a list of three tips, go through the first letter in each of those tips, or the first letter in the keyword in each of those three tips. Coming up with an acronym for what you're teaching also gives you a little bit more credibility
because it sounds official. It sounds like, hey, I took the time to name this strategy. This isn't just like a list of tips. This is actually an officially named strategy. This is very cool, and this makes me look very professional and put together. And so the next time you're going to record a reel, the next time you're going to record a talking head video, or even just write out some tips in your caption, pause and ask yourself or even an AI brainstorming assistant to help you come up with some sort of acronym that encapsulates these tips you're about to share. Back in 2016, when I started my first real online business, I remember that my head was filled with so many what ifs. What if no one buys this? What if I'm an impostor?
What if there's no market? What if I can't sell? What if what if what if? What if this is all just a big waste of time and I'm just banging my head against the wall? But what I wish someone told me back then is just like you can imagine all the negative what ifs, there are just as many if not more positive what ifs. What if this works out? What if this is my breakthrough? What if this is what sets me financially free? And thanks to one of today's sponsors, Shopify,
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The third a of making your educational content more entertaining
is to use assertions.
Basically,
be bold, share hot takes and unpopular opinions. One of the really common mistakes that keeps a lot of brands and business owners small, it keeps their accounts from growing, is they're scared to pick a side. The thought is, well, if I'm vanilla, if I'm kind of in the middle, if I kind of play all sides here, then everyone will like me. And number one, it's impossible for everyone to like you, but what you end up happening is
self, watering down your perspective, your beliefs, and your opinions to the point that you don't really stand out. There's nothing unique. There's nothing polarizing
about you. I'm not saying you need to go to this extreme, but I want you right now to think about who is the person on the planet worldwide, not just in The US, not just in the Western Hemisphere, but like worldwide,
what human being probably gets the most attention?
That person is also arguably the most polarizing or the most assertive person on the planet right now. And I think there's a pretty strong correlation there. So instead of saying I think, say I know. Instead of saying I just wanted to say, say here's what matters. Instead of saying, I think maybe, say, here's what I found. Instead of saying, I'm not an expert, but just get rid of that. Instead of saying, today, I wanted to talk about just get to what you wanted to talk about. Instead of saying, in this post, I'm going to share, just share it. Instead of saying, feel free to comment below, say, comment the fire emoji if you agree. Instead of saying, in my opinion, just say it. It's your post. Of course, it's your opinion. And in general, cut out phrases like, I could be wrong, but take this with a grain of salt, kind of,
sort of,
I feel like, a little bit, just, honestly,
literally.
Confidence can be perceived through camera. And even though following someone on social media isn't as serious as following a general into battle, the same idea kind of still applies, which is that we want to follow people who are confident, who are bold, and who believe in what they're saying. So stand on business as Gen z may say. The fourth a for making your educational content more engaging and entertaining
is an attention grabber.
Now, this is a great time for me to pause and kind of peel back the curtain for a second and tell you that this is basically a hook. Right? I'm talking about hooks, the beginning of your content. Not just the words you're saying, but the audio in the background, and most importantly, the visual that is on the screen. The beginning of your content is going to make or break it. I don't care if you are solving quantum physics or teaching the most important lesson in the history of the world. If the first three seconds of your video sucks, people are not going to stop and stick around for seconds four onwards. But I said I was gonna peel back the curtain for a second, and what I meant by that is I'm talking about a hook right now. But hook starts with an h, and h doesn't fit into the six a's. So I was like, well, could call this a hook, but that feels a little bit silly. So I went to Claude and I asked, hey, what are some alternative ways that I could say the word hook that starts with an a? And Claude was like, what if you called it an attention grabber? And I was like, duh, that makes so much sense. Why didn't I think of that? Why didn't think of that because I've been doing 17,000,000 other things for my business today before recording this podcast. But attention grabber fits into the six a's, and now you know that a hook is absolutely non negotiable for making your educational content more entertaining. Now, I've done an entire episode about hooks just a few weeks ago, so I'll link that up in the show notes below. Because if your hooks are weak, then definitely check out that episode. And the way to know if your hooks are weak is if your retention graphs look like this. If people are dropping off right after your hook, or even worse, they're dropping off as soon as your video begins playing, then the issue might not even be the body of your content, it might be the hook itself.
The fifth a in making your educational content more entertaining is authenticity.
Now authenticity is one of these buzzwords that everyone loves to throw around nowadays, and so my tip to help you be more authentic is to just be yourself. Thanks, guys. Bye bye. Don't forget to no. Okay. The way that you're gonna be more authentic on social media is you're going to reduce the time between idea and execution.
So maybe during today's episode, as you've been listening to me yap for the last however many minutes, you've had an idea for a post. I'm going to give you permission right now, as long as you promise you're gonna come back and finish the episode, to pause this episode without your phone and start recording.
I think that far too often we sit on ideas,
we save them in our drafts, we write them in our notes, we have chat GPT, edit them, then we film them, then we edit and edit and edit and overthink
and overanalyze and overcomplicate,
and we end up overdoing our reels. And every single moment that you spend, every single action that you take between the initial idea and the actual moment of posting is another moment or layer that is getting less authentic. It's becoming less you, and it's becoming literally a filtered version of what was originally in your head. And fortunately, one of the best forms of content, one of the best formats right now on Instagram and on social media as a whole is what is called yapping content. And yapping content is as authentic as it gets. It's in the car. It's handheld. It's with your phone. It's while you're eating. It's while you're getting ready. It's no cuts, no edits. It's a little bit off topic at times. It's a little bit going down rabbit holes at times. Sometimes it's talking a little bit faster than you normally would in your reels. Sometimes it's talking a little bit more casually than you normally would in your reels, or that you normally would expect to see in your reels. Yapping content is one of the most authentic best formats on Instagram right now, and the beauty of it is it doesn't take very much time, energy, or effort. There's almost no ending required for yapping reels. And so I want you to start trying out these yapping reels because they're very authentic,
and not only are they very authentic and they save you a lot of time, energy, and effort, but they also allow your audience to connect with you on a deeper level. Now, as you are filming these yapping reels, I want you to embrace
the mistakes. I want you to leave in a few bloopers as long as we can still understand what you're saying. I want you to post it even if it's a little bit off axis and not exactly filmed perfectly straight up and down. I want you to post it even if your hair is a little bit messy, or you have a stain on your shirt, or there's something in the background that isn't exactly perfectly in place. It's those vulnerabilities,
those mistakes,
those imperfections
which make you human, which differentiate you from AI, and which ultimately will allow other people to connect with you and your content on a deeper level. The sixth and final a to make your educational content more entertaining is also what I would argue is one of, if not the most important a's, and that is advanced editing.
Now, when I say advanced editing, I don't necessarily mean cinematography
level I don't necessarily mean you need to get a professional camera, and you need to hire a professional and you need to start doing better color grading, and you need to improve your So if that's not what I mean, let me explain what I do mean by advanced What
I do mean is stop with the basic formats.
The basic formats, the most overdone formats, if I'm to call out two of the most famous problematic examples that I see every day on Instagram. Number one is what I call b roll reels. Now, these can be very effective. I think in moderation, these can be great. I think any kind of content in moderation can be great. But b roll reels, when overdone, might be the most boring content on Instagram. And by b roll reels, I mean those super short seven second reels with some random audio slapped onto the back, trending audio, whatever. You have a clickbait headline or title in the text, and then after a few seconds it says, read the caption. And then you write this unnecessarily long caption because you want to hack watch time, and you want to kind of trick your followers into spending a long time reading your unnecessarily long caption, which then makes Instagram think, oh, yay. This person had a really good post because people spent four minutes with it. Stop doing it. It's boring for your audience, and in many cases, it's annoying for your audience. And then the second overdone format that just isn't working is the example that I gave very very early on in today's episode, where it's a talking head reel, and it's you speaking to the camera saying,
three tips for becoming a better rock climber.
Four ways that you can lose weight this summer. Watch this before you fly to Japan.
It screams, I'm about to educate you, and it's kind of boring. So instead, here are five other formats that you can use to educate while entertaining your audience at the same time. Number one is what I like to call clones. And when I say clones, I don't mean replacing yourself with an AI version of yourself. I mean putting two of you or even three of you on the screen at the same time. You could have one character play the role of the beginner or the newbie, and the other person play the role of the expert or the advanced person. You could have one person play the role of you five years ago, and the other person play the role of you now. You could have a back and forth skit going on where they kind of talk to each other. This style of reel does require a little bit more editing capabilities, but I wouldn't call it a cinematic level of editing, and it can be super engaging when done correctly.
Idea number two is ranking videos.
These are the kinds of reels where you're choosing between this or that. Or maybe there's a bracket, and you're going to have different things, different items, different ideas, different strategies that relate to your niche compete to see who the ultimate winner is. Maybe you're going to rank different tools in your niche on a tier chart,
or maybe you're going to rank them as bad, good, and best. Again, this is something that requires a little bit more Ling. It doesn't require a professional degree in Ling, but it does take a little bit more time, energy, and effort. The third idea is green screens. Green screens might be the easiest to do out of all five of these ideas because Instagram stories, the edits app, and most editing apps nowadays, even a lot of camera apps themselves have built in green screen modes that are pretty good at removing the background and putting you on top of whatever it is that you wanna talk about. Whether that is a news article in your niche, whether that's someone else's post that you're going to be reacting to, whether that's a technique or a form or a competitor or whatever that you're going to be responding to, green screen videos can be a really powerful and engaging form of content. And I would argue that they're actually pretty quick and easy to make. Idea number four is what's called a split screen or a top down reel. Basically, you have your reel split in half. The bottom half is you talking directly to the camera, and then the top half is either a screen recording, if you're showing something that's on like a phone or a computer, or maybe it's just like illustrating a point visually through animation,
or the top half is literally a top down shot of your desk as you're showing us what you're doing, as you're giving a tip, as you're moving maybe pieces of paper around on a board to illustrate an example.
Essentially, you're giving the audience two things to consume at once, but both things are kind of talking to each other and they're aiding in your education. And then my fifth and final format that I would recommend is whiteboard content.
Go to the store and purchase a whiteboard. Go on Amazon and purchase a whiteboard. They're like $10.15, $20 at most. Grab yourself a dry erase marker and use it to teach a point. Just like in school when you were literally in a classroom, your teacher didn't just talk to you the
entire day. They also had a whiteboard, and the best teachers had a very dynamic whiteboard with art and illustrations and writings and diagrams and examples.
And it just made education and made learning more fun. I want you to take that same principle and apply it to your reels on Instagram, or to whatever content you are creating. Oh, and by the way, don't forget to subscribe to this podcast because every single week, I put out helpful tips, ideas, and strategies to help you grow your business online. Thank you so much for watching. And as always, happy networking.