Today I’d like to offer 2 opportunities to change the way you approach content so you can build a content creation ecosystem thats built upon love and trust in yourself. I believe if you do these 2 things, you will find the success you’re looking for much more quickly than relying on trends, gimmicks, someone else, or even another platform to save you.
I can’t seem to build any momentum on Threads (Instagram’s version of Twitter). You’d think as a writer, I’d love it. But I can reaaaally feel some sticky energy around it.
I’m not really posting with much joy. I’m posting to get reach and gain followers and when a Thread doesn’t get many (or any) likes, I’m just annoyed.
Compared to Instagram, I love creating that content.
Sure, I can also get frustrated if I don’t get as much engagement as I’d like, but it’s more from the energy of, “damn that shit was good, more people should be liking this, how can I do better?”
Compared to Threads, where I’m like, “fuck this shit. I don’t get it.”
😖 My energy on Threads is, “fuck off” energy.
😃 My energy on Instagram is, “this is play” energy.
A member in Growth (my messaging membership which opens soon!) on the other hand, is crushing it on Threads. I asked her to tell me about her process and what it’s like to post on Threads.
In short, she explained the same process I have with Instagram: Play, joy and excitement.
Your content holds the truth of your energy – Matt Allyn
If your content holds decay, lack, scarcity energy, it won’t do what you want it to do (what you want it to do is to create abundance via more engagement, leads and clients).
Just like money: bad people can make great money and good people can make great money.
Money is never the problem.
It’s the relationship to money.
The same is true for your relationship to every part of content. From idea to creation to posting.
Everything Works
If you’ve been here a while, you have heard me say, everything works.
What does that really mean?
Achieving goals
Pursuing big tangible goals like making a million dollars or buying your dream car is awesome. It’s the fun part of being a sentient being. Let’s not deny or shame ourselves for wanting things.
Let’s take the goal of making a million dollars.
You can get there as a doctor, financial advisor, author, landscaper, an online coach or content creator.
Coaches and content creators can get there on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, Podcasts, Facebook, Newsletters and on and on.
On Instagram, you can get there by being a faceless brand, only do 6 second reels, only post carousels, only post banger reframes, or do voiceovers like me. The list is endless.
It all works.
But what’s the real goal?
We all chase goals hoping that those goals will make us feel peaceful, calm, excited, joyful, love, and bliss.
When you get to the bottom of any goal, it always ends at a feeling.
That’s what we want. We chase goals to feel better.
If something works, then we have (1) achieved our tangible outcomes and (2) we feel better.
The problem most of us find is that we achieve our goal and it doesn’t always make us feel better. We end up wanting more money, more followers, bigger house and a nicer car and are still unhappy.
It doesn’t work!
The problem with this way of operating is that we never know if something worked until we reach our goals.
So my question is…. why wait?
Why wait for the goal to feel better?
Why not feel better now?
So when I ask, “is this working?”
I am talking about the strategy to achieve the goal.
Said another way, “Does this strategy make me feel better?”
And if it doesn’t… what do you do?
Burn it all down and restart?
Totally change up your strategy?
Run away?
I’ve done it all.
Save Me Energy
I have gotten very caught up in a “needing to be saved” energy in so many areas of my life.
Most notably (and more recently) as an entrepreneur.
I have spent over $50,000 on business mentorship.
I’ve actually had ONLY great mentors and purchased great programs(which I know is not everyone’s case). However, they haven’t all lead to the ROI I was hoping for. The problem was never the mentor or program. It was always me.
😌 The most successful investments is when I went into it with full excitement and creation mode.
😖 The WORST investments are when I went in to “save me” mode.
I have said many times when entering my credit card information, “I will learn this, implement it, then my business will explode. This is it!”
And it never was. Or maybe… I gave up too soon.
I’ve done the same with content.
Hoping this hook or style of content would help me go viral and then I would be saved.
This is also the same reason corporate life in New York City made me unhappy.
I was hoping someone else’s ecosystem (get a good degree and get a secure job that pays well) would provide me with the deeply-passionate-full-of-love life that I was seeking.
The problem?
I was avoiding what was really going on.
A lack of self trust.
I did not trust I could create my own ecosystem that would lead to the life I loved. I needed someone else’s ecosystem.
So I bopped around, changed things up, ran away, quit too soon, or just never gave it my all.
As Einstein says, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”
It was time to take a good look inward.
Build Your Desired Ecosystem
Everything works.
Otherwise there would be one way to live a happy life, we’d have one book on it, and we’d all follow the instructions in that book to a tee, and we’d be happy.
But there isn’t. Because there isn’t.
Here is an excerpt from an episode of Flynn Skidmore’s podcast, The Relationship Between Your Internet and External Worlds, that I think describes this in such a beautiful way.
If you want to live a life with abundant access to love, to joy, to bliss, to curiosity, to warmth, you’ve got to build an ecosystem around you that is reflective of those energies and the more you allow yourself to participate in pre-fabricated systems optimizing for other energies—it’s not that it’s bad or wrong—it’s just gonna be harder to build the thing you want to build. The people I know who are most fulfilled—down to their bone marrow fulfilled—are the people who are building new systems. Who are engaging in pre-fabricated systems as little as possible and who are building new ecosystems in which they are at the center and the purpose of their ecosystems is to help other people build their own ecosystems that are all optimizing for joy, bliss, curiosity, close sense of bonded-ness and intimacy.
Your job is to not seek a pre-fabricated system and insert yourself into it hoping it will be the thing that saves you.
Your job is to build your own ecosystem.
[[Note: Sometimes that does require investments in learning new things. That’s a great thing. Just be sure you check in with yourself and ask, “Am I hoping to be saved? Or am I excited to learn something that can expand my knowledge and deepen the ecosystem I am building?”]]
As you build your own ecosystem, you eventually create something someone else can model. Not to save them, but, as Flynn says, to help them build their own ecosystem that optimizes for joy and bliss.
So, you are:
- Creating your own ecosystem that works (optimizes for feeling good as often as possible)
- Offer that ecosystem to the world in an effective model so they can create their own ecosystem
To learn how to create your own unique ecosystem, let’s break this macro life concept down into the tangible micro concept: Content.
(When you learn how to do it with content, you can apply it to all areas of your life)
1. Loving the process
Is my current strategy working?
If your current ecosystem is one that consists of frustration, anxiety, annoyance, blame and “let’s just get this done” energy, then that is the world you are building.
If you’d like to create a world of love, joy, excitement, awe, and wonder, then it’s important to take responsibility of your current content creation process and see if it’s building an ecosystem that contributes to love, joy, excitement, awe and wonder.
We can begin by taking an inventory of your current process.
Shall we?
Let’s take a look at your content creation ecosystem.
Here are some questions to journal on:
- How do I currently feel about my content creation process?
- What do I like about it? What do I dislike about it?
- How do I want to feel about my content creation process?
- Am I willing to transform this process into one that I love?
- What would it look like to love the process?
- Has there been times when I loved creating content? Are there some posts that I love in my feed? What were those times like? What was I doing and creating?
- How can I set myself up to create more of those moments?
- Is there content I love consuming? What would the process feel like if I was creating and posting content like that?
- Are there patterns that show me I am not creating an ecosystem that optimizes for feeling better? (like switching platforms, strategies, etc.)
- Where do I not trust myself to take this bold action?
The last question may be the most important and where a lot of gold may lie.
You want to fall in love with making 1% improvements on your process and then next week check-in again.
Remember, there is no right way.
Talk to 1,000 creators and they’ll all have a different process.
Pull from others for inspiration, but at the end of the day, you need to create your own.
Once you’ve done your inventory, the next step is to take action → create new content and post that content.
☝️ Checking in!
You are literally building the ecosystem right now as you do your inventory.
If you are shaming yourself and getting frustrated, you perpetuating the same old.
To effectively create a new ecosystem filled with love and joy as fast as possible, you will want to change your relationship to the process of reflection around creation as well. One where you have fallen in love with, not just the process, but improving the process (definitely not more of “lets just get this done” energy and move on to the next email that will give me answers to solve my problem).
Remember, you are building trust in yourself to create a loving ecosystem everywhere all the time.
So if you need to, light a candle, put on your favorite song, get up and move around as you ponder these questions.
Make it fun!
2. Loving the results
Now that we are improving our relationship to the creation process, time to improve our relationship to the results.
I find it quite amusing when people complain about the algorithm.
You are complaining about a FREE app that allows you to potentially get in front of MILLIONS OF PEOPLE… FOR. FREE! (eh-hem, did I say that already).
You are more than welcome to delete social media and buy a billboard or TV commercial.
[Side bar: If you’re complaining about the algorithm then what ecosystem are you contributing to? Is this one of love, joy, and excitement or is it one of fear, scarcity anxiety?]
Let’s change our relationship to the results.
World Class Craft
Personally, I love vanity metrics!!
Vanity metrics are simply feedback.
So is the money you make, the type of comments you receive, the people and community you attract, and so on…
When you understand that your results are feedback, you now get to take the opportunity to view content as a chance to become world class at your craft.
Feedback is fucking sick.
How else are you supposed to know if what you’re doing is working?
It would be the same if your clients weren’t getting results, or you keep dating people who lie and cheat, or you haven’t improved your mile time in 6 months of training. The common denominator is you, which is awesome, because the only thing you can change is you.
If you make a post and you’re like, “I fucking nailed that” and it only gets 10 likes… Well, maybe you aren’t as good at explaining that thing as you thought you were.
You can take this as an opportunity to become a better communicator.
You can learn about storytelling, sleight of mouth patterns, begin creating frameworks that are easy to understand, etc.
If you can articulate a point that people love in a 60-second reel, imagine how much better your coaching or product will get?
That’s an incredible cycle.
→ Better content leads to more clients, better product leads to better results for your clients, better results for your clients leads to more referrals and so on.
Look at the ecosystem you are creating for yourself!
Content is much more than your marketing.
It’s an opportunity to become world-class at your craft.
When you change your relationship to the results, content becomes a massive opportunity to build an ecosystem that allows others to create their own ecosystem.
World-Class Mindset
You probably know by now I think content is the number 1 personal growth tool.
What happens when one of my posts flops and it hurts?
If I get 10 likes, what meaning do I give this?
Do I let low engagement mean I’m worthless? And do I let the idea of me being worthless stop me from posting for a month? Which then leads me to shame myself for my inconsistency? Which perpetuates my stuck-ness and keeps me in a pattern of the same old same old.
Or do I take this as an opportunity to trust myself.
I trust that I know I have valuable stuff to say but maybe I need to improve my communication. I trust myself to create solutions. So I’m going to keep improving my craft and keep posting.
The same is true if you blow up and get 50,000 new followers. Even when it’s the thing we want, that growth can be scary.
Or what if you get 10 hate comments from a post that blew up?
Do you trust yourself to meet your unwanted emotions and move through them in an instant (not shove them aside).
Maybe right now 10 likes or 1 hate comment does ruin your month. That’s okay. Don’t run away.
The goal is to only let it ruin your week. Then your day. Then an instant.
It may not be realistic for “only getting 10 likes” to NEVER bother you. But one day maybe it only bothers you for a split second and you’ve moved so quickly because you’ve gotten so good at learning how to relate to he part of you that is annoyed by “only getting 10 likes.”
You know you never get anything you can’t handle and you won’t get your next level goal if you can’t handle your current level problem.
If you prove to the universe and yourself that you can handle 1 hate comment, then you will get the reward of more followers because with more followers, comes more hate. Then you get a chance to practice getting 5 hate comments. Then 10. Then 100. Each step comes with emotional and tangible growth.
💫 Next week I will talk about something that may be triggering, but what I think is an insane opportunity for, not only the most impactful personal growth thing you can do, but also the thing that will drive the deepest connection to your audience, develop more fans, and raise the collective consciousness as a whole. on sale now!
The Infinite Upward Spiral of Access to Love
Instead of running away and looking for someone or something else to save us we have now developed a deeper relationship with our internal and external world by learning to love the process and the results.
This isn’t exactly a linear process in real life as we are constantly weaving in and out of taking action, taking in the results of our actions and making meaning of those results and adjusting in real time.
However this representation can be helpful to see.
Everything works.
This is the game we get to play.
There is no arriving in life.
You get to upward spiral forever as you learn to access more love faster.
You will hit a goal, you will have new inputs to account for, then you will need to adjust that ecosystem. Little by little, as you create new ecosystems, you create greater access to love forever and ever.
When you truly learn how to fall in love with the process, you continually raise your vibration and you are no longer chase your goals, your goals come chasing you.
Before I offer you your next recommended reading, I have two things for you today:
1️⃣ I have built my own ecosystem for content creation called The Brand Framework. It’s the foundation of how I support my clients in creating content they love. The entire purpose of the framework is everything that was discussed in this email → To develop your own content creation ecosystem that works for you. If you’d like to join all you have to do is click the button below to be added to the waitlist. When the membership is open, I will send you all the details
2️⃣ Flynn Skidmore’s workshops
If you’ve been here a while, you’ve heard me talk Flynn. I’ve been in his group membership for almost 2 years and it’s been the thing that is single-handedly change my life my relationship to all things, including content, love life and sports.
He has given more words to additional words express what I have felt about content creation for a long time, which is why I like to refer to his work a lot. He’s world-class at supporting people take bold action and I often think if content creators were in his membership AND mine, they’d have all they need to create the life they want.
I’d love to see you in there, and if you use my referral code, which I do make a small commission on, I will be doing bonus monthly calls for anyone in Flynn‘s group (even if you’re not in my membership).
Click here to join!
📚 Next reading: If you liked this, I would read how to steal like an artist next so you can uncover a content creation process you LOVE. Remember, it’s not about needing someone else’s content or process to save you, but to pull inspiration from others with excitement, creativity and joy to build your own ecosystem.
Thanks for being here!!
With love,
Matt
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