Today I want to talk about my writing process when most people start writing
They actually make a mistake by opening up a tool to fire up an empty blank document. They'll open up a wordpress post editor
they'll sit there, and they'll
I
Tell people they should never never
Start writing with a digital tool instead you should go completely analog and not only do I like to go
Completely analog with a not only brain notebook or a piece of paper because then you're staring at a blank piece of paper
And you're getting just a stress
That's what I like to do is I like to go for a walk and think through the types of things
I want to say in my content
So at first I like to just kind of go through some different ideas. I have I'm not judging my ideas right now
I'm just trying to come up with some unique ideas that I think people would be interested in right now
I happen to be working on a sales page so what I'm actually focusing on is the types of benefits that I think my
Customer will be most interested in actually hold on a second
So now at this point I've got a pretty good idea what I want to talk about
But I know I'm gonna need some research or data
so instead of
Doing the research myself as you know I have employees that work for me writers and researchers
So I sometimes make a phone call where I'll just hit them up on the phone
So what do you think of this idea?
No, really, what do you think?
Yeah, all right here do me favor could you just get some research together on that?
I'm gonna go stop and get an espresso real quick, then I'll head home, and we could talk more about it and put together
So after I go for a walk the next thing I do is I come home, and I often sit at my kitchen table
Usually because it's the only thing in this house. That's a clear surface
my desk is never clear closer to my kitchen table with some index cards a sharpie and specifically a sharpie marker because
When you use a pen or a pencil and you're writing on index cards you might be tempted to
write down a lot of detailed information
We're not even at that part yet right now our goal is to just try to organize the ideas
We had while we were on that walk that makes sense so for right now
And I you know I'm not gonna bore you with the writing
I had already wrote everything down as I said, I'm working on a sales page for a new product as if be engaged and
I'm kind of structuring the layout right so it's like the first thing is like I want to engage the people zippy engage this software
Product it allows you to engage people and I want to put down the core benefits now
This is interesting come take a look at this here when we start putting down these core benefits
I'll have the big idea at the top on an index card right engage people then I'll start breaking things down into
Individual points that lead into this like so if you want to engage
Visitors as an example you could direct people to the right content
You can get the conversion or you can send people to product pages, but those are the big messages
I'll start with the big point then I'll do the three sub points
Then I'll start thinking about like how to work this out a little bit so at this point
I'll start to add some potential ideas below each subsection now
I like to have at least three supporting points for each sub feature
It doesn't mean I'm gonna use all of these points in
My copy it doesn't mean I'm gonna put it all on the blog post
But I like to have three just so I can see where I'm at so as you can see here
You know there's different ways to just start laying this stuff out
Now sometimes. I'll be like alright well
I wanted to talk about smart targeting, but I don't want to add too much to a piece of content
So it's like I'll throw that aside for later. I might want to talk about creating custom audiences
That was another idea that I had that I want the page, but I'm not ready for it
So I'll put that out, and I'm not gonna throw this stuff out because these are all good ideas
But I'm just not necessarily gonna use it yet
But the goal here as you can see is. I'm starting to structure my ideas usually I'll start with one big idea
Then I'll get to a couple of sub ideas and supporting material
It's pretty cool right now
Still as you notice I haven't got on the computer yet
Many people when they start to create content sales copy sales pages or outlines for videos they start to
Think they need to go digital the problem with digital
I don't know about you, but there's so many distractions hitting me slack notifications facebook notifications instant messenger notice
It's so annoying
I can't even think so I like to go completely analog for this stuff because it helps me think better it
Helps me stay focused and it also. Helps me create a better product, then once. I'm done. I'll stack everything up
I'll have like my ideas down
Sometimes, I'll stack them in different piles like this
So I'll know this is the big idea sub idea other idea, and then I'll have the other stuff
and I'll usually put these backwards to know that it's not part of the eventual core idea, and then I have a
Core thing here?
Does that make sense so let's go to the computer now that I got the core structure in place and we'll finish it up
Alright, hey
so we're back at the computer as you know I
kind of go through my walking in the park thinking and I organize on paper now that I kind of have the
structure of what I want to write all I do at this point is simple I
just type
Everything I just laid out into a Google Doc into an outline now when I'm typing this outline up
I'm not editing yet. I'm just getting my information
from the cards
Into the computer as I'm typing. I'm not even thinking
I'm just transferring the content from the index cards to the computer then once
I outlined everything from my index cards - right to the computer
I'll start reading through the outline now at this point. That's where things get interesting
I'll start making little notes or comments. I'll highlight a section big all right this needs some data or research
This needs a personal story
This needs data or anecdote or research. I'll just art-making these notes on the document again
I'm not writing anything yet. I'm just getting my information
Into a document, and I'm making notes of where I think I will need some supporting evidence
This is important a lot of people think they need to have all this stuff in advance but for right now
You might know you need a piece of data
But you might not know what that data. Is yet what's great about this. It's always
Easier to find data when you know what type of data or story you're looking for
So when you know you need a personal story about this you could start. You know shake it through your head actually funny story
When I'm trying to think through ideas. I have a tendency of turning my head like this and one day
I was thinking why do I do that? I remember I had a
ninth grade social studies teacher who used to
Say that he was flipping through the files in his head. He just tilt his head. He's like I'm flipping through the files
I don't know if I do that for that reason, but it's just a funny
Remembrance for from when I was in high school, but anyway
I'll kind of go through and think about personal stories or David I might want to have
So now that I have my outline set and I know where I might want more stories or data
that's when you can either put another employee on or you could do it yourself you could start googling for the
Information or research you might need depending on what you find
You might restructure the outline you may take some ideas out put other ideas in
Depending on what type of research or data you get that's how you make a truly?
magnificent piece of content, it's how you
Have a good idea, and you turn into a great idea by doing this research first
then once you fleshed out the outline the most fun part can get started and for me the most fun part is writing the
opening
Paragraph well I guess that opening paragraph the opening power Raph's
one of the things that I am known for in
The world of content creation if you go to my blog especially if you like go to socialtriggers.com
Slash blog you'll see almost every blog post I write
You'll see that it starts off with so I just published a video where or so you finally want to get paid what you're worth
Or so it's 2018 I always start with so it's I don't know why I do that
I think I do it because I always imagine when I'm creating content that I'm talking to a friend and
If I think about my conversations with friends it usually starts off with so you wouldn't believe this like that's how the conversation
Goes, and that's kind of how I write
But anyway when I'm thinking about the opening paragraph the thing that I'm trying to imagine here is as simple as this
Based on the article that I plan on writing
What's the most interesting thing that will grab their attention?
Sometimes that interesting thing is earlier in the article sometimes
It's later in the article you have to be honest with yourself to figure out. What's truly something. That's gonna grab attention
so let me give you an example I
Always tell people the importance of building a blog right?
But that that kind of falls on deaf ears when I tell that to a people who?
build social media stuff like you know Facebook lives or Instagram stories
They kind of just like I don't care their blogs so ten years ago, but then I'll tell a different story
I'll be like so I published this video on YouTube
Six years ago in the first seven days it got 20,000 views in the following five years it got another
800,000 views
How did it happen in this article I want to tell you more now. What's interesting here?
Is that's just an opening essentially to creating content on a platform where your content has a longer shelf life?
Right kind of boring if you think about it, but notice how you can come up with the hook
That's a little bit more interesting, so how do you open up a?
Blog post or a piece of content for me. I always like to look at one of two things first
I want to open with the biggest benefit the biggest benefit could be something even if it's a rare benefit
I want to focus with the biggest most eye-catching
Benefit especially now the bigger the better the second thing you can open with is the most aggravating
Conflict now. What do I mean by this well?
Turns out that when you leave it the biggest benefit there people's eyes
They're like what what tell me more
The same thing is true with an aggravating conflict. It's like oh my god
I can't believe what's gonna happen next you kind of get their interest this is known as opening a
information gap or
basically what that means is George Lowenstein did some research, and he discovered that the psychology of
Curiosity was as simple as this when there's a gap between what people know and what they want to know?
They desperately seek to close that gap
So when you open with an aggravating conflict or a big benefit?
You're creating this information gap that people want to close
Very simple now. Let me give you a few examples one of the stories that I always tell people is
It's a coffee-shop story and it starts off with so I'm at the coffee shop, and this guy leans over and says
hey, what are you writing a screenplay, and I say no, I'm
Working on my business a few minutes later. He yells out does anyone around here. Have a job at this point
I realized that he was talking about me because he was only me
Him and the people in the coffee shop who had a job. Do you see how I opened this story up at this point
You're wondering. I will oval what you say to him. Did you tell him that you're successful?
Right you opened the gap with the conflict the next thing you can do is you can open with a big benefit?
Something as simple as so I made seventy seven dollars and thirty four cents for every person who visited this page on my website
Here's how I did it and I'm not talking about people who bought I'm talking about I made seventy seven dollars and thirty four cents
For every single person who visited the website at this point you're wondering like Oh
Tell me more big benefit aggravating conflict. Simple as that
Once I have my opening at this point
I might call a few people
I know and just run that by them to see if they like the opening if they like where it's heading if I know I'm
Working with fire though. I just leave it as this, and then I start to write and at this point
I'm not trying to come up with any ideas remember. We already outlined everything and it's already there so at this point
I'm just going through the outline in writing my stories putting the content putting the data
And I'm fleshing it out into a full piece of content
Whether it's a video script a sales page a blog post doesn't matter. I flesh it all out when it's done
I'll usually go eat go for a walk do something to reset my brain, and then I'll edit it
Simple as that sometimes. I'll write it all out, and I'll send it to an employee and let them edit it
But the goal is once. I'm done writing then I edit and that's how I create a piece of content
I hope you like this video if you found this valuable you know what to do hit that like button if you're not subscribed
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Just like this one now what I want to hear from you is as simple as this
Do you have a process for your writing?
Go ahead leave that below this video share every little detail
I am insanely curious one of the things that fires me up is seeing other people's
Processes for writing it. Helps me figure out a way to write better myself
So go ahead leave that in the comment section now, and I'll see you tomorrow
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