In 2023 alone I've been inside FOUR $500k+ content machines as the Content Strategist/Director for these said machines.

They were all coaches/consultants, each in different industries. 

I’ve seen the engine, the creators, the results, the “magic”.

I could break it down for you in simple terms.

But that won’t do it justice.

We need an analogy.

So, I have one in mind.

English football.

Alright.

Let’s get right to it.

For my non-soccer fans.

The English football tiered system (most of soccer except MLS follow this) is unlike any American sport league you’ve ever seen.

Basically. The highest league of the land isn’t promised to you.

You earn your way.

If you don’t.

You fall to the lower leagues.

Or if you’re starting from the bottom.

You can fight tooth and nail to get to the top.

The English league, in its simplest form, goes like this:

Premier League > The Championship > League Two > League One > National League.

Every year teams are fighting to either get to the Prem, stay in the Prem, win the Prem or just accept their lot and make the best of whatever league they are in.

If you’ve ever seen a League One game (ex: Plymouth Argyle) you know the quality of the league, from the players, to the stadium, to the infrastructure is vastly inferior to the Prem. The style of play is … chaotic. The money is aight. Every year is a fight to not go out of business.

Prem is the cream of the crop. Best fields. Facilities. Infrastructure. Best players. The prize money is in the billions. Sponsorships are in the millions. TV deals are crazy.

Okay…

Now what does this have to do with content?!

Watch me.

League One content:

(I skipped the National League.. It’s basically Facebook friends keeping up with you over the years)

Typically these folks are trying to launch a side biz. They are either unemployed, hate their current job, have a dream, or need extra cash to breathe a little.

They post a few times a month.

They have a really bad selfie for their profile photo.

You can tell they are treating social media like that bulletin board in the back of your local hipster coffee shop.

Or they simply haven’t posted yet.

Waiting. Waiting. Waiting for the right moment…

They also outreach like crackheads looking for a score. Scaring people left and right.

Those that get out of this network well. They use their content to build a community. They start sharing quotes, tagging their favorite creators to comment on their posts, and they start posting more regularly. Still scared. Still getting very little engagement. But they’ve got hope and they are taking action to get into League Two.

Revenue: ZERO.

League Two content:

Content seems to be picking up.

Posting near daily.

These folks are around in your comments. Super supportive. They show up in the big people’s comment sections, hoping their clever comments are seen, heard and supported.

They’ve made it a habit to post daily and support their community. You can find them in Discord channels and private communities. They are super fans with a tiny audience.

Momentum is building.

But they post what they feel like, when they feel like, and how they feel like and justify by saying “I’m a content creator”

Revenue: ZERO to 2k a month.

Those that get out of League Two and into the Championship know a few things:

• Consistency is king.

• You need an offer.

• They somewhat know who they are targeting

• You need to create wins for yourself to get out of League Two (social proof).

• They are on a single channel and devote their energies to that one channel.

• They spend a TON of time commenting because it’s the only lever they have to get traffic.

• They are a one person-bizness.

• The Championship

Man oh man.

The fun is just about to start.

You have a feel for content now. Some weeks you’re on fire. Some weeks you’re cold. In this league you’re trying to build momentum.

Some months you make no money.

Some months you make 3k-10K (and when you do… you think you’ve “made” it!).

The revenue yo-yo is a real thing and it’s driving you nuts. If only your baseline was 10k months. If only you closed 2-3 leads a month.

Posting is a matter of course. It’s now a habit. It’s no longer based on how you feel that day.

But sometimes… you get burned out. So you take a social media break 2-3x a year, to refresh, and get a better perspective.

But because posting is now habitual, you’re now wanting to explore other platforms. To dip your toes in it. Couldn’t hurt, right?

You start to invest in courses, affordable coaches, or even super-duper BIG brand coaches. Every course or coach you invest in takes your content in different directions. The yo-yoing gets worse. But you are investing.

You’re starting to make videos now.

BOOM… you’re climbing to the top of the Championship. It’s a hard battle because now you know just simply posting daily isn’t a sustainable business model.

But some things are needed to get ranked high in the Championship and get into the Prem:

• FUP. Wrote a whole email on it. Those that have FUP are destined for great things.

• Attention. They know how to command the attention of prospects into buying behaviors.

• Growth. They know how to grow. When to grow. What is true growth vs. hot air.

• They start to INVEST in themselves themselves.

• They have a lot to say. They never run out of ideas or angles to tackle. There is always content in front of them.

Revenue: ZERO to 15k a month (yes… people with big audience, big brands sometimes make no cash. Sad but true. )

Premier League

Let’s be honest.
You’ve made it, yes.

But there's a big difference between Man City and Bournemouth.

There’s a big difference between Gary Vee and YOU.

Now… let’s talk.

Remember those 4 clients?

Okay.

Here’s what they do that keeps them out of the Championship and climbing UP.

• They don’t care about Man City, Man United, Chelsea, and Liverpool.

I’ve never heard them talk about the big players online. They want to create their OWN lane. Their own category. They want to be GOATS of their positioning.

They actually desire to be left alone to make their impact and revenue. It’s a strange air that they breathe.

• They have ONE offer.

Yes, they have top line offers. Yes, they might make arrangements (for the right price) But it's catered to the ONE offer.

• They picked the correct avatar. And they focus on the ONE.

The avatars they serve have a problem and have made that problem a HIGH priority (hungry market). And that avatar has the access to pay high prices. Newsflash, being hyper focused on the one doesn’t repel others. In fact, others will come anyway because the message is clear.

• Their offer works.

Yea, the shocking thing is that… your solution has to create future customers. They are so good at their solutions that they create case studies, referrals, marketing material, and fans. This is the HIGHEST priority of their biz. 

• Content is a business.

All the other leagues treat content like a chore, a job, a have to. 

They treat their content like a business. It’s a totally different mindset. They invest in their content. What a strange concept now, right? They spend money to build up their content. Video editors, videographers, copywriters. VAs, graphic designers, studios, system operators… etc. (Not all have ALL of those).

Why?

The money comes back multiplied.

• They also know you can’t scale from 1.

They don’t do manual anymore. And haven’t for a long time. They seek scalability of their content.

They know that writing one post, on one platform, one a day-at-a-time isn’t scalable.

The idea behind scalability is to design systems and processes that can handle increasing volumes without a significant drop in quality or increase of time.

In other words, they take what they’ve done to get out of the Championship and scale it. With AirTables, Notions, Asana, Zaps, etc and have people manage it.

They create MORE right content (almost very little guesswork - more on that in a second) with LESS time.

• Time and brain space.

They aren’t superhumans. They can’t handle ALL aspects of a successful operation. Even with content. The more successful they are, the more demands on their attention they have.

So, they start delegating the content out into the system and to the people who are responsible for certain parts of the content creation process.

• The compound effect

They understand the true power of organic traffic. It’s the COMPOUNDING of the audience over time. So they seek ways to position themselves and their content to get these compound effects. It’s more potent than PPCs or paid, because these are real humans coming back daily and talking about you daily. They have STRONG brands. 

• Very little content guesswork

The difference between Prem and other leagues is guesswork is not an option. They know which of their content works for who. They know the art of Dark Socials. They know how to move you down the funnel. They work with experts (hello 😎 ), have a ton of experience, and/or data as their guideposts.

Revenue: 15k months to SKY IS THE LIMIT.

I’ve said a lot.