Here’s a funny story that we want to share with you. It’s totally classic…you know, kind of a cobbler’s shoe scenario.
Anyway, it goes like this. As most of you know, I am a copywriter, social media trainer, speaker, and I help people with their content. I’m all about content and have written 1000’s upon 1000’s of blog posts. Dozens of videos and Facebook Lives, etc. Creating content is not hard for me…. usually….
So here’s the rub. I was invited to be on somebody’s podcast, and she asked me to send five questions or so for them to ask me. This isn’t unusual. They do it on radio and television interviews so there’s always the cheat sheet and everyone already kind of knows the questions and the answers so there can be a nice flowing conversation that seems natural but is almost rehearsed. And yet I had no idea what questions I wanted her to ask me all of a sudden.
Rick and I had just had lunch and were talking about creating value for yourself which is why this was kind of funny. We always talk about the 5 x 5 method which you may be familiar with if you have been following us for any period of time. Part of it is you think of five questions you would have someone ask you, but suddenly, I felt blocked.
So after a good laugh Rick rambled off five questions instantly and I wrote them down. Then it was a classic light bulb moment.. everybody does this. Everybody in their business at times, does not do what they know how to do. Call it analysis paralysis, fear of perfectionism, whatever acronym you want, many people don’t do for themselves what they are really good at helping others do. Hence, “the cobbler’s kids have no shoes.”
I found myself wondering “what it is that I really want her to ask and what message do I really want to get across to this audience?”
Rick does it too. His background is in video — film, really — 50 Superbowl commercials, etc. Yet, I do more videos than he does.
He doesn’t do them a lot for his own reasons (which he shares in the video) but he also doesn’t think about what he wants to talk about in advance. I’m always saying he should do a video on a topic that comes up as we are talking, he agrees that it would be good, but notes that he’s too close to the subject so he doesn’t think about it. And that’s what happened to me. I was just too close to the source.
So think about this whether it’s for FB Lives, pre-recorded videos or writing a blog post; it’s good to get an outside perspective from somebody who is not in your head. Ask someone what they don’t know about your business that would be of interest to them. You could also have a conversation about your business with someone for five or ten minutes and let them ask you questions. Also consider the audience and think about different questions for different situations.
If you were invited on a podcast, what five questions would you want asked of you?
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