a simple content system for scaling past $10k a month

Summary

the content system I’ve been running since 2011, and the one that takes a business past $10k a month. four parts, all F’s.

1. flagship content. one big high-quality piece per week. a long video, a long podcast, a long article. shareable, not throwaway. this is the cornerstone of everything else.

2. followers. use the flagship to build an audience. paid amplification is fine. organic is fine. the point is reach for the flagship, not chasing engagement on filler posts.

3. funnel. once people find you, get them onto an email list or behind a low-ticket offer. you don’t own social platforms. you own the email list. that’s the move.

4. follow-up. consistent email to the list. teaching, helping, occasionally selling. this is where relationships compound and where buying decisions actually happen.

most businesses skip 3 and 4. they pour effort into 1 and 2, build an audience they don’t own, and watch it evaporate when an algorithm changes. own the list. follow up forever. that’s the system.

Transcript

introduction to the content marketing strategy

The most impactful business is the business that genuinely improves another human, a better human business. And to grow a business like this, you have to continually improve yourself. This podcast is a documentation of that thesis, scaling businesses and also personal growth. My goal is for you to shortcut this journey.

So if you’re ready to try hard, subscribe. If you like what you’re hearing, please share and enjoy. Today we’re going to cover the exact content framework I’ve used to scale to $10,000 a month, $100,000 a month and well beyond that. And this strategy is something I’ve used since 2011. It worked then, it still works today, which means it’s evergreen.

You don’t have to chase any trends. You can just implement what I’m talking about today and you will have a content framework that works and has stood the test of time. Let’s dive into it. We’re going to start with story time, so we rewind back to 2011. I started online as a blogger. I was blogging frequently.

storytime: how I started and what I learned from blogging

That’s what I’ve done a lot of the years is working behind the scenes, SEO, trying to scale businesses up, high web traffic, those kinds of things. Well, when I was writing blogs, what I realized is some blogs did really well and some blogs sucked. Just like people probably find out in their content today is you might have an Instagram reel that does really well and one that sucks, or you might have a YouTube video that does really well and some that sucks.

And there is some formula to this, but at the same time, it doesn’t really matter. What you need to be focusing on is creating really good content. So when I would create a really good blog post, these would typically be these long, robust guides on a specific topic, like a DIY, how-to, something like that.

I would create this amazing piece of content. It’d be very polished, ready for people to go. Those would do really well. People would enjoy them, they would share them, and then ultimately, it would get more traffic to my site. Well, I wanted to keep that party going, so I would typically throw some ad spend behind it and push it to more people.

And then when I’d push it to those people, I’d have calls to action in the blog post saying, hey, sign up for my newsletter or buy my thing. And then they would get added to that. They’d either become a customer or an email subscriber, and then I’d be able to nurture them. And then I would be able to make them offers over time after I have provided value.

So that’s the story, and I gave you the framework, but let’s break it down a little bit more because what I just went through, I just stumbled upon on accident, but I’ve refined it. It is now called the 4F framework. So the first F is flagship. So when you’re creating content, I don’t care where it is.

If it’s a blog post, if it’s on Instagram, on YouTube, doesn’t matter. You need some flagship content. Now, flagship content is something that you know is really good. It might take you a while to figure out what that is, but it can be edited really well. You can spend a lot of money on the video production, the video editing of it, make the content awesome, but you need a couple of flagship pieces of content, whether that’s on YouTube, Instagram, doesn’t matter.

detailed breakdown of the 4f framework

You need a piece of flagship content. Articles still work to this day. It’s just not the direction a lot of people are going. So you need your flagship piece of content. It’s got to be awesome. And how you’ll know it works is like, one, does it actually help people with something that they’re trying to do?

And two, do people share it? Do they actually share it? Do they think this is a helpful piece of information and will it get around on its own organically? That’s the first F, flagship. Have your flagship piece of content. Next is followers. So now you’re going to take that flagship content, you let it run organically.

If you post this on social media or whatever, and then you’re going to run ads to it. So on Instagram, that would be like boosting a post. On YouTube, that would be promoting a video, anything like that. You’re going to basically take what you already know is good and you’re going to pour some gasoline on that fire.

So you’re going to get more eyeballs on it. Now the purpose of this ad is not to sell anything. And that’s where people get like all hung up. Like we’re in the audience building phase. And so you’re going to push it to more people to try and get more followers, if you will. So people, this could be actual followers on social media accounts.

This can just be people who are paying attention to your content, but you’re trying to get your awesome content in front of more people. That’s really the only thing that you’re trying to do. Now you jump to the third F, which is funnel. Look, I know a lot of people out there are like the funnel is dead or like whatever.

discussing the importance of flagship content

If anyone says the funnel is dead, they’re just trying to sell you something most likely. In all reality, a funnel is just a series of steps that you walk someone through. So after you have your flagship content, you’ve pushed it out to more people, you’re getting those followers. Now it’s time to funnel those people somewhere.

And you have two options here, depending on if you’re just starting out or if you already have something, you know, the more established business. If you’re just starting out, you should funnel people who are seeing this content becoming your followers to an email list, email newsletter. You can throw out a lead magnet, like, Hey, download my checklist for this or like whatever you think is a good idea for your business.

You can have a lead generator, a lead magnet that gets people on an email list, or you can simply say, sign up for my newsletter where I provide valuable information and you’re going to start trying to build that email list. The second thing you could do in the funnel category is immediately offer some sort of low ticket, uh, you know, item.

This could be a book, this could be a short course, it could be anything, but whatever it is, it needs to be really fricking good. Okay. And that’s the same with the flagship content, right? Flagship doesn’t mean a piece of crappy content that I’m throwing money behind cause it’s not going to work.

Same with anything you sell, like whether it’s a free thing, a newsletter or a short course that’s, even though it’s low ticket needs to be awesome, needs to solve a problem, needs to be something people actually want to use and share and really enjoy. So you can funnel people one of two ways. It’s either sell something like a book or short course, something like that.

strategies for expanding followers through targeted promotions

Ton of value, ton of information in it. Like, Oh, it doesn’t have to be a lot of information, just a ton of help. It has to help someone out. And then, or you just get them on your email newsletter. Now the last part, the fourth F is follow up. You need, you just need to follow up with these people.

Okay. It’s very simple from here. You have them either as a customer or just an email subscriber on a medium in which you can now communicate. So what we’re getting away from is the algorithm, social media, blog posts, SEO, all these things. They are great. They are awesome. But you have to look at that as like a marketing channel.

You want to get people over to your own form of communication, something that you own. That’s always going to be an email list. It worked in 2011. It works today. It will always work. And so what you need to do is get people in there because now you can communicate with them and you don’t have to worry about your next piece of content being this flagship amazing piece of thing, this amazing thing, because you can now communicate with people whenever you want via a newsletter, right?

So you don’t have to worry about the algorithm as much as you build up this email list. And so at the beginning, if you’re doing anything on social media, yes, you might have to pander to the algorithm a little bit to get it to push to more people, work on a visual hook, a visual cue, get people engaged, play that game, but you’re not going to have to play that game forever.

Eventually you’ll post whatever content you feel like on your Instagram or your YouTube or wherever you’re posting content. But to start, you need to get people in. Then once you build the email list big enough, you don’t have to worry about that as much. You can just publish podcast clips or whatever on your Instagram account and just do whatever you want on the social media side or on the content side because now you can provide value and talk to people one-on-one through email, right?

And so this is ultimately where you want them. What should you be doing in this email follow-up, this follow-up process? Just providing value, providing value and building relationships. I have people reply to my emails. I don’t care how big it gets. They’re going to get replies. I’m going to reply to them.

funnel strategies for converting followers to subscribers or customers

If they have a question, I’m answering the question. I’ve always treated email newsletters like that because if you are invested enough in what I’m doing to give me a response, I’m going to respond back to you. So that’s how you’re building a relationship. It’s literally one person at a time, right?

And so sometimes this can become overwhelming. I’ve had email lists with over 100,000 people on it and so it can become very cumbersome and some things you might have to run through customer support, but that’s not a scaling problem most people are dealing with right now. But ultimately that’s what you want to do, especially early on until you can no longer manage it.

You want to build those relationships one-on-one, reply to people and give the valuable content. Decide what it’s going to be. I talk about no-fail publishing calendar for content creators all the time. That’s no different with your email marketing. How are you going to provide value to them on a regular basis?

Is it every Thursday I send an email newsletter with the purpose of X, helping people with Y? So just follow up, stay consistent and provide as much value as you possibly can. So that’s the 4F framework. It’s something I stumbled upon in 2011. I’ve refined it over the last 10, 15 years and the only thing that’s changed is the medium, right?

Started with blog posts. I moved on to podcasts. Now I’m just now getting into short form and video content here on YouTube and Instagram and the strategy has stood the test of time. I’ve done this in other brands, other businesses and it just works. It’s not a very complicated strategy. It’s very easy to implement.

You just have to do it in the right sequence and you have to have a couple things marked off your list. But if you do this, you will not have to chase trends anymore. You won’t have to find the latest and greatest. You can just think, okay, I’m following the 4F framework. Did the medium change? Do I keep doing it?

best practices for follow-up communications to build and nurture relationships

Whatever the case is. So follow my 4F framework, scale your business, try harder, live bigger. And I’ll see you next time.