Content Strategy 2022: The best framework for thought leaders
How are you going to create your clear and concise Content Strategy 2022?
The best framework for thought leaders is the Content Creation Canvas because it unites both your IP Creation and your Content Marketing.
In this post, I’ll show you step-by-step how to complete your content strategy template using my own personal example. This is Part One in a series of covering all the elements of the canvas.
It will take you from stress and confusion to calm, focused action.
And it will take you from producing generic content and being invisible online to attracting your ideal clients through signature style content.
There is one place to start because everything starts with this. Every strategy starts with this, and every story starts with this…
It’s the obvious big question: What do you want?
The Content Creation Canvas is a strategy template. Strategy is how you get from A to B. If you don’t know where you’re going then you can’t have a strategy to get you there.
What are you aiming for?
The Content Creation Canvas is a business canvas for thought leaders. This means there are three obvious goals to have:
In other words, you will need a:
Here are my three goals…
That was easy, wasn’t it? In a matter of words, I’ve shared the three goals you need and then shared my three goals.
Now don’t be fooled here. When someone presents a finished view of anything, it always looks easy. For instance, look at any yoga pose by an experienced practitioner, a painting by a great artist or the easy-to-read words of a celebrated writer.
Creating three simple goals sounds super easy. But, if you’re going to spend a lot of time chasing your goals, you want to spend enough time choosing goals worth chasing.
My goals weren’t the first three I came up with – and neither should yours. I’ve been thinking about this over a long period of time.
Plus, I had to connect my goals for the next year with the things I wanted long term.
My big picture goals are all about freedom and autonomy. I want to be able to live and work from anywhere anytime. This is my context for deciding what I want.
You’ll need a context like this as a benchmark or reference point for deciding what you want.
Once you have this you can build a consistent thread between where you want to be in the near future to what you want to focus on right now.
For me, my long-term goal is to build an online audience so I can live and work from anywhere.
In defining your objectives, especially for your Content Creation, you want to avoid this:
Too many people have too many goals.
When you look at the graphic on the right, what do you see? There are too many dartboards to focus on at once. Your eyes are ‘darting’ (sic) from one to another. This is the experience you have when you have too many goals. You don’t focus, you jump and skip from one to another which costs you time, energy and resources.
They finish up living like this – with their energy, attention and resources going off in all directions. This weakens the results you can achieve.
In contrast, if you want to achieve extraordinary results then you need to choose where to focus. It looks more like this.
PS: This is one of my all-time favourite visual diagrams. Every thought leader should have a signature visual like this. Great work Greg McKeown – he deserves a round of applause.
The key to a successful Content Strategy 2022 (or any year) comes down to this:
And this means the more you reduce your chance of being successful.
When you fail to choose, you choose to fail.
Have a look back at your Content Strategy and results for the past few years. More importantly, how did you do it?
If you failed to achieve extraordinary results, how many goals did you have?
Too many? Yep, I thought so.
For your Content Strategy 2022, it’s time to choose – what’s it going to be?
If you’re choosing to focus, you’ll love this next section.
If you’re not choosing to focus, you’ll hate this next section, and you might as well skip this and go and watch some cat videos – The Top Ten Cat Videos of All Time!
Now’s let’s get focused. Let’s turn your three goals into one – let’s create your hyperfocus.
The goal here is to create a hyperfocus such that when you achieve one goal it automatically has you achieve the next one and the next one. It’s like stacking up dominoes. When one falls, it knocks the next one down too. And then the next one.
This is the key to gaining traction, building momentum, and producing great results.
Some of you might be thinking – ‘Wow, how amazing to have one thing to focus on.’
And some of you might be thinking you’re ready for a meltdown – how can you focus on only one thing?
Again, here’s your choice. Either choose to focus your energy in to a single direction or continue spraying it in all directions.
The key to being seen and heard online in 2022 is having a hyperfocus in your content strategy.
To achieve this, you need to think big – really big.
Pick something that is your holy grail. It’s time to:
You can do this.
But first, take a moment to answer this crucial question:
If you could have one thing in your business, what would it be?
For me, I’m betting that if I can attract one million views to my videos then I’ll make enough money to live anywhere on the planet. How cool would that be?
And I’m thinking I only need about $10K a month to live in most cities around the world. Some will be cheaper, some more expensive. But that’s do-able.
So how do you define your hyperfocus?
One thing that’s stopping me from reaching my goals is a bigger and better audience than I have right now. I’m thinking if I can publish a video a week on YouTube – and they must be valuable videos – then I can build that audience.
But here’s the important piece. The one million views are not about me. That’s simply a measure of value that I create for other people. If I don’t create this value, then nobody will be watching anything. That’s the power of a social goal.
Plus, do I really need a million? Probably not. But it is a bold and audacious goal to pursue. It sounds exciting.
Therefore, my Content Strategy 2022 hyperfocus is: Publish one video a week.
Yep, it’s that’s simple.
But this is not a quick fix or an easy answer.
I’ve already been working on attracting one million views and after almost 12 months I have only 1500 views. That’s a big mountain to climb.
When I started I was thinking it might take 12-18 months. I’m now thinking it might take five years.
But if and when I can achieve this, I’d be set for life – I’d have an audience I can interact with wherever I am in the world.
That’s playing big. And that would be worth it.
You’ll know you’re playing big because it will take you a year or two years or perhaps five years to achieve. It’s a long-term game.
And that’s having a hyperfocus – make one video a week. Simple, direct and inspiring.
When you have too many goals, you have the same problem everyday: what should I work on next? You’ll probably spend as much time working out what to work as you do actually working on achieving your goals.
In contrast, when you have a hyperfocus, every day you get out of bed, it will become the first thing you think of.
For me, I’ve designed my whole working week around these two questions:
Creating my weekly video is the key driver for my business. Everything else comes second.
While it’s easy to write down three goals and then pick one as your hyperfocus, the reality is it’s not that simple.
You need to be clear that your goals are worth chasing.
First, your goals need to be worthwhile. There’s no point saving every cent you have to buy a new Ferrari if you only have a limited interest in fast cars.
Second, you need a goal that’s designed in a way that will inspire you.
You must define goals that inspire you otherwise it will just be one hard slog.
I’d love to hear what hyperfocus goals you’ve created for yourself.
Now let’s tick off the four key pieces of our Content Strategy 2022 that we’ve created here.
If you’ve done all that, then pat yourself on the back – you’re on your way to be more successful than you were before you started reading this post.
The booby prize here is that you read this post and you gained some good insights into what you must do. That might make you feel warm and fuzzy right now, but tomorrow, you’ll be left with the same dread you had yesterday.
Instead, sit down, spend the time and start planning your content creation strategy 2022.
And when you’re happy, excited and inspired by what you’ve created for yourself, check out the next post in this series to continue completing your Content Creation Canvas.
To help your further with your Content Strategy 2022, here are some related resources – others posts and videos to absorb.
Content Creation Canvas: Build thought leadership, attract new clients
Thought Leadership Strategy – Three things every Thought Leader needs to build
Content Creation Manifesto – The Ultimate Guide to Thought Leadership Content
What goals have you created for your Content Strategy 2022? In particular, what is your hyperfocus?
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Great article Geoff. Love the concept of a hyper focus goal. I always help my clients prioritise but when I have to chose a focus, I find it hard personally!
Glad it was useful, Lisa. And to be honest I think this is tough very everyone. But it's also the difference between the few that produce extraordinary results and the rest of us who don't. The world is constantly calling for our attention in so many ways and this makes it tough to focus tightly on one thing. Also, this is why this conversation around work-life balance is such a mediocre average way to operate when you're also expecting high performance. Elite performers are not balanced. And this is the choice or trade-off we all have to make.
Thanks Geoff the last two videos are everything in a nutshell
In the way we need to operate for success...creating content and keeping it in line towards our focus is so important as it’s easy to get distracted towards something shinier
Finding your market with your stuff is the tough one
But if you have the energy and working along one line it’s can be surprising what comes your way
Cheers, Michael. I think of it as the choice we all have to make - when it's laid out as a clear alternative to focus on many things and weaken our results or to focus deeply on one thing for a different set of results. Each of us must choose our path. I think for me, and content in general, the marketing is almost reversed - your audience can find you if you are patient and keep sharing publicly. But given there is so much noise out there, finding your signature way to share ideas is vital. I think it's a game worth playing!