Content Marketers and “Work is Love Made Visible”

You wake up, get out of bed!
What comes into your head?
What “action” are you magnetically drawn to?

Personally, even before I check my emails or put the coffee on, I open my word processor and find that paper-shaped image with the flashing cursor that stares at me as if to say “Get Started”.

The other day I came across the quote “Work is Love Made Visible…” I thought, not only is it a beautiful phrase, but it is a profound, possibly life-changing thought. Not in a particularly religious or irreligious sense, but as a code, a step-by-step guide for a happy and contented life!

“Work is love made visible” had obviously been churning away in my sub-conscience, and today was the day that it decided to burst out like a tiger jumping through a burning hoop!

Do you find yourself spending your days doing things you don’t like?

Do you have workdays that never end, which seem purposeless and uneventful?

I don’t like the phrase “mission in life”, as it implies a singular, one-dimensional view of one’s life or business. Obviously the big picture is more diverse than that.

I guess most people get the most pleasure out of life when they’re helping others, rather that living in a selfish, insular world. Link that thought to the fact that we all need to earn a living and it could be a recipe for a happy and successful life.

I decided to open my little helper (The Content Ideas Factory) that my son had developed for me, and have a quick look at what other people were saying and thinking about.

The first thing I discovered was the whole quote by Kahlil Gibran:
“Work is love made visible, and if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms from those who work with joy.”

The second quote that hit me was by Marsha Sinetar in her classic work “Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow” in which she says:
“We are meant to work in ways that suit us, drawing on our natural abilities as a way to express ourselves and contribute to others!”

Exactly the words I had been searching for! I closed the program. I didn’t need it any more. My core “thought” had been sufficiently propounded and reinforced.

One area of my business life centers on helping people develop and put into practice, video and content marketing strategies that will help them promote their own enterprises. I firmly believe that this is the future of business promotion, and it has become a real passion in my life.

It does involve some work (as the actress said to the bishop), and if you are not prepared to roll up your sleeves, get into the trenches, you will soon be relegated to the “Dinosaur” division, facing early business extinction.

The object of Video and Content Marketing is to give your customers the information they want, and need, to help them do their jobs, run their businesses or enhance their hobbies.

Do the parts of Video and Content Marketing that you love, and it will shine through to your customers. Expand this area of your talents, and find other people to do the rest.

Personally I love writing. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a video script, a blog post or just a bookmark. The technical stuff; Ftp’ing, payment methods etc. just don’t do anything for me.

Have you laid out all the building blocks of your business?

Have you defined all the things you want to do and what you don’t want to do?

This piece is designed to help you with your content marketing tactics; I’ll leave the other nuts and bolts for another day.

It’s not too complicated!

Firstly, you need to classify the areas of your Content Marketing Campaigns that you want to develop: E.g.
 Videos
 Blogs
 Podcasts etc.

Secondly come the strategies:
 Content Creation
 Content Distribution

Then decide the “who does what!”

If you love making videos all day, stick to that, and having discovered the other areas of your business where “things need to be done”, find someone with the skills to do them, either with you or for you.

I’ve got two cats. I could, and should, have called them Chalk and Cheese. I actually called them Scally (she’s a troublesome Scallywag) and Scholsey (after a ginger-haired soccer player who scored a goal for England the day she was dumped on my doorstep, more than 4 years ago now). They don’t look like sisters or act like sisters, but they are sisters.

Why should I tell you this?

Well for me, in the context of this article, there are two different types of people, those that are “creative” and those that are “not-creative”.

In a business context, and by way of example, I humbly class myself as a “creative” person. I would pigeon-hole my son and biz partner as a “non-creative” person.

This is not being disrespectful in any way. He’s a techie. He gets up every morning wanting to write computer programs, work things out, get things done!

As a child he could repair clocks (that hadn’t worked for years) in about ten minutes. What he did and how he did it I haven’t a clue.

We respect each other for having different skills. He doesn’t want to write a video script, and I (definitely) don’t want to sit there day and night writing computer code!

So some people love creating content, filling up those blank sheets of paper with a passion. Some people are more suited to doing more mundane, possibly technical tasks, and that’s not in a deprecating sense, that’s just how it is. I’ve got many friends who switch off at 9 every morning, get through the day, and then switch on again as they drive home from work. At this point their hobbies and interests take over.

I imagine, as you have read this article thus far, you’ve probably got a burning desire to achieve more with your life!

It will be obvious to you which category you are in. You may fall into both categories. If you don’t, “get into bed” with somebody who compliments your skills. Stick to doing the things you love and the money will follow…

I hope these words clarify things for you, and point you in a direction that ultimately brings you both success and happiness.

Why do billionaires keep on and on creating bigger and bigger businesses, making more and more money?

Could the answer be, “Work is love made visible”?

For us Marketers, “Content can lead to a Contented Life”.

Have a great day.

Every Day.

“Make other people’s dreams come true, and surely you will realize your own dreams.”
(Time to check my emails!)