Content ain't going nowhere...

Every single thing we do, whether it's scrolling through social media, binge watching Netflix, attending church online, shout out to Bedside Baptist, or just scrolling on YouTube. Even reading a book or a billboard on your way to make that target run that you know you'll need to make cuz you need to be saving money. All of those are versions of doing what? Consuming content. Okay? It is everywhere and it ain't going nowhere.

From commercials to television shows, the internet advertisements and even the books that you read, content is simply all around you. It is feeding our subconscious and our conscious minds whether you believe it or accept it or not. So for those of you who are anticon, You're consuming it too. You just don't even realize that you are. The consumption of content is bottomless. It is everlasting. It is never ending, just like brunch.

And that brings me to the inspiration behind the title of this podcast, Content for Brunch. So I spent the last nine years living in New York City. I spent all of my twenties there in chill. It was a time, okay, brunch was the thing to do. When I tell y'all we would brunch every single weekend, every single weekend, and sometimes Saturday and Sunday too, Like, I don't know who we thought we were, but we would. Down. I even remember there was this restaurant in Harlem.

Um, Harlem is where I lived when I lived there, and it was a like a regular dinner style restaurant. And they would host this thing called Midnight Brunch, and it would be the same vibes, the same music, the same people, the same chicken and waffles. But instead of reporting live at noon, you would go at like 10 or 11:00 PM and it would be brunch in the middle of the night. Like it would go into the wee hours in the morning. Brunch was the thing to do. I had the time of my.

But the most precious and memorable thing about those experiences were the people I met, the friendships that I made, the connections that I made. I mean, we would eat some good food, share some good laughs, and do it all over again the next weekend. And the conversations were always so. Good. You know, it's something about bottomless anything that really gets people to open up and you get to see who they really are. Like people are just unapologetically themselves.

when I think about those moments and those genuine connections, it really made an impact not just in my personal life, but also in my business, right? Some of those connections turned into future clients. job opportunities, partnerships, being on the guest list to networking. Um, being invited to places where you would then meet other cool people to, you know, be a part of your life and your story. And so it was those connections.

It was the things that kind of happened after the brunch that really mean the most, and that's what your content should do for you, your audience, and your business. it should be created and consumed in a way that provides value, serves substance, creates connections, and ultimately leads to new clients and opportunities for your business. So that's why content for brunch.

Child brunch was filled with so much substance, so much so, so much conversation that led to connection, and I just want you all to understand that that is the secret sauce to your marketing plan. You have to create conversation within your content that leads to connection. Whether you realize it or not, content is a part of what feeds your soul, and if you have a business that you market online, it's also a part of what's feeding the soul of your audience.

So listen to me clearly when I tell you. Content consumption is the only reason why anyone ever makes a buy-in. You consume a piece of content or information in some way, it makes you feel some type of way you feel connected to it. You feel inspired or empowered, or called to do something, and the next thing you know you are pulling out your credit card and making a purchase. And that's why as a business owner having a solid content marketing strategy is so important.

I think one of the biggest reasons why many people don't put enough effort into their content marketing strategy is because the thought of it overwhelms them. Can I get Amen? If you can't say amen, say Ouch. Okay. Anybody else grow up in the good old outside the Baptist church? You know what I'm talking about? Okay. So the thought of creating content is daunting and it makes you exhausted before you even attempt to execute it, right?

And so my goal is to help you simplify that, and that's what I help my clients do. We simplify the strategy and we simplify the process so that it's less overwhelming and it's less daunt. And so when I think about what makes content creation fluid for me or you know, my expertise, as we all love to say, I think about the time I spent working in corporate America and I use those exact experiences to help my clients today, and that's how I helped them simplify the content creation process, right?

I spent. Years, uh, working as a producer, a television producer. The first few years of my career, I graduated college, Clark Atlanta University. Shout out cau Okay. and there I studied broadcast television my degree is in Mass Media Arts, but my concentration was tv, broadcast television. And so when I graduated, I moved to New York. that's another story for another time cuz that was on a whim. But I made it work nine years later and.

I moved to New York because it was media market number one, and so if you wanna work in television, if you wanna work in media, lights, camera, action, New York is definitely the place to go. So over the years I've worked for major production companies, like B E t I used to produce award shows. I've also worked on a couple of reality TV shows here and there, Child, and did it all.

I also worked as a digital producer for a couple of fashion brands and digital publications, e-commerce brands as well. So I say all that to say when it comes to these content creation. Your girl knows a thing or too about what she talking about. Okay. If I'm talking it's cuz I know what I'm talking about. If I'm quiet it's cuz I'm doing research so I can figure out how to know what I'm talking about. Okay. So while I was, working in corporate America.

I also started a blog when I was in college. So back in 2012, I started a blog. And inside of that blog, of course, once it became the big market that it is today, as I gradually approached that, I was able to start securing, partnerships and brand deals within the now called influencer space. Right? Um, and so that also contributed to.

A lot of my knowledge within this space and a lot of my experience within this space, because I've done it on the brand side, being the person looking to work with the influencers, I've also been an influencer and then I've been a TV producer and worked on the production side. So I really have like a 360 view of how all of this works in terms of the marketing, the content creation, all of the things. of all of those experiences, they all have one thing in common, and that's storytelling.

Whether I was producing an award show, working as a production assistant on a reality show child, like I told y'all, I ain't gonna name drop with show. But reality shows are always interesting. But whether I was shooting an award show, working as a production assistant, or shooting a fashion hall, writing a blog post, The biggest goal was always storytelling, right? And so the question that we were always answering is, who does this affect? What stories can we tell that go untold?

Um, what human experience are we trying to create here as a result of this content? And so, of course, Strategy was always involved because these are major corporations. But at the core of that strategy, we were always telling a story no matter what it was. And the reason for that is because it's stories that create connection, and that's the key to a solid content marketing strategy, right? It's figuring out how you're going to create a connection.

Between you and the person that you're marketing to. So when you leverage storytelling in an authentic and meaningful and impactful way, your audience will crave, okay, whatever it is that you're selling. And so my mission here, I know that sounds like such a big word, right? Like we're going in the outer space or something, but my mission is to help you change the way you think about.

Overall, just like brunch, I want you to understand that your content needs a few things for it to really be successful. So the first thing is it needs to taste and feel good when your audience consumes it. Just like those chicken and waffles. Yeah, just like that. It needs to taste and feel good, right? It also needs to make them want to stay, allow, because remember I told you we would brunch all. So you need to be creating content that's bingeable, that makes people wanna stay.

It also needs to create a long lasting connection with people because that's again, what happened at brunch. And so your content needs to resonate in their minds. It needs to connect with their souls, right? And then of course, it needs to have substance. What are you serving these people? We are so tired of the fluff and all of the regurgitated information and all of the things. What are you, What is, what is really your goal when creating your content? How are you speaking to your people?

Okay, and the last thing. It needs to be bottomless. Okay? Who wants to go to brunch if it ain't bottomless, not me. And so when you think of your content being bottomless, that means it's something that you cannot just do once and you're done. It's not one and done. And I feel like that's a big mistake people make when creating their content strategies. They think it's something that you just accomplish and then it's done. Okay? You have to keep it coming, just like those mimosas at. All right.

So of course I have a little simple framework I like to use when helping my clients create content strategies. And it's super simple. It's serve, sell, story. Tell your girl is a sucker for alliteration. Okay, judge me on Don't care But I love coming up with three Ss, three C's, or whatever. It's just very easy to remember. So serve, sell, story, tell, And I say that in that order because it has a ring to it. But what you wanna do is hook them with a story. So in this example, story will be.

And then the next thing you wanna do is keep serving them with substance. So that's the story. Hook them in, serve them with substance. And then the third S is to sell. Sell them the thing that they need to take their life, their business, whatever it is that you serve to the next level. Right. So hook them with a story, serve them substance, and then sell them the thing that they need to take their life or business to the next level. Okay?

That is how you should start to create your content marketing strategy. So while you let that sink in and marinate a little bit like the seasoning on the shrimping grits. Okay, y'all are not gonna get enough of these brunch references. Be prepared or be sick of me. Okay? I want you to answer these questions to get started with your serve sales story. Tell formula. All right, so the first question is, listen, I'm gonna always give out homework because we have to put these strategies into action.

I'm not all talk, okay, we have to do some work. So the first question is, what part of my story am I holding back that can really change the lives of my audience or my clients? So often we are really showing up in a cookie cutter format, and there's some things that we're not saying that could really help free somebody else, and it's probably the key thing to release in your content marketing strategy. So ask yourself, what story am I not?

And then I want you to ask yourself, how can sharing this story help your audience? So think of the transformation they'll get on the other side of you sharing that experience. Okay? And then the last thing I want you to ask yourself is how can you use that story and the transformation that your audience is going to get to sell the solution to sell your service? So how can you combine those two things to now sell them what they. To change their life, their business, et cetera.

All right, When you have those answers all figured out, because I check homework, I want you to slide in, my dms goes down in my dms, that's at Kayla Riggins on Instagram, and I want you to tell me your answers. All right? I look forward to seeing what it is that you have thought through with the serve sell story tell formula, and I look forward to helping you along your. All right, y'all, So that will do it for today's episode. Listen. next time, I want you to do the work.

I want you to create the content that never leaves your audience starving. Okay? So whether it's 10:00 AM or 2:00 PM it's always a good time for content for brunch.