One Conversation Part II: The Ingredients to Great Content

Why Some Content Works Harder and Others Do Not Work at All

In February 2024, I started to write on Threads. Before I got to 100 followers, I had two people pay me $5,000 each.

I mention Threads only because they found me there. I’m not saying Threads was the almighty platform that converted them.

But it’s a cool story because that was the ONLY platform I was using at the time to make people aware of my world.

I didn’t even have an email list for the brand at the time.

It was Threads -> Website. That was the extent of things. I know you’re wondering tactically how I made this work, and we’ll talk about tactics more in the application section, but I can tell you that the key was in the comments I left on other people’s Threads and how those comments connected to the content that I was posting.

Think about how this works for the Character.

1. They see my thoughtful comment and it resonates with them
2. They either interact (like, respond) with the comment or they check out my profile
3. Both actions lead them to see more of my content, which is a continuation on the themes that I talked about in my comment
4. The One Character has to find out more, so they click the link in the bio and are transported to a deeper resource that they can consume immediately without jumping through any hoops

It’s logical and seems simple enough, but as you can imagine, most people don’t pull this off well at all. I’ll readily admit there are many times when I’ll go weeks or months diverging from the One Conversation, and it always means a drop in my business.

It’s like finding someone interesting at a party, and after 5 minutes, they start to go off on a wild tangent and you lose interest.

But now I’m going off on a tangent. Let’s get back on track.

Concept, Core, Character, Culprit, Climax, Code

These six elements give you all of the content that you need and also explain why some content is hyper-effective in getting people to buy while other content wastes space.

Instead of telling you that effective content has a beginning, middle, and end, let’s look at content the same way we look at a recipe.

Instead of structure, we just need to ensure we have the right ingredients. When you have the right ingredients, you end up with a Character who is wondering how you know what they are thinking.

• Proof (evidence you know what you’re doing)
• Outcome (desire – what they want to achieve)
• Wisdom (your experience/insights)
• Execution (your method)
• Reality (where they currently are)

Did I just use the first letters of each word to spell out a word? Yes. Yes, I did. I learned to do this ahead of time instead of embarrassing myself like I did with the One Creation and the B.O.N.E.S. Framework.

But let’s apply this to a piece of content. Here’s a piece of content using the POWER framework:

I used to think I was terrible at business because I couldn’t stick to anyone’s “proven” system.

Every productivity guru’s morning routine made me hate myself because I couldn’t stick with it. Every marketing expert’s posting schedule felt like homework that I waited until the last second to turn in. Every business coach’s networking strategy felt like a performance and drained my soul.

Then I realized something. I wasn’t broken.

The systems were just designed for different humans. Someone with no kids and unlimited focus time. Someone who gets energy from networking events instead of hiding in bathroom stalls. Someone whose brain doesn’t get distracted by seventeen different things before 9 AM.

So I stopped trying to be them and started designing systems that work for my actual life.

Now I help other creative entrepreneurs do the same thing. Last month, three of my clients hit their highest revenue ever by ignoring the old guru advice and deciding to build their businesses around their personalities instead of fighting against them.

Because here’s what the conformity police don’t want you to know.

Your limitations aren’t weaknesses to overcome. They’re constraints that force you to find better solutions.

It has all of the ingredients. Again, you can mix them any way that you want. Watch this.

Last month, three of my clients hit their highest revenue ever by ignoring the old guru advice and deciding to build their businesses around their personalities instead of fighting against them.

All it took was for me to realize that I wasn’t broken.

I used to think I was terrible at business because I couldn’t stick to anyone’s “proven” system.

Every productivity guru’s morning routine made me hate myself because I couldn’t stick with it. Every marketing expert’s posting schedule felt like homework that I waited until the last second to turn in. Every business coach’s networking strategy felt like a performance and drained my soul.

Their systems were designed for the “ideal” human. If you took all of the people in the world and combined them into one person you would get the person who could follow their advice.

Which means that person doesn’t exist.

You know your best business results are still inside of you somewhere and they are being blocked by systems that think your limitations are a weakness.

But those results that you want so dearly will only show up once you see that your constraints are merely the frameworks of a structure meant to force you to find better solutions.

I changed some of it up slightly, but it’s still the same ingredients in a different order. Are these examples perfect?

Not at all. When you look at the list of ingredients, you can see that the Execution (your Code) is kind of weak. Okay, then I will redo the content and make sure the Execution is stronger.

Short-Form Is for Attention, Long-Form Is for…

Before we go any further we need to come to an agreement. The problem with long-form content isn’t attention spans.

We will binge-watch a Netflix show over the weekend. We will consume a 3-hour podcast.

Long-form content works when it is meant for us. People excuse bad short-form content because it is short so just because I watched your 15-second Reel doesn’t mean I got anything out of it.

But the numbers would make you think I did.

On the other hand, the numbers for long-form content will show you that a lot of people drop off. This doesn’t always mean that people don’t care. It sometimes means that out of 10 people, only 2 were your One Character.

And that’s fine because that’s who it was meant for. That One Character is now going to further explore your world. They are going to take their own journey (we’ll discuss this more in One Crossing) around things until they decide they are ready for the One Creation.

Long-form content is effective because it gives you more opportunities to strengthen each element in the POWER Framework.

In a 15-minute YouTube video, how often do you think I can hit upon each element? What about the other elements that pull people closer, like my charming smile?

How many wonderful food experiences do you recall from going through a drive-thru? What about sitting down at a great restaurant (I said great, not necessarily expensive)?

In the case of short-form content with this analogy, it isn’t a drive-thru but a pop-up of the great restaurant.

Short-form is for attention. Long-form is for conversion.

We’ll explore this further when we talk about the Numbers Game and how the goal is to increase World Time.

Short-Form Is More Exciting

I won’t gloss over the fact that short-form is more exciting because it has the potential to go viral, and it feels like it takes less time to create.

It’s why it’s great for attention. I could post a Reel today and possibly get 100,000 people to see it by tomorrow.

That’s not going to happen with any long-form piece of content that I create.

So I’m not saying you shouldn’t do short-form. It’s a great way to introduce people to you and those who are already deep in your world, to pick up small things. But making it your sole strategy because you see pretty numbers is not ideal for you in the long run.

Why Beliefs Are the Central Point of Every Conversation

It’s amazing how every conversation that we have is dictated by the beliefs that we take into it.

If I believe that you’re an asshole then if you start the conversation with a compliment, I’m going to see it as sarcastic. I won’t trust it.

It doesn’t matter how genuine you are.

As you started to go through this resource, you had what are called false beliefs. Things that you believe to be true but aren’t.

Maybe one is that you can’t make $25,000 unless you follow a strict framework. Hopefully, this resource has shown you otherwise. It doesn’t try to change you as a person. It simply shifts your belief.

But it has to do a good job of acknowledging that the false belief is there.

“I know you think I’m an asshole but…”

When your content can shift beliefs, it becomes that much more powerful.

And beliefs aren’t just in the outcomes that people are trying to achieve.

• What are the Character’s general beliefs?
• What does the Character believe about the Climax and the problems that come from trying to achieve it? “Trying to make money doing what you love has a ceiling.”
• What does the Character believe about the marketplace that you operate within? “All business coaches are scammers.”
• What does the Character believe about your type of products? “Courses are useless.”
• What does the Character believe about others selling in your marketplace? “I think they will be more helpful because they have more followers.”

You don’t have to answer these in every conversation that you have, but when you understand them, it becomes easier to insert them when needed.

This Is a Lot, Right?

The problem with showing you all of this is that it can make content feel overwhelming. How do you keep all of this in your mind when creating any type of content?

The truth is that you don’t. The more content that you create, the better you get at it, but I’m sharing all of these methodologies and thinking with you so that you can better analyze your work.

It’s not about asking how each piece of content knocks out everything that we’ve discussed, but how does the Conversation that is happening in your world overall tackle it?

It’s why the content that you create will come in many different forms:

• Stories
• Case Studies
• How-tos
• Lists

It will show up in podcasts, workshops, essays, emails, and social media.

The reason this is called One Conversation is that all of this content feels cohesive. If one piece of content doesn’t address a belief, then another will. If one piece of content doesn’t strengthen my authority, then another piece will.

The World Time you accumulate, the more opportunities I have to strengthen all of this.