Fact-finding mission

Stuck in a rut with your online content?

Rather than bang your head against a wall, try this instead.

In order to nurture relationships with potential clients in your audience, it’s important to stay top of mind with them by sharing relevant and engaging content that helps them better understand who you are and how you’re the solution to their problem.  

Now, for many speakers, authors, trainers, consultants and other expert-based business owners, they have a team handling their social posts and articles. 

But what about those who don’t?

I would be one of those who are sans team.

And, over the course of the past 5 years, I’ve employed a handful of ways to generate relevant and relatable content to share with those I serve. 

One of the more popular ways is what I refer to as the fact finding mission.

Rather than attempt to pull an idea out of thin air, I dip immediately into the camera roll on my phone. 

For a couple minutes, I’ll scroll through the photos until one jumps out at me.

What am I looking for? 

I’m looking for an interesting photo - could be a photo of me alone, with friends, colleagues, an image of something I found interesting while walking around the city…

…basically, a shot that’s in focus, decently composed, and has something to it that can inspire a conversation of some sort.

Once I land on a photo that catches my eye, I ask myself questions that elicit responses that ultimately can be built into a beginning, middle and end story. 

• Where was I when I took this picture?

• Who else (if appropriate) is in this photo and what is their relationship to me?

• What happened right before this photo was taken?

• What happened right after this photo was taken?

• What does this photo represent? 

• What problem was I dealing with at that moment that was weighing on me?

• How was I feeling at this moment?

Answering one or more of these questions helps establish the basic building blocks of the story.  

It also often leads to asking myself different questions that can potentially generate more interesting idea nuggets that lead to an even more compelling and relatable story.

The point here is that the creative process can be sparked in several ways and it’s best to simply set the table for your writing mind to let it be inspired to move in one direction or another…

…especially when the alternative is to stare at that damn blinking cursor!

The next step is to figure out how I can translate these “facts” into a story that shares a teachable moment for my audience. 

• Does this story represent an actionable insight that they can implement immediately? 

• Am I introducing them to one of my products and/or services?

• Or, is this story meant to reveal to my audience a side of my personality and lifestyle to give them more background on who I am as a human being?

Identifying the teachable moment is huge. This is the payoff and value add for those reading the piece.

Remember, the purpose of your content is to develop, nurture and lead your audience down a path that moves them to a point where they trust you enough to help solve their problems. 

And, your content needs to tie back to them in some way, shape or form. 

While there’s no one way to create content, the fact-finding mission approach of identifying an image first, and then asking questions to develop a story, has been an effective approach for me when I’m feeling less than inspired to write. 

Give it a try the next time the blinking cursor on your screen starts to taunt you mercilessly and see what happens!

For more storytelling strategies for expert-based business owners, check out my blog - I share them all the time! To save yourself the commute to my website, sign up to have these articles delivered directly to your inbox!