When I was in high school, I earned some extra money doing odd jobs for a solicitor's office. Nothing fancy - mail this, drop of that, fill out this form, sweep that floor. Obviously nothing that required a law degree and not much that required a brain.
The money wasn't bad though.
I learned many leadership lessons from that job.
Unfortunately, most of them were hard lessons - more what not to do, instead of what to do.
Some of the lessons were obvious, like how a little kindness goes a long way.
(And I know just how far a little contempt can go, too.)
One lesson was a lot more subtle. It took me years after leaving that place to piece this one together. In that job I knew what I was supposed to do, but I never knew why.
So when a strange situation popped up and I had to show initiative, I blew it.
I had no clue what a good outcome looked like.
Sure, my job mostly involved cleaning coffee cups and emptying garbage cans. But anything more complicated than that, my only hope was to guess at what my boss wanted.
Fast forward a decade or so:
I worked in a large organisation whose leadership were keen talkers. They'd hold town hall meetings, send all-staff emails, record videos, make announcements... and they'd always say the same things.
Every chance they got, they shared their vision.
What they were doing and why.
It should have felt repetitive. Maybe some people felt annoyed.
But no one was confused about what the organisation did. Or how their role supported it.
When something strange popped up, it was easy to figure out what to do. Whatever would best serve the leadership's vision was the right course of action.
Once of Cialdini's influence principles is Authority.
Tell me - which person embodies Authority better?
Someone who jumps from fad to fad, always chasing the next shiny thing?
Or someone who understands their purpose - and can make you understand it, too?
And the best way to convey your purpose - to have your reader feel it in their squishiest places - is to talk clearly and often. Average leaders rarely communicate. Great ones overcommunicate. With enough repetition, the message becomes unforgettable.
This is one of the reasons why marketers say each ad should have One Big Idea. A full-page ad has many words and they all say the same thing. It overcommunicates the Big Idea until it burns in your prospect's mind.
And it's why I like content marketing. You don't write one ad; you write thousands. You don't focus on One Big Idea once - you do so over and over.
Any schmoe can browse Wikipedia and cobble together an article. But who can overcommunicate? Only an Authority can, because it takes deep knowledge and experience to write this way.
Content marketing is tough when you're an amateur.
And it's so fun and powerful when you know your stuff.
Your prospects will pick up on it. They'll absorb your message and elevate you to an Authority in their mind.
From there, they'll trust you enough to become clients.
What messages do I overcommunicate?
Content marketing works.
Your prospects deserve your best voice, knowledge and persuasion skills.
I'm a professional who understands your business better than anyone.
And, of course, you can hire me as a freelancer:
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