Speaker 1: 0:15

what's the meta? I don't know what's the meta with you. It's a terrible, terrible joke. I have to get this episode out to you, not because I like I have to get an episode out joke. I have to get this episode out to you Not because I like I have to get an episode out, but because I have to get this topic out. It has been jargling. It's the second time I've used the word jargling today in the back of my mind and if I don't get it out, I feel like I'm going to explode.

Speaker 1: 0:41

To kind of give you context, I want to talk about something interesting that is more so unique to video game culture. Now, I'm not a huge gamer. I play one game that is Animal Crossing on my Nintendo Switch every single night. That's about it. I was playing Call of Duty for a while with my good friend from high school. I even built a custom PC the whole thing. I haven't played lately because Call of Duty is so chaotic. When I go on there it is worse than you know, teemu, or whatever. I downloaded that app once and I opened it and there's like a spinning wheel and it tells me you know, you only have this X amount of time and it's just like a casino. It's just crazy when it comes to like I just want to play a game and I just want to chill out, and I can't do that with Call of Duty.

Speaker 1: 1:30

But one thing I learned from Call of Duty that carries over to content and why I'm even talking about this is this concept of a meta. Now in gaming, especially games like Call of Duty, everyone is always talking about the meta. The meta is basically referred to as the most effective tactics available. It's basically the strategies, weapons or characters that are proven to be the best or most dominant at any given time, and it changes. So in the context of something like Call of Duty, the meta might be like a certain gun. Now there might be a hundred guns available, but there's like one or two guns that are overpowered, meaning they're more powerful than the other ones and they help you get a leg up and do better in the game, and those change. So sometimes it's like this one gun, other times it's a different gun, and the ones that were overpowered today they might not be overpowered, they might get like corrected, and then tomorrow it's a different gun, or next week, and in the game it can change. You know. I think it can change every week or every couple of weeks, sometimes less often. I don't really know how often it changes. It's been a minute since I've played, but this happens in other games too.

Speaker 1: 2:51

I only have the context of Call of Duty, but it got me, has me thinking around the same idea in content creation and really in business, but in terms of like marketing in particular. And really in business, but in terms of like marketing in particular. So the term meta comes from metagame, which means thinking beyond just the game itself, like understanding the strategies or the current best way to win, outside of the basic mechanics and using it in the context of business. I'm talking about, you know, ways that you can get ahead that other people may or may not be doing, but it doesn't matter because it's helping you get ahead. And there's some problems before we talk about what's working or what's the meta today and I'm sure you're familiar with a lot of them but let's talk about the problems first.

Speaker 1: 3:40

So the problem with metas today right, or the most effective tactics available today is a lot of people are running outdated tactics. They were maybe good at one point in time, but the person sharing them it might have worked for them. And then you hear that strategy, or whatever you go to implement it, and you're like I need to do this and it doesn't work as well for you. And you're like, what? Why is? Am I the problem? Are they the problem? Is it my audience? That's the problem. Who's the problem here? Whose fault is it? Who can I blame? And then the other problem is that people are running too many tactics. It's not that they're lacking the most effective tactics available, it's that they're running too many tactics. That makes them ineffective, because they're not able to even do one tactic effectively, if that makes sense. So two problems again. Number one, running outdated tactics. Or number two, running too many tactics. Maybe you find yourself relating with this, hopefully.

Speaker 1: 4:46

So there's an opportunity in this, though, is that you can zero in on the metas that are unique to you and your goals. Right? You don't need every strategy. You just need the one strategy that works for you, that helps you get to your goals. If you're unclear on your goals, it's a great time to get clear on those. I shared a few episodes back about goals. If you're unclear on your goals, it's a great time to get clear on those. I shared a few episodes back about goals. But you need a goal right. You need to know which direction you're going to be going so that you can slide in the right tactic to support you on achieving that goal. Now I want to go over real quick, just some metas that I see across the board and kind of break them down a little bit. Not that you need all of these, but to give you an idea of some tactics that I'm seeing are metas right now, the most effective tactics available right now.

Speaker 1: 5:39

Number one using AI tools to help you do your thinking, not to to outsource your thinking, but to help you, let's say, improve, but assist you in your thinking. Seeing ChatGPT, claw these models, not to replace you, to enhance you, to help you go deeper on your thoughts and ideas, to help maybe organize some of the things that you've been toying around within your mind that you've had trouble making sense of. This is why therapy is great, right, you know, and AI, I don't think, is a replacement for therapy by any means. But something that therapy is great at is helping you. Just say out loud what it is that you're thinking and think through some seemingly simple things that could have a profound impact down the road on other stuff. Ai tools can help you do that right With ChatGPT all the time. I'll just spill an idea into it, not worry about getting it right. I don't have to sit there and write it out or type it out. I can just talk into it and then it will give me back whatever I ask it. If I ask it to organize what I'm saying into a comprehensible thought, or maybe ask it questions kind of like Googling, it's a great assistant and that is again using the tool for what it's designed for not to replace my thinking, not to like outsource my power, but to help me this sounds very AI, but to help me harness my power, but to help me. This sounds very AI, but to help me harness my power.

Speaker 1: 7:14

Next meta that I'm seeing is still short form video, but not in the way you maybe think. So short form video is absolutely fantastic at getting attention, building your audience, meeting new people, discovery, right, discovery, discovery, discovery. There's a billion different options for content every single day, and short form video continues to be an effective way to get in front of people that you've never been in front of, and then from there you can take them to your book. You can take them to your email newsletter, your podcast, your product or service, whatever it is. And what I see people doing, where they're maybe running outdated metas is relying too heavily on short form videos and not having anything else to back it up with. Right, it's like trying to build a relationship with somebody but you only send them quick text messages back and forth. Build a relationship with somebody, but you only send them quick text messages back and forth. You know relationships take time, they take work, and trust can only happen so fast, right, unless you're in an extreme situation. I've talked about this before but trust can only happen so fast. And short form video, I don't believe, is a great place to go to the depth. You know you can only go so far in short form video. Absolutely fantastic Way. Better short form video is for discovery than just podcasting or just, you know, podcasting and then uploading it to YouTube. Those are great but, like, short form video will get you seen and just kind of open the door for more people to go through.

Speaker 1: 8:52

Next is guest appearances on podcasts. Now, there are a ton of benefits to this that make it an effective tactic available today, but they continue to be absolutely amazing for the communication you have, whether you have guests on your podcast or your guests on someone else's podcast. The actual relationship you develop with the host or the guests, if you're the host is so good because it can lead to collaboration opportunity, more collaboration opportunities down the road. They could hire you, you could hire them. There's so many things it could lead to the SEO benefits of them linking to your stuff on their show and vice versa Absolutely incredible.

Speaker 1: 9:38

Next, repurposing content across multiple platforms. I do this all the time. I guess I mainly kind of create for TikTok. I had to say I mainly kind of create for TikTok. I had to say but I post that same video on YouTube Shorts, on LinkedIn, on Facebook, on Pinterest, on Instagram Reels I think that's all of them and it works out fantastic for me. I reach like a quarter million people a month. Sometimes more, sometimes a little bit less, but on average it's around a quarter million people per month. That's such a good deal. Right For just having to click in Metricool, my scheduling platform of choice. I just click the other little platforms schedule. Good to go.

Speaker 1: 10:28

I don't obsess over YouTube shorts, like how to optimize each video. I really kind of just look at TikTok, and I make sure that the design of the clip will not interfere with anything on YouTube shorts or on these other platforms. But I've engineered them in a way that they're good to go across all the platforms so that they don't look super out of place. And that's really because of you know, my own time limitations. I've toyed around with optimizing videos for each platform. Every now and then I would record one video and then, if I said TikTok in the video, I would record another take and then, if I said TikTok in the video, I would record another take where I said YouTube shorts, or another take where I'd say LinkedIn or whatever. But I didn't find that to be worth it. I found it to be way better bang for my buck, aka time to just not mention any specific platform as much as I could and then repurpose it across all the platforms, and it works.

Speaker 1: 11:29

Next thing is email newsletters. So email is one of those funny things that it just continues to be effective tactic. It really does. And people you know you can go on threads, you can go on LinkedIn, you can go on anything, and you'll find people saying that it's one way or the other Right and they're hooking you to get your attention saying that's no longer the meta, this is the meta. What you got to be doing is no longer this, you got to be doing that. Do that because if they can get you to do that, then you're buying into whatever it is that they're selling, right?

Speaker 1: 12:05

I try to not do that in my content. I think I do a pretty good job. I try to equip you with the tools for thinking really and, where I can like, share some of the tools I use. But I don't think you need to do things my way, unless I'm doing things for you through my company content clips. Like you do things that work for you, that's the way you should do them. So is email effective for you? I would say probably, but is email outdated? I mean, that's the extremes of social media. Yes and no, right. Is there a better way to do it? Is there a better way to do it? There's probably a better way to do everything right. Is it still effective? It can be. I use it. I love it.

Speaker 1: 12:58

I see people you know the people in my career that have made the most money spend a good amount of time on their email newsletters, on their email marketing, and they've done a great job at that. It helps everything else move along. It's been that way for years and years and years. Since I can remember, since I think I first learned about marketing when I was in high school and this was like 2005 or something, 2006 maybe. A guy I worked with when I was playing in bands was like every concert you do, you need to have a piece of paper and start collecting email addresses. I didn't listen to his advice whatsoever, but I remember his advice and I remember that he told me that because he was the first person to tell me that and it was really smart. And still to this day, here I am sharing. You know just last week about how great it is to grow your email list and your podcast at the same time. And people are still doing that and it's still proven to be effective. It's still a meta.

Speaker 1: 13:53

And then the last thing I want to note here not saying this is a complete list, but what I could share in the time allotted. The last thing I want to share is following your intuition. This one is a little bit, let's say, mystical, for lack of a better word, but a lot of people are out there trying to use AI to find the right topics for them to talk about. I'm guilty of this. I've done this because it seems easier if you can go to another source to find the thing that you need to talk about. But you know what to say. You know you are the source and the more you can lean into your source of intuition, examining the things that are going around you, the more people will want to tune into that.

Speaker 1: 14:36

Let me give you an example. You're like what should I talk about for my audience? And you start looking at all these sources. What are other people talking about? And you start looking at all these sources. What are other people talking about? What? If you just looked at what interests you and then figured out how to relay that to your audience in an interesting way, could be the move, kind of like how I'm relaying this whole idea to you. What's the meta To me? I think like where did the word meta come from? Most effective tactic available. And then I'm like that's intriguing to me because it's stuff I think about a lot, like what is the meta? And I want to share that with you because I think that you would find it helpful and useful, and I hope you did today.

Speaker 1: 15:20

You don't need to really list out all the metas if you're looking for homework from this episode, but I think you could start to identify, at least in your head, what are the most effective tactics available for you that you could be implementing to reach your goals.

Speaker 1: 15:37

And maybe again you're running into the problems of running outdated metas that either worked for you at one point but are no longer working, or you heard it from somebody and it seemed like a good idea at one time and it's just no longer the thing to be doing. And the problem of running too many metas maybe you've got like just too many going on. If we were referring back to the call of duty kind of topic you're trying to use too many like in call of duty you would level up these guns and they would get better like the more you would level them up. So you'd stick with one gun and then you make that gun the best it can be, and that takes some time. But you really are going to be taking a longer road if you try to level up multiple guns. I think it's kind of funny to use the Call of Duty analogy with what we're talking about, but it makes sense in my head. I hope you find that helpful and I'll talk to you in the next one.