There are certain characteristics we look for within certain groups of individuals when we’re striving to be like those individuals.
For example, if you want to be a teacher, then you would look to other teachers to see what actions they’ve taken, and better yet, what types of strengths they possess that have helped them get to where they are now.
When John first launched EOFire, I wasn’t sure how the format of the show was going to serve his audience, but he was determined to share the actions and strengths each of his guests possessed with his listeners. From his own experience, he knew they’d want to hear about this.
For me, I wondered, “are people going to want to hear the same questions over and over again?”
But what I did know was this:
- People like familiarity / consistency (plus, this helps people make things a part of their routine easily); and
- Having a catalogue of content we could draw from that would give us some type of “data” could be powerful.
While I didn’t know it at the time, John’s format was perhaps one of the best decisions he made in terms of us never – ever – running out of content to repurpose.
The power of repurposing content
Once I understood how to repurpose content in a powerful way for our audience, it was like a huge weight was lifted off my shoulders. But when I first started working with John, I had NO CLUE what I was doing. I didn’t understand how to repurpose content in a powerful way until I took my very first step towards learning.
Starting a blog?… Sure, it was something I had always dreamed of doing – but I didn’t know what it was supposed to look like, how it should be formatted, or what topics to actually write about.
One of the first recurring posts I ever wrote here on the blog was called the “Weekly Bonfire” (face palm).
I may not have known what to write about myself, but I knew there were a lot of other bloggers serving a similar audience we were, and they had some really great content. Maybe I could be the “hunter / gatherer” and bring together some of the best content from others, and then share that with our audience?
You can check out one of the first Weekly Bonfire posts I ever publish, which was on June 22, 2013; that was me taking my very first step towards understanding how to repurpose content in a powerful way for our audience.
Was it the only step I took?
Thankfully, no.
I continued the Weekly Bonfire for 3 whole months – 12 posts total – and this was while I was publishing on the blog daily (so all-in-all, I had plenty of content being published for a consistent amount of time to be able to look back and gauge my progress).
Towards the end of those 3 months, when I looked back and saw zero engagement, no social shares, and a ghost-town for a comments section, I knew the Weekly Bonfire wasn’t right for Fire Nation.
I was repurposing content, and it was great content… so what wasn’t working well for me?
- Maybe it wasn’t the “right type” of content?
- Was I not sharing my posts enough?
- Did it matter that it wasn’t our content (meaning from EOFire)?
- Perhaps my impatience was just wearing on me…
Right around the time I stopped doing the Weekly Bonfire posts, I also stopped posting on the blog daily. More on that here, but bottom line: what I was doing wasn’t working – it wasn’t getting me one step closer to being able to repurpose content in a powerful way.
How did I know?
I had checkpoints, review periods, and accountability that helped me see that what I was doing wasn’t working. I needed to figure out how to add value for our audience through the blog, and the Weekly Bonfire wasn’t doing that based on the feedback I was getting (or lack thereof).
Adding value for your audience
In August 2013, the EOFire podcast saw 419,741 downloads.
Clearly John’s format was working well, and so I decided to just borrow a page from his book.
I still didn’t quite know what exactly I was doing, but I knew I wasn’t giving up on the blog; it would gain traction and momentum, I just had to figure out how I could best add value for our audience through it.
So in early September, I teamed up with one of our virtual team members, JM, and I told her I wanted to know what every single guest who had been on the show up to that point had said when John asked them what their top business book recommendation was.
Thinking back to the reasons John created the show’s format the way he did (to be able to share the actions and strengths of successful entrepreneurs), and remembering that I had seen a few emails here and there from Fire Nation about them being able to see where there were commonalities among the guests’ responses to certain questions, I felt like this was it – this was the type of repurposing I should have been doing all along!
JM went to work, and within a couple of days she sent me an excel spreadsheet with every book that had been recommended on EOFire.
Once I had the data sorted, I determined what the Top 15 Business Books were, and I wrote a post about it – not a long one, not a clever one, not a fancy one.
The Top 15 Business Books Recommended by Today’s Top Entrepreneurs is my most popular post of all time; it published on September 12, 2013.
What sets successful individuals apart?
I’ve continued to publish similar roundups on the blog since with great success.
I finally understood how to repurpose content in a powerful way for our audience through understanding how to add value for our audience.
But back to the format John created for the show: it’s done much more than give us the opportunity to repurpose content in a powerful way for our audience; it’s also what helped John discover the #1 thing that sets successful individuals apart: their ability to set and accomplish goals.
Without EOFire’s format, I’m not sure John would have ever had that ah-ha moment, and without that ah-ha moment, perhaps The Freedom Journal never would have come to fruition.
Setting the “what if’s” aside, now we ALL know what it is that sets successful individuals apart, and knowledge is power – IF we choose to take action.
Bonus: Characteristics of successful individuals
I’ve barely skimmed the surface here in terms of what sets successful individuals apart; but in my defense, this post is about the #1 thing…
Still, I thought it would be fun to take a look at some of the characteristics (qualities and traits) we hear and see over and over and over here on EOFire – these are characteristics that almost every one of our guests possesses.
- Ability to embrace fear
- Accept that the outcome is unknown
- Know how to FOCUS
- Disciplined
- Willing to make sacrifices
- Know there will never be a perfect time to start
- Determined
- Aren’t afraid of failing; in fact, they aim to fail fast
- Tackle huge, overwhelming to-do’s by simply taking the first step
- Understand the importance of community & relationships
So, how many of these characteristics do you possess?
Of the ones you know you don’t possess, how can you start implementing small things in your daily routine that will help you start to pick up on some of these characteristics?
