If fear is the only thing stopping us from achieving our dreams, and we only fear what we don't understand, then the antidote to fear is knowledge. All we have to do is find out who has the knowledge that we need to conquer our fears and achieve our entrepreneurial dreams. My name is Callum Walker, and welcome to the podcast that will help you figure it out and conquer this lonely entrepreneurial journey.

Hey, everyone, and welcome to the podcast. It's really gray today. Really, really dark. And I must say, I do struggle when it is this dark, but there is light at the end of the tunnel and that light is in Portugal, Portugal. We are going to Portugal in a few weeks.

I can't wait. I genuinely can't wait. So I wanna talk to you today about something that's going on in my life at the moment, and it's around my content. And if you struggle with content specifically, this might help. Now I always kinda saw Instagram as a chore.

I really saw Instagram as a chore. I was constantly having to think about, like, what would my audience like, what would my audience connect with, what posts gonna hit, what's gonna work. And you know, would I would get it done but my god was it a grind? Like, I know I just I just kept coming against this resistance around putting content out there. And and I think off the back of that, what started to happen was that the world almost started to reflect that energy because I saw content as something that I needed to do.

I would say that the quality of that content really wasn't really wasn't that great. And then because of that, naturally, like my content got punished. And I had a bit of a realization when I was reading Gary Vaynerchuk's book, which was Day Trading Attention, where he spoke about Instagram content specifically, but just content in general. And he really kinda spoke about how most people get the algorithm wrong. They think that this algorithm is a robot where yes.

Okay. There are obviously robots at work. But the algorithm in terms of deciding whether your content is going to be pushed out in front of people is actually people. The algorithm is an audience and effectively if the algorithm is rejecting your content, what that actually means is that the audience is rejecting your content. And most of the time, that means that your content sucks.

Like, I've been there. Like, I've tried to fight against the algorithm. I've put a reel up. I've gone, yeah, that's pretty good. Only for it to be shown in front of a 100 people and get no engagement whatsoever.

And I've I've played the blame game and played the Instagram's just out to get me. What's the point? You're making all this effort. And then I actually asked myself the question. I said, making all of this effort.

Like, are you really making this effort? And also in terms of your effort, where are you actually directing your effort towards? Because if I actually looked at where my effort was being directed, it was being directed in a direction, obviously, being the direction of I wanna create content that will get engagement. Now it's really, really interesting because how do you create content that will get engagement? By creating engaging content.

And how do you create engaging content? Well, by creating content that you would engage in. And whenever my profile has really been like slow, whenever my content hasn't been hitting, whenever I felt like it's not really working. I've come back to center and I've asked myself a question like, is my profile a profile worth following? Would I actually follow that content?

Would I actually conceive it? Would I actually share that? Would I actually spend my time, energy, and effort to go to the lengths of actually consuming it? And most of the time, the answer's been no. And I I think that the reason why that has been has been because I've done the opposite of what Rick Rubin said that we need to do when it comes to our content.

And if we look at what Rick Rubin says, if you don't know who Rick Rubin is, he is one of the the the most successful music producers of all time. He's worked with I think the number of PB's worked with is ridiculous, like the red hot chili peppers, Adele. Like, just just just look him up. Now he wrote a book called The Creative Act, and I've also listened to him on multiple podcasts. And it's amazing what he really kinda shares where he says that with your content, I'm sorry, I'm running with your content.

He says, I'm not creating it for them. I'm creating it for me. And when I've revisited that properly, I've asked myself the question I've gone, am I trying to make an impression with my content or am I using my content as a form of expression? Now what does that mean? Impression is I'm trying to get a result out of a specific thing.

Expression is here is a truth. Here is a lesson. Here is something that I find important, and I'm going to share it. And he then says, you put it out there and leave it. What happens happens.

And again, I'm not a very religious person, but, you know, I I have a faith. I'm not really clear on what that faith is. It's kind of a almost like a mixture of Buddhism and stoicism. And even though stoicism isn't a faith, it's more of a philosophy and code of living. And I would also say that Buddhism is the same.

I have a code of a code of living, but I believe that there's something. And I've just referred to it as the gods, like the gods, just the easiest way for me to kind of connect with it, give it a label. But, you know, I've always kind of said that as long as I do my part and I control what I can control, I put everything else out there. Everything else is in the hands of the gods and the gods will reward the work that is worth rewarding. And that reward is through sharing it in front of people who need to hear it.

So if I almost kinda look at a very clear switch that has happened within me more recently, I have had a huge desire to want to create content, and the the desire has not come from I wanna create content to be Instagram famous. The desire has actually come from my business is in a very good financial place. I've got myself out of survival mode. I'm in a place where financially I can afford to do what I want within my life. Of course, I could definitely do more things, and I definitely would love to do more things and more money would allow me to do those things.

But for the lifestyle that makes me happy, content, and healthy physically, mentally, emotionally, money is it's there. And I've been searching for, you know, like, a a real form of expression. Like, I really feel like I have a a message not to share with people, but just something that has hooked me. Like, something has hooked me. Like, in in all of these areas within health and fitness, within philosophy, within personal development, within entrepreneurship, within marketing, within sales, within influence.

There's something that has hooked me and there's something that I'm obsessed with. And I'm obsessed with it because I'm obsessed with it and not for any other reason. I can't put a label on it. And if I look at my way that I've used Instagram as a way to get a message out there, I've used it solely through direct response marketing principles, which have been like the sole job is to get the sale. You put content together to get people to interact, to then put their hand up and then get the sale.

And that's been very exhausting. It's felt very hollow and, ran out of steam and ran out of steam consistently with that. Whereas if I actually look at where I'm at, the level of creativity that has come to me and the desire to express this creativity has become huge. I've wanted to create content, but I'm not creating content for impressions. I'm creating content because there's things that are making a difference in my psyche, things that are making a difference in my life, my relationships that I just want to share.

And not just that I want to share because I feel other people need to hear it, but I just have a huge desire to just want to share it and express it. It's the same with this podcast episode. I have no idea how many people are gonna listen to this. I have no idea how many people are gonna interact with it. Like, I have no idea, but I just have a pulsing desire to want to record a podcast episode.

Why? Because there's something inside of me that needs to come out. And and again, if you look at all of the great kind of like creatives, they've always said that they're just a vessel for creativity to flow through. And and I think that that is something that I feel I'm experiencing right now. And I think what's really kind of amazing is we went to Harry Potter World yesterday, and the level of detail of just pure artistic expression was incredible.

Like, there's literally just a full on universe and world that has just been completely created and come from somewhere and put them into the world. And we went to the Harry Potter studios, and we were there for about three hours. And both me and Alice were in absolute awe, absolute awe of just the level of artistic detail that was within it. It was incredible, and it was very inspiring. So, yeah, my my question to you is, you know, are you looking to impress with your content or are looking to express?

If I almost kinda look at, you know, a lesson for you, it would be, you know, use your content as a way to just share your message. Like, maybe even just trial out for the next thirty days. Forget about putting content together to try and get likes, to try and get engagement, to try and get clients. You just go and share what you feel is important. Go and share what people need to hear.

Go and share things that would genuinely help someone as opposed to try to hook someone. So if there's a mantra that you could take, go and help people instead of hooking people. Because the difference is that people when when you're hooking people, you're going after them. When you're helping people, they're coming towards you. And that's a very, very different relationship that's formed.

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