Maximizing Value in Content Creation: The 80/20 Rule and the Role of AI
Hello from an Arena in Belle River, watching my nephew play hockey!!!
Other than a few little things, taking the weekend off spending some time with family, from watching the Lions yesterday to hockey this weekend. That’s not going to stop me from sending this, though.
Enjoy!
The 80/20 Rule: Prioritize Value Over Pitch
When it comes to social media, the last thing you want to do is constantly pitch your audience. Everybody gets bombarded by ads nonstop online. So the last thing they want is another ad or another pitch to buy a product or a service. That’s why you should at least provide 80% of your content being value and only 20% of it being a pitch.
I would even go a step further and say 90% of your content should be providing value and 10% should be making an offer. Now, that’s not to say that using the “Hook, Story, Offer” Framework should be making an offer in every post. That “offer” can be a call to action to like, subscribe, share, and all of that, but provide more value to your audience than you do pitching and selling to them.
AI Is a Tool, Not a Replacement
AI is a tool, not something to do the work for you. One of the things I see a lot, is people copying and pasting and using AI chatbots or AI tools to completely do the work for them. Now I use a number of AI tools like VidIQ, Voicepal, which I’m using now to write these newsletters and blog post and so much more. I also use Notion AI, Claude is the chatbot that I like, as well as Gemini. But those are just tools to help guide me along.
For example, tools I use to input information and help me create content, I use Voicepal. This takes my voice, my words, cleans it up, taking the “ums” and “ahs” out, and then from there, I can store that somewhere in Notion. I could use Notion AI or I could use Claude to clean that up and make it work for whatever I need it to do, and then I could use other tools like MetriCool and use AI to help me schedule that out. Nowhere is AI doing the work for me. It’s just helping me along the way and making the work a little bit easier so I can save a significant amount of time.
If you want to know a little more about the system I use when it comes to AI Tools, check this YouTube Video Out.
Creating Content Is Easier Than You Think
When it comes to creating content, it reminds me of a conversation I had recently. My friend was in a slump, and they just couldn’t think of any new ideas. The first thing I asked them is how often do you scroll online? And of course, like all of us, we scroll quite a bit.
Do you scroll random videos that are meaningless, or do you scroll content that’s in your niche? For example, do I scroll and just look at funny videos and things that don’t add value to your life? For example, I go on either my business account or my Let’s Chat Tech Channel and scroll videos that I actually like and that have meaning to me, as well as things that I’m interested in or my audience is interested in.
What I told them, and it just blew their mind: I use my Second Brain to store information. (I use Notion, but you can use anything that works best for you to store your ideas and thoughts). When I’m scrolling, I take videos from TikTok, from Instagram Reels, from YouTube shorts, or even articles that I’m reading. Every time I pick up my phone and scroll or read something, I save everything that has interest to me and that I could use for content. I save that into an “Inbox” in my Second Brain so that I can sort later the next day and turn what I scrolled into content.
So as you’re scrolling, find a place to either take notes and save your videos, and use those ideas to create content.
This Week's Quote
"The first rule of any technology used in a business is that automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. The second is that automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency."
