4 Content Creation Mistakes to Avoid At All Costs | 157

by raising hands, honestly, don't shame the devil. Tell the truth. Have you ever gotten excited about something new that you learned? Have you ever gotten some insight and, uh, acquired a lot of knowledge on some in depth strategies that you know, for sure are very valuable and then have those things, that information, that knowledge just sit dormant on a shelf. In your brain, because you never actually truly get to execute what you know how to do, or what you know about knowing how to do, I'm raising my hand, I've definitely been in that situation multiple times. Tell the truth, shade of the devil, if you have been there, just say me, But! I do not want that to happen with what you are doing, what you are trying to accomplish with amplifying your voice. Because if you do, all this will be worthless and then still, not the right people will know about what you have to offer to help them. So, what we're gonna do is go over some things to avoid so that that outcome does not happen, right? I'm gonna give you the four lethal mistakes you need to avoid when it comes to amplifying your voice. Here we go. four stakes you must avoid, which ones? Do you think we'll be on here? Right? I know you might be thinking probably like some comparison, some clarity issues, uh, actually doing it right. Executing. Right. And I'm pretty sure those are all accurate. In fact, all those are accurate. Anything that you're probably thinking of right now is right, but I'm going to try to cover some. Like four umbrella ones that all those things can fall under. And here's number one. Here's number one. This might surprise you. Imitation. Now, when I say imitation, what do I mean? Imitation means don't try to be someone you are not. Be. Your. Self. Now, there's nothing wrong with admiring individuals, right? You might admire T. D. Jakes. You might admire Sarah Jakes Roberts. You might admire Anita Phillips. You might admire Priscilla Shire. You might admire Darius Daniels. You might admire Tim Ross. All these different people, you might admire Dr. Oz or whoever it is. But you don't want to be them, right? And the thing is, it's in our subconscious half the time where we see somebody over and over again and we automatically think, okay, if I want to get the result that they get with their audience, I should do it like how they do it. And it's like, no, no, no, no, no, no. Because, one, it's going to feel really awkward for you trying to be them. And not only will it be awkward for you, it'll be very awkward for anybody watching you. Because they'll be able to tell, like Something about this is off. Like, this does not feel authentic. This is not, it feels like they're trying to put on some type of show, right? It won't feel natural because it isn't. Because you are not them. Now the three key areas that I know that we tend to try to imitate, which I don't want you to do, even though it is good to be inspired by some people. What are those three things? Style, cadence, and results. What do I mean by style? How they approach what they do. They have a certain tone. They have a certain voice. They have a certain swagger. They have a certain cadence when they speak, necessarily. Not necessarily the cadence that we're going to talk about next, but they might have a certain pattern of speech that is unique. to them. They might have certain sayings that are unique to them. It's okay to pick up some things here or there, add them to your arsenal, but you do not want to be who they are stylistically because that most likely is not your style. Now you might find some people who are closer to your style than others, but still. It's going to be very hard to do it how they do it because you are not them and they are not you. You have a unique style that you need to lean into just by being yourself. Number two, cadence. Now, when I say cadence, I don't mean pattern of speech. When I say cadence, I mean how often or what type of Content, they are putting out to the world when they amplify your voice, when they amplify their voice. So, some people might be releasing things every single day. And you're like, man, if I want to get what they're doing, maybe I should imitate that process and also release something with my voice every single day. And they're releasing something every single day of high quality. I mean, the edits and the background and the stage presence and all these things and the technology involved, like, man, how am I going to do that? So you try to do it. And usually it's a bootleg version of that because you cannot. Imitate everybody's cadence. What you don't see is that they've already been doing this for nine years. So they could do it way faster than you. They already have a budget that can incorporate all these resources. So they hired an editing team that, you know, is 22, 000 a month that they're able to pay because they have the resources to do so. You don't see all those things that go in there, but you go out looking like booboo the fool, because you're trying to do what they're doing. And it's a terrible version of what they're doing, like horrible. So don't do that. Don't try to imitate somebody's cadence just because you admire what they do. You have to find your own cadence. I describe this as finding the bare maximum. What is the highest quality that you could do at the highest quantity that you could do. And do nothing more and nothing less. What's the highest quality that you could do, the highest level of excellence that you can attain, at the highest frequency or at the highest volume you could possibly do. And push the limits, see how much you could go. But if it feels like too much, if you're getting burnt out, if you feel like this is okay, the quality of this work is decreasing because I'm tired or because I'm pushing a deadline, pull it back. Find your cadence. And you will be better off than trying to imitate somebody else's. And lastly, the results. Now, we're all, I know you're a smart individual, and you are not going to fool yourself into thinking, well, since they have a million followers, and blah blah blah, when they talk to people, I should have this many followers. You're not thinking that. But somehow deep in our subconscious, we are constantly doing the math. Well, if they're doing this and I have this many minus that, and if you carry the three and put the four under here, times the exponent of this, that means I should get about this many views when I go live. So, and we started doing these things, trying to calculate the results we get based off what we see other people do. And that could be very, very damaging because there's so many variables. That go into the results that they are attaining. And there's so many variables that go into the results that you will attain. It is, it does no one any good to compare results or even try to deduct results from the results that you see someone else having. So imitation is something that you want to avoid. Don't be who they are. Just be you. Number two, what is the next mistake you want to avoid? Ignorance. Don't, this is going to sound, this is going to sound kind of contradictory here, but I'm going to explain. Do what successful people do. I was like, Cleve, didn't you just say not to do. What other people are doing? No, I said, do not imitate what they're doing, but you do want to pay attention to what successful people are doing. It blows my mind. It literally blows my mind how many times people have come to me saying, Hey, Cleve, you know, I want to start a podcast. I'm like, Oh, that's great. That's great. You want to start a podcast? Okay. Well, what are some podcasts that you like to listen to? So I can know, you know, what type of vibe you're trying to go for whatever. Well, you know, I don't really listen to podcasts very often, but I want to start one. I'll explain. That, that does not make, how you, how do you know how to create and when in the space when you're not in the space? That's me. That's like me trying to say, like, I'm trying to be a chef. And it's like, well, I've never been in a kitchen, but I want to be a chef. It's like, how do you even know you want to be a chef if you don't cook? Like, if you don't at least watch Rachel Ray, like something like you got to be in this space. So be in the space you want to disrupt. Be in the space that you want to make change in. Be in the space that you want to influence so you have an idea of what people are doing that are winning. Do not be ignorant and even prideful by thinking that you can come into a space with no knowledge of what people are doing to win, and then win. You are completely disrespecting all the work that individual has done to get to where they are. Honestly. So don't be ignorant going into spaces, thinking that you will be able to do it without studying what successful people do not imitating, right? Because you're not going to be able to do how they things how they do it, but understanding the rationale behind what they're doing so that you can apply it to what you are doing. That's what I mean by do what successful people do. Do not be ignorant. Secondly, And this is prevalent among a lot of smart people. So I'm talking to you. When it comes to getting new information and learning new things, I teach this in the Vision, in the Build Your Vision Clarity course. You want to go through a AAA sequence. And that is acquire, accept, apply. Now we're usually great with acquiring information and knowledge. We love that part. Okay, I need to learn how to do this. I'm going to study this specific topic or whatever it is. But when it comes to accepting, okay, that this Is how to get the specific result that you were trying to attain when you start to get a little empty by is probably about 50 50 percent by that point, okay, they told me how to do it. But do I really think that will work for me? And we usually say, well, I understand that this worked for them, but they don't understand my situation. Like, I understand that they said to post on Twitter three times a day to get the result, but they don't understand that I'm actually in this industry and that won't work for me. And it's like, okay, I understand where you're coming from, but you are not that special. Unfortunately, I hate to break it to you. You're not that unique. Do what they say to do. I don't care if it's a three year old, if she knows how to play the piano and you don't listen to what she says. And then apply what she says. So you have to accept what she says. Then apply what she says. Actually do it. Actually do it. Do not try to accomplish something with any level of ignorance. Please. Now there's a fourth A that's not in the triple A sequence that a lot of people try to do. And I leave it out on purpose just so that people don't even try to get, get ambitious and try to skip to, to that part. Just leave it out. And that fourth A is adjust. Adjusting is fine because your situation is going to be nuanced. But don't try to adjust out of order. acquire first, acquire, accept, apply. Do the thing, then make adjustments based on the results that you get. And don't do it for just one time. Keep doing it until you have a good enough sample size so that you can actually make an educated decision on how to adjust. Do not be ignorant when it comes to amplifying your voice. You do not want to make that mistake. Now we all operate in ignorance to a degree because there's so many things that we don't know. But once you do know and do the work to know, apply what you know. Next one. It's another I. Isolation. You are not supposed to be doing this alone. The one time in the creation story where God says the very first time that he says something is not good. It's when he sees Adam alone, he says, it's not good for man to be alone. We were created to be in community. We were created to be with other people. If you try to do this by yourself, you have a very high chance of failing. You have a much higher chance of succeeding when you do it with good. Company. Now that doesn't mean that you surround yourself with just absolutely anybody. Not all people are created equal for what you're trying to accomplish. You got to surround yourself with like minded people, people, people that are pushing you toward the vision that you have people that help you amplify your voice, not keep you silent. Right. But you do not want to do this alone. That's really simple. It's not even that much that needs to be explained for that next thing. Inconsistency. And this is the last one. Do not stop speaking up about your message. Now, that does not mean you speak at every single chance you have the opportunity. That probably would not be wise. And sometimes you might be in a season where you have to come back. It might, you might be in a season where God is saying, Be still. But that does not mean that you stop doing the work. Even work can be done. In the quiet, right? You do not have to be super vocal. Amplifying your voice is not about being loud. Amplifying your voice is about having a message to tell and being able to tell it when it is necessary. The problem is, lots of us aren't clear on our message, lots of us aren't able to find the people, and lots of us aren't able to give them something once we find them. That's what this challenge is about. So I don't want you to think, oh, I gotta be loud all the time. I gotta be extra all the time. Everyone has to know who I am and what I'm doing. No. But the right people need to know who you are, at the right time, in the right space, so that you can make the world a better place and put a smile on God's face. So that's what I mean by don't stop speaking up. The only thing that can make you inconsistent, Consistency is not about how many times you fail, it's about how many times you get back up again. You can even be consistent in your inconsistency. I know there's probably been a time where you've fallen off. I know I've fallen off multiple times. About I get back up and honestly when we fall down and disappear and, and go into the Biss and go, MIA and we're, and we're not doing what we're supposed to be doing or what God has called us to do, and we come back, see, we think that people are like, oh, well, people are gonna think that people aren't thinking about you that much. And their eyes, they, they might probably even think, oh, well I just, I've been busy. I probably just missed them. You know that you disappeared for three months. But they don't even know, they're not paying attention to you. They do not care about you that much. Get back on the horse. People probably don't even notice. Keep going. Do not stop speaking up about your message. Consistency is key. If you want to amplify your voice more effectively, keep showing up no matter what. And when people can trust and depend on you, that's when your audience really starts to grow. That's when they start telling people about you, because they know that they can trust you, that you are dependable. I know for sure that I don't tell people about other people who I can't trust. If I don't know that they're going to deliver, if I don't know if they're going to be there, I don't share it. So consistency is super important. inconsistency is a lethal mistake that will deter you from amplifying your voice. Now, I kind of want to get into something real quick that, um, I know can pop up. And this is the, this is what I call the consistency conundrum. And I explained this in four quadrants, right? So. I'll start from the bottom left. Stagnation. The consistency conundrum or the consistency trap. The stagnation phase is when you want to do it so right and so well, that you end up doing nothing, Because you're trying to get it right, you're trying to make sure that your ducks are in a row, you're trying to make sure that you present yourself in a good light. And you do it to an extent that you end up producing very little to nothing. That is not how you remain consistent. That is how you I don't even know if you can consider it inconsistent because you never really get going, but that is not how you amplify your voice. For sure. The best way to amplify your voice and to get out of that stagnation stage and actually get your ducks in a row is actually by getting out there and swimming with the ducks. That's actually how you do it because the, the amount of progress that you make by getting your ducks in a row, thinking it out, working it in your mind, making sure that you're getting all your pieces in place. The amount of growth is about this. Okay, yeah, you might get a little, you might get things a little bit better together. You don't really figure out how to get good until you actually do the thing. Clarity comes from creativity. Clarity comes from creating. It will go from this to this. If you actually just begin, but here's the thing too. Sometimes we take that and run with it and go to the next extreme, which is the red quadrant regression. So the stagnation quadrant is black. The regression quadrant is red. Why is it red? Because I don't want you to do this. We go from, okay, I need to get it right. Ended up doing nothing to something is better than nothing. And we just make stuff. And that quantity level is high, but the quality level is low. So each axis has a degree and a, uh, a spectrum of intensity, right? On the Y axis, the vertical axis, it's a low quantity or low volume to high quantity or high volume. On the X axis or the horizontal axis, it is low quality to high quality. So the regression side. is low quality by high quantity. You do not want to make a lot of garbage. That is a regression stage. Because why? Because virality and excellence is viral. That's how virality works. Excellence goes viral. When something is astonishing, when something surpasses your expectations, you tell people about it. You share it. The sad part is, Mediocrity, or whatever you want to call it, less than mediocrity, is also viral in the wrong direction. Which means, not only am I not going to share it, I'm not even going to want to take part of it. You have lost my attention value. When it comes to amplifying your voice, the first transaction you are making with somebody is with their attention. When you abuse my attention with low quality, and a lot of it. I'm never giving that back to you again, or it'll be very difficult for me to trust you with my attention again. So you don't want to jump to the next thing out of stagnation, which is, well, something's better than nothing. Because that puts you in a regression stage, where now you are actually hurting your brand. So next one Is the yellow quadrant, which is progression. Now this is High quality and low quantity, high quality and low quantity. The reason why I was iffy about that is because of what I'm about to share with you next, but it's, it's what I referred to when I talked about the cadence and that is the bare maximum principle in the progression quadrant, you are producing. As much as you can at the highest level of excellence or quality that you can. So you want to produce the highest quantity you can at the highest quality you can. What does this look like? Okay, I will release a podcast episode, a YouTube video, a post on Instagram once a week. I can do that. I can be consistent with that. I can put out a good quality product that I am proud of with that. I could give it my best shot at that cadence. You know what? I actually think maybe I could bump this up. I think I could bump it up to maybe three times a week. So you go to three times a week and then you realize, ah, I feel like the quality might be declining a little bit. Cause these deadlines are kind of breathing on my neck a little bit too hard. I don't think I can make it that fast. Let me back it up to twice a week and you find out twice a week. is your bare maximum. That's where you could give the best presentation of yourself at the most frequent level, at the highest quantity. And that is a stage of progression because 52 weeks in a row of once a week is way better than 52 days in a row straight. And then not making anything for the rest of the year. Once a week for a whole year is way better than 52 days straight. And then nothing for the rest of the year. 100 percent every single time. This is not a sexy stage. This is not a sexy quadrant. This is progression. It takes time, it takes intentionality, it takes effort, it takes patience. But that is the space where the most results actually happen. Because this space leads to the last quadrant, the green one. The sensation quadrant. This is where you can do high quality. And high quantity. This stage, this quadrant, is where people usually go viral. And can maintain virality. It's when people blow up. Because they've figured out how to be extremely good at what they do. And they can do a lot of it. At scale. Now this either comes from them getting so good at what they do, that they can do it at a high level multiple times over rather easily. Because they've gotten that skill so sharp or because their progression phase has brought them resources that allows them to scale with a team or help. So they're able to make multiples of what they were doing before because now they're multiples of them working at it. But we usually don't see the progression stage. We just see the sensation. We just see the virality that we try to imitate it. And a lot of times when we try to imitate it, we either end up in the stagnation phase because you can't figure out how to get it like how they're doing it. Which makes sense, because you've never done it before. Or, you try to do it at a high level, and just like, well, something's better than nothing, I just gotta try. And you end up in the regression quadrant, because you're trying to be something that you are not yet. Rather, taking the progression route, I'm just gonna do the highest quality I can. at the highest frequency that I can. Highest quality at highest quantity. So this is the consistency conundrum. This is the consistency trap lots of people fall into. They think like any type of consistency is good. Not necessarily true. If you're consistently garbage, that is working against you. If you're consistently trying to get it perfect, that is definitely working against you because you're stagnated. But if you're consistently doing your best, at the highest quantity you can, you're going to progress. If you do it for long enough, you will become a sensation. That's how consistency actually works. Okay, just wanted to get that out of the way because I know that can be confusing sometimes. So, how can you avoid these things? I'm going to make it way easier for you to actually avoid them because it takes intentionality. If you just try or don't try to do it, you just kind of go about life, you will fall into these things. Anything that It's left to itself, by itself, over a period of time, will become less of itself. It's the law of entropy, right? Everything moves closer and closer toward chaos without intentionality. So the first thing you need is, of course, you know, I'm gonna say this cause this is my thing. Clarity. And it's not just cause it's my thing, it's cause it's true. Hehehe. You know it too. You need to be clear, right? You definitely want to be clear on what you're trying to do, what you're trying to accomplish, the mission, the sector, the sphere of influence that God has called you to. The second thing you're going to need is coaching. Why? Because coaching is able to make you aware of your blind spots. There's just some things that you don't know. Or there's some things that you do know that you have to be reminded of. That is what a coach is for. They can see the things that you can't see. It's hard to see the picture while in the frame. But someone outside of the frame could say, Hey, you just need to make this adjustment. That could change everything. Or they could remind you of, Hey, remember this is inside of you. You needed to actually just apply it. That could change everything. Coaching. It's so, so important and then community, community, right? You were not created to do this alone. Man, uh, God said is not good for man to be alone. You need other like minded people around you for accountability, for inspiration, for motivation, all these different things. I'm pretty sure I'm not 100 percent sure, but I'm pretty sure that if I had not found communities. That helped me grow. I might have given up and Vision for Newer School wouldn't even exist. To be quite honest. But I would see other people doing what they were called by God to do. And I would see of like, okay, if they can do it, I think that means I could do it. Or they see me. There's so many times that I, like, either I have done it to someone or someone has done it to me. It's like, hey, I realize you've been missing for a little while. What's going on? Are you okay? Life be happening. When you have people around you. I forgot the exact scripture, but it says, you know, a three quartered, uh, a three quarter strand or a three strand cord, whichever way that goes, is not easily broken, right? A brother is born for a time of adversity, which is actually a friend sticking closer than a brother. When someone falls, when one of them falls, They could be picked up. This is in the Bible. I paraphrase that. But this is in the Bible. You do not want to do it alone. You need community. And that is exactly why Vision Preneur School exists. That is the essence of exactly what we're doing here. Um, we want to get you clear. We want to provide you some coaching and we want to provide you community. And that is the crux of everything that we do. I mean, I'm just going to share my screen real quick here just to show you, you know, why we have created this space, the intentionality so that when you come across other people that you think might be a good fit for this, cause you're already in here, if you come across some people that might be a good fit for this. Or if you're not in it, right, and you're seeing or listening to this on the podcast, or on YouTube, or somehow somebody shares this video with you, what the intentionality behind Visionpreneur School actually is. This is a place for you if you are tired of being paralyzed by indecision or overwhelm. You know that you have been successful to some degree in the space that you are in presently. But you are not satisfied with where you presently are. You feel God has called you to do something else. To make an impact in somebody else's life with the gifts, talents, and skills that God has blessed you with. But! You're not crystal clear on how that's supposed to look, what that's supposed to be for you. And lots of times, you see other people doing it, you're trying to do it, and you're learning all these skills, and you're taking all these classes, and you're going to these masterclasses, and these webinars, and you're reading these books, and you're listening to these podcasts, and you're like, Okay, I understand conceptually how to do this, but actually doing it for me. It's challenging and you get overwhelmed or you just get paralyzed by not knowing what decision to make. There's community, this place, this platform, Visionpreneur School is geared and designed to help you work through that process because it is a journey and a process. This is why this is not a one and done type of thing. This is why it's an ongoing community. That's why it's never ends. You will learn in Visionpreneur School specifically how to clarify your vision And how to build a brand that has impact. One of the things that pains me the most is seeing individuals, primarily successful professionals who have dedicated their life to their work, ultimately have no exit strategy on how to actually do what they love and get paid. What they deserve and they feel hostage to their paycheck or hostage to their upcoming retirement pension or hostage to whatever the union says. When there should be absolutely no reason that's the case. They are a successful, learned professional. They know their stuff. They're good at what they do. They have some type of experience, expertise, or encounters that make them extremely valuable to society. But they cannot get clear on how to turn that into them doing something they love and also getting paid what they deserve through building a brand that has impact. That's what I want to help people with. That's what you're going to learn how to do in Visionpreneur School. Clarify your vision and build a brand that has impact. How do we go about doing this? We teach you through time tested formulas and methods and techniques to increase you in value. Your clarity. Clear is an acronym. We're going to help you get clear. We're going to help you develop your clarity for your vision. Leverage for your vision. What is leverage? That means same input, greater output. You'll be able to put the same amount of energy in and get a way exponentially greater output. Increase your engagement for your vision. Increase the audience you have for your vision and increase the revenue you generate for your vision or from your vision, clarity, leverage, engagement, audience, and revenue. You can do this by building an impactful brand by becoming what I call a visionpreneur. So it is our goal. It is our mission of build your vision LLC, which is the umbrella company, a parent company for visionpreneur school. To equip 100 million visionaries with the tools they need to eradicate internal confusion from their lives. Yes. 100 million. That's a big behind number. Is that even possible? Anything's possible with God, right? If I thought I could do it, that's not even a God dream. That's just a good dream. That the one thing I always tell people, like, how do I know, you know, what's a good idea or a God idea is like a good idea you won't want to let go of, but a God idea won't let go of you. You be trying to shake it and you can't. Good ideas come and go. You get good ideas all the time. But a God idea won't let go of you. If he's placing it in your heart, it is possible. Now how is this going to happen? I have no idea. God does not despise small beginnings. He loves to see the work begin. So we're starting at 100 million visionaries with the tools they need to eradicate internal confusion. Now, what is a vision entrepreneur? Exactly.'cause that is a made up term It's a combination of a visionary and an entrepreneur. But a vision entrepreneur is an individual who makes impacts and income with their ideas, insights, and influence. That's simply what it is. An individual who makes impact and income with their ideas, insights, and influence. You have ideas, you have insights, profound ones, prolific ones, and you have influence over the sector God has called you to. You just gotta figure out how to make impact and income with it. That is what a visionpreneur is. So, if you are interested in doing that, Become a member of the group. I hope this was helpful for you. I look forward to seeing you in the Visionpreneur School on one of our calls or in the community. keep building your vision every single day.