Hockeystack has The Flow. Lavender has LavenderLand. We've both bet the house on building out a very specific type of media company—a Netflix-style streaming service. And a common misconception is that the goal is to de-platform the audience from social media to that owned asset. But it's just that...A misconception. In this episode, we dive into the real reason we're building out a streaming service to house all of our content series.

Recorded in April 2023. We discuss how we created The Easy Mode Framework, how we ended up implementing it at Cognism (and being mentioned in Alice de Courcy's first book!), and how we were able to throw together a promising and fun side-gig.

Recorded in February 2023. We've finally arrived at the final part of The Easy Mode Framework: Iteration. In this short episode, we'll go over what to do at this stage of the framework, as well as which parts of the framework are one-time processes and which are repeatable steps.

In this episode, Todd and Obaid go over Part 7 of The Easy Mode Framework, Performance. There are six things you want to look at when trying to understand the performance of the content you're creating based on this framework. We'll speak in detail about seeing an increase in engagement from your ICP, questions/comments you can dive deeper on from your ICP, DMs/relationships with people from your ICP, collabs and podcast invites, tags in other conversations regarding the topic(s) you're building content on, and increase in follows from your ICP.

In this episode of Cheat Codes, Todd & Obaid go over Part 6 of The Easy Mode Framework, Distribution. We go over the bad advice that is out there on this topic and then discuss a practical plan you can create and follow at your company to effectively distribute your content. 

In this episode of Cheat Codes, Obaid and Todd go over Part 5 of The Easy Mode Framework, Creation. Creation is broken down into 4 smaller parts: Substance & Delivery, Effort/Payoff, Substance & Delivery, and the Consumption Experience. Instead of this part of the framework going over how to create content (since you already know that), it goes over important things you should keep in mind when it comes to content creation. Check out this can't-miss episode and level up your content game. 

We're back with The Easy Mode Framework. In this episode, we're going over Part 4, Ideation. Once you go through the first 3 parts of this framework and run these processes at your company, you'll end up with a lot of information. What do you do with all that info? How do you take it and turn it into content? Through an ideation process we call The 4-Step Thought Process. Step 1 of this process is to grab a marketing objective or business goal. Step 2 is to list out all the content formats you could potentially create to move closer to that goal. Step 3 is to determine the message you want to deliver. And Step 4 is to think of how you can turn this brand asset into a memorable experience for those reading, watching, or listening. Check out the full episode for a deep dive and breakdown of the 4-Step Thought Process, which is the Ideation part of The Easy Mode Framework.

In the third part of the Easy Mode Framework, we discuss Strategy. This part is broken down into two sections: The 5 Prerequisites of Ideation & The Realm of Relevancy. The 5 Prerequisites of Ideation are Product, Narrative, Audience, Objectives, and Different Content Formats. The Realm of Relevancy is a map of your strategic narrative that serves as a bridge between your narrative and your topics (i.e. the actual content that your company creates). When you combine the Content Journey you created in Part Two with the 5 Prerequisites you'll establish and the RoR you'll create in Part Three, you can create your Content Strategy. This is a must-listen episodes that sets new methodologies for many outdated content marketing beliefs. 

In the first episode of our Easy Mode Framework, we discussed Idea-Driven Content and the mindset shift it brings in order to answer the question, "how do you make good content?" In part two of the framework, we are covering what we call the Content Journey. Understanding the fundamentals of the content journey will help you answer the question, "what is the purpose of my content?" (hint: brand awareness is not a purpose) Here's how we map out the three main purposes of any good content: 1. Top-Down Strategic Narrative: Without a strategic narrative, the rest of your content will never reach its maximum potential. You'll always be a "me-too" brand if you don't have a unique POV on the market. This type of content is geared towards executive decision-makers and pushed down through the rest of the org. 2. Middle-out Implementation: Once you get buy-in at the narrative level, there's a level below that has to implement that change. This is your tactical how-to content that allows teams to be successful implementing your strategy. 3. Bottom-up Evangelism: This is where B2B gets to really step out of the boring stuff. This content takes your strategic, top-down narrative and adds in storytelling and entertainment value. The goal of this content is to target the end users of your product and evangelize them. This is the content that makes current users die-hard fans and turns non-users into aspiring users. This is where you win in established categories where products are more commoditized.

You've heard people say, "you need to make good content." But what does that really mean? Good content can be presented in a variety of different ways. So, how do you know if the content you're creating is "good" or not before it achieves its desired outcome? We have come up with a framework that takes you through 3 phases of creating "good content": Mindset shift, Strategy, and Content Execution. In this episode, we discuss the first part of the Easy Mode framework, which we call "Idea-Driven Content". This is the mindset shift you are going to have to make about content creation before you can ever think about the strategy behind it or how it will be executed. We break this mindset down into 3 types: Type 1 - Insightful substance, Type 2 - Insightful substance delivered in an interesting format, and Type 3 - Insightful substance, delivered in an interesting format, and built on an entertaining concept. Neither is better than another, but understanding how these types of content work together will set you up to move onto the next part of the framework, which is strategic implementation.