Create crap for better content.

3 min read

// Go for no.

Around 10-12 years ago, I was gifted a really flimsy book - it was quite short and it was a cheap paperback. It was given to me by someone who had read it and really liked the premise of the book - it was titled ‘Go for No’ written by Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz.

It’s a really short sales book and tells the story of a salesperson who overcomes the fear of the word ‘No’ and instead of trying to avoid it in sales conversations, embraces it.

When he embraces the word ‘No’ and actively looks for it in sales conversations - something amazing happened.. because he was actively looking for the word ‘No’ - it raced through to the word he was actively looking for - YES.

We all strive to get that ‘YES’ in life - the deal being closed but in order to do it, we have to push through all the ‘NO’s.

// Creating can be hard.

Over the last 28 weeks, I’ve created 28 blogs - all original, all with my input and zero ChatGPT.

That can be hard, especially if the idea well has run dry or I’ve had a particularly difficult week but create I will continue to do.

I refuse to be beaten on this mission to build a newsletter for those who want to create something for themselves, a small exclusive group of people who refuse to give up on their first No.

But creating excellent content every week, that’s a different story.

I’ve created some serious crap - I’ve leaned into ‘lists’ to get me out of a hole (think ‘10 ways you can…) and I’ve recycled some old content from LinkedIn to push my storytelling muscle into next week.

But then again, I’ve created some incredible pieces of content which I’ve LOVED - and the feedback has been amazing.

My three most popular newsletters are below and honestly, I love what I’ve created;

// What about the other stuff?

But Matt, there are only three newsletters in your favourites? What about the other 25?

I’ll be honest, some are mediocre and some are total crap.

But as I’ve said in previous articles - I often have a paralysis over creating content because I want the perfect angle in my videos or the lighting has to be correct. The same goes for my newsletter articles, the writing has to be perfect otherwise what’s the point but just as it says in the book ‘Go for No’ - you have to push through the crap to get to the good stuff.

Just three weeks ago, I mentioned to Mark Masters (a good friend of The Clique) that I didn’t like the article I was releasing the next day - that article was all about Personal Branding and I felt that despite the article having a strong start, it tailed off towards the end and the idea just didn’t carry all the way through.

But that’s what we’re here for right?

To tell you how it is?

I’ve had other articles which I’ve refused to ‘pre-launch’ on social media because in my mind, they weren’t very good but that’s playing a very selfish game with my audience because everything is subjective.

// Lets talk percentages

So if I’ve created approximately 30 pieces of content and only 3 are any good, we’re talking a 10% return right?

For every 10 pieces of content, I feel like I create one decent piece - the same worked with my vlogs, for every 10 I recorded, one was stand out for me.

But the rest (90%) can’t be crap can it?

No.

The remainder has to be split between crap and content which I would deem as ‘ok’ - acceptable to release to my audience.

I would suggest that 30% of my work will be crap and the remaining 60% is ok to release.

But we all have to do it - we all have to strive to release as much crap as possible (in the nicest possible way) because without crap content, we can’t get through to the good stuff.

I fully expect my writing to improve which will mean that the 10% ratio will get better and maybe increase to 12-15% but without the crap, I’ll never know.

// In Summary

You have to stop worrying about the quality of your work for two reasons -