← Good Content with Shannon McKinstrie
Good Content with Shannon McKinstrie
You Want Your Content to Fit Your Life, Not Become Your Life
00:11:30
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Foreign. I am your host, Shannon McKinstry. Welcome to Good Content, the podcast where I remove the never ending content creation, guesswork and overwhelm so that you can actually enjoy being on social media again and growing your business with what has always worked. Good Content. All right, so this episode is a special one. It's the last episode of the year of 2025 and we've grown a lot together this year and I love it. And I've, I mean, the feedback on this podcast has just been incredible. So I want to be sure I leave you guys with some quick wins today as a thank you, but also want to have like kind of a just overall how to approach social media because I think we lost our way years ago and I've talked about this a lot, but I think I've been reflecting a lot on why content feels so draining to people. And I love telling people to think back on when you posted content, quote, unquote, to Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, what it was, any, you know, MySpace, my gosh, for my OGs. And think about that was creating content. You didn't call it content, but it was. And when you think about it, you just documented your life. If, if again, if you posted before you had a business, right, or before you were building a brand online, you were posting, you're posting pictures of your pets, your family, your lattes, your trips, or maybe your day to day. And I doubt you overthought it then, or maybe you did a little bit, right? I always overthought my captions a little bit, but not to the point that I was stressed dressing or having heart palpitations or anxiety, which a lot of you guys get. And I get it because the stakes feel so high and the pressure feels so much. And what I want to say to that is, and I wrote it down so I wouldn't forget, is that your content needs to support your life and your lifestyle and not replace it. And I wrote a thing on threads the other day saying, like, you know, do you think the successful content creators are out there wondering what to post? No. They're literally living their life and creating content around it. And I did a reel probably a couple years ago saying, you know, one of the best content creation hacks is suggest, not force your content, but record what you're already doing in your life and turning that into content. And that's been content creation since, honestly, the beginning. Now, a lot of you, probably half of you listening to this podcast are thinking, but Shannon, I'm a company or I'm A brand or I'm a team, I'm not a single individual. Same applies. I talk about it a lot with my four H's. The happenings category, obviously we want to create content that's helpful and makes people feel heard and seen and laugh and feel entertained and all that. But a lot of the magic of social media, that's probably the post that's actually going to change your life is one of two things likely what I see. It's usually something that. Where someone says something that their audience is too afraid to say or maybe hasn't conceptualized it yet. You know, it's something that, like, they're like, oh my gosh, that's my thoughts. You are my inner monologue. That type of content leads to immediate crazy growth or something on a journey. The happening side, I mean, yes, your helpful content can blow up, your humorous content can blow up, but the content I see that really, truly blows people up is that herd content, which is usually, like I said, a hot take, a pep talk, something that your audience is too afraid to say or something that they haven't really thought of in that way and are like, yep, you nailed it, so that you set it for them. Or B, the happenings, which is behind the scenes, your journey. Right. People love to follow people's journey. So when I say your content shouldn't take over your life, it should reflect your life. That's what I mean. Now, does that mean you need to throw out your content strategy? No. But again, use stories to make sure you're documenting your everyday life. There could be something that you're doing in your everyday life or a new little mini journey you're on that they'll connect with. You could even turn that into a series. Again, I think gone are the days of where we're only following you for your niche. We're more so following content creators for their shtick, if you will. Right. Their personality, the thing that makes them them. Right. So what does that look like if you're a food brand or a candle brand or a maker or a lawyer? It's just the personality of the company. Like I always say, even products need a personality. I have a whole episode on that, which I'll make sure is in the show notes. But, you know, we're like, poppy has a personality. Wendy's has a personality. Even I know I've talked about before, like when the NFL is commenting back to people, that's one of their many social media managers. Creating a personality around the brand that is represents a whole bunch of brands. The more you can make your content feel personable, the more that you can talk like a person and not a brand, the better you're going to do in 2026. So. So if you have said to yourself, I want my content to fit my life, not become my whole life, then this episode is for you. Because even content creators, I mean, I would hope full time content creators would still tell you they have a life, right? Because what they're documenting is what they do. They're documenting their routines, they're documenting where they're going, their travel, their habits. Right? All that. Now, of course, with products, it's a little different, but you are still selling a lifestyle with your product. You're selling what someone's life looks like with your product. Service providers, too. What does their life look like when they hire you to coach them? What does their life look like when they hire you to organize their home, Whatever it is. Okay, so again, what does that look like? Let's just go to the source, shall we? So here's a humor one, right? Let's go through a few funny viral reels and I'll show you the difference. One says, this coffee tastes a lot. Like everything in this house is getting thrown away today. Hilarious. So basically, anyone who's been overstimulated by all the Christmas decor or the holiday decor, they're ready to throw a thing out, is going to relate to that, share it, save it. Probably check out that creator's account and see if they relate to the creator or if the creator is someone who they're trying to become. Right? Like, again, let's say you share really cool tips on how to tidy your home or how to get out of debt, right? They're gonna. They're gonna follow you. Cause they're like, oh, yep, that's a really funny reel. Oh, let me check her out. Or let me check him out. And then they go to your account, they're like, oh, yep, I need that account. My life. Boom, done. All right, so that's a humorous example. Okay. But again, even that is something that some people might have thought in their brain but not been able to communicate it. And then they see it, they share it with their friends, they share on their stories. You're saying something that is that herd. Even though it's humor, it's also kind of heard in a way, right? Ooh, found a good one. Here we go. Saying what people want to say, but might be too scared to say it or might not have realized it's what's happening. It's Flipping something on its head, right, that says Merry Christmas to everyone except coaches without mental health degrees who are charging money to do trauma work. Right? What happens to that? They said something that other people in his field probably want to say. It's got almost 2,000 shares. So there you go. Over 600 reposts, 11,000 likes. Okay, and now again, when I talk about the per the. Now here we go to helpful, right? We just had humorous, we've had heard and we've had helpful all within like two minutes of me scrolling of all viral reels. Here's a helpful one. This is my small starter home. I learned to use power tools so I could maximize every inch of space as I became A mom of three kids. Over 15,000 likes. Almost a thousand shares. Again, helpful. And right away. What did she do? She's building content around her life. She's already done it. She is creating content from a lived experience that she's currently in. And I've talked about this all year long. Sharing from your lived experience, whether you're a therapist, a lawyer, money coach, gym owner, baker, social media manager, career coach. I mean, speak from your lived experience. This is my process, this is my system, this is my go to blank. This is what I buy every week. This is what I eat in a day. Right? Lived experience. And this is what I mean by if you don't want content creation to take over your life, make it part of your life. It should fit into your life in 2026. And if it doesn't, it's going to feel really, really hard. That's why I share content about making content. Because that's what I'm passionate about and that's what I help people with all day long. I enjoy it, so I talk about it and I document it. That's why I'm able to create content for several platforms in less than an hour a day, and sometimes even less than that. Cause I repurpose so much, something does well, a reel does well, I turn it into a carousel and vice versa. Right? Okay. So that's a version of helpful of showing how this is in that person's life. And these are all reels and carousels that probably did not take too long. Cause it's already in their camera roll, it's already in their brain. They've said it out loud, they've said it to clients, they've said it to friends. And now it's time for you to share it with the world. And look at that, the next one happenings. But what's great about this one guys, it's that it's a mix of happenings and helpful. So what it is is the video is behind the scenes and it's a natural happening in her life of her. She is a etiquette coach looks like for and she's teaching a class of children and all it is is a clip of her teaching it. So there you go. Lived. Oh my gosh, you guys, this episode's so good. I love when like what I'm teaching is happening as I scroll. Do you know what I mean? And it says one polite habit for children to practice at the end of every meal. So it's educational slash helpful. But the video is straight up from her lived experience. Someone shot this 10 second video. Let's see actually how long is it? 17 second video viral for her. And all it is is her literally talking to the children and doing this in real life. So there you go. And again, let's just end on a funny one. Turns out 99% of veggies I hated growing up are actually delicious roasted. It's just that anything is gross if you steam it and serve it un mushy and unseasoned. So again, perfect example of saying something that's not. It doesn't always have to be controversial. I think people think when I say like say something people haven't said before. Sure, say it. Say things that they're scared to say, that's obviously going to do well. But in this instance it's just something that maybe I've thought of that but I've never actually said it. You know when like you go to a comedy show and they say something and you're like, oh my gosh, that happens all the time. I relate. So things like that, this is what I mean. That probably took that crater five minutes to make all of these. Probably the carousel that the woman made about her home probably took a little longer. Cuz carousels I do find are a little bit longer. But still at the end of the day it didn't take all day. Cause she's not creating from scratch. None of these people are creating from scratch. And let me find one more. Here's the perfect example of saying something controversial that people can see themselves in and agree with and might not. Or they want to say it but they're not sure how to say it. And he said it perfectly. He his account. Let's see what his account is. It's called Boring Friends. And basically he's going off about, hey, this is that time of year that billionaires want to want you to buy from them. Why don't you support some smaller businesses? So what's going to happen with this, with this reel? He is saying it all. He's saying things that small business owners wish they could say but might be too scared to say, or again, might not have the time to say because they're so busy with their business. That is what I mean. That is the content that's going to blow up your account. Make people feel heard, give them a laugh, give them something helpful. But most of all, take them behind the scenes and show who you are and the people you are and the core values you have. And I keep saying it over and over, but there you go. Those are some quick wins. If you can go through those reels and those carousels and find something that you can then tailor to yourself. Right. We don't copy over here, but we can see what works and tailor it to our own niche. And there you go. Show something behind the scenes. Take us through your lived experience. Share a hot take or opinion or something that you think they'd want to say and they can't say or they haven't thought to say it. You're one post away from absolutely killing it in 2026, and I'm here to guide you every step of the way. I love you, friend. Happy New Year. Talk to you next year.