✍️ How To Overcome Your Content-Fears

Hey there, 

Welcome to the first edition of The Content Canvas. 

The newsletter where we talk about everything Content Marketing, particularly for B2B companies.

I know most of you have zero clue on who I am or what I do - so allow me 12 seconds to introduce myself in a 3-bullet-humble-brag…

- I’m currently part of building the fastest-growing media company within the eCommerce space called Chew On This, which we’ve grown from 0 to a $2.4 million annual run rate in 6 months. Currently we’re sitting at 23,000 subs on our newsletter and +10 million monthly impressions across all media assets. 🚀

- I’m the person leading some of the most authoritative social profiles in the eCommerce industry, such as Ashvin Melwani and Ronak Shah, and also consulting a handful of SaaS companies on how to use content to drive demand. ✍️

- When I’m not actively building a media/content company, I either read about content or think about content. 💭

… and therefore - I’m now building this! 

The Content Canvas. 

The content canvas is my way of brain-dumping everything I learn & fuck up (mainly the latter), so you don’t have to make the same mistakes I make…

Now - enough of the chit-chat.

Let’s dive straight into the first newsletter issue; 

What the heck do I even have to say ??!

If you’re anything like me, you’ve tinkered with the idea of creating your own content, not once - but probably a few hundred times…

Should I start a TikTok page? 

Maybe a newsletter? 

What about Threads?

But right when you were about to jump… something clicked in your brain

**Insecurity steps in the room**

“What the heck do you even have to say?” 

“Why should people listen to you?” 

“What will you teach that can’t be found on the internet already?”

Trust me: I know this better than anyone else… 

As said, I’ve been building other people’s audiences to thousands and thousands of raving fans - without doing it or myself. 

… but then - I had two realizations.

And I want to share those realizations with you to give you the confidence you need to start building your media empire, too… 

Let’s go… 

A) An expert is not someone who is the best at their field but rather someone who is just a few steps ahead of others

Do you think I can teach the CEOs of VICE or Forbes anything about media? 

No.

Do you think I can teach Sam Parr from The Hustle anything about newsletters? 

No.

Quite the opposite, actually. 

But can I teach someone who’s either never built a newsletter or is just starting out? 

Probably, yes. 

And that’s the key takeaway I want you to take from this point. 

You are not writing to teach those ahead of you. 

You are writing to teach “yourself” 1-3 years ago. 

So, to answer the question of “What the heck do I even have to say?” - all you need to do is ask yourself, “If I could teach myself from 1-3 years ago something, what would I teach?” 

… and that’s what you create content around. 

So, to put it in the simplest terms possible, You helped yourself 1-3 years ago. That’s i

B) You don’t need to be an expert… full-stop

The second realization I had came after taking a course from Shaan Puri, where he talked about this concept of “curious beginner”.  

What is a curious beginner?

A curious beginner is someone who doesn’t have demonstrable expertise and experience within a subject but who is working towards that - and simply documenting what they are learning along the way. 

They are documenting their learnings

They are reporting industry stats

They are curating content from others. 

I’m a curious beginner. 

In fact - this whole newsletter is a culmination of stuff I learned from other places. 

I just gathered it, added my own thoughts, and then talked to you about it. 

… and you can do the same thing. 

Okay, but how??!

I want to make these newsletters as actionable as possible. 

I don’t want them to be all fluffy, puffy… 

Because quite frankly - if there’s no action, then you’ve just wasted your time on reading this newsletter. And I don’t want you to do that. 

So here’s a tactical guide to what you can do TODAY to start your online writing journey. 

1. Choose a communication medium (i.e text, video, audio) you feel comfortable with

   1. Are you good at being on camera? Are you good at writing? Are you good at talking?

   2. Choose that

2. Choose the platform that matches whatever you figured out above. 

   1. Video ⇒ Youtube, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn

   2. Audio ⇒ Podcast (Spotify, Apple Music, etc), and all of the platforms above - but just with image overlay, instead of your face

   3. Text ⇒ Twitter, Email, Newsletter, LinkedIn, Facebook, & Reddit. 

   4. PS: These are just examples - there are more platforms to choose from out there. 

3. Grab a notepad, a pen, and your calendar… and ask yourself

4. What would you wish someone had told you when you started your journey? 

   1. Note it down

5. What topics are you naturally curious about? 

   1. Note it down

6. What have you learnt recently (i.e. in the last 12 weeks)? 

   1. Note it down

   2. After doing this exercise - you should have a pretty big list of things you can talk about

7. Start writing. 

   1. Don’t overthink it. You’re not writing an academic paper for your teacher. You are writing a letter to your younger self. 

   2. Write as you speak

   3. Write in bullets (like here) 

   4. Write in short paragraphs

   5. Just get something down on paper. 

8. Hit publish

   1. Get feedback from the world by analyzing the performance of your content and then… 

   2. Internalize the feedback and then… 

   3. Get better (i.e. try again) 

9. Repeat

Thanks for reading along

That’s all I had for this week’s newsletter. 

I appreciate you for taking the time to read it! 

Please reply to this email if you have any feedback so I can improve the next one! 

Looking forward to seeing you again next week. 

Cheers! 

Shabir Nudrat