The path of a Construction Content Creator Solo-cast

What up y'all I am back with another solo cast and this one's going to be a story about a friend, a good friend, creator, construction, professional. friend of ours. And if it's your first time here, welcome to the LnM Family. This story. Covers the progression. and maybe some of the, like the, the. Invisible details of what creators go through. When they're putting their idea out into the world. I felt like it was important to go through it because there's a ton of energy. Uh, there's a whole, and like this emerging community of creators. And what I mean by creators is people that are producing blogs and producing newsletters, producing podcasts, producing books. And all of them are in the construction industry. And it's not to say that it wasn't happening before. Um, but there seems to be a heavy uptick. There's like a spike going on. And it's exciting for me because. it's really counterintuitive, right? My, my mindset, I guess, years back was, you know, I come in, I install, I do my job. I go home, all that other stuff is just wishy, washy, garbage, like who has time to do that? but. The messages that are getting out there are helping people, helping people improve the experience that they're having at work. Um, to the amazing careers that are available in the industry. And, and helping the individual. You know, having finding a creative outlet. And nurturing and developing it is it's a special experience. It has been for me. And so I was listening to an interview of my buddy. and he kind of painted a picture of when he first started. So now he's got a really popular newsletter that continues to grow. He said he started like a couple, three years back with the blog. He wanted to write a blog. The intent was to monetize it. He got that bad boy going. Uh, dove into it. And if for whatever reason he had to put it on pause. So he stopped. The important thing there is that he paused, he put it back on the shelf and focused on the other things. And I know sometimes it might feel like you start a new idea and for whatever reason you got to stop. And then there's a little bit of shame or embarrassment about kicking it back again, because everybody says you gotta be consistent. Oh, my God. Consistency is the most important thing. No live in your life is the most important thing. So if you put something on pause, Uh, take a break and focus on other things going on in your life. You get two points from me, two points on the scoreboard for you.'cause you can always pick it back up. So then he got motivated and decided to pick it up again. And this time he did some research because he he's he's that type of guy. Right. He's not like me. We're just like, oh, that looks cool. Let me free. Let me go do the thing. He did some research in. And discovered that newsletters were a thing. and so he put the newsletter together and he has a super creative way. There's means everybody loves the means. There's some really good information. there's always a, you know, a takeaway at the end and some jokes in there. and that simple format, like just plain relaxed language sharing information, connecting people to resources and giving them a laugh. Has started a swell of, of, um, interest. In his weekly newsletter. Now what also happened along the way, right? Like, so he figured it out. He got his little formula. And I know that he didn't get a million subscribers day one. But he stuck to it. He started getting feedback. He started listening. People started responding and signing up. And so he stayed the course. I think that's another important point. There's a lot of times we want to veer off to the left and veer to the right and oh my God, it's It's not grabbing growing fast enough. maybe I'm wrong. Nobody likes my stuff, whatever. And I'm going to tell you, I feel like there's a theme that I've seen, especially in the people I know. If you're quitting and you haven't been at it for at least a year. And when I say been at it, I mean, on the one thing. And you're quitting because it's not growing or because you're not getting a response or because you're not getting feedback. You're quitting to Sue. Like you got to put a year in and expect crickets for the first year. Before you decide to make a dramatic change or just let it die. I like. I may be wrong. I also know that there's some people out there that have immediate instant success and that's, that's phenomenal. but. That's rare. So I want y'all to keep that in mind. And so what happens. It's happening for him and I get to see it and it happened for me. I started this podcast. And then I got introduced to live streaming and then I got introduced to book writing and you know, all these new things, learning how to edit video, learning how to transcribe video, learning, how to post on the different socials. Like all these other little skills start developing as a result of the first thing. So his first thing was the blog turned into his newsletter. Now he's got a podcast, the cm mentors podcast. Another important thing is the cm mentors podcast was a result of a connection and a relationship that he built from doing the damn thing. Like he started the newsletter. I don't know that it was his master plan to start a podcast. But he met somebody, they connected, they clicked and said, Hey, why don't we do this? And so it's something I want to point out in that when you put yourself out there and start sharing your voice, sharing your message. as, as authentically as you possibly can. You will attract the type of people that dig you. They can get down with you, you know? And in the collaboration that comes from that. It's totally unexpected and super, super powerful. Absolutely worth it. And now, like recently I'm a little jealous because he got into his gift game. Um, he creating these gifts or I don't know what you call, he's creating these little clips. That have an image and they have a little funny person make it a thing, and there's some texts in it. And that full went and got like a few million views on a handful of those things. And all of them are amazing. And they're like, so engaging that immediately people started copying them, which is good. Right? Like that's amazing. again, that was not his goal. His goal was to start this newsletter and it's T he developed some new skills. He put some stuff out there and he got uncomfortable. He took a risk. And the Versus responding in beautiful and amazing ways. I'm talking about Matt graves. He is the construction Yeti. He created the, uh, construction curiosities newsletter, the cm mentors. Podcast the construction, Yeti empire. Another thing that he's done. That really inspired me because I could really do better at that. He sharing his goals out loud with the world? You know, recently he had a post on the LinkedIn, Shout out that he had a goal to get 2000 subscribers to his newsletter. And he's just a few hundred short of hitting that 2000. And I think the LnM Family can help them break past that 2000 subscriber. Mark. I will definitely leave a link down in the show notes so that y'all can hit them up. Subscribe, check them out and tell you it's good stuff. He sent out the newsletter. Every Saturday in the morning, that way you're not being distracted at work, you can, you know, chill, drink your coffee and consume that content. the takeaways I got from listening to his interview and thinking about the creators that I know in my own path. in this and becoming a social media mogul. There's three big things. One. Is. Just do the damn work. Do it. Decide what you're going to do, do the thing. If you're gonna do it monthly, do it monthly. If you're gonna do it biweekly, do it by weekly. If you do it weekly, just do it weekly, polished on polished, whatever. Do the work, put the thing out there. And expect crickets for the first year. If you're, if you're having crickets, don't feel bad. It's not, you it's them. It'll come around the other point is. If you're going to do something, if you're going to start something new. That's going to be super visible. There's there's plenty of garbage out there. When I say garbage, I'm talking about like, self-serving crap. And so I think another secret key to successful creative projects. Is doing them in service to others. All right, the constructions, curiosities newsletter. Is to serve others. He's putting that out there. He's highlighting other professionals. He's highlighting other people in the industry. Other creators. So everything he's doing is to serve the community. And I think that's always one of the most important ingredients. For something that's going to be meaningful, long lasting and grow. And the last point is you gotta let people know you got to do the thing out loud, right? Like. He, and I connected through the LinkedIn because we noticed each other's content we connected and then we can help each other. Right. He's given me some cheat codes. I'll be. Um, I'll be leveraging here in the next month or so. and I've been able to bug the hell out of him about, Hey man, where are you at? What are you doing next? And. And so doing it out loud where other people can see inviting other people in so that they can speak into your life is really important. I know it's terrifying. But the yield is totally worth it. The return that you get for inviting people in is gigantic. You can't even equate it. Like it'll blow your mind. So give that one, a shout. And before we wrap up. I do have, uh, I'm going to do a little bit of doing it out loud, here, myself. I just launched a little experiment and it's titled visible leadership. It is an email course. It's free. And so you sign up, and you'll get five field exercises. Each of those field exercises is. Focus to give names to the faces that we walk past every day on the job site. You know, I've been able to travel the country and spend time on hundreds of projects. And there's always only a small handful of projects that stand out in terms of comradery. cleanliness, the way people treat each other, take care of each other. And the key difference is the way leadership. And when I say leadership, I mean, supervisors, general contractors, et cetera. Treat the craft workers. And when I see the way they treat them, I mean the way they engage in interact with them. And the key differences they do it one-on-one face to face. Yes, they have the big meetings and they like taking pictures of those and posting them. Of course. Uh, but. They take the time to get to know the people out on the job site. They take the time to get to know the people that are bringing, driving the lunch trucks onto the job site. And it is a transformative. Habit. And I realized that it is not a natural habit for everybody because there's only a few projects that ever really shine. And so. I decided to put this little email course together to help some people get their super simple stuff. I'm going to put the link down in the show notes, sign up. It's free. There's no cost to it. You'll get an email every couple of days you'll get a field assignment. And your task is to go do it. It's not that hard. You will be a little uncomfortable and I really want to hear how your experience goes. If you do sign up. Be cool. And we'll talk at you next time.