You listen to a podcast, watch a video, jump on a webinar and hear the person in charge say, “This content is going to be great!” or “This content is going to be extremely valuable.” You dive in and 5 minutes later you’re still being promised great content.
If it’s a live webinar you’ll be blitzed with social proof that the content is spectacular, but you’re wondering if these people are on the same webinar you’re on – ’cause you don’t think the content is all that great.
You visit the iTunes page for the podcast and see many comments giving it 5 stars and think to yourself, “It’s okay, but I sure wouldn’t call it GREAT.”
A blog post that promised great content garners 60 comments and hundreds of Tweets, but you think to yourself, “It was okay, but it wasn’t anything special.”
Does any of that sound remotely familiar? Sure, we’ve all experienced that. And still we feel the pressure to make our blog posts, our podcasts, our videos, our webinars, our e-books, or anything else we touch…GREAT. If it’s not great, then scrap it. Don’t even think of putting your name to anything that isn’t great.
Who am I to challenge such a truth? You’re right, nobody. But I’m still going to challenge it because it’s wrong – and too many people believe it. It’s not only impractical, it’s impossible. And since when are we so discriminating that we don’t read, watch or listen to sub-par content? We all do it daily! Is every TV show you watch stellar? Is every ball game great? Is every book you read spectacular? Is every magazine or news article great?
Then why are we supposed to believe the lie that all our content must be great? Because some popular blogger gained traction with a single post that got on Mashable and now he claims every blog post he writes is filled with high value content. And he’s quick to remind us that his writing instrument is filled with pure gold while ours is full of flat-black ink. He’s special and if you want to be special, well – you’ll have to step up your game and provide great content every single time.
The truth is, you need to create. Deadline or no deadline. Who cares? To those who claim you can’t produce great content under a deadline, tell that to one of any number of great columnists who’ve been doing it for decades. Tell that to countless novelists who were pressed to meet a publisher’s deadline. Tell that to the bands who had a label breathing down their neck to get into the studio and record. Tell that to the cartoonists who must meet daily deadlines with a clever drawing and caption. Tell it to the reporter who lives with deadlines all day long.
When you’re creating regularly, you’ll stumble onto greatness every now and then. I’m not a betting man, but if I were – I’d wager that you’ll create more greatness in the process of creating then you’ll ever create by waiting until you’ve got greatness to share. Being prolific shouldn’t be based on making sure every single creation is great.
P.S. If you need any proof that I’m right, just click here.