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In this episode of The Bathroom Break, hosts Daniel Murray from The Marketing Millennials and Jay Schwedelson from Do This Not That and Subjectline.com share their top strategies for overcoming writer’s block and generating fresh content ideas.

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Best Moments:

(01:20) Piggybacking Off Popular Posts: How to spark inspiration by building on trending social media content

(02:37) Testing Ideas in the Comments: Engaging with comments to gauge interest and refine your content ideas

(03:43) Providing Your Take on News and Trends: Monitoring the latest in marketing and offering unique perspectives

(04:27) Exploring New Content Formats: Finding inspiration beyond your industry to keep your content fresh

(07:21) Repurposing Core Ideas: Repackaging successful content in various formats to maximize its impact

(08:18) Daniel’s Tennis Strategy: A humorous take on how Daniel approaches both tennis and content creation with power, strategy, and a stoic demeanor

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Transcript
Daniel Murray:

Welcome to a new special series called the Bathroom break. That extra 10 minutes, you either have to listen to marketing tips or use the bathroom. Or both. But I don't recommend both. But that's your choice.

Jay Schwedelson:

This collab is going to be super fun.

We have Daniel Murray from the Marketing Millennials and me, Jay Schwedelson from the do this, not that podcast and subjectline.com each episode in the series, we are going to go over quick tips about different marketing topics. And if you want to be in the bathroom, fine, just don't tell us about it. Thanks for checking it out. We are back for the Bathroom break and I am here.

I'm Jay Schwedelson and I am with the legend Daniel Murray. So, Daniel, before we get started, everybody, Daniel's got a big night ahead of him. He's going to be in a tennis tournament. Are we nervous?

Are we going to win? What's the vibe?

Daniel Murray:

The nerves are high. Nerves are really high right now. I'm like shake sweating on this podcast. So everybody wish me luck. But this is my first tournament, first doubles.

My partner dropped out, the one that I had before. So I have a new partner. So wish me luck. And everybody who's not on this, Jay is wearing a Stay Rad hoodie.

So he's really repping his generation today.

Jay Schwedelson:

Well, this episode is going to be rad, tubular, gnarly. We're going to hang 10. It's going to be everything and more. So we're talking today about how to come up with content.

Sometimes we run into writer's block or content blocks. Like, I've said it all, I have nothing to say. But we're going to give you some secret hack ways to come up with content when you got nothing to say.

So, Daniel, you put out a tremendous amount of content. How do you come up with ideas for content?

Daniel Murray:

The best ideas that I come up with are picking off of people's posts on social and leaving my own comment. The reason I do this is because it's a great way to test ideas and see if it's getting engagement or not. And it's, it's very low risk.

It's very low barrier to entry. So what I look at is let's see who the.

Who has good ideas on the Internet and let's see if I can add on their ideas and see, oh, if I add on those ideas, do they get engagement? Do it not get engagement? And if they do get engagement or it sparks an idea for a post, I will take that comment and put it in an idea doc.

So I have an idea for my next post.

Jay Schwedelson:

So let me just say it back to what you do.

So you go on posts that you find interesting, then you go and you leave a comment and you're kind of being kind of like a little out there or trying to say something like interesting.

And then if that comment that you put on that post, you see that get lots of likes and lots of other comments or whatever, then you'll double down on that and turn it into a new content piece for your own posting.

Daniel Murray:

There's no such thing as an original idea there. The original idea is just taking two obsolete things and putting them together. That's what original ideas are.

Nobody's really saying that crazy of interesting things on the Internet. They're just saying it in either in a different way or in their opinion or. But it's taking two obsolete ideas.

So I like to piggy off of what other people are saying. If I'm running out of ideas and coming up with my spin on what they are saying, I think it's really.

Jay Schwedelson:

Useful to be able to look at what is emerging, what is the news in the marketing world and then having your take on that and your view on that. And there's a couple of sites and there's a couple of pages that I find a lot of good information on.

So one of the sites I think is incredible is socialmedia today.com they're constantly putting out the latest information about all the social platforms. So it's a great way to find content. One of my favorite pages to follow on LinkedIn is pretty little Marketer, Pretty Little Marketer.

Every week comes out with like the news stories you probably missed this week. And it's about all across marketing with really cool brands.

So finding these sources that are putting out what is happening and then you doing your spin on that. It is an endless supply of content ideas.

Daniel Murray:

You should go outside of your industry, your profession and go to.

What I do is follow the top meme accounts, top news counts on Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, see what they're posting because they're usually way ahead of the news cycle or on the newest meme or on the newest type of format or on the newest type of thing. And B2B is very slow at taking that. So if you could take something from those pages, those industries and move the.

Because a new piece of content doesn't even have to be written differently. It could be how you do that new piece of content. So it could be the format you do.

You could take One piece of content, make it a meme, an infographic, a video, a short form video, whatever you want. So seeing what's happening in different industries on sites that are ahead of time, Reddit and Twitter are two weeks before anything on the Internet.

So when you see it on Reddit or Twitter, it's lagging effect to Instagram, then it lags to LinkedIn. So if you can get ahead of it, you'll be ahead of the news cycle and relevant way quicker than your whoever else is creating content.

Jay Schwedelson:

My favorite Reddit is, there's Reddit pop culture. It is awesome because like you said, it is like real time crap. So that's where I get all my reality TV juice is flowing, which is great.

And then the other content thing that I love to do is sharing failures. Tell people, I tried this, it did not work, but now I'm trying this. Everybody takes such comfort in knowing that they're not alone in screwing up.

And you sharing what you're testing and trying. And of course if you get a couple winners, that's good too. But this real time sharing of whatever it is you're trying to do is great content.

Daniel Murray:

And one more thing I'll add is if you go look on the Internet at the best content creators out there, they are not really saying many different things, they're just saying the same thing in a different way or a different style, different format. Like sharing a failure, but sharing it still with the same premise of what they coming like. Jay could go say, I did this email campaign, it failed.

Here are my learnings. But it's still going back to what he believes in in email.

So if you can take just one or two or three principles of ideas and say it differently and say it different ways, you'll have millions of pieces of content that way instead of trying to think of new unique ideas all the time.

Jay Schwedelson:

Yeah, I mean that's literally Gary Vee's formula, right? He says like five things, but he just says them a hundred different ways and his content blows up.

All right, before we wrap up here, what is your tennis advice to humanity? I feel like you have some go to moves. Do you use like backspin on your second serve? Are you a guy that goes right to the net fast?

What are the Daniel Murray secret to tennis success?

Daniel Murray:

I don't know if it will work for everybody, the Daniel Murray secret to success. But I play with power and play big. I use my like height and size to my advantage. So I will try serve big, attack the net.

I'll try hit hard from the baseline.

Jay Schwedelson:

You intimidate people, though, before, like, do you go up and, like, try to, like, you know, you're really tall, like, walk up to them like, yo, bro, I'm gonna mess you up.

Daniel Murray:

No blank stare, no emotions. I just. No emotions. Yeah. Even when I played college football, like, I would destroy someone. No emotion. Wow. Didn't show any. Yeah, I don't.

I think sometimes it's that scarier to not be able. I think the worst thing you could do in anything is let someone into how you're feeling in. In sports.

So letting someone know, you're tired, you're angry, you're pumped, you're upset. If you show, those people can use it against you. But if you just stay at the same and hard to read, it's. It's like poker.

You just keep that blank stare at people like, oh, is this guy happy, sad, pissed? Even if he misses a serve, he's just goes to the next one. Blank stare.

Jay Schwedelson:

Listen, I want everyone to blow up Daniel's LinkedIn. Send him a message with the name SPD. Silent but deadly. Because that's.

Daniel Murray:

Oh, good. Before we. Before we end this podcast, Jay got a raving review from Amy Porterfield that said he has the best hair on the Internet. So please, if you.

If you go to his DM and say, your hair is amazing, where'd you get your haircut?

Jay Schwedelson:

Looks great.

Daniel Murray:

Do that to him. You'll love it.

Jay Schwedelson:

All right, we covered a lot on this one. All right, go follow marketing Millennials and do this, not that, podcast. You all are awesome. And go use the bathroom. See you at the next one. Daniel.

Come on, man. I gotta get back to work. Get out of there. All right, while he's still in there. This is Jay. Check out my podcast, do this, not that, for Marketers.

Each week we share really quick tips on stuff that can improve your marketing and hope you give it a try. Oh, here's Daniel. He's finally out.

Daniel Murray:

Back from my bathroom break. This is Daniel. Go follow the Market Millennials podcast, but also tune into the series. It's once a week. The Bathroom Break.

We talk about marketing tips that we just spew out, and it could be anything from email subject line to any marketing tips in the world. We'll talk about it. Just give us a. A shout on LinkedIn and tell us what you want to hear. Peace out.

Jay Schwedelson:

Later.