Hockeystack has The Flow. Lavender has LavenderLand. We've both bet the house on building out a very specific type of media company—a Netflix-style streaming service. And a common misconception is that the goal is to de-platform the audience from social media to that owned asset. But it's just that...A misconception. In this episode, we dive into the real reason we're building out a streaming service to house all of our content series.

Recorded in April 2023. We discuss how we created The Easy Mode Framework, how we ended up implementing it at Cognism (and being mentioned in Alice de Courcy's first book!), and how we were able to throw together a promising and fun side-gig.

Recorded in February 2023. We've finally arrived at the final part of The Easy Mode Framework: Iteration. In this short episode, we'll go over what to do at this stage of the framework, as well as which parts of the framework are one-time processes and which are repeatable steps.

In this episode, Todd and Obaid go over Part 7 of The Easy Mode Framework, Performance. There are six things you want to look at when trying to understand the performance of the content you're creating based on this framework. We'll speak in detail about seeing an increase in engagement from your ICP, questions/comments you can dive deeper on from your ICP, DMs/relationships with people from your ICP, collabs and podcast invites, tags in other conversations regarding the topic(s) you're...

In this episode of Cheat Codes, Todd & Obaid go over Part 6 of The Easy Mode Framework, Distribution. We go over the bad advice that is out there on this topic and then discuss a practical plan you can create and follow at your company to effectively distribute your content. 

In this episode of Cheat Codes, Obaid and Todd go over Part 5 of The Easy Mode Framework, Creation. Creation is broken down into 4 smaller parts: Substance & Delivery, Effort/Payoff, Substance & Delivery, and the Consumption Experience. Instead of this part of the framework going over how to create content (since you already know that), it goes over important things you should keep in mind when it comes to content creation. Check out this can't-miss episode and level up your content...

We're back with The Easy Mode Framework. In this episode, we're going over Part 4, Ideation. Once you go through the first 3 parts of this framework and run these processes at your company, you'll end up with a lot of information. What do you do with all that info? How do you take it and turn it into content? Through an ideation process we call The 4-Step Thought Process. Step 1 of this process is to grab a marketing objective or business goal. Step 2 is to list out all the content formats...

In the third part of the Easy Mode Framework, we discuss Strategy. This part is broken down into two sections: The 5 Prerequisites of Ideation & The Realm of Relevancy. The 5 Prerequisites of Ideation are Product, Narrative, Audience, Objectives, and Different Content Formats. The Realm of Relevancy is a map of your strategic narrative that serves as a bridge between your narrative and your topics (i.e. the actual content that your company creates). When you combine the Content Journey...

In the first episode of our Easy Mode Framework, we discussed Idea-Driven Content and the mindset shift it brings in order to answer the question, "how do you make good content?" In part two of the framework, we are covering what we call the Content Journey. Understanding the fundamentals of the content journey will help you answer the question, "what is the purpose of my content?" (hint: brand awareness is not a purpose) Here's how we map out the three main purposes of any good content: 1....

You've heard people say, "you need to make good content." But what does that really mean? Good content can be presented in a variety of different ways. So, how do you know if the content you're creating is "good" or not before it achieves its desired outcome? We have come up with a framework that takes you through 3 phases of creating "good content": Mindset shift, Strategy, and Content Execution. In this episode, we discuss the first part of the Easy Mode framework, which we call...

We broke our rule. We had ONE rule and it only took 15 episodes to break it: No guests, just unscripted conversations. Well, we broke the first part, but there was still absolutely no script or pre-conceived questions coming into this episode and the resulting learnings were pretty incredible. We broke our rule because we wanted to talk about building a media company in B2B and that conversation couldn't possibly be complete with the one and only "Mr. B2Beast", Will Aitken. We're talking How...

We're still in the very early stages of influencer marketing in B2B. Creators are emerging and building strong audiences that companies want to monetize. We also see B2B taking many of their playbooks from the B2C companies that have come before them. The only problem is that B2C companies have typically done a terrible job of executing when it comes to influencer marketing. And what could be considered "successful" won't work in B2B because they are generally direct response campaigns: -...

2022 is almost over, and many B2B companies have either transitioned to a buyer-centric, demand generation strategy, or want to. We're also now beginning to consider things like memorable experiences in marketing, creative concepts, substance and delivery, and more. However, though this is a welcome evolution of marketing and content creation, it shines a light on a major problem: We're trying to power 2022 marketing playbooks with 1990s sales engines.  How disappointing is it when the...

Short answer...Yes. This is a must-listen, so just hit play. Follow Obaid and Todd on LinkedIn. Want to talk marketing, find collaboration opportunities, get feedback on content before releasing it, and maybe join us for our weekly game night? Join the private Easy Mode Discord Community.

One of the hardest parts about creating content is imposter syndrome—Is this stupid? How will people react? You want to know the easiest way to avoid all that? Run with it all. Good ideas, bad ideas, do it all. There's only one way to find out what is going to stick and that is to experiment. If you don't, you'll end up creating the same thing as everyone else and blend in with the crowd.

We're not going to b******t you—creating content is hard. Especially if you're constantly creating memorable experiences. In this episode, we talk about the processes that have allowed us to put out high-quality, creative content on a daily basis without leading to burnout. And when burnout does happen, we talk about how you can get through it and avoid it in the future.

There's nothing wrong with blog posts. At least, not the format itself. The problem is how most marketers approach and use blog posts. In this episode, we dive deep into the state of blogging, why it has fallen out of favor with SaaS companies, where the problems stem from, how we can improve the quality of our blog content and more.

Getting buy-in to launch an employee advocacy program can be difficult. It's even harder to get people to go above and beyond their normal day-to-day roles to post content on platforms like LinkedIn and TikTok. In this episode, we talk about previous failures we've experienced launching these programs, how we would do it differently now, and a full framework you can use to successfully launch your employee advocacy program.

Generic content gets tons of engagement. It does so because anyone, no matter their expertise can relate to it. But should generic content play a role in your content strategy? Maybe. Maybe not. "Create content that stands out in a sea of sameness" "Make your marketing team a media company" "Humanize your content" All of these are common pieces of advice that we hear all the time and neither is inherently bad. In fact, at face value, they both sound like good advice. But they both share...

We've been told for the past decade that we need to be creating one piece of content and repurposing it across all channels. That may have worked in years past, but in an age where everyone is running that playbook, it's no longer enough to show up on all channels. You need to execute well on the channels that you play on. Repurposing no longer means reformatting a video or image for the proper dimension and reposting. You need to optimize the content itself for the platform.

Hypothetical question: If you had unlimited marketing budget, how would that change what your current strategy looks like? It's easy to brush off as a silly question, but the fact of the matter is, if you have an idea for something that could be done with unlimited budget, there's a version of that that can be done on a much smaller budget.  And the real question is, is that thing anywhere close to what you're currently doing? If the answer is "no", this episode is for you.  Join the Discord...

The question that marketers have feared for years: Yeah, but how are we going to promote the content? The old answer was: Step 1: Put it in an ebook Step 2: Send it to our email list Step 3: Create an ad that sends new people to a landing page so we can get them in a nurture sequence. Step 4: Repeats from step one until they hit a lead score and can be sent to sales. In this episode we talk about the new way, how to find a company where you can implement the new way, and how to approach the...

Most B2B communities are filled with people that had high hopes when they joined, but 20 minutes after signing up, they never come back. In this episode Todd and Obaid talk about building communities (or groups) that people make checking part of their daily routine.