Clearing up confusion about “content creation”

Some of what is contained in these books might be outdated, but some of it is likely still true and relevant. (Image by Gerhard)

I always have to take whatever I find on the Internet with a grain of salt.

Not because it’s wrong or unverified — although it often is. Rather, it’s that the Internet is so vast and so easily searchable that you can always find a specific instance of a particular thing you don’t like and don’t agree with.

It’s like those faux trend pieces in the Thursday edition of otherwise reputable papers where they find the three people who spent upwards of $20K on pet weddings during the pandemic and make it sound like it’s the next thing everyone’s doing.

But I came across a statement online that I do believe to be representative of a broader confusion. And it sums up what happens when you become so steeped in a particular worldview that you can’t see anything else.

This person said, “Content creator is now synonymous with entrepreneur.”

It is not.

Sure, I’m over here writing five blog posts and creating 21 short videos every week. But I am in no way confusing that with the actual running or launching of a business. It’s not even necessarily marketing.

Let’s get it straight: Content creation is only one aspect of marketing, marketing is only one aspect of running a business, and running a business is only one aspect of entrepreneurship.

My friend Anna is about to open a huge sports training complex in Atlanta next week. She’s not creating content of any kind. She’s not even writing emails right now. She’s completely focused on the construction and launch of this ambitious program and facility.

She’s got a team creating content for her company’s social media channels, but their marketing will also include advertising, events, a PR campaign, and so on.

This may seem obvious, so why am I putting all of this energy into rebutting a bizarre statement by a random person on the Internet?

Because this attitude has become so pervasive that even people who aren’t into social media are buying into the idea that any new project requires its creator to be the face of it, constantly showing up with fresh content. And it’s just not true.

Worse, aspiring business owners get the message that this is where you begin. To launch a business, you supposedly create tons and tons of free educational material, and then hope that someone, someday, buys your thing (a thing that may not even exist when you begin). That’s a recipe for failure and frustration (not to mention poverty).

It’s not that this way can’t work. It’s that it’s not the only way. I feel the need to shout this message from the rooftops as one of the old-timers who remembers what life was like before the Internet.

If you want to start your own business, you can do that without a lick of content creation. You could take advantage of advertising, phone calls, networking, or any number of other avenues for getting the word out about your products and services.

People make inane statements all the time, and the Internet allows more of them to be captured for posterity. My larger point is that if these people aren’t going to thoughtfully evaluate their own statements for veracity, the rest of us still can. And we can advocate for the truth and add nuance to the discussion.

Ironically, I appreciate it when people say or write ridiculous things because then we have a chance to identify and discuss these misconceptions. I’ll rarely confront someone directly unless it’s on my own turf, but I will come over here and bother you with it. Hopefully, in some small way, I’m contributing something useful.

You see, I may be a content creator, but fundamentally, I’m an educator. That’s what my “content” is for.

And by the way, while I may be both an educator and a content creator, those two terms are not synonymous.