My Content Journey

Let me start by saying that I am no expert. I do not have this all figured out and I am writing this based on my last 20 months in creating content and building my brand. 

I am someone who through trial and error only, have developed an understanding of speaking to an audience, and the importance of creating content geared towards value and education. 

 In March of 2020, I was faced with a scenario that I never dreamed possible. I was unemployed at the beginning of a global pandemic. I knew one thing at this time, that I needed to get on social media and become candidate number one everywhere.

 Starting with LinkedIn, I sent out a flurry of connection requests, while observing content in the transportation industry. Everything I was reading made freight brokerage sales seem easy, it made my industry seem cookie cutter. My instant thought was like most when they’re on social media, “clearly I was doing something wrong in my career!”

 Since this was not my experience, I started putting out content that was. I wasn’t going to hold back on my struggles, the mistakes I made (and still make!) and what happened over my decade long career as a freight broker. 

 I remember rewriting my first post what seemed like 100 times, because it had to be perfect! After feeling confident, I hit post. Let me tell you this, I went viral, everyone loved what I wrote, and my following was built over night! WRONG! It fell flat, I had two likes total. Not to be discouraged and listening to daily podcast by Gary Vee, I posted the next day, and the next, and the next. Same results, nothing, no engagement at all. 

 After 30 days of this, I created a post on my experience brokering heavy haul and over-dimensional freight. I received my first DM from someone saying they loved what I said, and asked if I could talk to one of their sales reps because they wanted to offer this as a service, but nobody had experience selling it in their company. I agreed immediately, mind you I was also 30 days without a job, and my initial thought was “maybe they will hire me!”

 Thankfully there was no job offer after that conversation, but the lightbulb went off that if this company needed help with training, who else did? So I filed my LLC and The Freight Coach was born! 

 After I continued with daily posts, and still receiving minimal engagement, I was listening to another podcast about the power of video. I thought that’s it, I am going to start recording myself talking about this. I bought a podcast starter kit and hit record. I knew this was going to be the ticket and the next viral superstar was blooming! WRONG AGAIN! I was putting out daily videos, plus I started a podcast as a way to help market my business, releasing a weekly episode. The reality was there was minimal traction and I was 6 months in. I am a man of faith, and I felt like I was being told to keep going, and that this is what I am supposed to be doing. 

 Fast forward to March of 2021, a full year into my content creation journey. I had released roughly 220 videos and was releasing two weekly podcasts. It was at that point that I finally had a post hit 100 comments. And as of April of 2021, I finally had a post viewed over 20,000 times on LinkedIn. 

 I remember the next day after my post hit 20,000 views, I knew this was the one that was going to send me to the next level. WRONG AGAIN! It fell flat, which was a stark drop from what I was used to. That is when things started to become clear: stop paying attention to the vanity metrics and focus on the message. 

 Create content, and keep putting your voice out there. My message is simple: just post and expect nothing in return, because value-based content that is geared towards helping others will gain traction in time if it’s high-quality. The word consistency is thrown out there a lot, and that is a big thing, but you can be consistently bad. You must adapt and not get discouraged when nobody likes your content at first. This takes time, and it is something that I am still learning every day. 

 Most people I speak with want to be a thought leader in their company or their industry. Remember this: to be a thought leader, you must be bold enough to use your voice!

 I am someone who will constantly be on the pursuit of improving my content. I also get discouraged at times, but what I won’t do is stop creating content. Content creation has emboldened me to be my true self, unapologetically Chris Jolly, which is a great feeling to have for the first time at 35 years old.

Chris Jolly AKA #The Freight Coach