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  • #004 - Becoming a productivity god, Creating core brand pillars, and Overcoming burnout

#004 - Becoming a productivity god, Creating core brand pillars, and Overcoming burnout

Author

Fernando Cao Zheng
February 12, 2023

Hola amigos,

Welcome to the 4th issue of my newsletter.

This week wasn't as productive but I gained a lot of clarity with the steps I need to take to reach my goals.

Let me explain...

What went well?

This week I created and solidified my brand pillars which are writing and audience building.

I can talk about other things on my feed but these are my core branding pillars.

They are what I want my audience to know me for until I hit 10k+ followers at least...

The reason for this is niching down when you're small helps you to stand out. 

People usually follow you because of the education you're providing through your content (when they don't know you yet).

For example, Dakota Robertson posted 80% writing and marketing content until he reached 70k-100k followers.

Now he just posts whatever he wants.

Having core brand pillars allows me to target and address the pain points and desires that my audience has.

This will make then more inclined to follow me even if they don't know who I am yet.

Here's an example:

  • Under my writing pillar is the copywriting sub topic

  • What is the main desired outcome for my audience? To make money from writing

  • What is a problem preventing them from their desired outcome? They can't get people to read their writing

  • What can I talk about to help them solve this? How to generate ideas people care about

Another thing that went well for was the clarity I gained after having a call with Joey Justice.

Because of my time constraints, it's crucial that I make the deep work sessions during the week count.

My problems:

  • Feeling like I am splitting my focus on too many different ways and gets overwhelming sometimes

  • Feeling as though I don't make the most of my deep work sessions

What Joey suggested:

  • Write down the stuff that you’ve done each day - things that you would consider high leverage

  • Spend 20-30mins drafting threads/newsletters the evening before your deep work session

  • Use Freedom/Cold Turkey to avoid checking twitter on a work block

  • If you feel stuck, go for a walk without listening to anything

Lessons:

  • Niche down until you're big enough to talk about whatever you want

  • Keep track of the high leverage tasks tha completed each day

  • Draft threads the night before

What can I improve?

My follower growth plateaued this week and the only reason I grew was becasue of two auto-dms😂.

I feel like my tweets are lacking the sauce that I had in December and my threads are lacking the heat from January.

The main reason was because the threads I posted this week weren't great topics and were quite basic/niche.

On top of that, I only posted 2 threads instead of 5-6 threads a week I had posted the month before.

My tweets also don't hit as hard because I really haven't paid much attention into writing them like I did in December.

Another thing that didn't go too well (and why I had the call with Joey) was that I felt burnt out with all the commitments I had.

Splitting my attention multiple ways really messed with my focus and stress levels.

The solution? Month batching.

This means batching every action for one of my commitments all at once so I only ever focus on 1-3 things.

For example, instead of writing weekly content for my personal brand, I'll write out a month's worth of content over a weekend/week.

This way I can focus the rest of the month on my agency related tasks and have more breathing room to move.

Lessons:

  • Write threads where the big idea solves a major pain point

  • Write transformation threads that demonstrate authority in my niche

  • Repurpose and emulate my tweets from December

  • If you're overwhelmed, try out batching tasks over longer periods to focus on one thing at a time instead of doing many small tasks throughout the week

What I am focusing on this week

Next week, I'm going to write a month's worth of content for my personal brand. That's:

  • 60 tweets

  • 12 threads

  • 4 giveaways

Then, for the rest of the month, I will focus on all things agency related:

  • Setting up an LLC

  • Setting up a payment account

  • Setting up a business bank account

  • Drafting a contract for my prospect

  • Close him and receive payment

  • Delivering for the client

Things are moving quickly and I'm glad you're here for the ride.

I appreciate you taking the time to read this as always.

I hope it’s given you value in some way.

Let me know if you like the new format with lessons at the end or if you have any suggestions on how I can improve the newsletter.

I want to make it just as useful for you as it is for me writing this.

See ya next week.

Big love, Fernando

P.S. If you want more of my content, follow me on Twitter @thefernandocz (where I'm most active), or my podcast - The Fernando Cao Zheng Podcast. Links below:

If you’re a 6+ fig CEO or Founder and want help growing your personal brand and generating leads, fill out this form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe0CUdcj5Dh9H3QS-ibG-hnihx754ZL8x5hjcvOKwPm26oBEA/viewform