Episode Summary
Is being a thought leader and a subject matter expert the same? That is the question we ask every guest. Of course, opinions differ, but that makes the discussion even more exciting. Therefore, we’ll continue expanding on the topic. According to our guest today, a thought leader is an expert in their field that shares their experience with their specific community.
Chima Mmeje, the founder of Zenith Copy, is our guest on this episode of Notorious. Aside from discussing thought leadership, Chima shares her professional journey from working for a content mill to becoming an entrepreneur. She discusses the poverty mindset and how it influenced her approach to money today. Chima also explains how she creates content and why writing a brief is such a critical part of it.
Guest Profile
- Name: Chima Mmeje
- What She does: Chima is the founder of Zenith Copy.
- Company: Zenith Copy
- Noteworthy: Chima runs Freelance Coalition, a nonprofit that provides training, mentorship, and scholarships for BIPOC freelancers who need help upskilling and learning the business side of freelancing. She also created The 10x Topic Authority Course for freelance writers wanting to take their professional skills to the next level.
Key Insights
- Unlearning the poverty mindset is one of the most challenging things in my life. We thank Chima for sharing her story about how growing up in poverty has influenced how she approaches money today. It's one of those things people coming from similar backgrounds can relate to and find inspiration from, if they are still thinking that they can't do anything to change their financial state. Of course, we all have unique stories, but it's much easier when you know you are not an isolated case and that other people feel the way you do. ''When you start touching money, you have anxiety. When the money comes in — all of my siblings, who are doing well now — still struggle with this. You have this anxiety that it can be taken away from you. So because you have this anxiety, it doesn't allow you to enjoy the money or to live in the moment. And then you always feel like you have to justify. And because you feel like you always have to justify it, you end up undercharging. That took a lot of unlearning. It took a lot of seeing people claim what they say they deserve. That is what helped me. I would see all these people on the internet charging a lot of money for stuff that I was doing, and I ask myself, 'Why does this person get to charge this much, and I'm charging 50 or 100 dollars for content, and it's the same quality of content?''
- ’Niche down’ is one of the most valuable tips a writer can get. However, when they first enter the market, content creators try to attract as many clients as possible, accepting offers where they cannot show their full potential. For instance, writing about the industry you are unfamiliar with or are not interested in is challenging. But, of course, you can always learn about it and improve. The bottom line is you must believe and try to be a fan of a service or a product of a company you are writing for and the industry. Still, even when they are aware of this, most freelance writers are concerned with putting themselves in one box. ''It's scary because you think you're limiting yourself and letting go. What are the other fishes in the sea? But you are positioning yourself better to be seen by more people who need what you do.''
- Planning is a critical step in creating content that stands out. Still, when it comes to content writing, there's no such thing as one-size-fits-all. However, it is good to see and learn from seasoned writers and their success formulas. For instance, Chima is known for writing excellent briefs. In addition, she splits her process into a couple of segments. ''There's the first stage, which is the planning and the research. Then there's a second stage, which is the writing, and then there's a third stage, which is the optimization. So it all begins at the first stage, and I think that's where all the hard work goes. The rest is easy if you get it right at the first stage. The first stage is understanding what your goals are. Usually, bootstrapping SaaS founders want more traffic. They want to build authority; they want conversion.''
Episode Highlights
Thought Leadership Results From Consistency and Credibility
”When I think of thought leadership, we think of influencers. That’s on the basic level. That is the influencer we listen to and take more seriously than everyone else.
But if you go deep, thought leaders are people who share professional expertise with other people in the same field. You can have thought leaders in marketing. You can have thought leaders in paper making. You can have thought leaders in car making. You can have thought leaders in the sex industry.
A thought leader can be anywhere as long as they’re sharing unique expertise related to their field that answers questions better than everyone else, and doing it consistently. And it doesn’t have to be an individual. That’s another misconception we have — that thought leaders are individuals; they can also be companies.”
Advice for People Working at Content Mills But Looking for Better Career Opportunities
”The first thing you need to do is have a second income source. For me, that was the government job. It allowed me to scale because you can’t scale when you are hungry. People don’t understand that when you’re hungry, you will take what is in front of you because survival instinct kicks in.
Now, […] something I did was to leverage social media in the early days because you’re not going to get set ranking quickly. That takes time. That takes years. Then, as you’re building in public, share results. […] So that’s something I always do. I share the results.
Now, another thing is to find your niche quickly. I know it takes time. This is one of the toughest decisions we have to make as freelancers. But, the faster you can niche down and say, ‘This is what I want to do and for whom,’ the more quickly you can build authority.”
Content Is Content; It’s Not About What You Call It, But What You Want to Achieve With It
”Product-led content, SEO content, thought leadership content — they’re all content. […] They’re all interconnected. Product-led content can also be SEO content. Thought leadership content can also be SEO content. They are all the same.
You start to have a distinction when you try to play games and when you try to apply an underhanded method to create this content or when you have people who are outsourcing thought leadership content on social media to some random LinkedIn marketing agency.
That’s when you start to see all that rubbish content they’re creating on LinkedIn that nobody believes is true. Or when you start to see brands making up case studies because they want you to think that their product is good even though it’s shitty. All this exists as a case study, and everybody’s reading it on LinkedIn. Same thing with SEO content.
They can all have bad names. But content is content. They can all exist on your blog. You can still take that, break it down into granular subsections, and then use that to create social media content. So, feeding your blog across the three levels is also feeding your social media strategy, and that’s how you build holistic authority.”