How to Create Great Content: Introducing the “EPICK” Framework

How to Stand Out

Today you might be thinking to yourself, “Well, how do I grow my business and stand out in this crowded marketplace? Do I even have a voice? Why does somebody want to hear from me when they’ve read all these other diets and learned from all these other experts? I’m nothing special. I don’t have anything unique.”

First of all, I want to STOP you right there. I’m going to turn off that little negative voice in your head.

Here’s the thing – and I firmly believe this. Every single one of us has a book inside of us!

You have a unique story, perspective, experience, and education that nobody else possesses.

Let me give you an example from my life.

There Is Only One You

When I grew up I had a lot of health issues – digestive problems, eczema, asthma, and really low energy. And then when I was seventeen, I lost all of my hair in the space of two months to an autoimmune condition called alopecia.

Now why did all that happen? Well, basically I was eating garbage food for most of my life up until that point. Finally my body said, “Hey, wake up.” That’s when I kind of figured things out.

But that was just part of my story. I was also able to pursue a career in a professional soccer, which I did for a number of years. I also had an educational background in kinesiology and holistic nutrition.

What ended up happening over that period of time is that I started to piece all these different things together – things which are very unique to me.

Then, I was able to work as a strength and conditioning coach at one of the top universities in the world for seven years with the men’s soccer program.

Again, that gives me a very unique perspective and opportunity to work with athletes, and also lets me take what I’ve learned and apply it to the everyday person.

What I’m trying to say here is that you have a unique journey – just like I have a unique journey – that allows you to position yourself in a way that nobody else can.

I don’t know anyone else who:

1. has alopecia
2. played pro soccer
3. worked as a strength coach
4. is a New York Times bestselling author and
5. has helped half a million people over the past ten years.

That is the progression of my story so far.

What I’m saying here is that you want to use whatever it is to your advantage, your health issues, your health journey.

Someone Needs You

What I love about being a health and fitness EDUCATOR, is that we all have come into this field because we’ve all dealt with our own health issues.

That’s awesome because we’re all in this to do good for others.

That’s why I love helping people like yourself because you deserve to get your message out to more people.

Understand that you have a gift that people need to hear about. Not sharing that gift is actually selfish because there might be one person or maybe 1,000 or 1,000,000 people who need to hear it from you.

And yes,  sometimes might be talking about the same things as other health experts. But there are people who need to hear those things from you – and ONLY you – with your unique perspective and voice.

One of the ways to get that perspective and voice out into the world is through online content.

How to Create Great Content

Content, as I’ve mentioned previously, is the future of online business.

If you’re not producing content, how exactly are you adding value to your marketplace? How are you supposed to teach your audience what they need to know and help solve their problems? How are you supposed to build a relationship with them so they can do business with you?

Content is the key.

Here, I’m going to walk you through my five-step EPICK framework. And yes, EPICK is an acronym for this system, which applies to video, written content, audio, or any means of communication.

This framework needs to be applied because otherwise what you’ll create is just another  piece of content that gets brushed under the table.

You need to stand out with quality information.

EPICK Content Framework

E – Educational and Entertaining

Now I don’t think my videos or articles are boring. They’re highly educational. But they’re also not super comedic, right? I’m not going to crack jokes and go all Louis C.K., but I’m also not reading anything off a teleprompter – I speak off the cuff.

I’ve actually filmed videos where my nose started running midway through the video and that’s at least pseudo-entertaining. Right?

But that’s me. It doesn’t have to be you.

You don’t have to do things that are outrageous; be yourself, but don’t be boring. Don’t be like, “Today we’re going to talk about how to lose weight” and then present completely factual information in a deadpan voice.

And if that IS you and your personality, that’s fine – just focus on writing. The entertaining piece usually applies more to audio and video.

Unless you’re an amazing writer, it’s a little bit more challenging to be entertaining through the written word. However, you can still use your “voice” to create more personality as you write.

So remember, help people by actually helping them with educational content. That’s why people search on Google and YouTube – they want to watch and learn new things.  They want solutions to their problems.

P – Proof

Back up your claims with proof.

For instance, say you claim, “Many studies show that women who restrict carbohydrate consumption depress their thyroid function.”

Yes, that’s a great statement. But where’s the proof? Back it up with scientific research. If you’re making claims, show validation for them.

What that does is it makes the reader believe and trust you.

It’s very important to back up claims with scientific research from sources such as PubMed, Google Scholar, and other scholarly publications.

Proof is massively important. Find some statistics or reputable organizations who’ve done research, or cite from peer-reviewed journals. Support your claims. It will build trust.

I – Insightful

People are going to come to you because of your insights, perspectives, and experience. That’s all part of your uniqueness.

You want to use your difference to make a difference. The I is going to help you do that. You have a specific insight on the topic at hand.

Let me give you an example: I don’t believe that working out harder is a smart idea.

Now why is that? Yes, that’s a statement that a lot of people make, but let me share my unique insight with you.

As a former pro soccer player, I noticed that most pro athletes don’t last beyond the age of 35. Why is that? Well because their body simply breaks down from all the wear-and-tear of years of high-intensity training. The body can’t handle that.

That is an insight from my personal experience.

Now if somebody else were to say that, unless they had the personal experience, they’re most likely not going to have the same level of credibility.

Maybe they won’t have that insight because they didn’t even think of it because they didn’t experience it. Maybe they will have a completely different insight.

This goes back to you, and your experiences, perspectives and life’s journey.

Again, even if you’re telling people to do the same thing as a thousand other people are, your insight is massively needed.

C – Clear and Call to Action

As “trusted guide”, part of what we should be doing for our audience is making things very CLEAR (and even simple).

People are already overwhelmed, frustrated, and confused. Don’t make it worse. Your content should be clear and easy to follow. The best way to do that is have a rough outline of what you’re going to talk or write about and then fill in the gaps.

The other “C” in this formula is “call to action”. It’s vital that every piece of content you produce directs people to the next actionable step.

Here’s an example:

If you enjoy this article and you want to learn how to make your content stand out in this crowded marketplace, then I strongly recommend you click below to download my FREE content marketing launchpad.

It’s a 2-page worksheet that will help you get clear on who you want to help and how to develop content specifically for them and get your content machine off the ground.

Those two paragraphs are an example of a call to action.

Every single piece of content you publish – whether it’s video, audio, or written – should have some next course of action.

What do you want them to do?

Subscribe? Then, “Subscribe to my channel”

Do you want people to share your video? Then “I would love if you shared this video. Just click on the thumbs up button or share it on Facebook.”

These are examples of calls to action.

Going back to being clear.

This is pretty basic. Don’t ramble on forever.

I’ve made this mistake in the past and sometimes even still do today where I go off on verbal diarrhea tangents.

So, take a bit of time to structure your thinking and be clear with your messaging and have a specific call to action.

K – Kool-Aid

You want people to drink your Kool-Aid.

Your Kool-Aid is:

• your opinions,
• your voice,
• the way you hold yourself,
• your charisma,
• whether you swear or not,
• your position on certain topics,
• what you stand for,
• what you stand against,
• your beliefs,
• your core values,
• your vision/mission,
• etc…

You want people to buy in to who you are and what you’re talking about. The more they drink your Kool-Aid, the more they’re going to be by your side.

This is important. So important that even though I know EPICK is a misspelling of the word “epic,” I had to throw this one in.

Why? Because if you just put content out there without providing a stance or position, then you’re really no different from anybody else.

Let’s just talk about Healthpreneur as an example.

I help health and fitness entrepreneurs turn their expertise into a thriving online business to make more impact, income, and freedom.

With Healthpreneur, we are on a mission to help a billion people by 2040 collectively around the planet – and I can’t do that alone. That’s why Healthpreneur is in place. To help you and other health and fitness experts build your platforms, your presence, so that collectively, we can impact more people.

The only way we can do that is by being decent human beings and providing great value and content to our audiences. We do that by building a relationship with them, and eventually having them do business with us.

See what we’re doing here with the Kool-Aid? That’s just a small sip of some of my Kool-Aid and there’s a lot more where that came from that you’ll get to enjoy as we move forward together.

EPICK Framework for Awesome Content

So there you go…

This is the framework for how to develop great content that will help you stand above everything else – and get people to share your content, talk about it, and help you become a leader in your  niche.

Now it’s your turn take your “magic” and put pen to paper (figure of speech) or get on camera and share your gift with the world!

Here’s What To Do Next…

If you’d like more help putting together your own content marketing plan, be sure to download my free Content Marketing Launchpad.

The launchpad is a two-page worksheet that will help you come up with winning content that rises above the noise and helps you monetize your expertise.

Click below to download it now – for FREE!