Without getting too Freudian or risking allowing this entire book to collapse into a morass of psychobabble, let's just establish early on that the way you were brought up – whether good, bad, or indifferent – is going to have an impact on your content marketing success.
It's simply common sense: who you are is (at least partly) a product of your upbringing.
So, since marketing a product or service with content is based on the principle of offering people something of value in exchange for their attention, who you are and, by extension, what you have to offer, are important factors.
So, for the next few minutes, take this opportunity to look back at your childhood environment and let's take a look at a few specific areas that where your upbringing shapes your content marketing aptitudes.
(Please note: for the sake of simplicity, in the next few pages as we're discussing the past, I'm going to use the term “parents” as a convenient catch-all for whatever domestic situation you found yourself in as a child. If your particular situation involved foster parents, grandparents, an older sibling, or the nuns at the orphanage, simply insert their names and faces where appropriate.)
Your work ethic
What kind of attitude did your parents have toward hard work?
Was your Dad the type to hop around from job to job, never really finding his niche? Did he constantly complain about his boss or claim his ship just hadn't come in yet?
Was Mom a workaholic? Never home, or at least never available at home because there was always one more thing that needed to be done?
I'm certainly not passing judgment. No one should, especially if your parents made a conscientious effort to provide for you.
But there's no denying that their attitude toward hard work shaped your attitude toward hard work. It's inevitable.
That doesn't mean you're going to think, act, or end up the same as them. Just that you're affected by it.
How so?
If one or both of your parents clearly hated to work hard, you may battle with a tendency toward laziness, procrastination, and a feeling that the world is constantly on your back about something.
If one or both of your parents were workaholics, you may battle with stress, a feeling of inadequacy, and strained relationships because you push yourself too hard.
Even if you've made a conscious effort to think and act differently from your parents, there's no getting around the psychological impact their example had on you in your formative years.
How does this affect your content marketing?
Marketing with content can be incredibly fun and exciting... sometimes.
It can also be a tremendous amount of work. And let's be honest: sometimes it involves slogging through the busy work just to get it done.
If you were brought up with a balanced, healthy work ethic – viewing hard work as a virtue, enjoying the challenge of setting and reaching meaningful goals, and enjoying the satisfaction that comes with accomplishing something of importance – then you're going to fall in love with content marketing.
But if you're battling negative tendencies – at either extreme of the spectrum – then you're going to struggle with the consistent effort required to effectively build and maintain a successful content marketing strategy.
A strong work ethic will help you take on the inevitable challenges, power through the inevitable slow days, brush yourself off after the inevitable failures, and just generally enjoy the actual work involved in content marketing.
A poor work ethic will turn all those things into potential obstacles that can slow you down or even stop you in your tracks.
Your creativity
If your parents were creative themselves – actors, writers, artists, architects – then they probably brought you up in a creative environment.
If they were office drones and TV addicts, then your creativity may have been stifled somewhat.
Think back: when your parents brought home a surprise from the store, was it a coloring book or a video game? Did they read you a bedtime story, or tell you one they made up?
Again, please don't think I'm passing judgment. There's no “right” answer.
However, the extent to which your creativity was nurtured as a child has an impact on your creativity as an adult. Even though the tendency to be more or less creative has a lot to do with natural aptitude, even genetics, your environment plays a role as well.
A recent series of studies conducted at Cornell University and at the National Institute of Psychiatry and Addictions in Budapest made some fascinating discoveries regarding the genetic aspect of creativity.{1}
They found that highly creative people tended to have less of the fibrous bundles of nerves that connect the two hemispheres in the brain (the corpus callosum). The theory is that this more tenuous connection allows each side of their brain to develop more specialized skills.
Further, researchers at the University of Helsinki noted a particular cluster of genes that was highly developed in people who were particularly creative musically. These genes have been shown to directly affect the brain's plasticity – its ability to forge and maintain new connections.
Interestingly, though, the conclusion of all these studies was aptly summed up this way:
“So, are we born creative or not? While factors such as upbringing play a crucial role in your brain's development, the work done by scientists in Scandinavia, Germany and the US has shown that having the right genetic makeup can make your brain more inclined towards creative thinking. The rest of us have to "learn" to be creative.”
How does this affect your content marketing?
Content marketing is a skill set that fuses both creative and non-creative elements. There are certainly plenty of aspects to a successful content marketing strategy that will make analytical numbers-people jump for joy.
But there's no getting around the fact that creating stellar content requires creative juice. Without it, you'll find your content is dull, dry, and ineffective.
As the researchers noted, while genetics seems to play a large role, and your upbringing is also a huge factor, creativity can also be learned.
So no matter where you fall on the spectrum right now, don't count yourself out. Just be aware and move forward with that knowledge in your back pocket.
Your aversion to risk
If you grew up in very difficult economic circumstances, or in a family that was staunchly conservative, risk-taking probably feels foolish to you.
On the other hand, if you grew up in a hippie compound and your name is Moonbeam, you may not think twice about striking off on something new.
If you think back, you can no doubt hear your Mom yelling at you from the back door to get out of that tree because “you're gonna break your neck!”
Or, maybe you can think back and see your Dad handing you your very first BB gun at the tender age of 9, and showing you how to use it to keep the squirrels away from the bird feeder.
You may have experienced a major upheaval – a parent's job loss, an unexpected medical bill, losing a home, or a divorce – that changed your attitude toward risk-taking.
Whatever the case may be, the extent to which you're willing to put yourself, your family, your finances, and your reputation at risk has a lot to do with how risk was handled at home when you were a kid.
How does this affect your content marketing?
The optimal attitude toward risk for a content marketer lies somewhere between the two extremes noted above. Since successful content marketing requires the development and following of a quality content strategy, there's some conservative thought surrounding that. But, to make this strategy effective, it needs to push the envelope a little bit, even take some risks.
The balance here is that they are calculated risks, and they're tested for efficacy as the strategy progresses.
If you're completely risk adverse, you'll have a difficult time putting yourself out there like you need to when you're marketing with content.
On the other hand, if you don't even know the meaning of the word risk, you could very well stray off-strategy with ill-advised forays into crazy.
Neither is going to move your Content Marketing Hurricane toward land.
So now what?
It probably seems like we're starting things out on a negative footing, but that's not the case.
Few people can look back at the perfect upbringing. I know I can't. Neither can my kids, for that matter.
But here's the important thing: none of what we've discussed in this chapter involves prophecy or rules that are set in stone.
Far from it.
Rather, this has been about awareness.
If you're aware of the impact your upbringing has on your ability and aptitude to effectively create and distribute quality content, you can work within your personal parameters and make magic happen.
Remember, the thunderstorm that forms out over the ocean has no control over the temperature of the water or the moisture in the air. But it can use them to its own advantage.
Exercise #2 – Brainstorming: Your Upbringing
1. Think back to how you were brought up – the examples that were set for you, the lessons you learned, the things you wish you could change.
2. On paper, brainstorm a list of words and phrases that come to mind as you think about your work ethic, your creativity, and your feelings about risk. (Don't edit yourself here. There are no right or wrong answers, this is just a means of getting something concrete out of letting your mind wander.)
3. When you're done, don't even read it. Go to the next chapter.