Tommy Walker is the founder of The Content Studio, a content marketing consultancy for Fortune 1,000 companies and fast growing B2B startups. Prior to founding The Content Studio, Tommy was the Global Editor-in-Chief at QuickBooks, and the first marketing hire at Shopify Plus. Currently, he hosts "The Cutting Room" where he interviews industry-leading marketers about their content marketing philosophy, process, and pre-game before they edit an article live. Guests have been from companies like Asana, Calendly, Docusign, Vimeo and more.
🔸What is the Role of Conflict? pt. 1 of 4 🔸
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Inner: Our relationship with ourselves, connected to our mind, body, or emotions.
Personal: Our relationships with other people, like friends, family, lovers, and co-workers
Extra-personal: Our relationship with our environment, social institutions, and roles in society.
An example of this for a B2B audience might be:
- Inner: Self-doubt
- Personal: A specific co-worker
- Extra-personal: Budget cuts
Without any details, I bet you can spin up half a dozen scenarios using just those three elements.
As you approach any topic, simply pitting the reader against a single threat like deadlines, budgets, or resources, will instantly make it more compelling.
James Bond doesn't deal with inner conflict or complicated relationships. All he needs is to save the world from some extra-personal threat and look cool doing it.
That said, conflicts on two or three layers can make for more complex and nuanced stories.
Take Jason Bourne. He doesn’t know:
- Who he is or how he got his skills (inner)
- Who he can trust (personal)
- Why everybody wants to kill him (Extra-personal)
Conflict across all three levels vs. one is what makes Bourne and Bond very different spy-thrillers and very different movies.
Is one better than the other? That's a matter of preference.
Why we need conflict in B2B content
At this point, I think that’s clear, so let's demonstrate with a fairly standard blog post:
Repurposing content
The popular narrative looks something like this.
Content repurposing is a great way to grow your brand's online presence.
All you have to do is:
- Make one piece of long-form content.
- Cut it into smaller pieces.
- Distribute everywhere.
- Grow your reach.
The standard post then fills in the blanks on what to do, without providing resources on how to do it.
This is a prime example of giving the reader what they want, but not what they need to be successful.
The true story looks more like this:
- People don't speak in soundbites.
- Finding the right thing to clip is hard.
- 2-3 one-minute shorts take a long time to edit.
- Doing it yourself means acquiring a new skill set.
- Outsourcing means spending money on an editor.
- Hiring means finding someone who can execute.
- Hiring also means you must learn to communicate your vision.
- Hiring especially means relinquishing control.
- And then you have to do this all on top of your normal, everyday work.
Conflict creates credibility, and showing you understand the progressive complications of each step makes you an authority.
As the creator, the instinct is to be concerned about overwhelming the reader. But the truth is, each complication provides an opportunity to give the reader a reason to keep returning until they believe the thing you sell is the perfect solution to their problem—because you understand the problem so well.
What’s next?
In the next three parts of this series, we’ll explore each conflict layer and ways it can make the work better.
In the meantime, here’s what I want you to do.
When you review your next piece, note what obstacles would prevent the reader from doing what you're suggesting. Also note whether it is an internal, personal, or extra-personal conflict.
You don't have to do anything with this just yet, but I guarantee it will strengthen the work.
Until then…
Want me to edit you?
Starting in 2024, I'm hosting a monthly writing workshop where we'll explore the concepts through the lens of your work. Join me, and a group of your peers live while I edit attendees work and discuss these concepts live.
What's on our radar? - Video Edition
Let's get social
Oli Gardner is one of my earliest influences and what he's talking about in this post is a different application of many of the same principles we've been talking about.
Oli is a master storyteller and public speaker, and the PDF he's giving away is a perfect demonstration of why.
From "The Vault"
The Vault is a collection of articles that have been edited by guest editors on The Cutting Room.
Look at raw drafts and see how editors from companies like Writer.com, Calendly, Airtable, and more give their feedback in the doc.
In this early episode of The Cutting Room, Jacob McMillen starts by asking one of the most important questions.
Jump into the document.
Watch the video as Jacob edits live.
Want to be edited on The Cutting Room?
Share your content for a chance to be edited by an industry-leading marketer on the show!
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The Studio Insider
Tommy Walker is the founder of The Content Studio, a content marketing consultancy for Fortune 1,000 companies and fast growing B2B startups. Prior to founding The Content Studio, Tommy was the Global Editor-in-Chief at QuickBooks, and the first marketing hire at Shopify Plus. Currently, he hosts "The Cutting Room" where he interviews industry-leading marketers about their content marketing philosophy, process, and pre-game before they edit an article live. Guests have been from companies like Asana, Calendly, Docusign, Vimeo and more.
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