Pader, I Gotta Lock In

It's kind of that simple...

Author

Tim Kilroy
20 May • Estimated Reading Time: 11 minutes

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In This Week's Missive

This Little Guy (Who Is Turning 16 Next Week)…

A few days ago, my son paused mid-sentence, raised his hand like a Jedi deflecting distraction, and declared:

❝

“Pader, I gotta lock in.”

I was stunned. The drama. The gravity. The commitment.

I said “Dood…” (that’s what I call all my kids - when you have 5, a generic nickname is good defensive strategy…) “…why, what’s up?”

Luis told me that he needs to get a job because he wants a skateboard that is similar to his twin brother’s. (Twin brother has a job and bought himself a $175 skateboard…).

I put on my dad hat, and thought that this was my time to shine. If your dad is an entrepreneur and coaches entrepreneurs for a living, he ought to be able to help you solve some of these basic problems, right? Luis went on to tell me his thoughts….

He said, “OK, I want to work at the hardware store, but I know if I work there I will spend my entire paycheck on tools. So, I’ll never get the skateboard.” (Editor’s note - Luis is speaking the truth. He would spend every single penny on tools.) “Or I could work at Stop and Shop because they will hire anybody, but I don’t know that I am going to like that job, so I am afraid I’ll make it hard for myself to go…” (Editor’s note - Luis is speaking the truth. He does have a hard time pushing himself from time to time.) “And I don’t want to go work at TRG because Aaden (twin brother) works there and I don’t want to seem like a copy cat.” (Editor’s note - Luis is speaking the truth. Twin brother is VERY sensitive about perceived copy-catting.)

He went on to tell me that he wants to work outside, and he wants to control when he works. “Because what about last week…” he went on to say, “…Aaden had to go to work and then I wouldn’t have been able to catch that fish if I had to do that.” (Editor’s note - Luis is speaking the truth. He caught a 19-inch bass in a local pond last weekend while brother was washing dishes at TRG.)

“So, Pader, I gotta lock in. I need to get a lawnmower so I can cut grass and make money. But I don’t have any money to buy a lawnmower. And I was going to ask you to buy me one, but then I realized that you’d turn this into some stupid “How are we gonna solve this problem, dood?” talk, and I don’t want another one of those because you just don’t get it.”

I laughed because I was so freaking predictable.

So, Dood, How Are We Gonna Solve This Problem?

He went on, “So I had the “dood, how are we gonna solve this problem” talk with myself and I found a free lawnmower on Facebook marketplace. I texted the guy and he said that I can pick it up tonight.”

I smiled.

“But I gotta lock in because it’s like 4 miles away and I don’t know how I am going get the lawnmower back home. I mean I can ride my bike THERE. But then how am I going to get my bike AND the lawnmower back? So I gotta get totally locked in because that walk back is gonna suck.”

I told him to go get the keys. On the way there, he had that “I am not going to smile” smile busting out across his face. I asked him what the goofy face was about. He said, “Well, I know that if I just asked you, you would drive me to pick it up because you are totally the easy parent. BUT I thought that you’d like the whole “dood, how are we gonna solve this problem” thing and me thinking about other jobs enough that you’d drive me to pick up the lawnmower, buy me some gas for the mower, and wait there while I cut that guy’s grass for $40.”

He didn’t even offer to pay me back for the gas.

I am a total sucker.

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So, My Kids Have Totally Got My Number…

But somehow, I really valued Luis’ thinking, problem solving and yes, even his salesmanship. But what I just did with that story was repurpose it.

Content mining and repurposing is an easy way to build your marketing arsenal. As you know, I put together a social content authority engine called GEN+. It helps you create a content layer that helps in-market prospects understand how you think, what it is like to work with you and what kind of insights and results you create. And best of all it is designed to work across your entire team (so the content flow doesn’t simply rest on your shoulders).

Of Course I Had To Use Some AI Wizardry To Make It Easy and Cool

Using Relay.app, I built a really simple workflow called Transmorgrifier 1.0 (that’s a link to the template). Grab it for free. The workflow is really simple:

  1. When a new meeting is recorded in Fireflies the agent grabs the transcript (and the link will save you 10% on a Fireflies subscription) (BTW, Relay makes it easy to plug in Fathom, Otter or whatever other meeting notes app you use.)

  2. It pulls the juiciest nuggets out of the call and sends them to you in Slack. You hit 1 button in Slack saying that yeah, that looks right…

  3. Relay sends that to ChatGPT 4.1 (or wherever you want) and in a few minutes, you get another message in Slack saying here is your google doc with:

    1. A Blog Post Outline

    2. A LinkedIn Post

    3. A 90-second Video Script (you can use HeyGen to make an easy video - like baby Conan O’Brien doing the 1st 15 seconds of the video script.

    4. An Instagram Caption

This Isn’t Amazing Content

But it is AMAZING when you consider that it has come out of a discussion that I was having anyway, and that a simple meeting recorder generated content that I can work with and create something REALLY good with (I wish Baby Conan sounded better, but it is a total hoot!)

It’s fun being locked in.

Mined & Repurposed From The Interwebz

An episode from the Mindful Marketing Podcast where Anisha Patel discusses how your podcast can serve as the foundation for all your content marketing—if you know how to repurpose it the right way. Snarky Summary: Why create new content when you can just dress up the old stuff in a new outfit?

A blog post from Brawn Media highlighting strategies to breathe new life into your existing content, extend its reach, and maximize its value. Snarky Summary: Because your content deserves a second chance…just like that plant you forgot to water.

An article from ContentFries listing the key benefits of repurposing your content, including reaching a broader audience and making your brand more memorable. Snarky Summary: Turn one piece of content into fifteen because who has time to create new stuff?

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Our sponsorships are ads (obviously). But some of the companies or services linked in our content may pay us a minimal commission if you buy something from them. Potential payment is never a factor in what we link to, and we have direct experience with every company or service we mention in our content.