Studio Note #41: Do Things Worth Talking About.
Everything on that wall was made to get someone's attention. Eventually it all becomes wallpaper.
I’ve been thinking a lot about social media lately.
Vendorfied is entering a phase where more people need to know it exists. We have Vendorfied Network to build, Capital to get in front of contractors and a completely new version of the original platform coming right behind those. VNDR Studios needs attention too.
The obvious answer is content.
Post more. Make videos. Make Reels. Make TikToks. Build a content calendar. Repurpose everything. Develop content pillars. Find the right hooks. Post three times a week. Or five. Or every day, depending on which person on social is explaining the algorithm this week.
At some point, running the business starts to feel secondary to producing evidence online that you’re running the business.
That seems backwards.
The strange thing about this moment is that making things has never been easier. I can generate fifty ideas for social posts before breakfast. I can turn one paragraph into a blog post, an email, a LinkedIn post and a week of captions. A website can be coded in an afternoon. A presentation that once took a day can be built in minutes.
I use these tools every day. This isn’t an argument against them.
It’s an argument for remembering what they’re actually good at.
Tools are a force multiplier. They can help organize thoughts, explore directions and get you past a blank page. What they can’t do is give you a reason for making something in the first place.
The friction of production is disappearing.
The friction of having a good idea isn’t.
That distinction is becoming more important because when everyone can make more, simply making more becomes less valuable.
Taste matters more. Judgment matters more. Experience matters more. Editing matters more. Having a point of view matters more.
Having something worth saying matters a lot more.
That’s what I keep coming back to as I think about what Vendorfied and VNDR should be putting into the world.
There’s actually plenty to talk about.
We’re rebuilding a product after learning what the first version got wrong. We’re trying new business models. We’re launching new services. I’m meeting contractors, talking to business owners, pitching work, winning some of it and losing some of it. I’m designing brands, building websites, going to networking events and occasionally realizing that something I was absolutely convinced would work does not work at all.
That’s the content.
I don’t need to invent another seven things to say this week because a content calendar says there are seven empty boxes.
I need to pay attention to what’s already happening.
There’s a difference between documenting the work and manufacturing content around the work. One starts with something real. The other starts with an obligation to publish.
That doesn’t mean consistency doesn’t matter. Of course it does. If nobody ever hears from you, they’re probably not going to magically discover what you’re doing.
But consistency without anything behind it is just volume.
And we have plenty of volume already.
Maybe the answer to the content problem isn’t figuring out how to make more content.
Maybe it’s doing more things worth talking about.