You know, it’s going to be ironic hearing me say this, but in the early days, I deprioritized my own content marketing. I was focused on direct revenue streams rather than indirect ones.And I’m fully aware of the paradox here: I wasn’t practicing what I preached.The truth is that I was being lazy.After all, I knew that doing content marketing for my clients put money directly into my pockets. Doing it for myself would inevitably pay off, but it would take time, effort, and patience to see results.And at the time, that wasn’t where my mind was at. I wanted immediate reward. So, it was easier for me to cop out than it was to step up. Eventually, though, I realized three things:

1. Business was steady, but not growing
2. Owning a content marketing business that didn’t do its own content marketing wasn’t a good look to potential clients
3. I was missing out on vital opportunities to gain credibility and build relationships that would ultimately result in more business and more revenue

See, I know better than anyone that not all value is measured directly in dollars and cents. Sometimes the connection is indirect--and that’s kind of the point. Content marketing isn’t meant to be a sales pitch that yields instant revenue. It’s a process that focuses on being helpful and builds organic relationships with your audience over time rather than slapping them with annoying ads over and over. That’s why it works--and that’s how it creates value that isn’t always directly measured in dollars and cents, but certainly ends up resulting in them anyway.So, finally, I got my act together and started doing content marketing of my own:

• I started writing weekly articles (which, admittedly, is a frequency I’d like to ramp up)
• I created a newsletter and started growing my audience
• I put more work into creating social media content
• I’m currently in the process of developing a webinar

And as a result, I started seeing an uptick in:

• New connections and relationships
• New opportunities to share my expertise, build credibility, and earn trust
• New leads and new clients

My point is this: not all value directly takes the form of dollars and cents. Don’t get caught in the trap of thinking it does. Because you might find yourself missing out on great opportunities to invest in your business in new ways and to see new opportunities arise as a result.