How to Come Up With Content Marketing Ideas for Your Small Business

In my opinion, just start filming. Seriously. It’s way too easy to get stuck trying to decide what to do. We all know someone who spent a year building the perfect business plan, designing a “strategic” marketing rollout, networking, hyping their launch—only to open the doors and… nothing. Silence. Soul-crushing.

I’ve started multiple businesses, and not one of them had a business plan. My first was a production studio I owned for over 15 years. I learned more about myself than anything else. I learned how to take rejection, how to pivot from one disaster to the next, and how to trust instincts over analytics. By year two I was clearing six figures.

My second business was a dried-fruit brand I started for fun. Kim Kardashian posted about it within six months, and I made over $250K in the first eight months. The third was a small Texas-focused marketing agency that also cleared six figures in its first year. No business plan. Zero planning. Just a thought I had while doing a cold plunge.

Here’s what actually matters when you’re starting a business: being able to take rejection and keep moving forward. Not sideways. Forward. Every year needs to improve in some way—big or small.

Business plans are garbage, but a mission statement is everything. I rewrote mine every year for 15 years. It started as three pages of nonsense and eventually became one word: Yes. The answer was always yes when it came to customers. Even if the goal was impossible, I found a way to follow through. That’s what real business owners want. Follow-through. Not bullshit.

I closed the first business when a close friend died. It made me rethink life and what mattered. The second business was a COVID band-aid—I knew it wasn’t long-term. I even got offers to go on Shark Tank, but honestly, nothing beats Kim Kardashian posting about your product. I made my money, cashed out, and went back to doing what I love: playing with my camera.

With my last business, I wanted to be something completely different. I branded myself as a contract creative director. Not just a filmmaker—I helped businesses find their voice online and fine-tune their identity so their brand actually fit into the life of the customer. I kept it simple. I used every skill I earned from years of getting beat up, falling on my face, and getting back up. My mission was simple: scale up my own life.

In California, I was irresponsible. I took work for granted, because I always had it. I hustled like hell but spent money on crap. Today? I’m focused. I just bought my second property within walking distance of a lake. And I just took a full-time filmmaker position with one of the best custom cabinetry companies in Texas.

Could I have stayed freelance? Absolutely. In the short time I’ve been in Texas, I filmed a Netflix special, worked with the Dallas Cowboys for Helicopters for Heroes, filmed champion bull rider Josh Frost, and got to shoot with Lady Lanes—one of the best businesses in Houston.

So why take a job—something I haven’t done in almost 20 years? Simple: because I wanted to. When you excel at what you do, you earn the freedom to do whatever you want.

Thanks for reading. Click here to see some of my work.