I came across Justin Welsh's Content Operating System Course while researching the Ship 30 for 30 course.
Welsh created the Content Operating System to help creators build an audience on Twitter and Linkedin through his system. In this course, Welsh outlines how to create a funnel using his system to help creators get discovered, build trust and ultimately build their audience. My intention for taking the course was to learn how digital creators use a structured methodology to build an audience on Twitter and LinkedIn.
The Content OS course focuses on building an audience on Twitter. Welsh has another course called The Linkedin OS that focuses specifically on building an audience through Linkedin.
Quick Review of Content OS
The course content is well structured.
The system Welsh provided allowed aspiring digital creators to start creating content by learning from those who have succeeded, templatizing their content, and imitating (repeat: imitate, not plagiarize) their work. In addition, templates are provided to help kick-start the work after completing the course.
Welsh also recommended tools that he uses to plan his posts, such as Tweemex, Hypefury and Typeshare. However, the tools are secondary; his systems are what matters.
Welsh uses Notion, a tool that I've tried but am not keen on using as part of my productivity flow. I'm trying to avoid adding new tools to my workflow just to implement what I've learned from his course. Currently, I'm evaluating his system and hoping to replicate Welsh's process in my current workflow.
At the start of the course, Welsh mentioned that he intended the course to be affordable, short, and with no fluff. The Content OS Course is just that; I've never gone through such a compact course (less than an hour) that provided so much value.
In this course, Welsh teaches how to use systems to achieve the following outcomes:
- First, get discovered by creating high-quality content.
- Build trust by creating valuable newsletter content fast.
The two key lessons I gained from the course:
1. Focus on Systems
“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the levels of your systems.” - James Clear
Very much aligned with James Clear's quote and teachings in Atomic Habits, Welsh highlights the importance of systems to help create consistent motion to progress towards intended goals.
Systems are crucial to creating content despite feeling stuck or unmotivated. Compliment systems with the right tools to distribute content and automate the process to make the work less challenging.
2. Create Newsletters Easily
One of the bonus content in the course is how to create newsletter content quickly and easily. Newsletters have always been something I find challenging to work on, but Welsh keeps it simple by using ready templates on Typeshare to create short newsletters for his subscribers.
Writing newsletters can be consuming. So the idea of using Typeshare's templates to create newsletters is fantastic.
While I learned a lot from Welsh's course, these key takeouts stood out most for me.
