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If you've been struggling to figure out what content to make, when to make it, or why your strategy feels random and exhausting…this is the video you've been looking for.

In this episode, I break down a simple but powerful framework called the 3C Content Method. The same structure I've used consulting for brands like TechSmith, Help Scout, DataRobot, and Armada, and coaching hundreds of marketers through my courses and community.

You'll understand how to build a content strategy that actually holds together in 2026 by using a three-layer system that tells you exactly what to make, when to make it, and how to get it in front of your audience.

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If you wanna build a content strategy that actually works, one that tells

you exactly what to make, when to make it, and how to get in front of your

audience, you need one thing: a system.

I've been a three-time head of content.

I've consulted for brands like Help Scout, DataRobot, and Armada, and

I've coached hundreds of people through my courses and community.

And what I've learned is that the top one percent of content

marketers don't have more content or better ideas than anyone else.

They have a better structure.

this framework is so simple you could write it down on a

napkin, but powerful enough to run your entire content strategy.

These are the three types of content that will build that structure for you.

What I'm about to walk you through is something I call the " 3C Content

Method," and the reason I love this method is because it's just a

simple pyramid with three layers.

But it can map out your entire content calendar without you

ever staring at a blank page wondering, "What do we make next?"

Whether you're running solo, working with a small team, or you're basically

a one-person marketing department, this gives you a structure you can actually

stick to and will make people think you have a team ten times your size.

So the first C in the 3C Content Method is Cornerstone Content, and this is what

sits at the very top of the pyramid.

The way I like to think about Cornerstone Content is this is the big stuff, the

things you're creating only once or twice a year, maybe quarterly, if you're lucky.

These are things like original research, a major survey, a data report, a big event

that you're hosting, something that takes real time, energy, and resources to build.

And the reason it's called Cornerstone Content is because everything else in your

strategy should be able to come off of it.

That's the whole point.

But here's where most brands drop the ball.

They spend months building this thing.

They ship it, and then it just disappears from the content calendar and the

content flow the following week.

All that effort, all that investment, all that time is buried.

I've seen this consistently in my career, not only with the companies that I've

worked at, but the companies I've worked with, and it truly is what separates

good marketing from great marketing.

The mental model I want you to have instead is this.

Think about you throwing a rock into a pond.

Your job isn't to just throw the rock.

It's not just to hit publish.

It's to let those ripples travel out as far as they possibly can.

So before you go and create your next cornerstone piece, I want

you to sit down and ask yourself, "What are all the other pieces of

content that you can pull from this?"

But not only what are all the other pieces of content, what are all the ideas and

the points of view and the interesting angles that you can pull from this?

Because that's the distribution first mindset, and that's what

makes cornerstone content actually worth the investment, taking all

of that great content that you've made and getting the most out of it.

The second C is core content, and this is really the engine of your whole strategy.

These are the things you're likely familiar with, your weekly

and monthly content formats.

Think of your podcast or your YouTube channel or your blog, a newsletter,

whatever is at the center of how you show up and teach your audience consistently.

now, here's where I see a lot of content marketers get in trouble, and honestly,

I've been in this situation myself.

You try to run too many core content channels at the same time.

You've got two blog posts a week.

You're doing a separate podcast.

You're trying to get your YouTube channel off the ground.

You got webinars.

You got a meeting.

You got this.

You got that.

Oh, and we need to be on LinkedIn.

Oh, and we need to get this.

Oh, and over here, and da, da, da, all this stuff.

Before you know it, you're juggling six things, and none of them are

actually good because none of them are getting the attention they deserve.

After all, you're running on a small team, or it's just you.

so my real advice here is to pick one or two core formats and go deep on

those, and then use repurposing to get as much reach as possible out of

the things you're already creating.

Pick a few channels, pick a few formats, and go deep, so your

podcast can become a video.

Your video can become a blog post.

Your blog post can become a newsletter.

You're not doing a ton of more work.

You're just making your existing work travel farther And this is also

where your cornerstone content starts to get unpacked for your audience.

that big research report you put out, break that into six podcast episodes.

Or if you have an annual survey, Take that standalone content and put it on YouTube.

core content really is the connective tissue between the big stuff at the

top and the daily content at the bottom, which leads us exactly into

the third C, which is cut content.

And this is everything at the bottom of the pyramid.

This is your daily micro content.

This is the heartbeat of the daily rhythm for what you have.

Social clips, emails, short posts, anything where you can get in front

of your audience where they're not actively looking for you.

This is honestly the layer that most content marketers either focus way too

much on or skip entirely in this approach.

A lot of times how companies do cut content, their emails, their social,

feels very disconnected, random, and reactive compared to what they're

doing across the rest of the company.

It becomes exhausting, and it's not really part of the strategy.

As somebody who has owned social for organizations and somebody who has had

social on multiple of my teams, I'm here to tell you that there is nothing

better for a social media marketer than them being entwined into the larger

content ideas and the things that are happening inside of the content planning.

and while you're over here creating a big piece of content or having these really

good weekly core pieces of content, social might be completely unaware.

Or even if they are aware, your social media strategy isn't tied in to the

rest of your content strategy, and so everything starts to feel random.

And here's what you have to understand About your audience.

They're not thinking about you on a daily basis.

This is why the third C matters.

They're thinking about their own deadlines.

They're thinking about what they're having for lunch and where they're

gonna take their kids after work.

That you are not at the top of their mind when they wake up.

We think we know what our audiences are waking up and thinking about

us, but they're not, and that is what cut content is for.

It keeps buying you small doses of attention every single day, and those

doses compound over time In a way where one great podcast episode or one great

LinkedIn post just never will on its own.

And the reason I love this bottom layer of the framework is that the

name tells you exactly what to do.

You're not just sitting down and generating brand-new

content like we talked about.

You're going to take what you already have existing and cut

that down in a platform-native way that your audience can consume it

in their feed or in their inbox.

You can pull a two-minute clip from a podcast.

You can grab an awesome stat from your report.

You can take a counterintuitive point from your last video and

write it up as a newsletter.

All of that work, all of those ideas are already done, and your job as

a content marketer is to spread that out further in the world.

Here's what I want you to sit with for a second.

Most content advice tells you to create more.

You need to be on more places.

You need to be having more formats.

The 3C method is telling you the exact opposite.

It's literally a constraint system, a pyramid

where every idea, piece of content, and things you create or ideas you have get

filtered through these three layers.

And the more clearly you define what types of content go where, the less time

you spend deciding what to make, and the more time you spend, getting in front

of the people you wanna get in front of.

Now you know the three types of content that make up a strategy

that actually holds together.

But knowing the framework is only half of it.

The other half is making sure the way you're working inside that framework is

sustainable, because none of this matters, none of this information matters if you're

burning out trying to execute on it.

My mission is to help you as a marketer get more ROI out of the content you're

creating, so you can spend less time on the tasks that are draining and more

time on the tasks that bring you life.

Because none of this matters if you're burning out trying to execute it.

If you wanna go deeper on that, hit subscribe so you

don't miss what's coming next.

And if you want something right now, go check out my conversation

with Chris Jordan, who is fixing the creator burnout problem for good.

We get into exactly why the typical content playbook is broken, and how

smart marketers are building successful brands without overwhelming themselves.

That's one worth your time.