Hi, my name is Seth, and I'm a recovering ContentMaxxer.
If you've never heard that word before, don't worry. I made it up.
Tomorrow, I'll be introducing it for the first time during my speech at the Texas Association of Broadcasters conference. But the idea has been rattling around in my head for months because I realized I had spent years believing it myself.
Whenever my business hit a rough patch, my instinct was always the same: create more content. Write another article. Launch another podcast. Improve my storytelling. Repurpose everything. Learn SEO. Then AEO. Figure out AI. Publish more consistently.
Not only did I practice this strategy, but for years I taught broadcasters how to do it. I spoke at conferences, led webinars, and showed media companies how to create better content because I genuinely believed it was the answer.
Better content isn't bad. In fact, I still use many of these tactics today. The problem wasn't what I was doing; it was what I believed those things would accomplish.
I believed that if I could just create enough content—or good enough content—I could solve almost any business problem. And it wasn't just me.
Everywhere I looked, creators, marketers, media companies, and online businesses were following the same playbook. When growth slowed, the answer was always another article, another video, another podcast, another optimization.
But the better everyone got at creating content, the harder it became for any one piece of content to stand out. I realized I wasn't just competing against better creators. I was competing against the changing economics of content itself.
Eventually, I realized I needed a word for this mindset: ContentMaxxing.
What is ContentMaxxing?
As a verb, to ContentMaxx means to create more or better content. You can contentmaxx by publishing more frequently, repurposing your work, improving your storytelling, writing stronger hooks, optimizing for search engines and AI, creating better thumbnails, upgrading your production quality, or experimenting with new formats.
There's nothing wrong with any of these tactics in isolation.
But there's always another platform to show up on, another algorithm to learn, another AI tool to master, another video to edit, another newsletter to send, another post you should have published yesterday.
ContentMaxxing can become an endless treadmill that, for many creators, leads straight to burnout.
But there's an even bigger problem when ContentMaxxing becomes a noun.
As a noun, ContentMaxxing is the belief that every revenue problem can be solved by creating more or better content. It convinces you that if your business isn't growing, your content simply isn't good enough yet.
When Content Stops Being Enough
It's never been easier to create content. AI and other digital tools have made it faster and cheaper than ever to write, design, edit, and publish. As a result, there's never been more content competing for attention.
We've entered a content arms race. Everyone has to run faster just to stay in the same place. But ContentMaxxing tells you to keep fighting that battle anyway.
Instead of asking whether the economics of your business have changed, it keeps you focused on improving the content when the real problem is that the business model built around content is breaking down.
That's the trap.
The biggest mistake I made wasn't teaching people how to create better content; it was believing better content could solve all of their revenue problems.
The Step Beyond Content
Escaping the ContentMaxxing mindset is about realizing content isn't the only thing your business can create.
Instead of asking, "How do I create more content?" you begin asking, "What else creates value?"
The answer is community.
If you're ready to move beyond ContentMaxxing and explore what a Community Revenue business could look like, The Why? Workshop is the perfect place to begin.
I'd love to have you join us.
Start Your ContentMaxxing Recovery Today
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