Hi kentgilliam, try wrapping your custom component's content with the following HTML:
<div class="lia-panel lia-panel-standard">
<div class="lia-decoration-border">
<div class="lia-decoration-border-top"><div></div></div>
<div class="lia-decoration-border-content">
<div>
<div class="lia-panel-heading-bar-wrapper">
<div class="lia-panel-heading-bar"><span class="lia-panel-heading-bar-title">Panel Heading</span></div>
</div>
<div class="lia-panel-content-wrapper">
<div class="lia-panel-content">
<p>Your custom content here.</p>
<p>Optional:</p>
<div class="lia-text">
<p>(Content in this div will have margins and some text formatting because of the "lia-text" class.)</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="lia-decoration-border-bottom"><div></div></div>
</div>
</div>
You'll be replacing everything in the "lia-panel-content" div with your content, as well as editing "Panel Heading" to the panel heading title you want.
I believe the reason Custom Content was suggested is because it has the decorative panel wrapper by default, and can be toggled off with panel="false" in the XML. (See my reply here: http://lithosphere.lithium.com/t5/Customer-Connection-Private/Custom-Content-HTML-Codes/m-p/31385#M1651)
Hope that helps.