How to Create Content in your Biz (Without Burning Out)
The dreaded content creation!
Every business owner’s nightmare, right?😱💀👻
okay, that might have been overly dramatic…
But the fact of the matter is, I have been running this website and had a business for long enough now that content creation is a struggle. It’s probably the most common thing I hear from my business owner and solopreneur friends: “I just can’t stay on top of content creation.”
I could say that “I get it”—and I do—but I also am one of those weirdo business owners that has never found content creation to be a challenge. I think that this is for two reasons:
I have good systems for my content creation
The only expectations I’m worried about meeting are my own
Now, I’ll tell you right now that the tips that I’ve found very helpful for me staying on top of content creation in my business may not align with the best practices of marketers (or they might—who knows!), but regardless, let’s dive into them…
#1
DECIDE WHAT YOUR PRIORITIES ARE
This is my first tip for a reason because the most common thing I see is this: trying to do too much too soon! What do I mean, specifically? You’re not going to be able to do all platforms all the time, especially if you’re new.
My thoughts are and have been for years that, regardless of what Gary Vee or other marketing gurus might tell you, you’re going to burnout in a firey blaze of glory if you do too much too soon. This is particularly if you’re new or you’re a solopreneur (#onewomanshow)…
So, what priorities should you decide on?
Which platforms are your priorities? I never recommend any solopreneur—new or tenured—be on all social media and marketing platforms. It’s overwhelming AF and, unless you have a team, it’s just not going to workout. So, decide what platforms are your priority. I recommend:
Aiming for platforms that are searchable: blogs (which help with your SEO and make you more searchable for Google), YouTube, Pinterest, and even podcasts. As of lately, YouTube, blogs, and podcasts are my main platforms.
As for other social networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, etc. where your content is more short-lived, think of where your people might be located. I joke that my people are on LinkedIn for work and they kill time on Instagram/TikTok. So, those are the platforms I show up on and are my secondary platforms I focus on.
Decide your posting schedule…which actually brings me to my next tip…
#2
COMMIT TO A SCHEDULE YOU CAN ACTUALLY MAINTAIN
Yes, posting more on certain platforms might help you to grow faster, but is growing faster a good thing if you can’t sustain that level of content creation?
I’m a firm believer that the content schedule you “should” have is the one that you can actually maintain! That’s my stance on it.
The biggest marketing guru in the world might tell you to post daily on Instagram and 5 times a day on Twitter or whatever, but they’re not running your business or creating your content, so—unpopular opinion—it kind of doesn’t matter what they say.
I relaunched my podcast about 6-8 months ago at this point and the trailer explicitly says it’s a monthly podcast. I did that intentionally. I’m releasing podcasts weekly at the time I write this, but I still intentionally said it’s a monthly podcast on my podcast trailer because sometimes my world gets busy!
I don’t want to create subpar content just for the sake of staying on a schedule, so if my life gets busy and I can’t post more, I don’t.
If you’re just starting, pick your main platform and commit to a posting schedule that you can commit to. Maybe you can’t commit to posting weekly. Okay! Can you post biweekly? Monthly? Whatever. Pick a schedule you can commit to.
#3
KEEP A RUNNING LIST OF IDEAS
That way, whenever you have a new idea, you can add it. I honestly think that this is one of the biggest reasons why content creation has never been particularly hard for me because I have a tremendous amount of content and ideas to pull from.
Now, perhaps you’re struggling to come up with content. Here are some ways to come up with more ideas:
Look to your peers for inspiration (but, please, don’t be a copycat!)
Make more white space in your day. You might have a content creation block because you never give your brain white space to create and come up with ideas. When I’m stuck, I go on a walk without headphones and just let my brain wander…
Answer the Public is another great resource. You can type your niche or topic in and it gives you all the questions that people have been searching for.
Similarly, you can also just simply typing things into Google.
For more on my systems, definitely check out the YouTube video below where I give you some insight into my systems.
#4
COME UP WITH A WORKFLOW (& REPURPOSE!)
This is something that it took me a REALLY long time to do, but once you start to incorporate more platforms into your content strategy, this is going to be super important. I also started to repurpose my content, which essentially means that I take one idea and I use it to post on multiple different platforms.
Now this isn’t exactly where I would encourage you start but once you’ve got some experience under your belt, create a workflow whereby you’re posting the same content on multiple platforms.
Once again, this is another instance where watching the YouTube video below is going to really help to demonstrate this better. So, definitely check it out. That being said, my workflow is as follows:
Bullet out content ideas (sometimes this happens when I first come up with the idea)
Write the blog post for the bulleted points
Record podcast and YouTube video simultaneously
Create canva graphics for blog, podcast, and YouTube
Create show notes page for podcast page on website
Edit YouTube video
Edit podcast
Schedule podcast on Anchor
Schedule blog to post
Schedule YouTube to go live
Embed YouTube video on podcast and blog pages
On LIVE day
Copy embed link from Spotify onto show notes page
Share to Pinterest
I schedule all of these steps out in my planner and space them out over the span of like 10 days prior to the post going live and I intentionally plan the low-effort activities like creating canva graphics, scheduling, and making my show notes page onto busier days and high-effort activities into days where I have less going on!
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
How do you stay on top of Content Creation?!
Drop a comment below!
did you know I have a corporate burnout buster and business owner burnout bundle
inside of my anti-burnout collective memberships?
