How to reduce content creation overwhelm + simplify your workflow

Let's be honest, as much as content creation is super important, and I'm sure you know why. The How is another story, when you are trying to juggle looking after clients networking, managing your own website, you know, whatever it is on your to do list, let's not even forget about you know, having a life looking after your family, content creation can become one of the most stressful things that we need to do and we start to develop a lot of resistance around it. That resistance then leads to inconsistency or maybe not even showing up. Or maybe just creating content that is just barely checking all of the boxes like you know, it could be better, but you feel like you just don't have it in you to do any more. If any of this is resonating. And you really just want to be done with this feeling of overwhelm and stress and resistance when it comes to content creation. This is the episode for you. So keep on listening. Welcome to the Seen, Heard, Paid Podcast, where we believe that success isn't just about what you need to do. It's about who you need to be. I'm your host, Kat Elizabeth. And each week, I'll be bringing you practical advice, honest stories and the occasional dose of tough love to help you go from industry's best kept secret to in demand brand. So you not only get paid to do what you love, but can build a platform that creates meaningful positive change, and inspires the people around you to do the same. Let's get into it. Welcome back. And thank you so much for being here. I am quite excited about this topic. Because while we often talk about this strategy of you know what we're supposed to be creating one of the, I guess the areas that most of us often, I don't want to say fall short, but just things that we really struggle with is actually enjoying the process of content creation and feeling calm about it, and even excited to create that content. And trust me when I say I have been guilty of this many a time in fact, this episode is inspired by me sitting in my overwhelm today with a list of things that I need to do. And the top of them was create a content plan for the next couple of weeks. And I managed to find about 17 other things to do before I sat down and finally write out my plan. And once I wrote it out, suddenly it was all flowing, it was all good. And you know, I mean, that's obviously just step one, then I've got to create the content as well. But I just know how easy it is to get caught up in your head or or just caught up in the chaos of the week and have content just become this real sticking point, which is why we are talking all about it today. Now before I dive into my tips, I've got five juicy ones for you that I really hope make a difference. And hopefully, at least a few of them are things that you haven't necessarily thought of before. I wanted to let you know in case you haven't heard already, I am running a free five day challenge starting on the sixth of September, the seventh if you're in Australia, or New Zealand, called the How to Position Yourself as an Expert Challenge. And it's I mean, it's pretty straightforward. I think the name says it all, for five days, I'm going to walk you through the process for truly getting the clarity and the confidence you need to become that go to expert. So really understanding like what do you do? Why do you do it? What makes you different? And how are you then going to show up in a way that shows people that you are someone of value who could potentially change their life. So I'm really excited about this challenge, it's going to be a lot of fun. If you know me, you know I'm very fluff free. So it's a very actionable challenge. Like I'm literally taking a little chunk out of my my big programme. So this is like this is paid content that you're getting for free. So if you've been wanting a taste of what it's like to work with me, now is your chance. And also, if you have just been really struggling with the clarity piece lately, just going oh my goodness, like what is my niche? You know, how do I communicate what I do? How am I going to find the right kinds of clients? Well, this is like this is square one. This is where I start with every single one of my clients. So if you want to check it out, I will include all of the links obviously in the show notes below. But you can head to personalbrandingproject.co/challenge to sign up completely free. And the one thing I say is like if you are going to sign up, I'm guessing you probably have a friend who would also benefit from this challenge. Why not sign up together and actually be accountability buddies because I know the struggle is real. When you sign up for anything free. There's always a lot of motivation at the very beginning. And then life gets a little bit crazy. And often we drop off before the end of the challenge. Well, I don't want you to do that. Like I'm actually really hoping selfishly that I can get some wonderful reviews and testimonials just from the free challenge like I want you to see results during this time. And it is proven that by having a friend or you know, by having any sort of accountability buddy to do something with success rates are so much higher. So if you're going to go sign up, also send the link to someone you want to do the challenge with and just hold each other accountable. But with no further ado, let's just dive into these five tips on how to reduce the content creation overwhelm. So the first one is knowing your energy and work style, and then planning your week accordingly. So when I say knowing your energy, actually, I will say if you want to go back and listen to the last episode, if you haven't already, the one where I was talking to Cat Skreiner, we had some really great practical examples of this. But essentially, we all work very differently. Obviously, our brains work differently, our bodies work differently. And a lot of the time we've kind of fall into this trap of thinking, we have to do things exactly like the person next to us all, like the person that we're following, you know, that guru, that coach, because, you know, they swear by this thing, like, for instance, the whole 5am Club thing. Yeah, great, getting up at 5am might work really well, for certain people, for other people, you might get up at 5am, and then be absolutely exhausted for the rest of the day and get nothing done. Okay, so just because that works for one person doesn't mean it works for others. So the same applies to content creation, some of us are going to work beautifully if we can sit down for you know, a day a month, and smash everything out, you know, get into deep work mode, and just just churn through all of that content. For someone else that might sound like hell on earth. And you're like, I need to be way more spur of the moment, I'm very intuitive, I have to just do it day to day, or maybe it's like week to week, and you're creating things in shorter spurts and when you're very fresh. Some people are going to work really well, by planning, you know, just about everything in advance, and then not leaving a tonne of room for sort of that sporadic, not sporadic, spontaneous content. Other people find that if they create too much in advance, the content just feels stale, and their own energy changes so much, by the time they post it that it just doesn't work. So they might want to only create, you know, a few things in advance just a few little pillars for themselves to give themselves some structure, and then be creating a lot more on the fly. Either way, like there's no right or wrong here. Okay. And that's what you need to understand. The only thing that I would say is we need to make sure that the content we're creating is still resonating with our audience. So if you know if you are, for instance, too intuitive, where it's just about how we're feeling on the day, our content might feel a little bit all over the shop. So you know, we're talking about one thing one day, one thing the next day, we're not taking our audience on any sort of journey, and they're just a bit lost about, you know, all of the topics that we're covering. So that's where you might want to still plan some things in advance, but not create the content in advance, just kind of go Okay, well, this month is going to be this kind of theme. And then you can use in inspiration to really sort of help you find the right ideas day to day, the the flip side also applies. So for instance, if you try and create 90 days worth of content in advance, it could end up feeling very stale, but also not relevant. Because when you look at what's happened over the last, you know, sort of 18 months, the world has changed. And things are shifting constantly. And you know, if you're creating content, while the state of the world is one way, and then the content goes out three months later, when things have shifted, you can seem very out of touch, and that content is just not going to resonate. So again, finding that sweet spot, you know, is it that you batch create every month or every few weeks, so that you're still kind of keeping a pulse of what's going on, but then giving yourself the chance to create that content in advance and have it just going out. And when I said plan your week accordingly. I mean, okay, once we know this, once we know what our style is the way we want to approach this, make the time block it out and treat it like an appointment with a client. It should be non negotiable. It is just incredible how and I'm speaking I'm look I'm converted now. I do I hold appointments with myself now. But for years, I thought it was more important. Like well, I thought my client appointments were more important than the ones that I had with myself. And that did not serve me, okay, because anytime I got busy, I dropped everything that I'd said that I was going to do for my own business. And then you know, a few months later, I'd lost momentum, suddenly, leads aren't coming in and it cost me so it's really important that whatever you plan for your content, and for anything in your business, that's you know, revenue generating activities, your marketing activities, you need to hold yourself to those appointments. It is just so important, but I won't go on anymore. We're gonna move on to the next point. Create a content hierarchy for yourself. So when it comes to hierarchy, obviously that means that we have some level of prioritisation, like we know that one platform is I'm going to just say more important versus another platform that's less important. I'm not saying that they are actually more or less important. But essentially what I want you to see is that we could have a platform and a style of content that is kind of sitting up the top, we put the most energy and time into that content. And it's the highest value content. And ideally, it's going to, it's going to live the longest as well. Okay, so we're talking evergreen content. But then you can have other platforms underneath where repurposed versions of that content sort of fall like almost think of it like a waterfall, so you've got kind of the water going down, and then it's just like hitting these different platforms on the way down. So by creating that content hierarchy, we then kind of go Alright, so where do our best ideas go, I'm gonna put them into what I call hero content. So for me, you know, my podcast is hero content. And when I was on YouTube, I am going back, I also treat that as hero content, it's just, it's a different format. But still, I put a tonne of time and energy into it. And I know that that content is gonna live for a really long time. So I want to make sure it is relevant and valuable as possible. Once that content exists, it's easier for me to go to it and go, Okay, well, what can I pull out from this? Like, are there any mini versions of it? Are there some pull quotes, you know, can I break the tips down into individual posts, and that is what is then going to sort of get referenced in my what I call helper content. So the helper content could be, you know, your email marketing, it could be some live streams, it could be your Instagram captions, it's where, you know, there's still plenty of value in there. But it's usually shorter form content. And often it's a bit more of a tease of the hero content, so that you can send people back to that big juicy piece of content. So you just give a little bite sized piece and go, Hey, but if you want to watch the whole thing, if you want to listen to the whole thing, go over there. Because it's really important that we send traffic to our hero platform. That's like, that's where we want to catch people, because we're putting so much effort in there, it's probably where they get to know us the best, it's where we generate the most authority and that know, like and trust. And again, you've gone through so much effort, why not send people back there, make sure everyone is consuming it, okay. And then the third tier of kind of, of content, I call Hello content. So that is where you just kind of show up. And, you know, sometimes you might be selling, but sometimes it might just be you, you know, building some rapport and just chatting about your day, we don't have to plan that content as much in advance, that's where we get to be a little bit more spontaneous, we don't put too much pressure on it. Like, if you can't show up and do that, it's okay. And that's the nice thing. Like, if you have a hero platform, and you make that the commitment to yourself of like, I'm going to stay the most consistent here, it takes some of the pressure off your other platforms, I will be completely honest with you. So something I've realised lately is, I have been so inconsistent, I'm not going to say I've been inconsistent on YouTube, I stopped sharing to YouTube like a year ago, like, there's maybe like a couple of videos in the last year. And it used to generate, I mean, it still generates a lot of, you know, a lot of email subscribers and traffic for me. But it stopped growing in the way it used to, look, I've had just like a steady growth, like the kind of like the curve, just flattened out. And because of that, I have then felt this extra pressure to show up on Instagram. But funnily enough, I don't love showing up on Instagram. I know it sounds weird, because I talk about Instagram a lot and you'll see me on instagram a lot. And you know, I take pride in my feed and my content. But it's not like where I have the most fun and I don't feel like I get to demonstrate my value the best on Instagram. Whereas I feel like on YouTube or a podcast, I get to show off my value a lot more. But I just find it easier to communicate in this style. So because I stopped doing that hero content, I've had all this pressure on me. And I've been feeling the content creation overwhelm, because suddenly, Instagram had to pick up the slack. And I made the decision. And you know, in the last couple of days just going Okay, you know what, I actually don't want Instagram to be my focus moving forward, like I'm not going to disappear from the platform. But I've made a very conscious decision to put my energy back into YouTube and the podcast, because I know and SEO in general so that I could be generating constant traffic to my website. I know that if I'm not feeling it on Instagram that week, it's okay, the sales and the leads aren't going to slow down. So that's the power of a content hierarchy. So I suggest you have a think about what is the most important platform for you? What are the others that can sit underneath it? And how can you make sure they feed each other? Alright, tip number three, create content rituals. Okay, so this is where we get a little bit woo but if you've been listening to me for a while, you know, I am a bit woo and sometimes the overwhelm happens when we are feeling disconnected from our why. Why we're doing this whole personal branding thing, business building thing, but also why we're creating content and for who, you know, you just get caught up in ah these are sll ideas I have to churn through this content, blah, blah, blah, and then overwhelm, resistance, exhaustion kicks in. What I want you to do is create some sort of ritual, some sort of reminder for yourself every time you go to create content, even if it's just, you know, you're about to share a quick impromptu story on Instagram, I want you to remind yourself, why am I doing this? What do my audience need for me today? Like, what do they need to hear? How can I encourage them? How can I help make their lives better. And there are other kind of rituals that you can create it might be environmental. So you might go, okay, I, I need a good space, when I'm creating content, I need to feel really calm and clear. So you know, you might do a little tidy up of the office, you might put a candle on, you might have some music playing, you know, whatever it is that you need to do, figure that out, and make that a non negotiable, again, just every time you create content, you sit down, and you just run through those couple of steps to get you in that headspace and also the energy that you need to be in order to create content that really does feel genuine and connects with your audience. Anytime I've phoned it in, my content falls flat. I'm not saying you can't be like, and when I say phoned it in, that's not me being spontaneous, it's me just creating content for the sake of it, because I was like, oh, crap, I didn't create anything this week, I better put something out there and it does nothing for my brand. It won't do anything for yours either. You know, you might get a few likes, but that's not doing anything. You know, we could live without the likes, the likes have nothing to do with just about anything. Whereas when I sit down and I just reconnect, and you know, sometimes my post not might not even do that well as in it doesn't get heaps of reach or anything. But if I have someone comment and say, Oh my gosh, I really needed to hear that. Suddenly, I'm like, Oh, it was all worth it. Okay, so content creation rituals for yourself, design something, test it out. And you can obviously adjust it in time if it's not working, or it's not really helping. But it has made a really big difference. for me. Tip number four is follow a framework. Now I you may know already that I'm the queen of frameworks, I love frameworks, because they simplify everything, like a framework is a system just for your brain for your processes. And creating any sort of like, I mean, I developed my own content creation framework, which I've mentioned before the Expert Status Content Framework, so that I could simplify content creation for myself, because there's so much I could do with it, that it just, it made my head spin. Okay. So you know whether or not you want to follow mine, if you do want to follow mine, you can go check out Expert Status Content, so my mini course where I teach the framework, and then you also get the system to plug it into, or you want to build your own, find a way of simplifying things for yourself, you know, one simple framework you could have is where you have a monthly theme, and then you break your weeks down into certain things like maybe one week is shifting people's, you know, beliefs, one week is education, one week is something you know, community building, that's just, you know, one way of doing it. You might have themed days, like that's another way of sort of creating a framework for yourself. My framework is breaking down your ideas by firstly pillar, so that's going to help organise, okay, what, what is everything that we're talking about connecting to so making sure that anything we create has to connect to a content pillar, because otherwise, it's just not relevant, and it's not, you know, moving the needle, then we break it down into topics. So all the things that I can think of that sit under that pillar. So for instance, you know, a pillar might be content creation. And so I'm thinking, Okay, so Instagram strategy, writing better content, storytelling tips, like all of those kinds of things, are my my topics. And then my third step is the expert angles. So I have six different angles that I use to then assign to each of my topic ideas. And actually, you can use those six to one topic to create six different pieces of content per topic, okay? So for instance, shift, which is helping people, you know, reframing a belief that they might have had about that topic. Another one is teach where you give them some sort of how to, but that really connects back to your overarching process. Okay, so that is the framework that I use, that just helps me make sure that every single piece of content is meaningful, it's doing something for my brand. And it's not just fluff. It's not just for the sake of it. So whatever kind of framework you feel is going to work best for you go with it. Like I'm not saying you have to use my framework because there are plenty of frameworks out there. But I do know that once you have one, it makes your life so much easier and you're gonna save a lot of time. And it also makes repurposing easier as well. Which brings me to point number five, have a system for both planning and repurposing. So when I say a system, I'm talking like a physical or let's say digital but you know, a physical something to plug into for while you're planning and then repurposing your content, we need a way of organising everything that's in your head. Because if you're using post it notes or some, you know, note taking app, or you've just got like one giant doogle document, it's fine when you're first getting started. Eventually, you start to create so much content, you completely lose track of everything, okay, it will become very inefficient. And you'll probably find yourself recreating content that already exists. But if it had been organised and stored somewhere that was easy to find, you could have pulled that content back out, just repackaged it slightly and put it back out there. This is one thing I say to my clients is like, once you have created about three months worth of content, you stop creating so much new content, because we actually want to be repetitive. You know, we don't want to keep reinventing the wheel. And we don't want to keep talking about a million different things like it's really important. If you want to become known as the expert, the go to expert in your niche, you have to talk about the same things over and over and over again. So once you have gone to all this effort of creating some really high value content, I want that content to keep working for you not for you to have to keep recreating it or creating it from scratch. Okay, so the system that I use for planning and repurposing is Airtable, I am honestly I am an Airtable convert it took me a while to like fully get on board with Airtable and figure out how to use it. But I now have my entire business inside of Airtable. Like I've got a business hub, I've got a sales hub, I've got a content creation hub, I've got hubs for each of my programmes. It's really powerful. But I created a specifically designed content hub for my programme experts status content, which I also use for myself. And in that that's where we're dumping the content ideas, you know, hashtags, we've got your actual content calendar. And then we're also going to be tracking how well content performs. So that we can start plugging it into our content library, which is basically where we catch all of our best content. So we can start repurposing it, whether it's on the same platform or a different platform, again. You know, maybe you're a Trello user, maybe you already have something that's working really well for you so then don't change it. But if you don't have a system right now, then absolutely go check out Expert Status Content I, it makes me so happy I keep getting feedback forms, like being filled out every single day at the moment. And every time someone says like, this is the first content system that worked. I do an actual happy dance like a total dork. So it works. And so if you're looking for something there is that but also feel free to shop around because like I said at the very beginning of this, we're all different. So you know what works perfectly for me may not work for you. And that is completely fine. That does not mean you're not going to find a strategy that works. So those were the five tips. So just a quick recap, know your energy and work style and plan your week accordingly. Create a content hierarchy, try and design some content rituals for yourself or content creation rituals, follows some sort of framework to simplify everything and then have a system for planning and repurposing. I really hope this was helpful. I would love to know if it was helpful if there was anything in particular that you loved and maybe want more of, then please send me a DM over on Instagram. I love hearing from you. It makes me really happy to know that it's this this is resonating and it's working. Also, as I mentioned, don't forget to sign up for the Position Yourself as an Expert Challenge which is kicking off soon it is going to be so much fun I am bursting out of my skin to get started. And if you haven't already and this is you are finding this really helpful. I would love it if you would leave a written review of five star written your review over on Apple podcast which just helps get the word out about this podcast which is a labour of love. But that's all for me for now. Hope to see you inside the challenge and I look forward to being in your your holes next week. Bye for now.