How to Create Content Without Overwhelm

Melissa: Today, we're going to share how we make content creation less heavy. 

Paul: So not, is this going to be like a light method or, you know, heavy, like how, how strong do you have to be to do this content? 

Melissa: I think with this method, it's going to help you out for sure, with really making sure your content creation makes sense.

Paul: That makes sense, because you know what? We use heavy a lot and I have to say like, that's something that we didn't do correctly years ago, man. Did we make things complicated? 

 We just didn't have systems. We didn't know any better. And I remember the first time, like we had a podcast years ago to them, 14, 15 ish or so.

And that was the most complicated process that we put in and it wasn't actually recording. It was all the other stuff. It was really complexity, complicated 

Melissa: I remember a long night of getting all the show notes together and all the downloads of the podcast together for the Freebies and stuff. Like it was, it was a lot of work 

Paul: and you know what it's like, we, we launched it.

It was like, it would go out on Monday and then Melissa's like Sunday night would be ruined because that's what she would be doing. It's like we put it off, put it off. It's like homework, you know, from back in grade school, you know, you got to study for the test the night before. So you go out and have fun. You deal with it, you just live life.

And then you're like, crap, Thursday night. You're like, 

Melissa: it doesn't work out. Great. Yeah. We've been talking a little bit about ways to make things a little bit easier for you. And one of the things that we do do is batching. Batching is where you sit down and you create a lot of content all in one setting.

But batching isn't really the only method that we use to streamline our content creation, because this is really all about being intentional. And figure out ways that it's going to make sense in your business. So it's less heavy. 

Paul: Yeah. And in order to batch, if you think about it, there has to be some preparation, some research, certain things that you can do ahead of time, because again, it's being intentional.

You're going to have that, that through line throughout your content, that is going to be very purposeful and it's really going to tie in. And this is what I think is really key, is like, if you ha, if you're list building. The content itself is linked with your list building. So we want to be more intentional and purposeful.

As far as the topics we talk about, like the tempo of how we talk about those topics. We're going to be intentional in guiding people into just not consuming our content. Becoming a little bit closer into our world by actually like opting in, into our world and getting on our email list or maybe listening to a podcast or, you know, tuning into Facebook lives or whatever that next step is.

Melissa: Yeah. We, we don't want to just create content to create content. Now I will say there is a time and a place that if you want to be spontaneous with your audience and put something fun out there and something wacky and quirky, I mean, that's totally fine. Because it gives your audience, a chance to get to know you as an individual and create that connection.

But at the end of the day, your content really should be very intentional. And again, you're leading people down a path towards your offers towards the next step. And if you're not intentional with that, then your audience is going to be lost. You're lost. Everyone's lost. No one likes to be lost. So give them a clear path of where to go.

Paul: And I have to say, I'm going to circle back again it's taken us years to really refine this process and to get our systems in place. And we did not do this initially. I w I just would remember, like, you know, I would give Melissa a lot of credit because years ago she would be way more consistent than me.

Like, I, I just did not want to wake up every day and produce content, you know, to put out in the world. Like I wanted to just purely help people and help them move the needle. And I'd rather spend the time and space doing that versus producing randomness. And Melissa was very consistent. Many years ago, she would go and do something, but then we'd have this little weird moment afterwards.

Cause she would like put something random. But it was at least it was something right. She puts something random out. And then when she got done, she was very proud. And like what the proverbial like virtual pat on the back for it. What's that have to do, or you think like, that was cool, you know, but like what does that have to do with our offers and what does that have to do with anything?

And it's something like, I think a lot of us are in that space, you know, and as Melissa said, there is time and space to do that. But if all your content is that way. Then what happens is people don't think about it. Like we follow certain artists like musicians or art because they have a certain consistency, a certain style or certain vibe right there.

There's those consistent threads we follow. Like we binge certain TV shows or movies. We listened to a certain radio station or, you know, I guess streaming these days because it it's consistent, right? Even on our Amazon device, when we say that, that word and we're listening to some music and we asked for a certain genre and then suddenly something else comes on, we're kinda like, oh, that's incongruent.

Like, what does that, like, you know, next, you know, and. Are we doing that to our people like our following, by not being consistent, being conscious as far as where are we being like very intentional in the conversations to get people, to actually desire, want to download our thing? 

Melissa: Yeah. So one of the things that we do in order to keep that intentionality is we have a couple of different systems besides batching to help us keep us on track.

So one of the things creating content, but not in real time. So again, that spontaneity is great in real time, but then you're just kind of like working off of what's around you and the surrounding, you know surroundings around you. But you could actually create content that's not in real time, or if you're having an experience and you want to share it with the audience and it's directly related to an offer, you can record that concept, but it doesn't have to go out there right at that exact time that it's happening in the moment.

Paul: I think that's really key because you know, you know, at least a good habit that we've had through the years is like, we're very present when we eat dinner or very present like if we go to a winery or when we're traveling the world, And I think a lot of people think like Melissa, like when we were in Rome years ago, like in, you were posting photos, you know, we might snap that photo in the moment, but we put the phone away and we were very present like Melissa, wasn't in the middle of the cobblestones going click, click, click, click, click, click, click.

And I think a lot of people think like that's when it happened and I love it with in restaurants. Cause it's like up when we're driving home from the restaurant, that's when Melissa White. Sometimes posts or maybe sometimes it's the next day. Like people think we're actually physically at the restaurant the next day, even though we were there the day before, it just makes sure, cause I think a lot of people, this is where they get overwhelmed.

They they're just like, oh, I got to do this in real time. Like, this is just happening right now in like a ticker tape. They're like a newspaper. You know, you know, describing the scene of what's going on right in this moment and people don't need it and they'll need to consume it in real time as it unfolds in our world.

Yeah. 

Melissa: Yeah, absolutely. So good content. It really takes time. So another thing that we do to make it less heavy and these three things kind of all overlap is we have content days . We do deep work days and we have theme days. We're going to kind of share with you a little bit about what that looks like for us.

Paul: All right. So content days, this is something that it took us a while. It was a great theory to, you know, for a long, long time. But we are very consistent with it. We treat it like it's an appointment. So we do dedicate a specific day of the week for us right now. It's Tuesdays. And what happens is we do not schedule anything else on that day.

So if Melissa is like, oh, we got an appointment to talk to somebody like, oh, okay, it's going to go around that day. Now there's external things to travel. The masterminds that we're involved with. Other things that are outside of our control, like we'll, we'll definitely, you know, show up and be present for those things.

But in general, on our end, when we can control it, we treat it as a standing appointment and I really want you to think about that because if you had an appointment for a doctor, if you had a standing appointment with like a score lesson than, or something like that, or a client, you wouldn't interrupt and move that appointment around constantly, like you would show up for it.

And if you think about your content creation, that's, what's going to build your influence. That's what's going to build your list. This needs to be treated the same way. The same amount of importance. So for us, again, being very open, very clear, like it's taken us a while to get to the point where it's been very consistent.

And I have to say that that was the point when I let go of the calendar and you controlled it. 

Melissa: Yeah. Pretty much. 

And, and going along with those content days, we also consider those deep work days. And what that means really is is that again, it's a very focused day now, content days for us. The deep work can be recording the content, but also we separated out.

So deep work, a big piece of creating content for us is actually sitting down and mapping out the kinds. And again, remember, we're talking about being intentional with it. So writing it all down, we don't just sit down here and just spout things off. You know, we actually, there's a lot of process beforehand when we actually have to write things down and then.

Thinking about where we want to take her audience to leading them down that path. So that deep work day, there might just be a content day where we're just writing things down and mapping out what the content looks like. Then on another day, a whole other different day might be recording the content.

Paul: Yeah. And the, the concept of just doing a content day in general really came out of a idea that you learned along the way, which were theme days. And that's where you're very intentional, where you can look at a very specific day. It could be during the week, it could be ongoing. Or it could just be a monthly, you know, theme day, but it's really where you're focusing on that one topic that one thing. 

Now, sometimes you have a theme day. I would say it's almost like you're dedicating an entire day to build out a sales page, you know, so you're not answering the phone. You're not answering emails. We don't have client calls that day. Like you don't allow all the distractions. So, so you're deep working inside of that day.

But a lot of us we're, we're doing all the things every day, getting overwhelmed, you know, 'cause we're, we're trying to spin all the plates every single day of the week. And I have to say like, in a whole different context, like in years ago in my real estate company we cut checks on one particular day of the week, you know, cause we used to, you know, one of our admins that was responsible to cutting all the checks, they w they went crazy because they need a checks like 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

So we got everybody like the equivalent of a theme day just to get sanity is like, You need to get your request in by this day and all the checks in the company, we had eight offices, so it looks like that came out of a corporate office at nine 30. Where then all the checks in one day got distributed the next day.

And it just, the system just made things so much more relaxed because it's hard to start back up and shut down and start back up and shut down, like all the things that we need to do. And when we get overwhelmed, Paralyzed and we don't get anything done. Then we kind of like tune out. We put a sand in, you know, having the sand and just like tune out.

And then we're really overwhelmed, really, really complex and complicated and stressed out later. 

Melissa: Yeah. And there's a lot of studies actually out there about the brain and how much energy it takes to switch from one task to another that in itself, it just, it's a lot of energy that we're spending. So again, when we can have these days where we're super intentional.

And focusing in on one task, we actually get into a flow and get a lot more done. So as you're thinking about creating content to build your list, think about how you can be more intentional with this, whether it's having a day specific to content or theming out your days. But getting into a flow with that, it's certainly going to help you with again, creating awesome content batching ahead and again, with the intent of being intentional with your content, for your audience.

Paul: Yeah. So if we think about all this, it would be really awesome. Melissa, if we take this for granted, it's something we've done the trial and error through the years, we we'd done systems and processes that didn't work that just actually made things more complicated and overwhelmed. We tried things and it worked for a while and that they just weren't sustainable.

And we have some tips we have. Recommendations some, some ways to be able to help people save time in their content process, because this is all about list building. And the only way you're going to list build is if your content is in tuned with your audience and they desire what is going to be on that list builder.

So did we put together a nice little resource that kind of helps people shortcut, all the things that we've lived through the trial and error through all these years, 

Melissa: we did, we did, of course, we're gonna make it super easy for you. So we created our time saving content creation, tips for list-building. This PDF is really going to help you out with that.

Give you some tips, things that we do as well, that you can start to incorporate in your own processes. So we'll have the PDF it's in the show notes, go to the show notes, download that, and then you can go ahead and get started with creating some awesome content and getting into that flow so that you can be super intentional with your audience.

Paul: Yeah, I love today's topic because again, it's all about making things less heavy. You know, it's something that this is, you know, I think a lot of us feel weighed down when it comes to content creation. And as we jammed on, it's not just batching, which is something we've shared in episodes, but also it's being very intentional with that list building and using the concepts that we shared today, you know, deep getting in and digging in and being very intentional.

So that you are bridging between the people that you're attracting, the conversation that you're having into your list builder, which then we're perfectly lining them later on. And that's going to help get this done is going to help with the concept that we shared, which is the theme days. You know, we talked about actually having a content day.

Now you might not have the timeframe that we have maybe content day for you is like content hour, you know, and just think you can do deep work. That means no answering the phone. No text message, no notifications, like put that thing in another room. If you need. You know, put the kids to bed, put the dog at a doggy daycare, whatever it takes to get rid of those distractions so you can stay focused.

Now we also have that incredible time-saving PDF that will help you, that incredible resource that we have, and we're super excited. This is fun to jam on today. 

Melissa: It's such a great topic to talk about. If you love today's topic and want to hear more about online marketing, make sure you subscribe to the show and share it with a friend.

Let them know that we're talking all things about marketing and selling our offers. And really, again, being super intentional with our content. And like you said, don't forget that pDF too 

yes. So 

Paul: until we talk again, remember marketing matters.