How to create content intuitively AND productively

How to create content intuitively AND productively

by | Sep 15, 2021 | Content, Mindset, Productivity, Social Media, Strategy, Sustainable Business, Time saving

This blog is intended to share a simple, practical structure to support wild, rule-defying creatrix women to create content.

What???

I mean: I work with a lot of women (and I myself am one) who dislike norms. Women who need to pave their own way. Who have a lot to share but say “f*&# you” to shoulds. 

Or maybe they’re not quite that shouty but they find it hard to follow a regular set of rules about content creation. 

I have been there. I thought I knew how to create content and I would just go with the flow. I would just pop into Facebook and post a bit there and then pop to Instagram and do a bit there and then pop to LinkedIn and then POP – the day was over and I wasn’t sure what I’d really achieved and where the time had gone. 

Plus, I wasn’t sharing my gold. 

I was kind of splatter gun promoting, not really building an audience around my deeper soul work.

Sound familiar? 

The thing is: I am SUPER creative (and so are you) but I didn’t realise how deeply this runs in the veins of content creation and entrepreneurial life. I could embrace cooking amazing meals, sewing fabulous garments, or painting and drawing as creative pursuits – but business?? 

After I read Big Magic, I had a strong sense that my business was a creative endeavour. But writing and content creation? They were just for marketing and business and “getting” clients weren’t they? 

The artistry of content creation was lost on me until I started working with my 2021 mentor, George Kao.

Through working with George and following his Authentic Marketing  approach I have realised how much content creation is about me and my service to humanity and how little it is about “getting” clients – although that is a lovely outcome sometimes. 

And over time I’ve learned to apply some of the things I’ve learned through making art to creating content. I did the Artist’s Way process with the divine Aesha Kennedy a few years ago and since going deeper with creative practices I’ve realised 2 key things: 

Content creation and creativity in general flourishes when there’s a regular practice 

Creativity flows when there is space to feel free and unhindered

These 2 things seem to be in conflict though don’t they? 

Let’s unpack that a little.

When I make something every day, whether it’s a painting or a piece of content for my business, I just get more relaxed and comfortable. I make more and from that more means there are more wins. Not that the ratio of “happy with this” to “this is balls” changes, but rather, because I made 100 in total instead of 10 in total, the number of “happy with this” is 10 rather than one (if that were the happy:balls ratio). 

DId I lose you in the maths? 

I just mean, there is always some content/creations that we are happy with, that resonate with others and that really “work”. But if we only make content two times a year, it will take us 20 years to even have 40 pieces of content. If we make one a week we have 40 pieces of content in under a year and if we do it every weekday, we have it in 8 weeks. 

Not that 40 is a meaningful number. 

It’s just that out of 40, you might have a few that you are happy with, that resonate with other people, that really “work”. 

And further to that: as you create more, you will naturally get better. Because creativity is like a muscle and when you work it out – it gets stronger. You get clearer on what it is you’re trying to say and how you say it. You get better on certain formats, like video or (if you’re like me) writing. 

So, I wonder if you feel inspired to do a little creating each day? 

Or if that’s too much once a week? 

I used to try for one a week and that was great for a couple of years. I really didn’t think once a day was for me. But since I’ve been doing daily content, it’s become a lovely and heart warming practice that I miss when I can’t do it. 

But how does that work – when creativity needs to feel free + unhindered to flow?

The trick is: knowing where to constrain and where to be free.

A simple practice that I recently shared with a client is to use Google calendar for 2 things:

  1. Collect the ideas I have for upcoming blogs
  2. Create the space and time for content creation 

Basically, you can create a new Google calendar if you need to or use an existing calendar and make some repeating Content Creation events. 

I go to the Google calendar and create an event. Call it Content creation and allow about 1hour for writing a blog and around 15 minutes for a simple piece of content. 

In the date and time of the event, I set it to either recurring weekly for a blog or recurring every weekday for general content creation. In the description I gather together my content ideas that I have on bushwalks, in the bath or wherever they strike me. I might have to write them down till I get to tech, and then pop them in my collection spot when I get to it. 

Then, when it comes time to sit down and create, I don’t make myself work through the list. This is when I leave it to my inner compass to guide me. I trust my energy and intuition to decide what to post about on that particular day. 

This is the balance of structure + flow. This is knowing when to constrain and when to flow. 

The commitment to your growth and the commitment to sharing your brilliance is the constraint. The time that you lovingly set aside to dedicate to humanity and your business is the constraint. Your loving commitment and service. 

The choice of what you will create content about and what format is the freedom and intuitive aspect. What is lighting you up today? What is alive in you? What is ignited today? If it’s definitely NOT a video day (we all have them) maybe it’s a writing day. If you feel sparkly, then maybe it’s a video day. You get to decide + be free. 

What do you think? Could you experiment with this method and start to share your brilliance? 

If you found this helpful and you like, you can make a small donation.

“I pay my respects and acknowledge the people of the Yuin Nation, traditional custodians of the land on which I live and work. I also pay respect to all Elders — past, present and future.”

Learn more about Online Marketing and Business that doesn’t require you to sellout on your soul.

Do you just want to talk to me about your business and website?

I’d love to chat. You can book a free chat and we can discuss website set up and all of the other things I mentioned here. We can even set it all up of ryou and save you the headace. 

Go ahead and book a free chat here: 

BOOK HERE
Your offer

Your offer

by | Sep 1, 2021 | Content, Marketing, Mindset, Strategy, Your Offer

What do you offer your clients?

Your offer is the solution you deliver, and it’s also your service that you promote.

It’s the way you serve others and it’s the way you make money in your business.

Generally when I’m supporting women in business I’m seeing 2 things:

  1. Making offers all the time and not sharing content
  2. Not making offers at all and just sharing content

It’s ideal if you create regular content as a creative practice and act of service. 

Ultimately, you are going to have your own “Why” about creating content that will sustain you through any discomforts as you experience them (they will come!).

And so, if you are the number one kind of goddess, I would encourage you to consider a daily creation practice. Like my mentor George Kao says:

“Your content can be your public journaling to clarify how you feel and think about aspects of your work”

It doesn’t have to be perfect, but it is great if you can create some non-promotional content. 

If you post 7 days a week, maybe 2 posts could mention working with you. Otherwise, your audience will feel like your conversations with them are transactional and that you are always trying to get them to do your “thing”. 

If you aren’t making offers, number 2 goddess, I would encourage you to ALWAYS be mentioning one thing per week. If you aren’t clear on your paid service yet that might be your newsletter list sign up, a free trial session or a market research chat. 

If you are providing services, then you need to make a certain percentage of what you share with the world actually mentioning how people can work with you. They want to work with you and you are basically stopping their growth + evolution if you don’t tell them how they can work with you. 

Other concerns people have about their offer is around pricing.

I have spoken before about Compassionate Pricing. This can be pay what you can, or just affordable pricing that still allows you to feel fairly remunerated and feed your family. Read more deeply about Compassionate Pricing HERE

Other concerns that I have about people’s offers relate to: “how did you figure out what your offer is?”

Did you just pluck it out of thin air, or receive a download? Or did you base it on intel from your customers and prospective customers?

If your offer is not aligned with what your audience actually wants they will not buy. The easiest way to figure out what your audience wants is to ask them. I have a whole rant on using this important marketing tool HERE.

And if you have done market research, and the offer still isn’t selling, maybe you just need to keep experimenting…

I like to chunk my offers up and down. What do I mean? There are 2 options:

Break your offer down into a really small version like a 30 minute session, or an email consult. You can sell the first module of your program or the first chapter of the first module. You can sell one month of a six month program. Make sense?

Bundle your offer into a VIP package. Just like my 1-1 VIP package is a combo of web design done for you and 1-1 Strategy Mentoring with all the courses and a bush flower essence session. All of the courses are selling as self paced and it’s easy to pop them into the bundle. Which bits of your offer can you bundle up into a VIP package?

What other questions do you have about your offer? I would love to chat more about these so please comment or message/email me with more questions.

If you found this helpful and you like, you can make a small donation.

“I pay my respects and acknowledge the people of the Yuin Nation, traditional custodians of the land on which I live and work. I also pay respect to all Elders — past, present and future.”

Learn more about the steps to grow your audience here

How to create + publish a carousel post for Instagram + LinkedIn

How to create + publish a carousel post for Instagram + LinkedIn

by | Jul 30, 2021 | Content, Instagram™, Marketing

Today it’s a flat out “how-to” video for making carousel posts on Insta + LinkedIn.

In the content course this week Glyn Conlon asked me how I create carousel posts for LinkedIn so I thought I’d share my entire carousel process.

Here is a video tutorial!

Did I miss anything? Hit me up with any more questions and I’ll make a video about it 🙂

If you found this helpful and you like, you can make a small donation.

“I pay my respects and acknowledge the people of the Yuin Nation, traditional custodians of the land on which I live and work. I also pay respect to all Elders — past, present and future.”

Learn more about Online Marketing and Business that doesn’t require you to sellout on your soul.

Do you just want to talk to me about your business and website?

I’d love to chat. You can book a free chat and we can discuss website set up and all of the other things I mentioned here. We can even set it all up of ryou and save you the headace. 

Go ahead and book a free chat here: 

BOOK HERE

“Why” to create content

“Why” to create content

by | Jul 28, 2021 | Content, Email Marketing, Facebook™, Instagram™, Marketing, Mindset, Social Media, Strategy, Website

Yesterday in the “Sharing your Brilliance: loving content” course and the “Grow an aligned Audience group program we talked about Content creation and the “Why” that sits behined it.

Creating content can be hard if:

you aren’t clear on your why

or

your motivators are extrinsic

First up – before you read this, I would encourage you to set a 5 minute timer and do some journalling about your own why.

If you are coming up question marks you might be interested in these 4 “Why”s…

And here’s a video to tease it all out. :

Here are 4 “Why”s you might like to experiment with:

1. Curiosity

2. Generosity/service

3. Develop a body of work

4. Share your energy signature with those you need to journey with

I acknowledge the Djiringanj people of the Yuin Nation, the custodians of this beautiful land on which I live and work.

I also pays respect to all Elders past & present.

Thank you for taking such good care of the wild, beautiful places of Araganu, the coastline and forests where I get nurtured.

1. Curiosity

Some ways that I stay curious are to ask questions. Like: 

I wonder how I can share this in a 60 second video?

I wonder how my audience feels about this topic? 

Do people agree with this or not? 

Am I the only one who thinks this? 

How could you be curious in creating content?

2. Generosity/be of service

If you are like me them you just love to be helpful, and you have a value to be of service to others. 

It’s tempting to work for nothing, or to under-charge. 

Creating content is another way to be generous and be of service. Let your loving heart shine and share those goodies inside you!

3. Develop a body of work 

I really never thought it would be me, but it is actually possible to start now and develop a body of work. Your contribution to humanity. 

Creating content happens one post and one blog at a time. And so your body of work can grow, post by post, video by video. 

This is YOUR light and y our perspective. Let it rip. 

4. Share your energy signature with those you need to journey with

You are emanating a unique energy. Your vibration is a conduit to the transformation of others and vice versa. 

But how can those people find you if you are hiding out, or too busy or too whatever to share your goodness??

And you know, it’s not just for their benefit; you have so much to learn through journeying with your clients. 

Goodness knows how much I have learned about boundaries by working with some challenging clients over time!

So, what’s your why?

Got thoughts and questions about this? Hit me up in the comments. I can’t wait to see your work in the world. 

If you found this helpful and you like, you can make a small donation.

“I pay my respects and acknowledge the people of the Yuin Nation, traditional custodians of the land on which I live and work. I also pay respect to all Elders — past, present and future.”

Written content and how long should my blog be?

Written content and how long should my blog be?

by | Jun 9, 2021 | Content, Facebook™, Instagram™, Marketing, Mindset, Social Media, Strategy, Time saving, Website

When you think about creating written content, are you like me? Do you feel like writing is a major challenge? Or are you a natural writer?

If you aren’t clear on “what is content”, you can read my other blog about that here.

Today I want to help set you free in regards to sharing your brilliance through written content.

Many clients ask me “how long should my blog be?” and I get the feeling that they don’t really like my answer.

I get the feeling that people need a container or they want to be told or they are just awesome and they want to do the best thing. They want to be wise and take advice from someone who really knows what they’re talking about to make the most of their time and energy and get it right. 

The thing is: this is your creative expression. 

Sharing content is part of your expansive, human, creative expression and what I would really like to offer you is to experience freedom of creative expression in your written content and marketing. 

I would also like to offer you a couple of concrete ideas and suggestions, practical ideas that I have used to help me with my writing. 

I have not spent much time practicing writing. 

When I was younger I was really great at maths so I didn’t really Focus much on my writing because I found it challenging whereas maths was naturally easy. I’m a bit lazy sometimes so I would just naturally gravitate to what was easy and shy away from what was hard. 

Now that I’m a big grown-up girl, I am up for the challenge of writing and I’m almost enjoying the practice haha.  

A few things have been very helpful for me in creating written content. 

Don’t get me wrong, I can write. 

I did a commerce degree and I wrote long essays and reports in the academic style of writing. Learning how to write for my own marketing and business has taken me a long time. It hasn’t felt natural. It hasn’t felt easy. I have actually shied away from writing & found that I can create video fairly easily. So my content has rested heavily on video until last year or so. 

Even now when I sit down to write and I look at a blank piece of paper I semi seize-up and freak out. 

So: how to write content and how long should your blog be.

Let’s do it the other way.

First of all let’s look at some super famous, semi famous and not so famous (although they should be) bloggers. Sometimes looking at other people’s writing can be inspiring and sometimes it can be intimidating. So in this process let’s try not to get bogged down in comparison or worry about your own style. 

What I’m hoping to share here is really just freedom. I’m hoping that you will see that the written word in marketing land has a great deal of variation, personal freedom of expression and options.

Example blogs 

https://seths.blog/ 

Seth’s Blog

this is Seth Godin blog. He is pretty super famous. What I love about his blog is he right every single day. personally I think back to major accomplishment because I don’t find writing everyday easy. The other thing I love about this blog is the variation in length. In my mind this blog is a beautiful example of how free you can be with your writing. You don’t need to fit into any container around how many words you write for your blog. I hope this blog sets you free in terms of length.

https://corbettbarr.com/whats-wrong-with-social-media/ 

Corbett Barr’s blog

 What I love about Corbett’s website is the intentional minimalism. it is such a strong contrast to most of current marketing and online media. I have a whole video about his web site which you can view here. I would say that corbett’s blog is an example of a more classic blog style with longer blogs. He has no focus on SEO or images to make it sparkly and spiffy. He is just keeping the focus on what he has written and he obviously likes writing. I hope that this example shows you that you can just focus on your message and don’t worry about lots of bells and whistles if all those things don’t come naturally to you. if you love to write you can just write.

https://leoniedawson.com/blog/ 

Leonie Dawson’s blog

 Leonie Dawson is a creative Powerhouse. She does very nicely in her business and doesn’t really care about fitting into any boxes. I find that so inspiring. Leonies blogs very greatly in length and instructure. She doesn’t try to apply any rules to her blogs and she really just creates whatever she wants and publishes it as often as she wants. Unlike set she doesn’t blog every day and unlike Corbett she doesn’t keep it simple and basic. She sprinkles it up with fun images personal anecdotes and other engaging content.  I hope this blog sets you free in terms of how personal you can be in your blog and writing. 

https://melaniejwhite.com/podcast/ 

Melanie White’s blog

 This blog is by the brilliance white. My team and I help Melanie to deliver her blog. She creates a podcast and then we transcribe it, lightly edited and turn it into a blog post. this method can also be applied to video content and is perfect for people like me or other people who just aren’t really in love with writing.  I love to use rev for transcription and some people love to use otter for transcription. There are loads of options for transcribing. I actually wrote this blog using a Google doc and the tool called voice typing. There are so many options for getting written content created and they don’t necessarily involve typing on a keyboard or writing on paper. I hope this blog shows you how you can use audio or video content to create writing and skip writing all together. 

Practical tips

Whenever I sit down to write, I look at the blank page and I seize up.
But I have been managing to write blogs, and social media captions and emails and sales pages. Now, I’m going to share my most recent writing success tips. I hope they are helpful. 

Just write anything.

I get over perfectionism and worry by just getting started. I don’t have high expectations of anything awesome coming out. I just write anything, without judgement and expectation. I have been doing some free-association writing, like journaling, in my personal life and I think this is helping. 

Talking it out.

I sit there and talk it out. Even for parts of this blog, I spoke it out and typed what I was saying. This helps me to write in a way that sounds most naturally like me. Plus, if it doesn’t make sense to say it, just writing it down won’t help. The message needs to be clear enough to be understood as someone reads it and I find that just talking it out helps a lot. 

Use a transcribing tool. 

Sometimes I need to just pop an idea out and I can’t wait to get to a keyboard so I create a voice memo in my phone, then send it off to a transcription service. Some people lately have been recommending Otter and in the past I’ve used Rev. I also like to use Tools>Voice typing in a Google doc. However you need to do it is fine! I heard that Brene Brown writes her books by setting aside a weekend and getting some girlfriends over to tease out the ideas. 

Set a timer.

I like to allocate a 15 minute slot when I’m writing sales pages. I use George Kao’s copywriting tips in this video and write for 15 minutes per section. Having a time constraint and a specific prompt has been helping me a lot. 

What do you do to get writing? 

I hope this has been helpful. I look forward to reading some of your brilliance soon. 

“I pay my respects and acknowledge the people of the Yuin Nation, traditional custodians of the land on which I live and work. I also pay respect to all Elders — past, present and future.”

Learn more about Online Marketing and Business that doesn’t require you to sellout on your soul.

Do you just want to talk to me about your business and website?

I’d love to chat. You can book a free chat and we can discuss website set up and all of the other things I mentioned here. We can even set it all up of ryou and save you the headace. 

Go ahead and book a free chat here: 

BOOK HERE

What is content? And how to make more

What is content? And how to make more

by | Jun 2, 2021 | Content, Facebook™, Instagram™, Marketing, Mindset, Productivity, Social Media, Strategy, Time saving, Video, Video & YouTube, Website

I often hear people say that they are “Content Strategists” or the explain how to “Create Content”.

And although I know what content is, it seems to me to be a weird and jargon-ey term that causes so much confusion.

I was thinking that we could just rename it to: “Sharing your brilliance”

Because that is all we really need to do. We all know so much and have so much brilliance to share. But to clarify: what is content? And how can you make more?

Content comes in so many different forms. 

It can be: 

Image based

Written

Video

Audio

I am sure there are more categories too that I’ve glazed over.

And then there’s the length. I’m calling them micro (or snippet), small and long.

Examples: 

A reel on Instagram = I would say that is a micro-video. 

An Instagram image post with a caption = is a written and image small piece of content. 

A Facebook text only post around 2000 words = a long, written piece of content. 

That same Facebook post on your blog with images as well = is a long, image and written piece of content. 

A podcast of the same article would be = a long, audio piece of content. 

Using Headliner to turn that podcast into a video makes a snippet of video content. 

Transcribing that podcast into a written blog with images = is a long, written and image piece of content

But more important than the classifications and definitions is the purpose.

For a long time I found it really hard to create content and I did not enjoy creating content.

I spent a long time creating content with the idea in mind that I had to do it to reach clients and that content would help me sell my services. The only content I was able to make easily were “how-to” videos. I think these felt easy because they were of service to my clients with low expectations of reward. They were more of a selfless service. 

In the yoga tradition I studied for many years, selfless service is called karma yoga. In karma yoga you work for others and try to release your expectations of reward. 

Recently, I have been loving creating content. Short videos, long videos, short written posts, longer writing. All kinds. And I think what has changed is my frame for why I create content. 

Now, I create content as a practice for myself. As more of an enquiry and creative expression. The things I think about it are more like: 

“How can I say this in 60 seconds?”

“I wonder if anyone agrees with this?”

“How clearly and simply can I explain this in writing?”

“Can I explain those instructions in writing?”

“I wonder what my peeps think about this idea?”

And now I never really think: 

“I need to create this so I can sell my offer/service”

If I want to offer my service I just do it. I create a separate post, or separate piece of writing that speaks directly to the offer. 

Sometimes, while I’m developing offers, I do some research and get excited about that topic so I’ll naturally share about it, but since I separated my selling and my content, my content feels a lot cleaner and a lot free-er. I feel that I can experiment more and genuinely share with people who I care about. 

This is my story around creating more content. 

I wonder – what do you think about when you try to create content? Could those thoughts be hindering your ability to create content like mine were? 

“I pay my respects and acknowledge the people of the Yuin Nation, traditional custodians of the land on which I live and work. I also pay respect to all Elders — past, present and future.”

Learn more about Online Marketing and Business that doesn’t require you to sellout on your soul.

Do you just want to talk to me about your business and website?

I’d love to chat. You can book a free chat and we can discuss website set up and all of the other things I mentioned here. We can even set it all up of ryou and save you the headace. 

Go ahead and book a free chat here: 

BOOK HERE