“Why” to create content

“Why” to create content

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.”

Websites need terms and conditions and privacy policies don’t they?

Websites need terms and conditions and privacy policies don’t they?

Part of having a website built is considering whether or not to include Terms and Conditions. And what should they say?

I can help you to create a Terms and Conditions page and get your privacy policy onto your website if you need it.

Do you?

If you advertise goods or services through a website you MUST have T&Cs under Australian Consumer Law.

Michelle Marie Whitehead

As long as I’ve been in business, I’ve been refering my clients to Michelle Marie Whitehead for all legal concerns. 

We were both in a business building online course back in 2015/6 and I was lucky enough to connect with Michelle’s unique and loving approach to legals as I got to know her. 

I actually used Michelle’s Do it Yourself Terms and Conditions package to craft my own Terms and Conditions. 

Michelle is also a complete ninja at Intellectual Property and Trademark law if you want to get legal advice around your unique services.

Read her latest blog all about T&C’s here

Ok ok back to Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions.

Let’s look at one at a time.

Privacy Policy

You need a privacy policy if your business generates $3million a year or more.

If you don’t have a revenue that high there are a few situations where you still need one, like if you offer private health such as naturopathy or support people with weight loss.

Check out the details from the Privacy Act here to clarify whether you need a Privacy Policy or not:

According to the Australian Government your privacy policy should include:

  • your name and contact details
  • what kinds of personal information you collect and store
  • how you collect personal information and where it is stored
  • the reasons why you need to collect personal information
  • how you’ll use and disclose personal information
  • how users can access their personal information, or ask for a correction
  • how they can lodge a complaint if they think their information has (been) mishandled, and how you’ll handle their complaint
  • if you are likely to disclose their information outside Australia and, if practical, which countries you are likely to disclose the information to

I highly recommend using Michelle’s DIY product for the human face of your legals. She really does make it a loving process rather than all this blah blah.

Terms and Conditions

I am not a lawyer so I am not happy giving advice about this topic in depth. Iinstead, I’m going to let Michelle explain her approach to T&C’s which I love. 

“If you advertise goods or services through a website you MUST have T&Cs under Australian Consumer Law. Even more importantly, well-written Website Terms and Conditions can create a connection between you and those thinking about buying from you, increasing trust, reducing anxiety, letting people know that they are in the right place, and educating them about what it is like to work with you so they can give informed consent.”
“When you have T&Cs that are not a good fit – that have been found on the internet or drafted by someone who didn’t truly understand and adore your business – there is an energetic dissonance.
They feel out of tune and unreliable, like an uncomfortable alien appendage hanging off your website because “should” have it, not because you want it to be there.
This is even worse if you have “borrowed” your T&Cs from someone else, because this is a breach of their intellectual property.
Trusting your safety to something stolen is never going to feel wonderful.
Do you really want to build a sense of wrongness into your business foundations?”
“Imagine how it would feel to have legals that were working with you to draw in your ideal clients and manifest the working relationships you desire?
This can happen when you have poured your own heart and soul into their creation, when you feel like they empower you rather than weighing you down.
When you write your legal documents in the same language you use for your marketing, when you understand every word of them and when they are in complete alignment with your values and vision, your T&Cs become an essential tool that supports you in doing business YOUR WAY and saves you a huge amount of ENERGY & EFFORT.”
Above in quotes by Michelle Marie Whitehead.
I hope this blog has been helpful and I wonder if you have figured out whether you need T&C’s + a Privacy Policy? 

“I pay my respects and acknowledge the people of the Yuin Nation, 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?

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.”

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: 

What is content? And how to make more

What is content? And how to make more

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.”

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: 

How to figure out what you should blog and write about

How to figure out what you should blog and write about

Great!

You’ve decided that it’s time. You are ready to start writing and sharing your brilliance with your audience and the world. Your next thought now might be: What you should write about?”.

In this blog I will share some ways to generate ideas for your writing so you can have a big list of inspiring topics to dip into whenever you sit down to write.

This information also applies to “what should you make videos about” if you are into making videos.

A couple of important things to consider are:

What topic/s do you want to write about?

and

What do your ideal clients seek information about?

1. Talk to your people

Current Clients

If you are doing sessions with your ideal clients, you are getting great ideas on tap. Every session can provide you with ideas for writing.
What was the client’s challenge?
What did you do to help them?

I’m sure you’ve had days like me where you seem to say the same thing to about 5 people in the one week. THIS is great information to share as a written blog or video.

Friends + Market research

Current clients are a reliable source of ideas but you may not have many or any of those yet!
Other people that are YOUR people are your trusted friends. You could also have market research conversations with people who would be perfect clients with no pressure for them to buy from you.

The sole purpose of those conversations is to find out what they type in the Google search bar when they look for solutions or what questions and challenges they have around your topic of expertise.
You can do this more informally by being a great listener at parties and gatherings.
People are a great source of ideas.

A side note about your own ideas

You may not have a problem thinking up great ideas on your own.
Yay! 

Why are you reading this article?? LOL 🙂

Your own ideas are great, however I would make one loving caution about your own ideas. 

You may find that when you write from your own well of ideas that your writing doesn’t do as well as you had thought. As in: it doesn’t seem to get a response from your audience. 

If this is happening, I would suggest that you may be writing at a level too far ahead of your current client’s level of growth or understanding. 

Sometimes I write articles that I think are gold and no-one gives any hoot about them. And other times, I create something that I think is throwaway and that everyone already knows and people go mad over it. 

So, if you are experiencing this, I encourage you to have some conversations with friends who are like your ideal clients. Have those client or market research conversations to make sure you are speaking the right language for where your people are right now. 

2. Use the Google search 

Bring to mind a topic you want to write about. I used this method for MailChimp. 

(i) Type the idea into the Google search bar and don’t click search. 

Have a look at the drop down. 

Do you see a bunch of suggested search ideas?

These are ideas for blog articles or videos. 

(ii) Further down the page it might say “People also ask” with a bunch of questions and drop downs. The headings of these drop downs are also great titles for your blog. 

These two options give you ideas that the Google robot has noticed people asking a lot. So even if you don’t have conversations with people because you are clear on your topic, this method can help tease out a lot of ideas that a lot of people have definitely searched for in Google.

Creating articles that help you be found via Google search is a method of blogging that uses Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Google is a search engine, and you can focus on optimising your website and blogs to show up better in Google search.

If you are interested in how to grow your business with a blog, I have a course about that. I delivered it with the brilliant Melanie White. I also have an SEO course with the ONLY person I recommend for SEO, Karen Phillips. This one is called “How to get the right website visitors”. Both of those courses can help you with your SEO if this is important to you and your business. 

3. Use the YouTube search 

Similar to the Google method above, you can type your topic or vague idea into YouTube and see what other content exists on the topic. Simply type your idea into the YouTube search bar and look at the ideas that drop down. 

Once you have mined those ideas, click “Search” and have a look at the kind of content other people are creating and the other titles being used. You can write an article with the exact same title if you like!

Now listen though: DON’T GET INTIMIDATED IN THIS STEP

Even though other people may have already created content that you want to create, no-one is quite like you. You have a particular configuration and lens to see life through that is of unique value to the world.

So PLEASE still go ahead and write that blog!

4. Use Keywords Everywhere

Keywords Everywhere is a free tool you can add to your Chrome browser. It enables you to see more when  you do a Google search, when you do a YouTube search and when you view YouTube videos. It actually does way more than I use it for. I am not a major ninja at it but this method of using it simply will definitely help you find writing ideas. 

So, once you have installed Keywords Everywhere to your Chrome browser and you look at your results using the above Google and YouTube methods, you will see a bunch more info on the side:

These are just more things to, hopefully, spark inspiration for you. The beauty of these methods is, Google is such a large database. Millions (or billions) of people are using this every day. And it’s free for you to mine for ideas. Yay! 

Have these ideas been helpful for you? Let me know how you go and tag me in your social media post if you used this method 🙂

“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.”

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: 

Why can’t I do what my mentor tells me??

Why can’t I do what my mentor tells me??

Do you find it hard to follow the instructions of your business mentor? 

Do you see the sense of what she is saying and really want to get your business up and growing, but there is some kind of block?

I would preface that question by asking you this: 

Do you have another job? 

Are you currently still employed? 

Do you acknowledge that being a mother is another job?

The thing is: 

Sometimes we choose a mentor because we love her success. She is doing so well and she tells us that she is going to help us succeed using the tools and methods that she used to grow her business. 

 

Now let me ask you another question: 

Did your mentor have another job or children in her care while she established her business?

If your mentor is not a mum, or she did not establish her business as a side hustle

AND

If you are trying to establish your business while you have a job or are parenting 

I WANT TO YOU STOP RIGHT NOW

INHALE

SEND YOURSELF SOME LOVE 

EXHALE

I think it’s great to have a mentor that inspires you and whose ideas really resonate with you. Someone who is really aligned on a values level with you – so you don’t have to compromise your integrity. 

BUT

I know from my own experience, that certain mentors advice can become either: 

Un-aligned from my personal values

Or

Unachievable for me to exactly replicate due to my responsibilities. 

For instance, my current mentor, George Kao, works 40 hours a week and has no kids. 

So, when I see his calendar, his content output and his success, I set my levels at exactly half of his at the most.

Because I have 20 hours a week while my kids are at school. 

Plus, the emotional intensity and unexpected requirements of parenting impact on my business and my ability to be available to work. 

That’s the whole reason I wanted to be in business.

For me, being a parent is more of a priority than my business.

Don’t get me wrong, I love being in business and I love what I do, but obviously, if I have to choose between my kids and my clients, that my family is going to trump the biz.

And the other beauty of being a parent is: I don’t have to worry about whether or not I am living on purpose! My purpose wakes me up every morning with a cuddle. 

So being “purpose driven” in my business has been harder for me to clarify, because my main purpose is the family, and having a business that is values aligned, that allows me flexibility to fulfill my parenting responsibilities and generates a bit of revenue is actually enough business clarity for me. 

I don’t need to go down some values investigation purpose reflection exercises. When I have in the past, I just felt weird and confused. 

This whole rant started for me because I saw a social media post where someone had suggested something along the lines of: 

If you are procrastinating, go and do something of service to others. 

I felt really defensive and ticked off when I read this. 

I personally feel that if I am procrastinating – maybe I need a break. Maybe I need some sensual self care. Maybe I need a cup of tea in the sun or a lay down. 

I’m usually serving others all night (my kids are still in my bed nearly every night). I’m serving others from the minute I wake up to the minute they go to sleep. And my business hours are my precious creative time to serve the world at large in a sustainable and self-nourishing way.

I am not into hustle. 

And I do a lot already!

So back off sister. 

And if you are a mum, or if you are growing your business on the side of a job: maybe you just need a day off. On the beach, or the forest, with your journal. Just laying in the warm rays of the sun. Daydreaming.

Just being.

It’s ok if you are “behind” but what really is “behind”?

Please don’t compare yourself to others who aren’t in the same boat as you. 

For sure, take advice and inspiration from them. Just don’t think you are going to have the same process as them. 

What has helped me the most is George Kao’s business levels (which you can learn about in this course). AND his recommendation that growing a business from nothing will take 1-5 years if you are working 40h a week. 

So by default, if you are working 5 hours a week in your business. It is just going to take a bit longer.

But you will get there. 

Your work IS important and your time is coming. 

Let’s do this – gently. 

Do you want to read more about Sustainable Business practices? I don’t mean recycled paper!!! I mean you can sustain it for 10-20 years! Read more here.

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.

Want more help with your online business presence?

Do you need a hand with all the different ways your business can show up online? Video, Facebook, website, Instagram, Facebook ads, email marketing. The list can be overwhelming. 

Book a complimentary chat with me and let's see if I can help: