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134. Maximise Your Impact With This Content Creation Plan

14 Dec 2021 | By Salome Schillack

Planning out your 2022 content calendar? Don’t do another TikTok dance until you’ve turned into this week's episode of The Shine Show, because it’s going to save you a TON of time and maximize the impact you have online! 

Ever feel like your 'brain ink' dries up when it comes to content creation? Getting stuck in a content rut isn’t fun. Or even worse, have you had a surge of clever content ideas that you excitedly share with your audience, only to be met with crickets.....and an obligatory ‘like' from Mom. (You're not alone…this happens to everyone!)

I get how frustrating it can be! But it doesn't have to be this way.

Here’s the thing. Content is the key to turning a cold lead into a warm lead into a paying, super-fan student. So if you want to build your list, make more sales, have more predictability in your business (AKA all of us);  then….yes, content creation is ABSOLUTELY worth the effort!

That's why on today's episode of The Shine Show, I'm going to give you a step-by-step plan to get you out of the content funk and come up with a year's worth of content in as little as one day!

When content started to suck the creative life out of me, I developed what I like to call a content 'ecosystem'. It's a super simple strategy that allows all the moving ‘content’ parts from my podcast, EDM's, social media posts (shout out to you for being here today), and even my course content all work together to grow eachother!

Suddenly….I was inspired, motivated, excited about serving my audience by creating content, not to mention it saved me a TON of time and is a key component to finding new, warm leads and building deeper and stronger connections with my audience.

And I know it will do the same for you!

My team has created a visual of the ecosystem strategy below..

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Download your copy, grab a pen, tune in and get ready to map out the ultimate content plan for the new year. It's going to make your 2022 content planning soooooo much easier!

XXX

Salome

 

P.S Look, it's a real-life example of my content ecosystem! Did you find today's episode helpful? Slide into my DMs and let me know what steps you'll be taking to link all your 'circles' together! 

When you subscribe and review the podcast not only does that give me the warm and fuzzies all over, it also helps other people to find the show.

When other people find the show they get to learn how to create more freedom in their lives from their online courses too!!

So do a good deed for all womenkind and subscribe and review this show and I will reward you with a shout out on the show!!

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(00:00):

Hello and welcome to episode number 134 of The Shine Show, and today's episode is called Maximize Your Impact with this Content Creation Plan. And in today's episode, you are going to learn a very easy, repeatable, replicable system that I use to create all of my content and to make sure that every little piece of content I create feeds into another part of my business so that they all end up building on each other. Enjoy.

(00:38):

Giving up your time and freedom to make money is so 2009. Hi, I'm your host, Salome Schillack, and I help online course creators launch, grow, and scale their businesses with Facebook and Instagram ads so that they can make more money and have an even bigger impact in the world. If you're ready to be inspired to dream bigger, launch sooner, and grow your online business faster, then tune in because you are ready to shine, and this is The Shine Show.

(01:12):

Today. I want to give you a model. You know how much I love a model, a picture, a sketch, a little bit of a visual representation that's going to make a lot of things easier for you when you sit down and plan the content you are going to create in 2022. And the reason I'm giving you this model is because when I came up with myself for my own business, it completely changed my motivation to sit down and create content, my inspiration to get out there and serve my community and give them a consistent flow of good quality content, both on the podcast and also on social media, and it made it a ton easier.

(02:11):

And the other part that is great about this model is it acts like a feedback loop. So everything you do has multiple purposes, which means whenever somebody finds you on social media or they find you on your podcast or your blog or your video blog, or YouTube or Twitter or Pinterest or TikTok or Snapchat, or wherever your people are, it brings them into an ecosystem. And that means more warm leads for your business, and warm leads always mean more sales of your online courses and your memberships.

(02:52):

So what I did is I drew a picture, and I am going to have my team put this picture up on the website. So you can go to episode 134 of The Shine Show, you can just go to the website, go to my website, shineandsucceed.com, find episode 134, and the picture will be there. But if you are not in front of your computer right now or you're running on the treadmill or driving in your car, this is a super easy picture to imagine. It is just four circles. Can you imagine four circles? Yes, of course, you can.

(03:27):

Okay. So in the middle is a circle, and that circle is called paid content. And by paid content, I mean all of the things you sell, the online courses, the memberships, everything that people who are in those either memberships or courses, they are your biggest fans. They have paid money to hang out with you and they love learning from you. So in the middle, I want you to picture a circle. It's called paid content. And then, right at the top of that circle is the second circle. So it's at 12:00, and it is called your large format content. By large format content, I mean your podcast, your blog, your video blog, whatever the big piece of content is that you create at least once a week or maybe once every other week that you usually typically email to your email list. So large format content at 12:00.

(04:42):

And then, we're going to have two more circles, and the one circle will be around 4:00 and the other one around 8:00. When I use these times, I am literally meaning like if you were pretending to look at a clock and that's where these circle would be. So paid content in the middle. At 12:00, slightly overlapping with the paid content is the long form content, which is your blog, your podcast, or your vlog. At 4:00, we have another circle, and this one is your email list content, everything you send your email, email list content. And then at 8:00, we have another circle, and this one is your socials.

(05:33):

So four circles. And we are going to start by talking about each of these circles and then we're going to connect all of these circles with little arrows. So it's a super simple thing. I mean, look, I am always worried when I go super visual on the podcast. So just do me a favor and just pretend you see a circle in front of you. Pretend there's a circle at 12, pretend there's a circle at 4, pretend there's a circle at 8, okay? Four circles. They all have arrows pointing to each other, back and forth to each other so that they are all interlinked and interconnected, and each one serves the other one and that one also serves the next one. So if you look at it, you will see that it is a little bit of a feedback loop. It is a community maybe. Maybe we can call it a system. It's definitely... Yeah, I would definitely say it's an ecosystem.

(06:38):

Okay. So let's start at 12:00, your long game content, your large format content. Your large format content is the big thing that you do. The purpose of your large format content is to give people who come to find you a reason to stay. The purpose of your large format content is to add value to them. The purpose is to show them and demonstrate to them that you understand what you are teaching.

(07:17):

So when I create podcast episodes, I sit down and I go, "Ah, if I have to think about my ideal customer, if I have to think about you guys, you who are listening here, and I think about someone who is on the side where they've already purchased something from me, so they've either bought A-Lister or The Launch Lounge or they're a client, what do I create for them? What do they want to hear from me? What's going to build trust with them? What is going to entertain them? What is going to educate them? What is going to show them that I know my staff? And what are the same things that I want to do if that person I'm talking to is someone who is not on the other side of buying from me? And then, what do those two people have in common? How can I serve both of them in the same episode? How do I serve both students and non-students in the same episode, given the fact that students and non-students probably have the same questions, probably have the same problems, probably have the same issues, probably have the same struggles."

(08:40):

And sometimes it's just easier to sit down when you brainstorm your long format content to just think about the questions your students ask you, think about the problems your students have. And then, just imagine what your student was feeling two or three years before they became your student. And that's where you start with creating your large format content, your long game content. The purpose of this content is not to be on every day. This type of content, you need to be able to batch. You need to be able to sit down and create 3 or 6 or 12 episodes of this content in one go.

(09:28):

And there's often reoccurring themes in these content. There might be a few different pillars. And by pillars, I mean you could have different segments in your audience and you might serve each of these segments. So one week you would talk about one certain issue, another week, you might talk about another one. So for me, it might be Facebook ads one week, and then launching another week, and then building a business another week, and then mindset stuff the next week. So there's the four key pillars inside my business. So what are your long format content pillars? And can you sit down and list off at least 12 ideas for episodes or for blog posts or for video blogs right out of the gate? Can you come up with at least 12 episode ideas just by thinking about what your ideal client needs and wants and what that person may have wanted or needed before they started with working with you because you have to talk to both audiences. That is how this whole machine really works in your favor.

(10:44):

The other person who does this really well that you guys can definitely look up is Brooke Castillo, The Life Coach School. Brooke's podcast is purely 100% created from the problems her students inside The Life Coach School present to her. So she would show up and coach students, and then when a lot of people present with the same problem, she creates podcast episode about it. Now, is it only relevant to people who are paying her to be in her membership? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. It is just as relevant to her audience who have not yet decided to pay her to come and be in her community. But she uses the needs of her students, the current students, to come up with ideas for her podcast. Her podcast has so many episodes and is so in line with what her members and her membership wants from her that she has, over time, the long game been able to get to a point where she can have a call-to-action on every episode for people to join her membership, and they do every single week. She gets new members joining her membership from her podcast.

(12:09):

So what I want you to do is sit down and think about your long form content. Because if you really sit down and plan this, you should be able to batch it and then you should never ever, ever be running out of content or be procrastinating on getting started or be skipping weeks. You should really have at least 12 episodes up your sleeve all the time. Okay. That is circle number 12:00. That is circle number long game. That is at the top. It needs to feed into the paid content, which is the middle circle.

(12:49):

But also the circle long form content, the 12:00 content, also has an arrow that points towards your email list. And the email list has an arrow that points back to the large format content, right? So these two are in a feedback loop with each other. Your long format content, you're going to send that to your email list every week, right? So every week, you create an email, you send the email to your list, that is your email content. That email has to send them to your long form content. So I create, when I release a new podcast episode, we create an email that goes out to my students and my email list and it promotes the podcast. I also send out an email every week, a different email, a new email, to all of my students, to all of the members of The Launch Lounge and all of the members of A-Lister.

(14:03):

And guess what is one of the things that I talk about in that email? It is the podcast content. Because here's the thing, think about all the memberships that you are in, think about all the courses that you're in, you're not necessarily reading every email you get, are you? Or are you listening to every podcast episode that goes up? Not necessarily. So it's important for me that I create email content that goes out to my list promoting my long format content, but I all also separately promote my long format content to my students, because do you know who the best quality listener is? It is the student, and that's the same for you. So if you are one of my students and you're listening right now, shout out to you. You're my favorite. And if you're listening and you're not one of my students, then you're not my favorite. I'm just kidding. You know I'm kidding. You are absolutely my favorite too because you are working on becoming one of my students.

(15:07):

Okay. So the circle at 12:00, the long format content, points towards the email list, and the email list points back to the long format content, right? Now, the email list circle points towards the other circle that sits at 8:00, and that is the social media. And the social media circle points back to the email list because the two things are interrelated again. They are interconnected. They work together. Now, I'm going to drop a bomb. Can I drop a bomb? Are you okay? If you're driving, maybe pull over because I'm going to say something and it's going to be very, very controversial and I'm going to get a hate mail for this. Social media is not important. There, I said it. Social media is not important. Oh my, I can't wait to get the hate mail. I'm going to get the hate mail.

(16:13):

Here's the thing. You guys have heard me say so many times, "What do you need to make money online," you need an audience and you need an offer. It is super duper, duper tempting to think that an audience is people who hang out with you on social media. Maybe five years ago, it was. Maybe 10 years ago, it was definitely. Five years ago, it started changing. When I started out, I built an audience within a couple of months on Periscope that I sold my first online course to and I ran a few ads and they were super cheap, spent $400 to fill up a webinar. Today, that is unheard of. Social media is not an audience. Social media is a quick fix that will only get you up and running if you're really good at it.

(17:15):

If you are like me and you have a bit of a love-hate relationship with being on social media, especially then you have to understand that you do not need social media. You need a presence somewhere that is a platform where there are eyeballs, that is not your website because you already have your website up because your podcast, your blog, and your vlog lives on your website, and we've already talked about that, but it helps to have to use social media. And by social media, I mean YouTube as well. YouTube is included in that, not just Instagram or Facebook. I also mean YouTube. I also mean Pinterest. Although YouTube and Pinterest are both search engines really, but they're both great, great, fantastic platforms. LinkedIn. If your ideal customer is on LinkedIn, man, I feel sorry for you because you got to hang out on LinkedIn. But LinkedIn is a great platform for the right people. Maybe TikTok is your thing. I am really succumbing to the pressure of getting a TikTok account. No, I'm not there. No, no. Snapchat, maybe that's it. Maybe Twitter. Can I tell you guys something? I created a Twitter account way back when I started the business because I thought I needed one. I have never ever understood Twitter. I just don't get it. I don't understand why you want to communicate in short sentences with people.

(19:00):

Anywho, that's my little rant about social media. I will stop ranting about social media. The only purpose that social media has, hear me, hear me, my friends, the only purpose social media has is it builds your email list. That's all it does. All the other shenanigans you do in between the call-to-actions to build your list is just shenanigans to keep people entertained and to build relationship with people up to the point where you can invite them onto your email list. Everything else is shenanigans.

(19:35):

Okay. Now, it's very important that you send the people on your email list to your social media. It's the easiest way to get a lot of engagement on your social media fast. Pay to build your list and send them to your social media. Once you have them on your list, then you can distribute them anywhere, right? Point them anywhere. So what I do that works really well for me is I run ads to a lead magnet, the five-day video training that helps you get your first list building ad up. And in that five-day training, even though the thing that I teach them is very practical, at the end of each lesson, I give them a little bit of a... I want to motivate people and I want to inspire people. I want to help them take action. And so, I've created a post on Instagram and I show them the post in the video and I have a link to the post below the video and I invite people to come and comment on that image.

(20:42):

So the first one is one that says, "I can do hard things." Everybody who starts out with the five-day video training comes to Lesson 1 or to the end of Lesson 1. And at the end of Lesson 1, I invite them to come and say, "I can do hard things" on the Instagram post. So now, I don't have to hustle my heinie off on social media to get engagement because as long as I'm running ads and as long as I'm giving people good quality content, they're coming to my Instagram every single day and commenting. And I've already paid for that person. That person is already on my list, so it's not backwards. I'm not building these people on social media then sending them to my list. I am paying to get them on my list because that's the highest quality lead, and then sending them to Instagram so that I can get all the engagement that Zuckerberg wants. And so, that I can get the social proof that he wants in order to put my free content in front of more people. So social media only serves one purpose, and that is to build your email list and to get engagement up there. So use it as such and use your email list to drive people to social media because your email list is your warmest audience aside from your paid students, but use that.

(22:06):

Okay. So from socials, there's an arrow that goes to long form content, and from long form content, there's an arrow that comes back to social media. So when I say to you guys at the end of the episode, "Come and find me on Instagram, I'm @salome.schillack, and tell me what you learn. Tell me one thing you learned from this episode," I am sending you back from my long form content to my social media. And when I post on social media about my podcast, I am sending people on social media back to my long form content. Do you see the little social... Do you see this little ecosystem that I've built? It's a beautiful hub and everything builds the other thing up. Everything works to lift the other thing up.

(23:02):

So from my long form content, I send emails. From my emails, I send them to socials. From my socials, I send them to long form. From long form, I send them to socials. From socials, I send them to email. From email, I send them to long form content. And in the middle of that sits my paying students, my paid content. And from there, I send them to my email list. I make sure they know I have a podcast. If they found me in a launch and they've never consumed a single podcast episode and now they're a member, they are going to be so much more likely to stay a member of The Launch Lounge if they also listen to the podcast. They are so much more likely to stay in my world if they also follow me on social media.

(23:55):

So here's my challenge to you. Can you today sit down and draw these four circles out for yourself and come up with a plan for how you're going to use your paid content, in other words, your students? How are you going... Not use them. You know what I mean. Don't go there. How are you going to send your students to your free content? How are you going to create free content for your students? How are you going to get your students to build your Instagram account for you? And how are you going to use your Instagram account to get students? And how are you going to do the same thing with your email list? So that's my little job for you this week.

(24:44):

It's my call-to-action to you is sit down and map out this model, or go to my website, shineandsucceed.com, and find episode 134 and have a look at this model and ask yourself, "What is one thing you can do to connect these different circles inside your business with each other a bit better so that you can save time, so that you can build longer-lasting and stronger and deeper connections with your leads and with your clients, with your students so that you can play the long game to build a sustainable business that is profitable and gives you the life of freedom that you want, puts you in charge, gives you the power you need to really be able to make the decisions in your life?"

(25:39):

All right, my friends, I hope you have a fantastic, fabulous, wonderful week and I will see you again next week. Take care. Bye.

(25:52):

Well, there you have it. That was my beautiful content creation plan that is going to help you maximize your impact and get more out of every single piece of content you create. And don't forget, you can go to the show notes. It is on our website, shineandsucceed.com/tss for The Shine Show. You'll find it there. And in this week's show notes, we have that visual representation of the content map I have been talking you through, so go have a look on our website. And I'll see you next week.

(26:35):

Thank you so much for listening. If you had fun, please come back next week and remember to hit that Subscribe button so you never miss a thing.