Be Brilliant In Your Business Podcast, Episode 95 with Special Guest Abby Herman

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Content Creators Rejoice! Here's how to make your content go the extra mile for you.

My guest is Abby Herman, CEO and Founder of The Content Experiment and host of The Content Experiment Podcast. Abby helps small business owners develop and implement content strategies that work for them.

Abby is a kindred spirit, in that she doesn't believe that business owners should have to spend every waking hour creating content in order to make a living. Her motto, like mine, is more strategy, less busywork. The work you do up-front to gain clarity, get organized, and put some systems in place will pay off big when it comes to both your time and energy and your results using content.

In Episode 94, I made a pretty bold recommendation to take a Summer break from creating new content. Since Abby's an expert, and I really wanted to know what she thought about that, and if she had any recommendations for how to do it strategically.

Spoiler... she does! So let's jump in and talk with Abby Herman. (Or scroll down to read this interview below).

Ps, make sure you are subscribed to the show, and I’d love to hear what you think of this episode! Take a screenshot in your player and tag @bebrilliantpodcast on Instagram.

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Key Takeaways:

1. Batching allows you to create weeks or even months of content efficiently and ahead of time so that you don't burn out trying to keep up with it amidst the other daily needs of your business.

2. Repurposing content includes sharing the same content in new places (for example: publishing your podcast as a video on YouTube), modifying pieces of content for specific purposes (example: creating "audiogram" clips from an episode), or updating old content with new information (example: editing a popular 2019 blog post to be relevant today).

3. 3. The easiest way to repurpose content later is to create a content library that includes all the assets (graphics, copy, quotes, video, etc.). Airtable is a great tool for this.

4. When you are creating new content, make as many assets as you can, even if you don't use them now, and organized them in your library.

5. If you are "auditing" your old content to repurpose it, begin by choosing a content theme. Then look for content that fits your theme, and plug that into your library to see what you can reuse and what you may need to create. For example, my Summer Game Plan theme is EASE so I am only looking at old content that talks about making business easier (i.e. why it's important, how to streamline, proof and examples of business owners who now work less and earn more, etc.). If you focus on one theme, you'll move faster and build your library without getting overwhelmed.

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Episode Links

1. Schedule your Summer Game Plan Session

2. Gain access to radical business tools like 30 Day Done and Idea Catching inside The Maverick HQ.

3. Connect with Linsi @linsibrownson on Instagram.

4. Connect with Be Brilliant Podcast @bebrilliantpodcast on Instagram.

5. Tune in to The Content Experiment Podcast with Abby Herman.

6. Download the free Content Batching Guide from Abby.

7. Connect with Abby @thecontentexperiment on Instagram and at The Content Experiment website

8. Join The Content Mastery Lab for $1 for your first month with the code PODCAST.

9. Love this show? I would really appreciate your review in iTunes, Audible, or Spotify!

10. Credits: Sound production by hearnoevilmedia.com

Episode 95 Transcript

Linsi Brownson 0:08

You are listening to be brilliant in your business. The podcast that helps creative business owners take charge of your time and energy so you can run your business confidently without burning out. I'm your host, Linsi Brownson, and I'm here to deliver a creative cocktail of pep talks and practical tools to help you clear your head. Take action, and enjoy the process of running your business. Before we dive into today's episode, I want to welcome new listeners. I'm so glad you're here and I look forward to being part of your brilliant business. Be sure to hit the subscribe button and even better head to be brilliant listener.com to grab your new listener goodie bag. Are you ready? Let's go.

Linsi Brownson 0:54

Hey Mavericks. Welcome to the show. My guest today is Abby Herman, the creator of The Content Experiment and kindred spirit when it comes to being organized and strategic about how you spend your time when it comes to content creation.

So in Episode 94, I made a pretty bold recommendation to take a summer break from creating new content. So Abby's the expert, and I really wanted to know what she thought about that. And if she had any recommendations for how to do it strategically, spoiler she does. So let's jump in and talk with Abby Herman.

Linsi Brownson 1:36

This episode is brought to you by my summer gameplan session. Do your summer plans include turning up the heat with your income and getting lots of free time to refresh and enjoy the season, the summer gameplan session will help you do exactly that. In this one to one VIP session, we are going to create your sizzling strategy and an easy to implement plan to help you do less and earn more this summer. For more info head to Linsi brownson.com/gameplan.

And as a bonus, when you sign up, you'll receive the deck of my all time most useful scripts for creative businesses. These easy-to-use templates will save you from your most tedious and time consuming conversations once and for all. So instead of going cross-eyed at your keyboard all summer, you can get back to doing what matters. The summer gameplan. And bonus deck of scripts are a seasonal special. So it is a limited time offer. Because I plan to practice what I preach and enjoy the heck out of my summer too. Dive in quickly at Linsi brownson.com/gameplan.

Linsi Brownson 2:47

Hi, Abby, welcome to the show.

Abby Herman 2:50

Hey, thanks so much for having me.

Linsi Brownson 2:52

I'm so happy to have you here. First, because this topic of content creation and social media fatigue, this is something that has been on the minds of pretty much all of my clients lately, and me too. And so I know that you've got lots of great insight for working smarter and not harder when it comes to content creation. So I can't wait to talk to you. Yes. Awesome. So let's get started with just a quick intro to you introduce yourself to our listeners and tell them who you work with and how you help them.

Abby Herman 3:27

Yeah, so I'm Abby Herman. And I am the owner of the content experiment, which is a small but growing content marketing agency for online service-based business owners. We help business owners in two different ways. So I we do one on one work, where we help support clients with developing content strategies, and creating and implementing. So I actually like doing the scheduling of the content for business owners so that they can get on with doing the things that they love in their business. And so they don't have to feel that fatigue. And then the other side of the business is content mastery lab, which is a membership community, for business owners who are DIY in their content, and they need some help and support in just kind of not having to do it themselves. You know, we're not having to do it all by themselves. So we do we have a lot of accountability, we have trainings, and things like that to really help support them as they grow their businesses, and they grow their content.

Linsi Brownson 4:34

That is fantastic. And that brings me to a quick question for you, which is, what is sort of your philosophy as a small business owner when it comes to content creation? Do you believe that it's typically better for a content creator or for a business owner to begin by starting their own content and really learning that process and figuring out their message or do you think that it's fine for somebody to just hand it off to someone else? Right away.

Abby Herman 5:01

I think that business owners need to be really clear on their own voice and their own messaging before they hand it off. And I also think it's really important for them to know what the processes and what's involved in creating content. And usually they decide, Oh, my gosh, this is too much, I don't want to do this, which is totally fine. But I think I'm a big believer. And this is what I did my business like, I'm a big believer in slow growth, and figuring things out and learning the behind the scenes of my business and content and all of the pieces so that I know the pieces that I want to hand off to others. And so I was able to make really strategic and informed decisions about, you know, who I wanted to hire, and what kind of support I need. And I think it's really hard to do that, when you just decide you're gonna hand everything off at the beginning. So, and I, you know, when I think financially, I mean, marketing is is very time intensive, it's it, I mean, as everybody listening probably knows, it takes a lot of time to create content. And so it's not cheap to outsource it. So I think figuring it out on your own and kind of doing it on your own first, I believe is the best route for most business owners. Yeah,

Linsi Brownson 6:24

Okay. I thought you would probably say that and I totally agree. And it's funny, because marketing, in general is one of the areas where I find the business owners I work with are very quick, that's one of the first things that they do want to outsource. Because it is painful sometimes, and it is so time consuming. And when you are in that phase of not really knowing your voice, or you're you're still in kind of a sticky place, I guess I've tried to figure out how to say what it is that you want to say, it's very easy to be like, Can someone else just do this for me? I find that it's one of the biggest areas where I try to reel people back into the like, Okay, hold on, you're not quite there yet.

Linsi Brownson 7:08

And sometimes it's not even from a financial standpoint. But that's a really good point. Because hiring help is one thing, but hiring good help is another. And in marketing, I mean, the people that you work with, you want them to be so dialed in, that you it's just not something that you can outsource to someone who's just doing administrative stuff. So, right, getting yourself to that sweet spot place is is really important. So I love that you have this membership, where you kind of like train up the business owners on how to do this themselves and and help them not waste time and not make it as painful so that they can maybe eventually get to a place where they outsource it Or maybe not. Right?

Abby Herman 7:51

Yeah, some people really like to do it themselves. And you know, also to if you're going to host a podcast, or you're going to have a YouTube channel, you're going to be creating a good chunk of the content yourself working with someone on strategy, and you know, hire somebody to do the actual implementation. So loading the stuff to your email provider, loading the stuff to to YouTube, and all of that and scheduling things on social media, hire somebody to do that first, before you hire somebody to take over the content creation, like writing the show notes or writing the blog posts and writing the social media posts. To me that makes more sense, because that gets a really tedious part of the business of the marketing off of your plate first, so that you can focus on your voice and your messaging and all of that.

Linsi Brownson 8:42

Yeah, that is really good advice. Awesome. So if you don't mind, I want to jump in like right to the juicy stuff. Yes, I just released a podcast episode where I made this bold recommendation that business owners should take a summer break from creating new content. And instead of creating new stuff, I'm telling them to go back through their old content and really look to see what was their best stuff? What were their, you know, what was their audience most excited about? And what were they most excited about? And to repurpose it or updated even just a little bit, or sometimes even just reshare it all together? And I really want to know your opinion on that. Tell me honestly.

Abby Herman 9:28

So I am all for repurposing and it's funny because I also am, and did you create that episode because you're planning to or you have already decided that you're going to take a summer break? Is that why you did it?

Linsi Brownson 9:45

Yes, that part for sure.

Abby Herman 9:47

Okay, so I have a podcast as well, which you're gonna be on pretty soon. And I am taking a break from my own podcast for the summer. I'm doing it a little bit differently. Though I batched my content so that I would have new episodes coming out every week, throughout the entire summer, even though I batched, like four months at a time, which was a lot of work, by the way.

So I went through this whole batching process at the same time, like, I absolutely agree with you that repurposing is such a great way to get the most from your content. Not everybody knows that you've already put it out there. And so I'm all for that, if you feel like you need to take a break.

I think that there are ways to be really strategic about it. And to be careful with the way that you're doing it so that it isn't just like hitting, you know, copying and pasting social media posts and things like that. And putting those out there. Again, I think that there are strategic ways to do it, which we can totally talk about. But, but yeah, like, we don't need to constantly be recreating new content, consistency is key. We want to be consistent, we want to stay in front of our audience members. But that does not mean that we have to create a new blog post every single week, or that we need to have two new YouTube videos going live every week. We don't need to do that we can find ways to repurpose what we already have, and make it still relevant and still valuable to our audience members and to our own bottom line and our own business.

Linsi Brownson 11:35

Yeah, absolutely. So I'm glad to hear you say that. And I love specifically, I mean, no surprise that you are your main takeaway on that is the strategy is what's important here. So can we talk about that strategy? I'd really like to know, you know, what kind of system or process how do you organize that content? Or what's the best way to go about kind of reviewing what you've got and decide if you're going to reuse that?

Abby Herman 12:03

Yeah, so I think it's it's two totally different buckets. It's the original content creation when you're creating your regular content. So we're not talking about like the repurpose stuff right now, your regular content, I think having a system around that will make the repurposing piece a whole lot easier. So if you don't mind, can we talk about that piece first, and kind of what that looks like to make the repurpose easy. So I'm going to talk about batching. Again, too, because I just think it's so valuable, and it allows you to get a lot done in a really short period of time, and at the same time creating that content that you're going to repurpose later.

So when you batch content, you create a strategy, decide what's the content that I need to create for whatever the thing is that I'm launching, or releasing, or, or that I want to draw attention to in my business. So what is the content that I need for that? There's a lot of different ways to determine what that is, I won't go totally into it today, but figure out what it is you need to create and then have a system for actually creating it. And I actually have a batching guide that everyone can download for free. If you go to thecontent experiment.com/brilliant, you can grab the guide, and it walks you through step by step First, the importance of batching and why it's so valuable if you're a business but then also like how to do it. And essentially what you're doing is you're finding you're blocking off time on your calendar to sit down and create the content, whatever it happens to be. For me and for you. It's a podcast. So when are you going to schedule your podcast interviews? When are you going to find time to do intros and outros or to write the show notes or the social media posts for it like, when are you doing that and whether you are doing it yourself or you're outsourcing to team members, it's really important to like, set that that time aside and then honor that time, which I think is the most difficult.

Abby Herman 14:11

So put it in your calendar under the time and then find a system that works for you for creating that content. So whether that is sitting down and you want to write like let's say you want to do four blog posts for next quarter. So outline those know what the topics are going to be ahead of time, sit down, outline the topics, then you know, the next day, write each of the blog posts, and then the next day write the social media content for it. Whatever system works for you and everyone has a different system that works. As you're creating as you're doing that batching you know ahead of time, or maybe you don't but after this episode, you'll know ahead of time that you want to repurpose that content later like you want to be able To publish the content again and again, without having to just, you know, like, share the exact same caption or the exact same graphic. So as you're going through the batching process, find additional ways to share the content. So some of the things that we do for myself and for my clients is we go through, and if it's a blog post that has four main points, we will pull those main points out of the blog post and create, like one of the social share options will be to like create a carousel post. And so we'll create the graphics the same time, we're creating the other content that we're, you know, sharing that we're using to share. So it's already done. And then we store all that stuff in air table. So that it's right there with a link to we but we create kind of content libraries for all of our clients. So we'll include a link to the actual content, the live content, and then we'll include all of the graphics in there. Also, you could also do a poll in LinkedIn. So you could write that caption as you're writing the original content that you're using to share the piece and then create a poll. So maybe six weeks down the road, you can reshare, that blog post along with the poll to get more interaction on that post. So just find ways to create other shareable content relating to that piece of content. So for a podcast, it could be, we do some pull quotes for each of our guests, we do audiograms, you can change the graphic that you use for the audiogram and just use the same audio you don't have, it doesn't have to be something completely different, like make it look different. And the content itself is the same. It's totally up to you. Like some people get really particular about their Instagram feed, and they want all of the images to look different. And so find different ways to tweak them. And just create more content than you think you're going to need to share the pillar I call it pillar content that you're actually creating. So that's, that's one way to kind of front-load all of the repurposing piece through the whole batching process without having to sit down and like rethink about it six weeks from now or six months from now, or whenever you want to repurpose something else that I do, and this is repurposing other people's content. But something else that I like to do is find complementary topics. So if you are creating a podcast episode about taking a summer break, maybe you were a guest on someone else's podcast, around taking a summer break, you know, or taking some sort of break, or maybe just like overwhelmed, maybe you've talked about that on somebody else's podcast. So know that ahead of time have a place where you keep all of the podcast episodes that you have been on all of you, wherever you've been guesting have a place for you keep that with keywords, air table, again, is a great place to do this. And we and you can do it all in one air table base, and then go and then make sure you reshare it when you have that new content. So that's repurposing old content is still valuable. And as a podcast host, myself and Linsi you're podcast host, we love it when people share our episode. So find ways to as you're creating content as you're batching your content, make sure you go in and pull those episodes and even if it's just including a link someplace so that you remember to share it. Do that and you'll make the other people who's whose content you're sharing really happy. And you'll also be elevating yourself a little bit too. So. So that's kind of my like theory behind batching is just do it all at once. Get it done, and then you don't have to think about it for a while. And you can take that break.

Linsi Brownson 19:10

Yes. Oh, I love that so much. Okay, so my main takeaways in this part of it are that this strategy itself is going to be one of the key elements that helps you know which pieces of content that you want to create around new content that you're creating. So I love the idea of you know, writing the caption for LinkedIn, creating a poll ahead of time, and, and pulling together episodes. other episodes that might be related to these are all things that you definitely need to think about ahead of time. But having that in the system that you're using as you create each episode is I mean, that is really going to be the key because the quickest way to make my head explode is to think about an episode that is related. And this comes up for me often where I'm like, I know I've talked about This similarly, in other places, but then trying to figure out where where did I talk about or like, what specific things what I want to pull from that. And what have I already done. So I'll give you an actual example. It makes me crazy, like the Pinterest pins, I'll spend all this time creating beautiful pins for one episode. And then the next time because I don't have the proper support, right now, I will create like one pin and not a whole suite of things. So I've been super inconsistent about it. And then I don't remember which ones actually have the full suite, and where I need to go back and reap pullet. So the content that I end up repurposing for that is just the ones that are fully built out. And so I definitely am gonna take all of these tips and and work on implementing that for myself, because I think you're totally right. It's like the peace of mind, you get to have the whole suite together. And to just know that that's part of how you do it to begin with, it doesn't guarantee that it will get used, which is another question I have. But it does make sure that you have everything so that you can use it in a future time.

Abby Herman 21:11

Yeah, and if you have if you create a content library of any kind, and you have, it's just easier because it's all there, you have the link to the actual live content, we include a link to the draft, add content to and a Google Doc, the graphics, if you include like keywords and things like that, it's really easy to search. So maybe you have a field, that's the title, and then some keywords or we also include what's the opt in that, that we shared with that piece of content so that if we need to change something, something down the road, it's really easy to do that. So you can do that all in airtable and have everything interconnected. And it's really easy to search.

Linsi Brownson 21:57

That is brilliant. I'm excited. So I don't usually use airtable. I've used it for a few things. But I stay pretty entrenched in Google Docs and Asana. But I think airtable is kind of the perfect platform for this because it is so interactive and easy to search.

Abby Herman 22:15

Yes, yes, it really is. And then when you like on the other end, so we talked about batching. But on the other end, the actual repurposing piece, it's really the same thing, except you have cut out completely the creating of the content. So you still want so let's say so you're taking a summer break. And you know that in the fall, you want to talk about a specific topic. So you're going to want to repurpose content around that topic during the summer so that when you're ready to really talk about it, or when you're ready to launch something, at the end of the summer, you've already generated all of this interest with your audience because you've been talking about it because you've been sharing it. So So create that strategy. And then you're going to go to air table or wherever maybe it's notion or wherever you're you're keeping your completed content, wherever your content library is, you're going in there, and you're looking for the content that you've already created because you've already created these extra social posts or these extra graphics to share. So grab that, and then "all you have to do" is plug it in, I mean, like, you know, I'm air quoting all you have to do. Because I know it's a lot of work still.

And if you haven't done this already, if you don't have this bank of content that you can repurpose already, it does make it more difficult because you still kind of have to create it. But you can take so let's say you don't have this library of content, let's say you don't have these posts that are already created or these graphics that are already created. I'm telling you that your audience will not know because every day every week, you're probably attracting new audience members. So people who are paying attention today may not have even been on your list or part of your community six months ago. So if you're sharing something that's old, they're probably not going to know. Yeah, they probably won't know. And so it's okay, so just go ahead and reshare I would try to, you know, I mean, obviously, we're recording this in June of 2021. And like, the whole world is different than it was 18 months ago. So you know, update some of the text that you're using to make it relevant. See if you can insert a couple of personal stories in there as you're sharing things either in your emails or on social media, your captions, things like that, see if you can tweak things a little bit to make it relevant and timely, but But yeah, go ahead and reach What you have, just make sure that there's a purpose behind it, find a themed type topic that you want to talk around for the month of June or the month of July. And stick with that as much as you can.

Linsi Brownson 25:17

That is really good. Okay, because my next question was alright, so where do we get started then? So let's assume that my listeners are hearing me say, don't create new stuff, go back and look at your old stuff. And you're like, Okay, where do I do that? So it sounds like you're saying kind of pick a theme as a starting point, and go back through your Instagram post or go back through your blog posts, and air table, I'm just going to give this as the call to action, create an air table and start building out that library a little bit. So based on that theme that you want to cover for the month of June, and what you're seeing got the best results before, then you start to plug in some of those pieces and ask the questions like what other content Could I create from this? What other complimentary topics might go along with it? And to just, you know, walk through some of the tips that Abby gave on things to consider and types of content to consider and start plugging that in to maybe we'll call it like a micro library, the beginnings of your content library does that? How does that sound? Abby?

Abby Herman 26:20

Yeah, exactly, exactly. Figure out what it is your audience needs? What do you want them to focus on for the next couple of months, come up with a theme, or two or three, depending on how much time you're going to take off of generating new content. And then, and then yeah, find what you already have. That's relating to that. And a quick if you don't have the wherewithal, or the time or anything to create this air table library right now, log into your website, go to so if you're on WordPress, go to the posts, the post section, and then in the top right, you can actually search keywords right there, and it'll come up with stuff that you already have posted. So that's a really easy way to do it with if you have a podcast or if you have a blog, if you have a YouTube channel, go to YouTube and just do a search in your library to start finding topics that relate to the theme that you want to cover.

Linsi Brownson 27:19

Awesome. That's so good. Thank you. So you have the free batching guide that you're willing to give away to listeners to kind of wrap their heads around this step by step on how to batch which will also kind of like, get your brain in the mindset of what you need to include in a process of content creation, as you move forward. But I think it also is relevant as you're kind of moving backward and auditing your content as well. So definitely, again, that's the content experiment.com, forward slash brilliant. Yes, Yes, that is correct. And I will of course include that in our show notes. I also want to encourage people to check out your membership. And I know you've got a pretty cool deal for new members. Tell us about that.

Abby Herman 28:08

Yes, you can go to the content experiment.com/membership. And if you sign up, you can use the coupon code PODCAST to get your first month for $1. We have accountability time, I call them CEO dates, we have guest expert trainings. Most months not every month, but most months, we have trainings on all things content related. We did one on mapping out your client journey. And then analyzing your client journey. We have a guest expert coming on shortly to talk about operations and the backend of your business. We've talked about SEO, we've talked about starting your own podcast we talked about serving your audience, finding your voice, all kinds of different topics. So and and people who join have like a whole archive of like a year and a half's worth of trainings and and things that they can scope out.

Linsi Brownson 29:08

Wow, that is amazing. That sounds like a great way to use your free time this summer. Because I'm all about gaining as much free time and doing as little work as possible this summer while getting even more out of the work you're doing. So definitely a place worth spending some time. Thank you Abby so much for being here. This was really great. Yeah, you're welcome. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. And so I will include links to connect with Abby and her membership. But once again, it's the content experiment.com. And you're also the host of the podcast, The Content Experiment.

Abby Herman 29:42

Yes, I am. Thank you for mentioning that. Yeah.

Linsi Brownson 29:46

So that's a great place to start learning some really actionable tips and yeah, exciting stuff. I'm going to be on there pretty soon. Yeah, yes. Awesome. Well, thank you again, Abby.

Abby Herman 29:57

You're welcome. Thank you.

Linsi Brownson 30:00

Do you love these doses of insight and inspiration for your business? Then you're gonna want to join me inside the maverick HQ, our listener library with helpful tools to create clarity, spark creativity, and manage your time like a boss. It's all inside the maverick HQ and it's totally free for you had to be brilliant podcast.com to join right now.