You Don’t Need to “Keep Up” with ALL the Content ALL the Time

When people join our Content Creators Facebook group we ask them what one of their biggest challenges is with content marketing.

One of the most common questions we get is “how do I keep up with everything?”

The simple answer?

You don’t.

That really should be the end of this post, but we’ll go a little deeper.

A while back I wrote a post on how I was going to start enjoying social media again.

This seems like a good time to give you an update on how that’s going, what I’m doing, and where I see things heading in the future.

The short answer is that it’s working.

I’m enjoying social media again because I’m pretty much doing whatever the heck I want to do and have let go of any and all expectations.

I’ve gone back to using it for one thing I enjoyed most about it, which was connecting with people (novel idea, right?).

It’s still valuable, can still drive traffic and business growth, but the truth is social media is simply a marketing channel. The two things I love doing most are writing and podcasting.

I like writing content, emails, and who would have thought, copy as well. Do I like writing captions for social media images and campaigns? Not so much, and guess what?

That’s O.K.

This literally just hit me today (and now I feel like a slow learner haha).

What would my business look like if I hired out the social I don’t want to do? That I don’t enjoy doing? (Which, outside of the initial scheduling and sharing is all the repurposing that I don’t seem to have the time or quite frankly, the desire to do).

As business owners, we want to focus on what we do best… which for some, might be social media. But for others, it’s serving your clients and customers, creating, teaching, etc. We don’t think twice to hire out for other skills (and I understand that when you’re getting started it’s not always feasible to hire out).

Think about it… if you’re a financial coach, your “zone of genius” is coaching your client on their finances.

Not making images in Canva, crafting tweets, or editing podcasts and videos.

On one hand, it’s never been easier to start a business. You can go to YouTube and easily find a “how-to” for just about anything you need. You can hunker down and figure out how to build your website, how to create a course, a podcast, etc.

On the other hand, it’s way too easy to get caught up in “doing everything” and forget that you’re not supposed to be the marketing department, the finance department, tech support, etc. forever.

Our responsibility as business owners and entrepreneurs is to serve and solve problems.

More often than not, trying to “keep up” with everything is only creating more problems for yourself.

How NOT to “Keep Up” and exceed your goals

Focus.

I used to think I was great at multi-tasking.

I love to play a little game with myself when it comes to little things in my life where I can multi-task, but that never interrupts a flow of concentration. Example: I bring a bottle of water with me into the shower so I make sure I’m getting drinking my water or I’ll do calf-raises while I’m drying my hair.

Silly examples, but it’s “kind of” multi-tasking and feels more like a game than trying to make the most of my time.

If you were to focus on a couple of channels and marketing strategies as opposed to trying to be seen everywhere (I don’t remember who said that, but jeeze that is horrible advice) how much faster to you think you’d see results?

As an example, in a typical week for me I will have:

• Write, record, edit, publish podcast episode
• Write #FtheHustle on my personal brand
• Write blog post for Creativity Published (like this post)
• Write Creativity Published for this brand
• Email broadcasts

Jodi and I alternate writing Creativity Published, so that helps, but all of these things take time and energy. Both newsletters then need to be published on the websites, and I schedule a social campaign from there.

The consistency of these few things is plenty.

Could I do more?

Of course, but I don’t want to. My heart is in creating and connecting.

In order to fully show up and create, I need to focus and tune out tasks that don’t deliver results.

Content marketing is the long game, you will ALWAYS get better results when you produce and publish consistently in a few places as opposed to stretching yourself thin and not hitting unrealistic goals (I’ve clearly got strong opinions on this).

Creating a plan

There’s a reason the first piece of the Content Creators Planner starts with the Monthly Campaigns page. Mapping out your business goals, the content you can create to support those goals, the call to action, and then what you’re going to offer is our way of helping you simplify what you’re doing.

And here’s the kicker…

It’s not set it stone. The purpose of starting with the Monthly Campaign page is so you get clarity. You can create more or less based on what works for you.

Personally, I tend to think I can get more done than is really possible (or more importantly, what I want to do). The beauty of this process though is that even if you don’t complete or create everything you mapped out, you still have content ideas and a plan that you can carry into the next month.

You’ll also start to see a pattern.

Where do you consistently accomplish things and where are you falling short?

Pay attention to what you are doing and do more of that.

Even though I have profiles on most of the social platforms, I don’t engage on all of them. I simply can’t. I’ll share my content in as many places as possible, respond and engage if I get a notification, but pretty much stay in my lane.

Would I like to test more things?

Sometimes, but more often than not that comes from FOMO (fear of missing out), which at this point in my life I rarely feel, but we all have our moments.

Exercise: Write out the 3 things you enjoy doing most in your business, then do the same for the 3 things you like doing least in your business.

Next: make a wishlist of the things you would love to outsource, whether that’s a contractor, employee, or agency (the tasks you enjoy doing least should be on this wishlist).

Start inquiring about ONE of the tasks you’d like to outsource and hire for. Ask friends, go to job sites (Upwork, Fiverr, etc.), and start pricing this out. You might be surprised at how affordable it is to get someone else to support you.

You can start out small and add hours or tasks as you grow.

If you were to remove say, 10 hours a week of work you truly don’t enjoy doing and shouldn’t be doing, how much more effective would you be for your clients and customers?

You do not need to be everywhere.

Let go of trying to “Keep Up” and focus on what you do well. I promise you’ll start seeing more results.