Episode 124: 5 Ways For Small Business Owners to Get Unstuck When Brainstorming & Creating Content
In this coaching episode, Fiona talks about the moments when she has a problem coming up with useful and cut-through content for My Daily Business Coach. Listen now to learn her five tips to get unstuck without the hassle of creating content all the time.
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introduction
Feeling stuck when preparing content
5 things to do when feeling stuck for content
#1 Check podcast titles
#2 Create once, repurpose content
#3 Value the validation
#4 Go inside
#5 Mine the groups
Bonus
90-Day Content Planner
Conclusion
Get in touch with My Daily Business Coach
Links/Resources Mentioned in this episode:
Episode transcript:
Being stuck, though, is not a bad thing. Being stuck can be a good thing. It can force us to rest, a while to take stock of what's important and kind of come through the other side, more appreciative of the times that we're not stuck, when we just feel in flow. And you know, even just being in a rut, feeling stuck, can be such a teacher in life if we allow them to be.
Hello, and welcome to Episode 124 of the My Daily Business Coach podcast, I just want to send a huge virtual hug to so many Australians who are in lockdown, some for the sixth time, like myself, some for the first real time, some fall somewhere in between. and wherever you are, it doesn't matter how many times you've been in lockdown, it sucks, it sucks, it really makes you go through a whole rollercoaster of emotions. I totally believe in lockdown. I think we do need to do it. I do believe in vaccines. But I just still also feel all the emotions that come with being in lockdown, it can be really, really hard. So I just wanted to send a big hug to anyone not just in Australia or anywhere in the world, that is feeling the restriction is feeling just a bit flat, or just feeling you know, over all of this and just really wishing we could somehow roll on to the new normal. Or maybe this is the new normal, hopefully not.
And I guess I also wanted to, as always have pay my respects and acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation, they are the traditional owners of the land in which I am recording this podcast and in which I am in lockdown. Right now. I mean, North Warrandyte in Victoria in Australia, and yeah, I just want to pay my respects to their Elders past, present and emerging and just acknowledge that sovereignty has never been seated.
So today, it is a coaching episode. And I thought I'd go through something that I know is a bit of an issue for many small business owners, even people like myself who have come from a background heavy in this particular business element. So let's crack on with it, shall we?
So I guess my question to you Firstly, is, I gotta get the irony of asking this whilst in lockdown. But do you ever just feel stuck in your business or in your life, I guess, in general, but really what I'm asking for is kind of stuck when thinking about how to connect with your audience. And in particular, thinking about how to connect through content, like, Are you stuck for content ideas? or How can I create content that actually connects, adds value and helps my audience. So I have worked as a journalist for a long time. 20 years, I've been a published writer, I have worked on so many campaigns for various brands, I have worked as a consultant for lots of lots of companies. I've worked as a business coach. And so I regularly doing kind of creative ideation. And it's something that I would say I'm pretty strong at. But even I can get stuck sometimes and think what I'm going to talk about, you know, what I'm talking about on the podcast, what am I going to talk about on my Sunday email that I send out every week. And if you're not on that, get on that, because it's really good. And it's very in depth and it comes out every single Sunday.
And you can subscribe over at my daily business coach comm forward slash subscribe, but back to what I was talking about is that sometimes I can get stuck on what to write, not that often, admittedly, and I'm really, really fortunate for that. But sometimes I can, and I can sort of sit there and think, what am I going to talk about? What is actually going to add value right now. And especially with everything going on in the world, you know, you also want to be sensitive to certain things. And usually and for you know, the large majority of when I've run my business, I have batch created content. So I have created a lot of content at once. So I use Do that on Mondays. And sometimes it might just be one Monday out of the whole month that I batch create content. Other times it will be every Monday. Now because we are experiencing so many lockdowns in Melbourne and I have two young children, one of which is home schooled during lockdown, and one who thank God goes to childcare for three days during lockdown, but is still there the other two days, I feel that some of the things in my business, like batch creating content have sort of dropped a little bit. And so, I found myself recently, and it came to a Sunday email and I was sort of like, what am I gonna write. And I, you know, I think also if I'm really honest, I was feeling a bit flat from the lockdowns and my kids have been sick, I've been sick. And I just sort of had let my usual kind of batching routine got a bit lacks.
And so I figured, why not explain the system that I go through? When I'm looking at, you know, Oh, my gosh, I'm a bit stuck for content, what can I write about. And so I sort of thought, I'm going to talk through five key ways to get out of this situation, if you find yourself ever in the situation where you're like, I don't know what to talk about, or I'm out of ideas, or my brain is so taken up with everything else that I've got to look after right now that what to create for my newsletter, or what to create for x, y, z is just feeling like another thing on the list. So in no particular order, here are kind of five ways to get unstuck - when you're thinking about you know what content or what ideas that you might use to connect with your audience through content and marketing.
So these are all applicable, whether you're in a service base like myself, whether you sell physical products, whether you sell a mix, whether you have a physical business, whether you're purely online, whether you're a mix of that as well. But yeah, in no particular order, here are five things that I have definitely felt really useful when I've been stuck for content:
#1 Check podcast titles.
So as a podcast, I actually don't do this as much anymore. And I must say, I used to do this when I first started my business. So in 2016, I was always looking at podcast titles. So podcast titles, obviously, the title is given to your podcast. And really this sort of step is to think about the podcast that your audience might listen to, even if you think my audience doesn't listen to podcasts. But maybe your audience is really interested in fashion and interiors. And so you look up fashion podcasts, interiors podcast. And what you want to do is check the apple podcast or Spotify podcasts, or Amazon, wherever you listen to, to listen to your podcast, kind of go into them - better on a desktop, really, because then you can say it all.
So you sort of open up iTunes, or Spotify or whatever it is. And you find one in your niche. So for me, I'd be looking at business. And I might even go business branding, or business marketing or those sorts of things. And so if I find one, and you look at the episode topics, or descriptions, and by descriptions, when you open Apple iTunes, there'll be a little I like an Information button next to an episode. And if you click that, that will show the description, you can also just see the title. And what you might want to do on say, the iTunes or Apple podcast is to sort them, they will sort usually by chronological order. So when they, you know the time of which they came out, you could sort them by popularity. So you can click that and you can see and then it will move them down from most popular to least popular. And I guess then you can have a look at the titles and say, oh, okay, this looks like a popular title.
Now, I should kind of put a caveat in here, that when I look at my own podcast, and I look at the most popular episodes according to Apple, externally, visually to you, and then I look at the downloads for podcast episodes, they actually don't necessarily match. So I just want to put that out. But there must be some sort of algorithm that Apple is using to say that this is the most popular, so you could sort it by most popular and then have a look at the episode topics or description.
So say you work in like the body image space. So say you're a health professional like a psychologist or a nutritionist or a dietitian or someone else. And so you might search health podcast in Apple, and then you'll click on something like, I don't know, maybe Fiona's fit, fabulous life podcast, I just made that up. And then you'll click on details, and then you click sort by popularity. And then the check the ideas and the titles. And I guess the reason that I put these there is that then you want to have a look at those ideas and those titles and descriptions and kind of think, “Is there anything from these that sparks ideas for your own marketing and content?”
Now this is not to copy. It's literally to find inspiration. So you might say, Oh my gosh, they're talking about hypnotherapy and health. And it's like, Yes, I actually I love doing this and I talk about it and I use hypnotherapy apps or whatever with my clients. So this is a perfect thing to talk about because I can see that it's popular on this popular podcast that's in mind. So I hope that makes sense.
That's number one: check podcast titles. So it's a very good, easy, free way that you can check. What is your audience potentially interested in. And also, you know, like when I say people's niche, they might think well, I'm a dietitian, there isn't heaps of dietician, podcasts, there are podcasts for everything. I think there's like 1.7 million now podcasts that are out there, there is a podcast for whatever niche you are talking to. So that's the first one check podcast titles.
#2: Create once, repurpose content
The second one, and this is kind of an acronym. I'm not sure he came out with it, I want to say, I was gonna say, […], who like the content strategy masters of the world, but I don't think it was them. But I'm not sure exactly who came up with it. But it's an acronym called CORE. So your core content, and it really stands for create once repurpose everywhere. Now, if you're a client of mine, you're probably laughing right now, because I talked about this quite a bit with many of my clients. But I'm all for repurposing and not having to start from scratch, I am not about the hustle, I'm very much, let's look strategically at what you've already got. Let's look at repurposing and tweaking and changing things. Especially if you're a solo operator, or you have a very small team, you don't have the time to come up with content from scratch all of the time.
So what you could do is look at an analyze the content that you've previously created. Now, you might be like, Wait up, I don't have a podcast, I don't have a blog, you don't have to have any of those things. So for example, if you have social media, you could do this with the Instagram content. So literally, you could click on your Instagram profile, then click on insights, you can usually find that by tapping the top little three buttons or the little menu in the top right of the corner when you're in your phone when you're in the app in the Instagram app. And so you'd click on the insight, then click on content. And then what happens is that, again, just like the apple podcast that defaults to like chronological order, the insights tab, when you click on content in Instagram, it will often just have a default setting of the last year. And I think it's by reach. And so you want to change that to whatever metric and whatever time duration or period that you're looking at. That's the most important. So you might say, I want to have a look at the content that people are saving. Because if they're choosing to save it, it's really important to them, or they found it, you know, worthwhile, like, I'm going to come back to this.
You might change it not from saves, you might have to profile clicks, because you want to know, what is the content that is causing someone to stop while they're scrolling and click over to my profile, which usually tells you that they're interested to be like, Oh, let me figure this out. Or let me see how to get in touch with them. Or let me see what else they're talking about here. Because this has piqued my interest. So you want to firstly figure out I guess, what's the metric that you're trying to get people to hit whilst they're on Instagram with your content. And once you have that, you go through the insights, then click content, then change the settings to whatever metric. So like I said, it could be saved. It could be website clicks, it could be clicks on profile, it could be clicks on directions, if you're a shop, those sorts of things. And then you can change the duration as well. So you could have a look at the last 30 days, you could have a look at the last year, whatever it is, and you'll start to see different content. So for instance, with my stuff, I always on Instagram use quotes, like everyone knows, I'm a quote addict. And so when I'm looking at like saved, it's quite often quotes, which makes sense. When I'm looking at website clicks or clicks to my profile. It's usually when I'm talking about a particular pain point. And it's a very clear pain point that I keep seeing come up in the top region top saves and top website clicks for my business. So I know that might be a bit difficult to understand if you're listening to this somewhere where you can't bring out Instagram and look at that stuff yourself. You know that we have a full transcript of this over at mydailybusinesscoach.com/podcast/124. So that's one way you can have a look at Instagram profile, look at the content.
Or if you have a website, you could or hopefully you do in this day and age. But if you have website content or blog, then you can have a look at your Google Analytics and sort of see what is the behavior? And what are the pages people are dwelling the most the longest on where they're kind of converting more that sort of stuff. And especially if you have a blog, you can look at what's the most popular blog articles that you've had.
And once you've uncovered what your audience is taking action on, you know, for example, saving content on Instagram or liking or sharing it or whatever the metric is that you're looking at, you then want to look and go, okay, could I tweak or repurpose that content? So could I take these three Instagram tiles with the most saved and they talked about x, y, z. So could I literally take that concept and turn it into a blog, or take that concept and turn it into a newsletter, or expand on that concept and turn it into a Facebook Live, or an Instagram TV or an Instagram reel. So the core content or the Create once repurpose everywhere kind of concept is really about literally as it sounds, create something and repurpose it.
And you want to be thinking of usually that you'll be creating your core content. And then from that, you'll be creating tweaks and elements of it for other platforms. So say for instance, if my core content is his podcast, I take elements of that and create a blog, we take elements of it for Instagram, we take elements of it to put into the Sunday newsletter. So that's where I'm repurposing and being smarter with my content, and also in the kind of the whole theme of this podcast episode, which is what to do when you're stuck, after you've already written a whole bunch of really great content. And it's just about retweeting it and repurposing it. And sometimes, literally, I'm going to be really honest, sometimes I have copied and pasted the exact same thing, from one platform to another. And even on Instagram, I have report, sometimes the exact same tile, the exact same content, and it might be three months apart. And it's like, Yes, because you know what, not everyone is looking at every single thing that you post all the time. And if it was helpful back in March, it's probably still going to be helpful in August. So that's number two, create once repurpose everywhere. You know, you can actually share the same thing I know shocking, right. So that's number two, create once repurpose everywhere or the acronym call.
#3 Value the validation
The third thing that you could do when you're looking at kind of content and things to come up with his value the validation. So I talk about a lot with my clients, especially people who are just starting out and even halfway through to validate ideas to validate this new business that you've got. invalidation is absolutely key to the start of your brand journey. But it's just as important as you go through building and scaling your business. And when it comes to marketing ideas, ask someone around you who fits with your ideal audience this simple question, what are you most struggling with right now?
And this can be as simple as texting a friend, it could be a simple social media poll with like, you know, in link or Instagram polls. And when people's answers come back, literally consider how you would help answer that question or answer them or give them sort of solutions to this thing that they've identified that they're struggling with. And there's your marketing, there's your content, that's what you're going to put out. So you might go to five clients and just send them in simple email, you could send a text to four people that are in your ideal audience, you could put, like I said, a question up on Instagram stories, and see if there's a common theme and then be like, Okay, I'm just gonna answer that. And that's my content. And you see that quite often you see, where people will say, ask me anything on Instagram stories. And then they've got a whole bunch of questions that they can answer. And they could do Q and A's for the next three weeks based on that just one thing that they did, which didn't take long. So that's number three, value the validation. So like I said before, it doesn't need to be big, it could be a text message, it could be a couple of DMs that you send to people and just look at, what are they asking for? And if you know the answer, and hopefully you should, if you're in that particular niche, talk about the answer, and that is q&a. It's very much like, you know, lots of magazines, or they would have the agony art or a kind of q&a format in newspaper columns, it works really well. We all know it, and it's just as easily applied to business content. So that is number three, value the validation.
#4. Go inside.
That sound so zen. Go inside. So I said at the start of this podcast episode that I had really been sort of stuck for content when I was writing a Sunday email. And that particular day, I was sort of like, Okay, why haven't I been batching? My email content, you know, especially for like, school holidays, and sort of, I knew things were coming up. And despite having this stuff on my calendars, and my whiteboards, I sort of had been struck by luck. Well, it's school holidays again, and oh, my gosh, I haven't batch recreated my content, and why haven't I done this and sort of asking myself all these questions, and I then sort of stopped and said, Well, what am I struggling with right now? And the first almost, you know, jokingly simple answer was, I'm struggling to write this Sunday email. And I thought, well, what can I write that's a value. And so just as I did, you know, sometimes it helps for you to stop and consider what are you working on right now. And how might you work that into your content.
So often we like start a company to fill the gap for something we couldn't find. And just because you're now the interior designer that you wanted for your own house, like years ago, you'll still have days when being creative might feel really hard, or harder than usual. Or just because you're a fitness coach, because you know, you found a new life for yourself through fitness and through looking after yourself, it doesn't mean that you're gonna wake up every single day, feeling like working out and being super healthy. And just like me, when I went through that, I was like, I have literally helped 1000s of small business owners, and a lot of the time, content comes into it. And I have been a writer for 20 years. And I woke up and I was like, I don't have anything to write about, I can't think of what to put into my Sunday email, even though I have my content pillars, and I have my themes, and I have my go to stuff. And so I literally thought while I'm going to write about being stuck, and here I am talking with you, because it's a real problem.
And I guess that's number four, go inside and ask yourself, What am I struggling with? And say, for example, in that instance, of the fitness coach, and you're struggling to keep fit, to get up to maybe you know, with lock downs and other things, and people being at home, you're like, I just don't have the same up and go talking about that is going to allow you to really connect on a human level with your audience. Because chances are, if you're a fitness coach, people are coming to you for accountability because they can't keep fit themselves. Or they really want to be more fit. And you're in the position of saying, Yes, and I understand you because I'm not some person who just jumps out of bed feeling like getting fit every single day, I go through the same things as you. And so that is number four. And I hope that all makes sense. But really, it's about using these feelings as content, because it's likely that your ideal audience is working through the exact same problem. So how could you help them and in turn, help yourself because now you've got content to put out there. So that's number four, go inside and really think about what are you struggling with and how you might turn that into content.
#5 Mine the groups.
Mine as in M-I-N-E, like gold mining, but Facebook, love it or hate it, there is a lot to hate about it. But there is also so much great information out there, there's so much real information out there. There's a lot of fake stuff as well. But in terms of groups, which are a huge part of Facebook. So I think there's more than 600 million Facebook groups out there. And Facebook, I don't know if you've noticed a bit if you use the app on your phone, probably about six months ago, they changed their app design and the feed portal to ensure that groups are the number one easy to access area on the platform. So the button for groups now is smack bang in the middle. And you'll also notice that more group content is in your feed. And along with the switching of details. So the group is actually the biggest thing that you see. So say for instance, if I mentioned something in the Good Business Group, what you'll see is the Good Business Group, and then you'll see really small Fiona Killackey. And it's weird, because it used to be that you'd say, oh, Fiona has something to say. And now you're saying the group has a new post in it, basically. And I guess the reason that I'm bringing this up is that you could find a group with say 1000 10,000, or even 100,000 people that are your ideal audience, all chatting about whatever it is that you might help people with, or that you sell products for. So again, using the example of like the fitness coach, you could jump into any one of the millions, millions of Facebook groups around losing weight around getting healthier about pre pregnancy advice. What else postnatal health advice, getting fit when you're over 50, menopause and fitness, all sorts of things. You could have a look at places like I'm not sure if they're free, but places like you know, Weight Watchers and all the other kind of meal delivery services places like I'm sure you foods or other places have those pages. I'm not sure if they do, but I'm kind of guessing probably I should have checked that before coming in here. But you could literally go into any of the fitness groups that are out there and have a look in the search bar literally simply search for things like a sentence and you would start it with “Why can't I?” just put those things in inverted commas? And it will look for all the posts that have Why can't I next to each other? And you might be like, Oh my gosh, there are 1000s of posts about people saying why can't I just do x y z?
And you're like okay, now I have all these incredible information. You can also search for things like I wish there was a …. Can anyone recommend …. I wish I could say this to my …. And again, you're seeing all the answers that come up, you're like, “Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, there's so much real information here”. Real questions and real problems that your audience is dealing with. And you could use that as fuel for your marketing ideas and your content plan.
So I just want to, you know, put a caveat out that you don't want to use these groups as spam, places to promote yourself, you don't want to be that person. That's like answering 50 people in a group with like, well, I've got the perfect course for that did it, what you want to do is go in and see it as a research tool. So you don't even have to reply to these things, you are literally going in there like a voyeuristic person sort of lurking about, and getting all this good information that you can then create good content with. So even just to find like, it's like a free focus group, like 600 million plus Facebook groups out there, some of them with hundreds of 1000s of people, you will pay if you are a business that goes to a focus group kind of company, I know I have one client who went to one. And it was about $57,000, for a small amount of focus group stuff to be done. Another place that I worked at, I think they spent $225,000. Now, obviously, those agencies did a lot more than going into Facebook groups. But if you are strapped for cash, and you're like, I wish I could afford a research group, I wish I could have a focus group, try using Facebook groups, literally mine the groups. And you might find so much gold. I remember a while ago, a friend of mine had asked me if I had any clients who used a particular platform. And I said, I don't think that I do I think they will use this other platform. And I went out I asked a bunch of clients and I was right, they will use this other thing. And I said, Why don't you go into this one group where there is you know, 10s of 1000s of small business owners, and literally just search for that platform and see what comes up. And I went in for her and I searched and I screen grabbed a bunch of things and sent them to her. And it was really obvious that that particular platform, people thought XYZ about it. And so she was able to have that information from real people to then craft a strategy around. Okay, well, how do we shift perception, so that people don't think that about the brand.
So mine the groups is number five, you know, it's such a valuable resource that's out there. And again, I just want to you know, put it in neon light, do not be the person that goes in and just spams people and puts a whole lot of promo content, you are using this for research purposes only. That's five and just to recap them:
When you're stuck for content ideas, check podcast titles.
Look at your core content. So create once repurpose everywhere is there content that you have that you could just tweak or repurpose?
Value the validation, go out and get validation for ideas that you might have? Or simply ask a question of what are you struggling with right now? And then look at how you could answer that and it becomes content.
Go inside, look at yourself, look at what you're struggling with. And potentially draw parallels between yourself and your ideal audience. And could you share what you're struggling with and create content out of it?
Mine the groups. So look at Facebook groups, and look at what the real problems are that people are having around your product or your service.
I'm going to give you an extra bonus.
#6 Music is magical.
And I talked about this a lot. Because I find it to be really true. Whenever I am stuck in life or in business, I will literally blast some music and it just switches my mood in a way that is quicker and sometimes better, I guess than anything else. So when I'm in a lull, or even when I'm not in a lull, but when I am in allow, and I'm kind of stuck for these ideas or stuck of how to do something, I will pump the music in my office, I'll often have a dance around my office. Or I'll meditate to music or I'll just listen to some music and sit in the chair in my office. And I'll find a whole lot of inspiration and ideas come forth. And usually I try to have a notepad on my whiteboard. And I'll just scribble down heaps of stuff. Sometimes it's just a random word in a song lyric. And I'm like that, that is what I'm going to talk about, and it will come out. So I hope that's really helped.
Being stuck, though, is not a bad thing. Being stuck can be a good thing. It can force us to rest a while to take stock of like what's important and kind of come through the other side, more appreciative of the times that we're not stuck when we just feel in flow. And you know, rats, even just being in a rut, feeling stuck can be such a teacher in life if we allow them to be. So I guess that is really what I'm trying to get across today. Obviously I'm talking about content, but it could be life in general sometimes, and maybe someone listening to this is in a bit of a rut right now and just use that time to really Think about why men or what do I feel is missing right now? Do I feel stuck? And then how might I become unstuck. And I guess when I was thinking about all of these, it was because I was stuck for what to write in my Sunday email. And I used point number four, which was go inside, to become unstuck and to really create this list that I've just read out to you in this podcast. And I hope that that and the rest of the steps really, really help you if you ever find yourself in the same place. And if you are listening to this, and you are needing instant help, and you're like, I don't have time to go and mine Facebook groups or something else, and you're just like, I just want some content ideas.
Now then I do have a 90-Day Content Planner, it's really affordable. It's over at mydailybusinesscoach.com/shop. It's the 90 day content planner, and it actually gives you 100 content ideas. And as someone who's worked in the content space for a long time, and worked with so many different business owners, I know that a lot of these are really really helped you not just create good content, but really create humanity in your content, humanize your brand and cut through and connect with your audience.
So that is it for today's coaching episode. Like always, the full transcript of this is available over at mydailybusinesscoach.com/podcast/124. If you found this useful, I would love love love if you could share it with a friend. It just helps them get unstuck from that content, and maybe learn something new or think about something new that they hadn't thought about before. And as always, if you have 10 seconds, even five seconds, I would love it so much. If you might leave a review. It just helps us get found by small business owners across the globe. Thank you so much for listening.
And again if you're in lockdown sending you a massive hug, we will get through this. We will come out the other side and if you are really struggling and you need help, please reach out to a friend send a DM send a text message call EGP there is help available and you are not alone. Take care. I'll see you next time. Bye..
Thanks for listening to the My Daily Business Coach podcast. If you want to get in touch, you can do that at mydailybusinesscoach.com or hit me up on Instagram at @mydailybusinesscoach.
