38: Tips of How to Strategically Prep Your Content for Quarter 4 with Amanda Warfield

Links Mentioned

Episode 36 with Amanda Warfield

Episode 37 with Amanda Warfield

Join Club Content Batching with code DOLLY and get $30 OFF per month! 

The Chasing Simple Podcast

Club Content Batching

Instagram

Connect with Dolly ⬇️

instagram.com/dollydelongeducation

facebook.com/DollyDeLongEducation

pinterest.com/dollydelong

Did you like this episode? Please share it on Pinterest!

Review the Transcript:

Dolly DeLong
Welcome to the systems and workflow magic podcast where I help entrepreneurs go from scattered to streamlined in their creative businesses. I’m your host, Dolly DeLong, a wife, a mom and a photographer turned systems educator. Join me every week as we have conversations centered around creating tactical workflows, and automations in your business. Now, let’s make some strategic workflow magic. Hey, everyone, and welcome back to the systems and workflow magic podcast. I am so excited to have you all here. We’re going to continue the content creation and marketing strategy conversation with Miss Amanda Warfield, this is part three of our content batching series. And Amanda is I know like we’ve been doing these episodes back to back to back. So I bet Amanda, both Amanda and I are like, even though we have, we both feel like we’ve hit a wall. But at the same time, we are so pumped and excited to be here and to share more about how to be more strategic with your content marketing. And so you are all in for a treat. And so if you are, I’m going to encourage you if you are brand new to this systems and workflow magic podcast, if this is your first episode, that I want to encourage you to stop this episode and go back and start with episode 36. Because that’s when Amanda just really lays out a great foundation of content marketing and content batching for your business. So please do that. And then that way you can catch up. Otherwise, if you’ve caught up, then thank you so much for meeting us again, for part three, you all are in for a treat, because Amanda is going to be sharing how you can prepare for your cue for your quarter for content. And when this airs, it’s going to be August, I know and it’s hard to imagine, like thinking about the end of the year because we’re still in summer mode. We’re still like either hanging out with our kids on break, or we’re thinking about going back to school, I don’t know where you are. But during the end of summer, I’m still personally I’m still a little lazy. And so I want to help you guys kick it into high gear for q4. And when I say q4, I’m talking October, November, December. So we want to help you end the year strong. So again, if you’re brand new here, I am going to have Amanda introduce herself again so that you can get to know the woman the myth, the legend behind content marketing the Queen herself. So Amanda, I’ll have you take it away,

Amanda
Your to guide for those that have not met me yet. I’m Amanda Warfield. I am a simplicity focused content marketing strategist. And my mission is to help you fit your marketing into your business without taking over your business. I’m really excited today because like Dolly said, we’re gonna be talking more about the strategy side of things. Now, we spent so much time talking about the creation side of getting your content out there. Because that’s the first step we really, as a business owners, we get excited about the idea of strategy, right? We’re like, ooh, strategy, like, let’s, let’s hear it, let’s have it. But you really have to get the system in place for creating content before your brain is even able to really wrap its mind around the strategy side of things. So now that you know how to create a content system, I’m sure you’re still putting it in place because these are coming out week after week after week. But now that you are on the path to that content creation system, we’re able to dive into the content marketing strategy side of things. And I’m really excited to talk about this.

Dolly DeLong
Oh, me too. And just because I like to over like communicate and recap. So episode 36. Again, everything is linked in the shownotes. So the part one of this, I guess, content marketing series I’m calling it. Part one is where Amanda share three tips for simplifying your content creation, in order to be consistent. And it also helps you build a know like and trust factor with your audience. So that was part one, part two, in Episode 37, we discussed how to get off the content creation hamster wheel, and how to still stay consistent but at the same time, not feel like you are always on that wheel and you are close to the B word burnout. And so that’s something that we discussed in Episode 37. So we have the foundation now. So let’s start talking about how to prepare for the next quarter or at least start gearing up for the next quarter for our businesses.

Amanda
So the very first thing I want to kind of discuss is this idea of a content plan or a content strategy because we tend to use these two phrases in changeably when we’re creating our, our content for the next quarter for the next month, or whatever, we think, Okay, I’ve got to create my plan, I’ve got to create my strategy. And we use them as if they’re the same thing. But they’re very much different. And I want to make sure that we’re all on the same page about how I’m using this terminology, as we’re talking because they do mean very different things. So a content plan is simply knowing what you’re posting about, and when, and where. And it’s literally just writing out okay, I’m going to post this topic on Instagram on this day in this topic on Instagram on this day, and my podcast episode on this day is going to be about this. That’s the plan. But strategy is the work you do before you create the plan. It’s knowing what your messaging is, it’s really having that nailed down. It’s knowing what your call to actions need to be what your topics need to be about, because at different parts of your marketing year, because your marketing is going to have ebbs and flows at different parts of your marketing year, you’re going to be wanting to gear what you’re talking about two different things. And we’ll kind of discuss that more in a minute. But especially if you’re launching something you’re not always going to be selling, you’re not always going to be doing value. But you’re always going to have different angles, and different calls to actions and different ways that you are trying to move people through your funnels. That strategy for what you’re doing with that is going to inform your plan. But the plan and the strategy are not the same thing.

Dolly DeLong
I love how you just shaped that. So okay, so the first thing is like, have a content plan and a content strategy.

Amanda
The first step is actually to gather all of your dates for the upcoming quarter. I just wanted to clarify content plan versus strategy so that we’re all on the same page as we’re talking through this because they’re very different. But we tend to in the business world, use them as the same thing. But the first thing you want to do is gather all the dates for the upcoming quarter. So when are you taking time off? When is your spouse going to be off work? When is your childcare going to be unavailable? What does that look like you need to have all of those dates, because in order to run a business, that feels simple, and that allows us to be present in our everyday lives. Our business has to support our life, not the other way around. Too often we say okay, here’s my content plan. I’m going to have a launch on this week. And I’m going to do this on this week and this one this week. And then we get into that week. And we’re like, oh, my kids aren’t in school. Oh, how am I supposed to manage a launch, and childcare and, and then you’re flustered and frustrated. So what we want to do first and foremost is looking at your, the rest of your life, what’s happening in the rest of your life, are you going to have family in town. And obviously this things can change. And sometimes things pop up, you never know when your child’s gonna get sick or when you’re going to get sick. But this will give you a basic picture, a safety net, at least for most of what’s going to pop up in life. So gather all those dates, put all of those on the calendar time off, I highly encourage you to mark off days. For time off. When I’m doing this with my clients at the end of every year when we’re planning for the next year ahead. They’re like, Oh, I don’t need more time off than that set aside more time off than you need. Because if you’ve set aside the time off, you can always work if you really want to. But if you want to take time off and you haven’t set aside time for it, you’re probably not going to be able to take that time off. So set aside more than you think you need. So all those dates, put them on the calendar, get a quarterly calendar, put them all on there, then I want you to look at what other dates you might have business wise. So I already know, for example, that we’re doing something fun together coming in February, that is already on a sticky note for February. For my 2023 calendar, I have it already printed off. It’s April of 2022. Guys, but I have it on a sticky note already, because that’s an important date. So take any important dates you have for their upcoming quarter collaborations. If you have any maybe affiliate promos that you’re going to be part of end of quarter four, or inside of quarter four, I know cultivate what matters. There are a lot of people in our space that are affiliates for them. Every October they have their launch, right? These are the kinds of things you want to be thinking about. So take all of those other dates, the business dates, pop them in, are there any conferences you’re going to? Are there any friends that you have that you want to make sure you’re able to support their launch, even if you’re not an affiliate, but you know, Hey, my friend is launching, I want to make sure I put something out there for them. Those are the kinds of things you want to put on your calendar next. So you’ve got all your dates on your calendar, ready to go. We can’t create a content marketing strategy until we have those on there. But oftentimes, we want to jump right into the strategy. So once you’ve got all the dates on the calendar, then you can decide okay, when am I launching what let’s say you’ve got a pre a new digital offer that you want to put out there whether it’s a new to service, maybe a new VIP day, maybe you have a new template that you’re selling in your digital shop, maybe it’s a course whatever that might look like, even if end of the year, maybe you’re doing your one to one stuff for the next year, whatever that looks like, you probably have a launch happening in q4, we all tend to have launches happening in q4. So put those dates on the calendar, go ahead and put the open cart date. And I say open cart. But I don’t necessarily only mean if you’re doing a launch with like cart open or close, it could also just be this as the start of the launch and the end of the launch. But put open cart, put closed cart with every launch you do, you should have some kind of what I call a visibility booster. So that could be something as simple as a quick three day challenge that you host in your Facebook group, it could be something as large as a summit that you’re doing. It could be a pop up podcast, it could be a webinar, it’s something that you’re doing, that’s going to get you more visible in the eyes of your audience. And if you can hook up with some friends, maybe their audiences as well. But your visibility booster is going to be the week before your launch. So you’ve got your OpenCart date, your closed date, and you’ve got your visibility booster. Now, here is the number one problem that I see entrepreneurs make when it comes to launches, you move through them too quickly. Your launch runway should be about 12 weeks long, especially if it’s a brand new offer, you’re going to be preparing your audience for 12 weeks, which is why we’re talking about q4 in August, because your 12 weeks is probably going to be starting very soon. If it hasn’t already, realistically. So 12 weeks, you’re going to backup from your OpenCart date 12 weeks, if it’s something you’ve launched a couple of times now, if you’ve launched it before, eight weeks is probably plenty because you’ve already done a lot of the the ground lane and you’ve already established yourself as an expert in whatever that thing is. But brand new product brand new offer 12 weeks. So that’s going to be your launch runway start. That is where you’re going to start the strategy for this upcoming launch when it comes time to create that content strategy. 12 weeks out. So then, when you’re planning out your content strategy, you’re going to be really, really intentional and strategic for those 12 weeks with all of the content that you’re putting out.

Dolly DeLong
Yeah, I’m just like nodding my head and agreeing saying, “Yes, Amen”. Now, I I will have to say I feel like there is a lot of I don’t want to say push back on this because most people agree like having a lead up having a runway is very important, but actually executing it and doing it. That’s the hard part. Because for me from a human perspective, maybe I’m like overthinking this, but it’s hard for people to plan ahead like 1216 18, let’s do the 12, eight to 12 weeks of launching or pre runway strategy. That’s that’s hard to map out for a lot of people. How do you, like communicate the essentials of this to your clients? Amanda?

Amanda
Honestly, by the time someone hires me to do this, because this is what I do with my one on one clients is we create their content marketing strategy for the entire year. At that point, they’re bought in they’re like, yes, absolutely. Here’s the secret about a launch runway that I think most people misunderstand. You’re not selling for 12 weeks, you’re not talking about your offer for 12 weeks, you are simply laying the groundwork for 12 weeks, you’re only selling for like two weeks max, the rest of it. You’re being intentional with your strategy to lead people to understand that to get problem aware, to say, Oh, I do have this problem to get solution aware of oh, this is how I solve that problem. And then to get aware of your offer offer aware of oh, I need this. So if you’re looking at my membership club content batching. We’ve talked about it for the last couple of episodes, right? If you’re looking at that, to get problem aware, my audience needs to first and foremost, understand that the reason that they are so overwhelmed by content creation is because they don’t have a system before I can talk to them about even batching content, they have to understand that they’re even on the content creation hamster wheel. A lot of times you don’t realize that you just this is normal. This is what the everyday life of an entrepreneur looks like. This is just part of entrepreneurship. So making them problem aware, I have to put out content that says hey, this is normal. But it doesn’t have to be this way. You don’t have to be stuck on this hamster wheel. There are better ways to do content. That’s all I’m talking about. For the first part of the lead up for the first part of the runway. I’m not talking about club content batching at all, I’m barely even talking about content matching. Then once they’re problem aware you You move into this to that first phase is the pre pre launch phase within that 12 weeks, then you move into the pre launch phase. And what most people miss is that pre pre launch phase, you start by saying, hey, batching, this is what you need, right? This is what you need. But people are like, Wait, I don’t want that. Why do I need batching? Well, I don’t, I don’t need that. Because you haven’t done the prep work to show them that they need it. So the pre pre launch phase is what most people miss, you do that you show them, hey, problem aware, then you spend the next few weeks really talking about the solution to the problem, you’ve made them aware of you say, Hey, you’re overwhelmed by content creation, we know this. Now you know how to save some time on it. But But now let’s talk about batching. And you’re going to spend a few weeks talking about batching, or whatever it is that your solution is right? Hey, this is a great system, spend some time talking about how it saves you mental energy, spend some time talking about how it saves you creativity, spend some time talking about how it saves you time, you want to talk about the solution itself. So then they’re like, Yes, I’m gonna start batching, I’m bought in to batching. So that’s the pre launch phase. At this point, you still haven’t talked about your offer, or your visibility booster or anything, you’ve done zero selling, zero selling. And then for the last couple of weeks, you move into Okay, I’m gonna have this challenge on how to batch your content for the next couple of weeks, or for the next week challenge on that. And then the challenge moves them into now I’ve got this great offer for you. That’s when you’re doing the selling is during the actual launch phase itself. But the whole process is really what brings people in the the pre pre launch phase. And the pre launch phase is what brings people into actually buying. But most people just want to do the launch phase and say, Hey, I’ve got this new offer. Here’s my, my webinar all about it, come join us and then we’re upset when crickets happen.

Dolly DeLong
Yeah, you have to do you have to lay the groundwork. And sometimes the groundwork means, like you said, like that 12 week of runway or sometimes a week of runway, so and that’s something that can be overwhelming for a lot of business owners. But the solution is just like breaking it down. Like you said, like, start breaking down the dates, look ahead of the quarter, breaking down the dates with your personal life, then mark off when you’re having your time off. And when you have conferences to go to what business date plans you have, when you want to launch and all that. So Amanda, you Amanda’s will literally breaking this, these concepts down for us in this episode. And this is what her clients pay her to do. So I hope that you are tuning in and leaning in and listening into this conversation.

Amanda
Yeah. And the key to it is really understanding what your messaging is. Because if you don’t understand what your messaging is, there’s absolutely no way for you to truly lay that groundwork, because you have to know that messaging in and out. And so you need to know exactly who your audience is, you need to know exactly what it is that your offer does for them. What is the transformation? You’re taking them from A to B, what is a what is B? What is that transformation in one sentence? And that’s the key right there. A lot of my clients come to me and we have to really work on that messaging, because they’re very flowery with their language. And they’re like, Well, I do this, and I do this with them. And then I also do this and we need to know in one sentence, what it is that you do, what is that transformation? So know the audience, know the transformation, know what the solution is? What is that thing that you’re going to be teaching on? What is your offer of teaching on? You need to know what their problem is? Why do they need your solution. And then you need to know what I call the problem before the problem, because they don’t know that they don’t know they have that problem. So in order to help them see that they have that problem, you’ve got to solve the thing before that. So going back to my example, with my own course and content batching. The problem is that they’re not batching their content, they’re stuck on the hamster wheel, because they’re not batching their content. But what they think the problem is, is that they don’t have enough time to create content. So I have to solve this idea of how to create content faster, will you simplify it here all these different ways you can simplify content creation. Now you know that there are ways to make it so that content creation happens faster. Okay. Simplicity, simplify it. Here are a bunch of tips. One of my freebies is a it’s an audio training, I think it’s eight tips to create content faster. And it’s just simple hacks for Hey, instead of typing if you’re trying to edit too much Voice Memo yourself, there all kinds of different tips in there. But I’m just helping them solve that initial problem of content creation takes too much time. Once they’ve solved that you’re ready to kind of introduce the problem. But the problem before the problem is again, one of those things that we often miss, we don’t realize that that’s what we’re trying to solve. We’re just trying to solve the initial problem and then we’re going, Why isn’t anyone Why is no one listening to me? Because they don’t even know that they have that problem yet.

Dolly DeLong
While you were sharing that example, I was like, okay, like, I actually went through this in the past few year as I was honing in more of my Dubsado because I do Dubsado experiences. And I honed in more on for creative business owners, specifically with family photographers. And it took me a long time to communicate the importance of a CRM system for photographers, because I was discovering, yes, they wanted to be more streamlined, but they didn’t know what that meant. They didn’t they wanted a workflow, but they didn’t know what a workflow meant. So I have had to peel back layer by layer by layer in order to show them like, these are the essential family foundations you need to lay. And then we will have a very streamlined strategic process for you. And I’m not even joking around the last four clients, I’ve had Amanda, who I’ve done this process with, they at the end, we’re thinking, Oh, workflows aren’t that intimidating at all. Like they’re fun. Like, they may not be fun, like leading up to the process, but it’s not as overwhelming as I had assumed it would be so like, I was just thinking of a real life example for me. And that is so true. You just have to peel back the layers further and further to like, help explain more of the point.

Amanda
Yeah, and to bridge where you are as an expert versus where your client or potential student is, who has no idea about any of this.

Dolly DeLong
So do you have any other words of wisdom to share, as we gear up for q4, because you’ve shared like, okay, like, let’s plan out our quarter, let’s map out all the important dates. So let’s say we’ve done that. And now we have a runway planned, and we have those either eight to 12 weeks of runway, let’s say 12 weeks. So now.

Amanda
Okay, so you’ve got you’ve got the runway planned, it roughly breaks out to about four weeks, four weeks, four weeks for the different phases of the runway. So that’s your 12 weeks. Outside of that the only other thing you have to plan quarterly is your non launch content. And this is the fun part. I mean, I think the launch content is fun, because I really love launching. And I really love helping my clients create their launch runways. But outside of that it’s so fun, because you get to really be creative with the content that you’re putting out there. So let’s say that you are for the sake of an example, in a launch runway from September 1 weekend, September through end of November. I probably actually wouldn’t recommend that because of Black Friday. But yeah, yeah, I wouldn’t recommend doing a launch on Black Friday. But just for the sake of everybody. Simple math, beginning of September to end of November. Okay, gotcha. You’ve got a whole month in December, where you still have content to put out, you can talk about anything that you want, I mean, keep it semi relevant, but you can really, really play around with your non launch content. And this is a great time to talk about things that matter that are something that really weighs on your heart. Talk about things that are fun to you talk about, maybe you have an idea for a future offer. And you’re like, I don’t know, if this topic is gonna go over well or not talk about it, put something out there about the topic and see the response, you get throw spaghetti at the wall, because the launch content, the plan, the strategy that you’ve just created for your launch runway, it’s so dialed in, and you’re really showcasing yourself as an expert in that topic. You’re leading people into the sale, but you have so much more often than that one topic. And so this is the time where you can really have fun with what you’re talking about. And so often we’re like, Well, I’m a multi passionate entrepreneur, and I’m gonna talk about all these things. That’s great. We’re all multi passionate. We’re all three dimensional humans. That’s like my biggest pet peeve is the I’m a multi passionate entrepreneur, we all are. But in order to make money, you have to niche down period, you have to be able to simply communicate a message. But this this time, this non launch content is the time to let those passions why I tend to do an episode every single quarter where I call it a coffee and conversations episode where I’m just like, hey, like this is what’s happening in my life. Let’s sit down and like have coffee, and just chat. I love to talk about different systems that I use in my business, how I keep things simple. I like to talk about the hard part’s of entrepreneurship. All of that doesn’t necessarily make sense in the context of a launch runway. But that non launch content. I can go crazy with it. And so that’s the time when you can Really, you don’t need a strategy necessarily, that’s more of, okay, here’s our plan, we’re going to talk about these things, and we’re excited about it. And we’re gonna see how these things land. So that’s how you wrap up the planning for your content strategy,

Dolly DeLong
something that I do, because if we’re batching, these episodes out in April, and hopefully Lord willing, they’ll be posted in August, but in between April and August, I’m planning on having my own lunch related to something Dubsado related. And there is like, I was listening to you nodding, because I have two or three episodes that are just more fun, where I’m inviting guests to come and speak about different strategies and workflows. But then for very specific amount of time, nine weeks is just Dubsado related. And I’m sure now that you are listening to this episode, for those of you who have been listening since the beginning, now, you know, I was doing I was laying out a runway like Amanda would call it a and into my offer that was Dubsado related. So yeah, I completely agree. I do the same thing.

Amanda
Yeah, absolutely. And the nine weeks, it can sound like a lot, right? Nine to 12 weeks of content. That’s so much content. But when you’re creating a whole offer around something, it’s amazing how many different episodes and topics you can come up with?

Dolly DeLong
Oh yeah,I came up with 15 different episodes, like actually no more than 15. But my runway, like I was like, Okay, I’m gonna keep it, I’m gonna try to keep it under nine. So I won’t, you know, overwhelm everyone. So eight to nine was my sweet spot for me. Okay, so we have talked about having even fun, like after your launch, doing some non launch related content. And this is a lot of fun for a lot of business owners. And I will agree with you, I did listen to your recent podcast episode about your coffee and chatting over coffee. And you were talking about having a squirrel in your attic. And I was I was just laughing about that in my car. So I always like, for me listeners perspective, I want to let you know I enjoy you know, you know, the non strategy episodes because I want to get to know you. I want to get to know the podcasters. So…

Amanda
And that goes all back to the building the know like and trust factor. These non launch episodes are so you can’t and that is another really important reason why consistency is so important. Because how many times have we been following someone to be ghosted by them and then to see them pop back up when they’re launching? That’s gross. Yeah. We don’t want to buy from someone that does that. We want to feel connected to them. And like I want my listeners to feeling they’re my friend. Like I said in one of the previous episodes, I’m an awkward person, like, I just am. I want you guys to know that I’m quirky because I don’t want you to buy from me and think you’re buying from someone that’s polished and super like I don’t even know like what word I would use sophisticated.

Dolly DeLong
Like, we’re sitting here and I like whatever Amanda’s wearing a top hat and a monocle,

Amanda
Right? Exactly. Yeah. No, like you can see like my sports bras like poking through my shirt. I definitely have a biker shorts right now. Like I look presentable from the top up. But I am very low key. And I want everyone who’s in my audience to realize that like, I’m just a normal, lazy human over a year.

Dolly DeLong
Which I appreciate and like you find your people when you Yeah, alright, you showcase who you are. Yeah, I love that so much. And really, Amanda, I did enjoy that past episode and squirrel laughing about squirrel and I was thinking, wow, like, I feel like that would happen to me and my little family and my husband would probably have the same reaction that your husband did.

Amanda
The squirrel is gone friends, has not come back. But it was a nine month battle.

Dolly DeLong
That’s the type of fun non lunch related content that again, it just like helps bridge the gap to get to know you more in between lunches, which I think it’s fun. I think it’s important. That’s great. Do you have any other q4 related topics in relation to content marketing that you want to share?

Amanda
Don’t be afraid to post a ton for Black Friday. Again, I wouldn’t do a launch of a new product during the Black Friday stuff because it is hard to be visible. And you’re just going to do better if you wait and do it after before. But don’t be afraid to do a lot of content for Black Friday because it is a very crowded market. But do something that you have a system around maybe you’ve already got a funnel, an offer already created so that you can hang out with your family instead of posting make sure you batch all that content right. And then don’t be afraid to keep things low key in December. That is also Another month in our industry where things are just really relaxed, I tend to do two months of content in November when I do that batch week, so that all of my December and January content is already created. So I don’t have to do a batch week in December. So pro tip, that’s a lot of fun.

Dolly DeLong
That is, actually I’m writing this down, that’s very smart. Think ahead, I love to take,

Amanda
I take two full weeks off every December. And then I also spend a week goal setting, so I don’t have a lot of work time in December. So I decided, hey, I’m not gonna batch in December, I’m gonna go ahead and do January content in November.

Dolly DeLong
And like, I’m not trying to like, we were just talking about task switching in the previous episode. like kind of like changing tasks, changing topics, cuz I know it’s kind of similar lines. If you’re listening, you’re like, Well, how will lay the financial side of that, like, what does that look like if I’m not working and stuff? Well, if you’ve been listening to my the systems of financial developing a system and workflow for yourself in relation to the finances of your business, you can plan ahead and still pay yourself for the weeks, technically, you’re not working, you’re taking that time off. So I encourage you to listen into previous episodes, because I go into depth about that, and how I develop a system for myself. And yes, like, I am also planning on taking several weeks off for the holidays, so and I’m gonna pay myself and I’ll be still showing up consistently. But it’ll be batched ahead of time.

Amanda
And I mean, this does still relate to content marketing, because if you are planning ahead, you can still market yourself, even if your content just because I’m not batching content in December, again, I do two months in November. So the contents still going out. I may not be working. But I am still selling through my digital offers, through sending out emails at that point, I will be doing one to one taking on new clients. By the end of December, I should probably be done with that. But the idea is that you can still sell even if you’re taking time off, your marketing doesn’t have to stop and it should not stop just because you’re taking time off. So batch your content.

Dolly DeLong
Yes, exactly. I do want to say like something that I saw is so silly. But one thing that stops a lot of creative business owners, I’ve noticed is the assumption of well, what will people think about me like posting about myself all the time posting about like, marketing myself, because there are people like I saw somebody on this is so silly. I saw somebody on Facebook make fun of people who have to like market themselves. And they commented, like how exhausting it would be. And I didn’t comment that I just read it. And I thought you were probably really discouraging a lot of small business owners. But I didn’t say anything. But I just thought I just wanted to use this moment to encourage anybody who’s listening, if you are facing this, and you’re thinking, Well, I don’t want to seem like I’m promoting myself all the time. And I just can’t stop talking about myself. I’m giving you permission like Mandy and I are giving you permission like to think ahead, plan ahead and batch ahead. Because you should be marketing yourself, you should be promoting yourself. And you can do that on autopilot and still take a break.

Amanda
And not you can be promoting yourself and not saying hey, buy from me. Yeah, you can frame everything. And you should frame everything or most things as value for your audience members. Because what we’re all doing here is serving others with the gifts that we’ve been given, right. We’re all saying, this is something that I’m really talented in, I want to share this with you. And so even during the launch runway, like I said, You’re not selling that whole time for most of it. You’re just giving tips, you’re giving help you’re giving value, you’re educating them on something. And then when you happen to mention like, hey, for more to go deeper, here are some ways to do that. You’re selling after giving value and giving that education and they’re ready to say, Okay, I do want to go deeper on this. Here’s my money. And so selling doesn’t mean and marketing yourself doesn’t mean hey, I’m launching right now, when you’re in launch mode. It does. Obviously you’re really pushing yourself and your product and your offer but 99% of the time, it’s here’s like value. And also if you want here’s a way to take this to the next step.

Dolly DeLong
Yeah, no, I love that so much. I love that you’ve like broken it down. And I hope it’s like just my goal is just to be as encouraging as possible to the listeners and to let you know like you can be strategic in how you promote yourself and like Amanda said, like how you serve others in your promotions. So these are all great, great tips. Amanda, is there anything else that you’re wanting to share before we wrap things up?

Amanda
I think my final bit of advice is not to be afraid of planning ahead, because you can change the plans at any point if you need to. So often I hear from people, well, I can’t batch content, because I am not going to know what I want to post about until I post about it. Remember that what you’re doing is you’re here to serve others, right? Like your contents, not for you. So don’t let yourself get caught up in that mindset. But at the same time, don’t be scared to plan in advance, because you don’t want to be able to or you want to be able to change things, you can still change things, having batched content is just a safety net. Having a strategic content plan is just a safety net, you can change things at any point.

Dolly DeLong
So, so true. And I like what you were saying, Don’t be afraid of planning ahead. I was like Amanda’s speaking to those of you who like the Enneagram. She’s speaking to the sevens out there.

Amanda
All of my seven friends that refuse to plan ahead.

Dolly DeLong
It’s okay to undo a plan to yeah, it’s totally fine. And for those of us who are like ultimate planners, like me and Amanda, like, you know, if something doesn’t go as planned, it’s, it’s going to be okay.

Amanda
And it’s okay to change the plan for like me, and you’re a little too rigid.

Dolly DeLong
So it’s okay. I was sharing with Amanda earlier that my husband is also I’m a three and my husband is a one and Amanda is a one. And so I’m like I get it I I totally understand the mindset of a one. I totally get it.

Amanda
Yeah, we’re an interesting bunch. I don’t envy my husband having to deal with my mind.

Dolly DeLong
But he loves you. And that’s all he does. Love does accepts you. And he loves you, Amanda, it was so good to chat with you. Thank you so much for just being a part of this three part series on strategic content marketing and batching. And so for those of you who are brand new to listening into this podcast, Amanda, I know you’ve shared this so many times before in previous episodes, but can you just wrap up and share with everybody about your content club batching membership and also where and how people can work with you and find you.

Amanda
Yeah, so club content. batching is part chorus part group coaching program. Inside of it, I teach you how to create a batching system that is unique for you and your business and the kind of hours that you work. But you learn how to create a month’s worth of content in just one week, no matter how many hours you’re working each week. It also has the whole accountability aspect, because knowing how to batch is only half the battle, you actually have to implement the system over and over again. So there’s also a ton of accountability built in so that you can continue batching. But also, if you happen to fall off, you’ve got the accountability to jump right back on. That is you can find that at Amanda warfield.com forward slash content, if you’re ready to dive in with both feet with that, you can use the coupon code dolly to get $30 off your monthly membership fee for the length of your membership $30 off every month. And then if you are not so sure maybe you just want to kind of dip your toes in, you can go to Amanda warfield.com Ford slash Dolly. And just test out the very first lesson inside of club content matching. And if you’re interested in more so in the strategic side of things, if you’re like, I’ve got a content creation system down, I’m comfortable with it, I want more help with strategy. Go to my website, which is Amanda Warfield and learn more about my services, I will be opening up my one to one spaces in q4. So you can add yourself to the waitlist if you want to be the first to hear about those. I would love to potentially work with you in the new year. And if you have any follow up questions at all because I know we covered a ton of information over this content marketing series. Please come find me on Instagram. I’m at Mrs. Amanda Warfield. I’m happy to chat with you in my DMs for to answer any and all questions that you may have.

Dolly DeLong
Thank you so much Amanda in like let me reiterate Amanda’s podcast is incredible so please go and subscribe it follow her leave her a review you all because she is she brings so much just great content week in week out and I just just I love following her so much she’s awesome so anyways thank you so much and I hope this series has been helpful for for you all and if it has just please let me know and let me know what other type of series you would like to learn more about and developing systems and strategies and workflows for and okay like this is me awkwardly saying goodbye to you all and say goodbye to me and I hope you all have a wonderful and streamlined week by thanks so

Amanda
Thanks so much for having me, Dolly.

Dolly DeLong
Of course. Thank you so much for listening to the systems and workflow magic podcast. You can find full show notes from today’s episode at Dolly DeLong Photography.com forward slash podcast. If you’re loving the podcast, I’d be so honored if you’d subscribe and leave a review on your favorite podcast player. Be sure to screenshot this episode, share it to your stories and tag me at Dolly DeLong education over on Instagram. Until next time, go make some strategic workflow magic.