LIVE! From The Past? I might be vacation, but I'm never really gone…

Coming to you live from the past - is that a thing?  And I think we can do it without going 88 MPH or having a flux capacitor.

This content was written weeks ago, but that makes it even MORE relevant, because we are talking about how you do things in batches so you aren't needed all the time.

As a solo or small firm owner, your time is that much more necessary, so to maximize the impact you can have, you need to work in batches and block schedule stuff.

Not sure what I mean - check out this webinar below we did on 10 tips to a 3 day work week.

Now that you're back - working in batches is even more important when it comes to marketing.  It's one thing for there to be work emergencies or trials that run long, etc.  It's another thing to take those true emergencies and use them as an excuse to not post anything on social media for 5 months.

Or shoot that one video a day for 2 days and then give up.

Or write that one blog post and never again...

I know, I know, habits over goals...I'm beating the dead horse...

And look, it depends upon exactly what it is you need to batch, but for this exercise we are going to focus on social media.

I run my content calendar on a 4 week cycle (rather than a month) - I do it because I like making things themed to a day and then anything that makes sense in different chunks works better on a 4 week cycle.

For example: I have 4 connection points I want to push every month.

1) Join our facebook group

2) Download our worksheets (like a sample content calendar!!!!)

3) Connect with me on different platforms

4) Sign up for this newsletter

Now I can look at each coming up 1 time during my 4 week cycle instead of not knowing what to do when there's a fifth week in the month and throwing the whole thing off.

So let's assume you are willing to trust me on this - no guarantees that's a good idea, but it tends to work out.

Week 1 - fill out the content calendar for the following 4 week cycle

Week 2 - write any articles, blog posts, scripts etc needed for that content calendar

Week 3 - film the scripts and anything else needed

Week 4 - make any edits, finalize the posts, write captions and schedule them to be posted

Then rinse and repeat and now you are always 1-4 weeks ahead.  That way you can take time off and just accelerate what you do the week or 2 before (like me writing 3 newsletters in one sitting instead of doing 1 per week), and still schedule it to go out at a good time for y'all (at least I hope Friday afternoon is a good time).

And to be fair I have a 4-5 person team working on my social media with me, so don't worry if you can't keep up.  But seriously, 3-5 posts per week for a year, you would be AMAZED at where that got you.  On a platform you use normally and will engage with people on.

This should give you enough time to have a life without being so far out that you miss out on real life.  I think anyone interested in social media or being a content creator needs to watch the movie Fake Famous.

In essence, they try to make 3 people IG famous, and the movie ends with COVID happening.  So without spoiling it, what do you think IG influencers did when covid hit?

A) gave up on being seen on social media forever

B) threw themselves into the throngs of covid for the great content and attention

C) took a day or so and then just kept posting like everything was normal

D) committed to using their platform to raise awareness and money towards a good cause

Check out the movie to find out (and also, whichever one you guessed says a LOT about who you are as a person and I love you for that).

Now that you have your batches, you need to carve out the time.  Find the time each week that is LEAST impacted by emergencies.  So Monday morning is probably NOT the right time.

Maybe it's randomly on Wednesday, maybe it's Friday afternoon, maybe it's a weekend morning (and then you take some other time off during the week).  And then calendar your time to do what you need to do to keep your firm growing.

And maybe the idea of following this newsletter TERRIFIED you, putting yourself out there, and if so, that's totally fine.  I would suggest don't do it.  There's going slightly outside your comfort zone here and there and then there's trying to commit to a program that you're going to dread every single day and fighting an uphill battle (or P90X as they call it).

Or maybe you STILL don't have enough time...

If either of these issues hit home with you, you can always bring in the experts, I might know some.... ;)

Next week, we are going to go into how you can film from anywhere - I should know, as someone driving cross country with my wife and kid...have you noticed me creating LESS content or MORE?  (It better be more, I hope you see it's more, it certainly is for me).

In the meantime, have a great weekend and I hope you're on track to the success you want.

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