The Brand ED Podcast

Robby: The branded podcast with Robbie
Fowler, episode 100, conquer Your

Content Planning Six Key Challenges
and How to Overcome Them Part Three.

Content creation can feel like a monster.

Planning it out, knowing what your
content marketing should be and do.

The demand feels very high.

If you are a solopreneur, a coach,
a consultant, you know you need

to be producing content to get
your thoughts out in the world.

But most of us feel
absolutely overwhelmed.

We're not sure where we're headed, and
that leaves us stalled out or sometimes

paralyzed and we're not doing anything.

And then we'll have a season where
we do a bunch of stuff and then

we get back to not doing anything.

All the while we just feel terrible, like
we're sinking further and further away

from what we should be doing to promote
our brand, our business, and to get our

ideas out in the world so that ultimately
that brings us the kinds of clients and

customers that we want to work with.

That's what we're tackling in this
series, and we're gonna move to our.

Next challenge.

I encourage you real quick, go back
and listen to the first two episodes

in this series to get caught up today,
we're gonna dive into part three,

and that is the content challenge.

The challenge is how do you come up
with content for your content marketing?

All of us have felt this, and
you may be feeling it right now.

How in the world am I supposed to come
up with content for my content marketing?

Let's talk about why we
start to feel that way.

That challenge of coming up with
content often comes from the fact

that we feel overwhelmed by the
number of choices, by the number of

topics that we could be talking about.

And addressing in our content marketing,
and it's like going to a restaurant

where they have a really large menu.

My favorite example is where they
don't actually have a menu when

you walk up and place your order.

So think of a restaurant that is the kind
of restaurant where you place your order

at the counter, you look up at the menu.

A designer has not touched the menu, so
everything is in the exact same font size.

You're not sure where you're
supposed to look, and there's a

huge number of options up there.

My wife and I frequently talk about
this experience when we have it and

we get so panicked or overwhelmed by
the amount of information, we have

no idea where we're supposed to look.

There are just too many choices.

There are not prioritized choices
for us, and so we just default

back to something that we're not
sure if we actually wanted that.

But it was the safe, easy order, and
so you fall back on something like I,

I guess I'll just take a hamburger.

I guess I'll just take chicken
because of the number of choices.

That's how a lot of us feel when it
comes to deciding on what kind of

content we should be creating and
talking about in our content marketing.

So you feel overwhelmed
by the number of choices.

Perhaps the challenge for you is
well, I have an idea of my, of

what I would want to talk about.

I'm, but I'm not sure what to say.

Some of you may feel.

That you're not sure what you want to
say about a particular topic or choice.

So when it comes to content marketing,
you know what you could be talking

about as far as a topic, but you're
not sure exactly what to say or, here's

another thing that gets in our way,
we're not sure who're speaking to, and

when you're not sure of who the audience
is, it's very challenging to figure

out what you want to say, because you
are not sure who you're speaking to.

So we feel overwhelmed by the choices.

We're not sure exactly what we want to
say, we're not sure who we're speaking to.

That causes significant problems and
challenges when it comes to content.

And then lastly, we're not sure
why someone else would want to

listen to us, and that begins
to allow that doubt to creep in.

We say why would someone
want to listen to me anyway?

However that content gets distributed,
whether that's a podcast, a blog

article, social media, we get
caught in the question or the fear

of who would wanna listen to me?

Or Why would someone want to listen to me?

So those are some reasons that
stand, or obstacles that stand in

our way to coming up with content
when it comes to content marketing.

Now I wanna give you a couple of tips and
then I'm gonna give you an action item.

We're not gonna take a ton of
time because I think this is

fairly easy to push through.

Now I wanna remind us what we
talked about in the first episode.

I gave a brief pop quiz in the first
episode of this series, two episodes ago,

and I asked the question, true or false?

Are there content planning
resources available to us online?

In other words, are there resources
online that are designed to

help you come up with content?

The answer's true.

There are tons of them.

There are articles, there are
resources, there are courses, there

are products that you can buy to
help you tackle this challenge.

So that gives me an indication that
it's not quite as simple as if I

just knew what content to talk about
in my content marketing, I could

plan that out and I could just crush
it because, We have no shortage of

resources to help us push through that
obstacle, overcome that challenge.

Here's some tips when it comes to
coming up with content in light of

where you're headed this quarter of
the year, and that was the previous

episode, so go check that out.

It's very short.

That's the first thing that helps us.

We have to know where we're
headed, and then we have to

know what we're talking about.

What kind of content do we want to
talk about in order to go accomplish

and get our business where we want
to get it in the next quarter.

Coming up with content.

Here are some tips.

What do people who know
you already ask you?

What questions are they asking you about?

What topics are they asking
you in looking for your.

Input.

So anyone that already knows you
already has framed you out as some

sort of an expert or someone who
can help them with certain things.

And you'll hear that come
through in their conversation, in

particular, in their questions.

So just think of some folks that know you.

They could know you personally, they
could know you from a work context.

And just think through what
sorts of questions do people

come to me for answers.

Write those down and now you've got a
pretty good idea of these are things

that I have some sort of a track
record that people want to, they

come to me for help on those areas.

A second tip, what did you need
to learn 2, 3, 4, 5 years ago?

What did you need to learn over the
past three or four years that got you

from where you were 2, 3, 4, 5 years ago
to where you are in your business now?

Whatever you needed to learn, there's
a whole group of people coming right

behind you, likely trying to do the same
thing, or something very similar to you,

and they're just a little bit further
back down the journey than you are.

So what did you need to learn
2, 3, 4, 5 years ago to get

your business where it is today?

Talk about that, that is a great
source for content for you to decide

what sorts of things do I wanna be
talking about in my content marketing.

Here's one final tip.

If you are pivoting from another, a
career, maybe another work environment,

so you were in a corporate environment
and you're moving to a solopreneur

business, an entrepreneur business.

You're stepping into consulting or
coaching or some sort of creative

endeavor or a solopreneur adventure.

When you're pivoting it's similar.

You want to just ask yourself.

What are you already an expert at?

What do you, what areas do you already
have expertise in that you used in that

previous role or position or even career?

And just write those down and don't
worry about the specific details.

So if you worked as a technical writer,
you wrote technical manuals for a

product or maybe a software product.

Or a technology product, and you're a
tech writer, so you write the detailed

manuals that go along with the solution
that your company sold, for example.

Then you just write down, I'm an expert.

At not, yes.

Technical writing.

Man.

I'm an expert at writing and I'm an expert
at explaining difficult things in ways

that normal people can understand them.

You are a, an expert explainer.

You're likely an expert teacher,
you're likely an expert writer.

So you wanna write down the things that
you are already an expert at, or you have

skills in these areas if you're coming
from something different and pivoting

into a new career as a solopreneur,
entrepreneur, coach, consultant creative.

Maybe you're stepping into speaking,
podcasting, anything like that.

Take what you are already an expert in.

Write those things down.

Where do you already have skills?

Write those down.

I talked about my own journey with
that in a previous episode, and

I'll track that down and I'll put
that episode in the show notes.

But I had to do that as I
move, for example, from.

Church ministry back into
full-time marketing and consulting

and marketing advisory work.

So hopefully those are some tips to
help you begin to discern what sorts

of things do I want to be talking
about when it comes to the kind

of content marketing I want to do?

So let's jump to action steps.

Let's keep this simple.

Let's keep the ball moving.

Here's your action step for this episode.

Determine your three to
five content pillars.

Three to five content pillars.

These are the three to four to five
subjects or big buckets that you

are going to regularly be talking
about in your content marketing.

You're not gonna talk about a thousand
different things, so that's gonna remove

that challenge we talked about at the
top of this episode where you feel

overwhelmed by the number of choices.

We're gonna narrow those choices down and
say, these are the three to four to five

things I regularly want to be speaking
into, and I want to be talking about these

things, and these are areas where I would
love to be known as a thought leader so

that when someone thinks about one of
those subjects, topics, those big buckets,

over time, they might think about me.

So let me give you a few examples
of what this might look like.

What would be three examples of content
pillars that someone, for example,

like me might write down to help narrow
down the content I wanna talk about?

So one of those might be marketing,
I am a marketing advisor.

Marketing consultant.

So marketing is a fairly obvious
content pillar that I would write down.

Another one would be brand
strategy or brand positioning.

And then a third one might be leadership.

Those are three areas that I regularly am
going to be talking about in my content

marketing, and that alleviates all of the
other choices that might distract me and

say I could talk about this also, I could
talk about that also, I could talk about.

Lots of things.

No, these are the three things
I want to, I wanna be talking

about in my content marketing,
brand, strategy, and leadership.

You can even go the next step.

And under each of those three content
pillars, you could go one more level down.

And I could say in the area of
marketing, when I'm talking about

that content pillar, what are some
specific things I want to talk about?

I could talk about offers
under the heading of marketing.

I could talk about launches,
how you launch something under

the Heading and Marketing.

I could talk about email and email
marketing and email list building.

All of that could be under that
content pillar of marketing.

If it comes to brand strategy, I
could be talking about positioning.

For example, I have one called
the three Ps of positioning that

I've talked about on this podcast.

At least a couple of times I,
under brand strategy, I could be

talking about the difference between
branding and marketing and how to

leverage those in your business.

I could talk about personal branding
as opposed to brand positioning as

a business and leadership, right?

I could go one level down under
leadership and say, I wanna talk

about the idea of, do less better.

But my little sneaky trick is there,
I put a comma after less, right?

Instead of do less better, which
sounds like, wait, that's a bad

way in English of saying Do worse.

No, do less things, but do them better.

That's one thing I talk about a lot
under the umbrella of leadership.

Rest and reflection.

When I'm talking about leadership and
then a big part of my own brand and my

own journey, and what I want to bring
to the table is under leadership, what

does it look like to be a life-giving
leader, leading a life-giving business?

So that's an example of what it
looks like to take that action step.

So I want you to determine your
three to five content pillars.

Don't have seven or nine.

It's gonna be too challenging to keep up
with those three to five, and then you can

take one step further and say, under each
one of those content pillars, what are

a few specific areas I could talk about?

That's how you begin to push
through the content challenge.

You narrow down the choices.

You make it very simple for you
to say, what do I want to talk

about in my content marketing?

You then shape those content
pillars and aim them at where

you're headed this quarter.

That's what we covered
in the previous episode.

And that will start to help you conquer
the challenge of content marketing and

planning that out, which for so many
of us, Is just a massive challenge that

we start to feel like we're drowning
under the weight of the demand.

I hope you enjoyed this episode.

If so, hit the share button on
your phone or your podcast player.

Share this episode with someone else
that maybe you've talked about this

challenge, the two of you about.

You know how you're trying to market
yourself and create content and get

that content out into the world so
that it helps you grow your business.

I'd love for you to do that.

Join me on the next episode where
we talk about the channel challenge.

If you've ever said, I'm not a writer.

I'm not great on video.

I don't sound great on a audio.

Join me on the next episode where
we'll talk about the channel challenge.

Until next time go and
build a life- giving brand