How to simplify content creation for your business with Amanda Warfield

Your Dream Business

English - October 03, 2022 00:00 - 33 minutes - 30.8 MB - ★★★★★ - 34 ratings
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Previous Episode: How to make a personal connection in an online world

Next Episode: How to stop selling transactions and start selling transformations with Finka Jerkovic

Today’s episode of the podcast is an interview with Amanda Warfield, who talks all about content, long form, short form and how to be consistent, whilst still maintaining quality.

Amanda is a simplicity focused content marketing strategist. Her mission is to help women entrepreneurs, in particular, really fit their marketing into their business without it taking over their business.

I think this will be so useful to so many of you, as it’s something we look at a lot, so tune in, enjoy and then let me know what you think!

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST
● Where to start with being consistent

● Why you should put out less content than you think you need to

● Consistency and quality matters more than anything else

● The difference between perfect content, viral content and quality content

● Don’t base what consistency looks like for you, based on what other people are doing

● Everyone has to start somewhere, don’t be afraid to start small and then if you have time, add on later

● The pros and cons of batching content

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE
However much time you can set aside, put it on your calendar for the rest of your year to make sure you get it done.

HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MISS
● How to know if it’s quality content that you’re putting out

● How to simplify the content creation process

● Why you shouldn’t be afraid to repeat yourself

● How to batch create your content

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Mary Hyatt’s Podcast

Amanda Warfield’s Instagram

Amanda’s Warfield’s Podcast

TRANSCRIPT

Hello and a very warm welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. Now. If I sound a little different and if there's background noises that aren't all the same, it's because I messed up a little bit. And you know me authentic to the core. I will always tell you what's happening in my world and where I mess up because it's really important to know that because we are business owners, we make mistakes.

No one is perfect. And when we look at these people [00:02:00] online and think, Oh my God, they're so amazing. No, no, they're not. Like it's great show they're putting on, but everyone has failures, everyone makes mistakes. So I had a really busy couple of weeks. I had, well first I was off cause I had an operation, which I'm all recovered from.

All good now, which is great. Then I went straight into an in-person event that I held in Birmingham. Then from that event, I went straight into a week on of insider experience, which was phenomenal. So if you missed it this time, we're gonna do it again in January. So make sure as soon as I have the dates, I will get that in your diaries.

And then because I'd been off and had these various things, all my meetings and all my calls and everything got pushed into one week. And then I was going to Nashville the Monday this week. And I thought I was organized. And then I sat at the airport on Monday morning and turned right to my husband and was like, OMG.

Today’s episode of the podcast is an interview with Amanda Warfield, who talks all about content, long form, short form and how to be consistent, whilst still maintaining quality.

I think this will be so useful to so many of you, as it’s something we look at a lot, so tune in, enjoy and then let me know what you think!

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST
● Where to start with being consistent

● Why you should put out less content than you think you need to

● Consistency and quality matters more than anything else

● The difference between perfect content, viral content and quality content

● Don’t base what consistency looks like for you, based on what other people are doing

● Everyone has to start somewhere, don’t be afraid to start small and then if you have time, add on later

● The pros and cons of batching content

● How to simplify the content creation process

● Why you shouldn’t be afraid to repeat yourself

● How to batch create your content

LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE

Mary Hyatt’s Podcast

Amanda Warfield’s Instagram

Amanda’s Warfield’s Podcast

TRANSCRIPT

I haven't recorded the podcast like I'm normally so far ahead. [00:03:00] The interviews are so far ahead, but I just like everything I'd done ran out and I hadn't recorded it. So I sat here in the lovely Mary Hyatt's house where we stay when we come to Nashville, and she's very kindly found me one of her microphones cuz luckily she's a podcaster too.

And in fact, I'm gonna link to Mary's podcast in the show notes. So she very kind of got me a mic. It's early in the morning, we're about to go out and get breakfast, and I thought I better get these episodes recorded. So what I'm gonna do for the next three weeks, because we are so far ahead on the interviews and I feel like I just feel really disjointed when I interview so far ahead and I'm about to do a whole another batch again.

I thought, do you know what? To help me and help the interviews. I'm just gonna do the next three weeks as interviews. So the next three weeks are all interviews. They're all really good. You're gonna get so much good stuff from it. But that's what we're doing cuz it's so much easier for me to do the intro and outro while I'm not at home.

And then when I get back home, I'll get back to doing solos. And I might do a chunk of solos. But also if you listen to the podcast regularly, last week I did [00:04:00] say, How do you want me to mix it up? Do you want me to mix it up? Do you want me to change it? I did have a DM from someone saying they much prefer the solo episodes, so let me know.

But for the next three weeks we've got interviews and if you do like the solo episodes, do listen. They're still gonna be great. So today's interview is with Amanda Warfield, who talks all about content, long form, short form, how to be consistent, gives us her ideas on it. So I'm always happy to have a conversation about content because it is something that is always constant in our world.

So, Obviously do take a listen to this one. She's got some good ideas and I think this is gonna be really helpful even if it just refocuses you back onto, Okay, where am I going with my content? Cuz I know it's something that we look at all the time. Anyway, I'm gonna hand you over to the lovely Amanda. Enjoy.

Okay. I am really looking forward today to talking to Amanda Warfield. Amanda, how are you doing?

Amanda: I am great, Teresa. I am so excited. I know we've been trying to connect with this interview for a while, so I'm really, really [00:05:00] excited to be here with you today.

Teresa: It's been a, it's been a long time coming, hasn't it? So it just feels like, yeah, time just flies in one way, but also you do things and you think, "Oh, I'm not gonna do that for ages." and then suddenly it's like, "Oh no, we're there already." So, yeah, And this is meant to happen at the end of last year. And anyway, we're here, which is the main thing. So Amanda, we always start the podcast exactly the same way by asking you to explain to my lovely listeners who you are and how you got to do what you're doing today.

Amanda: Absolutely. So, hi, I am Amanda Warfield, as Teresa said. I am a simplicity focused content marketing strategist and honestly, it's kind of funny the way that I got into this because when I first started my business, I was very much focusing on simplified living capsule wardrobes and things like that. And then the longer I was in business and the longer I was doing that, that evolved into time management for business owners, which.

Then evolved into the content marketing strategy side of things, which [00:06:00] pulls in the simplicity focus where I started, and also the time management side of things. Because my mission is to help women entrepreneurs in particular, really fit their marketing into their business without it taking over their business.

So a lot of what I focus on is, okay, this is content marketing strategy, but with the lens of simplicity and time management just piled on top.

Teresa: Love it. So when you say, you know, when you started off talking about simplicity, does that mean you're super organized?

Amanda: I mean, yeah. Yeah.

Teresa: I love the other thing.

Amanda: I can toot my own horn, but yeah.

Teresa: No, I love that. I did once watch Marie Kondo and it lasted, well, I looked at my drawers the other day and I have to pull 'em out every six months and redo them again because it, yeah, it doesn't quite continue that way. But I try really hard, cause it does. When things are simple and organized and tidy, it generally does make your life so much easier, doesn't it?

Amanda: It really does. And I am [00:07:00] organized to the point where my husband, when he doesn't want me to throw something away, he will hide it in our attic where I won't find it so that I don't find it. And every time I go out there, there's something new. I'm actually, Where did this come from?

Teresa: I love it. I love it. Okay, so let's talk about the content side, because one thing. I think a lot of my lovely listeners wouldn't necessarily think is simple and content, because content is an absolute beast. So first off, let's start right at the beginning. What do you mean when you say the word content?

Amanda: So content to me, I look at is three main things. You've got long form content, which is podcasting, YouTube, blog posts. Then you've got email newsletters. They're just kind of a beast in and of themselves. And then you've got social media, which is short form content. So content is anything that you're putting out that is free advertising and free marketing for your business.

Teresa: So, Okay. So let's start with, if we think about the, the long form content, that in itself is like a [00:08:00] huge thing, isn't it? Because you know, You've got a podcast, I've got a podcast. You know what this is like, it's, you know, it's a big, big thing. So how do you see simplifying some of those bigger process things?

Amanda: Well, the first thing that I want to give permission to all of the listeners to do is to put out less content than you think you really need to. I know a lot of us will look at, Okay, I'm gonna start let's say a podcast. What are best practices? How often do the experts say that I should be putting out the podcast?

But for those of us that are solopreneurs, we are one person shows, right? One person teams. We have to do everything, and it's not realistic to expect ourselves to actually keep up with best practices. And what your audience is looking for isn't necessarily best practices, but instead to other really important key factors of your content, which is consistency and quality.

And if you're putting out so much content that [00:09:00] you either can't be consistent or you can't put out quality content, it's not really doing anything for your business, so it's better to back off and do less so that you can be consistent and put out that quality content, and that's gonna actually be more for your business in the long run.

Teresa: And how did they know what quality content looks like? So, you know, we, we are both in this world and we see lots of posts and lots of things and some stuff is amazing and some stuff not so much. So how did they know whether it's quality content that they're putting out?

Amanda: That's a really great question. And. I want to start by saying that not everything you put out needs to be perfect. I don't want to let the perfectionist get in their own way with this. Not everything that you put out needs to be a hit. It is absolutely okay to experiment with your marketing. But your gut knows if what you're putting out is quality.

If you're sitting down and you're just throwing something together to get something out, you know that it's not really quality, right? So there, there's a [00:10:00] difference between perfect content and content that is viral and does amazing, and content that is quality. They, they're not synonymous. So if you know that you're sitting down and you're putting in the time to actually create the content then you can count that as quality.

Teresa: Mm. Okay, Cool. So those two words together, consistent and quality, feel like they might fight against each other. But what, when you say consistent, how consistent are we talking? Cause this is the question I get asked all the time. Sorry, just to interrupt you. I get asked whenever I do any training, when I speak, when I do anything I think people are like, "How often should I post?"

And it's like, well, you know how often. How long's a piece of string let's you know, it depends, doesn't it? So, yeah. What would you say you mean by consistent?

Amanda: So what I mean by consistent is that you're putting out on some sort of schedule. Whether you say, I'm going to post one podcast episode a month, I'm gonna post every other week, I'm gonna post weekly. I'm gonna post twice a week. Don't post twice a week. [00:11:00] That's crazy. But, That's a lot of content that's really unnecessary in your eye, isn't really gonna be able to queue up with. But consistency just means that you are putting it out on a consistent basis, not a constant basis. So those two words right there are a huge difference.

Some people think if I post a best practices, that means consistency, but you can put out one podcast episode a month. As long as you are consistently putting out every single month, whether it's the first Tuesday of the month or the last Friday, whatever your posting schedule looks like, let your audience know what to expect and then stick to that schedule that you have created.

But I think the real question that you're asking is more so how often should people post and you should be creating content, as much content as you can realistically create within one week. So what I suggest to all of my students and what I spend a lot of time teaching out is actually content batching where you sit down and you create a month's worth of content at one time.

Obviously, you batch all of your podcast episodes. [00:12:00] If you cannot sit down and create all the content you're trying to create in one week, whether you work five hours a week or 60 hours a week. Whatever your one week looks like. If you can't create all of the content in that time period, you're trying to create too much for your business.

Teresa: So a week would translate into a month's worth of content.

Amanda: Yes.

Teresa: And I'm just thinking about that. So for me, obviously I have a podcast, so each podcast probably a good hour by the time I've started and finished and whatever, whatever. And then, but that doesn't include me editing or doing anything else. So that's kind of like four hours, maybe five hours straight off the bat.

Then obviously all the social stuff, all the other content. We are now starting to do blogs because we've taken our favorite podcast episodes and we've put them into blogs. So I think, and I'd be interested to get your take on this in terms of. I think what happens is people look at people like me maybe and you, and they go, Oh, well look what they're doing.

We should be doing that too. But it's not like that. That's, [00:13:00] It's not as easy as that, is it?

Amanda: No. Yes, 100%. For those that are listening, you can't see me, but I'm just like vigorously shaking my head, this right here. We look to those people that we see it as success in our industry, and we think we've got to do what they do.

But your business is not their business, and I know we hear that all the time, but you have X amount of time and you are in one specific place in your business. And business is a long road. It is a long journey. You have to start somewhere. When you get to a place of being able to hire team members or outsource, then you can add on more content.

But for now, you have to do what you're actually capable of doing because if you are trying to create content all month long, every single week, every single day, you're not gonna get anything else done. You're not gonna actually be able to move that needle in your business to get clients, to serve clients to grow digital offers, anything like that, you won't have the time. All as you're doing is marketing yourself. Your marketing has to fit into your business. So yes, if you can outsource at some point, great. Phenomenal. [00:14:00] I just started outsourcing my podcast editing within the last year, and that's been great, and I've been able to create more content because of it.

But it took me growing to a place of being able to afford to outsource and saying, You have team members. So you can do a podcast and blogs and this and that. But everyone has to start somewhere. So don't be afraid to start small and then if you have time, add on later.

Teresa: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And I think as well, you know, like you said, when I was just thinking about the week actually, if I had to edit the podcast, do the show notes to the podcast, do the social media for the podcast, you're probably talking realistically more like four hours per podcast because it just, you know, it all takes time, doesn't it? So how do you know which content is best for you?

Amanda: As far as the type of content that we putting in?

Teresa: Yeah. Yeah. So because like I think one of the problems we have as well as, business owners is, there's so much content. There are so many cool [00:15:00] things. And then you hear everyone saying that they did this one thing and it really works.

And that could be a YouTube channel, that could be a podcast, that could be reals, that could be going live, that could be TikTok like, and it's, And then. I think what happens is people are like, Oh, I need to jump on that and do that. Oh, I need to jump on that and do that cuz that's the golden ticket.

That's the magic formula. Which as we know, it's...