Feeling stuck on what content to create and how to make it actually work for your business?

In today’s episode, I’m sharing my unconventional take on organic content, why quality and consistency matter more than volume, and how to tap into inspiration from your real-life experiences.

If you’ve ever felt stuck in a content hamster wheel, this one’s for you.

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READ THE EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Emily Hirsh: 

Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the podcast. I hope you guys are having an amazing week. I just this last weekend put in an order for my podcast studio furniture. I’m so excited. I can show some behind the scenes soon on my stories. I haven’t really been there that much because I’ve been waiting to like get it set up. And as with any, it it was like a completely new construction. And so as with that always is delayed from when originally thinking, but I was not in a rush on when to move in and it worked out perfectly because I basically officially got the keys after my live event here in Austin. So that was perfect. And now I’m getting the furniture and the setup and hopefully by sometime in February can switch over and kind of relaunch on the new podcast. So I’m so excited. I’m going to have some incredible in-person interviews and switch over to all video content in the studio and also get to use that studio as a place that I can go work, it’s literally one minute from my CrossFit gym. So it’s perfect. And I can kind of plan my days around that a little bit and get out of the house. yeah, so I’m super excited. And later this week, I am going snowboarding for the first time this season.

If you know me, you know that’s one of my favorite things to do. So I’m very excited. I’ll be in Montana with some friends and I have been riding the high from the live event and just in such a place of momentum in my company, which feels so good and I’m so grateful. Last week was a very full week in a really beautiful way. I did a social post about this last week, but I shared the dates of the next Embodied Marketing live Live event and literally within an hour of sharing the dates, I think we sold Ten tickets and I had texted my husband back in May of Last year, which was the very first retreat. I hosted it was for my elevate Mastermind and in the middle of the retreat I texted my husband and I said in the future when I drop the dates of my events and my retreats is gonna sell out and people are going to be waiting to buy tickets. So then to to announce basically the event, and I haven’t even put it out really, all I announced it to was people on the wait list and people who came to the last event. That’s literally it.

And to have that happen in an hour, I was in tears. I was like, Oh my gosh, it’s happening. Like this is really happening. And my events are just something else. It’s just such a beautiful thing. And it’s been that way since I started doing them. It’s like, there’s something bigger happening. And it also feels like everything I’ve done in my life up until now has been to build me up, to be able to do these and and host these events and create these experiences. So super cool. Today’s podcast topic. I’ve had this on my list for a while and I wanted to do a quick kind of tactical one and give you guys something to think about and hopefully use in your marketing. But a question I get asked a lot and also see people struggling with this frequently is what content to create.

I think people get tripped up on what should the topic be? What do I talk about? I’m running out of ideas, the overall overwhelm of how much content to create. I think content creation is something that is very much responsible for burnout in entrepreneurs. I think unless you create content, you don’t really understand what goes into creating content and how taxing it can be and how underappreciated it can feel and how much of a hamster wheel it can feel like. The more I create, the more I feel like I need to create even more and is it even really doing anything or not? I don’t know. So I wanted to talk about this and I think I have some unconventional ways that I look at organic content, honestly, but I think that when I compare it to also a lot of my friends who are content creators and you know some who have way bigger followings than me, I think that the way that I look at this is actually pretty common in how you can look at content and kind of take the stress off of yourself with it a little bit. So first of all, I’ve said this before on the podcast and I’ll say it again before I dive into some of this content. I don’t think that for a lot of people, organic content, meaning like posting on social media or even having you know a podcast out the gate.

I don’t think you should expect that to massively grow your business very quickly. And I do think that there is this expectation of if I start posting a bunch, people will just start coming. And like that my answer is just post more content, create more content. And my problem with that is that you don’t have control over it. You don’t have control who sees it. You don’t have control how many people see it and you don’t have control over the volume at which new people will see it. This is why I love ads. This is why I use visibility ads, which promote with a small budget content because it takes you off of that hamster wheel of creating, creating, creating all the time and having to be on social media while simultaneously putting your content in front of new people. So side note, like that’s something I teach. If you’re on my email list and you watch for my my ads challenge, I just did it. We do it maybe every three to four months, but I actually help you get a visibility ad live and kind of put all this together. That’s the first thing.

Now, I do think there is absolutely a place, obviously, for content creation. I think that attention is currency. So building a brand, building a following, not for the numbers, but for people who actually consume what you create is one of the most valuable assets you can have. How you do that is not just endlessly creating and posting and crossing your fingers. So I’m not saying that there isn’t value in creating content. I’m saying, number one, don’t use that as your number one strategy to grow your actual leads and sales. Number two, it’s a long game. And number three, it’s not about post and post and post and volume. It’s about the quality. And then it’s about having a strategy to get people to see it. So I like to see organic content as a consistency game? How can I consistently commit to showing up and creating content such as my podcast, such as social media, and make the goal consistency versus number of likes or you know engagement? like Obviously, I want those things, but I’m not going to create content contingent on them. I’m still going to create content even if my numbers aren’t where they want them to be.

And I’m going to have other strategies in place to generate leads and generate sales and grow my business. So as far as what content to create. I personally don’t like templates. Surprise. Okay. So I don’t love overly structuring how to create content with like a rigid content calendar. I think it’s fine to have content pillars or categories that you create if that helps you. But I do not like like on Monday, we post a quote on Tuesday, we do a reel on Thursday. We do this. Like I just think you lose the organic feel of it when you do that. Obviously structure is important so having some structure can be helpful but you need to have the ability to be flexible within the structure and giving yourself permission to do that and and this sounds really silly but I am telling you like the best content that you can create comes from your heart and we can’t plan out and overly structure what’s going to come from our heart. Every single time I create a social media piece of content that was more spur of the moment, maybe I thought of it two days ago and it’s been in my drafts for a few days, but it wasn’t on a content calendar that told me on Tuesday, January 21st or whatever, I have to do this, right? Like it came from my heart in the moment of an inspiration that dropped in always does the best, those posts for me. So when we have things like my challenge or something that we want to promote, yes, we have a number of posts that we want to put out, but I leave room for flexibility and creativity. And so therefore, like this last time I was able to tie in something that was a takeaway for me at my live event to promoting the challenge because they timed perfectly. And it was very natural because it was in the moment for me.

So here’s some tips on this. First of all, before you can create good content, you have to have a deep understanding of your ideal customers. Do you guys know what I’m gonna say? If you follow my podcast, pain, frustration, desire. Those three things drive everything you do, including your content creation. And so if you don’t have a deep connection to this, it’s going to be hard for you to create content that people really resonate with, even if your content is not directly like, okay, here’s a line item of their pain and now I’m going to create a post about that. It doesn’t have to be like that. It can be like that, but you have to have this connection so that when you create the content, it’s connected to the people that you’re creating it for.

So that’s the first thing is if you don’t have a detailed list of your ideal customers pain, frustration and desire, it will be hard for you to create the content. So make sure to make a list in detail of those three things and just have that have it for your content have it for all your marketing second thing if it helps you you can definitely create content pillars like you could create categories or pillars of different things that you want to talk about if that helps you have structure like i could i actually really don’t follow i don’t follow even pillars in my organic but if i were to bring on social media help i could see the benefit in explaining those and so for me i would say mine are marketing tips and marketing advice, personal development and and inspiration and sharing takeaways and then probably more like my retreats and takeaways from from my embodied of having it all, not just the business, but also the mindset and the being behind the business. the Those would be my categories, but I don’t hold myself to like, okay, you created from one category and now you have to do another. I just think with content, it’s got to come from the heart and the inspiration and there might be some weeks or even months that I create more from one category than another and that’s okay.

So if it helps you, you could create some categories or pillars to help kind of drive your content. In terms of what to create, here’s some questions to sit with. First of all, what and is inspiring you right now? I come up with so much if not almost all of my content from things that are happening around me or to me in the moment. So conversations that I had, events that I maybe went to and something happened and I had a takeaway, thoughts I’m having. Like I’m driving along and I have this thought and then I ask myself this question and then it leads to this. Questions that you guys ask, questions that my team asks, situations and scenarios that come up with clients or on a webinar. What is going on in the moment for me creates a huge amount of my content inspiration because it’s so easy for me to talk about that.

So one question to help determine some ideas for your content is, what is inspiring you right now? What are the questions or the thoughts or the ideas or the projects or the takeaways or the experiences you’re having that could be really easy for you to talk about? And again, think about the conversations you’re having with friends, with family, with clients with potential customers with your audience in your Instagram DMS. If you went to an event, if you had coffee with a friend, like all of that is gold for content. You could probably sit down and think about the last few weeks of all of those conversations and all of those things and pull out takeaways that you could turn into content.

Next question that you can sit with for content ideas is what is triggering you right now that you want to talk about or call out? I think it’s really important in content to be polarizing. It’s not for everybody. You don’t want it to be for everybody. You want to attract people just as much as you want to repel people who aren’t in alignment with your values in the way that you think.

And this was a take a big takeaway for people at my live event was I explained to them, like, there are pieces of me that people do not resonate with. And I am okay with that because those are not my ideal customers. So just as much as I want to attract the right people, I also want to repel the wrong people. And so when you think about your industry, whether that’s business or health or marketing or weight loss or relationships, whatever your industry is, think about when you if you were to go and and and look at other people in this industry’s content and I’m not saying like put them down, but just think about an idea or a thought or a recommendation that kind of triggers you that you’re like, I know that’s not the right thing and you have a belief in that. It’s not about them who posted it. They think it’s the right thing. That’s fine. That is their right. You might have a different idea. You might want to call something out based on your experience and your wisdom. That’s great content.

So when I see something or I have a conversation or I want to call something out or I’m triggered not in a negative way, but like a passionate way, like, ooh, I got to talk about that because like that needs to be said. People need to hear that right That’s a really powerful content. So try to think about places that you felt that recently and you felt that kind of fire inside of you. That is content right there. So much good content. So looking at all these different areas, another thing could be if you just go and actually consume, consciously consume content on Instagram and you scroll your feed or you look at people who are in your industry that you follow and you kind of look at what they’re doing, not to copy, but to get ideas from. Maybe there’s something you can play off of, maybe there’s something you can add to an idea, counter an idea, you know, argue an idea. So if you’re really looking for inspiration, sometimes I will do this. If I really need to like find a tactical marketing topic,

I will consciously go onto Instagram and scroll and watch stories or look at things and I’ll get ideas because I’m like, oh, that’s something I could play off of or I could talk to or I could, you know, play against. And I don’t even have to mention I went on Instagram and I saw this thing. I can just use the topic. So all that to say what to create in your content is using what is around you right now.

Conversations, lessons, thoughts that are top of mind for you, experiences that you’ve had, meaning conversations you’ve had, but also you watched something on Instagram and that gave you an idea, or you went to an event, or you went to a dinner, or you were having a conversation with your coach, or you were talking to somebody in the DMs, like all of those things, that’s how I create my content. That is the secret. And what that does is it gives your content this real time, organic feeling to it.

And when you feel inspired, follow that. I would much rather you guys create content from that play place of inspiration and depth than force and trying to hit a certain number and a certain type of reels in a certain, you know, format of content. Now, I do think that consistency is important. So I think you should have a commitment of I’m going to create content, you know, two times a week, make it doable. Make it doable so that you wouldn’t have to force what the content is, that you could do it. You could create content to that level based on things that are happening around you and it would feel easy and it would feel inspiring. I’m not going like it’s not gonna feel like, oh my God, I just can’t wait to record this podcast every single day. Like that’s also not reality. Like there are some times that I’m like, I don’t really wanna record a podcast, but I do wanna put a podcast out tomorrow. I do wanna connect with you guys. I do wanna show up and so let me sit down, let me connect, let me drop in and let me see what comes through. And then stuff does come through. So I’m not saying you’re gonna be like, yes, jump out of bed and can’t wait to create this content every single day.

But you should be able to tap into this inspiration and tap into this like piece of you that wants to serve, that wants to impact, that’s excited to create that connection through your content, even when you don’t feel maybe motivated to do that. And if you can find that, then you can create from that place. So have a commitment each week of whatever that is, one time a week, twice a week, three times a week, I’m going to create content from that place. And then use what is happening around you for inspiration. And I have a notes document in my notes app on my phone because I will get ideas all the time driving conversations with my team. Like I said, like that’s what drives my content.

So the second that happens, I stick it in my notes app and that’s where I can pull podcasts and social posts or angles even for emails and different things that we need. That’s how I pull that real time energy, that real time organic piece of my content.

And when you look at creators that are doing very well in creating content, they all have this very real, authentic, organic element to them. Like if you go find any creator who’s crushing it on Instagram, and let’s say they haven’t even, you know, like that is their business, right? So if we wanted to model it off of a creator just creating content and that is their business and you were to go look at it, what you would see is it’s very real. It’s very like day to day, this is what’s going on, this is what I’m thinking, this is my takeaway, you know, very, very authentic. They’re not going, on Tuesdays I post a reel and on Thursdays I post a quote and Friday I do an organic photo. That just doesn’t exist. So you have to find this balance of

structure and commitment and consistency with understanding that content creation is an art. And you cannot sit down as an artist and be like, paint this exact thing. you know that’s not It’s not the part of your brain that creates from there. And so you have to weave in that creativity and find that place in you that can express in that way and we all have it and we all have it in different ways. And so whatever is easy for you to create in that way, whether it’s making reels, making talking videos, writing, there is something that comes easy and natural to you. Make it easy, make it exciting for you to create from that place and content creation will get so much easier and so much more rewarding. So I hope you guys found some inspiration in this and can kind of sit with your strategy

Content creation is where I see some of the most amount of overwhelm in entrepreneurs, and it doesn’t have to be like that. It can come from that place of inspiration and power and excitement when you remove the pressure from it, which comes from removing the pressure of what you create, but also how much you create and also the result it’s supposed to get because content creation is a long game. It is building a warm audience, a community and connections for the long haul. You’re not going to see overnight 30 days or even 60 days massive transformation on your business numbers from content. It’s not the purpose behind it. All right, guys, I will talk to you next time. Thank you so much for tuning in today.