You know you could be working more efficiently, you’re just not sure what that looks like.
You know creating more free content will let you reach and help more people, but you just don’t think you have the time (you do- trust me- you do)
If you want to learn how to create MORE content in LESS time, this is the video for you, where I share my exact process for how I get it done. And by “it” I mean create 3 months worth of blog posts and weekly videos for you in 4 hours. As in, 4 hours total for the quarter.
It’s no surprise that this involves creating a system/process and outsourcing (2 of my favorite things)
Is creating video not something you enjoy? You can follow this process anyway and just replace “video” with “audio” in my process below, which you can either use for a podcast or turn into a written blog post with this exact method as well.
Let’s break it down, and get this streamlined:
Step 1- Outline your Content
I like to take a look at my calendar for the quarter, to keep my blog posts/ weekly videos on topic if I have a certain promotion going on and have 3 or 4 posts in a row be on a similar topic so it has a bit of flow.
My process for this is just to open Evernote, and list 12-14 blog post topics (working titles). In that same Evernote I just hit “tab” and add about 3-4 bullet points for each blog posts (points I want to make or perhaps a relevant book recommendation or call to action).
I’ve found that doing this a few days ahead of the actual filming day allows me to let these points “simmer” in my head and usually makes for a more streamlines video shoot.
Step 2- Film your blog posts
I still haven’t found the perfect set up for this but right now what’s working for me (to actually get it done, which is more important than getting it “perfect”) is using my laptop on a shelf and recording myself using Screenflow, Quicktime or PhotoBooth. I’ll have to do a separate blog post detailing the set up but for the purpose of this post it’s just a matter of getting yourself on video, however you choose to do that with what you have available.
I record all my videos for the quarter back to back in half a business day. There’s my 4 hours.
At this point my work is pretty much finished (well, 90% finished) because this is where the systems and outsourcing kicks in. Big time.
I upload all those videos to Dropbox and my assistant takes it from there.
Step 3- (Outsourced) Get videos edited
My assistant gives the folder full of videos to an editor to simply cut the front and end of the video off to give it a clean cut. Because I do all my videos in 1 take there’s not much editing to do and it’s a quick and inexpensive job.
Step 4- (Outsourced) Get videos transcribed
My assistant gives the video to a transcriptionist who transcribes my rambly thoughts into a google doc. A service like Rev.com can also do this for you and at $1/minute for short 5 minute max videos it’s a relatively inexpensive service that can be a huge time saver.
Step 5- (Sometimes Outsourced) Get transcriptions cleaned up into blog posts
I’ve both outsourced this and done it myself. It might sound like a lot of control to give up but once you get in the flow with a writer/editor who knows your personality it really is just a matter of removing “ums” and “ahs” and whatever other funniness you include when you’re speaking verbally and turn it into coherent paragraphs. Consistency is key because after you’ve worked with the same person for a while they’ll know your content inside and out and will know where to insert relevant links to past blog posts and will likely catch things you might even miss yourself.
Step 6- (Outsourced) Publish
My assistant formats the blog post into Wordpress, uploads the video to Youtube and schedules all of it to go live on the consistent weekly schedule we’ve agreed to. Oh, and my designer has made an image for each of these blog posts (a “title card” as I’d like to call it) so that gets added when published as well.
Step 7- (Partially outsourced) Write the weekly newsletter & send out on social media
This is it the only other bit that I really love doing myself and don’t see myself outsourcing entirely, because it’s when I get to talk to YOU, my peeps! But you can definitely outsource this if you prefer.
Formatting and scheduling the newsletter is a whole other ballgame so I prefer to just type it up in a google doc and tag my assistant to get it into your hands looking a whole lot better than I could have made it look, and with 90% less typos.
She also schedules it into our social media channels to go out on a recurring basis.
And that’s it in a nutshell.
4 hours to record 90 days’ worth of videos and a few minutes each week to write a newsletter into a google doc. The truth is those 4 hours could probably be 2 if I was super efficient but I take lots of water breaks and introvert exhaustion breaks too. 😉
I hope that inspires you to see how you can batch your processes, and get more things done quicker. And hopefully that will help you have more time to create your paid programs, eBooks and all the other stuff that you think you don’t have time to do.
Do you batch your work? Why or why not? Leave me a comment below- I’d love to hear from you!
