024 Stay Fresh Without Losing the Plot
We tackle how to stay consistent with your brand message while still experimenting with fresh ideas, trends, and new formats—without sending your audience into a spiral of confusion.
Quirky Quiz Time 🥳
What is one key strategy for staying consistent in your personal brand while trying new content ideas?
A) Creating content pillars to guide your ideas
B) Changing your brand message weekly
C) Ignoring your audience’s feedback
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🟢 Correct Answer: A) Creating content pillars to guide your ideas - having piles of content can you both generate and note down your ideas for future use.
024 Stay Fresh Without Losing the Plot
Are you feeling the tug-of-war between wanting to try something new and keeping your brand voice clear? In this livestream, we unpack how to test new content ideas without muddling your message, and how to create a content plan that keeps burnout at bay.
Building a personal brand doesn’t mean becoming a robot stuck in rinse-and-repeat mode. In this episode, we dive into how experimenting with new content styles, platforms, and topics doesn’t have to send your audience running for the hills. It all comes down to staying grounded in your core message—knowing what you stand for and communicating that clearly, even if you’re trying something totally new like hopping onto TikTok or launching a podcast.
Content pillars are your new best friend. Think of them like playlists that keep your vibe in check. Whether you’re sharing a productivity hack, a behind-the-scenes look, or a spicy opinion, if it slots into one of your pillars—it belongs. This structure not only keeps your brand on track but also makes planning and repurposing your content far less painful. Zoë shares practical tactics to get your ideas out of your head and into the world without feeling like a content machine on the edge.
And let’s not forget the real villain: burnout. Planning smarter (not harder), choosing formats that align with your style, and repurposing existing gold nuggets can turn chaos into clarity. Whether you're posting weekly or monthly, the key is consistency that doesn't come at the cost of your sanity. If you're keen to untangle the mayhem and show up like the brand boss you are, reach out and work with Zoë Wood of the Video Confidence Coach to map out your own “stay fresh without losing the plot” strategy.
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00:00 – Welcome, land acknowledgment, and livestream housekeeping
06:30 – Updates: Geelong Chamber, One Roof events, podcast content
12:45 – Recap of Victorian Podcasters Group, email newsletter consistency
19:00 – Community question: How do you keep your message consistent when trying new things?
26:00 – The 3 key steps: Locking in your core message, content pillars, and testing ideas
33:00 – Client example: Transitioning from niche expert to broader brand
39:15 – Unboring Your Brand Podcast recording: Creating a content plan without burnout
45:00 – Step-by-step breakdown of content planning (5 steps to avoid burnout)
52:00 – Batch creation, repurposing content, and scheduling tools
58:45 – Final thoughts and open community Q&A
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Zoë Wood 1:42
You Zo Wood, welcome everyone to this week's weekly video confidence Connect with your host, Zo Wood, the video confidence coach, smashing your marketing mayhem with killer video strategies. Welcome to this week's weekly live stream from 10am to 11am Australian Eastern Standard Time. I'm here every Friday to answer your questions about personal branding, marketing and also, as you can imagine, video confidence, so I've had a couple of people question about that this week, and don't worry, we'll get into that in today's live stream. So I like to do my spiel at the start of every live stream for everyone who is new feeling stuck trying to build a personal brand that actually turns heads women and non binary superstars deserve more than just a cookie cutter approach to their worries. The video confidence coach, entangle untangles not entangles. Untangles your marketing mayhem, helping you own the camera, craft killer video strategies and connect with your audience like never before. You will leave with the tools to show up, stand out and smash your goals and welcome everyone who was watching or listening to the live stream on LinkedIn or on YouTube. I know I said last couple of weeks about moving to other platforms. We're going to work on it. I promise I'll work on it. We'll definitely be doing that later today. Make sure to comment any of your questions or your thoughts or ideas that you have for any podcast topics or anything that. You want us to touch on on the live stream. This is an hour for you to get your per good this is an hour for you to get your personal branding questions answered. So if you have any, feel free to comment, and I will make sure to address them, either today or next week's if I miss them during the session today, you can find out more information about our live streams, our podcasts and our upcoming projects on our website, VCC, dot training, and you can find that in the description wherever that may or may not be. Before I officially begin today, I would like to acknowledge and pay my respects to the wanarung people of the Kulin nation, the traditional custodians of the land on which I conduct my business. Today, I pay my respects to their elders, past and present. I stand with the traditional custodians of these lands in working towards a more equal future. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to face discrimination and disadvantage due to our country's colonial past. I stand with them in the fight against injustice. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land. And as we carry on with today's session, want to bring everyone's focus to where approaching the end of q1 yes, we are approaching the end of March as I record this on the 21st of March, 2023, and as we speed on the head to quarter two, our quarter one focus, which is our glow and grow branding Session, which is $350 for one hour, obviously more hours of my time to be able to grow and fixate a marketing strategy for your business or your personal brand. And as we go on with that, I've had a couple of people go through the process already, and I thank Sandra Maeve, and I also thank Mark as well, who have gone through the Go glow, go branding session with me, and thank you for all your feedback and ways that I can better improve it for people like yourself. So thank you to those three for going through that this quarter, the places that you may have seen me over the past week as zo the video confidence coach. You may have seen me at the Welcome to Geelong Chamber of Commerce event that was held on Wednesday. So hello, I did an impromptu Jeremy, the CEO of the chamber likes to just point me out and go zo. I did an impromptu little speech about the Geelong Small Business Festival, which I have been involved with as both a participant, as someone who hosts the event, hosts events within the festival, as well as attending festival events. For a very, very long time. I have no idea dates and ages and times and stuff, but essentially what I have all I've been there since it was originally the Victorian Business festival. So I thank everyone who was there. And I meant to say hi, I've definitely catch up with most of you on LinkedIn, but if not, hello again. I look forward to catching up with you on email and various other platforms, as well as we go into the year and all the Geelong chamber events. Mind you, I have reminded myself that I need to send out my welcome message for the year for the Geelong chamber. So thank you for the reminder. I'll see you soon on their social medias. So you'll see that with me, and also you saw me at some one roof online events. So if you are a member of the Australian online women's networking group called one roof, please say hi. I'm usually attending a lot of the different events, virtual and now in person, and we're going to be looking to expanding into Melbourne as well. So you'll definitely see me at upcoming events. So don't be afraid to say hi and see me around within the little social media platforms that we have for one roof. Next coming up. You will definitely see me. Speaking of one roof, you'll definitely see me at the Geelong meet up this coming Thursday, so March the 27th you'll definitely see me at the Geelong meetup event. I am looking to expand more into the Melbourne events as well, because, of course, as one of our goals at the video confidence coach is to just expand my reach. Of course, I'm based out here in Geelong, which is just a little bit outside of Melbourne, in Victoria, Australia. But as you can imagine, we need to make sure that we expand our reach and help people, both virtually and in person when we are able to speaking of help people we have got upcoming on the UN boring, your brand podcast. So that is the podcast that I run every week, released on a Sunday afternoon. We have all your quest apologies. So for anyone who is remembering last week or the week before, I had to cancel our live stream because I was very sick and we're still recovering, so I apologies if I'm going to have to pause or take off the microphone at any point in today because acute pneumonia is not very cute. So we're going to continue on and do our best for you, for the unboring, your brand podcast that we released every Sunday we have last week was when to start a podcast and all the trials and tribulation. For a personal brand about that, and then this upcoming week is going to be tips for working from home from someone who's been there. So I have been working from home for on and off for the past 15 years of my career, but I've mainly been spending the past five years honestly, since we all had to shuffle inside due to a major event that happened with everyone. I can't even remember what it was now that is a joke. I'm well aware, and there's a lot of people who are still in that working from home or having the opportunity to work from home, and I highly recommend that if you do have the ability to work from home, that you do so, because your life will be far greater than trying to commute hours, however long it takes to commute to your work, if you can work from home, I should say. And speaking of commute, the Victorian podcasters is a group that I run on Facebook, LinkedIn and email newsletter where we cater to all niche and hobbyists as well as professionals in the podcasting space. I am passionate about podcasting, and in Victoria, we don't exactly have an embodiment or a group to be able to network with local podcasters. So last week, we talked about podcasting to crickets, how to get listener feedback, or how to get engagement from your listenership. And then this week, as you can imagine, we're going to talk the opposite. Once you get a lot of feedback and a lot of interest from your community, how do you go about organising that what to keep and what to skip when it comes to the feedback that you receive from listeners and that non listeners alike? So if you are interested in podcasting, and I did get a couple of good notes and feedback regarding my most recent email newsletter. So hello, everyone on that email newsletter list. You can check that out on the website VCC, dot training that email newsletter list. Thank you for everyone who has been
very patient with me. On that front, I've very much a do as I say, not as I do sometimes when it comes to the especially the email newsletter, and I thank you everyone for your patience during that time. So we've definitely got the kinks worked out, and we're going to get started doing that on a fortnightly basis. I'm not really a fan of doing things weekly. I just will do it on a four nightly basis, so that I have all the information and stuff ready to help you out. And speaking yes. So back to Vic podcast is zo with my tangents. Um, when it comes to Vic podcasters, we've got a lot of upcoming information regarding grants and regarding anything that can help you with your podcasting journey. Some awards lined up, not our awards, but awards that are available for Victorian podcasters to to be able to get some recognition for the podcasting work that you do. And if you're interested in starting a podcast, feel free to reach out to me at Zoe. Zoe at Vcc dot training, where I can put you on the email list and make sure that you get all those details there, or just answer your questions like I do, like this every single week. That is it for what we have covered over this week. Today, we are going to do two things. We are going to answer a community question that I had, and, of course, thank you everyone who has been giving me feedback regarding my community questions. So I have a long list, honestly, 1000s and 1000s of questions that people ask me regarding personal branding, video marketing, video confidence and I essentially what I do is I try and pick related, related questions to answer in these live streams, and then pull those out into small or shorter videos for for articles, for videos, for whatever we end up doing with them. Again, the point is to have it repurposed in a fashion that works best for you. So what I need to do is definitely pull out these community questions a bit more, because, of course, at the moment, they're currently in the live streams. They're locked in there. And don't worry, I'm getting my editor me to go and fix that for you. So you'll be seeing more community questions come out over the next coming weeks and months. But today, we're going to focus on the question, how do you keep your message consistent when you try new things? So I'll give you as per usual, I will give you the context and a breakdown of how we got to that question. So you can answer that yourself, but I can answer it for you, and then you can discover your own answer. You see where I'm going with that. And we're also going to be recording an episode for the unborn, your brand podcast of how to create a content plan that doesn't burn you out. I've been getting a lot of questions over this, specifically this past week, but over this past, actually, past month, regarding a content plan. So a content plan is essentially a plan of the messages and the content, be it images, video, articles, like whatever format it is, how to get your message out there consistently, and there's usually via some sort of content. And I'm not, and I'm not talking just digitally, like a live stream like this. I'm talking about other methods of being able to get your content, your message out there, and how to do it without burning out. Because, of course, there's this feeling. That you have to be everywhere, and I understand that feeling and that pressure can be overwhelming. So I want to give you and I'm gonna fix this damn shirt. I'm gonna give you that opportunity and answer that in today's podcasting question. It didn't work there. Make sure you can check out all the live stream show notes and any details that you want to know about the video confidence coach, or about anything that we discussed today, you can check that out in the show notes, in the description of wherever you find this live stream. And as I said, I will do my best to get on Twitch and other platforms to make it easier to answer and be there for you. So what I will do is I'll take a little bit of a break, have a little bit of a coughing fit, and I will see you in a second bye to you've heard that the algorithm on many socials favours faces, and yes, that is definitely true, because humans like to connect with faces. We like to see other faces, and we like to see what they look like, what they're about, and on social media that and especially the algorithm, is based on our actions and the actions, or whatever the social media or the Lord wants us to do. But I digress. So if you are able to get your face onto camera, and you're confident about having your face out there, then do it practice a couple of times, maybe even film a different couple of videos before you put anything out there, and then once you put that video out there, make sure that you share it with the community, like us here, or you share the video to other groups that you're a part of, maybe just to get some feedback on what you can improve on in a nice way, of course, because people are willing to support other people, And the algorithm favours a lot of things at any different time. I highly recommend that you don't dictate your actions of creating content or videos based entirely on what the algorithm is going to do, because, unfortunately, it's a beast all in itself, and nobody knows what it's doing at any given time.
How do you keep your brand message consistent when you want to try new things, trying new things with your personal brand or the way that you market your business is incredibly important. It's always best to consistently try new things to see which ways you can make things easier for yourself and your message, but also ways that you can make things easier, not just on your audience at target market, but a way to make sure that you're able to get your message across as easily. I'm gonna do that again, because that was so messy. My sincere apologies for everyone watching on the live stream. That was hella messy. And my brain just kind of flooded out a bit, and then kind of came back. So my apologies that kind of went all over the place. I've been trying to fix this damn shirt where a bra. They said everything would work better. They said you'd look better than bitch. You see this? All right. So this, for those who are new, this is a dog clicker. So essentially, it's a whistle and a dog clicker, what people use for training their dog. But essentially what it does is it allows me, when I'm looking at the Edit, so when I've got the full video everything together. I'm able, instead of just being able to have him to go through things manually, I can just look at these very high pitch peaks that are created by this dog clicker. So then when I'm going back to edit, I can cut the start out and cut the end out, and then have everything ready to go. So it's a lot easier for me to review after the fact. But now that I've done the now that I've described it to you, I probably ruined my own editing there, but we're going to get started, and we're going to do that again without me stuffing up and going all over the place. I have a script for a reason. I don't follow my scripts very often, but I have a script for a reason. Okay, let's do this. Zo. How do you keep your message consistent when you try new things with your personal brand? So trying new things with your personal brand is great until, until you confuse your audience with how much they have no idea what you actually do, or the message becomes so diluted that it's very hard to understand what you stand for and who the right person is that you cater to, but also who they can send your way. So one day, you might be sharing expert tips. The next, you're on the deep side of a side quest about your new hobby. Yes, it can be fun. I do not blame you at all on that front, but for your brand, maybe not. So let's go through a way that you can start experimenting with your personal brand and the areas of interest that you focus on and the projects that you focus on, without losing your brand identity, because it's how you say consistent with. While also keeping things fresh. That will mean that people will stick by you and consistently refer you to potential clients, the right type of people, and ultimately, you grow your audience. So we'll cut off with a couple of steps here. We've got three steps. We have to lock in your core message. Step two, create content pillars to stay focused. And step three, test new ideas without confusing your audience. Now, of course, everything that I'm going to touch on is what I do with my clients, with my various projects that I run, all my various services that I run for my clients, this one is specifically my glow and grow people. So everyone who's gone through my glow and grow sessions will know how this process works, but essentially, what this what I'm going to go through with you today, and I'm going to provide you a little bit of context on how this community question came up was I was working with someone who was very much, I'm trying to say this without giving everything away, because, Of course, this is private information that we spoke to that what happened was, is they were very much known for one part of the industry. So, for example, they worked in styling. So they worked in architecture. They were very much, they the go to person when talking about a specific style of architecture and in the communities that she was a part of, and she loved doing that work, and she loved focusing on the area. But then, as she retired from her main career, and not exactly in retirement, but more semi retirement, to be honest, I don't think she can actually retire. I don't think it's even possible physically for her to do that, but she is moving to a more slowed down opportunity, but relying more on her personal brand. Now, of course, she can continue and still do a lot of projects regarding architecture, but she has other interests too, other hobbies too, that she wants to spend her time and her focus on and because she is a pillar of this community, a lot of people are not worried for her, but she is more worried about what other people will think if she deviates at all from that really clear, solid trajectory in the architecture field. So what we did was going through these steps of being able to break down. Okay, what exactly do people follow you your personal brand, whether you realise it or not, exists, you have a personal brand. And some people don't go their entire lives without really thinking about their reputation or how people perceive them, because maybe it's just not a priority for them. And that's perfectly and that's perfectly fine, but you're listening to the video confidence coach, and my focus is marketing and personal branding. So methinks that you want to focus on your personal branding, on how to grow your personal brand, as well as how to maybe pivot or change your personal brand. So that's what we're going to touch on today in the community question. So step one is locking in your core message, so your brand. So be it a small business, be it a personal brand, or a combination of the two, your your brand is the one big idea behind everything you create, what it's what you want to be known for. So for someone like the example I showed you before. Yes, she is in architecture, but she wants to be known as the when focusing on eco styling, on not just the architecture, so the actual building and layout of a space, but making sure that it's energy efficient, making sure that the materials that you use are friendly, both to the planet and to you as the person living in the space, she wants to make sure that she's not building these or designing these large houses that no possible one person could use, while also she wants to be able to focus on the other materials in the home, to be able to focus on styling or interior Decorating. Yes, they are somewhat parallel fields in the field of architecture, but to be honest, from what I understand and what I managed to get a feeling of, is that the interior design and the architectures don't like to mix that much because they are very different skill sets, as you can probably imagine. So for you, I want to think and be able to think back as to what is the big idea, what is the core message that you are focusing on with your brand? Ask yourself, what is the problem that you solve and without all the jargon, without all the things around that may distract you from that this question, what is the problem that you solve? What is your unique perspective? How does my content so? How does the way that you portray yourself, both online and in person with your brand, help your audience? I. And the last question that I usually ask my clients is, why should your audience care? Now, usually this does feel a little bit targeting and a little bit triggering, so do not worry. I understand where you're coming from, where you feel a little bit attacked by that question, but ultimately, if you weren't you, and you were looking at someone like yourself who is growing a personal brand, pivoting or changing or maybe starting to invest in their personal brand, why should you care? And from that point, once you actually start thinking about why you should care, feel free to check out our other podcast episodes about that to get more deep into that question, every new idea should connect back to your core message, your core why? Your core reason for being? If your idea does not connect to that idea, then maybe it's something for your personal hobby and personal interests, as opposed to a topic for your brand.
If your audience had to sum up your brand in one sentence, what would they say? That's your core message. So if you're struggling to figure out, what exactly would my audience care about, maybe start asking some family, some friends, some colleagues or some other business people that are in your vicinity that you can ask when put them in a give it context, of course, and just ask, how would you describe me to someone who probably fits my needs? How would you go about that and the words and the focus that they use is where you should put your focus. Now, of course, this means spending time thinking about these things, but I'll tell you now that the amount of time that you spend thinking about these core messages and your reason why for doing what you do is going to help you 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of hours in marketing yourself and making decisions in your business. And the second thing, and the second step I want to get to, is creating content pillars to stay focused. So this is usually the next step after we've been able to nail down that core message to be able to help you with your consistent messages and your new ideas that you're coming up for your brand, to be able to have three to five scenes that keep your message clear, even when you mix things up, even when you try things new things, when you try trends, when you try anything that just come across your sphere and you like the look of if it can fit into One of these three to five categories. Then, you know, it definitely suits your way, it suits your audience, but it also puts things into perspective. So then you can actually start coming up with more ideas from that one idea. What I mean by this is say, for example, for a business coach, let's say a marketing business coach. I don't know if you know any. You've got these main themes, or these pillars, as we like to call them, which could be something as simple as marketing tips, personal branding strategies, productivity hacks and behind the scenes running of a business. Now, as you can imagine, those are pillars that are very related to the work that I do and the when I start thinking of ideas, I start putting them into these categories, not just in my head, but to be able to write them down and put them in a repository of ideas. So whenever I need something that is about productivity hacks, I can just go into that document, into that spreadsheet, into that wiki, into, again, whichever way I've organised my ideas, a book or notebook, I can then go to that pillar, find that idea, and be able to action it relatively easily and consistently, because I've already done the thinking. I've already thought the ideas, and because it's already in a nice pillar, then I can start thinking about, okay, if something's in productivity hacks, I can easily turn this into smaller content for social media. I can create a series of email newsletters. I can start thinking of the formats already just from the idea alone. Now, of course, the way that you start marketing things is you don't a lot of people, especially what I work with, they have a tendency of thinking of the end goal of how the audience is going to receive this message, that is a very understanding and very clear way of thinking about it. But the reason that I ask people is to think of these more expansive ideas then you can think about, so say, for example, what I mean by this is, for the example that we're going through this particular video, she wanted to become a go to person regarding eco architecture in Zo, not Geelong, but Australia wide. So for that, she needed to be able to show not just that her knowledge in the space is incredibly consistent and also ever evolving, but also that she's the right person. Speak to for these speaking opportunities, for these panel discussions, for these radio shows, and to make sure that we can give the people what they want, she needs to be able to answer consistent questions. And we're able to come up with a list of 50 ideas. And each of these ideas could be extrapolated into, you know, hours long podcast conversations, all the way into very short 32nd social media videos. It could be stretched into multiple articles. The best way to put it is the core idea is what you need, and then you can expand from then in no matter, whatever format you find useful, then also what you what your audience finds useful. But of course, this takes time and effort and energy, so when it comes to actually actioning these things, being able to figure out and in the moment when you have an idea, is it able to fit in one of those pillars, and is there a way to tweak it if it doesn't fit into one of those pillars to make it fit, and if not, then maybe it's not the right fit for you right now in what you're trying to build with your brand. So in that case, it's something that you can put on the back burner, or you can put in a hobby space for interest. Your brand should feel like a playlist, not like a random shuffle of unrelated ideas, but a very clear, consistent track of ideas for your audience, because again, they are the ones dictating whether or not you get clients. But also they your audience are also the ones who dictate the word of mouth how people talk about your brand. So it helps to give them the right material to use. Forget where I'm coming from. And the last step that I want to touch on is testing new ideas without confusing your audience. So of course, as we're getting into the weeds about making sure your message is consistent when when trying new things is being able to start small, being able to post once and see how people react. Are you going to try a new trend? Maybe it's something on Tiktok or Instagram or blue sky that's like a trend going around. See what test it out. Do one or one off thing and see what your audience feels like. Are they liking it? Are they disliking it? Are they neutral? And if it's neutral, you can decide where to go from there. Make sure to test out your ideas by tying it back to a core message. So for example, for a leadership coach, is there, so let's imagine they're sharing a story of failure of in their own lives. Does it make sense is, for example, is something like sharing that their cat is having a birthday, maybe not, unless their cat is a CEO. There's also a possibility. But in that opportunity, you can be able to, once we've gone through the core message, and we've able to go on through those pillars, you're able to make a lot more clearer discerns between whether or not something suits your brand or not, because you can try new things while also being able to stick back to their core message. If your audience loves it, keep going. If not no harm done. You will see this and now that you've you know this tactic for yourself, you'll start seeing other people in your industry, in the space, or maybe in complementary spaces, to wherever you're focusing your work. You'll be able to see other people try this. They try new things. Maybe they post one type of post on a specific platform to see the engagement. And then once they when it once they get the sums up from that one platform, then they start reaching it out to every other platform. Because maybe that audience is that test audience when it comes to not just social media posts, but maybe emails, newsletters, podcasts, videos, articles, whichever they get the best feedback on is the thing that they pursue. Your tone and your style should always stay the same, because, of course, we're all bringing it back to your personal brand, even if the topic evolves or devolves. Usually, in my case, that way your brand can also feel recognisable. So no matter whatever you're trying, no matter whatever new you're trying with your personal brand, it is still you at the end of the day. And honestly, that is what your audience cares about, because they're following you, not just because you're the influencer, you're the guru, you're the king. No, they're not following you. Usually, for that, it's because you can help them. You can solve their problem, and if you're consistent with that message, they're going to be consistent with you.
My final thought before I finish off today's video is experiment, but stay recognisable. Trying new things is how you grow how you grow your brand, how you grow your small business. But confuse. Using your audience is not part of the process keeping your core message clear and using content pillars to be able to not just keep them on track, but to keep you on track as well. When coming up with your new ideas and seeing if something fits the mould of where you want to be with your brand, testing new ideas without going off the rails is going to help you also keep your stress levels down, as well as being able to achieve your bigger goals. So what I'm asking for you to comment in the comments, below or above, wherever they happen to be, what is your new idea that you've been dying to try out? Does it fit your personal brand, and even if it doesn't fit your personal brand. Will your audience mind? Will your audience care if it's a one off thing and you enjoy it awesome, because, again, you're testing things out, maybe something that you will try once your audience absolutely loves and raves about and because you enjoyed it, you feel like doing it again and again and again and again. And you're able to both grow your audience, but also grow, grow that connection you have with your audience, and in turn, hopefully get the leads and get the money. Now, as you can imagine, that kind of comes with the territory of a personal brand. So I want you to try, go test these ideas, and don't forget who you are at the end of the day, because your personal brand. It's a reflection of you, and hopefully you are there to serve others when, when I work with clients, my goal is to get them to their desired outcome. Yes, if I need to be a little bit harsh and a little bit mean, which is probably me just messaging them and just being like, hi, you said we were going to do this, let's do this like that's my main face, but when it comes to helping people achieve what they need to achieve, that's what I'm here for. That's what you've hired me for, to get to where you need to go, to use the expertise, and hopefully to use the knowledge that you have as an expert in your field. Because ultimately, if you are running a small business, if you are working with clients and helping them achieve what they want to achieve, what they want to achieve. You are an expert. You don't need a degree for that. You don't need some fancy piece of paper. If you are helping people and you're doing it right, you're an expert. If you're constantly growing and involving your education on your particular subject, you're an expert. If you're growing your knowledge and can admit, more importantly, you can admit when you're wrong about something, you're an expert, you're a thought leader in your space.
You've done all the legwork behind your personal brand. You've thought about your core message, your core audience, your all of these really important things. You've already done all the legwork to think about it, and now it's time to action it crap,
as the title suggests. We are talking about how to create a content plan without burning out. So what is content planning? Before we officially get started in today's podcast episode, content planning is essentially how you deliver your message to your your audience. I was about to say your core audience. I am saying that an awful lot of time. My apologies, but content planning is how you whatever format you decide to get your message out there. Because we love the idea of having a structured plan, yes, yes, yes, yes, we do. But hate the idea of spending hours glued to our screens, glued to our books, churning out content like a machine to feed the unholy algorithm. And I use unholy in that correct term. But if you are a personal brand builder or a small business owner, you need a marketing plan that actually works without driving you insane or driving you to the brink of burnout. So how we're going to do that? We're going to break it down in five steps. These five steps include setting realistic content goals. I know that's something we all love to do, but don't worry, we'll get into it. Step two is choosing a core content format. Three is repurposing like a pro. Four is batch create and scheduling in advance to reduce the overwhelm. And step five is giving yourself permission to take breaks. So let's get in to the episode today. So, so first of all, as you've been to doing the work regarding your personal brand, and don't worry if you're listening or watching this and you're a little bit confused, going, Zo, I haven't done any of this work yet. Do not worry. Check out the other episode of the unborn your brand podcast, because you'll definitely become up to speed, and if not, you can always reach out to me for a free, complimentary 15 minute chat on my website. BCC training, alright? Zo, when it comes to marketing of any business, be it a large business like you know, your Coca Cola or your Amazons, all the way to your solo micro. Businesses, everything needs to be starting off with realistic goals. And that is goes for your business, your marketing, every aspect of the what you do. So setting realistic content goals is always a good place to start. So the way that you do this is, instead of posting every day because it sounds good in theory, or it's something that you've seen other more established brands do. It's not until you actually do it, or maybe it's not until you actually realise that you also have to run a business at the same time. And even for those who are just focusing on a personal brand at the end of the day. It is also a business, because your personal brand you're using to leverage to make sure that you gain influence and that you gain accreditation, so that people ultimately pay you at the end of the day. If you're doing this for a hobby, I take my hat off to you. Are definitely an outlier. So when it comes to your content goals, or how you're going to be spreading your message out there. Now I'm not talking just digitally here. I'm talking about any way that you are presenting yourself to your potential audience. You need to choose a frequency that fits your schedule, whether it's twice a week or fortnightly videos. Consistency is key, not just quantity. And one thing that I will remind my fellow personal brand builders here is when you see other people, when you compare yourself to other people, you don't know necessarily know their story, what they've taken to get to that level, but also what they're doing every day to make sure that you are seeing that you are seeing them on your feed, that you are cons, that they are constantly in your email inbox, that they are in every single podcast advert, wherever you are seeing them, or you know, seeing them regularly turn up for you. They are working their asses off to make sure that you remember them and they stick in your brain. So for us, who are possibly solo or maybe a small team, who are building a personal brand or over building a business, you need to think things realistically and things you need to set yourself realistic goals that you're able to achieve over time, because burning yourself out is just going to lead to wastage. And I don't mean wastage in the sense of just waste potential. I mean just in your own self worth a little bit, because burning yourself out, especially over something as what can seem very trivial, as marketing yourself, can feel very confronting and also just very sad. So when it comes to step one, we set realistic goals. So we start small, we can always go bigger, we can always go bigger, we can always go higher, we can always go home. We can always start small. It's better to stick with one, for example, for social media, so a one solid post per week without burning out after a month of daily posting. Now, of course, as Step Two can attest to choosing your core content format. The way that I like to work on a marketing strategy with either solo, personal brand builders or even people with small teams, is the best way to put it is, you don't need to be on every platform. I'm going to say that again, you don't need to be on every platform and do everything on said platform the way that you reduce the overwhelm and also the burnout, and also be able to make sure that your core message is getting through to the right people, is picking one main format that that is based on what suits you best and what your audience best reacts to. Now this can be as something as simple as if you love talking, starting a podcast or having a regular video series. Now, of course, this requires effort, time, setup, and possibly some skills that you may or may not have. You might need to hire someone for that. But again, what is a thing that you can do consistently over time? Do you like talking, doing a podcast or a video makes sense? Do you like writing, doing blogs and articles and newsletters make sense? Do you love short form content well, relying on social media, posts, reels, tiktoks, those type of things are where you should put your focus. Why? Because you like doing them, and your audience reacts best to them. And it's something that you can do over time, because you like doing it. And if you don't like doing it, then don't do it. For example, I am someone who is only recently, and probably, as you watch this, I will definitely be in the midst of it, getting into article writing, because a lot of my target audience, and a lot of people that I work with, love to read articles. Love to read blogs, and the where they find their information is where I want to be seen. In. So to do that, I need to hitch up my big girl pants and start like writing articles. Now, I am not very good at that. I'm dyslexic, and words scare me. So what I do is I use the format or the core way that I like to do things, which is I like to as you can imagine by this podcast episode and the other podcasts episodes in this series alone, I can start yapping and talking. I can transcribe my thoughts, and then from there, I have a base. I can start working with it. I'm not precious about it. I can start breaking things down and using formats that are already out there, like templates that are already out there for the best article, the best blog, or whatever I can. Start building that process, start putting things in where they need to be. And then I run it past a good friend of mine where we contra a bit of work. And for those who are not in the business world, a contra is essentially a deal where, hey, I send you something. I do something for you. It's a equal exchange deal where no money is no money is changing hands, but you're doing work for each other. So I do that on I'm going to be starting to do that as of next week, but I'm going to be doing that on a regular basis because I found a format that works best for me, and in turn, I am making sure that I am where my audience is looking. Yes, it may not be the best for me, but it is going to work, and is going to make me seen and consumable to those people who are ultimately going to trust me and who are going to refer me to people who I can help and I can serve, once you've then nailed down your main format and how you best communicate your message, everything else will flow from there. Why? Because you like doing the work that you're doing, and also you'll make it easier, because you will feel like it is less of a chore. If it's less of a chore, you end up doing it more. I think that's a good tagline. I might keep that.
Step three is repurposing like a pro, aka, works smarter, not harder. So one piece of content, and as we mentioned before, about the ideas, is using one piece of content and creating it into multiple pieces of content, because this is how you get the reach without suffering through creating new stuff all the time or creating stuff every five minutes, because your message is not going to be seen and heard by everyone. Every single time you put the message out there, you yourself are probably going to get bored. And I know for myself that I can get a little bit bored of my own messaging in my own my own talking sometimes, that is, I know that's very hard to hear, but I do sometimes get bored of my own talking, talking. So in those instances, a lot of people maybe will see or remember, and that's the key thing to remember, one remember one thing about your business. And to do that, you need to make sure that you also repeat yourself, but also repurpose the content that your your message out there into multiple different formats. So the way an example of this is say, for example, you record a 10 minute video, and this video goes on to your YouTube. Awesome, but that video the transcript, so the words that are being said can also be taken out and edited slightly, as I mentioned before, and put into a blog post, put into an article. You can then chop that that 10 minute video. You can chop it up into short clips for social media. You can do this by hand, if you have the skills, and if you don't have the skills, maybe hiring someone else to do that for you, or utilising AI tools and AI tools and services like Opus AI is something that I use, keeping in mind that AI is still not as good as human discernment just yet, so making sure that you spend that time to actually look at what's being outputted, by the way, but you can Also use so again, this is just one piece of content so far, and we've already gotten three ideas out of it. So we've got the 10 minute video. We're also turning that into a blog post. We're also turning into shorter clips. We're also turning it into a podcast episode that you can then put, either on your own podcast, or if you have any friends who are in the industry, or maybe somewhere where they can you know, you can spotlight your stuff on someone else's podcast, maybe start shopping that around. So you've also got that piece of content that you can also use on a video, sorry, on a podcast. I should say you can also use the key points that you bring up in that video into tweets, into LinkedIn posts, into thought leadership messages that you use, and this can be countless, by the way, because a 10 minute video is surprisingly long in the amount of messages that you can put out there, and you can also send those highlights in an email newsletter. Everything I've just mentioned is from a 10 minute video. Now I'm going to tell you now there's a good chance. If you're watching me, and if we vibe, you can definitely talk for 10 minutes about your core message and about your core subjects. Because the way that you are helping and serving people, you are not doing this for fun. You are doing this to serve them, and it's because you are passionate about what you do. You can definitely talk for 10 minutes about what you're passionate about. It helps, mind you, to have a script and to think about those dot points. But in the meantime, you'll be able to see how repurposing can open up, honestly, a plethora of ideas for you, and also make it a lot easier and a lot less stressful for you to think about everything that you have to do when it comes to content marketing, your business or your personal brand, I should say the content is ultimately the same. It's just really big. The content is ultimately the same, but it's being reshaped into different forms so that different audiences can can not just consume. And I want to stress and I want to put a little highlight here is it's not just for people to consume your message. People are definitely going to take action, not the amount that consume your message versus the people that actually take action from your message. But there are still the people that are taking action. Are people that have seen your face, have heard your voice, have heard your message multiple times before they take action. Used to be a minimum of seven, what are known as touch points, essentially, is how people's message get to you. Is what is known as a touch point, and it used to be seven because, of course, we used to have a lot less advertisements in our face. We had a lot, but not that many. Now, of course, with the rise of the Internet and everyone acts being accessible via digital device that is now, the amount of touch points is now 1416, 20. And that may seem overwhelming for someone who's starting out. It's like, how am I going to get someone to remember me if I need to be in their face 20 times? Zo I'm going to tell you now I can understand that can seem overwhelming, but that's where this content plan comes into play. You're able to use one piece of content, stretch it out across multiple different methods and forms, so that the audience that needs to hear your message will hear it, will see it, and repeatedly hear and see it. Have a content bank. So this is something that I like to call a content library as well. Is where you can store older posts or quotes or ideas to reuse later, because just because something was viral or popular for you once doesn't mean that you can't use it 60 days later again and get even more reach from that message. No one has to reinvent the wheel every time, and even people who are everywhere are using the same core messages, the same ideas, the same content over and over again. Why? Because it's easier, and that's the same for you too. So step four, batch create and schedule in advance. So when it comes to the content marketing platform, so when it comes to creating a content plan for yourself, being able to set aside a few hours a month, or usually what I recommend for clients who are starting out usually a couple of hours a week just to get that ball rolling. So again, you can build up that content library to be able to create multiple pieces, multiple pieces of content in one go. So this way you're not waking up in the morning thinking, I haven't even posted today. I don't have anything, I don't have a template, I don't have a message, I don't have a script. What am I going to do? Stop the burnout, stop the implosion by especially when you're in the mood or when you schedule time to create a bunch of content in one go. This will allow you to do a couple of things, because hopefully you've already been thinking about your core idea, and hopefully you've already also been writing those ideas down. So when you've got this hour, two hours on, like a Friday afternoon, or, say, a like a Sunday morning, or like whenever you have the time that you have set yourself, that you've scheduled in, by the way, from there, you're able to look at your list and go, Okay, I've already got six ideas. I don't need to think of them on the fly. I don't need to rely on my brain to try and run like a hamster on a wheel to try and come up with these ideas. I've already got a list, because past me has already done the work. How many times can you say that? So when you're able to do this, you're able to do it in all in all in one go. So instead of you having to, you know, do everything on the morning of or try and create things from scratch, you're able to create things all in one go. So it's a lot easier for yourself. And you're able to schedule these content, schedule this content using scheduling tools, so like meta business suite. So this is. Or your Facebook, your Instagram and your whatsapp, your race, you're able to use things like Hootsuite, latter, buffer, plannerly for automatic posting on social media platforms and also your Google, my business and other platforms like that as well, keeping in mind that those last ones were paid tools, but very much in the case of like, whatever your content, whatever your content plan is, you can definitely trial out something for 30 days to see how it works for you and what you're going to try and do. And then maybe it is a good thing to invest 15, $30 to be able to achieve those things in the easier way for you. And think of it like meal prepping, except for your marketing. So you're able to use all the tools and content that you already have in your bank, because especially when you do this, by end of month three, you will have a library of content that you've already used, and you can start you re utilising posts that you made three months ago that have again your core message and everything ready to go. So you're not constantly creating from scratch. Always have a few evergreen posts ready to go. So an evergreen post is what I like to call, is a post that's not necessarily related to any political events or any news that's related to what's going on, but it's a very not clean message, but more a message that you're able to use, and then you can post that again, while providing some me some more context in, say, the description of a social media post, so that you're able to use it again on those weeks or those days where you have no energy, you can just use all the content again and your Audience, I'm going to tell you now, like I mentioned before, not every single one of your audience members has going to is going to see every single message that you put out. So it's okay to reuse that content again to make it work for you and your brand. And the last thing is, as you can imagine, give yourself permission to take breaks,
your audience won't vanish if you miss a post, if you miss a week, I'm gonna tell you know, there is a feeling of like, Oh no, I haven't posted this week. I'm gonna lose my audience. The algorithm when it comes to not just email newsletters, but websites and social media and other forms of marketing yourself or your personal brand can feel quite daunting, because even the people who've created these algorithms don't know how they actually work. But if you need to take a break, if you're feeling overwhelmed and you need to scale things back without quitting entirely, that is better for you. You're standing and the way that you conduct yourself, not just online, but but in person. If you need to scale that back so you don't quit completely. That is better than just quitting completely and not posting for three months, six months to a year, because I'm going to tell you now people, when they find out about you either through word of mouth, through a podcast that you've been on, through a friend, through an article, whichever way that you're repurposing your content, people will find you and they'll go to a social media platform, or they'll go to wherever they find you online, and if you haven't posted, they're going to assume that you're out of business. They're going to assume that you're not taking on any clients. They're going to assume the worst, because that's what happens with businesses and brands. If you don't post people go, are you actually doing things? Because you're not showing the proof that you are? So in those moments, having something there is better than nothing at all, and I'm not saying that to scare you. I'm not stressed. I'm not saying that to scare you. I'm saying that just to remind you that even posting once a week still shows that you are active, that you are believing in your core message, and that you are helping and serving the people who you claim to be helping and serving. So the content planning should support your business and not the other way around. Your marketing should not be ruining your life. So if you ever feel burnt out, or you feel like you're on the brink of burning out when it comes to the marketing or your marketing efforts, take a pause, take a refresh and come back stronger, reuse some of that older content from their content library. And if you don't have a content library yet, maybe use all the posts that worked really well in the past, even if they are maybe slightly outdated. Just use them again and make sure you give that context in the description. A well rested creator, Personal Brand Builder, business owner is way better than a stressed one. So my final thoughts on consistency without burning out, marketing isn't a marketing isn't about doing more. It's about doing what actually works. It consistently. A content plan should make your life easier, not harder. It should not feel like a bulk load of work. It should be able to something that you can work on over time. Yes, it may seem like a lot of work from the start, because any climb is going to take some energy and effort. But once you are less than halfway up, you're able to turn around and look at all the work that you've created, all the you know, if we're using the mountain analogy, all that mountain that you've been able to climb already, and you're not even at your goal. You're not even at the top yet. So in those moments, being able to take that pressure off and repurpose content that you've already got and schedule it ahead of time so you're not just thinking on the fly that way. You can focus on what you do best, running your business and brand and actually enjoying it and hopefully serving your customers at the same time to the best of your abilities. And that best of your ability is not stressed. So let's go plan smarter, not harder. Thank you. Everyone who has been listening and watching today's podcast episode, make sure to rate us five stars on Apple podcast or Spotify podcast. I would love to hear your thoughts and any feedback that you have about the unborn your brand podcast, I want to do my best for you and cover topics that'll help you grow your personal brand. So let me know what I can do, and if you can give me five stars, that would be great, too. Love you. Not everything is going to be perfect at the gate. When you first started your business, were you crack hot straight away, did you not make mistakes? Did you like the first thing that you ever created, that you ever serviced, that you ever did for your business? Was it absolutely perfect? No, can anyone argue that what you do now is perfect? No, the reason I ask that is because, when it comes to marketing your business in general, you're going to make mistakes. You're going to make pitfalls. But hopefully, the work that and the message that I put out there is that if you're willing to make mistakes, that ultimately, in the end of the day, don't harm yourself and do not harm anyone else, then it's okay to make mistakes you
music. Thank you everyone for your comments and your questions and your thoughts today or topic ideas for throughout the live stream. My hair is falling apart already. Thank you everyone for your engagement in today's live stream. And for those who are in the hashtag replay squad. Do not worry. I'll make sure to answer your comments as they come up. So do not worry, you haven't missed anything. So if you've missed any part of this live stream as it's come out, feel free to watch or listen on the whole live stream on LinkedIn or YouTube, and you can also check out the live stream show notes on VCC, dot training slash video, dash, confidence, dash connect, where you can find out all the show notes for all of our live streams, where I like to give you detailed breakdowns and also clear next steps so you can find that all out on our website, the video confidence coach emboldens women and non binary superstars with killer video marketing strategies, empowering them to show up, stand out and smash their goals. Thank you everyone for joining us for this week's video, confidence, connect and next week. I have no idea what the topic is, but I'm sure you will help guide me on that. Alright, I'll see you next week. Bye.
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Feeling stuck trying to build a personal brand that actually turns heads? Women and non-binary super-stars deserve more than just a cookie-cutter approach to their worries. Zoë Wood the Video Confidence Coach untangles your marketing mayhem, helping you own the camera, craft killer video strategies, and connect with your audience like never before. You’ll leave with the tools to show up, stand out, and smash your goals.
Find out more about how to grow your personal brand with the power of video right here on vcc.training
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