Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign hi there and welcome back to Confessions from the Home Office. And I hope everybody's doing well. And just a quick reminder that if you're following along with the podcast, make sure you subscribe, like, follow, comment, share it. I'm always trying to make sure that as many people can find the podcast and when you share it or let other people know or leave comments, that type of thing, it really helps. So I appreciate that Today we're going to talk about a topic that I know a lot of marketers, whether they do marketing as like consulting or social media manager, or they're just responsible for the marketing for the business that they own or that they work for and it's marketing content brand burnout. So I know that since content creation and with social media has become such a big thing, that that's something that I'm sure a lot of you feel. I know I have felt before. And so I'm going to walk you through all that today. So I'm sure you've been in a situation where it's either close to 5:00 or in my case, sometimes it's close to 11:00 at night and you're staring at the screen and you're like, I said I would get this out by the end of the day and I'm just not feeling it. There's nothing left in the tank and I'm just completely exhausted. And maybe that's not the first time that you felt that way. And you're thinking, maybe, maybe it's not. I'm just tired. Maybe I've really hit content burnout. So, you know, we're always feeling like we have to feed the machine. Like, people who are on LinkedIn a lot feel like they need to be on LinkedIn all the time, posting and commenting, sharing, but creating their own content.
[00:01:45] And a lot of people feel that way across all the platforms. Did you know that the average content marketer has to put out like three to five pieces of content a week now? That's per client. So like, in my case, that means I have to create thousands of pieces of content each year, which kind of seems insane or, you know, why do you do that to yourself? But that's just the business I've built and, and that's what I do. So if you wonder why I have the circles under my eyes, it's because I'm always working on content, which is fin. That's what I signed up for. So it's no wonder that we're kind of feeling like we're scraping the bottom of the barrel when we just have to constantly keep coming up with things. So I want to get real about content burnout. Like really how to recognize it when you're in the middle of it, how you can get out of it, and how to build systems so you don't keep going through this cycle. So I've got some things that I do that I want to share with you that have helped me. And I'll admit sometimes I do kind of hit a wall. You usually it's if I've worked too much all during the week or I've worked some on the weekend and didn't take some time off. So let's talk about some things.
[00:02:53] So like I was saying, content burnout is not just one day or I didn't sleep well last night, so my brain's just not working. That's when you're just constantly almost like dreading working on content, and it's just persistent and you just can't get away with it, get away from it. So you're thinking, didn't I already do that or haven't already said that? Or you start kind of feeling weird about your post if you're, if you're kind of doubting yourself, kind of having that imposter syndrome, and I know that's an overused term in the business world, but it's real.
[00:03:25] So you probably are just kind of burned out. Your stuff's probably not bad at all. You just kind of reached your limit. And then if you're procrastinating, working on social media. So if you know me, you know that I am highly allergic to housework. And so if you hear me say things like, hey, I got caught up on the laundry today, or, hey, I completely cleaned out my office, threw out several bags of things, mopped, dusted the blinds, did all this stuff, moved the furniture around, you know, I've probably hit content burnout because I don't like to clean. So. And then the truth is, you really can't just tell somebody or tell yourself, I'm just going to push through. I'm just going to work through this content calendar. I'm just going to get it done. I'm just going to power through. It doesn't really work that way. There's a. There's some, several elements of creating content.
[00:04:13] So if you just say, I'm just going to push through, I feel like that makes burnout worse. That's like if someone has a broken foot and you say, just keep walking, it's going to heal. It'll It'll. It'll heal while you're sleeping at night. Just keep going. Sometimes you really need to just stop and assess the damage and create a plan to get back in the game. And that's okay. So if you're nodding along, you're like, h, this kind of sounds familiar. Let's keep listening. And there's some ways that you can get your creative mojo back.
[00:04:41] So when you're already in the middle of what I would call like a content drought, here's what I would do. If you feel like you've realized this and it's near the weekend, wouldn't it be ideal if a content burnout, everything happened late on a Friday afternoon. Take the weekend off or take 24 hours off. Don't even touch your computer. And I know you say, oh, as a business owner, how can you do that? Or, hey, I'm responsible for marketing this products. I can't do that. Sometimes you just have to. You might have to work ahead a little bit, but just walk away from it. So the best thing for me to do because I am inside a lot, I am in front of a computer a lot, is to shut the computer down, get out, move around, do some stuff, go over to the farm. We planted wildflowers this weekend.
[00:05:27] I was not thinking about content for clients or for my business at all. And it was nice that I was thinking about dirt and seeds and pollen and how we were going to get more water down to that meadow and that type of thing. And it just kind of helped reset my brain. It was a good tired last night when I went to sleep. It wasn't a I'm so stressed out type of tired, but that timing doesn't work. So I would say even give yourself like a couple of hours away from the computer if you can. Go to lunch with a friend, go run some errands, go to the gym, go take your dog for a walk, do something. But just kind of get away from electronics. And I laugh because I've heard for years electronics will mess with your brain and make you feel stressed out and all that. I believe it now. I feel like that we've all been on our electronics enough that that that happens. So I do feel like that you have to consume content to be able to keep creating content. So don't think that I'm going against what I just said. I do think you need a break first and then kind of get into idea mode is what I call it. So I'm the queen of notebooks. I would like to go out and find a great deal on little notebooks and journals and things like that. And I've got, you know, probably 12 of them with things with writing in them. But what I do is after I've kind of taken my break, whether it's over the weekend or if it's a half a day, if something happens early in the week and I just need to step back, get a notebook, get the laptop, get the phone, whatever you need, whatever you scroll on and start looking through some things. But I'm not planning content when I'm doing this. This is just out looking for things. I don't read about marketing, I don't go to marketing newsletters, I don't look at marketing accounts on social media. I just skip over them. I look at things that I like or it might be something in an industry for a client. I might go look at a competitor or something. But again, I'm not creating content. I'm just reading, looking, thinking, jotting things down in the notebook.
[00:07:31] If I'm on my laptop and then I already have my phone with me, I'll start a note in my phone. I have an iPhone with. Just trying to get the ideas organized a little bit or just keep it in the notebook for now. And then I take that and I turn it in, put it into like Google Sheets, some more details on things or I'll start scheduling some things out, some ideas in Trello. That's the project management tool that we use here.
[00:07:57] Look up Trello T R E L L O. If you haven't, if you haven't worked with that before. But we use Google Sheets and Trello to get all of the social media scheduled here. So I would say take just a little bit of time, don't spend all day doing idea mode, maybe spend an hour at the most and just know you're going to consume whatever you want to consume. Ideas will start coming to you. If you're in the marketing business, you'll bounce back and start thinking about your company or your clients or whatever and you'll say that's a good idea, that's a good idea. And this is not going off on a tangent on new like content pillars and things for clients and getting off message, it, it will all start coming together for you. Sometimes we just need to kind of refuel and, and you know, add to the tank. Um, and I would do this when you're not going to get interrupted. So I will say my days are interrupted by clients all day and that's fine. That's the model I've built. I like it that way. So if I'm gonna do idea mode, it's something I'm gonna do late at night. But that doesn't work well for me. I'm an early riser, My husband is not. So in the morning it is very quiet around here. It's just the dogs and me and idea mode and I can, I can just research and think and jot things down. But again, I'm not really creating content. I'm just kind of getting things organized, putting some ideas down.
[00:09:23] And don't start, don't go to Canva, don't go into Adobe, don't start designing and doing all this during this time. Just know this is just kind of when you're, you're filling the ideas back in.
[00:09:35] Another thing you can do is repurpose content. So one example would be like a client in the financial industry we took, they were wanting to talk about retirement planning throughout different ages, like your 20s, your 30s, your 40s, your 50s, your 60s and beyond. Instead of just turning out blog post and kind of the general thing, we took that whole thing about retirement planning and broke it down by kind of by decade. And we had content for people in their 20s, what they should be thinking about and doing 30s, 40s. So on infographics, some guides turn that into newsletter newsletter content. We used information from corporate with a to do a quiz so people could assess their retirement planning behaviors. And then we put together a webinar for multiple generations to talk about retirement planning and kind of bounce ideas off each other. And maybe some of the people who are older could give ideas to the people who are younger. And people who are younger give few ideas to people who are older too. So it was different executions, but the same goal. Get people thinking about it, doing something about it and taking action.
[00:10:48] Another thing I do is kind of like a hub and spoke model where I may take a content topic and then go from there and figure out how many different ways we can execute that and turn it into content. Like a carousel post or a short video, something like that. Also you could take like a blog post and figure out how many different ways that you can can kind of slice and dice that into multiple pieces of content. And polls are also great. You can ask a question to your audience. Like if you have a big LinkedIn following or following on Instagram or your popular on Facebook, you could ask a question and see if people will give you answers. And that could turn into anywhere from four or five posts to 60, 70, 80 posts. Just depends on how Many responses you get. So you're kind of stretching your creativity. Sometimes you're asking people, the hub and spoke is great slicing and dicing things.
[00:11:50] So maybe that will give you some ideas. So let's talk about how to prevent content marketing burnout.
[00:11:56] So one is when we were in idea mode, we have all these things that we're writing down. If we have something that doesn't really turn into content, but we keep it on the list, we can go back and we almost have like a content bank, some things that we're thinking about. Also I will go back and say, okay, in this hub and spoke model, I came up with three things that I could do for this topic. I'm gonna push myself to come up with two or three more and do that because that's it's important content to get out and that type of thing. So I would, I would do it this way. That way you're not really creating content on demand. Try to do the ideas, try to funnel it into creating things.
[00:12:38] I would also not just say, I've got to do a post today. Let me figure out the post. You need to kind of plan ahead with that. So I keep my idea mode thing, my system with me all the time. I have the notes on my phone. I can always get to Google Drive and I can always get to Trello and try to make some, some ideas. You know me, I try to work ahead.
[00:12:59] Some people will take content creation and say, all I'm doing on Monday is I'm creating content all day long. I think I would have a panic attack if I knew that's what I was going to be doing all day long. I can't sit still very well. So maybe 90 minutes is like the limit for me. I might say I'm going to take this, this client and I'm going to work on things for them for the next several weeks. We already have topics of things that we want to talk about. I'm going to get that done. Or for this 90 minute segment, I'm going to work these two clients because they're similar in industry and make sure that I make sure that they're different enough so the content's not being used for both.
[00:13:35] But I think it depends on what works for you. Sometimes I can work for a longer period of time. Some people are fine to just sit down and work all day, but like I was saying, things are kind of interrupt driven around here that really wouldn't work for me. But 90 minutes is probably about all I'm gonna be able to get done before something else pops up.
[00:13:53] So one thing is, people ask me a lot about AI. Do you use AI? Do you rely on AI? And I would say, yeah, I do use it. I've started using it more over the past year. At first I was skeptical. I've tried some tools that I don't like. I've tried some tools that I like a lot. I have created bots in AI, trying to make sure that when a question's asked for a particular, particular client or something for my business, that it sounds like me. I will say I feel like I'm always having to check behind AI, and I think everybody who would say, yeah, you can't just copy, paste and do that. But I feel like sometimes it starts getting things off message a little bit. So you have to be really, really careful.
[00:14:41] I'm probably a little bit old school. I would rather create it myself. But if I'm stuck on a headline or I see a headline, hasn't performed really well and we need to reuse the email I might take and pop that into AI and give it a little bit of background and see if I can get some options. If there's something that just doesn't sound right that's getting ready to go out, I'll pop it in and ask for solutions with that. But again, you can't take it and just copy and paste it and drop it in. You got to think about, is it really on message? Is this something I can use, or do I need to just kind of get back and work on it myself? So I would say I use it more for when I'm stuck or if there's something that needs to be refined, but you really have to read everything.
[00:15:23] I know there's certain symbols that AI uses that are easy to identify and copy. And then, you know, like, I have one client who says, don't ever send me any hyphenated words and copy. That's just his preference. So it'd be really tough to use AI because there's a lot of hyphenated words in there. I have another client that says, I don't like exclamation points. So, you know, AI is full of exclamation points too. So there's things like that.
[00:15:50] You know, I think AI has its place with things and I do think that it speeds things up. But I. I do think you have to be really, really careful. And you have to be careful what tool you use.
[00:16:01] There's so many out there, you just kind of have to weed through and figure out what you like and if there's something that's just not really performing for you, just close it, don't use it again.
[00:16:11] So a few takeaways from this. I feel like quality is better than quantity. Some clients want just tons and tons and tons of content. Does it really get them anywhere? I feel like if you have several good pieces of content a week, that's better than posting several times a day and just churning out to turn things out. And I would say create when you're inspired, not when you're drained. And think about when you work best. I work best earlier in the day. By the end of the day, I feel like I don't know my name. So you know, I do most of my work early in the morning. Unless something else is going on and don't force them. Like using this, this idea mode of just. I'm going to go out and research some things. I'm just going to look up some things I like. I'm going to go read. I like to go out and read comedy when I'm really burned out and just been thinking about business. This is business. I like to watch comedy, read comedy.
[00:17:03] And that really helps me to get ideas flowing. So. And then just having that system, the system that I have of like keeping notes in my phone and then moving more details into Google sheets and Trello, it's just like a two or three step process. I have purch educational programs before where people have tried to teach you all this content creation. It's like 30 steps to get a post out. No, thank you. I mean, my eyes were glazing over my adhd. ADHD had kicked in and I was done. So one thing that if you feel like you're struggling with this this week, what I want you to do is I want you to just schedule one kind of idea session. Just look at your calendar and figure out when no one's probably going to bother you.
[00:17:47] And just sit down and do some brainstorming and look at some things you haven't looked at in a while and stay away from all the marketing stuff. Stay away from. This is what's trending and this is what's going on. Just go out and brainstorm. And maybe you don't want to even do anything online. Maybe it's magazines, maybe you've got a stack of magazines that you haven't been through or a book that you want to flip through or maybe there's a place that you go that that gives you inspiration. So I would do that. And if you're stuck and you need more help on figuring out how to start. Or you have a question about is this really what you were talking about? Just send me an email. It's in the show notes and you can do that.
[00:18:23] So content marketing doesn't have to lead to burnout. I know with a lot going on, and if you do have a lot of clients, it can feel that way. But I think if you try to just take a breath and make sure that you're still spending time doing things that you want to do and partitioning off time to work on content and not letting it be something that you're working on 24, 7, I think it'll really help. So when I started putting these kind of boundaries and systems in place, I feel like it cut down my content creation time by about 25%. I know some people will say, oh, it saved me this much in marketing dollars, or it cut down my time by 40 or 50%. I don't think so, because I think maybe those people are using AI exclusively.
[00:19:09] And I just feel like to stay on brand, you got to be really careful with what you're putting out there.
[00:19:14] So I would say content marketing is not about just grinding harder and getting through. It's about being thoughtful, staying on top of things, making sure things are getting out. But try to have let your natural creativity come into play and maybe talk to your audience and let them give you some ideas as well to keep things going, and that's it. So I'd love to hear your experiences with what you've been doing. If you have a different system or you have a different way of handling burnout. I am always open and always love to hear what other people are doing. So let me know and I'll be back next week.
