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Too many entrepreneurs pour hours into content creation with little to show for it. Yes, I mean hours. Most of their week. It's either writing or recording or taping videos and they're not seeing any results. That can lead to discouragement, self-doubt, and a whole boatload of negative junk. No more, my friend. In this episode, we're gonna talk about content creation and try to fix some of these misconceptions and get you back on track. So stay tuned for episode 138.

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Got the solo business loose, wearing too many hats. Stay tuned for an episode that understands where you're at. From burnout to breakthrough, we'll rewrite your story with AI strategy. Let's amplify your authority.

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Hello, hello, my friends, and welcome to the Amplify Your Authority podcast. I am your host, Marissa Shadrick, and I am so honored that you are listening. Thank you so much. It means the world to me, and I'm gonna try to bring you a lot of value in a short amount of time. So we're talking about content creation. There's a lot of entrepreneurs, including myself, there have been times I have done this, that we crank out content between meetings or on the fly, or we're looking at the calendar and we're thinking, oh, I gotta get that post out. And we do it very quickly. And maybe you're using AI, maybe not. And we're not thinking about strategy because we don't really have a plan behind it. And then we're disappointed when it doesn't give us the result we're looking for. So this is common. This happens a lot because we are busy, we're solo business owners. But if we just slow down a bit and spend a little bit of quiet time with the why we're creating content and who we're creating it for and what we're expecting out of each piece of content, we want to look at content as little employees. What kind of job are they gonna have? What are they gonna do? We might be able to get better results. So that's what we're gonna talk about. We want your message to be not only magnetic to attract those people that you want to serve, but also sticky. I know that word is so graphic. It makes you want to grab a wet paper towel, right? Sticky. But you get it. You want it to resonate with your audience so it sticks, so they remember. And it might take a few times for them to listen and hear what you have to say, right? It might take five, six, seven times before they say, you know what? I want to sign up for whatever resource they have because I want to hear more about this person. I want to hear more about what they do and how they solve the particular problem that I'm trying to solve. That's what we want, right? So we're gonna cover a few things and we're gonna go very briefly. This isn't gonna be a long podcast. This is actually the second of a series. We started last week and we talked about your sweet spot and we talked a little bit about branding, and we're moving on to the content creation. And next week we're gonna talk a little bit about workflow. So this is part of a series, but they're standalone. So you can just listen to this one or you can go and listen to the previous podcast episode number 137 if you want to hear all about branding. But we're going to take a look at content creation and see if we can break it down. As I said, most people start with what they want to say and check it off their list and they forget who they're talking to. Now, our audience, you know, the tricky part about our audience, they don't stay put. They're growing, they're learning, they're developing. It's just like you and I. We're doing the same thing. We're not the same person that we were two years ago, a year ago, three years ago. We have evolved, we have grown, we have learned. And some of the things that were really valuable two years ago, well, we got that down. We don't need that anymore. We already know how to do that. We're moving on to something else. And our audience is the same, doggone it. They keep growing and changing and doing different things and different struggles. Maybe the struggle they had a year ago is no longer a struggle and they got a new struggle. So we've got to have our finger on the pulse because they don't stay put, they keep changing and growing and evolving like we do. That's a good thing. But we need to stay so close to what their needs are and understand so our content is relevant. Here's a simple way because when I say research, people kind of roll their eyes like, ugh, I hate research. I love research, I'm kind of geeky that way. But this is a form of research, but it's super simple. And I think you're gonna like it. It's something that will give you lots of intel, and that is quizzes and surveys. Now, when I say a quiz, yes, it takes a little bit of work to get a quiz going. And inside my private community, I have a custom GPT that helps you create a quiz, and I also have tutorials on tools to create a quiz. If you wanted to join the private membership for one month and go through it and then cancel and leave, that's fine. It's only $37 a month. You can't even get a training course for that. You can join, figure out how to do a quiz, and then pop right out again. But of course, I would love you to stay. But quizzes are a great way to be able to grow your email list and get intel on your audience because they're answering questions. So this is a great way to create a lead magnet that does both. And the beautiful thing about a quiz is that people love self-discovery. So it's a little easier to get that click. Now I polished up my quiz in October. We're in November right now at the time of this recording, and I was amazed at how quickly people were starting to access the quiz and take the quiz because I started promoting it. And that's another thing we do. We create a lead magnet and then we don't promote it. So I started promoting it, cleaned it all up, gave it a facelift, gave it a brand new opt-in page, and lo and behold, guess what? They're clicking. So these quizzes are very, very good and it gives you some great insight. The thing is, it does take a little bit of time. You can create a quiz with guidance in a week. So a week's worth of time for something that's gonna give you intel and is going to continue to work for you and grow your email list isn't a bad thing, right? It's not a bad thing. It's figuring out what kind of quiz. And so that's why I was saying, you know, if you're interested and you want to join the private community, you can check that out over there. I am gonna have a sneak peek here, something special coming in the pipeline that is related to quizzes. So I'm just saying FYI, stay tuned. But quizzes is one way, and the other way would be surveys. Now, some people think, I don't want to just, you know, bore my email list with a survey and ask them questions and then you know they get mad and they unsubscribe. You can bake surveys in very easily and in a non-intrusive way. So when I have a new coaching program, I usually at the end of the session, I have a one-question survey and I have them answer the one question just so that I can get feedback and they know they're giving me feedback. So as I'm creating this course live with them, they can give me input and be really honest. And you can make it anonymous so people can be brutally honest with you, and that gives you a lot of intel as far as a product. But you can also create a short survey and email your list and give them an ethical bribe. Say, you know, if you take this maybe three question survey, or it can even be one question. One question says a lot, and you can give them maybe a free resource. When I see a survey, and I know it's not gonna be really super long. Like back in the day, people would create these surveys that had like 15 questions in it. I'm like, gosh, put needles in my eyes. Who wants to do that, right? But if you sprinkle in a one question here and there, or maybe three questions here and there, I don't think people are gonna be bothered by that. Just say it up front. This is a really short survey and only take you 30 seconds, and it's multiple choice. Let them know what it is so that they know, okay, I don't have to think a whole lot and write a whole lot and open up ChatGPT to figure out how I'm gonna answer this question. Give them multiple choice questions. And one of the popular, popular questions that Ryan Levesque first shared, and everybody repeats it, is when it comes to blank, what is your greatest or biggest struggle? That's a simple, simple question. You're very specific, and then you get that open-ended answer. But if you want to do multiple choice, you have to position the question in a way that includes those answers that are going to help you identify what their struggles are. And then another question is the magic wand question. I've seen that a couple of times now, where people say, if you can wave a magic wand, what would be the ideal outcome that you're looking for? I often on coaching calls, I'll say, in a perfect world, if money wasn't an obstacle and if a team wasn't an obstacle and knowledge wasn't an obstacle, what would your business look like right now? You know, in a perfect world. So I could figure out what the problem really is because sometimes you have to ask questions in different ways. So surveys can be very helpful. But when you're doing live coaching calls, having a question right after a session, especially if you're teaching something, is very helpful because it's just one question and they can do it right there. You can put it in the chat and they can answer it right there before you all say goodbye because once everybody leaves, they're not gonna answer the question. So that might be something to consider because it gives you great intel. And people, for the most part, they're pretty generous. They'll do that. So, you know, you probably work with great people. I work with great people, and they'll usually do that. And I'll answer a question if I know it's not gonna be this long, long, long survey that pages and pages and pages. So say it up front. It's only one question or three questions, and that way people go, Oh, oh, good, I can relax, I can do this. The other thing that I have done that I think I should in another podcast episode a while ago, but I've been doing this for years. I get on either webinars or free workshops or anything like that where I know my audience is gonna be, and I look at the chat, and sometimes they do a survey on the Zoom call and they survey them and say, Oh, answer this question. And then there's all the answers in the chat. And some people, you know, have a big audience, not like me, right? They'll have 200 people unless they have a Zoom limit and they'll have 100 people, but they'll have 200, 300 people and they're answering this quiz. Well, guess what? Little Marissa's doing here. I am exporting that chat so that I can pull it out and analyze it with AI later, right? So this gives us some great intel too. And the questions people ask, especially even if you're on a free webinar, people ask questions and I look at those questions. Now, people have also mentioned going to Facebook groups. I'm allergic to Facebook. I really don't like Facebook, so I don't go there. But if you're a Facebook person, that's great. Go there and look at some of the groups and and type in the type of sentences that would formulate a question. Like, how does anyone know or I need help or I don't understand, something like that, and search to see if you see questions there. But I love Zoom chats. I love Zoom chats. I get so much intel that way. And I'm leveraging the volume of people that other people have to be able to get some intel when your audience is aligned, of course. So sometimes I sign up for a webinar, not because the knowledge, because it's something that I do, right? They're a competitor. I sign up because I want to see what people are asking. So that's a way to do it without the research. So another way, of course, is SEO. Don't be allergic to SEO. Just look at it as trying to figure out what people are searching for online. And there's a lot of free tools out there. In fact, I was watching this YouTube of this guy that was just sharing all of these free tools and he had done all the research. So I'm going to put a link to his YouTube channel because his, I think his channel is called Rank Math SEO or something like that. He had done some research and he had this whole list of freebies. So some of the top keyword search tools, of course, is Google Ads Keyword Planner. That is a great place to look for keywords. And the whole idea about keywords, to keep it super simple, like I said, I'm not a keyword person. I did do a training with a keyword expert because he explains about SEO. If you want to go a little deeper with that, but it's really about finding good search volume, like the things that people are typing in the search bar, and you also want to see that it has a minimum or low competition. And that would be considered a good keyword. Now, AI can get us started with some keywords, but we don't know if it's a good keyword until we use one of these tools, right? So you can use some tools like Google Ads Keyword Planner, and these are free. These are free, free tools. Gives you a little insight. And then there's also another one that seems to do equally well, and that's Wordstream Keyword Tool. And I'll have the links to these in the show notes. And then we don't have Answer the Public anymore. Well, they have kind of a free trial where you can use it like a few times and then you gotta pay for it. Doggone it, those subscriptions, right? But Answer Socrates is very similar and it's free. So all of these are free. Maybe they won't be free next year, but right now, at the time of this recording, they're free. And this particular guy at Rank Math SEO, he talked about some other tools. I don't get inundated with tools. I just figure, what's the best one? Right. And if the best one is paid subscription, well then so be it. I will pay it. But you know, we've got so many tools, so many subscriptions, it's like, ouch, not one more, right? So these are free and you can use those. And the and answer Socrates works just like answer the public, and it gives you some good words. It basically shows you what people are typing in the search box. So when we have this information from quizzes, from surveys, from keyword, we begin to see how our market has shifted, or maybe it's stayed the same, right? We begin to see what's of interest. We begin to see what they're struggling with. We begin to understand a little bit more about them, and therefore we align hopefully our products to that and then work backwards, and then we align our content and then we align our social posts, we align our email newsletter. So that becomes the cornerstone to all the content we create and the courses we create. Because we want to create courses that will solve a problem that they're thinking about right now. Not something that we think they need, but we know they want, right? Give them what they want, don't give them what they need. No, how does that saying go? Give them don't give them what they need, give them what they want, and then bake in what they need. Okay, I said that was a mouthful. So I'm gonna repeat it again. You give them what they want, when you give them what they want, you bake in what they need because they're not necessarily looking for what they need, they're looking for what they want. Okay, I got it out. That was hard. All of this affects everything that we do our opt-in page, our website, our sales page, our podcast, our articles, our social media snippets, it affects everything. So when we begin to get this information, we align ourselves to exactly what it is they want today, not last year or maybe next year, but today, what it is they want today. I know it's a moving target. It can be really exasperating at times, but if we keep our finger on the pulse and we keep an ongoing process where we survey, we ask a question. Any opportunity you have, just ask one question. Can you expand on that? What do you mean by that? And just be very curious all the time. It's amazing how much information you can get. So that's all I have for you today. I hope you enjoyed this podcast episode. Next week we're going to talk about workflow. So stay tuned for that one. And if you enjoyed this podcast episode, I would love it if you would leave a rating and review. I will ask every single time because I need them. So if you'd be so kind, that would be awesome. I'm not begging yet, but it's coming. And also, if you want to take my quiz, I'll have a link in the show notes where you can take my quiz. The URL for the quiz is marissahadrick.com forward slash quiz, and you can experience a quiz. So until next time, take care. Bye bye.