BIRD WILLIAMS: You're listening to Bird Means Business, Episode, 21. 

Hi there, today I am sharing with you about my content process. This has looked really different for me now having an online business. Before with my warehouse gym business, my husband Terry and I kind of just decided which days of the week we would post on social media. And then we put reminders in our joint calendars so that we remind each other. My husband Terry is so naturally just great at social media. Yes, I'm jealous. We didn't even have a social media content calendar. Y'all I pushed for it for a while and he was just like, “I’d rather go with the flow”. And then it was like I realized this is one of those battles that I just don't really need to fight. Especially since it was working. So, we don't even have a social media content calendar for The League. It just works. And that's because Terry is awesome with social media. 

But when I was launching Bird Williams, I realized that not only did I need social media content, but I also needed consistent weekly content for my audience. And typically, this looks like a blog or a video show or a podcast. So I talk about how I came to this in episode five, when I officially launched Bird Means Business podcast. It was like, all of a sudden, I was just having to come up with a lot of content. And at first it seemed like it could be overwhelming like, I'm always having to like jam out content. But then I came up with a process. And if you haven't figured it out by now, processes and systems are like my jam. And it's actually not overwhelming at all now and I'm going to kind of share that process with you today. 

Before we get started, many of you have kind of asked, “How can I work with you? What are the different ways that we can engage with each other?” You may have heard me mention my Prove It Plan. This is my signature business plan development program through an online course, plus you have access to me and our private members only Facebook group. You're going to want to go to birdwilliams.com/proveitplan. I've tested out this process where I take clients through, and it really leaves them with clarity and a game plan on like the different aspects of their business. There are four different pillars. There's the foundation, operations, marketing, and financial. It's been really great. This is how it kind of works. If you're thinking like, Man, this could really help me tighten up my marketing my operations, my financials, or importantly your foundation, go to birdwilliams.com/proveitplan to learn more. 

I say, importantly your foundation because y'all. I have worked with many clients who think they have an issue with their team or think they have an issue with their marketing or with their financials. But it's really stemming from foundational issues around why they're doing what they're doing in the first place. 

All right. So we're gonna jump into the episode. I hope these tips are helpful. I know that it will look different for each business. So just kind of figure out what works best for you. I just wanted to share this because it was really helpful to me, ensuring that I was able to generate consistent content. 

All right, let's first, just kind of define what I mean by content. There's a few different ways to look at content. One is just like I mentioned consistent weekly content. This is just a way to like stay relevant and in front of your clients. They need to know, like and trust you, which you'll hear a lot of people say that phrase – know, like and trust you. And the only way they can do that is they basically see your content, they see your face, they see your heart, they see your brand, again and again. So when you have a consistent piece of content like a blog or a video show or a podcast, it kind of helps you have that consistency in your marketing efforts around that. 

Another piece of content is just social media, captions, photo ideas, that sort of thing. Also content for your website like, copy, language. Then there's content for a specific product or service you might offer, whether it's promotional content for a sales page or a flyer. Also like a weekly newsletter or email. I do a weekly email to my tribe. And it's less planned and it really just kind of comes from my heart. And I tend to get more deep and open in that weekly email that I send out because I feel like those that are subscribed to my emails are, like I said my tribe. And I want them to get more. So just side note, if you want to subscribe to it you can go to birdwilliams.com/join. And I promise you it is not spammy, and I only send one email a week because I myself do not like to be inundated with all the emails. I promise that I'll just keep it simple. It'll be business tips and I just kind of keep it fun. So that's content. 

That's what I'm talking about, how do I come up with all these ideas again and again for what I want to share with you all. First inspiration. This is very important. Without inspiration, the rest of this process will just be a drag and will be super-duper stressful, versus like where do you get inspiration from. I get inspiration from everywhere, from other podcasts episodes, from maybe listening or reading a book. I listen to books on Audible. I get inspiration from sermons. I get inspiration from conversations with friends or even questions from my audience, interactions with my clients. I get inspiration from nature. I may have like this memory from the past and like wow that would make for a great Instagram caption. Recently I shared that I read like 490 something books in kindergarten, like what yeah I shared that y'all were just laughing because I was a crazy kid. Anyway, I get inspiration from all sorts of things, the list goes on. Even in the shower and let me tell you something. I almost started calling it shower sessions. I was going to brand something around shower sessions because I get so many ideas when I'm in the shower y'all. It's wild. And I honestly think it's because it's like the one time where I cannot do anything else. I can't be listening to anything else, really. I'm not driving. I'm not talking to someone. I'm just showering, and I get this flood of ideas. There have been times where my husband, Terry's walked by, I'm like, “Hey babe”. Again, I’m in the shower. “Hey, can you text me this. Can you text me something?” And he's like, “Sure.” And I'm spitting out like five random unrelated ideas and he's just, “Okay.” But yeah, basically my mind gets quiet and magic happens. So, the shower is a great place for getting inspiration. 

I will say this, when you're not in a healthy place, this will be tough. When you aren't getting enough sleep or drinking enough water, or even laughing enough or dancing enough, it's gonna be hard to get inspiration. Remember y'all self care. And remember we talked about this. Entrepreneurship is a dance. It's not a perfect balance but there is harmony. You have to make sure you're in a place to give. In order to be able to give, you have to receive. You have to fill your cup so that you can let it back out on the world. You have to be able to have a filled cup to be able to pour it out into others. Boom! 

I also want to say, make sure that you're getting different types of inspirational sources. Don't just listen to only business podcasts. You want to switch it up. The point is that you need to make sure in order for this content process to work, to make sure that you're putting yourself in a place to get inspiration and making space for yourself to really get these ideas. This was a game changer for me. I was getting all the inspiration, but I wasn't capturing it quick enough. What I have learned is that when something hits me, I need to write it down immediately. Like I mentioned, even sometimes my husband, Terry is writing it down immediately and sending it to me. I would say, “Oh, I'll remember it later.” But what happened is I wouldn't, and there would be days down the road that I would think about it and say oh my goodness I had something so good that was related to this week or this social media capture, this great idea. I just could not remember it. When something hits me, I write it down immediately. Or I always record it immediately. I'm talking about voice recording in just a second. It's legit. But the point is, don't do it later, do it as soon as possible because you might go into recording it and then actually go into a flow state, and y’all there is so much gold there. I used to write things down, everywhere in my calendar, in my iPhone notes, in a Google doc, in voice notes. But, boy, have I learned. The worst feeling is when you know you recorded a great idea somewhere, but you can't find it, because there's too many different sources for where that could be. 

So I'll say this about paper versus digital. I am a digital girl. That's how I take my notes. I don't write things down. Let me kind of explain. I'm adjusting with this, too. But I feel like if I write everything down on paper, then I'm going to have to basically spend more time duplicating it into my computer, re-recording it there. And also if I have everything in like binders and in paper, it could get lost or stolen or in a fire. But all my digital files can be backed up. But I will say this. I have moved to writing out my to-do’s, each day from their digital home, let's say in my iCal or in Asana, which is the project management system that I use, onto actual paper, because I think it helps me stay more focused. You got to do what works best for you. I will say full disclosure, I have been in a meeting where I went to go pull up my Google doc, and for some reason my internet wasn't connecting to their Wi Fi like it always did. And I couldn't pull it up, and then also it was acting weird on my phone was like a weird technology issue so you don't completely rely on technology, but that is typically how I do note taking. I do it all digitally because I don't want to have to lose it, and have to like re-put it somewhere else. Just seems to be a more of an efficient process for me. But I'm going to like just walk you through my system.

Here we go. First, I have a running iPhone note. So you know your notes on your iPhone? I'm sure, Android has something similar. And it's just like when I'm on the go and I have an idea, I have this running note, BWC was what it's called. I have a lot of different notes, but for this business is Bird Williams. Anytime I have an idea, I'll just type it in real quick into that note so I can keep on doing whatever it is that I'm doing. And don't say, “Oh, I'll remember it later”, and then not actually remember it later. And so if I'm driving and I don't want to type something into an iPhone note, what I'll do is I'll actually use my voice notes. And y’all, voice notes are legit. I live in Houston, Texas, so I am driving a lot. And when an idea strikes, it's so much easier to just push the record button on a voice note that I can later listen to. This has been golden for me because, first of all, it's free and it's already downloaded on your phone, if you’re team iPhone. But again, I'm sure Android has something similar. But there's so many times where I'll just kind of go into a flow state. Something that I thought would just be like a two sentence thing that would be recording, ends up being half of a podcast episode. Voice notes are so, so good when you have like a really quick idea and you don't have time to either write it out or you're driving or something and don't want to do that. Basically I have my iPhone note with type out ideas and thoughts, and then I have my voice notes. 

Then at the end of the day, I put everything into its proper Google doc. This is online, and I’m basically taking all the notes from the day from the iPhone note or from the voice note, and I'm putting it into a Google doc if it's like content related, like related to a podcast episode idea or something like that. Or, I put it into Asana, which again is the project management tool that I use. And I put it there if it's task related. So let me say that again. If it's content related, I'm going to put it into Google Docs. If it's task related, has a due date or an assignee, I'm going to put it into Asana. And that's going to be like for example if it's like, hire a podcast manager or some specific thing. If I’m like, “Man, I should do this. I should think about that”. I'm going to put that into Asana if it's task related. 

The point is that there's no random stuff all over the place. I don't have to look at my iPhone, or my iCal notes and my iPhone notes. It's not everywhere. It's just in two sources I look for things and then I'm always going to be putting them into their proper place. And y’all I have Google docs for everything. Everything from ideas for speaking engagements, to a shot list for my next photo shoot. Last time I did a photo shoot, shout out to my photographer, Matt Daniel. He's awesome. He's here in Houston. And he was so surprised and like in awe, with my shot list. He was like, “This is amazing. I've never seen such a detailed shot list.” And it was because for months I had been recording ideas of things that I would see. Like maybe I was, scrolling through Instagram and I saw a certain shot, or a certain pose or something. I was like, “Oh that would be really good. I need to have that.” So it made our photo shoot a lot more efficient. 

So again, I have Google docs for everything, and everything in Google Docs is filed into folders so it's super easy to find. When it comes to thinking, for example, of my next four podcast episodes to batch, what I'm going to do is I'm going to go into the Podcast Episode Ideas doc, which is like, oh, idea vomit. It's just all these ideas that are just random because again I'm just adding them into there at the end of the day. And I'm going to go through and I'm going to say okay for next month, I'm going to have this going on, and there will be like these hot topics in the world or whatever. And I'm going to say, these are the four episodes. I'm going to look at that list and say. “Ooh this one would be good. Ooh, that will be good.” I'm not having to come up sit down and like brainstorm in the moment because I have like this vault of ideas that I can just source. 

And it's the same with social media. I can look at my social media content calendar which lives in Google Docs, and I can think about like relevant holidays. Or you know those national days, national best friend's day, or national sisters day or whatever it is. And I can plan out my content accordingly. I figured I'd go ahead and share my social media content calendar with you. You can go to birdwilliams.com/podcast/21 to download it. This is something that I shared with people before because people really just like to have a template. This is a starting place. Of course you can adapt it for however works best for you. But at least you can kind of see, how I do mine and hopefully can help you. 

So like I explained my podcast episode ideas, Google Doc, is just like a brain dump, like an idea vomit. That's important. That's good that it just kind of comes out and then I don't want it to be super manicured and perfect, because it basically just like takes the pressure off of getting it out of your brain. Sometimes if you want it to be perfect, it'll hinder all those ideas that are just trying to come out. Just let the ideas come out and then you can go and tighten it up later.

Okay, so brain dumping is a really big part of a content process. You see? That's my content process. I basically make sure that I have space to be inspired and then I go to lots of different sources for inspiration. And then when something strikes, I have two places where I put it in on the go, either a voice note on my phone or my iPhone notes. Then at the end of the day, I'm going to go and put it in either Asana, if it's a task related idea or note. And then I'm going to put it in Google Docs, if it's more about the content idea, or something that's more related to content. Then whenever it comes time for me to, for example, need to do my photo shoot, I'm going to have this shortlist document where I can say, these are the shots that I want for this photo shoot. These are the different outfits I need, whatever it might be. It's all there and done for you. 

So again, your systems will save you. It might seem simple, like I'm just talking you through my content process. But, man is it powerful. I don't have the burden or the stress of, “Man I gotta come up with something this week. Oh man, I don't know what I'm going to do it. I know I need to get more photos for my website but I don’t even know what kind of stuff I want to do yet.” No, I have a whole plan, a whole thing already going from just my day to day. Those small little things really add up.

Like I mentioned, if you need to think more systemically, around any of the pillars of your business, again systems are my jam, check out birdwilliams.com/proveitplan. Whether it’s your operations, your marketing, your financial, or just the foundation of your business, if you want to learn more about my process for kind of journeying with you through that, so you have a solid game plan going forward. Let’s chat.

All right. That’s it for this week. Thank you so much for subscribing on Apple Podcasts, for following us on Spotify, and for telling your entrepreneur friends about Bird Means Business. Alright, talk to you next week.