We are supported by Riverside. One of the things that drives me bonkers it really does is when I go to record an interview and everything looks great, right, like in the moment, everything sounds great, you did your sound checks, all the video, everything looks fantastic. But then you go to download and it's just off right, the video's grainy, the audio didn't turn out as well as you expected and you just feel like you need to scrap the entire thing after you spent so much time finding the perfect guest or thinking about the perfect topic. Well, with Riverside, I never have to think about this. So Riverside is a platform that you can use to record your solo content or host guest for your podcast, and it is the best solution for anyone that's just getting started or even if you're seasoned pro looking to make a switch this year. So I want you to go to crystalprofitcom forward slash Riverside and I have a special promo code just for you. It's crystal15. Yep, just my name, k-r-y-s-t-a-l and the number 15 to get an exclusive discount for the profit podcast listeners. Again, that's crystalprofitcom forward slash Riverside, promo code 15, crystalprofitcom forward slash Riverside and use the promo code 15 for an exclusive discount. Okay, let's get into today's episode Productivity. It's one of those words that I didn't really have too much, my vocabulary, I would say.

Growing up, whenever I think about myself, like as a small child, young adult, into college, I was the biggest procrastinator. I really was like I would wait until the very last minute and, if I'm being totally honest, I still do this sometimes today. But I would wait until the very last minute to do my homework, turn in my assignments, get started on a project, like. I know I'm not the only one that I keep thinking about college classes where you would get a syllabus, or even in high school you would get okay, this is for the entire year all of your major due dates, your major tests, when projects need to happen, and all the steps involved. You would get this piece of paper because it was before everything was digital. You would get this piece of paper that had all the major ways that you were gonna be graded, when they were gonna be due and how long you had to do them.

But guess who waited until the very last moment to either again get started, turn it in like, crack open the book that I was supposed to have read, like over an entire summer. I remember there was one time where I wanted to be in honors English and the prerequisite to that was reading the Scarlet Letter, and I did not do that. I think it was in between my freshman and sophomore year of high school, and y'all. I had all summer. I had so much time to make this happen, but I didn't. I even had a trip. I had a 15 hour plane ride from Australia back to my home and I didn't do it. I didn't do it.

So product this is me like. This is true confessions of a recovering procrastinator. Because, at the end of the day, productivity now, in my 37 years of being on this planet, it is the thing that I live by. Like I have a calendar right behind me, like if you're watching on the video. Like I have a huge calendar that covers a half of the wall in my office. I am in and out of a sauna every single day. I live in that tool and it is the thing that has helped me so much.

So, if you are looking to be more productive in 2024 with your content, that is exactly what we're talking about today. So let's get right to it. Welcome to the Profit Podcast, where we teach you how to start, launch and market your content with confidence. I'm your host, crystal Profit, and I'm so excited that you're here. Thanks for hanging out with me today, because if you've been trying to figure out the world of content creation, this is the show that will help be your time saving shortcut. So let's get right to it, shall we? Okay, welcome back Crystal here today. And I'm excited about talking specifically about being productive in your content, because I have created other pieces of content, other podcast episodes, other YouTube videos all about the things that can help you be more productive in your overall life.

I've given you book suggestions. If you need just one, I recommend reading the one thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papa's on, because, oh my gosh, it was the game changer for me and it's a small book. It is a short book for those of you that are like crystal don't give me book recommendations that are 500 pages. This one's like 150, so you can absolutely tear through that thing, pop in your earbuds, and it's an audio book that you can get through in a few hours. Go get it immediately.

But what I want to talk about today is specific to content. So, your content what are you creating? You're creating your podcast episodes. You're creating, maybe blog posts, you're creating your YouTube videos. Whatever types of content you are creating, I'm going to give you five ways to be more productive in your content in 2024 and beyond, because when I talk to people who have burned out which is unfortunately a good number of people, dozens upon dozens of creators that I talk to every year say I quit creating because one of the top reasons is they don't have enough time. So, whether it's time management that they really struggle with or not making the right things a priority, either way, like today, you're going to walk away with some helpful insights and tips that will make sure that you don't burn out Like you don't go into that category of people that have created and created and created. Then, all of a sudden, they've ghosted everybody because they got overwhelmed, they shut down and they have fully burned out. We are trying to keep anybody that is listening, watching this today, from falling into that category of creators. Okay, are you with me, because we're about to get into this and these are going to be so much fun? I'm actually going to link to a ton of resources in the show notes. Whether you're watching the video or you're listening on the podcast, I have so much previous content that I'm going to reference, so make sure you check out the show notes for today's episode.

But let's dive in the first one batch recording content. I am so excited, so let's just talk about batching in general, because while batch recording is like the sexy, shiny thing that a lot of people talk about, not enough people talk about batching in the larger sense of how you create content. What do I mean by this? I mean that I'm a batch planner, I'm a batch editor, I'm a batch publisher, I'm a batch marketer, like all of the pieces, so not just the recording piece, but I batch as many things as I can together. And this is actually one of the things that I learned in the one thing back in the day, the first time I really read. It was all about the idea of task switching. So that means like going from recording an episode to planning another one, to writing emails to help promote it, to do like. All of these are very different creative parts of your brain that can easily get switched back and forth and you feel this push and this pull.

It's why it feels so freaking hard to sit down and plan an episode, record it, edit it, publish it and market it all in one fell swoop. Like that is our prep and method right Plan, record, edit, publish and market. It's what we talk about. Those are the five steps you have to go through to put out a piece of content. But if you're trying to do all of that in one sitting, it is freaking, exhausting.

And some of you this is how you're like. You're in survival mode. You're not thriving. You are surviving simply by doing all of these tasks in one fell swoop every single week. And then you're like that Tuesday or that Wednesday whatever day it is for you to record your next episode. It's no wonder that you're exhausted. You're looking at like maybe even time block that on your calendar and you're like, okay, I am gonna get better at this, I'm gonna record my episode this week and it's. You know it's gonna happen. You're like trying to psych yourself up to get excited about it, but the truth is you're like, geez, I gotta record another episode. This is exhausting. Every time I sit down to do this. Well, batching can help you just really alleviate all of that stress.

So when it comes to batching, the ways that I like to do it is I do love to batch plan, so I get in this creative space where I will set some time on the calendar. Maybe it's 30 minutes, maybe it's an hour, but I am just brain dumping ideas. You can do this in a Google doc. You can open up a sauna and do this. You can do the notes app on your phone. I don't care where you do this. You can do this on a whiteboard, a piece of paper, a scrap Kleenex that you found on the bottom floor of your office. I don't care where you do it.

But when you think about batch planning, I want you to plan multiple ideas at once. Maybe you sit down and plan All of a month, like the next month of the year, whatever, you're listening to this. You're gonna sit down and say, okay, I'm gonna put out maybe it's a podcast every single week. What is that topic going to be for that podcast? Not the whole thing. Okay, I didn't say you have to plan every single thing that you're gonna mention or write a script or do a full outline. What are the things that you're going to talk about in that one episode? Jot those down. And now you have batch planned for episodes. Maybe you want to throw in some bullets, like, I don't care, like, do whatever your heart desires, but At the end of the day you have batch plan to where. Now you're not gonna come back to your episode or back to, you know, your YouTube channel, sit down and say, okay, I'm supposed to record something today, what am I going to talk about? You're gonna sit down, record and say, okay, let's do this. And then that gives you the opportunity.

Once you've batch planned for episodes, the next time you have a chance to record, maybe you can batch record two of those. You have to do all four at once. What if you could do to? What if you had an hour to record and instead of just doing One episode and then you turn around and edit it right away and then you upload it to bus sprout and then you do all these other, what if, instead, you sat down and you recorded multiple episodes? You recorded to back to back To thirty minute episodes or two? Fifteen minute episodes are, I guess, for fifteen minute episodes. You could sit down and do that. But I want you to think about how you can add batching into your regular routine and then, once you have stuff recorded, if you have opportunity, I like to edit in the mornings when I don't really have to talk to anybody and I can just listen.

And that's when I will do a lot of my editing. So if I have Several episodes, you bet your bottom dollar I will put my audio recording like I put it on to X, like I listen to everything on to X speed whenever I'm editing. So I will listen back, cut out those big mistakes. Now I have taken what would have been just one thirty minute episode that I've edited at two X. It's now fifteen minute episode so I can listen to it. Fifteen minutes. Boom, it's edited, it's out, it's uploaded to bus sprout. Let's do the other one. Boom, edit, upload away. That's two weeks worth of work. It's already done. Of course I still gotta go through and do the marketing. Of course I need to write some copy that it's gonna go out on. But the hardest part is done the recording, the editing, like it is out there now.

I can do all the other things another day, but this is how I want you to start thinking about batch recording, batch planning, like all the different types of batching, because this is how you will get to love your content. This will talk to me like crystal. How do you genuinely love what you do, like you've been doing this for six years at this point. How do you still love it like I don't get it? I have this love, a relation to this push pull with my content, and I just have to tell them. I figured out systems and processes, and batching is one of them. So, like I said earlier, I have tons of resources on Batching your content that I want you to go check out from YouTube videos, podcast episodes, blog post. Go check out all those resources that will be so helpful for you to be more productive in twenty twenty four.

Now let's move on the next one Templated show notes. I love a template. I do not start my show notes from scratch. Whether it is what I'm planning in a sauna, like my actual outline of what I came here to say today, or it's what lives on my website or what lives on bus sprout those could all be different versions of how you define the word show notes, but the way that I see it is something that lives on your website. So I have a wordpress website, but if you have something that is Squarespace or a kajabi or wherever you're putting out your content, I want you to start from a template. You should not be going into whatever software you're using and clicking add new every single time and you're like, okay, I have to, you know, bold this and change this font and make this bigger and put a placeholder for no, no, no, no, no, no.

I've been working with someone on my team who is helping me extremely. Shout out to Mike. Mike, you are incredible. He has been helping me with all the different templates that I have on the back end, especially with the podcast, and what I tell him is look, I have two templates for any kind of show notes that need to go up for the profit podcast. One is for solo episodes, which is what I'm doing today, and the other is for interviews. Those are the only two types of templates, because those are the only kinds of podcast episodes that I do. It will either be a solo episode or an interview and, let's be honest, they're almost identical except at the bottom. For the interview episodes, there's a place for me to write a little blurb about my guest and have all of the links of the things that we mentioned. Are we talked about or something that they're promoting? But that's it like. It is a template, from how the header looks at the top to where I'm going to put the audio file to the different keywords on the back end that I'm getting, like it is a full blown template.

If you haven't done this, why aren't you doing this? Why aren't you doing this For your show notes, for your YouTube channel, for your email newsletters, maybe for your Instagram reels, like whatever? I want you to take a step back and say where can I make a template? And if you're like well, crystal, where do those live? I don't know. Like I'm trying to figure out my website, I'm trying to do this, put them in a Google Doc. Put everything in a Google Doc, like create something that is literally placeholders.

I'm a huge fan of brackets. So whenever let's say, for example, I'm doing a launch and I want to have you know written all these emails, I'm a huge fan of writing in like where I'll put the bracket and it says the word date, because I don't know what the date is. Maybe it's the cart close date, maybe it's the cart open date, maybe it's the this special thing expires on this one day. I don't know what that is. When I'm brainstorming the things, I just put the brackets and I write the word date. Or whenever I write my emails, I do the brackets and I write the word first, name or name, like take advantage of doing something so simple. You don't have to make it really complicated. So if all you have at your disposal is a Google Doc, then use that, but every time you go to create a brand new piece of content, do not start from scratch. No, no, no, no, no, no. You're going to start from a template.

I have so many templates, even built in Asana, like every single. I'm not creating a brand new Asana task. Every time I go to you know like, oh, I have to create a new podcast. No, I'm using a template, so use a template. And actually I want you to stick around to the end of this episode because I have something really extra special for you to be able to grab all of my Asana templates If you're listening to this in real time. So stick around. We'll talk about more templates that you can use. Like I said earlier, I'm going to link to some previous content that has templates, for, let me see, there's podcast show notes where I'm going to show you I walk you through. There's a specific video on YouTube where I walk you through how I create show notes. So if you don't have a template, go look and see what I do and then copy that. There you're welcome. I did all the hard work for you. And now a quick message from Marie Forleo.

If you're exhausted wearing all the hats in your business. Listen, running a business is hard, but it should not make you this miserable and exhausted. If you're on the edge of burnout, or even already there, there's a good chance you're making at least one of the three common mistakes that almost all high achievers make. I'm Marie Forleo and in my free class, I'll show you those three exact mistakes, plus the simple fixes you can use right away to earn more while working less. Sign up for free and watch it now.

Yes, I'm a strategic partner for Marie Forleo and her time genius program and I want you to go to this free training while it's available. So go to crystalprofitcom forward, slash productivity to sign up today. That's crystalprofitcom forward, slash productivity and leave those time management woes in the past and make sure that you are really going after your goals and dreams in 2024. That's crystalprofitcom forward, slash productivity. Okay, let's get back to today's episode. All right, so that's the second way for you to be more productive in 2024. The third is outsourcing. Outsourcing is going to be the word of the year around here. It's not my word of the year. We'll have to do another episode where I deep dive on why I chose my word of the year, but maybe it's profit. Media's word of the year is outsourcing, because this is a piece that I want you to embrace and people usually get a little like ooh, like clutching my pearls, like up in arms about outsourcing, and I don't mean go hire a team of people. Outsourcing could just mean hiring an app to do something or getting you know, like I think about Calendly. Scheduling interviews was the biggest pain in my you know what, whenever I got started with my podcast, I was literally doing all of this by email. I was like, hey, does Wednesday at 2 pm work for you? Oh, yeah, sure you'll ever respond to me, sure, tuesday. And then it was insanity going back and forth, because then I would realize, oh, that was the wrong time zone, or this didn't really translate to the right date, or, ooh, wednesday won't work for me. I need to do that on Friday. So I cut out that nonsense of trying to keep up with emails and all the different things. Like, no, callan Lee does that for me now. So when you think about outsourcing, think about what are all the tasks that I do. If you've never done this exercise before, sit down, write every single thing that you do in your content and this will help you in so, so many other ways. But write down all the things that you do. Then sit back and ask is there an app for that? Do you remember all those commercials? Back Like, there's an app for that. Like, literally think like there are apps that can do just about anything when it comes to your content.

And I want you to look through like, what's the priority thing that you absolutely don't want to do and it's within your budget to outsource that tool? Mine was Callan Lee. That was really one of the only tools I invested in. I've had Callan Lee since 2018. I've been using it that long and it's one of those things. It was the first thing that I was like I can't afford much, but I can't afford these headaches of going back and forth with people all the time. So see what you can outsource.

Another one is if you do want to hire someone. So I mentioned I have Mike on my team. We've been working on little things together that I can hand off, that I no longer need to do. What are some of the things in your content, your business, that you can hand off to someone else that they can do just as good of a job? Mike has been doing incredible with the podcast show notes. He's helped me with a lot of the spreadsheets and tracking metrics that happen with our launches, and it has been a game changer to know that those tasks are done and I can just kind of give that last QA, qc check Okay, this is great, let's publish it and that's all I have to do. It's given me brain space back to go after bigger sponsorships, to get more strategic with the launches and to just overall not feel so overwhelmed.

So if you are thinking about hiring someone or outsourcing tasks to a team member, absolutely jump on it. I actually have a fun affiliate program that it's going to be launching later this year where I'm going to help you if you're looking to hire someone. So stay tuned for that. That is coming up later in 2024 than I'm really really excited about. But the last thing that I think that you should consider outsourcing is Canva tasks. So if this is something like if you're using Canva and you're like I'm not that creative I don't do this really well, but I do it because it's what you're supposed to do in an online business Maybe that is something that a VA or an admin can help you really step up your game in some of those creative elements that you're just like I don't have an eye for this and not really good at it, well, why don't we outsource that to someone else? So outsourcing is the third thing that can help you be more productive in 2024 and really help you focus on the pieces of your content that only you can do. All right, if you have any questions, like you're listening to this right now, then I want you to drop it in the comments and if you're watching on YouTube or reach out on the podcast, like reach out in our Facebook group. We have this incredible community of creators where people are often asking ideas, throwing ideas around, and it's just such a great place to get feedback on your content. So join us in the profit podcast online community if you have not already.

But let's move on, because the fourth thing that we need to talk about is a calendar. I love a content calendar, like I don't know what it is, because I told you earlier, like at the very beginning of this episode, like I was a award winning procrastinator, like I was so good at procrastinating. I don't know what my love of a calendar is today. Maybe it was from becoming a mom, maybe it was from like juggling, like multiple different things in my life, but I love a calendar. I love it. I love it so much. I love a project plan. I love being able to see things very high level and like kind of stair step through, like okay, this is when something is due. How do we work backwards from this due date to where I am today and all the things that need to happen in the middle? I love a content calendar. I love a project plan, like I'm in the middle of an affiliate launch right now and I live and die by my calendars because they help me make sure that stuff gets done, like period the end, like full stop.

That is what a content calendar is for. It's to hold you accountable, because maybe you are a solopreneur, you're a solo creator. If you are just flying by the seat of your pants, that will only get you so far for so long, and I'm going to encourage you to get more organized. Maybe this is your year that's your word. This year is organized, or strategic or planning whatever word you want to use but I'm going to encourage you to figure out what a content calendar can look like for you. And, like I said earlier, I have some Asana templates that I'm going to be sharing later. That, I mean, would be a fantastic resource for you to be like.

I love Asana but I don't really know how to use it. You can go grab all of the templates that I have in Asana. I'm going to tell you about that in just a second. But I do have some resources for content calendars that you can use, videos that you can go watch. You can go see previous versions of how I've done content calendars in Asana and just a Google sheet. You could use a simple Google sheet to help you track what's coming up.

I like to do this by quarter. So my brain like that's how it thinks it thinks in quarters of the. I can handle three months at a time. Okay, I can't handle a full year. I can handle three months at a time and that's how I like to work in my different content calendar. So don't don't feel the pressure to plan all of 2024, all of 2025, like out in a con like that is overwhelming. To think about 12 or 24 months of content, that feels like a lot. But what if you just broke it down into a month? Like what are you doing in the next month? We did that exercise earlier. Write down four things that you can talk about. What day will that piece of content go live? Boom, no-transcript, I'm telling you, keep it super, super simple to begin with. You can get fancy and have all the other bells and whistles later.

All right, the fifth thing we need to talk about for you to be more productive in 2024, repurposing content. It is one of my favorite topics. I mean, if I'm being totally honest, all of these are my favorite topics. Like I couldn't just choose one. I love to talk about all of these, which is why they're in my five ways to be more productive in 2024. But repurposing is one of those that I became a master at in 2021. So I bought my husband and I it was a Black Friday deal this past year I got us a masterclass subscription and it's been great. We've been learning about gardening. I watched one it was Sarah Blakely's on entrepreneurship. I'm going to watch one on negotiations and home design and dog training Like there's so many different things. But if I were to teach like I thought about this like if I were to teach a masterclass for this organization, what would I teach? It would be repurposing content 100%. So in 2021, if you're new here and you haven't heard this story I published five podcast episodes every single week for one show, two podcast episodes for another show.

I posted daily on Instagram, a daily post in our Facebook group. I also did a weekly newsletter and I did three YouTube videos every single week. All of that, oh, like I mean, it was like 20 plus pieces of content every single week because I became the master at repurposing content. Now do I do this today? I absolutely do not. It was not sustainable for what I was doing, but I did that for a full year. I did. I did so much content in a year and it was incredible, and it was the baptism by fire of like, just, oh my gosh, what did I get myself into? But I created so much and it was that that gave me the skills to teach you how to repurpose content. I even have a program. I don't really promote it too much. It's called radical repurposing.

That I talk about a lot and it is one of those things that I just I fell in love with being able to promote content and being able to create something that you're so proud of, but it feels good to do it. I think that is like the dance in. Like the content marketing world is like how can I do this? How can I make it sustainable, how can I make it something that I love and how can I just really enjoy the process? Because there's so many creators that I've made. I'm actually going to look up something real fast. There's so many creators that I've made I've met.

That's what I meant to say. There's so many creators that I have met that you're just doing it. You're going through the motions and you don't really love it and that breaks my heart. It really does. It breaks my heart to know that you don't love it. It kills me because I love it. I love content. So people tell me like, oh, you know, like I do it because I have to, or I would rather be doing X, y, z, and I'm like, are you kidding me? I love this so much and I want you to love it. Like that's the little. I guess, that's like the cheerleader in me. I always tell people like I've been a cheerleader since I was four, like I want you to love what you do. That is my job as your coach, as your cheerleader, your motivational speaker. Like, however you see me, I want you to love what you do and repurposing can help you do that because it makes your job easier.

So if we go full circle, back up to batching, batching and repurposing can work hand in hand and those like that's the beautiful dance of really enjoying your content and being more productive in 2024. So one of the things let's do, a quick recap of all the things we covered today. So, number one to help you be more productive in 2024, batch recording. The second is start templating your show notes. The third is outsourcing. Well, let's go back to templating. If you can template anything like do everything please and thank you, it will make you such a happier person. So the third one is outsourcing. The fourth is your content calendar and the fifth is repurposing your content. So I have a bunch of stuff on repurposing your content that I want you to go check out because it will be so helpful. Oh, my gosh, like it's life changing and I know that sounds so dramatic and silly to say it is life changing when you can repurpose your content because you're working smarter and not harder.

But since we've been talking about being more productive, I want to make sure, if you're listening to this in real time, that you go check out Marie Forleo's masterclass that she has right now on productivity. It's the three sneaky mistakes that are killing your productivity and you're wasting time and it's eventually going to cut into your profits and all kinds of other stuff. So go to crystalprofitcom forward slash productivity to check out her masterclass. I've watched it multiple times. It is so good. The stories that Marie tells. She shares her personal life story, very, very personal I mean when I say personal. She's getting down to her lady bits and all the things that happened to her in 2020, and it is very inspiring what she has gone through. So if you need a motivational story, if you're down in the dumps and you're like I need to know that there's light on the other side of my time management mess or just feeling like you're overwhelmed with everything, go watch this just for Marie's personal story Again. Go to crystalprofitcom forward slash productivity to check it out.

But also, if you're listening to this in real time, marie is promoting her time genius program. So this is me circling back around to those Asana templates that I talked about. I'm giving you all of my content production templates in this training, but it's when you sign up for time genius with me. So I am a proud partner with Marie and I have been promoting all of. I've been promoting B school with her. I have been promoting time genius. I actually, if you're listening to this in real time, I just did an Instagram live with her that I'll have to make sure and link to because it was so much fun. But I am like I'm sold, like I've drank the Kool-Aid. I love everything that Marie does and the content production templates for time genius are the thing that I wish I would have had whenever I was getting started with content. So if you are looking for Asana templates like how do I set this up to be more productive and set myself up to be my own accountability buddy then the content production templates can be so helpful.

The other one is is that I created a masterclass on how I batch my content. So if you just want to know, crystal, how do you batch your content, you want this masterclass, which is another thing that you get when you sign up for time genius with me as well. Then, of course, I have my time management book bundle, which has the book that we talked about earlier today. So hopefully you didn't like pause this and go by the one thing when I told you about it, because I'm actually going to send to your house. I will send these to your house all of these books that have helped me really get my time management under control and be more productive. So here they are.

The first one is the one thing, because I, like I said, it's my favorite. The next one is Atomic Habits by James Clear Super incredible. I'm also going to send you Essentialism by Ewan McGowan, and then Stolen Focus by Johann Hari and I'm going to send you my favorite planner. Yes, this is the planner that I use all the time. It is actually a six month undated planner, so no matter when you're listening to this, you could go grab it and start using it today, and it is the one that has helped me get more out of every single day. So if you're interested in time genius, go to crystalprofitcom forward slash time to learn all about the affiliate rewards that you get whenever you join Marie's program with me. It does close on January 19th, so don't miss out. Don't miss this.

I don't know when the doors are going to open again in 2024, but if you want to start the new year like new year, new me, and you want to be more productive and have more strategic handle on how you manage your time, go to crystalprofitcom forward slash time. But that's all I have for you today. Like this was value packed, jam packed. I hope that the number one thing that you walk away with today is knowing that you can be more productive in 2024. Maybe you just need the right tools, the right resources, maybe a guide to help you get there, but you can do it. You can do it. You can be more productive this year and make so many incredible pieces of content, make such a bigger impact with the message that you want to share, and I would love to help you do it, but that's all I have. So this is your first time tuning in. Make sure you are subscribed or following wherever you're watching and listening and, as always, remember, keep it up. We all have to start somewhere.