Excellent. Well, everybody is, I know, filing in, but we have a good amount to cover today.

So, you should have today, part two of you are a media brand. This one is on publishing and promoting.

So publishing and promoting media, it’s basically a better word than content, which can sound quite dull.

Media shouldn’t be dull. It’s gotta entertain and engage and do all of those things. But that’s what this is about today. We’re gonna focus on LinkedIn, not because it’s the thing that you should use, but because so many people when I say use Instagram, they’re like, can I just use LinkedIn?

Fine. So I’m giving in, but this is also a good thing for you to apply to Instagram, and anywhere else that you might be well, you’re creating your content for you, but then there’s the question of where are you publishing it and where are you promoting it.

We are going to have Ross Simmons in in April. More on that soon. I wanted him in this month to talk about repurposing content or media, but he won’t be able to come in until April. So just know that we’ll be talking about repurposing a good amount over the next few weeks. And it’s something that if you’re watching this and you think, oh, I

have to, you know, there’s some oh, yeah. I have to create that to create that. I hope if you have content creation or media creation on your calendar, you also have at least the same size work block for content promotion.

You probably already have everything you need to really build your brand saved on a drive somewhere. So let’s spend less time rattling off making stuff and more time just promoting the really good shit you’ve already got. That doesn’t mean you don’t have to create anything new, especially if what you have is not on brand for what you’re doing now. But we’ll get into that. Okay. So I’m going to share my screen, and then we’ll get.

Share. Good. Excellent. So you already have a copy of this. Also, I believe that Sarah sent out a copy of the homework you have that you need to do this Thursday or Friday. It’s a work block. It’s in your calendar already, the Copy School Pro calendar.

We’ll talk about it at the end of today’s session, but just know that there’s more to do this week. So you got a you got a heavy week. Last week, you did this sheet. If you didn’t do this, you will struggle with what follows. So you will need this sheet from boldly week that was be bold boldly.

Say bold things boldly.

Okay. So you need to have completed this.

If you haven’t, you have to go complete it. Go do this right after the session so that you can do everything else that follows. Okay? So this is this one shown here is from last week.

Alright.

Today, we have I want us to go through and complete this and really start identifying what’s getting in the way, because sometimes what’s getting in the way of getting your voice out there, getting your name out there is just that you don’t know what your voice is. You don’t know what you’re here to say, and so that’s what last week was about. Like, let’s start nailing down what you’re going to really lean into for your brand, for what you talk about.

Then the question is, alright. What else is getting in the way? So if you’ve already got that stuff sort of sort of figured out, it might just be, oh, well, now I just have to go do it. Okay. Fine.

But there’s usually a whole bunch to it. Hold on. I see chats coming. I just wanna make sure that I’m not missing anything critical.

Oh, yeah. If, Sarah, can you chat out the link to the PDF Yeah.

For this You got it.

I’m just grabbing it right now.

Gotcha. Thanks so much. Okay.

So what I would like you to do is go through and fill in the next two sheets, not fill in the solution. Just go through and put a check on any of these things that are true for you. So what I want you to do is, basically, we’re gonna do, like, a quick look at constraints, what’s getting in the way. So page one is creating and publishing LinkedIn posts.

If it’s Instagram, then sub that in if you’re not doing LinkedIn. Don’t waste this. Say, oh, I don’t do LinkedIn. I’m not doing anything today.

No. Then do Instagram or do whatever the hell else you’re doing. If it’s YouTube, whatever it is.

But go through first and check off, which of these are the challenges. You don’t have to fill in the solution

yet. We’ll we’ll try to get through a bunch of those today.

But we wanna do that on page on this page as well as on the next page. This is technically page three and page four. Those are the only two, and then just stop. Now if you’re like, woah.

It’s everything, and you check off all of them, well, that’s gonna be really hard to address. So if you’re finding that you’re going through so read through them first and then choose a maximum of five.

Just five on this page and five on this page, and make them the really critical stuff that you know is really getting in the way.

So, for example, what is getting in the way of you creating and publishing LinkedIn posts? I don’t know what to talk about specifically. Sometimes that’s true. But could that be pretty easily solved if you just, like, sat down and put a work block in to, like, figure that thing out? Maybe. And then other ones might be a bit more dramatic for you.

Oh, no. Other copywriters are the only people who react to my LinkedIn post. That could have a lot to do with you don’t know what to talk about specifically. So you’d wanna choose between those two so that you’re not just, like, dumping every possible problem on your lap, and then, like, now you have this whole giant undertaking of figuring out LinkedIn. So just just go with five. Okay?

Per page, you’ve got it’s an it’s a quick assessment. Let’s just do until three, ten after the hour. So kinda whole last through.

Okay.

If you have questions, let me know.

No solution yet. Just check off if the problem is true for you.

I know there’s okay. Good. Perfect.

Okay. Did anybody have to limit themselves to five as they went through, or were you were you okay? Yeah? A little bit of limiting?

That’s cool. That’s fine. That’s fair. This is like nobody is repurposing and promoting. So it’s totally fair if, if you had a lot of a lot of checks here.

Now we’re not gonna dive into the solution yet, and it’s not that there is a single solution. You already surely, when you look at this and you go, oh, it’s other people already saying what I say or would say, a solution, you can come up with that. Say something different. Say it differently than other people are saying it, or don’t worry what other people are saying and just start saying the thing that you need to say.

So we don’t have to get too precious about finding the most perfect solution. You really just have to first identify, okay. These are the biggest things that are getting in the way.

Now does anybody want to ask a question or share a thought about any of the points that you checked off on either of these, such as, hey. I have no fresh ideas. What the hell do I do? Or anything like that.

No? Not yet? Andrew, you do?

Yeah. I have I have a question about the the other copywriters. They’re the only ones who react to my LinkedIn posts.

I I was just wondering I don’t know if this is the right time for it, but, like, I often think about, like, that I’m making the content I’m making seems very applicable to other copywriters. And, like, how do I go up a level to the things that the people who hire copywriters are thinking about and care about?

So Yeah.

I think that’s a really good, observation and, you know, challenge.

What seems to be true, and I’d love others’ thoughts on this as well, but what seems to be true for us is the less love that a post gets, the better it is for actual quality leads. So if you’re saying something that everybody loves, you’re getting a lot of engagement with, then it’s not as good. So we were posting about solution designs two weeks ago knowing the average beginner copywriter will never give a shit about this. They don’t care, and that’s good.

Did we get a lot of love on them? Nope. But did we get some pretty cool leads and contacts out of it? Yep.

The right kinds.

So say more boring things. Just say it in a bold, nonboring way. I would say, yeah. That’s a starting point. That’s what we’re seeing. It doesn’t mean it’s the answer, but it’s an answer.

Yeah. Yeah.

Cool. Jess?

Yeah. One of the things or, actually, I think two of the things kinda go hand in hand for me is, like, posting to the sound of crickets and I think specifically on LinkedIn because I am just starting to get into it, so I don’t really have a lot of, like, people on there.

But that kinda goes hand in hand with, like, I don’t wanna publish crap and contribute to the LinkedIn landfill.

Like, when I go on and I see some of the stuff that has so much, like, engagement that I’m like I’m like, what? It like, is this even adding anything? And then, yeah, I just, like, I find myself kinda spiraling when I’m on there, and then I just wanna, like, hide away.

Yeah. Yeah. I get that. Others are nodding as well.

So okay. Do you find also, Jess, that it’s copywriters that react to your stuff or your ICP?

Copywriters and not my ICP. Definitely not my ICP. Like, people who, you know, I went to college with, which, like, I went to college to be a massage therapist. So it’s like you know what I mean? Like, people like that. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

So one of the things that I often wonder is, and that I’ve found helpful is, when other people get a say in your business.

So other people are posting about things you wanna post about, and you’re just gonna let them be the only ones posting about that thing. So to me, I’m like, they don’t get to tell me what I’m gonna post about. Let them post whatever stupid bullshit they wanna post whether they think it’s good or not. I know that I’m really good at what I do, and I’m going to post what I wanna post. And if it’s already been said, well, it hasn’t been said by me yet, so I’m going to see it. And I feel like that’s part of the thing where you, like, have I don’t know.

I don’t like to think of other people making my business decisions. And if it’s just that someone else is already saying it, if they’re saying it crappy, then perfect because you’re not going to say it crappy. Like, you’re gonna make it good.

And then if they’re saying it well, great. Then you’ve already had validation of a sort that it’s a message possibly worth putting out there unless you’re seeing that they’re not getting engagement, then you’re like, cool. Now I’ve seen that I shouldn’t publish that, or maybe they are behind the scenes getting interesting, engagement from the right audience.

But we all know that one of the biggest things that’s holding everybody here back is, oh, no. There’s so much crap out there. I can’t possibly participate.

Meanwhile, it’s like what’s that? Idiocracy?

That show do you remember that movie Idiocracy?

Yeah. But I’m not saying it’s the LinkedIn is filled with idiots. I think it’s just it’s an example of, woah. You let all the wrong people do all the talking, and then all the wrong people do all the talking.

So you better, like, find a way in is a take on it. Yeah. Just start saying things. They don’t get to tell you not to say things just because they’re posting shit.

Yeah. Claire?

This isn’t really related to all of the things here, but it somehow is a bit. But, I I’ve started to struggle with the format with, like, the highly repeatable social media format for videos and for text posts.

Because now when I when I go on to LinkedIn, I know and I know that until I’m, like, at five thousand followers, I have to comment. I have to add people, and that’s how you grow. Mhmm. Because that’s tons of people have told me, and I I’ve seen it work. We’re, like, in the beginning, but I I can’t stomach commenting on other people’s posts because I’m like, oh, look. An emoji. Everything is broken up line by line.

But I do the same thing.

So you you don’t wanna comment on the post because you don’t like the format of the post or you or what?

No. It’s just more like if it starts to feel the more obvious the formatting, the more I feel like, oh, this is just another marketing sales thing, not something worth reading.

Okay.

Does that make sense?

You have a higher expectation of what people should engage with.

Perhaps I’m just, like, a bit upset that people do engage with it.

I know.

And how like, what’s the good in that?

I I I hear you, Claire. Don’t get me wrong. Yeah. I know. I while they’re growing their businesses.

Yeah. I hear my I hear myself. I just wish I didn’t feel like, ugh, I’m writing marketing stuff every time I started. You know?

How can you stop feeling that way?

I do a do a do if it’s something that you stop feeling.

How do you get past it?

Pull up pull up your boots, icebox.

Just, like, shut up.

Put on your big girl hot and you’re like, move forward.

This is me building my business.

This is what biz dev needs, so this is what I’m gonna do. It doesn’t mean you have to, like, succumb to all the crap you don’t like, but you’re in experimentation. What if you tried an experiment where you post that way for a month and see if it works?

It’s like Okay. Give it the thirty day cookie and move on.

Oh, Katie has a reframe for you. My ICP will be so happy to read some refreshing content. That’s actually good.

Yeah. That’s the difference here. Right? Like, we’re not talking this room isn’t filled with people who are bullshit artists.

So you already are more likely to make good stuff.

So what if it has to be formatted in a crappy way, or what if it looks like, you know, bro marketing or something? Because it’s not.

And then, Andrew, you have a post a comment. What if each post was designed with a specific person in mind? You just tried to make something that genuinely helps them. Yeah.

Yeah. If it’s getting in the way of your business, then you you gotta stop it, which is like, woah. That was obvious time, but, like, yeah.

Kind of. I know for a fact I have done and written and said things where I’m like, alright. Because for me, when I was starting out and building my business, it was whatever Google wanted. Whatever Google wanted, you had to do it exactly as and that was, like, fatiguing. I don’t wanna write for this nonsense. That’s not the right way to do it, but you have to. Okay.

So let’s move on.

Okay. I do want you to think about it this way. So I know that as business owners, we, quote, unquote, wear a lot of hats, obviously.

One of those is we’re our own content strategist, and so we have to be like, give ourselves performance reviews every so often for the different roles that we’re in. How are you doing as your own content strategist?

If you’re like, well, I didn’t get a chance to do my job this quarter, full stop, then that content strategist gets fired. Right? Like, there’s no two ways around it. So what is your content strategist, you, doing, and how do you coach them to be better? And that’s, like, self coaching. Then we talk about it here, of course, but it will come down to you sitting and staring at your screen being your content strategist.

Okay. So there is so much out there right now, like, really recent new insights into how to use LinkedIn well.

This actually, this blog post on Hootsuite was surprisingly useful.

I’ve found it useful. You may find it useful.

Just one second.

This sucks. Construction day is no joke. Okay. Alright. So you’ve had these ideas in front of you to remove constraints.

What can we do? So we wanna go back and look through your solution, the little parts that say solution, and start solving those constraints. So Zoom is being weird.

What does your schedule look like? Does anybody have a schedule right now for creating media every month?

Great. What does it look like? Does anybody wanna share what theirs looks like if you have one? You don’t have to show it.

But, like, what are you doing to make sure that you are creating media? Because we’re also gonna talk about promoting it. How what are you doing? What’s on your list?

What happens? How does it happen?

Claire, you nodded when I said, do you have a schedule? Do you wanna share how you get your sleep?

On Friday? Okay. So this schedule doesn’t work every week because some weeks I get overwhelmed, and then it’s like a bit of a bust.

But it’s not a bust if on Friday, I write the scripts or the ideas.

And then on Monday, I go and implement on those ideas.

So the long part for me is is writing. So, yeah, if that’s done on Friday, then on Monday, I can check the writing, film a quick video, which honestly takes no more than six minutes, edit the video, which weirdly takes an hour, and then pull up a quick post. I’ve recently switched it up by adding newsletter to this list of things to do, which, like, adds a ridiculous amount of time. So I’m trying to figure out how that newsletter, which is more of a blog, can be the core content for the video so that I spend my time on Friday writing the newsletter, and that’s, like, the core. But I found that blocking off half of Friday and all of Monday is the only way I get it done.

Okay. So half of Friday and all of Monday. Yeah. And how much do you produce? How many assets?

At least two videos, and one newsletter. And each newsletter has to have a LinkedIn post. Each video has to have a LinkedIn post. I’d given up on Twitter.

So now it’s just getting published to YouTube and, LinkedIn.

And I would like to add, a long form once every two weeks, but I found that my biggest barrier to that is, like, eloquence.

Just having the confidence to talk naturally and, like, in a flow reduces the amount of editing you have to do. So that six minutes just becomes six minutes of content rather than, like, an hour of editing.

Totally. Okay. So big undertaking. You said not every week. What happens on those weeks when it doesn’t get done?

Okay. Well, this week was interesting. So I had recorded videos last Monday, two videos, and then totally ran out of steam, like, completely. Just couldn’t face editing them.

So this Monday, I edited them and wrote a newsletter.

Yeah.

And, yeah, have scheduled them. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Done it. Yeah. Stuff gets in the way, then you get back to it. Great.

Thank you so much.

Yeah. Yeah. That’s good. A little forgiveness too. You’re doing a lot.

Yeah. We I yeah. Content creation is a huge part of my week too, and you don’t see a lot of the results really quickly. Right?

You don’t even see a product, very quickly. But there it is. Anybody else? Is everybody spending at least one and a half days a week on media?

No. Getting some no’s.

One day a week ish?

If it’s divided into two hours here, one hour there, two hours there, it’s not really gonna produce that much. Right?

Okay. Zero days a week right now says Johnson. Well, then at least we’ve identified a constraint.

Right? So there, a big constraint to growth is nobody knows you’re out there doing anything.

So, Katie says one day plus a lot of messing around.

Great. Andrew’s putting two and a half two half days in your calendar right now. Yeah.

Okay.

Other things to do. So make sure that you have a repeatable schedule. So most of what we do that’s gonna make us successful as business owners is just repeat, repeat, repeat, and do it in a habit building kind of way, which requires that you put it in your calendar.

That’s why I have asked people to share screenshots of their calendars because that shows what your priorities are. And if it’s not in there, it’s not a priority.

So we gotta make a schedule, and, ideally, I recommend that you do a month’s worth of content all upfront.

So I very reluctantly filmed our LinkedIn videos in one morning. It was two hours with a videographer and then handed all the editing off to that person. It’s not as expensive as many people think it is, to get the whole thing done.

Yeah. It’s a but you have to do it, And then that turns into a month worth of content.

Claire, do you have a question about that?

Yeah. Do you script your videos? Yeah. Yeah. Start to finish? Like, no. Wow.

Yep. I then you just read it.

Then it’s done.

But that’s for that’s when I hire someone to record me and then produce it. I do have more coming up now that are, like, more how to videos, and those are less scripted and more talking points. Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay. Lizel says, is it one month’s worth of content planned one day and then create another due to all at once? Yeah. I like to so I have in my calendar planning it on one day and then scripting on another day, which usually turns into two days because I know that I will run out of steam.

And, because I also know that sometimes I’m just I can’t push through and so fine, then there’s a backup for what I need to do with that block of time in case I don’t do it. But there’s always at least two work blocks for scripting, and I just try to haul us through them. They really they can be quite short. Right?

Like, these do not have to be really long scripts, so, like, don’t overthink it, especially when you’re just trying to get, like, get the wheels moving.

It doesn’t have to be really, really long, and then film it all at once and then walk away from it. And I film in the morning so that I have energy. You should film at the time of day that you have energy to do it. So try to work block around that.

So there’s this theory that I’m thrilled to announce posts are both horrible and awesome, so it can be worth trying to do. And I’m thrilled to announce so and so just became a client. I’m thrilled to announce I’ve just launched my newsletter, whatever that might be.

Try it out. And these are, again, ideas to remove those constraints or, like, solutions to put in above. Create sub blocks for your work work blocks. That’s more of what I’m saying right here.

That’s what that’s what I do, and it helps. I don’t do repurpose with AI, though. I don’t use AI as much as I ought to. Comment on other people’s posts.

This one’s a biggie. Repost other people’s posts.

Commenting, you might get fifty eight and you don’t pay attention. A lot of them are bots. Reposts are very rare, and I know for me, I look to see who reposts because you might get four, five, six. That’s a small group of people who are really amplifying your message.

So if you want to get on the radar of your ICP, a persona that you’re targeting, repost their stuff instead of just commenting on it. And then it acts as content that you’ve created too. Right? It’s not yours, but you repost with your message above it, and now you’ve got more that’s going out into into LinkedIn.

Obviously, if you’re scheduling, I like to use Sprout Social. That’s because we’ve been grandfathered in I know it’s a bad term. With free Sprout Social since they were clients of ours a few years back, and I’m not leaving because I like saving money where you can. So there you have it.

Nice. That’s awesome, Claire. Exactly.

Set a reminder on your phone. Okay. This is the have you heard of the golden hour on LinkedIn?

The golden hour, if you’re not using it, it is what gets people ahead. And I that’s I have good friends who swear by the golden hour and now have they get six hundred likes engagement, whatever, on every post they have. They get tons of comments. It’s just like it blows up, and that’s because they followed the golden hour rule, which is basically as soon as your post goes live if you don’t make it live and you don’t know, make sure you set a reminder on your phone. Again, if you’re using Sprout Social or another scheduling tool, to post on LinkedIn or Instagram or wherever, I know that the golden hour is particularly for LinkedIn.

You need to be engaging quickly. That includes pinging people that you know, texting your friends, and saying, like, hey. Can you go over here and please engage with this properly engage with it? Like, leave a comment. Say something here.

And if you’ve included anybody in it, then making sure that you not just tag them in the post, but reach out directly to them and say, hey. That’s this is the post I was telling you I was going to do. Can you go comment on it, or can you repost it or whatever that thing might be? And don’t be afraid to ask.

You’re in biz dev. Ask someone important to repost your post if you believe it will help that grow, and it has to happen in those first sixty minutes.

So make sure that you’re doing that.

That can also be a solution. Right? So we’re talking about solutions now to those problems.

Using a this is not one that I’ve tried. This is one that I saw out there. I think it was on Reddit or something. So this is also a list for us, by the way. Use AI to find snippets in your meeting recordings like these recordings, and then you can go and talk about it afterwards. Measure and optimize, obviously, document and analyze how you crafted each post, track it. This is a note that’s pasted directly from my notes.

That’s why the capitalization is off because that was a note to self that I pasted in here. Make sure you are always tracking time of day, ease, difficulty of subject, and hook.

Final post of each month can be if you don’t know what to post about it, that is a constraint for you. Final post each month can be an analysis post of what you did on LinkedIn. It’s not going to necessarily be right for your ICP, but it keeps LinkedIn saying, oh, this person’s engaged, and people like those posts. So if you don’t know what to post and it’s the end of the month, post a recap of what you did and how it worked. Again, this is not gonna get you clients necessarily, but it might help LinkedIn better see that you are somebody who post things that are interesting to people.

Try broad versus narrow hashtags and then document what you’ve learned. There’s different schools of thought, different camps. Just try different things and see what works for you. But, again, we are all people who are in experimentation.

If you don’t write it down and identify what worked and what didn’t work and why you believe that’s true, it’s not a very good experiment. Like, you’re not that’s not good. So make sure you’re always documenting, degrees of tone. So if last week when you came up with what you’re going to say boldly, the bold thing said boldly, try a different tone, but then really push it.

Like, really try it. If there’s something that you hate that other people are doing, try it too. You might cringe and not like it very much for yourself. It’s one post.

You can replace it with others. More will come ahead of it. Don’t worry. Your ICP isn’t necessarily going to read through all of your posts from the last three years, so don’t worry too much about it.

And, of course, become obsessed with the LinkedIn algorithm. Does anybody have any other notes on what has worked for them on LinkedIn in getting engagement?

Anything you want to share with your fellow entrepreneurs?

No one.

I have one thing.

Claire, thank you.

So I added people like, connected with people, CMOs specifically, with the message like, hey. I see we’re in into the same kind of marketing stuff that I’d follow along.

And I got, like, lots of connections through that. And I think that through that, I got my one and only lead off Oh.

LinkedIn. Someone my post was pushed to them because I probably connected with them. Yeah. But yeah.

Okay.

Great. Thanks.

Anyone else?

Okay. So if no one has any notes, is LinkedIn what is LinkedIn doing for your business right now? Does anybody have any takeaways on what LinkedIn and that could be, I haven’t figured it out. It sucks. Liezl?

Yeah. So last week, I was posting a well, I posted a lot, commented a lot, and DM ed a lot.

And what I was surprised to find out is that while, yes, the people engaging on my post were people who were, like family and friends or, you know, whatever, the people who were viewing my posts and going to my profile were actually my ICP.

And they were following me even if they weren’t connecting with me. So I have a lot of followers of people who I actually want or was looking to pitch for my workshop or, you know, wanting to partner with. And now they are following me, and they do see the posts. So that was something that was really cool.

Okay. Nice. Great.

Okay.

Cody?

I think just being on there in general, helps just because, like, I had that one, cofounder reach out to me because I connected with him. He didn’t necessarily come for my for my content, but he did like, I connected with him, and he was like, oh, she helps with the thing that we might need help with. Right? So just by just being on there, I think, is important.

So my content hasn’t done, like, amazing. I mean, it gets engagement.

But as far as bringing in leads, it doesn’t bring in a lot of leads. So I think the way that I’ve got the most leads is just by just being there.

Yeah. Totally. Awesome. So another vote for just just show up. Just keep showing up. Keep doing the thing. Jessica?

I was just gonna share last I think it was last week, I posted something in reaction, which is how I do social media. I see something, and then if I feel really reactive about something, I’ll post about it. So I saw a post about why should we post at this point, you know, especially Americans, it kinda feels. So I posted about that. And as it turned out someone and I haven’t posted in forever.

I got a lead, and while the lead was not an ideal client whatsoever, it was interesting because he kind of confirmed something I’ve been kinda debating in my mind and Abby’s been coaching me on. So it kind of was like another just another, oh, yeah. Maybe I do need to explore that offer at some point. And then he also pointed out something on my LinkedIn profile that stood out to him that was also reiterated.

I like, other people had mentioned it, and I was sitting there going, okay. How can I maybe optimize my website more for that point? Because it seems to be an important Joe, basically, he was like, oh, I saw you were the head of cop publishing for copy hackers, and other people have noted that. And I was like, oh, maybe I need to lean on that a little bit more.

I guess I don’t lead with that very often.

Yeah. Nice. Good. So you’ve got good VOC that’s helping you actually modify how you’re not necessarily positioned, but one of your primary messages.

Yeah. Exactly.

Dig it. Love it.

Claire says it’s building her credibility.

Awesome. So I’m imagining based on the fact that causing stress got some laughs, that you have quite a lot of we all there’s lots of work to do here. So what I’d like you to do now is for the five things, Max, that you checked off on each of these lists, go back and quickly come up with a solution. Just come up with the damn thing. You knowing it’s it’s a decent guess, ideally informed by these ideas, but also just this conversation.

And and if you can’t come up with a solution, then circle that, and we can talk about it.

Awesome.

Johnson just posted a giant list of insights.

Cool. Alright. I’m gonna give you, five minutes or well, at quarter two, we will pause or we’ll we’ll stop the work of billing and solutions.

Okay. So that is time. You may not have all of the solutions in place. That’s okay.

But you need to. So what I would love you to do, please, I’m sure you’re already living in your calendar. If you’re not, you will get there.

I wanted to show you what my work blocks look like for a week. I think that it is very important to if you’re gonna get this stuff done, you gotta make sure it’s a priority or else everything else becomes a priority.

So this is my this is an example of one week. I think this was in February or something.

And, this is how I block my week out. So for me, I’ve got daily team meetings almost daily, and those are less and less like, those are, like, twenty minutes of just, like, let’s check-in first thing in the morning to make sure, like, we’re good to go. Mondays, there’s a four hour block for, social posts.

If it’s not a block, also, it doesn’t get done.

I have had people say, Joe, when are you gonna get this thing to me?

And I’m like, that’s in my calendar for an hour in three weeks. So you it’ll be done. After that hour is up in three weeks. And no sooner. We can’t move things around just because.

So, every Tuesday, one to hour block for new initiatives, and that really usually looks like our podcast or our newsletter, and sometimes also for the copywriter skills assessment, which is the new thing that we’ve, created.

Wednesday is writing day. That is for a big book project that I have. Thursday, more writing. Saturday is also more writing. Sunday is generally more writing as well, but that’s typically when the newsletter gets done too.

And every Friday is a block to work on emails and automations. And then there’s room in between those things for other stuff. It doesn’t turn into a lot of room, but that’s when other stuff happens. So, yep. That’s meetings happen around that, copy reviews, everything else happens around that.

I clear my inbox after hours, usually on my phone, sometimes on my laptop, on my lap while playing ball with Grover.

Weekends are some big swing stuff, and, I do like my job quite a bit. So when it’s the holidays and I don’t have anything else to do, I will very likely be working on something here. But I think what’s critical is unless my calendar says I’m allowed to do the thing, I don’t I don’t do the thing. And some people have VAs to tell them to do this stuff.

I think that calendar does a very, very good job of that. So what I would love you to do is block out time. Andrew, well done. You already said that you have blocked out time now for content creation and promotion each week.

What does that look like? And I know that work life balance is a big thing. So that’s obviously always underlying every conversation we have. Then there’s the other part about making money and building your brand and how that often doesn’t get to happen from nine to five.

So when else can you get stuff done if your current calendar doesn’t allow for you to write a book during the week? It’s gotta be on the weekend then. When do you have time on the weekend? Like, work block everything.

I have my eyebrow appointment in my calendar for work because it will affect my writing time, and then it makes me mad to have to go get my eyebrows done. Alright.

So remember all of those things. And what I want to leave you with is thinking through and giving yourself a real rating. You don’t have to do this now. This is what you need to go and do afterward.

Really think about where you’re at with your book, analyze, walk yourself through it, where you’re at with your newsletter, where you’re at with your podcast or YouTube channel, whatever that other thing is that you’re working on, and if there’s something else that maybe isn’t doesn’t fit into any of these. You’re gonna do a TV series. I don’t know, but whatever that thing is that you’re built.

Oh, I thought someone was playing the saxophone.

Don’t worry about it. It’s a real Monday here at Bios.

And then how is your lead gen going? So where are you at with your workshop? With your workshop funnel, with strategic partners, have you pitched anybody?

And your authority on LinkedIn and or Instagram?

So do you need help, or you’re doing great? And then if it’s I need help, then it’s time to get really, like, intentional with that. If you need help, you need help, and that means there’s gotta be a prioritization that happens. And it can’t always be, oh, I just won’t do that work.

Because then months go by and you haven’t done that work, and the leads are all gone. The leads come in from this work that we are talking about here. This is how they find you. So you have got to prioritize doing it.

And I know I know that it can be a big, it can feel like a big expense to hire someone to do this stuff for you. It is rarely the expense that we tell ourselves it’s going to be. There are a lot of people who need work and don’t charge the rates that you might imagine they would. So go find freelancers to help you with this stuff.

Alright.

That is it for today.

For the training side of it, we can break and have questions now. The usual, put up your hand, start with the win.

Today, it will be, what’s your win, and then we’ll go from there.

The we’re scheduled for forty more minutes, so we’ve got time for questions. But if you have to leave because you’ve got a good blocked calendar and you don’t have time after this, then well done.

Awesome. Let’s get cracking. Jessica, you’re up first. What is your win?

Does this still have to be money? I can’t remember. Sorry.

Just a win that’s, like, a real win, not like a sad win. Like, oh, it showed up. Like, okay. Good. But, like, what’s a win win, though? Like, something winning?

I mean okay.

I’ll I’ll try. I got feedback from my so I’m doing that book doctoring service where, you know, it’s kind of a mix of ghost writing and editing. Someone already had a manuscript drafted.

I delivered that to my client Friday. She reviewed over the weekend, and she emailed me and was like, I love this book. It’s so amazing. You know, whatever. And I honestly was like I was like, wow. I’m emotional, and it’s not even my book. So I was really excited about that.

That’s a great win, Jessica.

Well, it wasn’t it I mean, it’s money ish. She’s a paying client. But so yeah. Perfect.

Okay. So this is kind of still along the content thing, though. So when I asked you, in our one to one about, like, my you know, you had told me to fill fill out the org chart and seeing all the different services that potentially my agency could offer. I guess where I I struggle also with this content thing is, right now, I’m not doing what I think would be my standardized offer for sure in terms of, look. I’ll help you sell your book more. And but right now, I could write at least twenty thousand words about what book doctoring is, how to do it, how to do it with your you know?

And I could promote that, but do I want to? It’s like, I think I’m struggling with if I had one standardized offer, okay, I can reverse engineer the social and the content for that. But because I’m not focusing on one clear service just yet, I guess I’m I’m struggling to know what to promote and even the content to create.

So you could write twenty thousand words right now on book doctoring. Do you believe that that content would get in front of the people who want to sell more of their books?

No. No. No. No. Yeah.

So you don’t think it would get there at all?

I mean, I guess I’d have to think it through a little bit more, but maybe. But I think the book doctoring thing is more like it’s hitting on that pinpoint of, is this book any good? What if I publish a book and it sucks? Or, you know, it’s not written as well. I think I’m hitting more on that pain point with that service than I am with selling, which, I mean, yes. A quality book sells. Don’t get me wrong.

But, yeah, I think that, you know, to me, if we know that we’re trying very often to wake people up to the problem with our content, so that they reach out to us, which part of of book doctoring would open that loop that only your service could close.

So it feels to me like there’s something there. Right? Like, it’ll get in front of people and start them down a path of seeing your name in their feed more and more often.

And even if they only know you up front as the the book person, what I’m worried about is waiting for the act like, the perfect content, and now you start saying something.

I’d rather you not wait for the perfect. I’d rather you just, like, start putting stuff out there right now because you have a block in your calendar, and it says you have to write and publish something, and so that’s what you’re gonna do. So just push push those twenty thousand words out, however that comes out, and then see what that frees up in your mind or exposes in your mind for the next thing to say, even if it’s not going to get you the perfect leads right now. Will it get you on some radars?

Maybe. Now if you’re like, but I don’t want people to come to me for book doctoring services.

Do you have book doctoring on that org chart?

Yes.

Good. Okay. So then you do kind of want them to come to you because down the road and now, you could start making money on it. Right?

Like, it is part of your plan. Yes. So cool. Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay. I’m, as per usual, way overthinking.

Okay. Thank you. Good. That’s good. We talk through these things. Awesome. Thanks. Awesome. No. Great.

Claire, what’s your win?

My win is that I have been trying to hire a social well, I’m not a social person. A VA for well, since, you know, like, last year.

Okay. What’s the win there?

That I finally my my stepsister was like, I really need to find something to fill my time. And I was like, you know what?

Oh, I already found it.

It’s close to a win.

Yeah. So she’s doing great. She’s Good.

I already actually know her that well.

So she’s kind of felt, but okay. Alright. Distant family.

So it’s Okay.

But, Nice. Good. Thank you. Well, I feel like the universe conspired.

My question is go back to your calendar. So I wanted to ask you about how to be more strict with your first, how to be more strict, and second, when do you take breaks? Because I know that sitting down for eight hours is bad for the back.

Yes. How do you structure those?

But I have the app that tells me to stand, and I follow-up.

Yeah. So it’s time to stand, and then I get to close a circle, close a ring.

But that’s like and I have a standing desk. I don’t use it, though, very well because I don’t use stand up.

I don’t like typing on a standing desk. Things wobble. I get motion sickness really, really easily, and that actually does it for me. And then I have to lay down for a while, which sucks.

So I don’t like to use my standing desk, but I do just follow the rule of stand. I have my dog walk, blocked out, and I do the dog walk because it’s in my calendar. And if they wanna go sooner, I’m sorry. We’re going when it’s when it’s blocked.

Yeah. Block it. If you’re not standing, put a work block in that says, like, it’s a ten minute work block for you to stand and walk around your backyard or wherever the hell. Yeah.

Yeah? Okay. Cool. Yeah. So every forty five minutes then for for you, take, like, a quick little loop.

Is that what it is? It’s whenever my watch says, okay. No. Except when I’m here, and then it pings me. It’ll probably ping me right away, and I ignore it when I’m sitting right here. Yeah. Got it.

That’s super helpful.

Well, I have to drop it.

Thank you. Sure. Absolutely. Thanks, thanks, Claire. Katie, what’s your win?

I hit publish on my website on Friday.

I haven’t told anyone about that, so I’m still fixing I’m still fixing, like, Well, now you can do one of those posts.

The whatchamacallit?

I’m thrilled to announce.

I’m thrilled to announce. A post. I would say. Yes. Excellent. Yes.

I forgot. It’s been so long since I published a website. I forgot about all of the little back end things that take so long. Yeah.

So, yeah, feeling really happy about that. Great. My question is around our content publishing and repurposing topics. Specifically, like, I’m gonna talk about my status quo routine, not my aspirational routine, which is I write a newsletter, and then, usually, I turn that into a blog post.

And I also pull either pull bits of that for social media or, you know, riff on what I’ve said in in different ways on social media.

But what I would like to do is be using long form, like, either video or audio and then pulling from that to populate the other things. I guess it’s just like, I feel I don’t feel right about repurposing content to email. It always feels like the email newsletter should be like, that’s that’s where I wanna invest. That’s the relationship that I hold the dearest.

And so I’m like, it I don’t know. I then I get in my head because if I’ve, like if I put it to my email list, I’m like, oh, well, the same people don’t wanna see the same thing from me on social media right away.

So then I get in the weeds trying to be like, what else should I put on social this week? And then, like, five days goes by, and then it’s the next week, and I have to do the whole thing over again. So I I guess just, like, what is your hierarchy for repurposing, and do you have any best practices around what not to do?

Repurpose everything. Just you’re probably wrong about what you just said. Right? Like, who cares that you said the same thing across three different spaces? It’s just Katie’s on message. Like, I think that’s okay.

I wouldn’t let it stop you because look what it’s done. It means you don’t five days go by and you haven’t done the thing. Right? So it’s getting in your way. Is it real? Do you have good reason to believe that people will retaliate?

They will be unhappy to the point of going like, oh, Katie. Don’t you have anything new to say?

Probably not.

I do feel I do feel like people can be trained not to open your emails if you’re constantly if it’s like, I see it on social media, and then five minutes later, it’s in my inbox that I’m like, I I already read this.

That’s a high class problem.

If someone is both following you on social media and reading your email and going, I have so much Katie in my life, then your marketing is working. So I wouldn’t I I wouldn’t let it get in my way. I know that it never hurt CXL.

I’d I was similar. I didn’t wanna publish a blog post as my email. And Pep was like, I published a blog post as my email. And I was just like, every time I open his email, I was like, oh, why?

But I kept opening his emails and so did others, and he built a really good brand around it. So I would say, yep. Get out of your head about it. Just go do it.

Do it until people start, like, really getting, like, Katie, stop sending me these things. Then they’ll unsubscribe too. And I know that you wanna nurture that relationship. You don’t wanna lose it.

I don’t I would argue you’re not gonna lose it because you’re saying you’re posting the same thing in a few different places.

And if you do find that you are losing it, then there are ways to use cookies to figure that stuff out, right, and segmentation.

And can you do anything with, like maybe it’s a good time if someone does go from your newsletter to you said you have then a post, and then you have social media. So you’ve got a blog, which means you’re driving traffic, which means there’s a cookie, which means if you set up retargeting ads on LinkedIn, which we’re gonna do another video or a lesson on that in a couple months. But short version is set up cheap text based retargeting ads, on LinkedIn. All that but what I’m really talking about here is just, like, know who’s hit your website. If they click through, they they landed on that blog post, then you set up retargeting in LinkedIn.

And what I’m saying by that is not that you’re gonna be doing ads in LinkedIn, but you can set it up so that LinkedIn knows that somebody did x. And although they may see your post, on social media on LinkedIn oh, wait. You do Instagram a lot, don’t you? Same diff. It’s still it’s still, the the thing.

Then you can just you can start serving ads through there so that they’re not just inundated with the same message. They might get a fully different ad from you that’s super cheap, and it’s based on that retargeting. So I would worry less about it and see how can we use this moment instead, to make sure that they’re if they’re that engaged with me, I should put an ad in front of them that has it’s just a testimonial ad, or something else like that. Does that make sense, Katie? Yeah. That makes ton of sense.

I like that as, like, seeing it as an opportunity instead of an obstacle.

And, also, when you said, is this real? I was like, oh, no. It’s not real.

So You were like, Joe, stop talking.

Already done. It’s not real. Got it. Okay. Awesome. Okay. Thanks, Katie. Liesel, what’s your win?

My win is I’m getting replies. So I’m doing interviews for my book, and I’m getting replies from people who are pretty high up there. So I’m excited about that.

Exciting.

I know. It’s fun. I’m excited.

When is your book writing and research work blocked in your calendar for?

Well, so I’m working on that actually today and tomorrow.

Yes. Excellent. But the part of, like, the research, that’s what I have a question about. So given that my brand stands, like, I’m the best in the world at making retention inevitable, k, and my moat is my book. K?

K.

I have three different angles that I’m trying to choose between. I don’t know I I’m in my ACP’s head, but not as well as I would like to be, so I wanna run them past you if that’s okay.

K. So the first angle is that SaaS teams think UX and onboarding are going to fix retention, but that’s just a Band Aid. I wanna show how to engineer retention by merging product led growth, UX, and conversion psychology so that users stay because they want to, not because they have to.

And there’s actually a couple of studies that just came out about that, which are super interesting. However, the next one is PLG brings users in and UX makes the product usable, but SaaS hasn’t figured out how to keep users engaged long term. So I’m gonna bridge that gap by applying ethical persuasion principles to retention without the scummy tactics. They’re the same persuasion principles that pro marketers use. However, I show how to shift them.

And then retention isn’t a system or is the system not a metric. So retention isn’t just a marketing or product KPI. It’s an entire system that SaaS teams need to engineer from day one. And so I’m gonna lay out the playbook for making retention inevitable by aligning PLG, UX, and behavior driven messaging.

Which one of those do you think would resonate the most or none of them?

No. The third one’s, like, for me, it was winner winner.

That was me too.

I wanted to check.

Okay. That’s good. It does feel like the other ones are precursors. Like, you need to first get people to eliminate their focus on UX, on onboarding as if that’s the solution, the only solution at least, and PLG, what’s what’s broken there. So yeah. And then that leads to retention as a system, not a metric, which is, like, good.

Yes.

Awesome. Yeah. And I’m planning on interviewing not just, like, CMOs at, like, fifty plus fifty million plus companies and a hundred plus, but also the smaller ones to see if that there’s any patterns. I’m focusing on the larger ones, because I feel like those are my ICP anyway. But I feel like there might be patterns that ones who are newer might be able to use to get there. I don’t know.

I think that’s great. And I also when you’re talking to the CMOs at these large organizations or larger ones, they were likely leading marketing at a smaller one before. So they were VP of growth or they were, like, head of growth or some smaller title, because smaller SaaS companies don’t hire CMOs. Even large SaaS companies often don’t hire CMOs, strangely.

So then you can, in those interviews also, like, ask them, does this feel any different from when you were at that smaller brand or whatever that can be? So Yeah. You can you can start seeing what they say. Thanks.

Oh. Awesome. Love it. Thank you. Excellent. Good. Wonderful. Build that moat. Alright, y’all. Anything else?

We good? Okay. Excellent. You’re, on Thursday, I wanted to mention this. Thursday, you have a work block for auditing your SQL funnel so that next Monday, we can talk about it. So if you haven’t got that worksheet, it will be in Slack, and Sarah will email it out, unless Sarah already did email it out, in which case it’s in your inbox.

But that is going to be really, really tactical. If you don’t have an SQL funnel or a sales funnel, then you still need to do the the audit no matter what, and we wanna see where things are starting to kind of fall apart so that you can fix them. Cool. Excellent.

Wonderful. Alright. Then we’ll otherwise see y’all later, maybe this, Friday for feedback. K. Have a good week, everyone.

Bye.