The 3 Types of Content Workflows

"How do all of your content systems and processes work?" We've covered content creation strategies at the most granular levels on the podcast. 

Today, we're taking everything up to a higher level so that you can see the potential impact your content can have in the future. The three types of content workflows will help you navigate your content more smoothly, give you more confidence in your work, and provide a blueprint for managing your content in a fresh new way. 

All of the topics I'm teaching you in this episode are covered in-depth in my new program, Radical Repurposing. Still, I wanted to share them on the show to get your strategic brain thinking about ways your content can have a more significant impact.

Transcript

Intro: 0:00

Can you walk me step by step through all of your content and all of your systems and your processes and the workflows and everything that you do in your business? I've actually wanted to ask many of my mentors this exact question so many times, and I am grateful that some of them would show me the behind the scenes. It's why I love the behind the scenes in case you didn't know that's like a recurring theme around here, I love to share everything behind the scenes, because I learned best this way. And I know a lot of you listening to this podcast. That's why you listen to this podcast because I share the things behind the scenes. And one of the things that I really haven't talked about too much in a lot of detail is the different types of content workflows, which is all we're covering today. But I think that I talk about these a lot individually, like more on a granular level. And so today, I wanted to take this opportunity to talk about everything higher level. And the reason why is because I've talked about repurposing before. I've talked about batching. Before, we've talked about creating content 1000 times on this podcast and throughout my content. But today, I wanted to paint a different picture, because we're talking more about systems workflows, time management, project management. And I think that it's really important that you understand as a creator, that having these types of systems in place, will make creating content so much easier. It'll save you time, it'll save you money, it will save you energy, it will save you hours of looking for stuff you're like I just know that I called it this one thing and I can't find it. And I know it was supposed to be here and it's not on my Google Drive. It's not on my desktop. Like I just I don't even know where it is. I like your you're, if this is you, you're nodding your head really hard right now. You're like, Ooh, she she knows. Yes, because I've been there. I've been there, which is why I want to talk about the three types of content workflows today and why you need them. So let's get right to it. Welcome to the Proffitt Podcast where we teach you how to start launch and market your content with confidence. I'm your host, Krystal, Proffitt, 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?

The 3 Types of Content Workflows: 2:52

So like I said, In the beginning, we're talking about the three types of content workflows. And this is actually something that I'm teaching inside my brand new program, radical repurposing, which is coming in a few weeks if you're listening to this when this episode goes live, but it's something that I knew, like I said that content workflows, we've talked about it so many times, like we've covered this before. But I think that were I see a lot of people in this community in our Facebook group, follow me on Instagram, I follow a lot of y'all on Instagram. And what I see is like this disjointed, I'm trying to think of like the best word like disconnection between your different workflows. Because if you have the systems in place, you're not going to have as much overwhelm which I still hear a lot of you saying, you tell me all the time, Krystal, I'm stressed out, I'm overwhelmed, there's too much to do not enough time. That was actually one of the recurring themes I've talked about. I interviewed several members of this community before I ever even started creating the content for this program. It was earlier this year in 2022. And the recurring theme was time, like, I don't have enough time to do all the things that I want to do. And it just breaks my heart whenever I hear that because I'm like, I want you to have all the options to create everything you would ever want to create. When it comes to a podcast and YouTube and emailing your list and having a social media platform and maintaining a website for blog post or show notes like all these different things. It can be done, but not without systems, processes, workflows, and that's why I'm so passionate about talking about these things. They're not the sexy things, right? They're not the things that I'm not sitting here telling you how you're going to get your next 1000 downloads for your podcast or the next 100 subscribers on your YouTube channel. And I think that that's why it's something I haven't covered a lot, because it's not the sexy thing that everybody wants to hear. But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what hot topics I cover on the podcast, if you don't have a system, a process established for you to bake in these like new, shiny objects, right? Or like the, I've had so many people, I want to create tic TOCs. And I want to do this with my podcast episodes and do sound bites and I want to create video clips from my YouTube. But I can't even just get a regular YouTube video out like I don't I don't know how to make this all work. Like I feel that frustration like deep down in my bones because I have been there too. And it wasn't until I started implementing these systems, and the most important piece of it, maintaining them and keeping them going, that things started to change. And I've talked about this before, but earlier and 2022. So January 2022, I was still publishing two podcast episodes a week one on Tuesday, one on Thursday, I was publishing three YouTube videos a week, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, I was sending a weekly email and I was posting on Instagram daily. That is a buttload of content. It was a ton of content. And I had so many people asking me, how are you doing this? How does that work? Like do you have like four contractors working for you? Say, No, it is just me. And don't get me wrong. I've hired contractors, you know, here and there throughout my business. But I don't have a full time VA, I don't have a part time VA, I have been doing this with the proper systems, processes and workflows in place. And that's what I want to share with you today. So you can really grasp the idea of having processes in the importance of how they can just change everything. It was such a game changer. Whenever I started implementing all of these things that I'm going to share with you pretty high level today. So I told you, there's gonna be three types of content workflows.

1. Content Creation Workflows: 7:21

The first one number one is your content creation workflows, this is the first one that we need to cover. And what I mean by this is, this could be a checklist that you keep in a Google Doc or it could be a sheet of paper that you have on your desk, and it's like, oh, wait, let me go through y'all. This is so funny. I legitimately did this whenever I first started podcasting. I have Do you know those like really cheap key frames that you could get at Target or not? I was gonna say BestBuy. That's totally not the right one Office Depot, the word I was looking for. But I got this document frame, because it's not for a picture. It's for a piece of paper. And I legitimately wrote out every single thing I have to do for my podcast, and then I put it in this document. Full is one a folder. What am I thinking of? It was a frame, it was a frame. I mean, it's kind of one of those, you could get the plasticky ones, where it bends a little bit, but this was like a hard frame. And I would use a Expo dry erase marker. And when I was doing my podcast, I would say Okay, I did that. What's next on my checklist? Okay, I did that. And then when I was finished, I would wipe it clean, because then I could reuse it again, you could do the same thing with a laminated piece of paper. But the idea was okay, I need a checklist. So this could again, it could be a checklist could be a Google Doc, it could be something with step by step instructions. It could be a visual map, whatever you need it to be, you need a content creation system in place. And actually in a radical repurposing, I'm going to go through all of my systems. So stay tuned. If you're like, oh my gosh, that sounds incredible. But this is such a crucial step in planning your content so that you can repurpose it accordingly. And you can actually be strategic because what I see people like where they're missing the mark on repurposing their content is they're like, Well, I did this and then I did that. Now I want to repurpose it, what can I do? And if you've heard me say this before this model is broken, that is not the right way to repurpose content. You should be doing this in the planning phases. So if you're sitting down and you're saying, Okay, here's a brand new week, I want to create a podcast episode for Tuesday and then I want to publish a YouTube video on Thursday and I want to have my email newsletter go out On Friday, those are three separate pieces of content. And if you're like, I want to have everything aligned, or how can I do this, to make it easier on myself, you have to have a content creation workflow. That's like, as simple as I can say it, because when you sit down to record, maybe you can do a few things in that recording session. And we're gonna talk about batching in a second. But it's all in the planning. But you also need these processes to keep your content systems running smoothly. So this could mean storing future content ideas. So I do this all the time, I take screenshots from our Facebook community, I've taken them from my YouTube videos, from blog post, whenever someone replies to me in an email, and I'm like, Oh, my gosh, this question is so good. And then if I take a screenshot, and I don't do anything with it, then it doesn't, it doesn't matter. So part of my workflow is I will take a screenshot and then I drop it into the appropriate folder, where I'm going to use that content. And like I said, in radical repurposing, I'm gonna show you how to do all of this. But the idea is, you have this constant stream of new ideas coming. And you can only do that if you have a system in place. I can't even tell you how many times previously I took screenshots with my iPhone. And then I would say, oh, yeah, I'm gonna use that in the future. I just know it like, I'm going to reuse it, then what happens? Then several months later, maybe even a year later, I'm going through my phone, oh, my gosh, I really need to clean these up. And I'm looking at all these screenshots. And I'm like, I forgot all of these were here. Oh, I didn't do anything with them. And maybe it was something that was timely, or it should have talked about it whenever it was happening. But I just forgot, because I didn't have a system in place to collect this type of content ideas, and they were just lost. But if you listen to the previous episode, where I was answering questions about repurposing content, some of those have been around for months, I kept those I was like, I don't really know what I'm gonna do with these, I'm gonna go and take a screenshot, and I'm gonna put them in this folder. And then that way, when I go to create content, I know that it's there. And guess what, by golly, whenever I went to go create an episode about repurposing content, and the questions I was seeing, I had them all there. So if you set yourself up for success, now, whether you're just starting creating content, or you've been doing this for a while, I want you to focus on this. Now look at your workflows for how you're creating things. So you're going to be better prepared to capture ideas and content as it comes at you. Instead of thinking about brand new ideas every single time, you're like, I have to create another podcast episode, or a YouTube video or an email to my list. What do I talk about, which is I know, I hear from y'all all the time. This is what the majority of this audience, this is where you are, you're being reactive to your content, you're not proactively planning things, you're like, well, Krystal, that's my intention, I want to get there, I just don't know how, what how you get there is you set up workflows for your content creation. That way, it's just a system at that point, you are just following the habits that you do every single week. And it does get easier, it may take a second to set everything up and get it going. But it will make your life exponentially easier if you start setting up systems and workflows for your content. So that is number one.

2. Batching Content Workflows: 13:49

Number two. The second type of content workflow is your batching workflows. And when I say batching I simply mean you're planning, recording, editing, scheduling, or publishing multiple pieces of content in one sitting, you're doing the same task for numerous things at one time. And I've talked about this book many times. But there's this book called The One Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. And it is just one of those that's it's really changed how I work, how I work in my business, how I work in my content, how I work in my personal life, how I can just like put my head down, focus on the thing that needs to happen and not task switch between different things. Because batching for me, it was a total phenomenon. I didn't even understand what was going on whenever I would hear this term batching when I first started creating content, I didn't understand how one person can make so many things in a week's time without an entire team of people doing all the work for them. And so the thing is behind batching, you have to know what you're doing, which is why these systems kind of build on top of one another. Because if you don't know what you're doing to create your content, you're not going to be able to batch because you're like, well, Krystal, how am I supposed to know all the different episodes that I need to sit down and plan? Let's say, right now, this episode is airing in October, it's like the beginning of October 2022. When this episode originally goes live? How do you know what you can batch in October? If you don't even know what you're going to be talking about this month? Or we're technically in the last quarter of the year? Do you know what you're going to be talking about? From October to December? What are you going to do for the end of the year? Because if you don't know, then, when those opportunities come up for you to batch content, you won't be able to take advantage of them. You're gonna say, You know what, I have two hours free, oh, I want to sit down and create some content. But instead, you end up scrolling Instagram, or looking up keywords for two hours. And you're just because you're like, I don't Is this what you're supposed to do when you batch stuff? No, you're wasting time. And I know that feels harsh. But sometimes we got to do the tough love lessons around here. And if you want to batch content, you got to get your stuff together, you really do. Because that is how you're going to save the time, the money, the energy, all the things like not be overwhelmed, stressed out burned out, is if you have systems in place that make that available to you. And I've actually cracked the code on batching. And I have systems that I'm going to be teaching and radical repurposing, that you could tweak and adjust to fit your content. But I think it's just really, really, really important. And it's crucial for you to understand that you can't have batching workflows without first knowing what your content creation workflows are. So maybe that should be your assignment for like after this episode, whenever we're done here, go and write down all the things that you do to create content, make your checklist if you don't have one, you need one, you need to know what you're doing every single time so that you can start working in batching into your weekly workflows, your monthly workflows, quarterly workflows, like I don't like it's kind of like a create your own journey whenever you're doing these workflows. But at the end of the day, you have to know what all the steps are. In order to make repurposing batching creating content really worked for you to where you enjoy it. This is my goal. At the end of the day, I want you to enjoy creating content, not look at it like QA. Another podcast episode, I gotta create another freakin YouTube video this week. I don't want you to look at it that way. And don't get me wrong. I don't love 100% of the time creating content like every single little piece that goes into it. But I can tell you 85 90% of the time, I'm pretty happy doing it. I really am. Because it's a system. It's a process. There are workflows in place that helped me manage all the different pieces of my content. So that was batching.

3. Repurposing Content Workflows: 18:26

And then number three, this is the third type of workflow. And this is repurposing. These are your repurposing workflows. So again, I'm going to be sharing all the behind the scenes of repurposing in radical repurposing. And I just want you to know that this is the thing that I hear more often than anything else. How are you creating that much content? It's just the thing I told you back in January, when our I was creating that much content. I would have DMS, I would have emails, I would have conversations. I was also doing live streams where people were like, I don't get how you are doing all of this. Well, the entire foundation of my new program. Radical repurposing is taking one thing and turning it into multiple pieces of content. It is legitimately like I don't have a mission statement for it. But that should be the mission statement for it is taking one thing and turning it into multiple pieces of content. And the goal is to have your content be platform agnostic. So you're not thinking is this right for this pro like this one platform X platform, let's call it you don't want to do that you don't and if you're doing that right now stop because the question you need to be asking is, where does it make sense to share this message? The message of your content not? Is this podcast episode, right? Or is this perfect? No, no? Where does it make sense to share this message? And how can I turn it into multiple pieces of content? This is the question you should be asking. Because if you're creating a podcast episode, let's say you're finished with it, you're looking at it, you're like, what else can I do with this? You're already behind? You've got to be thinking, with a mindset of repurposing, where you're saying, Okay, I'm going to share this one thing on the podcast. But I think it will also work on YouTube. And I think that my email list needs to hear this as well. So how can I tie all of these pieces together, where when I share it, I'm also able to use that content and strip it down into pieces that I can share on my social media that will tease my Instagram people to come and listen to the podcasts, watch the YouTube video and make sure they're on my email list. All of these pieces work together only if you think about them this way. It's all in the strategy. I've talked a lot more recently about content strategy, and what that means and how I think it's the missing piece. For a lot of people listening to this podcast, you're publishing regular content, and you're like, Okay, I'm doing this thing. And I'm having these guests, and I'm talking about this with my audience, but I'm not growing, my content isn't growing. And I don't know if it's resonating with the right people. And I don't know that I can sustain this, because I'm not really that excited about it. And I can tell you right now, the reason why you're not is because you're putting too much pressure on yourself for the damn thing to be perfect. This is really what it comes down to, is it's either comparison, or perfectionism or one of the isms that you're just you can't get over the fact that it has to be perfect every single time and it has to work and do this, but you're not looking at strategy you're looking at is this the best piece of content that I've ever put out into the world. And I'm gonna be honest, it's probably not what I'm recording here today, it's probably not going to blow your mind and completely change your world. But I hope that it helps. That is my goal with my content. My goal is to add a little bit more value every single time I put something else out there, whether it's a podcast, it's a YouTube, it's email. Honestly, it's value. And I want to make you laugh. I want to make you smile a little bit. I want to brighten your day. I want it to be sometimes it's a motivational conversation. Sometimes it's just flat out, I want to make you laugh. Say something silly. I want you to be here with me because I want this to feel doable. I want it to be relatable. I want it to be something that you're like, gosh, Krystal can do this. I want to do this too. I know I can do that. And I think that it's really important that again, you look at the current workflows or systems or lack thereof. Because there may be many of you listening to this. You're like Krystal, how many systems I show up every week, I wing it. I fly by the seat of my pants. I've done it. I've been there. I did it for years, actually, like I I hate to admit that. But for probably the first two years of my podcast, I was gonna say I was wrong it that's not the right word. I was winging it. And I started getting to that point of burnout, frustration, stress, constantly feeling like I have to work every single weekend because I have another episode to create, I gotta plan something new. I gotta think of the next amazing thing that I'm going to talk about. I don't do that anymore. I don't I go to my systems. And I say, Okay, what's on the docket for today? What do I have to do? And I rely on the tools and the resources that I have in my back pocket that I share with you in radical repurposing, it's all the things. But I want you to know that it comes down to the systems and the workflows, I could tell you all the shiny, sexy things that you can do with video and how you can edit it and make it easier. And then do this with your podcast episode and do this with your email and do this on your social. But if you don't have systems in place, it does not matter. None of it matters. If you don't have do this, then do this. And then do this and then do this and then boom, you'll hit your deadline, you'll hit your goal, you will make it happen. That piece of content that you want to be published every single week can actually happen if you have processes in place to make it happen. But oh, okay, sorry. I felt like I get went like on a sorry, not sorry, tangent there for a second. But I just get really passionate about this, because I've heard your stories. I hear so many stories of people quitting their podcast, of stopping their YouTube channel of walking away from their email lists, like ghosting them completely, because it's all too much. It's overwhelming. I don't have enough time. And I don't want to hear it anymore. I want you to enjoy creating, I want you to feel so much joy, so much satisfaction, so much passion for your content again, that is why I get so fired up whenever I talk about the workflows and systems because like I said, these aren't the sexy things, y'all I know this. I know, these are the sexy things that you want me to talk about. But it's the thing that we need to talk about. It's kind of like, if you work if I were to come into your house, and it's a hot mess, right? It is a hot mess. And you were to say, Krystal, I don't know what to do. Let me be really very clear with you. I live with three young boys and my house is always a mess, always always. But what do we do whenever we want to clean the house, we start with one room at a time, whether that's the kitchen and just putting all the dirty dishes away, or starting with the laundry, or folding the blankets that are always unfolded on our couch, which the boys asked me today. They're like, why do we have to fold these blankets? We're just going to use them again. I said it makes me feel just so much more mentally clear. Whenever things are put away. They're all in their place. And I think that it's the same with your content. Whenever things are organized in my Google Drive, like I go in there and everything is just all in its place. And it's well organized. I feel more creative. I feel excited to create whenever I go on asana and I'm like, Oh my gosh, okay, I did this. I did that. Check that off. Okay, cool. And there's some there's some satisfaction, right? The Psychology of checking something off a list. So I use Asana because I get like that little whatever. There's like a unicorn that flies by and there's a narwhal. Like there's all these little silly things that happen whenever you're you check something off in Asana. But it's just something that's so satisfying about the content creation process whenever you have systems in place, and you have control over what is happening. So you can be proactive about what you're doing in your content. But I've talked so much about radical repurposing a lot more than I expected to in this episode. But it's because I'm so excited, I have been living and breathing the course content for this program. And it's coming up soon. So the doors are officially opening for enrollment on October 18. I'm really excited. So get on the waitlist, I'll have it in the show notes. So go to KrystalProffitt.com/episode372. And I'm just you're gonna hear more about it. Let me just say that, okay, you're gonna hear a lot more about it in the coming weeks because I think this is the best program I've ever created. If you enjoy profit, podcasting, if you're a profit podcasting student, and you want to take things to the next level, this, this blows profit podcasting out of the water. I'm very proud of profit podcasting. This is above and beyond like, 10 steps above that. And it's going to be so awesome. I cannot wait for it.

Outro: 28:38

But that's all I have for you today. So go to the shownotes look at everything that I shared today about the three types of content workflows. So you can study these and see where can you improve in your systems or look at where maybe you need to do a little bit more learning or research or the thing that you just need to say hey, I'm gonna figure this out this year, like I'm gonna get it all organized before you go into 2023 because there is nothing like an organized calendar going into the New Year oh my gosh, like it is what I live for it so I do this every December I will sit down and I set up my whole content calendar for the new year. Maybe I'll have to do like a YouTube and show you how I do that to prepare for the year but it is the thing that can help so so much so get going if you don't have it. This episode wasn't meant to shame you into saying you're a bad creator. If you don't have these systems. It's letting you know you can be an incredible, amazing, organized creator and really truly love what you're doing whenever you have the systems in place. But again, go to the shownotes KrystalProffitt.com/episode372 For everything we talked about here today and to get on the radical repurposing waitlist Last but that's all I have for you so as always remember keep it up we all have to start somewhere