The Proffitt Podcast

The Power of Showing Up: Mastering the Art of Solo Content Creation

Krystal Proffitt Season 1 Episode 515

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Want to know how I've created over 1,500 podcast episodes since 2018? The secret lies in mastering solo content creation—a skill that's widely underestimated but extraordinarily powerful when done right.

From 2020 to 2023, I produced a daily five-minute podcast called The Potty Report, resulting in more than 900 episodes. This wasn't because I felt motivated every day—quite the opposite. Many mornings, I didn't want to record at all. Yet I committed to showing up consistently for my audience, who came to expect and value those daily doses of insight. Some listened the moment episodes dropped at midnight; others binged a week's worth every Friday. The consistency built trust that transcended any individual episode's content.

The foundation of successful solo content is learning to interview yourself effectively. This approach forces you to cut through the noise and deliver immediate value. When you understand your audience deeply, you can speak directly to their challenges and desires in a way that makes them feel seen. The most successful creators I've worked with—and I've collaborated with thousands—share this ability to make their audience think, "they get me, they see me, they understand what I'm struggling with." Even perceived mistakes become connection points, like when roosters crowed loudly in the background of my recordings at my parents' farm. What I considered embarrassing, my audience found endearing.

Starting your solo content journey doesn't need to be complicated. Begin by identifying your strategic content pillars—those non-negotiable elements you commit to delivering consistently. For my team, it's Tuesday podcasts, Thursday YouTube videos, and Friday newsletters. Everything else can flex, but these pillars remain steady. Want to learn the systems that have helped me stay consistent since 2018? Check out our brand new Consistent Creators Club, designed specifically to help you show up confidently and consistently in your content journey. Remember, we all have to start somewhere—what matters is that you keep showing up.

If you've wondered why nothing is working in your business in 2025, you need a clear strategy. Download our free guide, Build Your Business's Strategic Foundation, where I'm walking you through a business model canvas and a customer journey map. You'll see how we use this at Proffitt Media, plus find templates for you to create your own. Go to krystalproffitt.com/strategy to download today.

Click the "Send Krystal a Text Message" link above to send us your questions, comments, and feedback on the show! (Pssst...we'll do giveaways in upcoming episodes so make sure you leave your name & podcast title.)

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Speaker 1:

I have interviewed, worked with hundreds, if not thousands, of creators at this point, and the ones that are most successful really understand this about their audience. They know them intimately, they know exactly what they want to hear. But the other piece is they know how to deliver content in a way that their audience is like they get me, they see me, they know what I'm struggling with, they know that I wanted them to think about this topic in this specific way, because everyone else in the industry is talking about it that way. So what are those nuggets that you can pull and again? Go watch the original video, because I show you how you can interview yourself very easily, and I even have some other content to help you walk through interview questions. If you have no idea what to ask yourself, if that feels awkward, I do have some free resources on interviewing yourself and what that looks like. So let's move on to really diving deeper into the potty report and how I was able to stay consistent for that three-year period, because one thing that I haven't really shared too publicly is 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? If you've ever wondered how someone could record over 1,500 podcast episodes and create consistently since 2018, that is exactly what we're covering in today's video, because I put out this original clip about the number one tip that solo podcasters need to know, and since then, we have evolved into solo content creators, and that's exactly who this message is for. This audience has grown and expanded, and that's exactly who this message is for. This audience has grown and expanded and I think that it's a great time to revisit, because I put this original video out in April of 2020. So much has changed since then, so I feel like we need to revisit it. So let's just dive into why solo content deserves more love, because when someone talks about creating a podcast, a YouTube video, there's a lot of involvement in interview setup and making sure you're talking to the right people, but I don't think that solo content gets its right place in the world, so we're going to give it some love today, so this is for all of you solopreneurs, solo content creators.

Speaker 1:

So the first one is why is solo content so underrated? And I think that when people think of solo content, they're like, well, that feels kind of boring or hard or awkward. This is absolutely not true. The thing that I learned about solo content creation is I have so much more freedom because whenever I have a guest on the show, it's all about them, as it should be. That is why they are coming on to share their expertise, to provide some wisdom and really just give my audience a ton of value. But whenever it's solo content, I'm still trying to achieve those things, but I also have the lens of oh, I really, really understand my audience, so I use that to my advantage. So if you're watching this today, then I want you to think of solo content as strategic, because I think that those are synonymous and they can really be leaned into in a different way. So that's basically myth number one Solo content doesn't have to be boring and it can be something that is a lot more strategic in your business and in your content, and we're going to walk through some of those today. So the second thing is this is like the reason why this video performed so well the first time around. It's because the number one tip that I gave to solo content creators, solo podcasters, was learn how to interview yourself. I have used interview questions and past content in my own curiosity to build out episodes.

Speaker 1:

I had a three-year solo podcast from 2020 to 2023. I had a show called the Potty Report. It was five minutes every single day, monday through Friday, and I did over 900 episodes. So when people are like Crystal, how have you done over 1,500 episodes? Well, it's because I have done three different podcasts and I'll add all of those up together and all the extra content that I've created behind the scenes, and it's 1500 podcast episodes. 900 of them are from that podcast.

Speaker 1:

So, yes, it was a lot, but the thing that I really learned from doing this daily show is asking myself what is the thing that my audience wants to hear from me? What is it Like? What is the value? Like cut through the crap, cut through the noise, and what is that message that you're trying to deliver? And I was able to do that because I was forced to. It was a great creative exercise to start a clock and say, all right, I'm going to record. It has to be five minutes or less. And out of those 900 episodes, I can guarantee you at least 875 were five minutes or less.

Speaker 1:

I did go over a few times, but majority of them were really short, succinct, to the point, and the reason why is because I needed that creative push, like I'm going to talk about changing something in my business. Why does it matter? Why does my audience care? Get straight to the point. And so if you're a solo creator or you're thinking about creating solo content, get straight to the point. What is it? What is your audience going to walk away from this one piece of content with? Cut through it like cut through the BS, cut through the noise and get straight to it.

Speaker 1:

So one thing that I've learned over the years is a lot of people think that they have to have this big ramp up in their content. Right, whether it's a long introduction or it is a long explanation of why this should be so important to you, your audience knows why it's important. Otherwise they wouldn't be watching you, they wouldn't be listening to you, they would scroll past you and flick their little finger and say I'm done, I'm going on to the next thing. So cut through the noise and get straight to the point. Hook them in and make sure that you're delivering value right from the get-go. I have interviewed, worked with hundreds, if not thousands, of creators at this point, and the ones that are most successful really understand this about their audience. They know them intimately. They know exactly what they want to hear, but the other piece is they know how to deliver content in a way that their audience is like they get me, they see me, they know what I'm struggling with. They know that I wanted them to think about this topic in this specific way, because everyone else in the industry is talking about it that way. So what are those nuggets that you can pull and again? Go watch the original video, because I show you how you can interview yourself very easily, and I even have some other content to help you walk through interview questions. If you have no idea what to ask yourself, if that feels awkward, I do have some free resources on interviewing yourself and what that looks like.

Speaker 1:

So let's move on to really diving deeper into the potty report and how I was able to stay consistent for that three-year period, because one thing that I haven't really shared too publicly is I didn't want to do it most days. Okay, I did share this previously. I would repurpose and really batch that content. So if I hadn't recorded all week and it was like Friday morning, I would say, oh man, I have to record my episodes for next week because I have to record them, edit them Actually, I didn't edit them, scratch that. I would record them and upload them and then put them in Buzzsprout, schedule them and go. There was no music, there was no intro, there was no outro, it was just like boom, boom, boom, wham bam. Thank you, ma'am. Five minutes or less. And in order to do that I had to set aside at least 25 minutes to record them and it was all about repetition. It was all about repetition. So whether I was recording those on a Friday morning, sometimes it was a Saturday or a Sunday because I had committed to doing this and I was fully committed, I was going to make it happen.

Speaker 1:

But at the end of the day that repetition of showing up I had dozens of listeners that would show up every single day. Monday at midnight is when it would drop, and then the next day they probably weren't listening right at midnight, but by the time I woke up and checked the stats. I could see there were people listening to this because they knew, oh, crystal's going to drop an episode today. What are her five minutes of wisdom she's going to share? And then other listeners told me I would binge listen to all of them on Friday and I would get all of your insights in one fell swoop. So that was just really interesting for me as a creator to understand deeper about my audience and how they like to consume that content.

Speaker 1:

But the bigger piece for me was just making that commitment to consistency and showing up in a way that made sense for my audience and what I was creating at that time. But if you want to try this right, if you want to figure out what consistency looks like for you, then I encourage you to bullet out. What do you do every single week, right? If you are a solo creator, what are those strategic pillars that you have to include in your content every single week for you to feel happy about what you're creating, for you to feel consistent and for you to show up in the way that you've committed to, either for yourself, to your business, to your audience? Whatever those commitments are, what are those non-negotiables that you can commit to on a weekly basis For us at Profit Media. We have our weekly Tuesday podcast episode. We absolutely commit to that every single week. Thursdays, we put out our YouTube videos we call them our rock star videos and then on Fridays we put out our email newsletters. Everything else is kind of like if things were to go down and all of a sudden I was out of town or I couldn't make it. I couldn't you know, come, come to the office and like record stuff, or I wasn't able to put things out. Then the team knows that these are still the strategic pillars that we would need to send out on Tuesday, thursday and Friday. If you've never thought about this, what does that look like for you and how can you sit down and start to interview yourself and test out these theories on how you can show up in a bigger way in your solo content? I actually did a video here about how I could do an interview with ChatGPT on my podcast. If that's where you need to start, then that's where you need to start. You don't even have to air that particular episode. You could just get more comfortable with interviewing yourself. But the point is that I want you to test these things out. Try it Experiment, don't be afraid to fail Y'all. 900 episodes.

Speaker 1:

I messed up so many times in that podcast. There were times and it's funny because I thought of it as like a big mistake but other people found it so endearing. I was at my parents' house, I was recording an episode and I forgot about the roosters in their backyard because they live on a farm. They have this micro farm that they live on and I was like, oh, the roosters are here, people are going to hear it, and I was feeling so self-conscious about it. And then I started getting DMs and notes from my audience saying we love that you recorded. And there were roosters in the background and you could hear all the things happening for that whole week because, again, I recorded five episodes in a 25-minute period.

Speaker 1:

But it's those things about understanding your audience deeply, knowing what's going to resonate with them and really showing up in a way that can make your solo content so much more powerful than it is today. And it really just starts with understanding yourself better and knowing what your audience values, and those two things together can be absolute magic. And I almost forgot to read this week's fan mail. So I want to go ahead and reach out to Anna Resende and give you a huge shout out. Thank you so much for submitting your fan mail. So this is what she said. Hi, crystal, my name is Anna Resende and my podcast name is Good Is what Makes you Feel Well.

Speaker 1:

I'm looking forward to finding ways to monetize and just bumped to your podcast. I'm going to listen and hopefully it will help me, thanks, well, thank you so much, anna, for sending in your fan mail. You can actually send us a text message, so go to your favorite audio podcast player and click send crystal text message and we could feature you in an upcoming episode of the profit podcast. So go check it out. It's super fun. Thank you so much for submitting again, anna, and I look forward to the rest of you submitting your fan mail.

Speaker 1:

But at the end of the day, I am so excited that you are creating and showing up consistently in whatever way that looks like for you, and if you're wanting to learn how to show up more consistently in your content, then I invite you to check out our Consistent Creators Club.

Speaker 1:

This is a brand new membership Like this is the first time like we're announcing it here on the channel on the podcast, but we recently rebranded from Podcasters Connect that was really focused on podcasting to creators, because I know that I can support you in staying consistent in whatever that looks like for you on your journey.

Speaker 1:

If you're a podcaster, if you're a YouTuber, if you're creating social content, if you're showing up in your email newsletters, what does it look like to tie all that stuff together in a way that will help you strategically show up consistently?

Speaker 1:

Because if there's one thing that I've learned since my journey of starting in 2018 is I know how to show up consistently and I want to show you the systems, the processes, the behind the scenes and give you the coaching that can help you show up consistently every single week, every single month, again, whatever consistently looks like for you, for your audience, so that you feel more confident in your content journey. But that's all I have for you today. Make sure you hit that like and subscribe wherever you are listening and watching today, because we put out content just like this today that's going to help you go so much further in your content journey together than you could alone, and we would love to have you join us in our community, but that's all I have for you today. So, as always, remember, keep it up. We all have to start somewhere.

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