The Fierce Business Babe Podcast Ep 173: How I Batch Months of Content

Today, I am diving into batching content. I am going to share some of the reasons that I batch content in my business and why I highly recommend it, how I decide what type of content to batch, different ways to help you with your batching, tips and tricks to batching, and so much more!

How I Batch Months of Content

By: Melissa Lin

Welcome back to another episode of The Fierce Business Babe Podcast! Now something that I am such a big, big fan of is batching and batching things together and one of the reasons is because first off, I'm just so easily distracted by different things and I love getting more done with my time if I'm able to. I love to be more efficient if I'm able to, life is so short, why not? So if you're not into batching that is totally fine, it’s not for everyone. However, I do still recommend listening to this episode just because there's going to be a lot of other tips and tricks for you and your business in terms of creating more and more content without you sitting there for hours and hours every single day. You know how much I just love getting into all of those tips and tricks that have really worked well for me over the years as I've continued to grow and scale my business. I love batching so many different things in my business.

So for example, as you can probably tell from the title of this episode, my content is something I love batching. I love batching weeks of content in one sitting at one time and it's very easy for us to do. I'm able to do this in probably less than an hour or so because I've done it so often and I’ve become faster and faster at it. Something else that I love batching in my business is coaching calls and podcast episodes, really anything related to business creation is what I love to batch. And this podcast episode, for example, was batched out a few weeks early so that we’re always ahead and we can always guarantee new episodes every single week for you, because life happens, right? What if I'm sick, or maybe a team member is sick and unwell, or if I'm traveling and who knows what's going to happen? Maybe I'm not able to record an episode that I wanted to because I’m really only creating week by week. Then we may miss an episode here or there. We always want to prepare and be ahead. I love being ahead in terms of our content and things like that. And you may ask yourself and wonder, well if you're that ahead what happens if you need to pivot? What happens if your launch calendar changes? You’re always open to making those changes and pivoting. I actually find it pretty easy to pivot your content even after you've created it. You can always pack it away and use it for future use if you maybe launch product A instead of product B. That’s something that you can do.

I know that we’re already getting into the New Year. It's so exciting, we’re already two weeks in and it's going so amazingly. I love to celebrate our clients and their wins. If you follow me on social media over on Instagram you know I love celebrating them as well as our own wins in the business. We recently shared some behind the scenes of our business and things like that, so if you're not over there, I definitely would recommend going over there and hanging out with me. It's so exciting to see the growth that everyone's already creating inside of their businesses.

We're halfway through the month and it's a great time to learn how you can create more things, be more productive, and just really work smarter in your business and spend less time with batching. So if you're unfamiliar with the term, what it means is really doing the same activity back-to-back, which in the long-run is typically more efficient than doing the activity on its own. I'll go into some examples for you today and give you some tips and tricks and all of those things. So today I want to chat with you all about some of the reasons to batch content and why I highly recommend it, how we decide what type of content to batch, different ways to help you with your batching brainstorm, tips and tricks to batching, and so much more.

Why I Batch Content Early

What I first want to get into is why I like to batch content early. For so much of my business, I would say the first year or two, I really wasn't batching and I was kind of scatterbrained. I can remember sitting in my cubicle when I was still at my engineering job and I would sit there and I would spend, you know, maybe half an hour trying to decide on a photo to use and then spend another 45 minutes trying to come up with a post to post that day. There was no strategy around it and it took me like an hour per post everyday and I was never ahead. I was always going day by day, so if I was sick one day, what do you think happened? I wouldn't have content for the day. So this is why I like to batch content and to really be ahead in my calendar. Life happens and sometimes you can't create content. If I'm traveling and then maybe my mic stops working or maybe the Wi-Fi isn’t great, or something happens and I'm not able to record an episode that week, I want to make sure I can get an episode out to you. I like to always be prepared just in case. Or if I want to take an entire week off and not do anything that week then I'm able to because I have batched out my content regardless. I have content going out because I've batched and gotten so much of it ready. It’s very sustainable as you continue batching and growing, you're going to get better and better at it.

Something that I know I do, and maybe you can relate to this, is I get distracted very, very easily. If I'm sitting there working on content and Pearl comes up to me she and I will start taking selfies, or I'll just go and play with her, I just get so distracted. Now let's say I'm writing some new content for social media, I’m on a roll, I wrapped up two pieces of content, I’m working on my third, and then I hear the dishwasher and I decide to take a break. So I get up and go unload the dishwasher and then I sit back down in my office and I get back to work. Then maybe I hear the laundry and stop what I'm doing and go do laundry and then start to go fold the laundry and then all of a sudden an hour goes by. I get back into my office and it'll take me at least 10-15 minutes to get back into the groove of things and get back into the flow that I was in when I was creating that content initially an hour prior. So when I am able to remove distractions, then I'm able to get so much more done and I can get done so much faster. I'm able to knock out four or five pieces in an hour or sit down and batch an entire month of podcast episodes in one sitting versus trying to create one episode every single week. That also gives me a lot of flexibility in my life and kind of the lifestyle I want to create.

I know this episode is more about batching content, but for example, I also batch a lot of my coaching calls. So if you've ever had a private call with me or if you are in one of my group programs, I like to have my calls on certain days of the month and I like to do a lot of my private calls back to back. So I may have some days where I’ve got four or five client calls, but instead of me having three weeks of calls throughout the entire month. I may batch it all together so I have maybe three or four full days of coaching calls and it just gives me more flexibility so I’m not on calls all throughout the month, just three or four days. I'm able to go and travel more and be off the grid if I want to or go and do whatever it is that I want to do. We just wrapped up a week-long vacation sort of thing and so that is another reason why I like to batch things so often. It’s the same with creating content. I'm able to do more with my time. I get so much more done when I sit down and batch and also remove those distractions. So I highly recommend it, it's definitely something that has worked for me over the years.

Deciding What Content to Create

I have so many people who come to me and ask me, Melissa, how are you so consistent with your content on social media? How are you always pumping things out to social media and your podcast and things like that? One of the answers is batching and because I've created so much content, I'm going to get to this a little later in the episode, but because I have created so much of that content I'm also able to repurpose and reuse so much as well. So I'll get to that in just a little, but I do want to share that it has really pushed my business forward and has really given me and my team more flexibility when we do sit down and create so much of that content. Maybe you're wondering how to decide what type of content to batch. How do I sit down and decide what I want to write about? If I want to batch months of content at one time, how do I do that?

What I like to do, and this is definitely something I recommend so that it makes sense to your audience too because we never want to confuse our audience, is to batch and create content based off of what I'm launching that month. So, let's go through like a month or two for an example. Over the next two months I am going to be opening and filling spots inside of my Fierce Business Academy, which is my beginner program. If you're wanting to start your online business, coaching or service-based business, sign your first few clients, and scale to 5k months, then that's my Academy. We're also going to be opening and filling spots inside of my Six-Figure Fierce Business Mastermind which is where we help you really expand and move from one-to-one to one-to-many. This could look like group coaching and courses, hiring your first few team members, increasing your prices, adding more strategy to your launches, creating Evergreen programs, expanding your business, and taking everything to the next level and scaling to 10K months in your business. So over the next two months I'm going to be selling those two offers mainly. Quick side note, if you don't have that put together for the quarter or for the year we did this together on my podcast a few weeks ago, so I definitely recommend listening to that podcast episode about creating your sales calendar. Since I know my sales plan or my launch calendar ahead of time, I create content around my calendar and content that matches my launch calendar.

Let's say, for example, in January we're really pushing our Academy. My content is going to be about how to start your business, deciding on your niche, determining who your ideal client is, and how to start selling your first offer. It's going to be about some of the beginner things. Then in February we're going to push more into my Mastermind and so my topics and the content I create is going to start to shift a little bit into some higher-level content to help my audience scale to 10K months in their businesses. So I'll start to talk about how to run your first group coaching program, how to make your first hire, who to hire first, and what to delegate first. My content will always match my launch calendar or my sales calendar. In March we're going to be getting into Fiercely Scale which is my higher-level mastermind where I help my clients scale from six figures to multiple six figures, and you can bet that the content that month in March will be around 20K, 30k, 50k months, how to really amplify your business and grow, and how to amplify the systems in the back end to really help support you and get you there. I'm always making my content match my calendar in terms of my launch calendar and sales calendar.

I'm able to create so much of this content because I know what I'm about to be creating or what kind of content to create. Sometimes that's what a lot of folks get stuck with. You'll sit there, you'll start creating content, maybe you have an hour or two hours every single week blocked off in your Google calendar to start to create content, but if you don't have a plan on what you want to write or what you want to create you're going to just sit there and not really create too much of anything. I always recommend having some kind of plan. So first decide on what type of program or what offer you’re going to be selling and then create content around that. I love pulling higher-level ideas and concepts and things from a program that we’ll be selling and teaching it at a much higher level in my social media content as well. I did this with my three tips to sign your first client and then, of course, we go into so much more detail inside of my programs, but I can still give my audience that quick win with some of the content that matches it. So that's how we decide what type of content to batch. It’s all based around what I'm selling or what I am launching and then A) it's going to definitely attract those who are looking for that support and B) it’s going to really smoothly move into that amazing sales process that you have set in place. So definitely be bringing in that type of content around what you're going to be selling and sit down and start to create more and more of it. If you've ever worked with me then you definitely have content pillars in your business, so start to create some content around those pillars that match up with the programs that you're selling, and do keep in mind you're able to repeat and reuse in your businesses, which goes into the next thing I want to get into.

Reusing Content in Your Business

I have hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds of pieces of content that I'm able to pull from, or that my team is able to pull from, and we’re able to do it so quickly because we reuse a lot of material. Just because you posted it three or four months ago, doesn’t mean you can’t post it again. If someone sees it again, amazing, it's a great reminder for them. It takes people multiple times seeing something before they really register it and actually take action on anything, so it's a great reminder for anyone in your audience. Plus, you’ve got new people coming to your page every single day, so yes, you’re able to repurpose, you're able to recycle and reuse. I want to get into some tips and tricks with you on how you can do this.

So something that I know we're asked about a lot, and my team and I have worked really hard to make sure that we don't repeat any podcast episodes, I get asked, how can you create similar content, but in a new way. That's something that I've definitely done over the years because this episode 173 and we haven't repeated a podcast episode yet, not one and every single episode is brand new. So something that I like to do is I like to cover similar topics from time to time in a new way or a new angle or a new perspective to that episode. So, for example, let's say that I am recording an episode about my mistakes to six figures or top three mistakes to six figures. I can also record a similar episode or create some more content around my three tips to six figures, or client case studies to six figures, or might experience to six figures, or maybe my favorite tools to six-figures. I can shine a different perspective on it and still teach the same content, but in a different way because one of them is going to really serve one person in my audience and the other is going to really serve a different person in the audience and they may get different takeaways from each episode. So, that is one way that you can also create so much content very quickly. Give yourself the permission slip to reuse, repurpose, recycle, and create similar content, but just in a different perspective or from a different lens. At the end of the day, most of the stuff we're creating is part of your content pillar, it’s stuff you've already talked about. You're allowed to talk about the same stuff, but do so in a different lens A) for yourself so you can have some fun with it, and B) because it could also help your audience see something in a different way.

I remember I was at an indoor ski lesson two months ago or so before I started going out into the snow and I had a different instructor one day and she had me do a different exercise on the conveyor carpet. I have been taking indoor ski lessons at an indoor facility here in Seattle and it’s been super, super cool. It’s basically this huge indoor like carpet conveyor that spins and as your skis are on it, it simulates the snow a bit. So I had a different instructor one day and I was with the same instructor for quite some time prior to that, and the new instructor had me do a different exercise and a different game on the carpet and what this did was it helped me see the way I was skiing just in a different light and in a different perspective and had like this new “aha” moment. So this is why I love teaching similar content but in new perspectives and in new ways. Some people just need to hear it differently for it to really click and get that “aha” moment. Again, it takes people multiple times and they need to hear things often.

Tips and Tricks for Content Creation

So how can you create content or months of content very quickly? Number one, batch. Number two, plan ahead. I guess that would actually be the number one and then batch would be number two. Plan ahead, have an idea of what it is you want to create. Let's say every week you want to create an educational post. Use some of the tools that you have around you. I absolutely love using voice memos on my phone. I absolutely love utilizing the tool, I think it's in Google Docs, but Google has a voice typing tool, very similar to a voice memo, but you can speak into your computer and it'll type it out for you. So there are lots of different things and tools out there to help make these things easier for you.

I also have an amazing tool called the caption capsule that has hundreds of different caption ideas for you and different call the actions, like over 60 different call to actions, and you can just start mixing and matching. Maybe caption one is going to go with call to action one today and then tomorrow it'll be caption two with a different call to action. You can start to mix and play, it's like a puzzle. Creating new content is kind of like a puzzle at some point, at some times.

So, brainstorm new perspectives of your content. You can always sit there and create tons and tons of content and not post it right away. Something that we do, here's a quick tip/trick for you, I love to repurpose my content. So, for example, this podcast episode that I'm recording right now is going to be taken and we're going to also transcribe it into a blog post on our blog, and then we're also going to take that blog post and create three to four Instagram captions from it as well. So instead of only creating one piece of content we’re able to create five, six, seven, really as many pieces of content as I want to. We’ve got a podcast, we've got the blog, we're also going to take that blog and create five to six Pinterest pins to put onto Pinterest, so we really have so much content we’re creating all out of one piece.

So ask yourself, how can you repurpose the content that you have now? Do you put out YouTube videos every single week? If you do, amazing. Can you take some of that content and transcribe it and turn it into a blog or take that bigger YouTube video and trim it up into some smaller IGTVs or some smaller reels? How can you repurpose some of this content? Instead of creating 20 brand new pieces of content of all different ideas, you can use one piece of content and repurpose and create newer content, but the same content. You're then also keeping things aligned on all of your social media platforms. So instead of me talking about scaling to 10K months today on my podcast and then on Instagram talking about how to have a six-figure launch, everything is aligned. You want to keep your topics fairly aligned so that you're not confusing your audience. It's very easy to do so when you repurpose that content, podcast to blog to Pinterest pins to Instagram captions all from one thing. There's a lot of tools out there that can really help make this easier for you as well, and then just recycling and reusing old content.

So inside of our Airtable, and if you're a client of mine you've seen the behind the scenes of all of this and you have templates to all of this, but we love to use Airtable as our social or content bank and we have got hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of pieces of content in there that we can go in and reuse. I can guarantee that one of our Instagram posts from this week, we've used it before in the past. Again, it's a great reminder for your audience and I really want this to be a permission slip for you to reuse some of your older content again. I would say usually the three-month mark is a pretty safe mark. So if you've been creating content, maybe you’re four or five months into your business, you can probably start to reuse some of your material. Maybe you sit down every single week and you create 5 new Instagram posts. Instead of creating five new ones every week, you can start to create four new ones every week and then reuse an older one so you're starting to bring some of the older material and reusing it. Sometimes I like to spice it up and you change a few words or change the tagline or the headline, but do whatever is going to really serve you and your business. This is your business, and as I mentioned at the beginning of the episode, not everyone loves to batch and that's okay. It works really, really well for me. It works amazing for my team as well, but maybe there's something else that is going to work a little better for you. Maybe it's recycling everything and reusing everything, amazing, but hopefully you're able to grab a few tips and tricks from today's episode in terms of helping make content creation easier for you. As you continue to grow your business, it's definitely something that you can outsource. You can have copywriters come in and create content for you. There are a lot of things that you can definitely delegate and outsource to make things easier for you.

Today we touched on some of the reasons why I definitely recommend batching contents, how we decide what type of content to batch, different ways to help you with your batching brainstorm, and new perspectives and new lenses on some of the topics you've already created. If you feel like you're starting to run out of ideas, or if you ever wonder, how am I going to be able to create new content all of the time, you can create content in new lenses, new perspectives that are going to feel very new to you. And of course we also talked about more tips and tricks to batching and creating content, and so much more. You know we are already getting ready for next week's episode, I really hope you enjoyed today's episode. If you're on social media let me know what your biggest takeaway was. I will see you next week in a brand new episode of The Fierce Business Babe Podcast bright and early next Monday morning.

Topics we cover include:

What is batching?
Types of content I batch
Reusing your content
How I decide what content to create

And so much more!

Times to check out:

(10:51) Why should you be batching content?

(15:34) Deciding what content to create

(22:04) How to recycle old content

(26:38) Creating content quickly

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