Welcome to episode 467. I want to talk today about a couple of key pieces to have in place when it comes to building our marketing workflow. We talk about strategy a lot on this show, and before I let you get too far into this, realize that that is the first critical step is having a plan. But the things we’re going to talk about today kind of bridge the plan and the results of, of actually doing so, like these are the key pieces, tactics, tools, steps, whatever you want to call them that kind of keeps the machine humming. These are the workhorses that actually get the doing the done right. So I want you to remember all of this is built on the foundation of having a strategy first, but using these four or five things we’re going to talk about today or how we make sure we stay on task.
The reason I want to bring this up is because in the course of this year, and half a dozen Backstage Live events. It’s been really, really interesting to see the folks who really ran with it and saw great results and the people who kind of sputtered a little bit because they didn’t have the support following the workshop to get the doing done and that’s what this stuff is. This is how the doing gets done.
It’s, it’s why we built in the accountability and the ongoing support of a 12 month program and four Backstage Live events. We really build this into one structure because building these habits in and doing them with me and with each other over the course of the next 12 months is how you go through 2020 and into 2021 having formed your workflow.
I want this to be a quick one. I want it to be super short and actionable, so we’re going to jump right the heck in.
Focus, Then Expand
Obviously step one, build a plan. But from there, one of the things I really want you to look at is focus and then expand.
So often, I see leaders take a real big bite when it comes to their marketing, right, and they bite off a little more than they can chew because it’s easy to do quite frankly. We see Facebook ads and, and talks at conferences and Instagram stories and podcasts and videos and whatever else, telling us that, try this, try this, try this. And we are an excitable people entrepreneurs. I don’t know about you, but for me, I’m easily distracted by the next new shiny thing that will solve all my problems, as are most humans. But often this actually leads to confusion, which is the enemy of action. So I want you to really focus and then expand.
So a great example of this is what I call the rule of twos, two primary networks, and two secondary networks. That’s it. These are all the networks we use, and here’s the deal. We don’t bring in the secondary networks until our primary networks are on point until they are refined and incredibly executable we don’t add secondary networks. And so I want you to think through what are your two primaries and two secondaries. And I really want you to think through what are your two primaries? And I want you to focus there.
Another great example of this comes when we talk about content. Often I’ll suggest, you know, we’ll start talking about content and somebody who doesn’t have a podcast goes, well, I’m thinking about launching a podcast. Great. Does your audience listen to them? No. Great, let’s not do that. I want to start a podcast and a video series and Oh, I also have this, this monthly blog series that I do pick, pick, pick, pick, pick, pick one.
Here is the reality. If you want to do all the things, great. Do video, repurpose out a podcast and written content, written blog content. Then, you’re still creating all three things, but you’re only actually creating one and it’s getting repurposed and other things. So if you want to offer all three things, aces baby, but I want you to only be creating one. For example, in my own business, this podcast gets transcribed, that transcription becomes guest posts, become social posts, becomes email copy becomes, literally all the other things. This is what we do for our agency clients at Uncommonly More, they create and we repurpose. So I want you to focus, focus on the things that you are going to do so that those things can then be expanded into the other things versus trying to check all of the boxes with the original content.
I want you to really let that sink in. You’re going to focus and then expand that instead of trying to do all the things originally. All right? That’s step number one. It’s absolutely critical tool and mindset for you to have figured out because for as long as you keep thinking you have to create something new for each of these pieces, the further behind you’re putting yourself.
The more you are going to struggle to create
Prioritize
Number two, I want you to prioritize. There are things that our clients who work with us inside of Uncommonly More get to do that they couldn’t do if they DIY. Not because they don’t have the skills, but because they don’t have the resources or the time.
I want you to prioritize what actually matters. And a great way to prioritize is to know what each thing actually nets you. So looking at your metrics, looking at your audience, looking at your data and saying, Hey, no one reads these blog posts, maybe I don’t need to keep writing them.
A great example of this is a couple of times this year where I’ve taken pretty substantial amounts of time off from this podcast because I couldn’t justify prioritizing fresh content when I was getting the same amount of traction, traffic and results from old episodes, and I had a lot of other things going on.So in the course of my growth this year, I had to prioritize distribution of past content and execution of my work over creating new episodes of the show. Now the good news is, is this didn’t really cost me anything it didn’t cost me traction. It didn’t cost me anything financially. But what it did is it gave me space because I needed it.
I want you to look at your prioritization. Another great example of this is I don’t do Facebook Lives anymore. Every once in a while I’ll jump on. We’ve done a couple in the course of the launch for Backstage Live VIP. We’ve got a couple more that we’ll do. Um, throughout the launch. I think we’ve got a total of four planned for the whole launch total. But on the regular, I don’t do it because based on my numbers, it was not a valuable enough thing for me to do. Now it would get me something, it would get me some traction. It would get me some customers. But the ROI wasn’t as high as it is with this podcast as it was, as it is with Instagram Stories.
So I prioritized, and I encourage you to look at your numbers and prioritize what’s actually netting your result right now. Where are you actually seeing needle movement from your time online? Prioritize those things first, and it’s not to say you’re not going to do the lower priority stuff because sometimes it takes a little while to get traction.
You’re seeing the results right now from the marketing you did three to six months ago, so no two attempts at a Facebook live or three days of Instagram stories are not enough data to make a choice, but as you prioritize your higher end stuff, the stuff you know is going to move the needle. You’ll find that you have more time and attention to put other places because you were very strategic about what makes it onto that list and what doesn’t.
Delegate with Intention
In the spirit of that, I want to move to our next one. I want you to delegate with intention. I had a crazy rant about this on Instagram stories not long ago. Don’t just say, I don’t want to do this, and so I’m going to find somebody else who does and then hire a general VA and dump it all on them. That is not fair to you, and it’s not fair to the VA, and so I want you to delegate with intention. You are not going to find a copywriter and a strategist and a content creator and an expert repurposer and an ad strategists all inside of a $15 an hour VA.
And if you can and there’s that good, then do them a favor and tell them that they’re not doing themselves any favors by charging that or trying to do all those things. Okay. Instead, delegate with intention. I need, according to my priority list support here, here, and here. That may be one person that may be a team of people that may be absolutely three different individuals that are just become a part of your team to become a team of people.
I don’t care what it looks like. I care what the intention behind it is. The reason this intention piece is so important is because this is the difference between frustration and results. That intention is the difference between getting return on your investment and spinning your wheels. I want you to be super clear about what you’re delegating and why you’re delegating it.
If for no other reason than you’ll stop delegating things you should be deleting. Yeah. Again, I go back to that prioritization piece. If anything is in the very bottom third of that priority list, and it’s just not serving you, why would you pay someone else to do it? Right? If you’re getting zero traffic back from Pinterest, why are you paying somebody $400 a month to create and schedule pins for you? I just made you $400 a month. Right? So delegate with intention.
Scheduling Your Execution
The next piece I want to talk to you about, and this really comes after that prioritization and delegation is scheduling, schedule everything on your calendar to get done. This is one of the reasons we built in these two hour blocks that we have in Backstage Live VIP on the months where we don’t have workshops.
It’s why the workshops are so valuable. Even though by the third workshop, you’re going to know the workbook front and back. You’re gonna know what we’re doing. Some of the people who who are joining us have inevitably done Backstage Live before or planned before, so none of this is going to be rocket science, but committing to taking a day out of your business and planning your quarter.
Coming together once per month for two hours of focused marketing work time is a game changer, but for some of us, the easiest way to get something onto our schedule finally is to, are you ready? Is to, yeah, be accountable to somebody else’s schedule and not just ours. However, if you’re one of those people who can absolutely self-motivate and self-regulate, really keep accountable. Then 100% put it on your calendar and execute it, but actually put it on your calendar. I can’t even just put it in my Asana and my task manager. I have to actually put these things on my calendar as if they were appointments, because when they’re an appointment, I give it a much different weight than when there is a task.
I see it differently. I treat it differently. I’m willing to bet it’s the same for you. So make sure you have time in your schedule, and even if you’re somebody who’s like, well, okay, I’m not crazy like you, I can just put it in my task list and that’s fine. Then great. Put it in your task list and make sure you’re giving it enough time, and this is another way I want you to be measuring.
And this is something I’ve been doing a ton more of these last few months. Measure how much time these tasks actually take you so that you are really clear that the amount of time you’re scheduling is enough time because it may not be. I frequently don’t give myself enough time to record this podcast.
I think, Oh, it’s going to be a 20 minute episode. I can totally get it cranked out and like 25 minutes, 30 minutes max, and then guess what? It doesn’t take me that long. It takes me like 45 minutes or an hour or whatever it is that day because I’m just, not in the right headspace, or it takes me a minute to get through it, or it takes me a minute to find my words, or I want to review my outline for a little bit, or I change my outline completely, so I sit down and record what is what happened today, whatever it is.
I need a little extra time. Well, guess what? Now I have that amount of time on my calendar instead of my imagined amount of time on my calendar because I have tracked this. I have measured and adjusted. That’s right. Measurement and adjustment. The magic one, two punch of data, right? So I want you to make sure you’re measuring not just for results and things like that, like we talked about in prioritization, but also measuring how much time this stuff actually takes you.
Instagram stories is another one of those silent times sucks for me because I’m like, okay, it’ll take me two minutes. So it’s a, it’s a one minute Instagram story. It’ll take me a little less than five minutes when I add text and all of that. No, you know what? Inevitably, I have to reshoot it three times cause I looked dumb somewhere in the middle. And then as you have seen, because you watch my Instagram stories, sometimes I just still look dumb in the middle and that’s okay too.
Build Your Workflow
The last thing I want to talk about before we wrap this up doesn’t get, I do want to keep this really, really actionable, is build your own workflow. The reason I want to share these pieces that I’ve shared with you today is not because there are the things you have to do, but because they’re the things that I have found worked for me and for a lot of people I know and a lot of clients I work with, and I want you to have some place to start. From there you will find your own workflow. You will find the structure that works for you, and that’s the critical piece here. That’s the must have find. You need to find your workflow. You need to find your structure and the thing that supports you. And that’s one of the reasons I built Backstage Live VIP to be 12 months.
Over the next year together we can find and build that workflow for you. So the afterword done with VIP, you have now built and have been in your habit long enough that it is truly habit. It’s routine. It’s just what happens. Does that sound incredible? That takes time. It takes trying it on and taking it off and spinning around in front of the mirror and I want you to have that. And so that’s why we built that 12 months.
Here’s the deal. I’ve been in business nine years. I’ve been planning and executing marketing strategies the entire time, and I’m still playing with this. I’m still adjusting this. I was listening to Elizabeth Gilbert on Armchair Expert, I don’t know, a while ago now. And they were talking about advice for writers. And it was interesting because she was talking about, we all kind of have two hours a day that we’re at our best. We are top notch human being, brain is on fire and we’re super productive. Like what happens when you give those two hours to yourself and the rest of the world gets the other 22 hours a day? What are your two hours a day? How do you make the most of them and how do you fit this workflow into that two hours?
And she made a great example of like, sometimes that’s not two hours a day, sometimes that’s I have one day a week or three days a month or whatever it is. You have to find what your mojo time is and prioritize what’s going to be taking up that time. When you build your workflow, it’s the same thing.
Find what your workflow is. Find what your magic hours are as far as far as structure. So your your magical container of like, I can get into this, I can do it and I can execute and I can get results. Awesome. We’re good. And go from there. Don’t worry about it. Looking like someone else’s. Worry about it serving you and your results.
That’s what I want to see. All right. All right. We’re going to wrap this episode up because it’s already gone longer than I intended it to and I will see you in the next one. If you haven’t joined us yet, I want you to make sure you head over to thestaceyharris.com/backstagelive and grab your seat for Backstage live VIP.
The cart is closing in a couple of weeks, but there is still plenty of time for you to join us. I am so incredibly excited about this year and the impact this is going to have for the incredible women who take part in this. If you have any questions about what this program looks like or if it’s the right fit for you or if your in the right place in your business to take advantage of it. I want to hear from you, reach out to me on Instagram or Facebook or whatever works. Again, I accept everything except pigeons. I don’t do birds. All right. I think that’s fair.
All right, I will see you next time. Thanks for listening.
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