Welcome to episode 334 of Hit the Mic with The Stacey Harris.
Oh my gosh guys, so we’re going to talk about content again today. For the last time we’re wrapping up our month of content focused content, and we’re going to talk about types of content, and what type of content you should create. I love me some podcasting, but it’s not for everybody’s, because it’s just not what everybody likes to do. That’s cool guys. Let’s jump in, and let’s start with talking about what types of content are there.
First off, big picture. There’s live and recorded. Any of the things I’m going to talk about you could do … Although, maybe not blogging. That would be hard to do live, right? You can do content live, and then repurpose it into recorded content. You could do pre-recorded, prepped, edited, shay content. I like a mixture personally. It’s how I like to create. Again guys, it’s cool if you want to do something different. You don’t have to do what I do, and nobody does. Live or recorded, that’s really your first choice.
Second choice, blogging, podcasting, video. I really can’t think of any other options, but I’m sure there are some that I don’t know about. Illustrations, photography, there’s a ton of kinds of content. Pick what works. We’re going to dive in next on how to choose that, but I wanted to start with really just talking about the types of content. There’s short form content, there’s long form content, there’s all kinds of content. What I want you to do is make sure that you are providing value for your audience, in whatever way fits. That could be blogging, that could be live content that gets repurposed into whatever else. It could be a million things guys. I really want you to create content. Do me a solid, create some value for your audience. It is a freaking game changer. Yes I said, “Freaking,” because I don’t want this episode to have an explicit label on it, okay? Okay.
Number two, how do we pick which of these options is right for us? First of all start with whatever. Don’t worry about picking the quote on quote, “Right one.” I hate this idea that some things are right, and some things are wrong. It just fires me up, and I’m going to try not to rant about it really hard. Start with something. For the first year of my business, well for the entire first year I was in business. When I was still doing On Demand Virtual Assistant we did written content super inconsistently, super low skill level. In retrospect it’s embarrassing and I’m so glad none of it exists anymore, although it’s the internet so I’m sure somewhere it’s still in existence. We won’t talk about that, cause I’m blocking it out.
Then for the first, probably six-ish months of Hit The Mic Backstage, which is of course now, “The Stacey Harris,” we also did written content. Again, incredibly inconsistently and maybe only slightly better than when I did it as On Demand Virtual Assistant. Then I went, “Why am I not podcasting?” I was into mastermind’s at the time, and someone else who was in the mastermind was launching a podcast, and was a podcaster. I was like … I was talking to her and I was like, “Yeah, I love to edit. I went to school to be an audio engineer. That’s my background, and I love audio. I could talk for days. Blog posts are just exhausting.” She looked at me square in the face and went, “Why aren’t you podcasting? You have the skill set, you have the expertise, it’s what you prefer to do. Why aren’t you podcasting?” I went, “I don’t know.”
It was genuinely because I didn’t think I could. I didn’t think I was far enough in my business to podcast. I don’t know why podcasting seemed to have this illusion of expertise that I did not yet have. Really I was better equipped to podcast than a lot of other people I knew that were podcasting well. Not like badly, they were doing a great job. I was just, I had the expertise and the skill set to do it. I don’t know why I wasn’t doing it sooner. For me content got consistent when I started podcasting in, oh God, that’s gotta be 2013 now. 2013 or 2014. It’s gotta be 2013. It was the way I prefer to create. It was the way that worked for me from a creation standpoint, from a consumption standpoint, from an ease standpoint, from a joy standpoint. It checked all the boxes.
I want you to look at not just what you think you should do, and I’m totally doing air quotes that you can’t see right now. I don’t want you to just think about what’s possible, what you’re allowed to do. I want you to take a second and think about your favorite way to create. Now, I don’t think anybody is immediately comfortable creating any kind of content. I don’t think anybody gets behind a mic doing a podcast and is like, “I am awesome at this.” I don’t think anybody gets behind a camera, or in front of a camera doing video as like, “I am spectacular.” I don’t think it’s possible.
The same is true with hitting a keyboard and writing a blog post. I think all of us having done any amount of content are like, “Oh my God, those first whatever amount are embarrassing.” I will not listen to the first 100 episodes of this show, maybe ever. I don’t even know if I’d listen to the second hundred. Here we are in the third hundred, right? Pay attention to how you feel actually creating it from the perspective of not that you think you’re doing it excellently, but that it’s lighting you up. That connects. It really does. The way you feel when you’re creating is felt by the people who are consuming. Again, start with what you enjoy.
Then yes, look at your ideal clients. Look at your community. How do they consume content? This was a big reason we had our transcripts, because I had a ton of people in my audience who were like, “I think you doing a podcast is great, I just don’t have time to listen. I really wish I could real this.” Now there’s transcripts. Seriously, that’s why there’s transcripts. Total random side note, it has been killed from an SEO perspective. I’m seeing way better organic search results since we launched the show notes. Just as an FYI, totally random side note.
Look at how they consume. If they want to read but you really want to be a podcast, great. Use Rev.com, get the transcripts, and there you go. Now you have created content in a way you prefer, and you’re connecting with two groups of people. Maybe they really love video, great. Record the video, pull out the audio. Whatever it is, you can really check all of the boxes from wherever you want to consume, or wherever you want to produce I should say, excuse me. Look at those two things though. It’s got to be looking at how you feel best when you create, and how they best like to consume. Ideally those two things match up. I will say that there is sometimes where you’re going to create outside of your comfort zone. For me that’s video.
Some of you who are listening to this may know for a year we did a show called, “Hit the Mic TV.” It was pre-recorded, edited video show. It went out once a week on Sunday’s. It was not my favorite thing to create. I way prefer podcasting to doing video. My audience really liked it. You guys enjoyed the show, I always got really great feedback on it. It still drives traffic thanks to YouTube, to my website, and to the membership site. We may be rolling out more pre-recorded video this year, I haven’t decided yet what it’s going to look like. We are for sure rolling out live video via weekly over on Facebook Live. We’ve done it every week this month. Once a week we go live over on Facebook and that gets repurposed for all of the other channels.
Guess what guys? Seriously, video content, you can’t ignore the power of it. Yes, sometimes we have to create outside of our comfort zone, but ultimately if you’re starting from nothing, just get started somewhere. Wherever you’re most comfortable. You can add things later, you can diversify later, you can repurpose later, you can change your mind later. Get started somewhere. The best place to get started is if you can find a place where your comfort, and your preference in creating, and your audiences preference in consuming come together. That’s ideal.
The third place I want you to really note is really building on the same thing, is honestly providing value matters more than anything else. Whatever you’re creating, whether it’s video, or podcasts, or blog posts, or recorded, or live, or some combination of all of that, make sure it’s valuable. If you give your audience something value to consume, valuable to consume. If you give them something worth paying attention to, they will pay attention. They will respond. Focus on the value, not the road you’re getting there on. Focus on the result you’re giving them, focus on the action item you’re giving them, focus on the content you’re giving them. Worry less about the shine. Worry less about the vehicle, and focus again on solving a problem. If you can solve the problem, they’ll forgive a whole lot of other stuff, all right? All right. Thanks for listening.
Hey guys, thanks for listening to another episode of Hit the Mic with the Stacey Harris. If you loved this episode, if it gave you what you need to get to the next step in your content, or your social media marketing, join us backstage. Backstage really is where we have all of the next steps for exactly what we talk about in this episode, and all of the other amazing episodes inside of Hit the Mic with The Stacey Harris. We’ll talk social media, we’ll talk content marketing, we’ll talk running your business. It really is your one stop shop for moving forward this year, and in all the years to come. Join us at HittheMicBackstage.com.
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