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Hey. Welcome to episode 170, the Content Creation Made Easy podcast. I cannot believe we're at 170. I know maybe these numbers don't mean anything to you, but I think about, like, that's a lot of podcasts!

I'm really glad you're here because today we're talking about what to do with your ideas. 

Now, today is all about ideas, whether you have a ton of ideas or you're somebody who doesn't have a lot of ideas. 

You may have heard me name the two different types of creators that I see in my world: 

There are the Waterfall Creators who have endless ideas crashing over them. 

And there are the Empty Well Creators who tell me they have nothing to say.

They don't have any ideas and therefore they can't do content. 

So let's talk about the Waterfall Creators for a minute. You might already know which one you are, but the symptoms for Waterfall Creators include having too many ideas, great ideas all the time right now, and every idea begets another new idea. They have a filled-up brain. They're kind of stuffed with all their ideas, which creates overwhelm and a little bit of confusion for them because they're like, “I don't know what to say because I have all the things to say”.

More symptoms for the Waterfall Creators or an inability to take action and sort through all of the things to get their ideas out of their brain and into the world.

Basically, they have no idea what to do with the deluge of ideas that they have. 

So that's the waterfall people.

The Empty Wellers, the Empty Well Creators, feel unsure about what to say in their content. They often tell me, “I don't know what to say, and even if I did know what to say, I don't know how to say it.”

They feel like everything they say is so obvious. Their audience must know this already.

They think, “I don't need to say this”, or that what they're about to share has already been said by somebody else. 

Somebody may be more famous, maybe a bigger audience, maybe, who said it, “ better than” them, and more symptoms for the Empty Wellers. 

They wonder how to come up with something original. Like, it needs to be 100% based on original thought or research. 

Both types of people are creators who struggle with their content marketing.

They also struggle with their processes.

For Waterfall Creators, they don't make time to sit down because it can feel overwhelming because there's so many ideas and they're like, this is going to take me forever. 

And then when they finally do sit down to create something, whether it's a blog post or a video or planning out social content, whatever kind of content they're creating, they become stuck because there's so much to say. 

So they’ll often write a huge piece of content, very long. 

Maybe it's complicated, maybe it's all encompassing because they have so much to say and it's been welling up for so long.

But even if they put it out there, their audience can’t absorb it and it doesn't connect. So the Waterfall people are like, “Why am I bothering to do this? If I put it out there, it doesn't even matter. Nobody sees it, right?”

 So again, they wind up doing nothing except keeping it in their head because it's so much effort.

Now for the Empty Wellers, it's a problem because they have a dearth of ideas, right? 

And they're like, "Oh, my God, every time I sit down, that blinking cursor syndrome comes over me and I stare at the screen. I just don't know what to say."

So they put it off quite a bit. 

Both of these types of creators have processes and struggles and symptoms that are kind of different. 

But the outcome for both is the same:

They do not get their content out into the world. 

They struggle with marketing. They don't serve their audiences. 

They don't connect with their audience. 

They spend a lot of time and energy overthinking, overworking and over-efforting.

I mean, even think about just the mental effort of worrying and judging themselves for just not being able to put it out into the world. 

That is a lot of effort and energy that's stolen from them. 

And ultimately their business suffers. 

So those are the outcomes. 

This is why people want to figure out how to make content easier, which might be why you are here today.

Both types of creators are super passionate, incredibly smart, very effective at what they do. Experts, they're professionals. Right? 

But when you can't market yourself for either reason, it has a huge time energy stuck on you. And let's face it, it has a huge money suck on you.

Your business isn't where you want it to be. 

So let's talk about what to do about this idea problem, right? 

Because whether you're a fountain of ideas or you struggle to come up with anything and you're, like, gasping for the idea, here are three things you can do to reduce your mental swirl and get your content out there. 

Are you ready? Let's go.

Number one, please remember that your audience cannot handle all the ideas you have to share at once anyway. 

They will be overwhelmed and they need less from you. 

This is kind of like permission: Regardless of which camp you're in, whether you're a Waterfall Creator or an Empty Well Creator, remember, your audience doesn't need everything from you. 

So think about one bite-size nugget you can share with them.

For the Waterfall Creators, think about one little thing. 

For the Empty Well Creators think about one little thing. 

It doesn't have to be epic. I mean, consider what I'm sharing with you today. I'm saying some people have lots of ideas and some people struggle with ideas.

This is not Earth-shattering news!

To you, I'm not a brain scientist, right? But it connects with you. 

It's just a reality connecting with a problem that you might have when it comes to your content creation. 

Your audience needs to hear about the things that connect with them, too.

Stop making it harder than it needs to be!

 Even if they've already heard it someplace else or someone else said it in a different way, we need you to say it with all your YOUNESS -  in a bite sized format. 

That's number one. Remember, you don't need to do all of the things and say all of the things and solve all those problems. 

Okay, number two, let's deal with the idea problem.

Waterfall Creators get ideas all the time, like I said, and they feel the need to share them right now and all at once. 

But that's the problem because your audience can't absorb it. 

Like I said, Empty Wellers also have ideas, but they don't notice them as content possibilities. They don't capture them someplace so they can go back and sort through them later.

Because they often show up at inopportune times like when you're driving or you're dropping your kid off or you're on a walk or you're in the shower or something. d

They think their ideas aren't original enough. So this is why, no matter what kind of idea generator you are, it's vital to create an ongoing document to park all of your ideas. 

Think of it as an idea parking lot. This could be on your phone.

• It could be your notes app on your phone. 
• You could talk to your phone and say, “Add to this note”. 
• You could obviously have a Google Doc. 
• You could have an index card. 
• You could have a place where you put sticky notes.
• You could have a notebook

You just want something where you can jot ideas down so that your brain doesn't have to hold on to them and you can suss them out later and sort through them later.

But your brain can stop searching for the ideas when it's time to sit down and it can be calmed down and knowing I have this idea, I'm going to put it here. It's going to live here. So when I'm ready for it, I can come back to it.

This will help you notice your ideas more frequently. 

Noodle on them. Think about what you want to say about them and stop panicking that you're going to forget this amazing idea that you had. 

I promise it will be there for you when you are ready to sort through and massage your messaging into something usable. 

So that's number two, get the idea parking lot.

Let's talk about number three, the third thing you can do to stop the idea swirl. 

Let's talk about the problem of actually saying the stuff and putting it out into the world. 

This is the creation mode. I want you to think about saying everything in a bite sized manner so that your audience can consume it. 

I've said this many times already, even just in this podcast.

But it doesn't matter how many times I say it, because people still get stuck in over speaking, over, writing, overdoing overthinking. 

So you're going to go to your idea document. 

You're going to choose one piece of content that your audience really needs to hear right now, one piece of content on one topic for one audience. 

Just think about it like that. Get laser-focused on that one audience member who needs this particular thing.

Then you're going to break that one piece down into several smaller pieces because I promise you, you can get a lot of mileage out of your ideas. 

This means less work for you and more engagement with your audience because they're able to absorb it. 

Now you might be thinking, this makes a lot of sense, Jen, but I don't know how to do this. 

Great. I'm going to show you an example today.

Today I'm going to talk about a product-based business and how this client, Nicole, was able to break down her ideas.

Let's first start with the beginning: one topic that your audience needs to know or learn or experience right now. 

Here's an easy one. What's a mistake that your people always make or a question they ask all the time?

For my client, Nicole, who sells high-quality, pre-loved authentic designer purses, her audience always questions, why does authenticity matter when buying used luxury items?

That's a question that she gets all the time. Why does authenticity matter? 

So she’d pick this theme. Why does authenticity matter? That is a huge thing.

She has a lot to say on it. And when I asked her about it, she had so much to say on it that we were able to break it down into four subtopics. 

So her big idea, her big topic, her big problem: Authenticity.

Subtopic is one tiny thing about that: why authenticity matters. 

When she discusses “here's why”, she gets to express her philosophy and her expertise on the matter of authenticity.

What does even authenticity mean? 

Here's why you should care about it. 

• She could do a video post, a week of posts. 
• She could do a podcast about this one topic. 
• She could do a video topic about this one topic.

Anything that she wants to do in terms of a long or short form piece of content, she could just stay in the lane of subtopic one, Authenticity Matters. And here's why. 

She probably has more things to say about authenticity - she could break this down into a second subtopic: There are myths versus facts about fake designer purses. 

And she has a lot to teach people about fake designer purses and why you want to be aware of fake designer purses in her luxury used item space.

Subtopic three, she could go for a week on each of these topics. Now we're into week 3: how to tell the real from fake, both online and in person. 

This might be a little tip that she has for people. She could give examples, she could use visuals.

She could teach something.

She could talk about that for like a whole week if she wanted to and then subtopic four, all about authenticity is maybe some real life customer stories, 

maybe some nightmare stories, or maybe some big win stories, 

or maybe some exciting experiences that her people have had. 

Or some things she's found in the space.

When it comes to looking for an authentic used luxury purse, that is like a lifestyle vibe, a behind the scenes vibe. 

So that is talking about authenticity in four different ways that could get her a month of content. 

Imagine taking YOUR idea and bringing it up into four pieces of content and four X's your one content piece. 

How much less work would that be for you? How much less work would it be for your audience who now doesn't have to try to drink from the fire hose of information?

When you try to fire hose your audience with everything you know about something, they can't absorb it, they can't digest it. 

So this is a way to break up your ideas into digestible bites to gain their trust. And it helps you show up more frequently. 

Honestly, I’ve worked with clients before who've done this idea of breaking down their ideas, and they can sometimes get ten or twelve pieces of content from one thing that they were going to put out in the world. 

So I promise you, you will thank me and your audience will thank you because they will be able to follow along the thread with you.

It's like, win, win, win, win. 

Once you make the shift, regardless of whether you're a huge idea, waterfall person, or you're somebody who's like, “I don't have any ideas”, just get really micro. 

What is one thing that you could share with your audience? So let's recap. 

Before we move on today, I want you to stop thinking that you need to teach your audience everything and every piece of content that you put out there.

That's a big one. 

Two, I want you to stop thinking that you can only say something once and then never say it again. That's not true. People need to hear things over and over. 

Three, stop thinking your content has to be something no one else has ever said before. That's impossible. 

There are great thinkers out there, and they're always coming up with new ideas.

 But not everything you put out there needs to be brand new to the universe, right? 

You can make it yours with your stories, your flare, your examples, your units, your voice, your words.

So creating more focused digestible content is not only a gift for you because it will give you so much more capacity, it will really help your audience connect with you because remember, we're all gasping for air right now and we're all at capacity. 

So I want you to take today's tips, and I think about how you could make your content, regardless of what kind of idea generator you are put out into the world. 

And if you want to stop feeling overwhelmed and confused doing content, and you want to stop feeling depleted and exhausted and you just want it to be easier and you want to do less, then you should come join us over at the Content Creators Studio because I wanted to create a place where you don't have to be a content expert. 

You did not get into this business of yours to become a content machine. You did not get into it to become a marketer.

If you're trying to be a marketer, you would have been a marketer, right? 

But if you would like somebody to support you every week with realistic ways, realistic support that help you take your expertise and make a system and know what to say and know how to say it in a way that works for you and your brain and your style, the Content Creator Studio is where you want to be. 

It's the perfect place to help you easify content creation with weekly support and implementation. Because what I know is I could teach you everything. 

In fact, I teach a lot on this podcast, right?

But it's really about implementing it and having your hand held and having feedback, having somebody look at yourself to give you feedback. 

Now, right now through May 15, you can get a year of weekly support for $444. That is like the deal of the century. 

Don't mistake low cost for low value. This is how strongly I believe that content is vital in your business, that content marketing is really important, and it's the foundation.

If you don't have good content, people aren't connecting with you. 

After May 15, the pricing for the studio goes up to $57 a month or $570 for the year. And if you don't want to join for the year at 444, that's totally fine. We still have the $47 option per month open for you until the 15th. 

So if you're ready to lean into more units, whether you are that Waterfall Creator or you are that I'm an Empty Well Creator and you're looking for your voice and you're looking for strategies that work for you in a sustainable way.

Come over and join us. You can get to be part of the group at jenliddy.com/studio. 

It’s time you made content simpler because this stress is not why you got into the business. So I want to help you streamline edify and make it more realistic for you. I'd love to see you over at jenliddy.com/studio.

If have any questions, you can always contact me at my website. jenliddy.com.

Hope to see you next week, as always. 

Thank you so much for listening to the end. I hope that these tips and tools and tweaks are helpful for you! See you next time. Bye.