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Hey, welcome to this week's episode of the Content Creation Made Easy Podcast. This week, I'm talking about ways to make content creation easier, which I know I'm always talking about, but this week, I'm going to talk about it in a really direct way. 

And a little thing happened last week that kind of reminded me that I needed to remind all of us about this habit we have of overcomplicating everything in our lives, especially our marketing and content.

So last week, I was driving to the Charlotte airport. My sister was driving, and my phone started ringing, and it said, Delta Airlines calling. 

And I was like, “Wait, why is the airline calling me?”

And then my brain starts to fill in the story. “Oh, my flight must be delayed or now maybe it's canceled and I get to stay in North Carolina longer.”

And then immediately I thought, “Wait, are they calling us now instead of texting us? Why are they calling us?”

And then, “Wait, am I even on Delta? No, I'm on American.” 

Like, my brain was in that moment of swirl.

You know, those moments before where your brain can put everything together and it's kind of filling in the answers to questions that you shouldn't even be asking yourself and things don't yet make sense. 

That's where I was when I picked up the phone. 

I don't really have all my wits together, but the Delta guy on the other end says, Ma'am, I have your bag with me here at the airport. And I'm like, “What are you talking about? I'm in the car with my bag. It's with me. I'm on the way to the airport.”

And somehow I found the wherewithal to say, “Wait, which airport? Where are you? Which bag?”

And he said, “Syracuse, Ma'am. This came from Amsterdam. And the name on the bag says, Jen Liddy.”

And I was like, “Oh, this is John's Bag. He took it to Venice last week. It got stuck in Amsterdam because of a baggage handler strike.”

And now my brain is starting to settle into what's actually happening. So the Delta guy is in the Syracuse airport. I will be in the Syracuse airport about 3 hours from now after I leave Charlotte. And he's asking me what to do with the bag.

And I somehow find my wits and I say, that's my husband's bag. Here's his phone number. Call him and arrange to drop off on our porch. 

And he goes, “Thanks, Ma'am. Will do. Bye.” 

I was like, “Blammo! Phew! Done. All the things”

Now my sister, who's actually driving me, is laughing hysterically at this exchange because she's like, “Oh, my God, I would have told the guy, ‘Hold on. I'm coming from Charlotte. I'll be in the Syracuse airport in about 3 hours. Just leave it there. Tell me where to go. I'll pick it up. So you don't have to go anywhere and you don't have to do anything. Then you don't have to come out and bring it to my house.”

She's like, “I would have been all over him trying to make his life easier, but going back and forth with all of these details and probably actually making it harder for him,” but also definitely making it harder for herself.

And we were laughing so hard because, between my sister and I, this is how it always goes. I'm always like, “What is the easiest path forward? How can I hit the easy button?”

And she's always like, “Oh, I have another idea. Let me help you and let me help you. And I can do this, and I can do this, and I can do this. And I'll add on this, and then maybe we can all do this together.”

And I wonder which one of these are you?

Because whether you lean into that like my sister Tracy does or you're more like me, and you're always like, “Wait for a second, is there an easy button?” every one of us has a place in our life where we're making things harder for ourselves. 

It could be over helping to take on stuff that's not ours to take on. 

Overworking, which I'm always guilty of, overthinking or even over offering.

And so I started to think about how this silly exchange with the Delta guy was a habit that kind of shows up in our business.

So first of all, I want to say this is just a habit. Overdoing is literally a habit. 

I'm going to talk later about how to kind of deal with this habit. But let's talk about where this habit shows up in our business. 

For example, in your marketing, you might have created a very elaborate plan or strategy or funnel to help you achieve your goals.

First of all…

Is your marketing plan overly difficult? 

• Is it overly complicated?
• Does it have too many moving parts? 
• Would you just love to have it be more streamlined?

Or another way that people make their lives harder in their business is they have so many offers.

I actually used to be really guilty of this because I'm like, “Oh, this person needs this. Let me create that. Oh, these kind of people need this. I can create this, too.”

I was going to have, like ten offers in my business, which not only makes life harder for me because

1. I have to market those offers, differentiate all of them, talk about who they're for and then sell them.
2. But also it makes it really hard for my audience because my audience is like, “I don't know which offer to take. I don't know which one is right for me.”

And a confused person is never going to take action because they're just going to be like, “You know what? I'll come back to this another day.”

So that's another way that we make our life harder by having too many offers with lots of different pricing options.

The other thing that we do in our content certainly makes life harder. And I see this all the time. 

So your content could be done a lot easier in tons of ways. 

First of all, saying less in each content piece so your audience can absorb it.

Remember, your audience is at capacity everywhere in their life and so the more you can simplify and focus and have one message per piece of content, the better it is for you and the better it is for them. 

Being more focused and clear in your messaging.

• When you have a really diffused message and your audience has to do the work of figuring out 
• Who the hell is this person?
• What are they standing for?
• What are they actually talking about and who are they helping? 

That is making it harder for your audience, which in turn makes it harder for you because you're creating content that doesn't convert anybody.

Another thing that makes life in your content world a lot easier is simply planning in advance.

And frankly, planning in advance gets easier.

When you have a plan for what you're going to say, you know why you're creating content in the first place and you chunk it up so you're saying less each time. 

Also repurposing.

• Are you using your stuff in more than one place? 
• Are you using it more than one time? 
• Are you saying it over and over? 

People don't just hear things once and be done with it.

Think about the people you live with. How many times you can tell them to do something?

Imagine the people in your audience who are even more bombarded with information. 

Another way to make your content a lot easier is to scale back on the platforms that you're on,.

What is working for you. 

If you're on Pinterest and you're spending a lot of time on Pinterest and it's not working for you, then it's time to assess, is this worth my time and energy? 

And if it's not, maybe you get off of that one platform.

The last thing I want to talk about is having help where you are doing things that are not your strength.

For me, this is always graphics, visuals, any kind of graphic design stuff.

I mean, I have my right-hand people for that because I absolutely suck at that and it just sucks my time up and then the outcome isn't very good. 

So having people to help you in the areas that you are not strong enough so you can lean into the areas where you shine. 

Now,  this is all overdoing, right? Like everything I just said, it's like overdoing. Maybe it's overcompensating or you think you're over helping. 

But if anything I just said resonates with you and you want it to be different, it is totally possible. 

Let's talk about three steps that will help you get there. 

First, simply acknowledge that this is a habit that you have. 

That's it.

It's just a habit. It's an old story that runs in your brain that's causing you to take the actions that you take, like almost unconsciously.

Automatic thoughts and behavior. That's what we're talking about here. There's no need to judge yourself if you have this habit. 

Here's what you say, “Okay, I do ______.”

Whatever that is for you. Fill in the blank. 

“I want to stop doing it.” 

You really need to be clear with yourself and have an intention that you want to stop doing it. Because there are plenty of people out there who know that this is their habit, but they don't really want to stop doing it.

So you need to claim that you want to stop doing this. 

Now, an additional way to help you stop doing it is to think about the future version of yourself. 

If you stopped overdoing, if you stopped overhelping or overthinking or overworking, how would you feel on the other side of that habit changing? 

How would your life be better?

Think about the future version of yourself and creating that future version of yourself comes from very small steps, but always keeping that version of yourself in mind. 

Create internal motivation for yourself by thinking about how you'll feel when that habit is done. 

Next, how can you make content creation easier? 

How can you make everything easier? 

Seek small ways to let it be easier.

Now, this is uncomfortable for people who are always overdoing. If in your content, you're always overcreating and you're always saying so much, this is just a habit you need to undo. 

So let's start to look for the low-hanging fruit. 

Know that you're going to be uncomfortable as you move through these changes, but just know that going in is actually quite a powerful thing. 

You will not die from being uncomfortable. You will not die from making these mistakes. 

It's going to be a little bit of a bumpy ride as you start to smooth things out and make things easier. 

Just being prepared mentally for what's coming actually really helps. 

Okay, another way to make things easier for yourself, especially when it comes to marketing and content is to…

Think about the outcomes. 

When you try the little shifts and you took the low-hanging fruit and you made things easier…

• How did it feel?
• Was it uncomfortable? 
• What was good about it?
•  Did you have any spare time and energy? 
• Did you have a better outcome then? 
• What could you use or adapt for next time?

That is what I really want you to start thinking about. 

What is one little nugget that you could take away from your experiment and how can you use it again? How can you make it better? 

Obviously, all of this takes an incredible amount of practice, and believe me, I am doing this right along with you. 

This is not like I have figured this out.

I'm just a good noticer and a good teacher of it. 

But I am over here also trying to simplify and not overdo. It definitely takes work. 

Now, a funny thing about the whole Delta guy thing is when I talked to him and I said, “Just call my husband and set it up,” a very small part of me felt like I was being lazy. Kind of like I wasn't being helpful enough to him. Almost like I was being rude. 

And then in a snap second, I thought about myself 3 hours from now at the Syracuse airport at 11:00 at night, exhausted and just wanting to go home, but like stumbling around the airport looking for the place where he told me this bag would be and then finding it in some locked office or me having to search for my ID to prove who I was. 

And I was just like, “No, it would make it so much easier if he just did his job and I just did mine,” which was to get home and put this to the person whose responsibility it really was. 

It also turned out to be easier for the Delta guy because he was happy to have a clear and easy plan to just do his job,. Get the bag, drop it off at my house, go back to the airport. It was actually easier for him.

Now, the funniest part of all of this is when I told John this story when he picked me up at 11:00 that night, he laughed because he said he tried to get the guy to leave it at the airport. 

He told the guy, “Oh, I'll be at the airport picking up my wife at 11:00. You just leave it there, tell me where it is, and I'll come get it.” 

And tell the guy was like, “No, that's too complicated. I'm just going to do what's easy and drop it off at my house.”

So I was like, “Oh my God, there is something to this thing because it works and we just need to kind of break the habit.”

So I'm curious about where you might be making things harder in your life and your business simply because you have a habit of trying to do too much, say too much, give too much?

Especially in your content. 

Between now and May 15, I have a no-brainer way to help you make your content creation so much easier. 

You can get a year of weekly support, weekly feedback, weekly guidance in your marketing content for $444. 

Now, this is a $120 savings, and it's basically like getting three months of support in the content creator studio for free. 

Now, seriously, there's no more doing it alone.

Once you're inside The Studio, there's no more wondering, how do I do this? What do I say? How do I make this easier and no more? I don't have time.

We carve time for you, and we actually create your content with you.

You're going to stop feeling overwhelmed, confused and frustrated by content creation because you finally have support.

Let's talk about what support looks like. What does support do for you? 

Well, my client Christina on our call last week told me that all of the messaging and the content work she did last summer is paying off when she heard a new client, who lives two and a half hours from her say, 

“I'm willing to drive to you because your content on your website was so much better than anybody else in your field.”

That is an impact of having the right thing to say and saying it to the right people and really having it be powerful to help your audience but also to help you.

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You obviously don't have to show it for every call, but it's there for you when you need it and I provide guidance.

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So that offer is available through May 15. You can grab it at https://www.jenliddy.com/studio 

If you still prefer the $47 a month pricing because you're unsure about committing for the year, that is no problem. 

You can grab that there too. But after May 15, the content creator studio goes up to $57 for the month or $570 for the year, which I'm telling you is still the deal of the century given what you're getting in there. 

So I wanted you to make your life easier and take the invitation to join us and also think about where else in your life are you overcomplicating things or doing things that aren't for you to do or picking up things that aren't yours?

Just start thinking about that and tell yourself like I'm ready for it to be different and watch the changes that start to happen. 

As always, thank you for joining us. I love that you're here. I hope this is helpful information and I will see you next week. Bye.