How do entrepreneurs & small business owners decide WHICH interesting, amazing, lucrative, and creative ideas to focus on?

Beyond the nurturing content you create regularly for your audience, what about ALL the other content you want to put out there?

The podcast to launch?
The website to update?
The course to create?
The book to write?

You get it...

On this episode of Content Creation Made Easy, you'll learn a 3-step method to help you stop overthinking and START prioritizing where to focus NEXT...

This keeps you from starting & stopping, getting frustrated with yourself for "never finishing anything", and helps you feel creatively satisfied so you can keep going!!

(THIS WORK IS NOT EASY! This episode is designed to give you a little relief from your own expectations!)

Listen and consider your where to focus YOUR time, energy, money, and creativity -

So you don't burn out on the way to achieving your most personal goals!

Links Mentioned

Magnetic Words Power Group
https://www.jenliddy.com/magnetic

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Full Transcript

Hey. Hey. Welcome to this last episode of Content Creation Made Easy podcast for the year 2022.

I'm really glad you could join us because today I am wrapping up our conversation on the topic of alignment and how to create more aligned content, more aligned offers, and basically just a more aligned business.

I want to start by saying alignment is one of those words that gets thrown around a lot and it starts to mean nothing after a while, kind of like authentic or awesome.

So when I say aligned, I want you to really take a moment and think about a time in your life or your business where you have felt completely out of alignment, out of whack, or where you knew in your gut something was really, really, really off for you.

It could be even like a time where you were physically out of whack, like your back went out for days and you couldn't walk straight for a week.

Or that reminds me of a time when I was in college, I intuitively knew that a relationship I was in was really out of whack. But the guy, because the guy that I was dating— well, new stuff just kept showing up in his apartment and he just kept telling me his dad was sending him nice stereo equipment and all this nice stuff…

And it turns out he was selling drugs out of his apartment with his roommates! That's a time I remember really feeling out of whack with my life.

It’s  basically a time when you know something is off and you don't maybe know what or you are not ready to admit it.

When you feel that feeling of what it's like to be out of alignment, it's easier to remember what it feels like to be in alignment comparatively.

That's when you know that the course of action or the choices that you're making feel right for you. Your character, your brand, your goals, your style, etc. It means you're not shrugging your shoulders and saying, “Oh yeah, I guess I'll do that.

Everybody else is doing that!”

Or “Somebody just told me to do that”, or “My best friend is doing that, I'll do it too.”

I know that sounds like something we would do in high school, but we really do wind up doing it as adults because we want to take the course of action that's going to work.

We want to waste as little time as possible. So being in alignment in your business, even if everything isn't going as well as you'd like it to go, is when things feel like they're a good representation of you.

I want to say that again: being in alignment in your business and your marketing and your content with your offers, all of it feels like it's a good representation of you, even if it's not like “I'm making all the money that I want” or “It's going all the ways that I want right now.”

But you do feel like you're doing it because it feels right for you.

Now that we're on the same page about that, let me take a minute to give you a quick recap of how I reverse engineered this topic for this entire month and how it can help you in your business.

Because first, back in episode 192, two episodes ago, we started talking about creating offers that align with your personality, your goals, your energy, your capacity, etc.

Offers are always the drivers because what do we want people to buy from us eventually?

If you don't have the right offers, you're creating content that's basically taking you around in circles and going nowhere.

In that episode, 192, I shared how turning this question of alignment onto myself got me assessing my membership program, the Content Creator Studio, and it's ultimately why I decided to shut it down.

It wasn't in alignment with my goals. You can find out everything about that story if you haven't already listened to it back in episode 192, only two episodes ago.

Then last week in episode 193, I basically gave you a short workshop via podcast about how to use a simple framework I created specifically for that podcast to help you assess how to align your content with the offers.

So first we have the offer, then we have the content.

And we really don't want to create our content out of alignment.

We don't want to create it out of purpose.

We want to create our content on purpose because otherwise it's a huge waste of your time.

If you missed that, I promise it's 17 minutes of your life to get it all spelled out for you. So go back and listen to episode 193 after this one.

You do not have to listen to these in order, but I really wanted to unpack for you first.

We have our Aligned offers, we have our Aligned content, and then this week: Hello, episode 194!

I'm unpacking another area of Aligned content, and this is where we focus all on you.

Specifically entrepreneurs and small business owners like you have so many things you want to do, create, make, bring to the world, accomplish, cross off the list

The thing is, we are surrounded by ideas, both internally and externally, but constantly. For example, maybe you've got a colleague who is starting a podcast and you're like, “Oh, I've been meaning to do that for years.”

I wonder whether I need a podcast. Yes, it's time for me to create a podcast.

You can get really caught up in that for yourself.

Or maybe you've got another colleague who has just finished her comprehensive online course. It's a big signature course and she plans to sell it.

She's got a live launch planned with three webinars. She's got an affiliate program. It's very complicated, big machine.

You think, Oh, I need to create a course, I need a webinar and why don't I have an affiliate program set up?

It's so easy to be influenced internally and externally by the people who are around us.

Then maybe you get an email from somebody who is a low-cost evergreen kind of pocket training expert, right?

And she leads her people through a hearty nurture sequence via email and eventually gets them to work with her at a higher level.

You think, “You know what? THAT is what I need. Also, I'll do my big course, I'll take a little tiny piece of it, I'll run it evergreen, I'll create some Facebook ads, I'll write some emails!”

I mean, think about all you could do because every single idea I just gave you is totally a possible for you. There are literally no rules.

You can make up the business model that works for you and there's actually no reason you can't have all of those things except for:

Time

Capacity

Energy

Money.

You know, just those little things.

Because when we fantasize about these concepts and these ideas and we want to bring them to life, we see them in our head so clearly!

We know what we would bring to the table and we just get frustrated on the iteration of bringing it to life and the implementation pieces.

It all takes so freaking long because remember, every single one of those pieces requires different kinds of content.

For example, you want to create a podcast, you think, “Oh great, I'll get a microphone, I'll get on Riverside, I'll start recording and boom, there's my podcast!”

But you haven't thought about all of the pieces that go along with that. You know, the pre stuff, the setting it up stuff, which is very intense, but then on the back side of marketing it, and that is really not something to just take lightly.

Starting a podcast doesn't mean you just start speaking into a microphone, right? Same thing for a signature course.

You could ladder out your course and say it's first it's this and then it's this and then it's this and then you have to market it.

Same with a mini training, same with a webinar.

All of these things require a lot of content inside and outside of the event itself.

You know, not to mention I'm going to go beyond like landing pages or sales pages because those are obvious, but thank you pages, prelaunch email sequences, a checkout sequence, reminder, emails show up, emails, marketing emails, social posts.

I mean, it goes on and on.

So the reason that you get frustrated is because you have the ability to ideate very quickly and you can see it all inside your mind's eye.

The maddening thing for entrepreneurs and small business owners is we see a problem, we want to solve the problem, we know we can do it.

But none of it actually happens quickly enough for us because implementing is a whole other level of difficulty.

Here's what I really want to get to today, which is Which thing are we supposed to spend time actually bringing to life?

Because you have all the ideas and you have all the ability, but what you don't have is all the time, all the energy, all the capacity, all the money.

So this is where we go back to that alignment question and think feel about what that means for you specifically.

Because when you're in alignment, it's much easier to make a decision that's right for you.

Here's how I make these kinds of decisions for myself:

I sit down with a blank sheet of paper. I like to work with pen and paper, but you could certainly do this in a Google Doc, or you could actually do it in a voice memo if you are a verbal person, and you start by writing down all the things that you want to create or do or attend to or upgrade or deal with!

Because there's so many! I'm sure you have a list that's very, very long.

But what your brain does is it's always like swooping. I kind of call it like your brain does that radar thing where it's constantly scanning for boop boop, what's next, what's it looking for?

What am I supposed to be chewing on right now? But just if you get them out of your head, your brain doesn't have to do that work anymore.

Just put it all someplace. I call it a thought parking lot.

Then I prioritize those things based on my goals. I will talk about that in a minute. So first, I write down all the things.

Second, I prioritize them. I'm going to dive a little bit deeper into that because that's really hard for people.

Then three, the next step for me when I'm trying to get into alignment about where to focus on what content creation or offer or what attention my business need is to be incredibly intentional about where my capital goes.

My capital being my time, my energy, my money, my creativity. Because you don't have an endless well of all of those things.

You have to really understand where you are in the season of your life. There's a lot going on in your family. There might be a lot going on in your community.

There might be a lot going on in your home, in your job. So you really have to understand where is your capital and where are you able to spend it right now?

And again, it's just right now, it doesn't mean forever.

Let me give you an example of how this looks right now. Ever since I closed down my membership, I am plagued —I'm going to use that word very intentionally— plagued by ideas.

I have probably five different offers that I want to bring to life. Everything from something that's probably going to cost $9 to something that's about $2000.

And I have a bajillion ideas of how I could serve my audience.

But one cannot bring about five offers at once. Even if I had a huge team who could do all my writing, all my marketing, all my tech and logistics, my audience would still be confused if I threw five offers at them at once.

It's just too much. So I did step one, which was to list out all of my ideas.

I just got them on paper in no particular order. I basically did a brain dump and treated it as if it was just a rough draft.

That is hard for me because I like everything to be perfect. I don't like to have cross outs. I'm super nerdy and super annoying in that way.

But it's just hard for me to dump things out and know it's going to be messy.

Basically, I emptied my head out. Now, this can feel overwhelming.

Step one of getting into alignment about where to go next can feel overwhelming because there's always going to be so much stuff in there.

But I remind myself personally, over and over and over, that this is just a thought parking lot.

It will always be here to come back to. Nobody's even going to see it, certainly nobody's grading it.

No English teacher with her red pen is coming at me.

But I cannot and do not think that I'm going to take action on everything that comes out of my mind. Step two, then, is to examine which of the next steps would be most profitable.

‘Most profitable’ is my main priority right now. ‘With the least amount of setup’, that's my second priority.

So ranking and prioritizing based on my goals helped me see how my brain could really do what it needs to do and what it wants to do. It helps me then create a timeline.

Now, your priority might not be profitability.

Your priority might be like, “I want to be creative”, or “I want to be in community with somebody”, right?

You get to make your prioritized list based on your specific priority, your specific goals.

Now, once I did this and I prioritized things, I really saw, holy shit, there's a lot here. There's a lot I can do. There's a lot I want to do.

There's a lot I'm excited to do. And did it piss me off how long it looks like it will all take ONE THOUSAND PERCENT YES!

Yes, because I can see it all in my mind, right? And I compare myself to some of these huge name internet gurus who already have all of their programs running.

But don't forget, they not only have enormous teams, they've been in business for a lot longer than I have, and maybe they have more support than I do, right?

So I know how the reality of actually implementing stuff goes, and it's maddeningly slower than I want it to be. And I want you also to know— I'm not tooting my horn here­— I'm just saying this is how my brain works and I'm a super quick implementer.

I can get shit done pretty fast, and I work fast. But even with being able to work fast, also some other privileges I have are I only have one child.

I don't have a lot of little kids running around. I don't even have any little kids running around. My son is gone all day.

I pick him up from soccer at like 06:00 p.m..

So I want you to understand I also have more time than other people do to put this stuff into place.

When you're looking at your priorities, you have to really consider what is your season of life.

But getting it down on paper and then having it prioritized in a realistic way helps my brain calm down a bit, because then the ideas are at least out of my head.

I know I can always go back and look at them and I can restart the plan if I get distracted or get off task, but those are the three steps I take.

I do a brain dump and then I prioritize things. And then number three is I get really intentional about how I'm going to attack it, how much time I'm going to give each piece.

Now it's your turn. I know you're listening to a podcast, so you're not going to pull over and get out your Google Docs, but I want you to just think, and maybe you could even start recording on your phone.

What are all the things that have been swirling around your head? Because it does feel like a plague when that happens.

What are all the things that you'd love to create or update or tweak?

Let me give you some examples to jog your brain.

Maybe you've got some offers that need to be updated, let go of tweaked, scaled back, scaled up.

Maybe your website needs some love. It hasn't been attended to in a really long time, and you might not even— you might have a much more clearer message than you did when you first created it.

Or maybe your message is completely changed, right?

Maybe there's a lead magnet that you have had an idea for in your mind, but it hasn't come to life or the one you have isn't really working and could use a little tweaking.

Maybe you've never really put a welcome series into place and the people get on your list and they're just kind of like, boom in your middle of your list and they're like, What's going on here? But you haven't nurtured them a little bit.

Or you don't have a content strategy. You know that you're like putting content out regularly, but it doesn't feel strategic and it just feels very “splattery” is the word I always use for this.

 Or you've decided, yes, I'm doing a podcast.

I need to launch this podcast or this course, I need to launch this course, create and launch this class.

All of these things are potentials for you and they're very exciting.

I'm sure there's the ideas you have that I didn't even mention, but get them out of your head first. Just give yourself the gift of emptying your head. Then you can prioritize it.

And I actually don't recommend doing it all at the same time.

I recommend getting everything out of your head, walking away, maybe a couple days. Then you come back and you prioritize realistically with the goals that are most important to you.

What is important to you? Remember, I said mine were profitability and ease, but yours might be doing something that feels fun or collaborative, like maybe you want to do a summit or a retreat.

Maybe that would feel fun for you.

So what are your goals? What are your ideas? What lights you up and puts you back into alignment in your business where you know, okay, maybe this isn't going as fast as I want it to go, it's not going as smoothly as I want it to go, but it feels right for me.

And it might mean letting go of something or someone— like me with my college boyfriend— or getting realistic about your expectations and not expecting yourself to be able to do things that are inhumane that nobody else that you would not expect anybody else to be able to accomplish.

I promise that alignment is just not as hard as your brain is making it out to be.

I want you to focus on facts over feelings, basically data over drama, facts over feelings.

Write everything down so that your brain can stop doing that swoopy thing where it's constantly looking and looking for what it is.

What is the next thing you're supposed to be doing right now when you know your priority and you want support to bring that thing to life?

That's when the Magnetic Words Power Group can really be helpful for you. I've created a very small group of only five people that's starting in January to take your brilliant ideas and leverage them into words that make you money.

So it's a very small group experience that's for people who want someone to go along this ride with them, kind of holding their hand, giving them accountability, tons of feedback so they can create the impact they've wanted to in their business.

Like if you wanted to create a content strategy, up level your lead magnet, overhaul your website, bring a program to life, bring a course to life, whatever it is.

If you've wanted eyes, ears and hands on your project so you're not working in a silo, with feedback, with support, with guidance, the Magnetic Words Power Group might be a great option for you!

It keeps you out of distraction and it gets this thing crossed off the list. I just want you to think about how you would feel when how you will feel when this thing is crossed off your list.

Major alignment, right?

If you're looking to take your ideas and leverage them into words that make your business and money, go to the Magnetic Words Power Group information page, you can go to https://www.jenliddy.com/magnetic  and you'll be able to learn about how the program works.

We can get on a call to talk about if you're a good fit for it. Now, as of this recording, I only have three spots left. We start in the middle to end of January and I would love to know if this is a good fit for you.

So go ahead over there and check out https://www.jenliddy.com/magnetic!

I’d like to say happy happy holidays. I know this season can feel heavy for some people, but it's not all about being merry and light.

I know that from my personal experience too. I spend a lot of time managing my emotions and my thoughts during the season.

I just want to say I'll be thinking of you in my audience and I wish you a happy holiday and happy New Year and I will see you on the other side of 2022 with much more support for your business, marketing and your content coming your way in!