RR#106 - A content creator’s dilemma: efficiency vs. enjoyment
For over 4 years, I've been churning out content online - LinkedIn posts, tweets, YouTube videos, newsletters, you name it. A back of the napkin estimate is more than 5,000+ pieces of new content created.
To publish that much while running a business, and without an enormous budget or team, I had to get systematic about it.
The content system we’ve built for my business will now publish around 85 new pieces of content weekly - nearly 4,500 per year.
And last year, I had an ambitious goal:
To get the amount of time I spend on social media down to 2 hours per week — all in. That means writing newsletters, creating LinkedIn posts, recording YouTube videos, approving content, engaging with people in comments, and everything else.
2 hours per week.
And you know what, we f-ing did it.
Until last week, the amount of time I invested on activities related to social media was just under 2 hours per week. Now, full disclosure, I do have 2 people on my team focused almost exclusively on helping me build, execute, and maintain this content system. But we achieved the goal of systematizing social media for me down to 2 hours per week.
All things the same, in that modest investment of time, we’ll drive over 4 million impressions and $1M+ in sales. Not bad for someone who thought LinkedIn was an online resume and most ‘influencers’ were attention whores just 5 years ago.
But…
As I've built and refined this content machine, three broad lessons have emerged:
1. Systems enable scalability.
As an online business, if you aren’t systematizing the time you invest on social media content and engagement, you'll inevitably plateau or burn out. I've seen countless consultants and coaches hit a $20K/month ceiling through LinkedIn content marketing, only to lose motivation and watch engagement dwindle as resentment towards their content sets in.
The culprit? Failing to transition from sweat equity to optimized systems.
Many mistakenly believe the more time they invest in creating a piece of content, the more valuable it is. But that's a limiting belief, because systematizing troubleshoots issues faster, ensures consistency, allows for reliable projections, and prevents burnout so you can scale sustainably.
In other words, systems create the opportunity to grow and scale, however…
2. You can over systematize things
Systems are a double-edged sword, especially if you use them to remove yourself from something you enjoy.
I was drawn to content marketing because I like writing, which made it easy to write online every day for 4 years. But after achieving my 2-hour goal, I realized I no longer enjoyed creating content.
Sure, starting a timer to write a LinkedIn post made me efficient. But it also felt like working on an assembly line (that I helped create).
I systematized myself out of doing something I enjoyed.
3. Engaging online has a massive impact.
Organically building an audience online takes a lot of time and effort.
Replying to comments and finding other creators to engage with is the secret sauce. But it is time consuming.
I systematized this with the help of my team, 4 years of content to reference, and AI.
The problem?
Engaging with your audience and other creators provides valuable insights into what resonates and what works for others. If you're not paying attention, you might miss critical information.
So, why am I sharing this?
To emphasize the importance of building systems to avoid burnout.
To highlight the risk of “over-systematizing.”
To reinforce the importance of personally engaging your community.
And to let you on this email list be the first to know that you will see some changes in content soon.
It’ll be the result of ‘the dog catching the car’ on a wickedly awesome content system, only to find that it wasn’t what I wanted.
I’ll be un-systematizing some things in my business to strike a balance between efficiency, effectiveness, sustainability, and enjoyment.
Because I vehemently believe, if I don’t like a substantial part of the role I’ve created for myself, I’ve done it wrong.
I’ll be sharing more insights with you in coming weeks and months, and details of the system we built with my coaching clients and community.
Hope this learning has been helpful for you in some way.
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