How to Repurpose Content to Promote Your Business

[00:00:00] Jen McFarland: the women conquer business show is an educational, how-to, women in business podcast that features stories, marketing news and real life experiences from fun and friendly hosts Jen McFarland and Shelley Carney. Join us as we dive into the details so you can slay marketing overwhelm, streamline processes, and amplify your impact.

You'll learn strategies and tactics, leadership skills, and practical advice from successful women entrepreneurs. To help you grow, nurture, and sustain your business.

[00:01:19] Shelley Carney: We're live.

[00:01:21] Jen McFarland: Hello and welcome to women conquer business. I'm Jen McFarland joined by Shelley Carney. Today we are going to talk about repurposing your content to promote your small business. We know that you don't have a lot of time to create a million different things. So we are going to, we, this is maybe the Royal We today.

Shelley is taking over. That’s the bonus of having a co-host. And we are going to talk about how to repurpose the content. Shelley's taking the lead, and we are going to give you a system for how to do this and make it easier. So it's actually manageable for you to create things, have them be interesting, have them go out to your audience on all the different places without stressing yourself.

[00:02:09] Shelley Carney: So because people like Jen are very busy traveling here, hither and Yon. Tell us about what's coming up for you, Jen.

[00:02:20] Jen McFarland: Yeah, so I it's Thursday, January 27th. And in a couple of days I'm heading out to Southern Oregon. I used to do this all the time, traveling around the state, talking about digital marketing to small business owners and I haven't gone.

I've done it all virtual. I am traveling to Southern Oregon next week. And I also am speaking to and that's a small group local, and then I also am scheduled to teach virtually for the rational unicorn legal services. I interviewed Michael Jonas from there on an earlier show. Yeah, he is a really amazing guy.

Nice man. And he is, he brings together community. So he's the rare attorney. Maybe the only one in the world really cares about community. And he works with artists and creatives and small business owners. And he has a series called the more. And he brings in people to speak. And that is virtual a webinar, all about digital marketing essentials that I'll be giving it's in may, but they're already taking, registrations for that.

And yeah, it's just the beginning of, the busy spring season. Getting out there and doing things and it's pretty exciting. So what what about you, Shelley? What do you have going on?

[00:03:42] Shelley Carney: I have to stay flexible for my husband because he's going through cancer treatments over the next couple of months.

But Toby and I did try some in-person networking last night and we were invited by somebody we both know through LinkedIn. And it's an event that was five minutes from Toby's house. So we thought we'll go there, we'll have dinner, we'll meet some people. We went to the place and it's a fairly new restaurant, there's another one in Rio Rancho.

There's two of them now. It's called turtle mountain brewery and I had eaten at the one further south in Rio Rancho. And it's a wonderful place to to enjoy New Mexico, beer, wine and spirits, as well as New Mexico themed Pizza, sandwiches, and all kinds of food. Toby had steak and it was wonderful.

[00:04:36] Jen McFarland: A lot of chilies. I love new Mexican food

[00:04:40] Shelley Carney: I had a calzone which was, they make a beautiful calzone. Calzone is not easy to make correctly because you have to ensure that all the dough gets cooked, but it's not burned on the outside. But anyway, we went to the event and we signed in and it got more and more crowded in a small area.

And we're just like, no, let's scurry away. So went to the other side of the restaurant and didn't network.

[00:05:25] Jen McFarland: I feel that I'm, like I said, I'm traveling to speak and I CA it gives me. The nerves and it's just it was fishy podcasts. When I spoke there before I left I had all of the energy that was like, oh my gosh, I haven't done this for a couple of years now.

And it's weird. Yeah it's an interesting time to be alive. That's for sure. And it's a really hard time, I think, for entrepreneurs to meet people. Are you finding that to be the case in?

[00:05:36] Shelley Carney: I think we have enjoyed networking online so much that we've gotten used to that and to meet in person is now again a big hurdle, especially for introverts.

And especially if you're worried about the coronavirus, even if you have had your shots and you're wearing a mask. If you can't maintain that distance and other people aren't wearing their masks and they're wanting to shake your hand and you're like, no, and you run away.

[00:06:04] Jen McFarland: Yeah, no I totally get it and I can't wait for it to be over. I think that's pretty universal. People are ready to be done. Okay so should we get started?

[00:06:14] Shelley Carney: Yeah, let's get into breaking news. I'm going to start putting up little, breaking news music.

[00:06:20] Jen McFarland: I would love that I was looking at sound effects. I use something called upbeat and I was like, I wonder if they have things like that, and you've got all the fancy video stuff over there, so I'm sure that you've got all the music we're going to get.

As I think of NBC news, like dun, duh like for breaking news, I like it. So what'd you got Shelley? Give us the breaking news.

[00:06:41] Shelley Carney: So Toby and I have been completing our process of putting together a book. We started it when we went to the conference the She Podcasts live conference that we went to together and that's where Jen and I met.

And all the interviews that we gathered 18 interviews. Plus we have an introduction and epilogue and my interview, which I just typed in the answers to the questions that I asked to everybody else. So we have basically 19 chapters plus an introduction and an epilogue chapter. So it's a good size book.

It's going to be about 300 pages and we are uploading it to Amazon this weekend and we created the cover. We're going to finish up all of that work and we should have it out. We're hoping February 1st, February 2nd Groundhog day.

[00:07:28] Jen McFarland: Woo. Like in four days. Amazing. And that is the heart of what we're talking about today.

So you went, you interviewed people, you create a podcast episodes about it. You made blog posts about it. And now it is going to be a book released in four days that. Repurposing content. And when Shelley said that they were doing this, I was like, oh, let's talk about that. Because I think a lot of people, and if you're watching, please send us your comments and questions about this.

We are. A hundred percent all about like reusing stuff and redoing stuff. So it's really that quick. Huh? Like you can just upload it into Amazon and wait,

[00:08:13] Shelley Carney: I had actually hoped to get it out by Christmas, but we got a little, we got a little lazy and slowed down a few things, but yeah.

[00:08:22] Jen McFarland: Know it is that quick for that quick. That's it just I'm going to sell this book now and just uploading it. Wow. What else you got on the breaking? That's pretty breaking to me.

[00:08:32] Shelley Carney: oh, we did a video. We did a video on it yesterday, Toby and I, what we did well, we did a live show, which then of course, turns into a podcast and we’re going to transcribe that audio and that becomes the epilogue for the book. And a blog probably. I don't know.

[00:08:48] Jen McFarland: So I think that for many people, this is like how do you even go about doing that? And when I first started my business, it's weird, you go to things and you're like that seems really overwhelming. And you file it away.

But I remember one of the. Groups that I went to introduce me to the concept and it's from Brendan Bouchard, who's a coach, a business and life coach, and it's called circular viralocity is what he calls it. Have you heard of this concept? Shelly?

[00:09:18] Shelley Carney: I was in Brendan's group for a while, so I have seen his video of that.

[00:09:23] Jen McFarland: At the time I was like that sounds really overwhelming, but philosophically, that's what you're doing. So what he did. Or it did at one point anyway, was one day a month. He records four videos. Those four videos go up onto YouTube. The transcript becomes a blog and the audio becomes a podcast.

And the idea is that people consume content differently. Perhaps. And I think that this is true, that people who listen to podcasts, maybe you don't watch videos all the time. The people who like to read, which is who I am, we don't watch as many videos or listened to as many podcasts. And I can say for me, that's definitely true, and so what the idea is you make it as easy as possible to create one thing and then share it to people in different ways so that you're getting more coverage around people. Who consume content differently. And that, that was introduced to me like day one. And I was like what I was like really overwhelmed because I didn't want to do video.

I was really afraid and, but look at where we are now. That was like five years ago. So things change and things evolve. And I can honestly say that. Like through this experience we're doing now. And then in the projects that I've worked on, not only with my clients, but also personally that this type of philosophy of you make something one time and share it.

A lot of different ways is really a good way to find success. And not stress yourself out. Shelly's going to share today a little bit about the framework that, that her and Toby have in the, with the idea that we're helping you repurpose your content to promote your business.

[00:11:02] Shelley Carney: Exactly. And to Jen's point, this sounds overwhelming at first, but keep in mind that Toby and I started with YouTube videos because that's what we were good at. We have that technology and we had that experience and expertise. So we started with YouTube videos. Then eventually went to live videos, then eventually added in the other materials. And when I say eventually this is months and years not, let's do it this week and next week we'll have this and next week I'll have that.

We've been building this for years. So start small, start with what you can do, and then add on. Jen started with a podcast and then I eased her into, Hey, let's do it as a live stream and then a podcast.

[00:11:45] Jen McFarland: Yeah. To be fair, I started with a blog. I love to write, I love to write and it's like my thing.

When I work with people and talk to people I say, just start with the thing that you like, and then, but always keep that little thing in the back of your mind that you could do something else with it to get a broader audience. And so like for you guys, that was, that's a hundred percent like making videos, and then I think I've talked about it before. I knew that I needed to do videos and I practiced and I found a platform called . It's like a. An offshoot, of tick tock, but that's more for business owners and things. And I just practice making one minute videos. Like I challenged myself to do it, and this was a couple of years ago and I learned how to like, look at the camera and how to talk.

And I just got that practice and I got some feedback like from people and sometimes it's just something like that you can do to build a little bit of confidence. And so what we're hoping to achieve today is. Help you like, think about this stuff, grow that muscle so you can get a little confidence and eventually either enlist the help of somebody, like one of us or start embarking on it yourself.

[00:12:57] Shelley Carney: Yeah. So we're going to just cover the what's, the why's and the why should we do this and what good is it going to do me? And I don't know why we started at that. There we go. That's our first line. One of the reasons we went. Do this, we want to reach new audiences and to do that.

We're going to hit people where they live. Okay. I like video. I like audio and I like text, but which ones. Actually audio. I like, because I can put on that headset, go for a walk and multitask. When you're watching a video, you're going to have to sit still, but videos are great if you're doing it as a group or, with a couple of people, you can watch a video together and then talk about that.

But when we were creating our videos, first, I had to write an outline or create slides. As you see here, I create slides that keep me on track so that I can remember what they wanted to talk about. And it helps the visual audience to see pictures and to see words and to help them to absorb that information.

So everybody learns and absorbs information in a different way. Some people just really need to see it in a video. Some people will love it in an audio. Some people want to read it. Now, if you're doing video you can put your video out on YouTube and Facebook as alive or prerecorded video. And then you can also use that.

Material as a course, you can put it together and create a course on Jen's done that. She's got at least one, I don't know. I've taken one of yours. I don't know how many courses you have a few and if you coming

[00:14:39] Jen McFarland: that's right for the Strategic Marketing Membership. Yeah.

[00:14:41] Shelley Carney: Great way to teach because it incorporates the sound and the visual. And a lot of times you get downloads like PDFs and checklists and that sort of thing, along with the course so that you can also have that text-based product with audio, you get a podcast, you can create short audio grams which may be, is just, really. Quote, or a little short conversation that took place in a longer piece, you can create an, a short audio gram that, that presents your material to the world.

And then you can also do audio books.

[00:15:16] Jen McFarland: And to, you've all seen audiograms all the time and you don't know it what that is. If you're on Facebook, I've seen a ton of them on Instagram, it's like a clip and it's either like the people talking with the transcript below, or if you make them indescript, which is what we both do.

I know Shelley is, it's a background with the words over the top, and then you can either listen or read along. The pithy quote that somebody is using from their show and they're really fun and playful and a good way to share little snippets that get people out there.

[00:15:47] Shelley Carney: And Toby, and I spent some time yesterday just playing with that, playing with the audiograms, playing with the new descript tools just in really enjoying it together and came up with some, something new.

And it's Be creative and

[00:15:59] Jen McFarland: yeah, just play with it, and so then text, we can do what you got for us.

[00:16:05] Shelley Carney: Of course, you can have a blog, you can start with a blog or you can end with a blog. You can, of course slides like you see here. You can do a new. Which you can email out to people and you can also use that same newsletter on LinkedIn.

There's a creator function on LinkedIn, where you can send out a newsletter to your LinkedIn followers, which is great. If you don't have them all on your email list, you can still reach out to them in that way. Yeah, of course you can do a social media quote, just writing the words and then putting it up on social media or you can create guides and books with your written word.

[00:16:42] Jen McFarland: Yeah, which is what you've done. And also, I think you're going to share in a little bit about the lead magnet. So you take part of what you've talked about and you make that into some sort of product that you can use on your website and social media to attract people in and sign up and be on your newsletter, for example, or come in as a new client or a potential client.

And when I look at these three, the nerd in me. The nerd is strong with her, I will say is that of the three text is still the one in terms of search, so showing up on Google, it's still like the low hanging fruit Google is figuring out video and audio. Quickly. And it's like much closer, I think on the video side than it is on audio, which may be surprising, but Google owns YouTube.

There's that. If you have a long-term content marketing, Strategy or a plan. It really does help to have text in it at some point just because if you have a platform like a website and you are putting that text on there, it really does help over time. But it is the long game.

I really encourage people to have something with words on their website to really help bring people.

[00:17:57] Shelley Carney: That's right. I, every day I get at least four emails from WordPress saying, liked your blog. This blog is following your blog. And it's people I've never heard of, and they wouldn't have their wines find me if it wasn't for that blog.

[00:18:12] Jen McFarland: Yeah. So it's important. It's a good thing to do.

[00:18:16] Shelley Carney: And another thing that repurposing your content can do is reinforcing your message. A lot of times we have to stay in touch with people, right? So they don't forget who we are. We need to start with a high value authoritative content, meaning something like this podcast where we're offering value, we're teaching we're training, we're sharing what we do and how it works for us.

And then we consistently deliver that we're here every Thursday, delivering this content and the older content continues to stay up on YouTube and anywhere else we placed it. And then we have that repetition so that we can stay top of mind and that repetition occurs when we are in all these different places.

We have videos out. We have video clips, we have audio grams, we have a podcast, we have blogs. We have all of this material out there that you continually see. And if you're on our email list, you're getting it again there. So we stay top of mind and we have visibility. Everybody knows we exist and we have credibility.

Everybody says, Hey, they really know what they're doing when it comes to marketing and content creation. So I listen to them.

[00:19:28] Jen McFarland: well, and I think too, what we forget as entrepreneurs. And it's a thing that I teach over and over again is.

[00:20:47] Shelley Carney: And it used to be seven. And then I think because so many people have gone online now it's more like 30 because there's so many things going on in your life and in your day you need to see somebody 30 times before they're differentiated from anybody else.

[00:21:01] Jen McFarland: Right. Yeah, 30. I liked nine better. That was the time for that.

[00:21:08] Shelley Carney: So why what else we can do with that repurposing of content is we can improve our organic visibility. Organic just means going, you're not paying for it other than with our time and effort. We're not shelling out bucks for advertising. We want to start with optimized content. Jen, what is optimized content to you?

[00:21:28] Jen McFarland: So to me, my favorite definition of search engine optimization or getting found on Google. So a lot of people talk about SEO really fundamentally. This is, do you come up on search? So optimized content to me. And speaking to a small business owner who are most of the people that I talk to really what we're, what SEO is answering customer's questions.

That's really all that it is. So the work to doing that is you optimize your content to be speaking to your audience about things that they care about, and then using the same words that they use. Yes, you sound really smart when you use jargon or when you speak over people's heads and that kind of thing.

But you're not actually answering the customer's questions.

[00:22:13] Shelley Carney: You're not really helping them location with you've given me a lot to think about I'll get back to you.

[00:22:18] Jen McFarland: Yeah. Optimized content. It means you're, you are speaking to your ideal customer. You are using the words that they use and you're answering their questions most importantly.

And I know that you have answer FAQ's. That's a huge part of it, but most of the time people are on Google or search, whether it's they're searching social or someplace else, and they're asking questions, like they want to know something. So the easiest, quickest way to optimize your content is to find the key questions and just.

Answering them. And that's the key thing to optimize and content. Now that said you can also work with a specialist. Somebody like me, I, it is the long game I was telling Toby before we went live that I have this blog post. I really care about. It's a review of ClickFox. Which is not a product that I really recommend for small businesses.

And I worked and worked on optimizing it over time, refining the words that I use change, tweaking it. And now if you look up click funnels, review. At the top or near the top of search and is starting to get some more attention, but it did take a year to really find on every single word and not everybody has that kind of time.

I feel particularly passionate about that topic because because it's a really expensive app that costs a lot of clients time and energy that maybe they don't have. So I was willing to put in the work. So there's like a professional level of optimizing content, but for everybody here, Listening or watching it really is about answering customer.

[00:23:51] Shelley Carney: Absolutely. And of course at the more formats you can put that in. As Jen said, the blog is probably number one because that's text-based and Google confined that quickly. But Google is also going to show you videos and then may even recommend podcasts that are in that topic. But mostly it's going to show you.

Blogs and videos on Google. If you type in a question so very various formats and a variety of content. So you might want to write 10 blogs about a particular topic, click funnels this and click funnels that, and I'll think about this too. And then you'd have even more, you would be the expert in that, right?

Answering those questions, identifying. Frustrating obstacles that, that your customers would have, and you want to hit those emotional hot buttons because people buy what they want based on their emotions. And then they justify it later with logic. So you gotta hit.

[00:24:51] Jen McFarland: Absolutely. And so for me I don't want to write about ClickFunnels all the time.

Like I wrote that one post and I was like, okay, I got that all out there. What I needed to say, but what you can do is set up like broad topics. So you could say click funnels is a part of digital marketing. So the anchor. Like the pillar content could be like, what is digital marketing actually done this?

So what is digital marketing? And then you have all these offshoots, right? And it's your big topic is digital marketing, you want to talk about sales funnels and email marketing and like all of these topics and each one of those feeds back into what is digital marketing?

So one of the exercises you can do about I don't really know what to talk about. It's you start with that big surface that you. Whatever that service is. And then you think about all the subtopics that kind of come off of that. And those are your other areas of expertise and you take those other areas of expertise and you just slowly.

Answer the questions related to those areas of expertise. And then over time you have this huge body of work, and it's really just you answering the questions that you answer over the course of your day, over and over again in a format that is. For people to consume. And if you're worried about just I'm not going to give away the farm.

It's you have to understand people like, look at this stuff. And they may not actually do it. They need to actually talk to you in order to do it. So it's, it is about, positioning yourself as a leader in your area over. That's right. And that's how you do that. Yeah. And you provide value and like over, over time, this organic visibility, it continues to grow as you continue to add to.

Whatever that topic is that you want to talk about.

[00:26:33] Shelley Carney: And if you're providing that value for free, people are like if they're providing this much value for free, how much value when I get from them, if I paid them something,

[00:26:42] Jen McFarland: oh, absolutely. Like I talk about all this stuff. And I think people are like, wow and cause I give a lot away and I'm like, yeah, you got to talk to me offline.

I don't know if there's a lot more in there,

[00:26:54] Shelley Carney: pull that information. You want to provide unique solutions to or you want to, narrow down your niche. To, for instance, we work with Encore entrepreneurs who are experiencing technology obstacles that keep them from. Doing this content marketing.

So we can, we focus on that and that, they're, they're eating issues and our unique solutions for that. And when we do that, all of this optimized content gives us more access to search real estate where, you can find us on Google. You can find us on Facebook. You can find us wherever you do that search function.

We are there. We'll pop up apps. So here for those of you watching is a graph of how to repurpose your content. Starting with a live stream, start with a live stream, which gives you a video file and an audio file. And the video as a live stream. Immediately currently right now we are distributing to one to two Facebook sites LinkedIn, and two YouTube channels and a Twitter account.

So right now, all at once, we are distributing this content in this video format to those places.

[00:28:14] Jen McFarland: I think the important thing too is to say we're using stream yard. We hook everything up in stream yard. Platforms for this restream Mellon, all kinds of stuff. And we don't, once you hook it up once you'll have to do it every time.

[00:28:28] Shelley Carney: That's right. So it's really not that hard. So go, am I going to go to LinkedIn today? Yes,

[00:28:33] Jen McFarland: no. Yeah. So it's, so when we talk about we're going everywhere, like just understand that we did it one time and now we don't have to worry about it. So carry on. Sorry. Shall we,

[00:28:43] Shelley Carney: Video file will turn into something that you can use. And clips, you want to, if you want to make clips out of your video and put them up on places like Twitter, Instagram, Tech-Talk YouTube shorts. However you want to use that as opposed to drive people to your longer video. Then the audio file. We send it to different places to de script, to be transcribed into text and into a podcast distribution, so that it comes to the very important places like Amazon, Google, apple, Spotify, listen notes, and.

At least 35 more places that it will go, but those are the top the heavy that audience, heavy places or those, and that transcript becomes. WordPress blog. And like I said, I get at least four emails a day telling me that somebody's looking at my blog because it's on WordPress. WordPress is excellent for that.

What do you think, Jen?

[00:29:45] Jen McFarland: Yeah, I agree. And for this show we, aren't doing a blog. We are adding the transcript to the episode page for the podcast. Mostly because I don't have. For blogging. Shelly doesn't have time for blogging. It's how the show's been around for a long time.

It's just how it's been set up. So you have flexibility around that. And if you're looking at this and you're thinking, wow, this is still a lot of work, understand that there are actually now podcast programs out there that will allow you to go direct from direct without having to do anything, go direct from YouTube to.

For example. So you can automate a lot of this process, without opening up. So soundwise as an example of a program that will repurpose your YouTube channel as a podcast, and you don't have to do anything, And so for some people that may be like, okay, that's easy. I can do that for other people.

Having the steps where you're taking that audio file and downloading the transcript and adding it, that can be really meaningful. So with the transcript, it's more valuable probably to have a blog, but a transcript is words and Google likes words. And as long as the words are talking about the same topic as.

Called the page. You're still going to get some value out of it. But I think that this is phenomenal. This is what you know, this is, at the beginning I was saying, Brendan, Bouchard's circular. Viralocity what Shelly is sharing here is how the small business owner can do that. And I think it's really powerful and something that could be implemented today or a goal for a business owner down in the.

[00:31:24] Shelley Carney: That's right. And you can start at any point, like Jen said, whatever you like doing, if you like blogging, do that. If we like podcasting do that. If you like live video, do that. Whatever's easy and fun for you because if it's easy and fun, you're more likely to do it.

[00:31:39] Jen McFarland: That's right. Keep it fun. Keep it loose.

Have a good.

[00:31:44] Shelley Carney: So you want to build visibility for your brand? That's the whole reason we're doing this, right? It's getting our name out there, getting our product out there, getting our ideas, becoming a thought leader, becoming known in our field. And these are some of the things that we've created to help people with that.

And again, they come from our original ideas, our content, and then we build them up and they become things, right? Like they become. Ebook or a guide or a checklist, and then you add them all to your website and you're, if people join your email list, they can have all three of these books are available to you.

If you're doing AGK media.studio, go there. Email list and you get all threes and that awesome. You'll get client attraction, podcast, star visibility for your podcast. How easy is that?

[00:32:37] Jen McFarland: Yeah, and I have something similar. W when she said we she's talking about her and Toby, and then over on the women conquer business side of the house, I have something similar where I've created, I think, eight or nine different guides and eBooks around digital marketing for small business owners. So these are really good ways again, to position yourself, get people on your email list, because we know that, for example, if you're watching this on YouTube, we can't really engage with you on an. Way, unless you join our email list, which is a more captive audience and that sort of thing.

So as a business owner, it really is about getting people on your email list. And this is one of the ways that is very powerful for getting people on there. You can make videos and attract people in. You can also do things like eBooks. And I'm very intrigued and I really can't wait to hear about how.

How this Amazon experience plays out as well, because that's not coming from your website that is going out into Amazon land where that's a whole different ballgame. Being out on another platform is yet another way of doing it. Meaning you don't even have to have your own website to put things out on that.

[00:33:53] Shelley Carney: That's right. And it helps you to get more visibility because there's a lot of people checking out Amazon to see what's there and checking out those things that are keywords. If you're talking about marketing or podcasting and they're looking for that, they will find your book. So it's a great place.

[00:34:12] Jen McFarland: Yeah. And we recently for the Strategic Marketing Membership, we put out a mini course on podcasting, on AppSumo marketplace. That's a marketplace for entrepreneurs and we put out the ultimate podcast planning checklist. So that's for people who want to, who are, want to have a podcast, but don't know where to begin. And that was another thing similar to Amazon where, you're putting something on a website that.

A lot of traffic, and just seeing if you can attract people, it's been a wonderful experience for the Strategic Marketing Membership. It's a great list building exercise, which is really what we used it for. It's very low cost product high value, low cost, high value. And we've gotten a lot of people to sign up who wouldn't have known about us otherwise.

[00:34:56] Shelley Carney: Yeah. Yeah. You're there you're everywhere. It's fun because if you appear on somebody's podcast or as a speaker somewhere, and they say, where can we find you? And your name just Google me. I'm everywhere.

[00:35:10] Jen McFarland: I know. Sometimes people are like, oh Jen McFarland. I feel like I know you. And I'm like you do what?

Like I, and I forget that, the more you do this stuff, the more people like seen you or heard of you and. You know what, I'm an introvert. So I still get kinda, I get weirded out by it, but it is cool. It's neat. It means the work is paying off and it's always a, an honor and a privilege when somebody, acknowledges the work and sees it.

So yeah, it's a cool thing. And. And you can promote your business. I think Shelly would agree with me on this, that it's not that you're constantly promoting your business. It's that, you are reminding people of what you do and you're providing value and giving people a reason to stick around.

[00:35:52] Shelley Carney: That's right. I remember when first. Starting to be somebody in the local film industry. I when I took classes, I created a web series. I created a television talk show for our public access. I, I was involved in film festivals. I was involved in the 48 hour film project. I was in a lot of places and people would find me on Facebook.

They would find my profile and they would friend me and I didn't know them, but they knew me because I was very visible in all of these places. And whenever I'd go anywhere and networking event or whatever people would say, oh, I see you everywhere. And I'm like you do, because I was, involved in all these things had an audience.

[00:36:40] Jen McFarland: Yeah. And it becomes normal. So we've, we're back. Is this the third episode we've done back? And I will say that today was the first time. I wasn't all nervous about it. Like I'm still nervous, but it's not that. Energy. So it, you have to, I would say consistency helps you just as much as it helps the visibility, it helps you become more comfortable with what it is that you're doing.

And talking about. It is a muscle that you need to flex if you want to do this. Which is to say, getting out there, talking about what you do and then slowly building the systems to make sure that it gets on as much. Platforms and places as possible.

[00:37:22] Shelley Carney: That's right now I doing this. I've been doing this for years and I'm very comfortable. Just turn on the camera. Just go. That's okay. But I could also do that in a public place if I needed to, because I have practiced. And when you know, you feel practiced and you feel ready and you've done it live enough times, that I, I. I'll come up with something, you

[00:37:45] Jen McFarland: know, and I can do that. I've done a lot of training and a lot of, I can do in person. I think that, there's something about this permanence of putting it out and the weird thing is when I work with people, I'm like, oh, you can just delete it. Nothing is forever. And that's true to an extent. It really is true. And at the same time, when you make things like this, you don't want to have to go back and do it again, and you want it to be perfect. And I would say, Again, go back and watch the first videos put out by people. They're not amazing. It takes time and you have to give yourself that grace and that feeling around, what it is that, that you are doing and know that it just gets easier and better as you go.

[00:38:29] Shelley Carney: Okay. It is say you, so say you discover a podcast that you really like, and they're on episode three. Are you going to go back to episode one and start with episode one and listen all the way to 300? Probably not because they're doing it every week or twice a week or whatever it is. So why not just listen to the current content? They don't go back anyway. So that's what.

[00:38:52] Jen McFarland: But in this case, if you are worried about repurposing your content and you aren't as profesh, or you don't think you are as other people go back and listen to those first episodes of that 300 episode podcast. And you'll feel a lot better about it because you'll realize everybody had to start somewhere.

[00:39:11] Shelley Carney: That's right.

[00:39:12] Jen McFarland: And if you're hitching a ride on somebody, who's that like episode 300, they've figured some things out that make it easier for them that make them sound better, that give them comfort and just know that they felt like you did before they got started.

[00:39:26] Shelley Carney: If you look at the catalog, you may see that they talk about the same thing quite a lot, because there's always updates. Right.

[00:39:34] Jen McFarland: Oh man. Things change. I'll tell you that is the thing. Like I, in teaching digital marketing in this day and age, it's like that the first couple of years it was like, I'd make changes, but it wasn't like these wholesale changes now it's every day you've look at it and go, okay, nevermind.

I can't talk about that anymore. It's not really relevant. We're living in. Extraordinary times where things are changing on such a frequent constant basis, that you are never going to run out of things to talk about that's in your field because it's just, it just keeps going and it doesn't even have to be like what we do, which is, marketing and content creation.

It can be anything that just, it just everything's changing. Everything's changing. Any other, anything else to share?

[00:40:26] Shelley Carney: I'm going to share a little tweak of the week tool. Yeah. So as you can see here, these are books that I've created and aren't, they fancy in their little 3d modeling.

This is a product that we use called Book Brush. And this week we took this photo that Toby and I took together, I styled it. This is my notebook and my pen and my phone and his microphone and headset that he got from she podcasts conference. Isn't that cool? Yeah. And then he's got these backgrounds and little flower, and so we, I wanted something very feminine.

I wanted something that you look at the picture and it says feminine broadcast, feminine podcast. I want, that's what you should say, that when you see it, and then we took that picture and

it's a period of, I don't want to do that. Okay. So then we took the picture that we created and we put it in as a book. And put a filter over it to make it look like a, an oil painting, look to it so that the words in the title would pop a little bit more out from it. And it was super easy using book brush, but brush is a tool that you can find online.

They have a free version that you can use just to try it out and see if you like it. And then they have different levels of what they offer. There is a product called Atticus put out by Dave. Chesson the, Kindlepreneur where he helps you to, if you're going to write a book or if you're going to format a book, you can use this product.

And it's linked with book brush so that the cover and the the formatting Atticus, they go together, they work together well. Yeah. And you can do those 3d things, 3d mock-ups of books, or it looks like it's on your cell phone or on a tablet or whatever. They have a lot of really great options and that's my little tip of the week,

[00:42:25] Jen McFarland: which so to, to make the like super easy. You have to realize one of the advantages of creating video with transcripts is that then you can take those transcripts and make them into a book that's like phenomenal. And so if you're thinking don't have time to write a book what are you doing? You do. If you're making stuff, if you're talking a lot, and there are, if you don't want to do it yourself, there are people out there who that's, what they do.

They take those transcripts. They do the ghost writing and they make it into a cohesive book. So sometimes you may need help, but there are a lot of tools out there that make it easy. The book publishing tool that we're exploring and using is called published drive. It does many of the same things I think that Atticus does and incorporates distribution to Amazon and other places helps you with the marketing. So like mark. Your book on Amazon is like a whole different animal than pushing things out to social media and things like that. So there are a lot of tools out there to really help you create we're in really the age of the creator.

And if it excites you to think about being a little creative there's a lot out there to really facilitate that and make it something that does not take up all of your time, supports your business with marketing and. Can really help you promote and speak to what it is that you do.

[00:43:45] Shelley Carney: My mom used to say, I'm not creative. I don't, I can't draw, or I can't do this or that. And I was like, you're crazy because she could do crewel needlework. She one time my brother came home from school and he had to come up with a poem about Paul Bunyan and she helped him write a poem about Paul Bunyan. She's just, if you ask her to do something for you in sewing, can you, so this, can you create some, she made my wedding dress with she named me have a pattern. She pieced a bunch of things together, made my wedding dress. This is, she's very creative, but she would deny that because of painting or drawing or something. So if you're saying to yourself, I'm not creative, I can't come up with ideas. I can't write a blog post. I can't do this. Just throw that story away for a while, put that on the back burner and ignore that story and just let yourself have fun with it.

[00:44:37] Jen McFarland: Yeah. And I guess at that flows into kind of my tweak of the week, I'm currently reading atomic habits by James clear, it's probably one of the. Famous books out there about habits and. And I'd never read it before, but it's really about making small changes and how those small changes lead to big results.

And one of the things that I say to people, through the prosper Portland program, it's a digital marketing group that I'm a part of, I'm a consultant for it is, we're not looking for people to change like wholesale what they're doing. If you have to make a one degree shift, it can be really big.

And the example we always use. If a plane takes off and they're off by one degree, it's the difference? Like leaving from LA, that's the difference between New York and Charlotte? It's a huge difference in terms of over the long haul. And I think that in terms of.

Everything that we've talked about today, we're really talking about those shifts. Everybody's creative. Everybody does wonderful, cool stuff. So how can you make that one degree shift into possibly a little bit of discomfort in the beginning, but something that is really wonderful. Over the long haul.

And I think that is a big thing for me, that book is I'm like, oh, okay I can do like little things every morning that like, just make the household run a little bit better. Like I'm using it for my personal life. And then finding ways to put it into my business life. And I think that everybody has those opportunities.

And I love that book. I think it's I think it's really cool and helpful.

[00:46:10] Shelley Carney: So what's one new habit you started this month.

[00:46:14] Jen McFarland: One new habit. I started this month. The show, what new habit I started this month

[00:46:19] Shelley Carney: cheater.

[00:46:19] Jen McFarland: I know what I've been, know what I've been doing this week and part of it is I've realized that I've just felt overwhelmed. So I downloaded the app calm and I'm doing a lot to center my mind around. Like what is actually happening versus the story I've told, because in COVID times, it's really easy to get really overwhelmed by just everything that's going on in the world.

So I've been doing that. I haven't been watching TV, which is cool. And then in the mornings, now I'm doing a lot more pittering around the house to like, organize it in ways that all these little projects that I'd had instead of I don't know, just waking up and not really doing a lot.

So those are the things that I'm working on. They're all little things, and then we'll just see what happens, it's all an experiment. So that's what I've been. Those are my habits. Do you have any,

[00:47:08] Shelley Carney: I started a the Stoics 365 days journaling. So it's gosh, I can't remember the name of the Ryan holiday Ryan holiday. He wrote a book called I think it's the Stoics way or something about the Stoics. And and then he added on a journal so that he would ask a question. And every day you answer that question, you read the, it's like a paragraph short paragraph about the Stoics and what they said and why the, what they were thinking.

And then. What, and it's all about personal development, basically. It's not about denying yourself everything. It's just personal development and being aware and appreciative of what's going on in the moment. And so I've been journaling every day, every morning, and it doesn't take long. You know about maybe a paragraph and it just helps me to stay in the moment and appreciate what's going on right now.

[00:48:03] Jen McFarland: Yeah. Yeah. That's interesting. You mentioned the Stoics because I've been reading also meditations by Marcus Aurelius, which is really the beginning. I think of stoicism in some ways. And what's fascinating to me about that is he didn't write that for. Us. He wrote the meditations for himself and here he is like this huge leader.

And he's telling himself the same things that I think a lot of us do and around remember to be polite to people, remember to be kind, remember, and just like these meditations around how to be a good leader. And I think that was oh, okay. That kind of led to the next thing was really talking about habits, and I think he speaks to habits and there are a lot around building, building those habits and and I've just really. Appreciate it. My husband's been reading about stoicism for a long time and I'm like, oh, he's cheeky. What does that mean? And I'm a stoic. And then he laughs at me and then I've learned more about it.

And I'm like, yeah, I'm not a stoic, but I can learn a lot from it. And maybe one day I will be a stoic. I don't

[00:49:03] Shelley Carney: know. I'll let, you can read those things from those people who live so long ago and see that. We still have so much in common, we're still so much alike. And, even though they spoke another language or in, in totally different, lived a totally different way inside. They were still the same kind of people that we.

[00:49:24] Jen McFarland: I've got a comment from my friend sent to Scarborough. This has been super helpful. I've got to get back to the grind. Would love the info on the upcoming unicorn lawyer workshops. Yes. Oh, I will send that out. Sent a and that's the rational unicorn workshops.

Thank you so much for watching and yeah, I will make sure and get that in the show notes and get that out to you. And I'm so glad that this has been helpful to you and hopefully to other people.

[00:49:49] Shelley Carney: Yay. Thank you center. All right. I

[00:49:53] Jen McFarland: that's it. I got nothing. Yeah.

[00:49:55] Shelley Carney: Check out the writings from the Stoics. It's you know, if you've never looked at it before, maybe it's something that you should take a look out because Hey, we talked about it, so it must be must mean something. Yeah.

[00:50:07] Jen McFarland: And it's calming. It's great. I like it. It is. It's very. Okay everybody have a great week. Thank you for listening. Thank you for watching and we'll see you next week.

[00:50:18] Shelley Carney: All right. Bye-bye.

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