Steal my content creation workflow!

Why do you create content for your business?

Likely you do this because you want to market your products or services and make sales. Your content is a vehicle for awareness, education, and sales, and is a key part of your business.

But, what about creativity?

Do you see your content as a creative endeavour?

I recently shifted my mindset about creating content. Instead of thinking of myself as a business owner who creates content – I’m calling myself a “Content Creator” who has a business.

This shift helps me see content as a creative expression of my work rather than a “have to do” task that doesn’t excite me.

This shift led me to develop The Business of Pleasure™ Creation Framework (read about it here). I use this to create anything in my business but most specifically content.

Here’s my content creation workflow:

Step One – Send out a DM to your most engaged followers on social media and an email to your most engaged newsletter subscribers to thank them and check in to see if there is anything they’d like you to share more about.

Step Two – Create rituals for when you work on content. These rituals can include embodiment practices, meditations & visualizations. You can also brew yourself a cup of coffee or make a matcha latté and light some candles and incense. If you create an OCCASION for the creative process to unfold, you’ll more easily trigger your mind into creation mode.

Step Three – Look over your metrics and determine your most popular posts. Take note of which posts got the most reach, the most engagement, and the most sales.

Step Four – Check over the replies to your request for ideas on social media and through your newsletter and make note of what your audience is asking for.

Step Five – Compile an initial list of content ideas based on metrics & what your most engaged audience would like to learn more about – these are your priority pieces of content. Use what you learn from your audience as a north star for this creative process.

Step Six – Consult the latest news, trends, and concepts in your niche & gather ideas for content.

Step Seven – Using content pillars, brainstorm content ideas on a whiteboard, post-it notes, or on a piece of paper.

Keeping this part of the process non-digital is my personal preference but you may find that using a Google Doc, spreadsheet, or Kanban board is better for you. Do what helps you feel the most creative.

For each pillar, brainstorm the following ideas:

2 X personal or client stories

2 X DIY (tips & tricks)

2 X you-isms (these are the ideas, values, hot takes, and concepts that are uniquely YOU)

2 X controversial ideas (these will help folks decide if you are for them or NOT for them)

2 X inspirational (quotes you love, client stories, news stories, something cool that happened in your business)

2 X offer-related ideas

Don’t get too in your head as you brainstorm – these ideas will evolve as you work with them. Just get them out there and trust your creative process.

Step Eight – Determine where you will share each idea. Some will be suited for long-form content, some will be good reels, some carousels, and some selfies or static posts.

Step Nine – Taking your current capacity for creating content into consideration, decide on a posting schedule for all of the platforms you create content for. Schedule your ideas into that framework. Use a calendar to do this or check out my all-in-one Notion content planning template here.

Step Ten – Work on the first week’s content for the upcoming month and get those pieces fully created.

Schedule blog posts, IG posts (I love Metricool for this), and newsletters so they release automatically.

Doing this initial work gets you ahead of schedule so you can spend just a few minutes daily on getting the rest of your content done without feeling behind or pressured.

Optional Step – Schedule a video production day where you spend time recording original reels (you talking to a camera) and b-roll (background video for your reels) so that you have video content to pull from for your ideas. You can also work on video editing on this day as well.

Having a system for your creative process can help you stay consistent, look forward to making content, and help you grow your business through a strategic system that is an intentional expression of YOU and your amazing work in the world.