This is the show for digital creators by Digital Creators, hosted by me, Dylan Schmidt, a Los Angeles based content creator who loves to blend marketing, creativity, and business. Join in as we explore online entrepreneurship, creator best practices, and more. Each week, I'll bring you interviews with successful creators, tips and tricks for growing your online presence and simple insights into the latest trends and strategies I'm seeing and using in the space. Welcome to Digital Podcaster. In this episode of digital podcaster, I am gonna go over 3 time saving tips and hacks for you as a content creator. So I just put together this resource called the creator starter kit. It's available right now if you go to learn.dylanschmidt.com. I'll make sure to link to it in the episode description. Basically, there's a few resources in there. There's, like, a content planning template. There's a quick start guide if you're absolutely brand new to creating content, and there are some prompts and content generating ideas in there. That should be pretty useful. Also, there's this section called 3 time saving tips and hacks, and it was so good when I was thinking about what to do for this week's episode. I'm like, you know what? I just need to make An episode going over this because it is so valuable, and I think we all need a reminder of these fundamental topics on content creation and these time saving tips and hacks here. Normally, I'm not, like, a fan of hacks, but, like, this is genuinely, like, a hack Fuck at, like, creating content. Starting out, though and this is again from the creator starter kit free resource, that I need pulling from in this episode. And, again, you can get it at learn.dylanschmidt.com. There's a quote I put in there from Cal Newport who wrote the book Deep Work, which changed my life and productivity. He, said clarity about what matters provides clarity about what does not. So as I move through these tips and tricks here tips and hacks, I gotta remember that, these are things to Really emphasize what matters with what you're making and let go of the rest. As creators, as myself, I I wanna do everything, but I can't. And sometimes it's hard for me to prioritize what I need to do, and these things that I'm gonna cover here give you clarity around what to prioritize so that you have clarity around what matters most. So number 1 is batching content. Batching your content is when you make content in batches to use over a long time period. So, for example, instead of creating a new video, every time you wanna post something, You work on several videos at once, several weeks in advance, and then you release those videos over time. And it really is like a productivity and planning technique that's gonna help you improve the whole creation process. And a few of the benefits of batching your content, number 1, it saves time and energy, because instead of wearing yourself out and feeling like you're always on, You just focus that and do it in a blocked session. Number 2, you can take more time off because you're always gonna have content ready to go. Number 3, you create a cohesive structure for publishing. This is one of the things I see with new content clip clients because we, especially when you're, like, delegating something. If you're used to doing something by yourself, then when you outsource something, it's like, oh, I have to have my stuff together. And this is kind of what batching requires you to do because You requires having a structure in place to be able to even block your time, create content, and drip it out versus, like, I post when I feel like it kinda thing. And then 4th is it boosts your productivity and reduces procrastination because you're focused and you're setting yourself up. It's kind of like meal prepping in a way, I guess. That's the best way I could think of it. It just hit me. I don't know why I hadn't thought of that before. So if you like the idea of content batching and you've never really done it or you never felt like you've done it successfully, The next best place is also the next tip I got for you here. So the next tip is creating content pillars. So content pillars, if you're new to this, is 3 to 5 core topics that form the basis of your Content creation strategy, what you talk about. So these are the themes that you'll consistently explore and present in your content. Now let's talk about why content pillars are important, and I'm gonna give you some examples as well. So content pillars are really important because they help you focus instead of feeling like, you know, I don't know what to talk about, or maybe I'm talking about the same thing all the time. It's getting boring for me. It's probably getting boring for my audience, And that's why it's also helpful or content players are also helpful for relevance because It helps you remain valuable to your audience, like, that your content remain valuable to your audience, and it helps drive in the expertise and identity that you're establishing, because you're varying up your content. You're keeping attention as you go. And I always struggle with this word. I gotta stop saying I struggle with this word because it's perpetuating the struggling with the word, but differentiation, I think I nailed it. It helps you distinguish your brand in a crowded social media space or podcast space, because You're essentially acting as like a lighthouse. Even though you have 3 to 5 topics, those 3 to 5 topics all gel together, and People start familiarizing themselves with you and your brand, and it will help you stand out versus and I come across this all the time. People who make social media content, and you can't totally understand what it is they do, how they help me. I see that from everywhere from the Instagram profile in the bio section to the content. And for me, I struggled with it for years, and it kept me holding like, literally held me back from posting Because I'm like, I don't know what to talk about. I could talk about anything. I I went through a couple years of, like, selling a bunch of my stuff on eBay, And then other times, I'd be, like, really into fitness, and then other times, I'd really be into reading, and then other times, I'd really be into baseball. I'd have these, like, hyperfixations around certain topics, that didn't do good for me posting, but, also, it wasn't until I started digital podcaster, and I was like, oh, I found this, like, one main thing that I could keep talking about and I wouldn't get, like, tired of, and that changed the game. While that is, like, one overarching focus Within podcasting, there are different content pillars, and content creation is one of them. Like, social media is is one of them. But I'm gonna, like, break down real simple, and you can read the guide again to have, like, a text based version of this that has, like, a checklist that you can actually follow. So this is how you create your content pillars, And it's just a couple steps. So step 1 is topic identification, and that is where you wanna find things that that check off these 3 things, These, yeah, these 3 items on the list. So number 1 is passion. So you want to choose your content pillars that align with your passions. 2 is expertise. So you gotta have some knowledge around it or a desire to engage in it. You don't have to be, like, an expert expert because there's always gonna be someone, like, above you, and expertise sometimes can be, I say, triggering because it's like, You know, I gotta be this person. I gotta be that person. Expertise just means, you know, like, probably a little bit more than average, which For most people, it's like, I'm, like, terrible with celebrities, for example, or pop culture stuff. And there's a lot of people out there that are, like, experts. They might not perceive themselves to be experts, but it's like, you know more than than a lot of people. Right? So expertise, You have knowledge around the area. And then the third one is feasibility. So is it realistic and manageable for you to regularly create content around it? Is it feasible? For myself, those examples I just gave a minute ago where we're talking about, like, me doing eBay stuff, That's not feasible for me to talk about eBay long term. I don't have a desire. I like selling stuff that I already have, but I'm not like a flipper. I don't buy stuff to sell it. That's I I don't I might have done that. I don't even know if I've done that, really. It's just not my style. I just like selling. I'm like a, I've turned a little bit minimalist, you know, over the years, and so I have sold hundreds and hundreds of items. And That's still not feasible, but minimalism is kind of, but it's still not even really feasible for me to keep talking about, because I don't have that much passion for it. Right? Same with, like, fitness. Like, I might be really into it for myself, but sharing that passion, I would say it's pretty low. And that's not with across the board. Right? So the step 2 of your content pillars is assessing the topics you choose against these goals. Right? Once you've kind of aligned them with your passion, expertise, and feasibility, you Assess them amongst these 4 kind of criterias. Number 1 is educational values. So can you provide informative content around this topic? Number 2 is entertainment aspect. Are the topics engaging and fun? And that doesn't mean, like, you have to, You know, dress up in a character or costume and, like, put on a show. But engaging in fun is, like, related to the topic. Right? For example, for For a while, I was listening to a baseball statistics podcast. Effectively Wild is the name of it. And they would have topics on there that were, like, really deep baseball stats. And that was fun to me, like, more of a brain fun. But if you weren't into baseball stats, That's not gonna be fun. That's gonna be boring. So fun is relative to the topic that you're talking about, and it doesn't look the same across the board. Fun isn't like a one size, Oh, we could, you know, make it a party. I mean, it is kind of a party if the topic's right. And then the third thing is, Will your content motivate and uplift? Can you make it more aspirational? And the 4th thing is, can your audience connect with the topics that you're providing? Is there any relatability? If it's so specific that it's, like, only to you and it's like a diary and, you know, There's no relatability factor there. Don't expect it to take off, you know, basically. And you can do research around that, and I've covered that in previous episodes about how you can, you know, use Google Trends and things like that. So let's do some examples, for content pillars, what it would be like. So let's say you were a branding expert, and your content pillars you identified was brand strategy development, visual identity and design, storytelling and messaging, and then doing, like, case studies or analyzing brands, How that would look like to apply in your content creation for a brand strategy development? You could, you know, do guides on developing a brand strategy. You can inspire people by showing them how a brand strategy transforms a business, and you can relate it to your audience through addressing common challenges that they they have and the questions that pop up. I won't go through, you know, every example here because there's quite a few, but we'll do another example for, like, a meditation teacher. So content pillars for a meditation teacher could be meditation techniques, mindfulness practices, scientific insights, and the personal journey of the meditation teacher. I like the scientific insights pillar because you're able to educate On the latest research around meditation for your audience and how it impacts health, you can inspire others, talking about evidence based benefits. And then you can relate it to your audience by simplifying complex scientific concepts into insights that they can understand. I think that's pretty cool. And so the 3rd time saving tip and hack here, which I know this is a lot, but I hope you find it as cool as I do. 3rd time saving tip is content automation. So content automation is Avast sea, and it's only getting more vast with AI and all these tools that are popping up every single day. Content automation, to put it simply, is like having a personal assistant for your online content, and You should use content automation basically to save time. Any repetitive tasks that you're doing, you can use automation somewhere in there. It helps you keep things regular, kind of like we talked about, at the beginning with batching. You make fewer mistakes because if you're juggling a lot of tasks, You wanna automate certain things just to reduce your cognitive workload and your your overall workload, and it shows you what's working. So just like delegating when I spoke about with batching, when you automate your content, it forces you to look at your systems and processes, and you start Dissecting things when you have to, like, see them in a different way, and you go, oh, we don't need to be doing this. Oh, we can change this or make this better. But, also, for, like, a lot of these automation tools, you can automatically track what you're doing, and you can hit your goals easier. And you can make better content because you can see what's working. So how to get started with content automation? Just a couple actually, 3 steps is number 1, spot the routine stuff. Start just by, like, writing down what you're doing at a high, high level. Like, I'm posting to here. This goes up here. This is how I'm doing stuff. These are the days that I'm doing stuff. And then start thinking about, like, Tracking success. Like, what does success look like? And then step 2 is finding the right helpers. So for social media, that might be using a tool like Metra cool, which I've been a fan of and using lately. For emails, you might be using ConvertKit to send automated emails, In addition to, like, your newsletter for example, I have my newsletter that I send out every Tuesday Friday, but I could also use ConvertKit, which I do, to send automated emails for when people sign up for a free training or the starter kit. And then step 3 is get everything working together. So, You know, it's one thing to sign up for, but you have to learn these tools. So while there is an upfront cost associated with time and sometimes Sometimes money with some of these tools, although some of them are free or really cheap if you're at the entry level tier. You know, there is a time associated with just getting it set up, but it's not as big as you think. Like, this is something I've been explaining for years to clients and behind the scenes is these tools, like, these automation tools, Their whole goal is that you use them. Just like platforms on social media want us to stay on the platform, these tools want you to use them because that's They're in the business for the tool that they created. Right? So they have always have trainings on using these tools, their support. You know, these companies prioritize good support, and it's because they want you to use it. There's you know, I think a few year this was probably dating myself, but, you know, 10 years ago, it felt, like, harder to, like, use certain tools, and training, for companies to train, like, Their clients on didn't seem as important, but these days, it's like they need you to know how to use it. It's not as much of a big investment up front these days with time, and you can use things like, hey, Google or your trusty to get up and running with a lot of these things faster than you ever have, you know, before. I Urge you to look into automating certain areas of your content. Alright. That's all I got for you this week. Again, check the show notes for a link to the starter kit, which has this 3 time saving tips and hacks document inside of it. Just real quick, I'll tell you what else is in there because I kinda mentioned it, but I'll I'll just briefly talk about it. So it's got a quick start guide, which is all about let me click in here. It's, basically a 5 part section quick start guide, which does not sound quick at all, but it is, because I needed to, like, Section it together. So it's, like, all about getting started with creating content and then basic steps creating content and then time management for beginners and then overcoming obstacles in your journey and the next steps. And I try to make it, like, light, skimmable. It's not just like a bunch of text. It's like, certain bullet points, activities, tools, like, very, like, skimmable, like I said, but very, I presented it in the least overwhelming way possible that I could manage at this point in time. And then there's also a content idea generator in the starter kit, which is lists and taggpt prompts to help generate content ideas quickly for any niche or topic. And that in it has, like, 30 categories of, inspiration for posts. And then there's also 5 Attachibuty prompts in there that are really cool. They use different frameworks To create content, like the hero's journey framework, if you're familiar with Joseph Campbell, there's a really cool prompt in there about that. If you're not familiar with Joseph Campbell, he's the one that Basically identified, like, the core elements to stories, and you can identify any story in any movie using the hero's journey. Really cool. Bit of a rabbit hole if you're not familiar with it, but a really Worthy rabbit hole. Anyways, there's a content creation prompt in there using the hero's journey framework, also scannable content framework, rule of 1, all these different ones. So that's super cool. I'm really proud of the content idea generator. There's a simple content plan template, which I called it simple because it it really is simple, but, like, It's a whole like, people don't just give this stuff away for free, as far as I can tell, or that I've seen. That's really cool. Basically, you can Plan your content in advance for every platform and document your ideas. And then what we covered in this episode, the time saving tips and hacks. And then One of my most asked questions, which is basic equipment recommendations, I put all my recommendations for microphones, cameras, and lighting, and a lot more in there as well. I hope you find that useful. If you do, let me know. And that's it. That's all I got for you today. I will catch you in the next episode.