This is the podcast for digital creators by digital creators with me, your host, Dylan Schmidt. Let's dive into insights on content entrepreneurship, creator strategies, and the occasional random topic because why not? Whether you're on day 1 or 1,000 of being a digital creator, Let's learn and grow together. You're listening to digital creator. Welcome. You are here. Let me just make sure alright. Let's dive right in. A little bit about me if we're just meeting for the 1st time. I have a company called ContentClips. We started well, I started ContentClips in July of 2022. We've Produced 1,000. We mainly are a content repurposing company. You know, the content you might have seen for myself is a lot of, like, videos that specifically made for an idea I had. Right? Like, about I just posted 1 about jujitsu and podcasting. That wasn't taken from anything else. I made it specifically for, like a short form video. But with content clips, we work with primarily, like, authors and experts, coaches, businesses that don't have Time to sit there and make content, like, and they maybe don't have the setup and maybe it's, like, many moving pieces. So we specialize in repurposing content, which was like I gotta I gotta make a training about this because I get a lot of questions about it, and it's a nuanced subject. And I have a lot of experience with it. And that's what I really wanted to share with you. And when it comes to repurposing content, like making videos, like, from scratch just for the platform, scripting out videos, things like that. That's pretty It's like it's it's a it's a head game. There's, like, a mindset. There's, like, there's there's a different level of strategy that goes into it than just regularly repurposing content, which I'll talk about. But ContentClips, my company that we repurpose thousands of pieces of content, It's low stress. We're highly productive. We have a streamlined process that I've created. And to put it simply, I've developed a system for repurposing that provides quality content for industry experts. And yeah. It's, like, brainless. Because I'll tell you what. Like, I, if you've ever taken the Enneagram test, you I'm an Enneagram nine, which I guess means I like my head in the clouds. I like to have my peace of mind. I think there's also something about, like, they, they seem very zen. I gotta stay in that state. Like, I'm not good in, like, things being very abstract, as far as, like, day to day things. Like, there needs to be a structure in place. Right? And I'm gonna be sharing the structure with you in this training because you didn't know me back then because you wouldn't have found anything about me on the Internet. And I only work behind the scenes with clients. And what I was doing was I just would create content for clients from scratch. So everything was from scratch. There wasn't really much Repurposing going on then. I didn't know how, but I would constantly run out of things to post. And I put in here, like, it affected my ability to consistently be top of mind. It also kinda affected my mental health, which I kinda put in there. Like, it's highly stressful. It's not productive and it's disorganized because especially working with clients and you could maybe you're your own client. When you're constantly at the end of the hamster wheel of, like, needing something to post because you have, like you need to do it for your business or whatever it is that you're marketing. It's so stressful. And I was confused because I would go to these events where I'd be about, like, behind the scenes working, and there'd be other, like, Experts there, there'd be creators, there'd be marketing teams, and people who worked in social media, that were doing, like, similar things that I was doing, but they weren't stressed out. Those people were like an anomaly to me. They were confusing to me because I was like, how are you not Just always at the end of your rope with trying to, like, piece everything together. It's like night and day. Right? I have been there where You know you need to do something and you're like, is this what it's like for everybody? It's not what it's like for everybody. There'd be no way that I could do this training for you and run content clips at the same time and build my personal brain at the same time and do a podcast and, like, I couldn't do all this stuff if I didn't have a system. And I can just, like, stay in my zone of genius. Everything's systematized. And I've been able to distill down exactly what works and what doesn't work because I made a lot of mistakes. I've done I've made a lot of errors. So that's the only way I can learn. It wasn't chat gpt. Chat gpt did not, you know that add I've I'm a big fan of AI, and it's gonna it would add more confusion, honestly, on some of the things I'm gonna be sharing here with you because it's not, direct enough. Let's dive right in. So lesson number 1 is gonna be about how to organize and optimize your content workflow. So some questions to ask yourself. This is how you'll know where you're at on the, content optimization management scale. Could you immediately find if I asked you, Could you find audio and video files? For example, can if I went on your Instagram feed, for example, and I scrolled back to last year in May. And I was like, this video is awesome. Can you give me that? And would you be able to just yep. I can give it to you instantly, or 60 seconds or less, you know, like, a couple clicks away, without going like you know, I talked to some clients when we're onboarding with content clips, and I'm like, okay. Great. So we'll need just links to the footage that you want us to repurpose. And they're like, you know, like, that they didn't think about that. It's kinda Password sometimes is like, where's the password for this? Same with audio and video files. Same with images too. Could you immediately find images, that are approved. Not just like any images of yourself, but, like, these are good to go. You can use these in anything, whether it's a clip, a quote card, whatever, or any other assets for content creation. It could be a podcast. It could be a training you did. Say it was a training like this one. You know, what whatever it is, could you immediately find them? And I'm not saying, like, I could find them. I just gotta do a little digging. It needs to be, like, brainless. Again, like, you don't you should not expend any energy finding these files. And Another question for you. Do you have a system that you can share with others, as far as editors, virtual assistants, collaborators that you could hand off to them so that they are able to use what you've already made and repurpose it. Do you make it simple and scalable to repurpose your best content? And if you are unclear about any of this Good. You're in the right spot, and we're gonna talk about optimizing that. So don't worry if, you know, If you're like, I think I do, you'll be clear by the end of this. After making so many videos, I'm convinced this is the absolute best way to do it too. Awesome. So here's an example production workflow of what it would look like for you if you were, like, I need to systematize my process for repurposing. Here's what it could look like. So you have a new podcast interview recorded. That could be in, like, Descript or SquadCast or Riverside or whatever you're using. It could be in person, whatever. Then you edit the video and audio. And then from there, it goes into crafting an email newsletter, extracting clips for social media. From the clips from social media, You can make quote cards and you can make the clips. So most people just look at the clips, but there's also the quote cards as well. And a quote card is like an inspirational quote, something aspirational that would just be an image or something that's like the main essence of the quote. Usually, just a couple sentences, it could be like an infographic or something too. And then you got your video clips. But you could also, you know, take your podcast interview after it's You've edited the video and audio and turn it into things like lead magnets, ebooks, webinars, things like that. And that's extremely valuable and a 100% possible. And people will pay for that stuff. People will download that stuff. People will opt in for that stuff. And most people will skip that step because they're just looking at the podcast interview like it's a podcast. But it's so much more as you can see from 1 podcast interview. If you were to do all of this, you would get, an email newsletter, social, social media clips, Quote cards, it's 3. And then you could, you know, turn it into a webinar, 4, 5, 6. 6, 7 things from 1. But Another good rule of thumb just to, like, put in your back pocket too is for clips for social media, on average, for an hour long video podcast, you'll get around, like, 7 good clips for social media. There's AI tools that help, you know, with that now. I don't think they're that great. I think humans make better clips Currently, that'll probably change, you know, one day, but I don't think it's, like, there yet. And then That's like the I should say, that's the production workflow. After that, we're looking at the postproduction workflow, which is What do you do? Like, this is a crucial part to repurposing. So every 30 to 60 days, it would be A really good idea to list the top 10 performers on the platforms that you post to and then categorize and analyze. That means Categorize like what were the topics of the post. You know, start to group those together. Analyze what were the colors, the fonts, who was in the clips, What was the backdrop? What camera was I using? The caption style. All these, like, details should be analyzed because those will help you decide how to repackage and repost the content. Because if you had something that would say, like, the 10th best performer on your post for the last, like, 60 days. And you analyzed it and you're like, oh, well, I noticed, like, the top Three posts had were designed in a certain way. Well, you could repackage the 10th post to look more like the top 3 and repost that lesson 2, the key to creating at your best without more overwhelm. Everyone's, like, looking for the next thing. It's like sometimes the the next thing is refining what you've already created, and I think that's where the value in repurposing really shines. So let's talk about lesson 2. The key to creating at your best without more overwhelm. So question for you, has publishing ever felt unmanageable? I've never met anyone who's just like, oh my gosh. This has been so simple. Always. At some point, some part of the process feels unmanageable, and it's because there's a lot that goes into it. Right? You're creating. You're editing. You're analyzing. Like, you're a copywriter. You're a performer. You're all these things. And you're, you know, staying up to date on trends. Like, surely, some part of it has been unmanageable for all of us. And there's a quote that I wanna share with you from Peter Drucker. And it's a really popular quote, but you can't manage what you can't measure. And how that relates is you have to be able to manage your content. If you can't manage your content, you can't improve it. Simple as that. You can't start creating stress free. You can't scale what you're doing. You can't repackage what you're doing, because you're just trying to stay afloat. So you have to be able to manage your content. And I just had the guy on content, Joe Pulizzi, on my podcast this week, And he literally wrote the book on content. He founded Content Marketing Institute. He wrote the book Content Inc. He also wrote a book called Epic Content Marketing. He's published, like, 7 books. If you search content under the books category on Amazon, He'll be in the 1st results. And he said something that was just, like, so valuable that I was like, I gotta put this in the slides. This is a key part of it. So The first step to managing your content is identifying your top 2 platforms. You know? In an example that Joe Pulizzi shared on the podcast, he was saying, like, You know, he's not on TikTok. You know, he doesn't really post on Instagram. His top 2 platforms and where his audience is is LinkedIn, and he does a newsletter. Those are his 2 main well, I think he started doing a podcast, but I'm. It's like these 2 things are, like, basically LinkedIn and his newsletter. And he publishes, like he said, I believe, like, 4, 5 times a week, 4 times, and super valuable stuff, super great posts, but he's not trying to be everywhere. And he said something that was so great on and you might have seen it on a clip I shared yesterday from the episode is that, you know, Companies pay him 1,000 and 1,000 of dollars for consulting. He said that, you know, early stage content entrepreneurs are just doing way too much stuff. And it's not about doing more. It's about doing the right things. So how I look at it is you don't need to post 1 thing on 80 different platforms. And when it comes to repurposing your content, it shouldn't be just being everywhere more. It should be posting 80 things on 1 platform and analyzing what's working. And those 80 things could be so much of the same message. It doesn't mean reinventing the wheel. It's not about doing more. It's about doing the right things smarter. And that's where repurposing comes in because, if you're just posting 1 thing on 80 platforms, you're gonna be burned out. Right? And nowadays, there's, like, So many platforms and so many different, you know, ecosystems within each platform and, like, sub things. So you'd be better off posting, you know, this this a lot of the same things on 1 platform and analyzing how and what within those posts worked, and repackaging the same idea. Is it the idea? People will post once and then make a decision on whether or not that posted good within, like, 24 hours. But the platforms these days, they push out things, scattered. Right? I could post something on YouTube shorts, for example, this morning. It could have 17 views for 16 hours. And then at 11 PM tonight, it goes to 3,000 views, for example. So making any, you know, decision in the short term about if something worked or not is absolutely insane. Absolutely insane to any content strategy, and it's what most people do. And it's completely overwhelming because you can't manage that. You can't manage what the algorithm's gonna do. You can't manage when it gets pushed out or how people respond, but you can manage how you analyze it and how you react, afterwards, like, once there's been some time. Right? And so many people wanna make a decision because we live in this, like, instant kind of gratification world where we're like, You know, I get the feedback now. How who commented on it next? Let me refresh. Refresh. Refresh. And that is not analyzing your content. That is Just going crazy posting. Quick little story. Recently, I analyzed every question I got in my Instagram DMs. I added them to a spreadsheet. I get a lot of questions. Just like when you post something and you're not sure how it worked, like, the example I was just giving where you, like, post it and you're refreshing and you're, like, trying to piece together this data in your head. The same with my Instagram DMs. I'm like, how? I'm getting so many questions. Like, what do people need from me, I guess? I don't know. I can't, like, form it in my head. It's too abstract. So what I did was I made a spreadsheet of all the questions I've ever gotten. If it had a question mark on it, I copied it, pasted it to a spreadsheet. This was probably a task I could have outsourced. I started it, and then I was like, well, I have to finish it now. So so I so I did that. I added all to a spreadsheet. I asked, I think it's Chat g p t or Claude, which I'll talk about here in a second. I asked it to analyze all of the questions I got, And then I started asking it questions like, you know, what are the common questions I'm getting, and how do people perceive me? Because I in myself, I don't know how I'm perceived. Like, some people will be like, you're an expert at this, and you're expected that. I've, like, made so many mistakes. I've, like, tried so many things. I've I feel like as my own side of things, like, I don't see myself the same as other people see me, and that's okay. So I asked, like, how am I perceived and things like that. And one of like, the top thing, it was, like, people see you as very knowledgeable about tools, and tech, and things like that. So I'm like, alright. Let's add that in, because I'm asked so much about tools. Let's talk about tools for the job. These are a lot of these tools are what I use within ContentClips, but it depends on the nuances of the client too. So it's it's too nuanced that I'm like, oh, for every client, we do exactly this just because, like, we're a higher touch service. But yeah. Here's the tools for the job for mainly repurposing. So it all starts at a file storage level. The reality is, like, a good, good, good chunk of repurposing and content is in the storage. And If you can't get your storage right, you can't get your content right. That's where when you wanna reference something, that's where you go back to. Right? Casey Neistat, who's, like, the most popular, vlogger, you know, he he I don't know his exact folder structure, but I remember hearing him say in one of his videos about how he could find anything immediately, kind of like what I shared here. And he produced so much content that he can find immediately. Think he does it by dates, which would make sense for vlogging. It sounds like a journal. But for the sake of, like, the type of content I post and that we do with clients. It makes a lot more sense to just do it, like, chronologically, I guess, to, like, just a 1, 2, 3, 4 system, not a date. Anyways, file storage tools. Dropbox is what I use on my computer because it syncs nicely. I really like the integration with Mac. And some clients with content clips will use that. We don't store content clips, clients, files, that, like, we're repurposing. On our servers, we store them on theirs. So they use either Dropbox or Google Drive. And then, we back up things though on external hard drives. So I also back up I don't just trust Dropbox. I also back up things to external hard drives just like, kind of like the one the icon you can see there. And then Descript, believe it or not, which will be, another tool I'll mention here, is descript it's kinda like Google Drive for audio and video. So there's also a version stored there. So For redundancy sake and not losing any files, it's stored in Dropbox or Google Drive, an external hard drive, and a script. Now that is you know, things have to really go wrong, in order for, like, to lose a file. I've never lost a file, knock on wood, and I've never had any issue with any ContentClip's clients files. So This has just worked, you know, but there's anything crazy could happen. But if if those 3 are being affected, there's probably a bigger issue. And then when it comes to tools for audio and video, what I recommend highly, highly, highly is Descript again because one, it syncs nicely with, like, a file storage viewpoint for editing. Like, it's just simple. It's there's other tools out there you could use, but, like, why learn some complicated tool if your job is not to be the audio video editor. I've had Jay Yau on my podcast who's a podcast producer for James Altucher, who's a mega podcaster, author, speaker, and, you know, Jay loves Descript. He shouts his praises, but He'll also export it and work in pro tools, for example. He's an audio engineer. And it starts out in the script, though. If you're not an audio engineer, You don't have any need to do something in Pro Tools. Like, let's just be real. At that point, you'd be better off just hiring, I like help. But you can make your podcast modular in Descript. Like, you can work around the limitations and use them to your advantage. And then CapCut is a free app from the same company as TikTok and for, like, making social media videos or, you know, dressing up things that you you Find you can't do in Descript. CapCut's awesome. It's also great for motion tracking. I really love CapCut's motion tracking feature. Makes it incredibly easy. And then for images, which you could also use for video, but I use it mainly for images and graphic design. So we repurpose, like, clips from Descript, for example, and then use Canva to make the images. And then when you're repurposing, like, text based things, which you could export the transcript from Descript, for example. So you got your, podcast interview. You upload it to Descript. You got your backups in Dropbox or Google Drive and a backup on your external hard drive. But you upload it to Descript. You edit in Descript. Maybe you make a image in Canva, and you could take the transcript from Descript into ChatJubt, Claude, or Notion. Claude is from a company called Anthropic, I believe it's called. Notion has AI now too. But the goal here is not like It's not to use all all of these. It's just to use what works for you, and you can minimize on, like, the subscriptions too. You know, Canva is so cheap compared to, Adobe Creative Cloud subscription. Descript, they have different tiers, you know, like, it doesn't have to be the highest price tier or whatever. And then ChatChippet, Claude is you know, there's a free version that you get by. Notion is a free version. Chat to PT, there's a free version. So it's not like this is going subscription crazy. The goal here is not to, like, sign up for all the things. It's the sign up here. It's just like, be smart with the tools you do have and don't have a lot of duplicates.