Welcome to the new episode of the Free and Fearless podcast where we’ll talk about one of my favorite topics – growing your business thanks to content and the value it provides.

Tune into the episode below:

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Show Notes:

• [2:50] Why creating content is like making magic
• [7:10] Things to release that are stopping you from growing your business
• [11:55] Why make 90% of your content free
• [12:58] The know, like & trust factor
• [14:32] The only thing you have control over online
• [17:52] What happens when you don’t have a content marketing strategy

Transcript

I believe that the content you create is one of the key elements of what you’re trying to build online. Regardless of your niche, goals, ideal client, income, the platforms you use and how you make money, your content matters. 

It’s what can help you build your expertise and monetize it, serve your purpose, attract the right people and make a difference in their life, get known online and build a magnetic and powerful brand.

But there’s more to content and the role it plays in your business. You get to write or talk about the topics that light you up and that’s a good enough reason to wake up happy every morning and be excited to open your laptop. It’s what brings your unique energy, and when that’s combined with the right strategy for you and your audience, you can make big things happen.

Content creation and content marketing are the foundation of everything I’m doing online. I’ve always been blogging, I was also freelancing, podcasting, I had books, now mostly courses, and I create content all the time, for different purposes and platforms.

The format, the goal, the target audience, the monetization strategies – these can all change. But a few things always remain the same and they are why I say I run a content-driven business.

Something that gives me joy, provides me with the income necessary to live my ideal lifestyle and there are countless opportunities for growth. It’s why people stick around and are surprised by the amount of content I can produce. The depth of some articles and podcast episodes. The impact of some programs or even social media posts. The value that’s been given away week after week, and the authenticity and passion behind it all.

Today, I want to share the components of a value-driven business. Because the content you create will be your legacy, your most favorite activity, what helps your dream clients or students transform their lives, what makes you the go-to person on the topics you’re good at. And what helps you stay in business – and even grow – even if there’s a pandemic, recession or anything else that usually affects businesses. 

Creating content is like making magic.

It’s a process that shouldn’t feel like an obligation, shouldn’t be something you avoid or try to do perfectly. It’s a moment of pure mindfulness and joy, in which you simply create knowing that this will reach the people you’re meant to serve.

These people are why your business exists. That’s why it’s your mission to not just create your best content and show up consistently, but make sure all your business activities and decisions are based on proving value and being your most authentic self.

These things have given me so much meaning and I often get asked so many questions about content creation, marketing, sales, the creative process, and branding. That finally I created a program that covers it all.

It’s called Fearless Content. It’s for those who are just starting in business and have no idea what platform to use, what type of content to create, how to be bolder in the way they promote themselves, how to make their work stand out, and how to sell with integrity.

It’s also for those who’ve been in business for a while – whether it’s bloggers, podcasters, authors, coaches, or else – and who know that something just does’t feel right. They aren’t building the kind of business they want, they aren’t providing the kind of content that makes an impact. Their brand doesn’t reflect their values, their strategy feels icky. They lack clarity, they create products on topics they aren’t passionate about, and so much more.

But it doesn’t need to be this way.

Your can run your dream business, not just a business. You can serve your dream clients and build an audience of people who deeply resonate with your story and content, not just random followers.

Your brand can be magnetic and you definitely don’t need to try hard or look for the next marketing technique all the time. It can happen thanks to being real, knowing your why, working in alignment with your higher self. 

All this is what I cover in Fearless Content. It’s a 4-week program that will help you go from an overwhelmed content creator with no clear game plan, to being your boldest, most authentic self, following your intuition in business and creating magical content that will help you grow in every way you can imagine.

But how you will feel about it and the effect you’ll have on people is the best part of this. Because the right people will find you. They will follow you, engage with your content, wait for your next updates, and buy anything you release.

In Fearless Content, I combined content creation and branding with personal growth and spirituality to create a 4-step formula.

• First, you Release (limiting beliefs, old mindsets, ego desires, wrong platforms and content formats, and so on)
• Then, you Define. Your passion, purpose, zone of genius, content topics, what’s best for you and your brand.
• In step 3, which is the third module of the course, you Align. I show you how to apply the powerful principles of Human Design to create radical alignment in your business and use your unique energetic blueprint to create your best work.
• Finally, you get to the creation part. Your best content is ready to be created with ease, and I share with you how to create a content strategy and publishing schedule, do marketing with integrity, build a sales funnel and create strategic content for each of its stages, and create more content in less time.

If you’re ready to take action, you can learn more about the program here.

Now, without further ado, let’s talk about building a content driven business.

1. Release what’s not serving you.

There’s a reason why I start all my courses and even any article or project with inner work. It’s to help you see the big picture, form the mindset necessary to achieve what you’re after. And – most importantly – become the person who will be able to handle all these changes, and let go of any limiting belief, obstacle, any form of doubt, imposter syndrome, etc. and stop doing the things you think you should be doing but which aren’t actually getting you anywhere.

So, in terms of content creation, what have you been doing so far but for the wrong reasons?

List all your activities in business if you feel like and take a hard look at them.

• Are you following trends?
• Are you doing some practices just because other business owners are?
• Are you trying to speak to everyone?
• Are you on every possible social media channel and actively posting there?
• Are you keeping your old products because you’ve already put so much work into them?

None of that is necessary. 

You can start from scratch if you want to. The point is to stop investing time and energy in the wrong things, because this is not what’s best for your business or audience.

You can release the perfectionism – it doesn’t help you create your best content. You can stop going live or creating videos if it doesn’t feel right, if it’s not the medium that you’re passionate about and which comes naturally to you.

You can ditch most socials and focus on the one you love the most, which is giving you results, and where your dream client spends time.

Your focus is limited so you only want to invest it in the right things. 

You also don’t need to cover all possible topics under the sun, try all marketing techniques, release more products, post daily, sell with every post, charge what others are charging, or do what they are telling you to do.

Let go of all that. It might be stopping you from growing your business. Instead, do what helps you be yourself, what you’re good at, what you feel called to do, what your intuition is telling you, and what lights you up. Thanks to that, you can build a remarkable brand that’s based on values. 

2. Know your why, what and who.

To build a content-driven business, you will need to create content consistently and yet, your time is limited. So if you try to be everywhere, please everyone, and talk about everything because it’s profitable, trendy or promising in any other way, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment.

Lack of clarity, lack of direction, lack of alignment – that’s what you’ll experience and it will turn you into a content creator who isn’t looking forward to showing up online daily or a few times a week and providing value. 

That’s why you should only focus on the things you are designed for, the platforms, type of content, goals and people that feel truly aligned with your vision and purpose.

For that to happen, you’ll need to know why you do what you do and to go really deep when defining it. I have a really good exercise about that in Fearless Content. Module 2 starts with understanding your biggest desires, defining your mission and what will keep you going in business no matter what.

Actually one of the early-bird students told me the other day that this exercise nearly made her cry. There’s a workbook that goes together with the course and it’s filled with journal prompts that help you go beyond the surface and really ask yourself some deep questions. I was so happy to hear that because it means she did the exercise right. 

Your why should be so strong that it should make you cry.

Because you’re in business forever, it’s not like you plan to leave it in a few years. This is bigger than you, me, your current business model and the people who are following you now.

This will grow and there’s no limit to it, so you need to have something that will guide you in the right direction. A deep why helps you stay on track.

Aside from that, in the course, I share exercises, concepts and journal prompts to help you define your dream client, what your main platform should be, what your secondary one should be and why you only need these 2 to make it work. As well as what your zone of genius is – because some people mistake it for their zone of excellence but it’s not what they’re designed to do. There’s something that no one else can do like you, and this can be your biggest asset in content creation, so I help you figure it out.

There are also lessons about defining the main topics you should be covering, the content format that works best for you, and combining all that to create an aligned business. 

3. Make 90% of your content free.

The next step of the process I want to share with you today is to make sure 90% of your content is absolutely free, no strings attached. 

That might be hard for some of you. I see so many people in business trying to sell with every piece of content they publish.

But the way things work online these days is this – every company and brand knows that content marketing is key for them. People expect a lot of content and if you don’t have that and make it free, super valuable and easily accessible, they will go read, watch or listen to someone else. It literally takes a few seconds to find another source on the same topic and learn from them.

So having a lot of free content is a must. It’s part of a bigger game, though. You give people a reason to stay, to sign up to your newsletter, click that Follow button, tune into your podcast weekly, or subscribe to your YouTube channel.

The only reason they do it is because of your free content, how good it is, and the fact that there’s more coming on a regular basis.

When you release a paid offer, these people will already know you, like you and trust you. In one of the lessons in the final module of Fearless Content I explain this concept in detail as it’s a big deal in terms of personal branding and business growth in general.

You can’t just launch something and expect people to buy or even be interested.

There’s so much going on online and at any moment someone is fighting for their attention. 

They must know you first, and that happens by seeing your face, hearing from you at least once a week, knowing what you stand for and what your story is, seeing your content and learning from it.

They start liking you when you overdeliver. When you give them quick wins, when you’re being real and surprise them with all this because it exceeds their expectations.

And they trust you when you’ve given them so much value for free that they thank you all the time. They become your loyal followers, recommend you to their friends, re-share your content, click your links and can’t wait to see what you have to say and publish this week.

All this can be achieved by creating your best content, publishing it consistently, giving things away and really meaning it. Not expecting anything in return, not desperately seeking engagement. 

Just knowing you’re doing your best. You’re creating content on the right topics, are on the platforms that you love the most, being yourself and your brand reflects that, and you’re having fun while doing all this. Which adds magnetic energy to your work and business and that attracts more of the right people. 

4. Create long-form content and make it super valuable.

You can’t just be on one social media platform, posting stuff even if it’s daily, having some followers, and thinking you’re a content creator.

That might work for some influencers, but we’re talking about something different here. You’re in the transformation business, in the business of solving problems. You have a niche, target audience, mission, and income goals. You’re teaching something and that requires more than just social media posts. 

You need 1 main platform, and as I teach in Fearless Content, that can be one of 3 – a blog, a podcast or a YouTube channel.

Because these are the things you have control over, where you can send people to, where you can make the biggest impact. It’s where you can dive deep into the topics you cover, share your story, give examples, promote your paid offers without being salesy, share step by step processes, concepts, exercises and real-life experiences.

Your articles, videos or podcast episodes are what helps you build expertise, appear on some of the most popular platforms and resonate with people who spend time there. You get to be found on search engines and gain traffic, and not worry that constant algorithm changes or other social media disadvantages are going to take this away from you.

A platform like that becomes your home on the Internet. It’s the only place you have control over and that’s why it’s worth choosing a good content management system and hosting provider, if we’re talking about blogging. And good hosting platforms for your podcast or videos so you can rely on their service for maximum quality and security. 

Once you do have that set up, you should create long-form content. That’s your best work and most of it, will be for free. You’ll only go deeper in your paid programs or when working with clients. People will know that if you provide so much value for free, you’ll go the extra mile when they invest in working with you.

5. Be consistent.

For me, that means getting something out there weekly, sending my weekly newsletter, publishing articles and podcast episodes. Covering new topics I’m passionate about and which I know my audience wants to learn more about. Creating new freebies for subscribers, posting powerful content on social media and inspiring and educating in any way I can. 

The value is there and it’s consistent. So people thank me for that, they often say that not many people online are doing it. But I believe it’s not hard. 

I know many of you simply don’t have the time to create a lot of content, especially if you’re just starting out and are still at your day job. In that case, know that it doesn’t need to be complicated. Content creation can be easy and spontaneous.

In fact, you also don’t need to create content from scratch. One of the things I’m constantly doing is repurposing content, and there’s a whole lesson for that in Fearless Content.

I show you how to turn an existing piece of content into many more and use it to naturally promote it, save time, serve your audience in different ways and on different platforms, and repeat your message but from a different angle and while still providing value.

6. Have a content marketing strategy.

That simply means all you do online should fit together to help you achieve your goals, and allow your dream clients to get the best results.

That might mean your paid offers will be 1:1 coaching, courses, eBooks, or a combination of all that. The topics you cover every week, how your content calendar is structured – and yes, you should have one – and all those seemingly random social media posts and the content you’re inspired to create without planning – all this can be aligned.

You’ll always operate from a place of love, abundance and integrity. You will always keep your why in mind. You want to make sure people get the most out of your content and there is actual engagement so you will create and publish in a way that makes sense for them.

Some content creators with no real strategy confuse their audience. They change directions too often, aren’t really sure what type of content to create, promote each piece once and leave it or promote too much and turn people off.

Others create paid offers that have nothing to do with the rest of the things they are doing. When no ones buys, it’s usually because:

• you don’t have the right people in your audience
• you didn’t prepare them for the topic by first publishing a lot of free content and helping them identity their problem and realize there are solutions
• you didn’t build your expertise so they don’t trust you
• you didn’t show up consistently so they forgot about you

and many other reasons.

That’s why there should be a strategy behind all this.

I teach that in Fearless Content and as usual, make it as simple and easy as possible, because we don’t need to overcomplicate things. Also, I add to that energy.

The best combination in business and especially in content creation and marketing, is your unique energy + a simple strategy you can follow that makes sense for you, your dream clients and your whole business.

So these are the 6 steps I wanted to discuss today and they are all connected to building a sustainable business on a solid content foundation.

If you’re ready to never spend another minute creating content that’s not aligned with your true self and which doesn’t help you manifest your dream business, then my course Fearless Content is for you. You can check it out here.

I can’t wait to see the powerful and magnetic content you’re about to create. Here’s to you and being a fearless content creator.

Stock Photo by LightField Studios @Shutterstock