How to Simplify Content Planning for Service-Based Businesses

Episode 70: How to Simplify Content Planning for Service-Based Businesses

In this episode, Holly Hibbard - Social Media Consultant & emotional intelligence nerd - shares with you...

• the significance of understanding your core message and aligning content with your business principles
• a mind-mapping tool to visually organize your principles for your business
• how your principles can guide your content creation and ensure authentic and consistent content

If you like what you've read so far, I’d love it if you’d SUBSCRIBE to the show, and TURN ON your notifications so you don’t miss a future episode.

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A GIFT FOR YOU //

• 30 Done-For-You Social Media Content Ideas - your go-to resource for ending your posting struggles and instead creating consistent, authentic content that connects with your audience and attracts clients fast!
• Download it instantly - CLICK HERE 

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MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE //

Check out Coggle: CLICK HERE

Ep. 28: “My Mom Died. How Do I Lead Now?” - CLICK HERE

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WORK WITH HOLLY IN DECEMBER, 2024 //

• Ready to launch your social media brand quickly and finish your 2024 with elevated impact? Hire Holly as your social media strategist and coach! Book a quick call with me here: https://tidycal.com/thehollyhibbard/quick

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#socialmediastrategy, #contentcreation, #digitalmarketing, #clientattraction, #communitybuilding, #onlinebusiness, #coachingbusiness, #serviceproviders, #businessgrowth, #podcastforentrepreneurs, #elevateyourimpact, #expertpositioning, #buildyouraudience, #worklifebalance, #timefreedom, #entrepreneurlife, #onlinecoaching, #womeninbusiness, #podcastmarketing, #authoritybuilding, #thehollyh

Transcript

Welcome to the Holly Hibbard Show.
I'm Holly, a relationship coach and emotional intelligence nerd turned social media consultant.
This podcast is for coaches, consultants, and service providers ready to simplify their social media strategy, create impactful content, and grow their audience without the overwhelm.
If you want to attract dream clients and free up more time for the things that you love, you are in the right place.
Let's make social media work for you starting now.
Hey, everyone.
Welcome back to the show.
My name is Holly Hibbard, and this is The Holly Hibbard Show.
Thank you so much for joining me.
Today, I'm going to be sharing with you how to simplify content planning for service based businesses.
So if you are a coach, a consultant, you offer a service, whether it's in a brick and mortar, small business, medium sized business, or you are just thinking about it, I really hope that by the end of this episode, you're going to feel encouraged and have also an action step to go take soon so that you can have it laid out in front of you, your overall message.
Because the first part of content planning is to really understand what is it that you want to say to potential clients, to your audience?
And that's one of the biggest places where the people that I connect with over this topic.
One of the biggest places they have a trouble is, I don't know what to say.
What if I sound like everybody else?
How do I make my message stand out?
It's a major concern.
So if you wanna plan out your content, we're not only looking at the content calendar.
I mean, in the last episode that I did, I told you the difference between a content strategy and a content calendar.
And I said, you've gotta have an overall strategy first before you get to the calendar portion.
And what I'm gonna teach you today is going to help simplify both of those processes Because if you don't know what your business is about, what matters to you, what you can share with people, that's gonna make the planning of the content really difficult.
And so I'm gonna give you a really easy way to map all of this out.
I tend to be a visual learner.
Okay?
So whenever possible, especially this time of year I'm recording this in December of 2024.
This time of year, I am incredibly reflective, and I want to put things on paper.
I wanna map out what my entire next year is going to look like.
And I will admit to you that that feels really overwhelming because, as I've mentioned in other episodes, I am diagnosed ADHD as a couple of years ago, which doesn't mean that I can't pay attention to things.
That actually means that I pay attention to everything.
And so my mind is a very noisy place.
And so when I sit down and think to myself, okay, what do I want all of 2025 to look like in my content plan?
Oh my goodness.
Who wants to sit down for that?
My brain automatically goes to overwhelm.
Okay?
So I have to come back to what I'm gonna show you today and to keep things really simple and remind myself, okay.
You know what you're about.
You know what you care about.
You know what you can show people and teach people.
You know what you can't or don't want to show people and teach people.
So let's put this on paper.
So doing this in a visual way on paper has always been my preference.
Well, then my next obstacle, I'll say, is that, when I plot it out on paper, I'm afraid I'm gonna run out of room or run out of paper, or I write very slowly compared to how fast I type.
I type at a freakishly, like, quick pace.
But I bring this up because I'm trying to walk through with you.
These are the things that stop me from planning out what I need to plan out.
There's they're to me, they're stupid things.
Right?
It's like, what if I run out of paper?
I mean, really?
What if I can't write as fast as my brain gives me ideas?
Come on, Holly.
Like, you gotta do better than this.
So somebody turned me on to, a tool online, and I just tried it out, in the last day or so, called Coggle, cogle.
I'll put a link to it, in the show description below in the show notes if in case you wanna look at it.
And I'm just using the free version, and they were telling me this is basically a a software you can use to mind map or map out a visual of what, you wanna put together.
Now listen.
I know there's so many other softwares and resources that do the same thing, but I'm like, you know, let's see how easy to figure out, especially now.
I'm a tech person, but if you're not a tech person, I wanted to find something that was simple.
Because to simplify our content planning, I need to know what's gonna work best for me in the moment.
So if I already have a difficult time focusing on all the things and getting overwhelmed, I if I can get things out of my brain faster by typing it, I'm going to do that.
If you do better by taking your time, writing it out, putting the pen to paper, then do it that way.
So I'm telling you that you know what you enjoy doing, and you know what you don't enjoy doing.
So I know that my brain fires off ideas so quickly that, having a visual in front of me that grows as fast as I can spit out new ideas works really well.
So I went to coggle.com.
And, again, I'll put the link in the description below.
And I just signed in.
I got a used a free account, used my Google login, whatever, and I created a new map.
And it's like, what do you want the name of your map to be?
And I named my map, not content planning, I named my map in the center business principle pillars.
And this might be surprising to you because you come to this episode and you think, well, Holly, I thought you were gonna simplify my content planning, and I am.
And the reason I'm starting with the principles is because I'm at a point in my service based business where I've been doing this over 12 years and or about 12 years.
And prior to that, I was a public school educator for a decade.
So I'm going on, like, over 20 between 2025 years of experience in the workforce in various things.
And I, in my mind, I wanna find a way to blend all these pieces of me together, to blend the teacher part of me.
I am God gave me the gift of teaching.
I have been a teacher as a kid.
Like, if I could teach, I would teach.
I love teaching.
Okay?
So part of being a content creator for me is I love teaching.
I love helping other people.
So I have this experience in education.
And then as a professional coach, I have coached on relationships.
I have coached on emotional intelligence.
I have coached on leadership.
I have there's so many things.
And now I'm coaching on social media content and being a content creator in general to help get your business and your message out there so you can help more people because that is the gift that you have.
And this is a way using this mind map.
I'm gonna call it a mind map, with Coggle or on paper, whatever you wanna do.
This is the way I'm gonna connect all those dots for me and feel like this is the best overall picture of where I am now.
And, again, being the end of the year right now, this is a time of year where I am very reflective on who am I now?
What do I wanna put out in the world now?
Who have I become?
Because and I've gone through this in tons of previous episodes.
If you're behind, go back and listen to the there's an episode called, my mom died, how do I leave now?
Go listen to that one.
I'll link it in the description so you can go listen if you want.
With everything that's happened in the last 2 years of my life, I feel like a more powerful woman and more, resilient and tenacious person.
And I do feel like a different person in a lot of ways too.
So this mapping of business principle pillars, it's a reflective tool.
This is also the tool.
This is also the first step in simplifying my content planning because I wanna know that every piece of content that I'm going to create, whether it's written or on a video or a carousel on Instagram, which is like the pictures that you scroll through that have words or images on it.
Okay?
I wanna know that they're they all are displaying me, who I am.
And I also by planning it this way, I know that this is gonna take away any temptation that I ever have when scrolling to just do what somebody else is doing.
Because if I have my business principle pillars very clear, laid out by me without any outside influence.
I know that it's my message.
I know that when I am scrolling and learning and watching other people's stuff, when that moment kicks in of, oh, that was really good.
I wish mine was as good as that.
Okay?
Be inspired by it.
Maybe teach that one piece of info that you learned to your audience.
But how I deliver it is gonna come back to these pillars.
So once I named my map on Coggle, I went ahead and just thought to myself, okay, what are 4 to 6 words, one word each, that I believe in?
These are things that I believe that the people that I am teaching, that I am coaching, that I am partnering with, collaborating with, that they need to know is that the heart of me.
So the first thing that I wrote down, I'm going to share with you my 6.
Okay?
I came up with 6 total.
The first one I wrote down was trusting yourself.
Whether I was coaching people on dating and relationships, whether I was teaching leadership courses, whether I was doing, private sessions for people who wanna start a business, whatever it's been.
The one thing that I have heard from my previous clients over and over again, that I taught them, you know, in their testimonials and what have you, they would come back and say to me, Holly, by coaching with you, I've learned to trust myself.
I've learned to trust my decisions.
I've learned to trust that if I make a mistake, I can always come back and clean it up in whatever way I need to.
I've learned to trust in me and go to myself when I need that support.
And that's why I wrote down that this is the first of my 6 pillars.
Because when you are creating your content, because right now I'm talking about content creation and this is what my brand is about.
I want to encourage people to do just what I said.
I want them to write the piece of content and post it.
I want them to hit publish.
I want them to get it out there and know, hey.
Like, if you make a mistake, you can always take it down.
You can always redo it.
If you did well with it or let's say it didn't get as big of an audience that you thought that piece of content was gonna get, but you know the message is really good.
Trust that knowing.
And that's a really powerful part of my business, and and it always has been regardless of if it was in leaderships, relationships, content, being a teacher in a classroom.
I always want my students and my clients to learn to trust themselves because what that means is they're learning how to listen to their inner wisdom.
Okay?
They're listening to that nudge.
To me, I call it a God nudge.
They feel it and they're following it.
They're obedient to it.
Even if it's scary, even if it's difficult.
So that's one of the first parts of my business pillars.
The second pillar that I jotted down was competence.
Now competence means that you are competent at something, you are good at something.
And the reason I highlight competence is because pillar number 1 with trusting yourself, in time that makes a person confident.
But competence and confidence are 2 separate things.
You can be really confident in your ability to do something or learn something or display something or do that service that you're putting out there for people.
But are you competent?
Now if you are a service based provider or you're getting ready to launch your business and become 1, yeah, you have to be competent because if you know how to teach someone something, you're automatically competent in that subject.
Now, there's different levels of competent.
Are you a novice?
Are you advanced?
Are you an expert?
Are you world renowned?
There are so many different levels.
So competence is my second pillar because I want people to recognize, as a service based provider, that in your content you want to be telling people about what you know about.
You want this is where the teaching comes in.
Right?
This is where you're sharing with them the knowledge that you know that you have.
And sometimes, it's even opportunity for you to share the knowledge that you know that you don't yet have and how you're pursuing it.
And I think people appreciate hearing that you are working toward increasing your competence always, Which brings me to my 3rd pillar, which is resourcefulness.
I know that I am the kind of girl that will always figure it out.
And it's not because I do it on my own.
It's because I am resourceful.
And I want my clients, I want my students to know that they have that same ability to be resourceful also.
And especially today, compared to 12 years ago when I started, there are so many resources, millions, I would I would bet, that are free because of the Internet and because of social media.
There are so many things that we can be learning from or using in our world with technology that help us become more competent, competent, right?
That then because we're then practicing it, we're learning to trust ourselves more.
Right?
And so resourcefulness, are you utilizing not just the people in your world that you can learn from, but are you are you Googling it?
Are you are you using AI?
Are you using chat GPT or something similar to look up something, ask a question, or find a new way?
Are you staying curious?
If you are feeling stuck or frozen in something, that's the moment where we lean on this pillar.
Where do you need to be resourceful that you're not being resourceful yet?
Sometimes being resourceful looks like asking for help.
It looks like hiring a coach.
It looks like hiring an assistant.
It looks like, researching or looking up a new software that works better for you.
So 3 first pillars, trusting yourself, increasing your competence, and always making sure that you remind yourself that you are resourceful.
Alright.
Pillar number 4.
I wrote down in my mind map, courageous action.
Because I'm not saying courageous in the sense of, like, you need to run into a burning building courageous.
I actually teetered back and forth between bold action and courageous action.
Okay?
And I chose courageous action.
Because to me, courage means that you're taking an action even when you don't feel like it.
Or even when you don't think you're gonna do it perfect.
That to me is an act of courage because it requires a level of vulnerability.
I want my clients to know.
I want my students to know that the growth you want for your business only comes from action.
Yes.
Trusting yourself is wonderful and that will benefit your entire life, actually.
Being competent in your field is wonderful.
Of course, we want you to know that you know what you're doing.
I want you to be resourceful.
I want you to know that you can figure it out whenever you get stuck or don't know the answer.
But none of that does anything if you don't take the action, if you don't serve the people that you want to serve.
Your business will not grow.
Your business will not expand.
So taking the action, again, if you are afraid to take the action, it takes a moment of courage.
But sometimes courageous action is because it's something you've never done before.
And that feels really scary too.
Taking the courts or the certification, figuring out the financial aspect of that investment.
That is courageous action, but that is the kind of action that is necessary for you to grow yourself and grow your business.
The 5th and the 6th pillars are very, are tied together.
And I wanna share some a little something I just learned about this I thought was so good.
My 5th pillar is consistency, and my 6th pillar is authenticity.
Because for my business, I know consistency is so important.
And I also know that consistency does not need to mean, especially in the beginning of your business or the beginning of your presence on social media or especially in times where, like me, I had a 2 year break because of everything with my family and my mom and all that.
Consistency does not mean every day, 247, 365.
It it does not, and it and it can't.
Consistency means can you show up on a regular basis in a way that it fits in your life?
And that's what I know is so important in helping you all, helping my clients, helping my students.
I want to help you determine what consistency means for you in this season of your life.
Not what a consistency looked like last year or what it will look like next year, but right now, what can you make work?
And then the 6th pillar, authenticity, is important.
And it's become such a buzzword that I think, I've always been thinking about authenticity in the sense of being being yourself.
And I said earlier, when you're scrolling and thinking, oh my goodness, they just did that so well.
How am I gonna do something similar?
Should I just do what they're doing?
To me, authenticity is resisting that urge.
Authenticity is is checking in with myself and thinking about, okay, what's my my take on this?
I'm not even gonna say my unique take, but what is my take on it?
Through the lens of the experiences that I have had professionally and personally.
And then sharing that.
Authenticity doesn't always mean that you have to share the most vulnerable moments of your life.
And I am known for some reason in some places through social that I have shared some vulnerable moments from my life.
And for some people they're like, Woah, you are so vulnerable.
And that is appealing for some people.
And it's not a necessity.
It's simply something that is part of who I am as a person.
And frankly, it's a lot of times I need to, like, learn to dial back my authenticity.
Not my authenticity, but my vulnerability and, like, how much I share sometimes.
So I wanna last say here on it, because I said I had an moment about consistency and authenticity.
For me, I was listening to this course and Seth Godin, who is the marketing master.
Okay?
This guy is amazing.
Seth Godin was saying people don't want authenticity from their teachers, from us.
Right?
He said what they really want is consistency.
And I had to think about that for a second because I was like, yeah, but authenticity, I've been toting authenticity for so long.
But at the end of the day, I think emotional safety, which leads to people trusting us, does come from us showing up on a regular basis.
By showing up, even when we don't feel like it, people then know they can trust us to be there.
And that trust is way more important than if they feel like it's, you know, not so much you or super fake.
So I guess they're both to me, they're both important, but I think his point was saying that consistency outweighs authenticity just a little bit.
And I was like, wow, that's actually really interesting and really good.
And so I wanted to present that to you so you can think about it and mull it over.
So that's what my mind map started as.
Right?
Business principle pillars.
And I jotted down, like I said, those six things.
Trust yourself, competence, resourcefulness, courageous action, consistency, and authenticity.
So for you, open up a piece of paper.
Open up piece of paper.
Open up Coggle.
Get out a piece of paper.
Whatever you're gonna do, and start with that.
Jot down the 4 to 6 words.
One word or want to a 2 word pair like trust self.
Okay?
And from there, those pillars are what you can create your content from.
Now notice my focus right now in my business is teaching people to utilize their social media content and strategy to build their coaching consulting or service providing business.
And none of my 6 pillars say any of that.
That's one of the points here.
These are the things that I can stand on, even if I were to shift my entire business back to, let's say, coaching on relationships, it would still come back to these 6 pillars.
If I was coaching somebody on dating, are they consistent?
Do they feel competent to put themselves out there and get on dates?
Do they feel resourceful enough to do it?
Do they trust themselves?
Are they being authentic?
It's the same thing, but for a different audience.
So that's why I start with kind of the mood, kind of the vibe.
Those are the pillars.
And then what I did in my coagle map from here is I for each pillar that I wrote, I made it specific to social media content creation and planning.
Okay?
So for example, I won't go through all of them, but for trusting yourself, I jotted down things like, okay.
When it comes to content planning, I want you to make your decisions quickly.
I want you to make sure that you're gonna show up for you.
If you do make a content calendar on paper, this is what my my strategy is for overall, and this is what my calendar is.
Will I show up?
Do I trust myself to show up?
Also, if I don't show up, can I forgive myself for breaking my promise to myself?
Right?
And what do I need to do daily, weekly, and monthly in my actions where I trust I am going to show up?
Okay?
That's what it means in this industry that I'm focusing in right now.
So that would be the next step I would tell you to do.
Start with your business principle pillars, the 4 to 6 keywords, and then go back through the map and jot down what it looks like for you, for what you teach, for how you are with your clients.
So as an example, let's say you are a massage therapist.
And as a massage therapist, you have your business principle pillars.
And let's say one of them is kindness, is one of your pillars.
So massage therapist, you want kindness to be embedded in your practice and you want kindness to be something that shows up on social media in the pieces of content you're going to make.
So I want you to jot down in your map with kindness what it looks like.
So maybe you talk to your clients about be kind to your body.
And what does that look like?
Kind in your nutrition, kind in how you move, kind in how you think about yourself.
Maybe kindness looks like, you treat people, every client that walks into your office, like they matter because they do.
You treat them as if you don't know what they've ever been through because you don't.
And so you can expand on each one of these ideas.
So when we're done with this beginning initial pillars map, you're going to have so many places to go when it comes to, like, recording or writing your content.
But when I wanted to show you today how to simplify your content planning for your service based business, this is the simplest.
To me, it's all about going back to the basics.
And this is the basics.
What are your pillars?
What are your principles?
And then for each principle, how does it apply in your business, with your clients, with yourself, with the skills that you can teach or stories you can share, but we wanna start with the roots of the tree.
And that is why I hope this episode was helpful to you today.
Knowing your pillars is so important, and it's a great time of year.
It's always great to do this, but I love this reflective time of year, because this is a way for you to consider what's important to you now in your business.
And you'll notice what you choose to leave in and what you choose to leave out of this content pillar map.
It's gonna show you where you have boundaries and what you really enjoy doing and want to do and what you don't.
And that's another wonderful byproduct of this process.
So, again, I'll put a Coggle link, to that site in the description below in case you wanna check it out.
Again, I'm just using the free version.
Feel free to use that or grab your pen and paper and get to know what your pillars, and that's your homework assignment.
So thank you so much for tuning in.
I really appreciate you.
I love you.
I mean it.
And until next time.
I'll talk to you next time.
Thank you for listening.
I'm giving you a virtual high five for prioritizing your personal growth.
If you enjoyed today's episode, I'd be so grateful if you could take a moment and leave a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts.
Share the show with friends and family or snap a screenshot of this episode and tag me on Instagram at the hollyhibbert.
You are not alone on this journey, my friend.
I'm always here cheering you on.
So until next time, stay curious, stay encouraged, and keep empowering yourself.
You are doing better than you know.