Systems & Simplicity: 7 Things to get done in 2024...a bonus episode for the real ones.

Welcome useful content community to the useful content podcast. And today in this bonus lesson, I'm going to share with you seven things I want to get done in 2024. Now I know every single content creator in existence is going to be sharing lists and goals for 2024 and while that is not something I would usually do I would just present my content strategy for the year.

Today I want to take a bit of a different approach in that I'm not going to present any lofty goals I'm going to present Seven simple things that know I have to do that I want to be accountable for. And so it's just some thoughts I've been thinking about for the last year or two years. Some of this has been stewing for the last three years. And so it's come to a point where I feel like I need to set these goals and set a timeline for accomplishing these things. So I'm going to share with you these seven things.

So if you listen to this and any of these ideas resonate, you can take it back and see if it applies to your own content strategy and then implement the exact thing over the coming year.

So let's get started. And as with all good things, we must have a theme. And so the theme for my content this year, the changes and the goals that I want to have for my content this year is systems and simplicity. So I want to build out content systems, but I want to keep things as simple as possible.

And you see why that is the case later on when I'm going through the list of these seven goals that I have for content this year.

Okay. Goal number one, finally launch the useful content. website. Now, this has been a major gap in everything that I've been doing over the last couple of years in building out useful content. And it really is something that I should have done earlier. But as you know, you have to go through a period where you test things and you figure things out in order for you to have.

the platform to build certain types of content. But having a website is really in line with moving more towards owned media and relying less on social media and other types of media. And so Having a website is going to fix some things inside of my content strategy, namely, it's going to be able to, engineer the customer journey in a more predictable way so that when you have a website, you have a hub online that people can actually go to where you can send them there to sign up for your newsletter.

Then you have a way in which you can get people on your mailing list and because that mailing list is owned by me, it is not subject to the whims and fancies of the algorithm and or the owners of the platforms. And so I'm moving more towards that.

I actually have a mailing list is around a hundred persons. And, uh, I want to expand that. And I'll talk more about that later on, so the podcast is something I'm going to grow. Email is something I'm going to grow. And the core of that in terms of the funnel and the customer journey has to be the useful content website.

And I already have the URL for that. In fact, I've had that URL for, uh, well, I guess almost a year. I tried different things, different URLs. And I finally came up on the one that I want, which is makeusefulcontent. com. 

So when it does launch, it's going to launch under the domain. makeusefulcontent. com. So you can look up for that. That is probably going to happen within the first quarter of 2024. So the second content goal I have for this year is to simplify the language of all. My content. And of course, those who know me might be saying, well, you are pretty understandable and your content. It's pretty clear. And you don't use language that we don't really relate to. And while I might be true to a great degree, it could be even better because I've taken time to craft the language in a way that is really relatable and that uses language that my.

idea clients would love and that people who are interested in this type of content would love. But the more I listen to the content, the more I find that it could be even better. So that's one of the things I want to improve this year as a content goal.

So I want the language to be more human, more relatable, and where there is a need for a two syllable word to mean something, I'm not going to insert a four syllable word. So synonyms are going to be changed up, and just simplify the language overall.

And then of course, inside of that, there are some things I'm going to repeat, like reject single use content. It's good to relate and things of that nature that will really help solidify what I'm trying to communicate with useful content.

So simplifying the language, repeating the key things over and over again, I'm really focusing on using language that connects directly to the people who I want to build community with to sell to, which is better known as my ideal customer profile or my ideal client. So that's one thing I want to do for this year. So the third content goal I have for 2024 is that I want to improve the visuals of useful content. And because I have a background in print and graphic design, I have a real love for typefaces and colors and things of that nature. Just, just the idea of text and print and how things overlay and how colors complement each other.

I'm a real, uh, nerd when it comes to those things. Most people don't know that. Because I've done it for so many years, it comes a second nature and sometimes I create things and we run with it and it's the first or second iteration, we don't really focus too long on iterating things over and over again in order to get it looking the best.

And so what ends up happening is that the, the first few drafts is what we run with, fortunately, because I am talented in that area and I have a great. Business partner, we end up with something good. But as you go along and you look at things, you realize that things could be improved, I've already started working on some of it, and that is connected to the website, and that is making a bit of a more visual statement. Even though it makes a strong statement already. So I want to use some old advertising tricks as in personify some parts of the visual so that people could connect with it.

And you'll see what that means later on when I introduce the website and I introduce some of the new collateral. So upgrading those visuals for 2024 making the content. More accessible, more relatable is, I think is an important thing. And that will connect well with simplifying the language because with simple language and compelling visuals, it makes it easier for people to want to consume your content.

Alright, let's get into some more of the number goals that I have for 2024. And the fourth goal that I have for 2024 fourth content goal is to have 1000 subscribers to my newsletter, which is active, but not active, or send 48 emails this year. So whichever one comes first. If I get 1000 subscribers, quite happy with that.

If I can make it to the end of the year, having sent 48 emails and that's. Emails for every single week of the year that I'll be working. I normally take like four weeks off. So those are 48 emails. That is fine. And the reason I'm setting that goal is because I want something to measure. Again, it's my, obviously my KPI.

I want something to measure against at the end of the year so that I know if the new customer journey structure or the funnel that I've created from the website is, is actually working so the faster it happens, the more closely I'll look at the systems and determine what parts of what I'm doing is working or not working. So I'll look at some of that data and I'll be able to tell whether I'm doing the right things or not. And of course, if you're hearing this, that means I want you to subscribe to my email list as well. The link is not out yet, but when it does come out, please remember that I've asked you to do this and subscribe only if you're interested, only if you're really interested in getting useful content tips or the newsletter is probably going to be called useful content notes because it's things that you take away from the useful content classroom.

So that's what it's going to be called. So look out for useful content notes. Later on this year, and that is probably going to be a second quarter thing after the website goes up and my fifth content goal is concerning my podcast. And I was going to get there eventually, obviously to talk about the podcast, because that is something that I started last year.

And it's been going pretty well, but I want to give it a better chance to grow. So have any websites. It's connected to having the podcast as well, because people can learn about the podcast on the website and sign up for the email, which will get alerts for the podcast and everything is going to be integrated.

The goal for the podcast this year is 1000 downloads. or 30 episodes, whichever one comes first. And so that means I'm going to have to get how many per month, like 80 downloads per month. I haven't done the math on it. Let's just call it 1200 downloads. So a hundred downloads per month, every month, at least, so that the end of the year, I'm going to have 1200 downloads.

And I think that is a reasonable goal,

or I could have just done the 30 episodes and that would have been me accomplishing the goal there. And those 30 episodes are factoring in that I'm doing an episode every other week. I'm deeply considering moving the podcast to every single week, but right now I don't have the bandwidth for that.

When I hire somebody then I'll be able to expand those things. But as of now, it's every other week. So my sixth goal for this year, and it's a goal that I really want to get done by the third quarter. The goal is to create my very first official course, and that will be a video course that I'll be creating, you could purchase it without me having to teach you.

It will not be a one on one. I will not be involved. You can just go and buy it and you could go through the entire course. I've already purchased a teaching platform and that has been ready since mid 2023. So it's been waiting on me to do what I need to do. And I want to launch that course either late of the third quarter. But early of the fourth quarter, so I've given myself some room to build out the other systems that I need to build out first, like the website, the email list and everything before I actually launch the course.

But I'll do a pre launch and I'll do all of those different things so that people know it's coming. But that course will be something that I want to get done in order for me to say, yes, I've given away all of this free value. Now I can make something that is structured and that is well put together that can give people.

some value that they actually have to pay for. So that is part of what I want to accomplish in 2024.

And the final content goal number seven that I have for 2024. Some people will kind of suspect what this is because if you've listened to my recent podcast episodes, particularly the 12 affirmations of content success. I've already mentioned this and that is I want to start writing my book.

And so the book title is probably going to be something like 12 affirmations for content success. And I have a goal of writing four chapters this year and this is not due until the last quarter. I'm not sure how I'm going to go about it. I'm going to get some advice from some people. I'm going to look at some content surrounding that.

Because this will be the first time officially writing a book for me. And, I don't know, so I'm willing to learn. I'm willing to find out more about it. And there are many talented people out there who are willing to help and who are willing to give me support in that regard. So I have no doubt that there will be people who would come and will come alongside and give me support in putting that book together.

It's a long time coming. And I think I have enough things gathered, gathered over. a number of years to put it inside of a book that will give people value. Whether or not it will be for sale or be free, I don't know. But I suspect that it will be something that will be very robust and it will have imagery and it will have things to go along with it.

It wouldn't be your run of the mill regular book. I really want people to either Buy the hard copy or if they do buy the audio version, which I might voice, you never know, they will have to go download all this extra stuff in order to make it make sense. So I really want to start my book and get four chapters done by the last quarter in 2024.

And as I'm thinking about it now, there is a bonus thing that I want to mention a bonus content goal. This bonus content goal is something that I should be doing, but I'm not doing very well right now, which is to talk more about numbers, not necessarily about money, but talk more about numbers in my content, like how many wins we've gotten clients, how many things we've done, how many, uh, listens for the podcast, how many views my videos, have things that would engender or inspire more confidence in the things that that I do.

I know the content is good, but numbers do help. Numbers do push people along because numbers are easy to understand. If I say I have 10 mangoes. You know, I have 10, if I say I have a hundred mangoes, you, you probably picture a pile of mangoes piling high. So there's a difference in terms of the numbers causing a visual to be activated.

And I think that is one of the things I want to do. and probably, this could be plugged into simplifying the content. But using numbers to describe things inside of my content is another content goal. I want to just insert there as a bonus thing that I want to accomplish for 2024. And that's it. Those are my seven content goals for 2024. Thanks everyone for listening to this very different episode of the useful content podcast and for gracing us in this very first time in 2024 inside of the useful content classroom,

we'll be back to our regularly scheduled conversational style podcast next week, but thanks for joining me. Useful content classroom dismissed and we're clear. Uh, if you're still here, please give me a rating on Apple podcasts or Spotify. If you like the podcast and it's been useful, I'd love for you to do that.

And I'd appreciate that very, very, very much. It's not something that I ask for often, but it is useful to me. Thanks so much to you. Useful content community.