How to repurpose content like a pro with Joe Gannon

00:00 Akta: Today's episode is brought to you by Riverside. We've been using Riverside to record all of our conversations with our creator guests remotely. Remote recordings can be really stressful if you or your guests don't have the best internet connection. But riverside is able to keep high-quality video and audio no matter what your wifi is like. Thanks to its local recordings, this has made the whole process stress-free and more fun. If you want a high-quality recording studio at your fingertips, visit the link in the show notes and use the code passionfruit2022 to get 15 off any Riverside membership plan.

And now, let's get back on air with our creators!

00:39 Joe: I would be saying, just have your, your main platform, maybe have one to two main platforms and then don't try and do everything after that point. Really just identify the points of leverage.

00:58 Akta: Joe Gannon is the founder of Amplify Creators, an agency that has worked with the likes of Ali Abdaal and Chris Williamson.

Hey, I'm Akta. And in today's episode of Creators on Air, we talk to Joe Gannon about repurposing content like a pro.

01:11 Joe: I'm a founder of a very newborn agency. So we work with some of the worlds leading creators, uh, such as Ali Abdaal, Jordan Peterson, MC Peterson, Chris Williamson.

Um, so I am. And, you know, I'm trying to create content myself, but I, um, work with creators such as YouTubers and podcasters. And we, we take all of their good stuff, all of their long form content, whether that's podcast episodes, YouTube videos, blogs, and we basically manage their social media and we repurpose the content and sort of dig into the minds of, of their value.

01:44 Akta: So I'm curious when you do work with creators, Do you kind of approach them with a strategy in mind or is that something that you discuss with a creator and how do you come up with that strategy?

01:53 Joe: Yeah. So any established creator who's monetizing their audience or they've got momentum and, and kind of know that if they poured more sort of fuel into the fire, it would take off, um, it would have a ROI.

So we are typically trying to identify, uh, the platforms or with our knowledge of like organic creature, where the opportunity is on social. If we can spot that, then maybe, you know, they're not doing short-form content. They're not doing YouTube shorts. Uh, they're not doing portrait content, which right now in this sort of, uh, you know, so what works in social is changes.

So right now it is short-form content. That's not gonna happen. Um, that's not gonna be necessarily what happens in the future. So there's always a short window and if we can spot what's working on different platforms, we can go, Hey, here's, um, Here's something we think we should do. Now. These people are so busy as you, as, uh, Passionfroot know, like any creator with an audience you're receiving probably hundreds of DMs per day.

So our approach, which has been more successful is to basically just go ahead and do it. We don't ask for permission. So we'll go and listen to a podcast, turn, turn it into two Twitter threads and say, basically, Hey, love your content. Um, we've turned. We've made two Twitter threads for you. Uh, do you wanna post them?

Uh, this is the sort of what we've been looking for in the analytics to see if it's a worthwhile type of content for you to make. And then usually they just go ahead and post the content, see it for themselves. And then we sort of begin from a trial basis. Um, so that's actually our whole prospecting plan right now.

Um, we have a lot of inbound, uh, sort of interest, which is amazing, but sort of my goal now is who do we wanna work with? Who do we think we could help? And then basically package it up, actually go and do it for them. And then at the very least, even if we, uh, if they don't choose to work with us, it's working with a thought leader or CEO or a creative, which I'm really excited to work with. And I've just hopefully got some, uh, goodwill.

So basically, yeah, it's just identifying opportunities. Um, and then trying to understand the creative, the creator's too busy. Um, we understand they wouldn't have much time, so they probably just wanna see the finished product. And for, for any creators, looking for opportunities, looking to, uh, build out their strategies.

It's just trying to identify the highest point points of leverage. Um, you have a very limited time, uh, maybe you have your YouTube channel, which is taken off you're considering other platforms you should really be thinking like 80/20 rule. Uh, could you sit down and film native content, portrait, cover TikTok reels and shorts in one in one sort of swoosh instead of like threads, LinkedIn posts, and that's all gonna require too much your time.

Um, so a creator's point of view, it's understanding like 80/20 rule player. You have limited time. You should always be focusing on long-form content. Identify those points of leverage. And then we are, we are trying to understand that, seeing that thinking, cool. They don't have much time. If they were gonna do any new type of content to, to generate an ROI, which would be, which would make sense and have an impact, what could be creating and sort of show them.

04:37 Akta: And for creators who are maybe a little bit more limited in terms of money, being able to invest it in a company who could help them with repurposing content. Do you still think that repurposing content is still something that they should do rather than creating new content.

04:53 Joe: Yeah, I think, uh, so we kind of say repurposing is like our solution to social media management.

So we don't need a lot of someone's time to, to show up on all the different platforms. We've evolved today. Like we initially would go, cool. We're gonna just post on as many platforms as we can. So we would go, oh, let's just post every day on Facebook because we have the content.What that's actually doing, uh, you know, after three months, six months, 12 months, Despite the fact it could be just copy and pasting or LinkedIn content to Facebook. What can you see? The fact that's gonna, you know, be a fruitful. If you walk down that path, is that gonna be fruitful in the future? It still takes time. It still takes effort.

Still, still takes head space. Um, so for any new creator going right. Okay. So I've got my YouTube channel. Should I branch out to all socials or should I just focus on a couple? I honestly do think despite what we do for, for clients who are massive and established, I would be saying, just have your, your main platform, maybe have one to two main platforms and then don't try and do everything after that point.

Really just identify the points of leverage, maybe again, another one or two platforms, which really aren't new content. They're not like a whole new, uh, piece of content you're bringing to the table. It's, it's reusing what you have and repurposing what you already have. Um, so if you are a podcast host and it's easier for you to talk out loud. And if you don't have budget, then clearly your way of, uh, communicating is through speaking. So there's no reason why you can't work with a VA, work with someone junior, chat, to chat to a friend, do something like this, just have an interview and convey your message in an hour. Um, and you know, uh, any member of your team, any freelancer, any intern can just take that.

So you don't need a fully-fledged agency to start to expand and scale yourself by no shape or form. Um, I would actually almost say. Not really the way to go. Um, you should clearly see like an ROI for two, two extra hours spent, you know, uh, channeling that energy into LinkedIn as a new platform. It has to be a no-brainer decision for you.

If that doesn't feel like a no brainer, it's probably easier to go, right? I'm gonna start doing portrait content, uh, and that will cover YouTube Shorts, TikTok and reels. For example, that makes a lot more sense. Um, so I would definitely just take it step by step. Don't try and do everything at once. Um, you have limited head space, you have limited time and then more of an actionable tip of how to identify where to go.

What platforms have the highest organic reach. And then second, how can you communicate your message in like the most streamlined, uh, time efficient way to get that content out the door?

07:22 Akta: And how important do you think it is to consider trends and the algorithm and things like that? Because a lot of people feel a lot more pressure now to create TikToks and to create Reels because that's what's popular right now. But for somebody who enjoys, for example, long form content, and they're not really wanting to do it, do you think it's still worth thinking about those trends or not really?

07:45 Joe: Yeah. I think the mindset is like, what platforms are you already using?

Cause it, if you don't use TikTok and it, it's gonna be a whole new platform to understand, and to, to start to spend time on, to understand the trends. That just seems harder. That just seems like you are, you're basically running uphill. Um, so I, I always ask myself, like, what would be running uphill or what would be running downhill, which is like an extension to Tim Ferris saying like, if this was easy, how would it look?

So if you don't spend any time on TikTok and you don't currently report, uh, film video content. You're you're, you're a writer, as you say, like you have a newsletter, you that's easy for you to sit down and, and write. Um, realize that about yourself. That's not the same for everyone. So clearly you should be aligning the art of writing with, uh, a platform with high organic reach.

So it's almost like step one. Like if you, uh, like to talk and communicate, then that's audio. If you like to be on camera and it comes easy to you, that's video. Um, and then if it's writing, so it's like pick one out of that's. like step one, pick one of those three. Step two, align that with a platform with high organic reach.

So if you are, have a newsletter with 200 subscribers, um, your long form writing may not get the may not be successfully distributed on, uh, just posting a newsletter each week. Maybe you take writing and you go to step two and go, okay. So LinkedIn, if I LinkedIn has organic groups right now, I'm gonna post my long form writing as text posts every day that.

That makes a lot more sense. So you you're taking what works naturally for you, which is, uh, sort of running downhill. It feels like it takes no effort at all. You're pairing it with a platform which has high organic reach. And there's one for, for visuals. There's one for, um, audio there's, one for writing and then.

That just makes a lot more sense. That sounds to me like it doesn't take too much time and you're pairing it with the right platform for you. Um, if you like to write and you're thinking pressured to do TikTok, there's a mismatch. Um, there's a mismatch there. That's not gonna work well. Even if you post it daily for a week, you're not gonna, you know, be consistent as we all know, is, is the thing that actually makes a difference in the long run.

09:43 Akta: Definitely. That makes a lot of sense. And do you think there's a way to repurpose in a way that makes that content feel organic sat platform as if you had created it for that platform originally?

09:52 Joe: Yeah. So we, yeah, we've come far with this, that, as I said, initially we, yeah. So we've come far with this where we would go to a YouTube or a podcast and say, Hey, we're just take your YouTube video.

We could probably even just download it with a YouTube downloader at 1080p without even needing you to drop into Google drive. Like we do not need to be handheld in this process. We'd make like the classic video clips and all that sorts of stuff. That really helps for volume, but we all know that, uh, showing up on TikTok, being native, showing up on Twitter, native, and being, allowing your audience to enjoy you as the creator and giving each platform what it needs is in an ideal world, what you would do.

If you're a full-time creator, you would sit down and spend all day learning trends and do TikToks. You would probably be distilling everything, you know, into thread. Um, and then on LinkedIn, you would be engaging with other people. And again, like lifting the lid of yourself as a creator and being really honest and sharing your failures and your milestones, all that sort of stuff.

So we know that we can't have the time. No one, no one has the time to give, to treat each platform as it is. So what we found to be successful with our clients is to just say it as a 50-50 split. You do need with algorithms to show up consistently, there's a level of posting, which you, you deem to do if you post less than three times per week on socials.

Unfortunately you're not really, uh, it's like visualizing. You're not really watering the plant enough. Um, you know, there's a plant in your window sill. You just go over and water it and then you walk away for two days and you come back and water it. You're just not giving it what it needs, like what the algorithm needs.

Um, so unfortunately with some platforms you do need to post daily. So just the bare minimum. If you can't bring that to the table, I'd almost say don't do it until you can. So we'll help that. And our solution for that is we will repurpose, like make clips out of a podcast or YouTube channel where you're just taking the long-form content then to what you've just described there is, on the other side of things. The other 50% is how can you efficiently sit down, you know, turn your camera, uh, sorry, turn your phone mobile to portrait and just, you know, maybe take your YouTube script, but then riff off your 20 points. And give like the TikTok reels and shorts, what it needs. Um, so we see it 50-50.

So we say it to our clients. If we're gonna manage all these socials and post daily content, we need to repurpose as our sort of foundation. Maybe we get three posts per week from repurposing, and then we'll request their time in a very time efficient way, um, to get the native content, the purpose book content, and there's ways you can systematize that to sit down for two hours and basically have enough for two months.

You know, I could talk more about that, but we try and have that balance, um, because then you're achieving the quantity as a whole. Um, your foundation is the three times per week from repurposing. You then build on top of that to give each platform what it needs. Um, and yeah, we've realized you do need both.

Um, if you go onto TikTok and see like clipped podcasts, you just kind of, you get that half second to go. Ah, they didn't really film it for this platform. We're gonna click off. Um, and native content may perform 10 times better on TikTok than repurpose clip. So then, okay, cool. You need to make one repurpose one.

So then you need to make like one thing which is purpose built post once get 10,000 views or you're posting 10 times and getting a thousand views. It just doesn't add up. Um, so there's all these sorts of ways. You need to be more time efficient and cost cost effective. Um, but I wouldn't start on platforms unless, you know, you can give it what it needs.

Start almost is like solving the problem of where to show up by elimination instead of always thinking like more is better.

13:18 Akta: And so for creators that you've worked with, like Ali Abdaal, how exactly are you helping him? Like even now, what, what kind of areas are you involved with?

13:28 Joe: Yeah. So what I've learned from Ali from working with him since September, 2019, so it's like three years, our initial approach was we are gonna repurpose your YouTube videos.

So we'd just go through the archives of his content. We'd make video clips and we'd, we'd make them into 9x16 and things like that, but still it wasn't purpose-built for the platforms. Um, That we've moved away from that. But what I learned from him the most is that you have to show up consistently and he credits all of his success to posting one to two YouTube videos every week for two years.

So our approach with him was just initially, how can we just show up daily on these social media platforms? And you know, now we zoom out and we've worked together for, for three years. All of his socials have grown because we've just been consistent. So we locked in the consistency, um, and the frequency by systematizing content.

Then once that was nailed and the foundation was nailed, we then would sit down and we'd do social media filming sessions where we could do it virtual or in person. He'd set up his camera to the, the side of the, looking at me at zoom. He'd have his camera there. I would be muted. And I would come to that call with 20 questions, we'd film for an hour.

Um, and I would basically have gone through his YouTube scripts, gone through his newsletters, gone through all of the content he's already like researched and prepared and I would just feed him basically hooks and because he's the expert, he could just go, oh, here's my one tip to be productive, yada, yada, yada, and spill it off in a purpose-built sort of Reels.

And we would. Th this felt like the biggest life pack ever, because we'd sit down for an hour and we'd come away with 20 Reels. Um, and to go back to like that 50, 50 split, we'd have the repurpose content and we'd have the purpose-built stuff. So 20 reels would last us maybe three or four months. Um, so with creators, we then try and again, just kind of get two hours of that time per month and we'll do all the pre-lift.

Um, but again, if you don't have someone, you could just ask your friend to interview. So there's no reason why this set up now. I couldn't have my camera. Set up all like ready for text, talk as a backdrop, and then you could just ask me questions, then meet yourself. And I could just talk to the camera. Um, and that really helps anyone who's introverted or who needs that sort of accountability for it to feel, feel worth it.

Um, so Ali wouldn't do it unless we had those sessions. Um, and then we saw the benefits of a TikTok being more native, just performing so much better. So then it got to that. The leverage of that TikTok, we gave what it needs and got 50,000 views or over here, repurposing content, really being sort of posting with our eyes closed, not giving the platform what it needs, having to post maybe 10 TikToks to get that same amount of outcome.

Um, then we started to post less on those platforms, but for it to be more intentional and anyone could do that, just grab someone, do it yourself, have Notion up of 20 questions. And for any creator with an audience, you probably research YouTube videos. You take this stuff seriously.

You've done all the legwork, so it's just, uh, film it to camera.

Um, if you're the thought leader as well, you know your stuff. So you're gonna be able to just riff this stuff off. Um, and then obviously everything you say could be a tweet. Most likely if you're going for a 15 to 20-second TikTok, almost everything you said could be a tweet, um, or the caption for your Instagram post, you know, so then it can just spiral and that's where you get the volume.

16:44 Akta: No, I love that you've given us a behind the scenes into what Ali does as well. It's so interesting. And definitely something that I think a lot of creators can learn from. Obviously repurposing is meant to help simplify content in many ways. But I also feel like it's then almost overwhelming to think about all the different platforms.

How do you guys, as a team stay off, stay on top of all the different creators and all of the different platforms?

17:06 Joe: Yeah. I think the hack with, uh, stay on top of trends and things like that is just to install a capture habit with this. So you want as much as possible this information to be coming into inbound.

Um, I made a new Twitter account like two years ago where I just followed all of these inspiring people, the creators that I loved. And honestly, right now, because of that, it's pretty been one of the highest leverage things I've ever done because I log into Twitter and I see creators like yourself, Akta. I see other, uh, thoughts and people in their space.

And I learn every time I log onto Twitter. Um, so I've basically just tactically, you know, made a separate email account, made, uh, a Twitter profile, followed all of these. And I've kind of put people into two buckets, either educators or creators. So you have so many people on Instagram right now who are posting Reels about Reels, like it's quite meta. Or people like I used to do back in the day, like talking on LinkedIn about LinkedIn.

Um, they're done on the legwork for you. So just follow as many educators, follow as many newsletters, go to another sort of hack that we, we like to use as platforms like Hootsuite, Buffer, Later, all of these social media companies, their whole job is to get to educate you as a customer about social media, so that you go and buy their social media scheduling tool, for example.

So their blogs are the most up to date, uh, blogs ever, like there is, it's just the incredible resource. So we don't need to reinvent the will. So we'll just go to like hoot suite and just learn the latest aspect ratios, or what the plans are for reals, because they're trying to educate you to the point where you're as a creator.

Um, want to know the best practices, because if you're at that stage, you're gonna then go and buy the social media tool. I'm sure Riverside, uh, as a, as a, as a company, probably have a blog about how to, um, they're probably educating people to their presentation skills and their, their setups and things like that because they want you to be a better creator visually to then be able to sell to you Riverside and to be a podcaster, for example.

So we just have it all inbound. So I just have all these newsletters coming inbound, the people that I follow online, um, again, it's just upfront work to get that foundation. And then I I'll just log in to LinkedIn, see that someone's posting Twitter screenshots in the carousel and go, that's a really good idea.

They're repurposing Twitter threads into Carousels. Um, and everyone in the comment is saying, oh, saving this for the future, saving this for the future. I know that LinkedIn care about saves and they care about comment. We should go and try that content for our, for our clients. Um, so I think the hacks are just follow great people who are doing this, basically I, to extent how much we are bringing, which is original, is just basically from our experience, um, of what we've seen work.So I like Steven Bart and his team are great team to follow because they really pride themselves on innovation. And they're just testing stuff each week. So we are following their team because they're just and Lewis Howells and other sort of massive podcasters, massive. Content teams. They are their whole job.

They're being paid to sort of test an experiment to see what works for them, and then come, go and do it for yourself.

20:01 Akta: So are there any tools that you'd recommend for creators to use, to help them either repurpose their content or to be better at like scheduling or managing their content that you guys use in your team?

20:13 Joe: Yeah. So our content calendar for all of our clients and it's, it's, uh, it's gone through many iterations of, uh, trial and error. And I have built out a notion maybe like most sort of builders or people who are, um, taking content creation seriously, usually get to the point where you're frustrated of, of like existing solutions.

So I've kind of built out our way of using a content calendar, free Notion. Um, I'm gonna hopefully have like a YouTube video soon of just showing how that looks. Obviously people can then just use it as a template. Um, but we use notion as our content calendar, um, in terms of scheduling, we just use Creator Studio.

So that's, uh, Facebook's native tool to schedule on Facebook and Instagram. We use, uh, either Hypefurry or Typefully, um, for Twitter threads and scheduling Twitter content, um, because you can schedule everything in Twitter except threads. So we have a very, like our tech stack is very minimal. Um, there's unfortunately, usually no one-fits-all tool, which covers all base.

Um, cause it's usually based on the APIs of platforms. So LinkedIn, for example, don't allow any videos to be scheduled onto LinkedIn profiles. So it's a LinkedIn problem. It's not a tool problem. They just can't have access to it. LinkedIn don't have the capability. So like we just post LinkedIn content manually, for example.

Um, so yeah, we just use Notion for a contact calendar. We use scheduling tools, um, as I say, Creator Studio to cover Facebook and Instagram. I think you can now schedule Reels like as of like last week. So that's gonna be handy. But then if you were someone who's riding, riding trends and need, want to use the sort of custom music, I don't think you can do that.

So there's always that sort of caveat, unfortunately, with, with things. Um, there's a Twitter tool called Black Magic, which is a, uh, Twitter analytics tool. I've heard really great things about that. And there is a Chrome extension for Twitter called Twemex. I can spell it. It's a. Yeah. T-w-e-m-e-x. It's just a Chrome extension.

That is a great hack. So we, uh, yeah, so you've used obviously, so you can see anyone's like all time, uh, performing content. So again, just a bit of upfront work or again, like that's just an automated thing. Just set it up once and you're gonna just, when you're on people's platforms, just out of interest, you're gonna get information like, oh, they're 10 best, uh, 10 best tweets of all time at all threats go into their profile.

Is that just. Um, the fact that they only tweet threads, you wanna check that first is not just like a self-fulfilling thing. Oh no. They post all these different types of content, but those threads where they curate someone's story and go deep into Tony Robbins's journey. And here's the value that here's how he's got to where he is today.

Oh, cool. So that didn't even require that person. It's actually a curated thread. So if you're looking to grow, maybe there's value in curating other people's content, um, which is accessible to all of us. So we've developed so many insights from that Twemex tool or whatever it's called

23:01 Akta: Yeah. I love that.

You know, all the tools and secrets to use. That's amazing. Um, there is this constant pressure though, to be online on every platform and to be churning out content. And like you say, be consistent. Do you have any advice for creators on how they can build that online presence without burning out, especially because you are also creating your own content alongside running your business, where you are creating content for other creators, how do you find that balance?

23:25 Joe: Yeah, it's a really important question because I think, uh, it was a pinch me moment that.

I would listen to Ali Abdaal's content. And then suddenly I was being paid to listen to his content and it all seemed a bit surreal. Um, and then creating content for me, put myself out there, like any creator, you do it, you get hooked on it because you meet like-minded people.

I think David Perell says, when you, when you create content online, when you write online, you're like a lighthouse for other people. And that visualization that you're kind of like. Hey, I like golf. I like dogs and I do this thing on the weekend and someone else goes, Hey, I like golf too. I also like dogs and Hey, and they sort of DM you and it becomes so fulfilling.

So every creator gets hooked and wants to build online and sees the benefits. Whenever they've reached sort of consistency, you see the benefits. You see a comment from someone and it becomes meaningful. So that's kind of why we all do it. Um, so I have been there myself where content and creating and put myself online was the most energy providing thing.

Like it, I would be at 8:00 PM on a Friday. I'd be on the weekend, you know, after my job, it just, it never felt like a chore. Um, but as you say, the lines can get blurred very quickly when like, you don't switch off or your full time job is eight hours on your laptop and then content creation is also right on your laptop.

Um, or for me, like I use Notion for work. And then I use Notion because I, I love it as a tool. I feel really creative, so I could be spending 12 to 14 hours on Notion a day and that's bloody scary. Um, and that's scary. Uh, I, sorry. I said bloody. So tips on how um, yeah, so tips on how to create a little burnout.

I think you have to. Okay. So an actionable tip would be to download Rescue Time. So just a free version of Rescue Time. Uh, you can get it on your laptop, on your phone and you can basically, it just tracks your time in the background. So download Rescue Time right now, and then a week's time. You'll see where your time goes online, how much time you're spending on your laptop and then also your phone, um, cuz in burnout, the chances are you're doing.

From my experience, burnout is either doing too much of something easy overworking, but. I discovered when I hit burnout was I was also doing a, a lot less of the stuff. It's actually subtraction of the stuff that I enjoy. So you get this sort of like overworking doing too much and you get this, like, I don't, I'm not watching enough TV.

I'm not seeing enough friends and this sort of subtraction and you sort of burn out because you're sort of, um, uh, where you are us, where you're usually at starts to like separate. Usually if you overwork, you can maybe bring that down. But if you, when you hit burnout, typically you're really deviating from like your normal of how you feel good about things.

Um, and it goes both ways. So I think an actionable tip is to just stare at how much you're spending your time. Um, a second thing is to install things like blockers. Like you, you physically can't use social media past 9:00 PM for example. So Freedom's a great app for that. So I have that set on my phone that passed 9:00 PM.

Now I can't use, um, any sort of social media app became an annoying with clients. We've got looked out of things. It sent a password to my phone and I like, literally can't get in. So there's there's moments where it'll be a problem. But yeah, my full-time job now is, is the social media agency. And I'm literally probably do doing more than anyone else to try new social media as little as I can.

Um, so I think you need to do some sort of audit of your time. Um, how much are you doing? What you enjoy? How, how, how much are things are you doing, which you don't enjoy and then go from there? I think it's definitely a personalized thing.

Um, in terms of being a creator, you just have to systematize things. You have to get to the point where you reach point of leverage. Um, and, uh, I know Jack Butcher has a term being like a leveraged creator and leverage is basically just that your output isn't tied to your input. So it's not that you sit down and write, uh, on Twitter and your output isn’t gonna create a thread and then you post the thread.

That's just a one-to-one relationship. Your input matches your output. Instead it goes into repurposing. As, as we've discussed, time spent writing should mean five to seven different things. It should be your captions for your Instagram post. It should be your, your newsletter. it should be a YouTube script and it should be your Twitter thread.

And when you get to that point of leverage, you can get ahead as a, as a creator.

27:21 Akta: Oh, that's great advice. Thanks for that because I, I definitely need advice on how to deal with burnout. We're gonna move to a quick fire round now where I ask you a few questions and you just answer the first thing that comes to mind.

So the first question is what's your favorite thing about being a creator?

27:38 Joe: Exposure, exposure to interesting people.

27:40 Akta: Oh, that's an interesting answer. I like that. And what's your favorite tool that helps you to create or helps with your productivity?

27:48 Joe: Uh, Notion, uh, I just feel really creative in Notion. I just like the emojis and just how it looks.

And I just feel, uh, I can sit down for two hours with my cup of coffee and I can just write and I can publish. And I just feel, I feel like a, yeah, I feel like a wizard in Notion.

28:02 Akta: I feel like Notion's such a popular answer for creators. I feel like almost everyone has answered with that. Um, what's one thing that gives you the most inspiration for your work?

28:11 Joe: Hmm, inspiration for my work. That's a good question. Um, um, um, I would say community, I think anything that I've done on for, as a creator and I don't really call myself creator because the people that we work with are, are what I would call a creator, but, um, it's community, it's just, anyone can put something out there online and, and it's so rewarding to.

I think anything that you share online is gonna be uniquely used. So even if it's a random, uh, niche topic or some sort of hobby, you're just doing a little bit more of view each, each week, for example. So like the happiest I've ever felt was when I would sit down and do a newsletter every Sunday to like 50 people, cuz I'd sit down and really just wrestle with how I felt that week or a topic that I was interested in.

Um, and you don't need an audience for that to be like a, a fulfilling thing to do. So I think it's community, I think it's just, you know, uniquely showing up and being yourself. And then you start to see that you're kind of accepted. It sounds really corny, but you can put a tweet out and if you get a comment you're being accepted, someone else is saying like, Hey, like I, I like your thoughts.

Um, uh, and I think that's where I can get, uh, get exciting.

29:16 Akta: It's so true. I love it. When people just find you relatable, it's just such a nice feeling. What's one thing that's helped you most with your creator work life balance?

29:23 Joe: I think it's the mindset. And I have learned that from the sort of Ali AB of getting ahead with the stuff.

So sort of seeing the behind the scenes of successful YouTuber, realizing that the sort of the shop face, so to speak. So if you are a subscriber to his channel, you probably presume naturally that when you, you see a video posted today that oh, like you just naturally think, oh, you just uploaded the video today.

What you don't know is that I was filmed six weeks ago, maybe edited two weeks ago, and now it's been scheduled, for example. So I think what clicked for me was seeing creators, have a system behind what they do and maybe being, you know, one month, two months ahead. And that's what we was try and achieve now as a service realizing that you, you are only gonna be limited by your time.

Um, so just that idea of getting ahead with content, that idea of systematizing things, that ideas, that sort of concept of leverage has been a game changer for me, because. We all know consistency's important, you know, you should feel like you can go on holiday and, and not have to post content. However, you there's a world where you can have a bit of both and you can schedule content for that week and just go on holiday, enjoy yourself.

So like the sort of shop face versus like the behind the kitchen, so to speak. So you. Behind the kitchen, you could have been making content. You're like two months ahead. The shop faces that you're posting content every single day. So your audience is just like, wow, they're so consistent. We get so much value from them.

They show up every day. How do they do it? Any consistent creator knows that, you know, that content has, has been pre pre-planned or pre-built, um, So, yeah, it's just finding those points of leverage, I think, and having burn out now, I'm really seeking them more than anything of just how can I spend one hour and get, you know, my output in 10 different ways.

30:50 Akta: Now I'm glad that you're nearing the other side of burnout. What's one piece of advice that you would give to other creators?

30:56 Joe: I would say. Yeah. Just make sure you're still aligned with the content you're creating. I think don't forget the reason why you started showing yourself online. Yes. The topics you talk about or, um, you know how you show up may change and how it looks online may change, but don't forget why you started.

If it was relationship building, you should be proud that, you know, your initial goal was maybe to just meet one person online who can provide value to, and don't sort of lose the initial “why.” Um, cause I think for me it was, it was never creating content to, uh, necessarily grow an audience. It was initially to network and to, to meet interesting people and to invest in my network.

And I think that is still my “why.” That is what got me through the hardest part, which is the first step, which is, which is starting. So if that was a compelling enough “why” to get me from zero to one, that is a compelling “why,” which I quite clearly feel at my core that, uh, I feel passionate about. And that's what got me to create content.

So, um, I think. If people deviate and the established creators deviate, you know, from off that video is 10 outta 10 on YouTube is not performing. Uh, don't forget that you, we would've been happy with that back in the day. Um, so I think just don't forget the “why,” why you started and maybe the content looks different and all these different things, but maybe there's more pressure now for sponsors or the content's monetized.

But, um, yeah, I don't do it enough, but you should look back and just be happy. Um, like I have, I think I have 3000 subscribers now on YouTube, and I remember the, the goal was 1000. Like I was told, like 1000 is the hardest thing to do and like why I'm not celebrating that. I do not know. So we all need to kind of stop I think, and, and know why we are doing this.

32:28 Akta: No, that's great advice. I feel like I definitely needed that because I struggled with the same thing. I think most creators do so. Thank you for that reminder. It's been so great having you on the podcast, Joe, thank you so much for all of the value that you've given.

32:39 Joe: Thank you very much. Been lovely to talk to you and to catch up and to talk about this stuff, which is energizing.

It reminds me that I, I love the stuff in there. it? As long as it's energizing, then great. If it's not energizing anymore, stop and get to that point because, uh, there's a reason why we do all this.

And yeah, as, as we've both said, we kind of, you can forget the reason why. And at that point, you should stop and just recharge and get back to this being something which, uh, is, is in addition to your week.

33:03 Akta: I've always thought that repurposing content just felt like more work, but I really like how practical Joe makes the whole thing.

You can find Joe on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. And if you need help with your creator business, check out Joe's company, Amplify Creators.

If you are a creator trying to move your business forward, check us out at GetPassionfroot on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, or subscribe to our weekly newsletter, Filtered Fridays. Stay passionate, and I'll see you in the next one.