The System for Batching Content Without Burning Out with Amanda Warfield

Julie: Welcome back to the System for Everything podcast. Today’s system tip. Wanna make batching easier? Just copy and paste your last 12 posts and ask in case you missed it, at the top. Boom. Strategy. Today’s guest is Amanda Warfield, a simplicity focused content marketing strategist, author of Chasing Simple Marketing and host of Chasing Simple.

A podcast to help creative entrepreneurs uncomplicate their marketing in business. She traded in her classroom lesson plans for speaking and educating creative entrepreneurs on sustainably fitting content marketing into their business without it overtaking their business so that you have time to grow your business while working.

You can find Amanda working with one-on-one with her clients on their marketing strategy. And copy or helping her students simplify their marketing and launches. And when she’s not working, you can find her spending time outside with her husband Russell, reading in the hammock, or forcing her cats to snuggle.

Welcome, Amanda. I’m so

Amanda: excited

to

Amanda: be here,

Julie: Julie, I’m so excited you’re here. We first met when we were in. A beta group for Le Amani’s first Mastermind. And it’s so funny that we’re chatting today because today’s episode that came out live was Sarah’s episode. Sarah Erickson.

Amanda: Wait, that’s

Julie: so, it was in the group with us.

Amanda: Amazing. I love that.

Julie: I know. All right, we are gonna get started with the system reboot. A quick reset to start our episode with some humor and humanity. All right, Amanda, what is a productivity hack that actually makes your life worse?

Amanda: Ooh. I love a productivity hack. This is so hard. I feel like for me, the idea of like boulders and rocks and sand in theory is great, but actually I struggle with the idea of like, but what is what?

No matter how many times someone was explained, everything feels like a boulder to me, right? And so I struggle with that, and that actually just makes me more overwhelmed and frazzled.

Julie: If batching were a dating profile. What would it say?

Amanda: Wow. I feel like I would be really bad at making a dating profile.

Um, I’ve never had to do that.

Julie: You didn’t have all the experience I did in that

Amanda: world? No. I, I met my husband pre Tinder, which Wow. Makes me feel old. Um,

Julie: I was, I was on all of them.

Amanda: It would say something like here for a long time, not a good time.

Julie: All right, and then because we are real life friends, I have to bring this up.

You have 30 seconds to convince everyone why they need to watch One Tree Hill.

Amanda: Okay, listen, if you want just the craziest drama to pull you out of the real world, one for hell is it? There’s literally a character that everyone calls Crazy Nanny Carey. There are psychopaths and murderers. There’s crazy Derrick It Brothers that are pretending it’s crazy.

If you want to escape real world, it is the perfect show for that because literally none of this would happen in real life.

Julie: I love it and I am finally, I think this fall gonna gonna watch it.

Amanda: You should, and I can’t wait to hear. I want just a recap of every episode from you, honestly.

Julie: Done. Second podcast started.

Amanda: Do it. Voxer me at them at least. I just wanna know all of your thoughts because you’re hilarious and you’ll have great insights.

Julie: I’ll send you all of my thoughts.

Amanda: Please do.

Julie: All right everyone. You’ve met the personality. Now meet the powerhouse because while copying and pasting your last 12 posts might get the job done.

Amanda’s signature batching method isn’t about hustle, it’s about freedom because what good is consistent content if it drains you dry? Here’s my conversation with Amanda on the system for batching content without burning out. Alright, Amanda, you work with so many entrepreneurs who feel like content creation is their.

Actual job because it takes up so much time and energy. Were you ever at a point in your own business when you felt that way?

Amanda: Absolutely. I mean, there was the first, gosh, two or three years of my business where alls I was doing was creating content. That’s everything. And I would try to get ahead and I would get a little head and I’d fall back behind, but it really came to a head, all because a dog peed on our carpets.

So we bought our first house. Truly, we bought our first house. And I was three or four years into my business at this point, I think. And when we bought the house, almost as soon as we moved in, we discovered that the previous owner’s dog had peed on the carpet in every carpeted room in the house.

Julie: Oh.

Amanda: Which of course, they had done a great job of hiding in all of the walkthroughs. Right. But as soon as we moved in, we realized, and we have two cats, and we immediately were like, okay, well we have to rip everything up immediately. We don’t want them to. Sent that and start peeing over the top of it, and then it become like a habit.

So we immediately ripped all of the carpet out of our house, all of the, the underlayment, we, um, sanded down the subfloor and then put kills over it. Like we did all this stuff right off the bat. Well. We also were doing a full remodel of the master bathroom, and so we didn’t want to put new carpet in until that was done ’cause carpet was gonna go in the master bedroom.

And so for six, seven months we had no carpet anywhere in our house. And my office was just the subfloor. Anyone that records, you know, that’s not great for sound quality with your podcast, it gets really echoy. It’s awful. And so what I started doing was laying down blankets across my entire office floor to help dampen that echo.

Improve the sound quality. But I was doing that every single week. I would have to prepare my entire office with all of these softer blankets all over the floor, set up the recording stuff, record an episode, and then pick it all back up. ’cause like again, we have cad, so I didn’t want them like. Getting cat hair all over, you know?

And like walking, no one wants to walk all over your like blankets with your shoes. Yeah. Or gross, right? So I was doing that every single week and it got to be such a pain that that’s when I finally was like, I need to do something different. Maybe what if I just record all of the episodes for an entire month?

In one setting, I just put it all down and I record ’em all and then I just be done so I don’t have to pull the blankets out every single week. And then that’s really what led to me evolving this batching system was, oh, that was great. I didn’t have to record anything for three weeks. That was amazing.

How else can I improve that? How else can I do that with all the other aspects of my content? Because I found that I had so much more space for other business things, and that’s actually the year that my business started skyrocketing and started really making money. And do I owe it all to batching? No.

Part of it is just the more you market yourself and the more you really discover what your people want. The more your stuff grows. Right. But batching was a big part of that. And truly it also led to being able to spend the time listening to how people were reacting to the content I was putting out too, instead of just trying to put content out constantly.

Julie: Okay. I wanna talk about what that shift looked like in practice. ’cause I think a lot of people here like. Batching content and think it means just like locking yourself in your office in like in a room with 30 half done Canva templates and no actual plan. So what does your batching process actually look like step by step?

Amanda: So I actually, I wanna take that back a step first because, okay. To your point, a lot of times we think batching means I’m gonna sit down and I’m gonna, I’m gonna write all my blog posts for the month and I’m gonna write ’em all today and get it all done today. Right? And we think that means okay.

Julie: I mean, before I knew you, that’s what I would think I have learned otherwise.

Amanda: You’ve heard me talk about this many times. Um, it’s right up there with Onery Hill, right? I can talk about it forever, really passionately. But so we think like, okay, I’m gonna sit down. I’m gonna write the first blog post. I’m gonna edit the first blog post. I’m gonna create the graphics. I’m gonna schedule the first blog post, and I’m gonna move on to the second one and write it and do, um, that is a recipe for just feeling brain dead, right?

That’s exhausting. You’re asking your brain to do so many different things all in one time. So my batch system is a week long system actually, where you work step by step instead of by piece of content. So day one is all about creating your plan. You can’t create, you can’t do batch week without a strong plan, right?

And if you’re going to take the time to put content out, it should be strategic. Let’s just be so honest. Like we don’t need to just be creating content for the sake of creating content. So yeah, day one. You are deciding, okay, what’s my strategy? What’s my plan? And then outlining. Then you sleep on it. Let your brain marinate on those ideas.

’cause you’re gonna come back to ’em the next day and go, Ooh, I didn’t think about this thing and this thing and this thing. Which when you’re writing a blog, not a big deal. You can edit them when you’re recording podcast or YouTube videos. That’s a pain to try to add something back in later. Right? So day one, planning.

Day two is all about creating the rough draft of whatever your long form content is. So creating the rough draft of your blog post, creating the rough draft of your podcast episode, creating the rough cut of your YouTube videos, creating that rough, rough, rough draft. This is hardest for people who are blog post writers, right?

Because they wanna make it, edit it, and make it perfect. You’re gonna spend all day writing. If you’re doing that, don’t let yourself use the backspace, write a bunch of garbage, and just get it out there. Then the next day, come back and edit. Edit the podcast, the video, the blog, post, whatever it may be. So you’re gonna edit on day three.

Day four is when you do those final touches, like graphics, putting things all together, the admin side, and then you schedule ’em out and you’re done. What I like to do on that admin day also is take that long form content and repurpose it. Chad GBT makes us so much easier than it ever was before you take.

Your blog, your transcript, whatever, pop it into chat, GPT and say, give me a rough draft of an email and social media posts and short scripts, whatever it is that you’re doing for social, have it pop them out, and then you create that repurposed content. But this allows you. To not only get all of it done, all of your content for the entire month in one week, it also makes sure that you’re staying consistent in your messaging because you’re taking that long form content in what you’re posting on one platform, and then you’re pushing it out all the other platforms.

Julie: I love that. So you really structure your time across like the brainstorming, the writing and the scheduling. So what about somebody that’s. Brand new to the idea of this, how do you help them figure out how much to create and how

Amanda: often? That’s a great question. The first thing I do in my course content matching bootcamp is tell students to write out everything they’re already creating and cut it in half.

Julie: Oh

Amanda: yeah. Nobody likes it.

But what we tend to do is we tend to think, okay, this person is doing X, Y, and Z, and they’re really successful, so I need to do that too. Oh, that’s not the case. We want to be consistent, but that doesn’t mean we have to be constant. Right? And so we need to show up for our people on a consistent basis, but we don’t need to be everywhere.

And we don’t need to show up in all the places. And so I always recommend, okay, cut down on how many platforms you’re on and cut down how often you’re trying to show up by half. And when people say, no, no, no, I need to show up as much as I already am. They don’t like that they. Just a friendly reminder that once you’re comfortable in a batch week schedule, and you see the benefits of showing up consistently and not having to constantly be creating content, you can increase when the next batch week comes around, right?

You could then add back in more content. It doesn’t have to be a forever cut, but getting the system under your belt is gonna be a lot easier if you’re not trying to do a million pieces of content for the next month.

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Julie: When that content is then actually put out into the world, how do you know what’s actually working?

Amanda: Hmm. Such a good question. A. What are people actually engaging with and interacting with, right?

Julie: Hmm. Yeah.

Amanda: That is the biggest indicator. What’s working, what are people actually responding to and what’s just getting a couple of likes because you have great friends and they’re gonna always like your stuff.

And there’s a difference there.

Julie: I, it is a shame because the number one thing for me that gets a crap ton of engagement is my child. And I’m just, I can’t, I can’t, I mean, I’ll, you know, show her occasionally and stuff and like post on my close friends list, but like, I just can’t be an influencer. I can’t do it.

I would, I would die. Yeah. So that’s, but you gotta find that thing that gets Ellie like engagement,

Amanda: right? Well, okay, you’re never gonna do that. Let’s be so for real.

Julie: Okay. She’s so cute. My content’s never gonna be as cute as her.

Amanda: That’s, you know, cats, children, dogs, those are all gonna get crazy content.

Crazy engagement, right? And there’s always gonna be outliers. Like you’re always gonna have things like that. I saw Maddie Ong, I’m not sure if I’m saying that right. Mm-hmm. But she posted something on Threads recently about how, like, was it it, she had a crazy engagement post and it was about like bread tomatoes.

Right. Like you’re gonna have outliers like that. She’s

Julie: such a good threads Follow she, I mean, just a good regular follow too. Like, and I like her as a human, but

Amanda: Right. But always outliers. Personal branding and for just the things that like building engagement, but one of your business content is getting that engagement.

However, the beauty of batching is that you have time to look at that and look at the numbers and look at the data, because let’s be, so for real, if you’re just constantly creating content, you’re not looking at that, you’re putting content out and you’re thinking, okay, what’s the next thing I’m putting out?

Julie: Yeah,

Amanda: you’re not looking at what’s gone out. So when you batch, you have the time and the ability to look back and say, okay, what did well and what did it, and it’s not an immediate, this didn’t do well, so never post about it again. It’s, can I try it in a different way to see if a different type of copy works or a different type of formatting or on a different platform, right?

But you have the brain space to be creative with, okay, this worked really well. What about this worked and how can I apply it to other things I’m creating?

Julie: I wanna talk about something that you’ve said before that I love that your, your system isn’t about content, it’s about margin. Yeah. And so what is margin in making room for it actually look like in your day-to-day life?

Amanda: I don’t have to create content for three weeks out of every month. Three weeks. I’m not creating content. And you know what the beauty of that is? You’ve got more time and space for so much other stuff in your business. We just talked about the fact that like you can actually analyze what you’re putting out, but it also, let’s be so real, we cannot be creative 24 7, right?

Julie: Yeah.

Amanda: There are times of the month where we are more creative than not. When you don’t have to create content constantly, you’re able to use those moments of creativity. There’s so much more, right? It’s, oh, I could turn that into an offer. Oh, I could reach out and be on a guest podcast. I could pitch myself for this thing.

There’s so much more room for other ways of marketing because content marketing is like the teeniest part of your marketing plan, or it should be. And yet it takes so much of our time. And so yes, you have more time to market your business in other ways and see growth. You have more time to work on your, your offers.

And, uh, if you’re building an education business like that takes a lot of time, right? You have more time to serve your people well, and you have more time to rest. Like, let’s not forget that like rest is so important. And if we can cut back on how much content we’re creating. We have so much more time for the things that we love and the, the our zone of genius, which makes us feel more fulfilled.

It, it just bleeds over into every aspect.

Julie: Was there a specific moment when you realized your business was finally working for you and not the other way around?

Amanda: Yeah, I can remember. Not long. After I started this batching process, I shared about it on social media as part of my batch week that month.

Mm-hmm. And that post really exploded, and it got a ton of questions and comments. And I thought, oh, okay. What do I do with this? And because I had the capacity and the space to not just be creating content, I was able to go, okay, well how do I pivot into more of this? And I’m, how else can I share about this?

And then when it continued to snowball, it was like, oh. Okay, I’m able to follow this. And that’s truly when my business started taking off more so, because I was able to follow that line of the people want this, they want more of this, this is actually helpful. How do I share more? How do I do more? How do I take the next step?

And because I had three weeks every month of just working in my business, I.

Not only did I start seeing way more engagement than I ever had, but I started seeing way more income than I ever had too.

Julie: I love that. How do you help your clients build that same kind of breathing room? Um, especially if they already feel like they’re drowning in content.

Amanda: When I’m working one-on-one with clients, I’m taking a ton of the mental energy off of their plate, specifically for the ones where I’m creating their marketing strategy.

So. We sit down and I say, okay, what are your goals? And then we take those goals and we break ’em down and we convert them into marketing pieces. And I say, here’s what you’re gonna post and when you’re gonna post it, and the topic and the hook and the call to action. And they can either take it and create it themselves, or they also pay me for copywriting, and then I create it for them and they schedule it out and do the final touches.

So I focus a lot on how do I take. The mental load off of my client’s shoulders and also the time load as well

Julie: before we shut things down because UIB Queen of simplifying. I wanna ask, where do you see entrepreneurs wasting the most time or energy when it comes to marketing social

Amanda: media? Hundreds on social media.

We spend so much time on social media and it’s always the people who. Spend the most time on social media that are so resistant to batching, which I think is hilarious. Well, I can’t batch because I, I need to, I think of whatever I’m gonna post on social media each morning when I’m feeling most creative, and then I’ve got to, I’ve gotta post it right then when I’m feeling creative.

But when you’re creating a social media post every day based on whatever is popping into your head, a, it’s.

You are taking all of that great creative energy and wasting on social media where you’re gonna get a few likes, right? Like, don’t waste your beau. Use that creative energy for your clients, for your students, for your offers, for a million other things, right? Use that great creative energy for something that’s actually gonna reap benefits.

But when you sit there and you post on social media every day with or without a plan, you’ve gotta take the time to write. Your caption, if you’re posting on Instagram, you’ve gotta find video or pictures or create a graphic. I mean, if you’re doing that, you’re spending at least an hour every day on social media an hour.

And that’s not even to talk about like going down the rabbit holes. ’cause let’s be real, who’s opening social media and not getting sucked into scrolling. They’re designed to do that. So

Julie: I would like to meet them if they, if that person exists.

Amanda: I, I don’t. Like I, I’m gonna open an app and I’m gonna be like, I’m gonna squirrel for hours.

Julie: Yeah.

Amanda: Like, I, I don’t know. I if you don’t hold that, you’re super human. Yeah. Think I don’t need to meet you because you’re gonna make me feel bad about myself. Oh, oh my

Julie: God. That is so true.

Amanda: Like I, because I can’t imagine that’s super human power. Truly.

Julie: Is there anything else that you wish more people would just stop doing?

Amanda: Stop worry it. It really all comes back to social media. Stop worrying so much about how your social media is doing and focus on that long form content. Focus on your email newsletters. Social media is great, but it cannot be the core of your marketing because you’re spending so much time creating that content and is living for a few hours versus.

Your blog, your YouTube, your podcast that lives for months, days, years, right? Yeah. Your content should be working for you longer than you spend working on it.

Julie: Mm. Okay. And so that is so good.

Amanda: Stop wasting all of your time and your energy and your, your worries on how your social media content is doing. If you are using social media, it’s great.

It’s a great tool, but let it be what it’s gonna be and focus your main energy on that long form content and on the emails you’re sending to your list.

Julie: Uh, Amanda, tell everyone where they can find you online and how they can work with you.

Amanda: Yeah, absolutely. So you can find me on threads, Mrs. Amanda Warfield and that’s honestly my favorite place to hang out.

I’m on Instagram as well, but I’m pretty much hanging out on threads. I just think it’s, it’s simpler and more peaceful and um, yeah, and less of a headache for me to be quite honest. But you can find me there. I would love to hang out with you over there. I also have a YouTube channel where Julie has already been a guest and on Mondays we have live lunch and learns.

So come find us over there. Subscribe and if you want to. Give batching a try. If you wanna learn how to create a batching system that doesn’t just work for my business, but that works for your specific business, go check out my course Content batching bootcamp, amanda warfield.com/bootcamp. And if you use the code, Julie, you are gonna get 15% off.

So. Go check it out. Save yourself a little bit of money and, uh, get to batching. Get that content off of your plate so that you have more capacity and brain space for all the other things that you’ve gotta do as an entrepreneur.

Julie: Oh, amazing. All right, everyone, to close us out today, we’re gonna shut it down.

Because not everyone needs a content plan. Some fictional characters should never be trusted with a wifi password. Here are the five TV characters that I believe would be truly terrible content creators. Uh, number one from Friends Ross Geller. He would post one long. Poorly lit video explaining paleontology and follow it up with like a carousel of his keyboard collection.

I mean, zero engagement, maximum secondhand embarrassment. Number two from Arrested Development, Lucille Bluth, sponsored post for vodka. Absolutely. Anything else? She doesn’t know what the question is and she refuses to respond to it. Every story is her just judging you from a penthouse. Number three from you, Joe Goldberg.

His grid would look normal until you read the caption and realized you are the subject of every single one. Instant block number four from the office. Kelly Kor. 40 selfies a day with inspirational quotes that don’t match. Every brand deal ends in drama. She has a cautionary tale with running mascara.

And finally, from Parks and Rec. Ron Swanson refuses to be online. If someone tags him, he will throw his phone in a lake and built a canoe out of rage. Thanks for listening to the system for everything. If you loved this episode, be sure to subscribe. Leave a five star review and share it with somebody who could use Amanda’s help turning chaos into consistency.

For more systems lapse and completely unsolicited opinions, come hang out with me on Instagram at Dallas Girl Friday. See you next time.