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GS #7: Content Ideas, Dynamic Ads, and Adapting to AI

Growing Steady is BACK, baby!

Thanks for hanging tight with us during our two-week Spring Enrollment period, but now we’re ready to pick up where we left off and bring you actionable tips every Monday about how you can make your business more predictable, profitable, and peaceful.

Without further ado, let’s just get right into it!

- Jason and Caroline

predictable 🔄

A repeatable system for coming up with endless content ideas

👩🏻‍🦰 👋: In this “age of content” we’re living in, it’s no secret that getting visibility for your business often hinges on your ability to churn out engaging content regularly.

But with the demand for content at an all-time high, do you ever find yourself struggling to come up with fresh ideas?

If so, today I want to share one system that Jason and I implemented years ago that ensures we never run out of topics to create content about.

We called it the Prompt Pantry 🚪.

Think of your Prompt Pantry as a digital storage room brimming with content ingredients that you can combine to create endless delicious content recipes.

Here’s how it works: We have 4 categories, and under each category, you want to jot down 3-10 bullet points. The categories are:

• Customer problems 🤕: What your ideal customer struggles with or needs help with
• Customer outcomes 🎯: Details about the transformation your ideal customer is seeking
• Teaching topics 👩‍🏫: Areas of expertise, experience, and knowledge
• Brand values/beliefs 💖: Unique statements that differentiate your brand

Here’s what the Prompt Panty might look like for Wandering Aimfully.

Now, to whip up endless content ideas, simply combine random numbers from 2 or 3 of your lists. You can even turn it into a fun game by using an online random number generator!

Every unique combination of bullet points serves as a prompt formula for your next video, Instagram Reel, blog post, and more.

For instance, “Teaching Topic #1: Offers/Digital Product Offers” PLUS “Customer Problem #2: Lack of Focus” might inspire “ 💡 Content Idea = How to Creating a Value Ladder Can Help You Prioritize Your Offers.”

Of course, you'll want to flesh out these ideas much more, but with this systematic approach, you’ll never run dry on content inspiration. We hope this tip will enable you to be more consistent in your content creation!

​- Caroline 👩🏻‍🦰​

Profitable 🤑

Using dynamic podcast ads to promote your offers

👨🏻‍🦲 👋: Calling all podcasters! If you haven’t heard of (or used) dynamic ad insertion for your podcast, you’re missing out on an awesome promo opportunity for your own products.

First off, what is dynamic ad insertion?

It’s the ability to add your own a pre-roll, mid-roll, or post-roll audio clip to your podcast library dynamically.

Why is it awesome?

Let’s say you have a coaching program with bi-annual enrollment, but you podcast weekly year-round 😉.

Before dynamic ad insertion, what you would do is record short promotional messages in the 4-5 episodes right before your launch dates and edit them into the episode audio itself. The problem is that those promo messages are then out of date immediately and clutter up your podcast episodes.

With dynamic ad insertion, however, you create an “ad campaign” and upload the 1-2 minute promotional message separately. Then, you can dynamically place that message in front of (or in the middle of, or at the end of) EVERY EPISODE in your podcast catalog… automatically! 😱😱 (And, when the campaign window ends, you can remove the “ad” just as easily.)

What does this look like in practice?

We tried this for the first time in our recent Spring Enrollment period for WAIM Unlimited. The “ads” were only running for 2 weeks, but as you can see below, we accrued 2,857 total ad impressions across our ~200 episode library. That’s 2,000+ additional touch points where potential customers of our product are hearing us talk about our program!

The best part about dynamic ads? You just schedule the dates you want the ads to run and they turn on and off without you doing anything else! 🤯 It’s like MAGIC.

How do you get this feature? We switched over to Transistor.fm for our podcast hosting (aff link) because they include dynamic ad insertion in their Professional plan which is $49/month.

Whether it’s a signature program you launch twice per year like us, or you have upcoming events you want to let your listeners know about OR you just want to create ongoing ads that promote your different offers for a week or two at a time, dynamic ad insertion is a really awesome way to get more attention on what you sell by leveraging previous work you’ve put into your podcast!

​- Jason 👨🏻‍🦲​

Peaceful 🧘

Responding to the AI wave by sharpening your business knives

👨🏻‍🦲 👋: Let’s be honest, this fast-paced AI-powered era of online business seems like it's getting more overwhelming by the day.

I’ve been in the game for nearly 20 years now, and I’ll admit, I’ve had moments where I’ve struggled to keep up with the latest technology and trends.

For those of us aspiring to run Calm Businesses, the question is: how can you find more peace and less overwhelm as we enter this new Wild West of AI and tech advancement?

I used to think the answer was just bury my head in the sand and pretend it wasn’t happening. 😂 But it’s clear that things are not going to slow down just because we want them to.

So, how can we change our mindset to embrace the change rather than let it overwhelm us?

Lately, I’ve been thinking about this like a chef who knows they need to regularly sharpen their knives. 👨‍🍳 Sure, you can chop vegetables with a dull knife, but it requires more effort and the end result isn’t as clean or precise.

The same principle applies to our skills as online business owners. By neglecting to sharpen our skills and update them regularly, we may find ourselves struggling to keep up with the pace of change—which only makes it feel more impossible. A vicious cycle.

How can we sharpen our business knives and stay ahead of the curve? Lean into it. Carve out a few hours a week to actually learn. Here are 3 tips that are helping me:

1. Embrace curiosity over negativity: (ie. “This new software looks really cool and I want to try it!” vs. “This new software seems scary and daunting.”)
2. Learn from others: Don’t be afraid to seek out guidance and learn from those who have taken the time to really give these new apps a spin.
3. Be kind to yourself: It’s okay to feel confused or overwhelmed. Give yourself permission to take a step back and regroup when you feel out of your depth, and come back when you're refreshed and ready to give it another shot.

Investing time in sharpening our skills can lead to more efficient workflows, better quality work, and happier customers. So, let’s commit to stepping out of our comfort zones, trying new things, and dedicating time each week to learning and growing.

Just like a sharp knife makes cooking easier and more enjoyable, sharpening our skills as entrepreneurs can make running our businesses smoother and more successful.

Until next time, keep sharpening those business knives! 🔪🔪(This is the only time the knife emoji comes in handy 😅)

​- Jason 👨🏻‍🦲​

Ps. If you have more specific questions about how we're working AI into our workflows, hit reply and ask away! You can also check out our latest podcast ep below all about new tools we're sharpening our knives with!

SECRET HANDSHAKE OF THE WEEK

It's weird. It's nonsensical. It's fun. What will we do next week?

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latest from the pod

197 - 7 magical tools that’ve changed our biz in the past year In this ep, we share some tools we've discovered over the past year (while sharpening our knives!) that have substantially helped our business. Some are AI tools, some aren't. Hopefully we can help you discover a few new business boosters of your own! LISTEN ON: APPLE | SPOTIFY | WEB​

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