Ep #185: Make a 3 Month Content Calendar in 60 Minutes

Hi docs, welcome to The EntreMD Podcast, where it’s all about helping amazing physicians just like you embrace entrepreneurship so you can have the freedom to live life and practice medicine on your terms. I’m your host, Dr. Una.

Well, hello, hello, everybody, I am so excited to be in your ears today.
So excited to be recording actually, this is my first time recording in 2022. And this is going to be so much fun, as a lot of our episodes are.

And I want to say thank you for the people who’ve sent me PMs and DMs just letting me know how impactful this work has been. Thank you so much for sharing that with me. And I’m grateful you’re part of the EntreMD community, the EntreMD movement.

This is the year where we redefine what the life of a doctor looks like, the career of a doctor looks like because this is all going to change. We’re done, the Cavalry is here, the Cavalry is us. We’re changing it all. Okay?

Now, a lot of times in the private Facebook group for EntreMD, and if you’re not a part of the EntreMD Facebook group, head over to Facebook. In the search bar just put EntreMD you’ll see it. And you can come join us, we talk a lot, I post my musings and stuff like that, and we share wins. It’s pretty fun. So come join us. It’s like a little club for doctors.

But anyway, one of the things that comes up a lot is the struggles that people have with creating content. And today, what I really want to do is demystify this for you so that at the end of this episode, when you think about content it no longer creates anxiety, it no longer seems like a huge burden, you actually relax and embrace your role as a content creator. Because as physicians, we are content creators.

So I’m going to show you how to do that. And it’s not going to be some random talk. I’m literally going to show you how to make a three month calendar is 60 minutes. In one hour you can decide this is what I’m going to talk about for this whole quarter. And not have to think of how do I generate content for a whole quarter?

So I want you to think about that, a whole quarter where your content creation process, like deciding what to talk about, what to blog about, what to podcast about, what to post on social media, what to email. All of that is all decided. So throughout the quarter, you’re really just in execution, right?

I mean, think about how peaceful that is. That’s what I do. And I’m going to show you. I mean, it’s going to be so easy. You’re going to be like, “Whatever, Dr. Una.” Okay? That’s how good this is going to be. Okay, so let’s talk about it.

Now, first of all, I just posted this in the Facebook group. And the thought is, I hate producing content. And I was like, listen, so do your clients and so do your patients. They hate content, they don’t want content. They want solutions. They want answers to their questions.

They want pictures of what life could look like for them if they did what you told them to do. They want stories of other people like them who have had the same challenges and they won.  They don’t want content, right?

Okay, so they don’t want it. And I’m going to show you what they want. And you’re going to figure out how to do that. Okay, so they don’t want content in that sense, quote, unquote.

All right, so before we get into the tactics of it, I want to lend you a thought that I have. And if you feel like it will serve you, you can borrow it. And that thought is this, creating content is not difficult. I almost want to say it’s easy, but let’s not go that far. Let’s say it’s not difficult. Okay?

And you’re like, “But Dr. Una, it is difficult. That’s why I was so excited to listen to his podcast episode, because it’s difficult.” But let’s look at the evidence, okay? We practice evidence based medicine, and we can put our thoughts on trial. I think I got that from Dr. Kimi, that’s what she says, put your thoughts on trial.

But think about this, you go to work, and let me say you’re primary care and you see 20 patients, some of you 30 patients a day. Let me tell you what you don’t do on your way to work. Like, oh, my goodness, how am I going to produce 20 talks, right? That’s content.

That’s the same as a Facebook Live. That’s the same as a podcast episode. That’s the same as you’re like, how am I going to produce 20 talk’s today for the 20 patients I’m going to see. That’s not what you think about.

Now, you may think about the fact that you have to stay there really long and you have to miss your daughter’s recital. You may think about the fact that you wanted some day off and they didn’t give it to you. You may think of the fact that oh my gosh, that EMR again. And not the content of the EMR, but the fact that you have to click here, click out there, do all that, whatever, right?

But you’re not worried about the 20 talks that you’re going to have. You go in, you listen to what they say. And on the fly you develop a talk, right? And if you’re a resident and you have to present, you’ve organized your thoughts and you can have this whole talk that you have to deliver on the fly.

So I would argue that you’re really good at creating content. Because you do this five days a week, for some six days a week. And you do it multiple times all through the day. So that’s the first thing.

Now as though the talk were not enough, you also go on to write 20 notes. And those 20 notes, think of them as 20 blog posts. So they’re not 1,500 word blog posts, but maybe they’re 300 or 400 word blog posts, right?

You see a patient, you do a talk, and you write a blog. You go into another room, you see another patient, you do a talk, you write a blog. You go to the next room, you do a talk, you write a blog. You do this all day, every day, you are a content producing machine. And that’s the bottom line.

So yes, when we put it in a certain way, it’s like, oh my goodness, I can’t create content and all that stuff. It’s not true, you’re really good at this stuff. And we’re not even talking about research papers and all of this other stuff. We’re just talking about what you do every day. Every single day.

I want you to re-frame the way you think about content. Like, oh, I have to go create content. I want you to think about what you do at work. You answer questions, you solve problems, versus content creation, right? That’s what you do.

Your people come in, everyone comes in with a problem. Everyone comes in with a question. You get those taken care of. And that is the basis for your 20 talks and that is the basis for your 20 blog posts.

So when you think about it that way, they give you the prompts for your content, right? They give you the prompts, you go create this stuff. And it seems easy because you’re answering questions and solving problems. And guess what, you are an expert at doing that. So that’s where we start from. That’s where we start from.

So how many of your patients come to you and they’re like, “Oh, I really want content.” Or how many times do you go to work and you’re like, man, I got to produce content? That’s not what we do. They come in and they ask questions, they come in with their problems, and you answer their questions and you solve their problems.

What do you do for your clients if you’re non-clinical? Or what do you do for your patients if you need to reach them beyond the exam room? Say you’re a social media and you have to do all these things. You do the same thing you’ve done in the exam room, you answer questions and you solve problems. This is what you do.

And if you can do that, if you can think in those terms, you can absolutely do 20 talks. And you can absolutely write 20 blog posts every single day because this is what you do. Okay.

So now that we’ve looked at that and we’re coming from that standpoint, I’m going to show you three easy things you can do. And you can get this done in less than 60 minutes and you have three months’ worth of content mapped out. Okay? All right.

So the first thing, the first thing is what are the top questions your ideal client has? What are the top five questions? And this will be in their words, think HPI, right? HPI you don’t write all your medical stuff. Your medical stuff comes in your medical decision making and your plan and all of that, right?

But in the HPI you are documenting this in the words of your patient. So for your clients, or your patients, depending on what kind of business you run, what are the top questions they have? I’m a pediatrician, so it’s going to be around poop, it’s going to be about sleep, it’s going to be about foods, it’s going to be about snotty noses and all of that.

So things like what medication can I give my child for his cold? That’s the question. How often should my kid be pooping? What color of poop is normal? When can I start adding solids? What can I do for my newborn’s runny nose?

And so every question is the title of my content, because that is what they’re looking for. They don’t care about my content, they want answers to their questions. The end, right? So that’s me as a pediatrician.

Me as a business coach for physician entrepreneurs it’s how do I get new clients? How do I grow my practice? Where do I find the time to start a business? Can I really start a business, I think I’m a one trick pony. Those are the kinds of questions that will come to me. And every one of those questions, that’s content. Every single one.

So what are the top five questions your ideal clients have or your ideal patients in their words? And also not what you think it should be, what they’re actually telling you. Right? What are they actually telling you? That’s the content. Okay.

So what’s your content? The answer. So you have the top five questions, you answer the questions, the end. The end, and guess what that gives you. Five weeks of content. You’re like, “Dr. Una, but I also have to do social media, and I have to do email, and I have a podcast in there.”

So listen to me, when you think about content, I want you to think about the gift that keeps giving. I want you to think about trees. One tree was made. And the tree produce seeds that produced more trees, that produced more seeds, that produced more trees. You don’t want to create one-offs, you don’t have to. You’ve already thought about it.

So for instance, I did a social media post talking about how your clients don’t want content. They want you to answer questions, they want all of that. That’s on social media. I was already thinking about it so I just hit record and I’m like, let me make a podcast episode out of this. And I can also have my VA make an email out of this.

So what have I done? I have the podcast for one week, I have social media for one week, I have email for one week, right? If I wanted to, I could do a whole masterclass on this. I’d have people come sit and we’ll sit together and we’ll work it out. I’ll answer questions. And they will leave with a one page document, which is their three month plan for content creation.

Do you see how one idea can be split everywhere? So let’s just use three. I am a big proponent for everyone having a platform. So that’s a podcast, a YouTube channel, or a blog. So let’s say you now have your blog post for the week, or your podcast, or YouTube video for the week. You have your social media, you have your email. That’s for one week, right? That’s for one week.

So the second thing is, what are five success principles that can create wins for your patients or your clients? You know what these are, right? And so for me, as a business coach, I know that you need to learn to focus. Focus is magic, okay? And I’m going to do a podcast episode on it. But being able to focus on your one business idea is magic.

I know that putting yourself out there is an absolute must. I know speaking is one of the fastest ways to grow any business. I know confidence in selling is something that physicians can do authentically and professionally. These are the things– Your morning routine, your business daily routine, all of these, there’s so many of them. Right? So what are five of them?

I can pull out 52. But what are five of them that you know? Well, tell them. Tell them. You can add this to your routine. So for instance, I have a lot of podcast episodes where I talk about speaking. I have podcast episodes where I talk about the mindset around putting yourself out there, I have podcast episodes where I talk about gratitude, vision boards, mistakes with vision boards, setting your intention, building a network, all of those. Those are all success principles that I know if my listeners or my clients adopt those, it will change their lives.

So tell them/ And where you’re going to tell them? The same places, podcasts, YouTube, blog, your social media, your email. So if you do that with five success principles, guess what you have? Five more weeks of content.

And this is not just any content. This is content that your ideal clients will be in love with. Why? It is solving their problems. They can start DM’ing you and PM’ing you and saying, oh my goodness, that social media posts you did made me go start my blog. I’ve had that. That social media piece you did made me go do my first Facebook Live. I dared my fears and after that Facebook Live, I got a paid speaking gig. They will get real results from it. So that’s two.

And in the face of a crisis, because when the pandemic hit, that’s what I did. I was like, how do you overcome overwhelm? How do you work in spite of chaos? How do you–  All of that. I was giving them principles that would help them thrive in the midst of chaos, right?

And so you have five more weeks, okay? Let’s say three months, let’s say that’s 12 weeks. Okay, so we have two more weeks. Now, the third thing, what are two success stories that you can share? These could be you, if your ideal clients are you from five years or 10 years ago, or if it’s from some patient or some client you’ve already worked with. Share them. Okay, share those success stories.

Now, success stories are so powerful because what ends up happening sometimes is, after you’ve achieved a certain level of success, in the eyes of people you get this celebrity status and like you’re different, and things work differently for you, and all of that stuff. And so sometimes your stories, especially if they’re told from a place of strength, they don’t sound– They’re not as inspiring.

Well, they are inspiring. But they don’t make people take action as much because they’re like, you’re different, right? And so the same way, it’s really hard for people to see that I’m an introvert and I was ever terrified of speaking and all of that. But that’s my reality. So what do I do? I also share stories of people who are not me, but who are doing all these things and started afraid and now they’ve overcome so much.

And that’s why you’ll see I share a lot of the stories of the doctors who are in the EntreMD Business School. And the reason why I do that is, first of all, their stories are phenomenal. They’ve done all this work, they’ve bared their fears, they get all these wins. And I love to showcase them. I’m like, what? Let’s tell the world you are amazing, look what you did.

And on the other part, it’s so important in the times that we’re in for doctors to see examples of what is possible. And not just for me, but it’s available to all of us, as many as want it. It’s available to all of us and so it just hits different. And so you have those, right?

And sometimes we minimize wins. And in the EntreMD world, we don’t. So I want to invite you to not do that. If you come into the EntreMD Business School and listen to us celebrate someone who just closed their first client, you would think they made a million bucks.

Now, we celebrate the million bucks, we celebrate the 5 million bucks, we celebrate all of that. But we celebrate them all. And so what wins have your clients gotten? What wins have you had? Share them. If you have two success stories, share them.

And I’ll give you an example, Dr. Toomer, she’s a wellness and weight loss doc, if you will. Phenomenal, right? A phenomenal story. So I can share her story because she’s told it many, many times and she’s told it on the podcast as well. And she had just had a baby, I think it was maybe five weeks postpartum or five months, I don’t remember correctly.

But she was obese and she was just given a diagnosis of heart failure. She was told we don’t even know, you’re not going to be live to see your kid turn five. And she tried to lose weight, but for everywhere she went to lose weight they were like, oh, your heart. So you’re high risk. And then she would go for her heart and like, well, because of your weight, your high risk. So it was kind of like, what am I going to do?

And she went and discovered how to get this weight off, right? And she lost 60 pounds over two decades ago, and has kept it off. And she has helped so many others lose. So when I first started working with her, she would have, “Oh, this patient lost 40 pounds. This patient lost 60 pounds.” And they keep it off and it’s amazing, the work that she does. I’m so fascinated by the work that she does.

But you see that story? People want to hear her story. People want to hear the stories of her clients, right? Because it shows them what’s possible, especially if they’ve tried a lot of things and it didn’t work, so they can feel the pain. They’ve tried a lot of different diets, different programs that didn’t work. But this was the thing that worked and these were the things she taught them. And that is so powerful.

All right, now if you have two success stories, guess what? That could be a case study on your podcast, YouTube channel, or blog. It can be social media posts, and it can be your email for the week. So if you do the five weeks of the top five questions, the five weeks of the success principles, and the two success stories, guess what you have?

You have 12 weeks of content done. Completely done, right? So you have that done. If you want you can even put outlines while you’re there. So when you sit to produce, you can batch produce. But you know that I’m not digging, looking for where to get content, what do I talk about? What do I post about? You can do all this.

And the trick is this, this is a muscle. The more you use it, the easier it becomes. The more you use it, the more prolific you get. The more you use it people are like, “Man, I felt like you were talking to me,” and stuff like that. You can have that.

And the best is you get all these results and it’s not as stressful to do it. Because you have the whole calendar, you don’t have to think about what am I going to do? You just sit down, you get it done, and you’re just churning this out. People don’t know how you do it, not realizing that you’re having it so much easier than the people who are producing less content.

And by the time you do this and you figure out how to get a team on board so that they can shoulder the weight with you, you’re truly in entrepreneur heaven. Okay? All right.

So what do I want you to do? Please hear me, this is the most important part of this podcast episode, do not over think this. I want you, if you’re not driving, like if you’re taking a walk I want you to pull up the phone, the app on your phone and I want you to document this stuff.

Top five questions, don’t overthink it. It will seem simple because it is your zone of genius. Top five success principles, just document them. Don’t overthink it, it will seem simple. It will seem like common sense because it is your zone of genius.

Pick two success stories. Well, I’ve told it before. Listen to me, every Christmas, every Easter, every Christian knows what’s going to be taught in church and they all go. The fact that you’ve told it before doesn’t mean people don’t want to hear it again. Okay? Every time they hear it, it hits different, it makes them make decisions differently. They need to hear it again.

And you do that, you have your content calendar for the next 12 weeks, you can chill and just produce. Okay? And you go with that thought that I lent you that creating content is not hard, it’s not difficult. Okay? So that’s what I got for you. All right?

And so what I want you to do is I hear about this a lot. If you’re like, “Oh my goodness, this episode was like a whole masterclass.” I want you to take a screenshot, I want you to share it on social media, I want you to tag me, #EntreMD. I’m going to find it, I’m going to re-share it and shout you out.

I want to know how this episode helped you. Because we are the best people to create content and with all the misinformation, all that stuff out there, we should be producing content. So thank you, my friend, for listening. And I’ll see you on the next episode of the EntreMD Podcast.

Hey, if you love listening to The EntreMD Podcast I want to invite you to join EntreMD On Demand. It is my signature subscription program that gives you access to a library of business courses designed to help you do one thing as a physician entrepreneur, and that is to thrive. Just head out to entremd.com/ondemand and I’d love to have you join us. See you on the inside.