How to: Repurpose Content Like A Pro (Work Smarter Not Harder!)

AMY: Welcome to the Peaceful Entrepreneur podcast, where together we are finding peace in the process of everyday business ownership by improving one step at a time, how we think and what we do. I'm your host, Amy Stout.

If you're a business owner, it is likely that you are unknowingly sitting on a treasure trove of content ideas right under your nose and you don't even know it. And that's because it's in your website. Have you ever thought of your website as a foundation of your content strategy because I certainly never had.

But today, Sarah absolutely just revolutionized how I thought about content, strategy, websites, repurposing my content just like everything flipped around in my mind. And it also flipped around like how I thought about restructuring my website itself to be a good foundation for my content.

So join me today as we chat with my friend Sarah who is the writer, owner, and small business enthusiast over at Local Type. She is a North Carolina native who is constantly compelled to explore new, local, and one-of-a-kind places.

She combines her professional copywriting and journalism background with her love of small businesses to help entrepreneurs and local business owners get the copy and content they need to market their businesses with confidence and excellence.

Sarah is not only a wealth of knowledge but just a ton of fun and absolutely hilarious honestly so you're really gonna enjoy this episode so let's jump right in.

AMY: I'm so excited to do this with you. This is going to be fun.

Sarah: Me too. Thanks for having me.

AMY: Yes, I've already formally introduced you, but I'm glad that we get to be real-life friends and not just internet work friends. How long ago was it that we met?

Sarah: Less than a year. I remember you were talking about that you had switched the name to Abide, and I remember the switch, but I don't remember the previous name.

AMY: Oh, well that was a year ago that I switched it. That's kind of good that you don't remember the previous things that I want you to remember the previous name because I don't like it. That's why I changed it.

Sarah: Fair enough.

AMY: Yes. OK. I'm really excited to talk to you today about repurposing content because I love the whole work smarter, not harder thing. Like we got to figure out how to do that in every area possible as entrepreneurs.

But before we get to that, let me hear a little bit. Share a little bit about you personally, a little bit about your business, how long you've been in business, what's the journey been like for you because we're entrepreneurs here. So I love to hear your story.

Sarah: Well, the short of it is, hello. I am Sarah and I own Local Type. I write content and copy for small business owners. And I started out much like other copywriters. It's a very common road to go from journalism to copywriting.

Whenever I was in journalism school, I would have told you that the marketing was the dark side. But I was studying journalism during a really hard time for reporters specifically. I never thought I would have left it, but I was really into community journalism, so journalism on a really small local level.

And that really easily translated into local type. I went to work for another business local to the triad in North Carolina. And that was my first copywriting quote unquote business or not business, but that was my first copywriting job.

And I learned a lot. And then I started while I was working, let's see, I had my daughter. When I had my daughter, I started working from home. This was pre COVID and I was working from home. And I just, that copywriting job afforded me so much time to be able to start local type.

I was working part-time from home with my daughter and learned a lot about just setting my own deadlines and not, even though I was accountable to others, I didn't have anyone looking over my shoulder. I didn't have that immediate connection in the office. And so it really, like looking back, it taught me a lot of, you know, you learn a little bit of time management in college and then you learn a little bit more at work and then you have a kid and you learn a little bit more and then you start your own business and you are like, what do you need to know?

So, yeah, so I started writing for the first time for the local businesses that I like really fell in love with. And the, you know, just the little guys who need somebody to speak up for them and help them figure out what to say when they are maybe not so confident in their marketing. So yeah.

AMY: Good for you. I love that. I relate to the whole like, like start somewhere and go somewhere else. a lot of people who do a similar thing to me, or even some copywriters start as virtual assistants.

SARAH: Oh yes.

AMY: So like a lot of people who I have on this podcast because they're in the similar space as me are like, yeah, I started as a virtual assistant.

SARAH: Yes.

AMY: Like we need to like start a club.

SARAH: And then I like slowly niched over time, discovered I didn't want to do all the things.

AMY: And yeah, I relate to that a lot. So, and I love that too. Like I love hearing those stories because you get to see people learn themselves and learn what they're good at. Cause very much like you can't, a lot of times you can't know until you do it.

SARAH: Yeah. What you're, I mean, I did that with Local Type even like it was always a copywriting and content business.

AMY: Yeah.

SARAH: But I did that in the sense that whenever I started, I was writing anything and everything, girl, I was taking pictures. for people. And I was like, "What am I doing? This is not good." I'm undermining my photographer friends and also not doing my clients justice.

But I was writing a lot of things. And I over time was realizing more and more and more, "Yes, I love these clients and they're paying me to do a job and I'll totally do it for them, for them, but I don't want them to be paying me to do a job and not seeing the results because they don't have a solid website copy.

So that's how I like narrowed down specifically to website and I, you know, grandfather all my clients and who have content, you know, ongoing content from local type. And I will still like I have one client who came to me who said, Oh my goodness, my copywriter, My content writer just switched niches or industries almost, and she went to copy editing for a book publisher.

And so she was like, "I just got my website copy done by a copywriter. I have all of this information, but now I really need a content writer, would you be willing?" And so that's a special situation.

But yeah, so now I'm like really focusing on website content so that they have that foundation to move forward with their marketing confidently and have something to point back to.

AMY: I feel like I'm going to learn so much from you today. I feel like I need to be enlightened as far as the potential that you can use your website copy for. The way that you talk about it, I don't think about it as the foundation of the rest of your content. It solves so many problems to have solid website copy.

I guess we're gonna have to start there, like put the piece, like put those pieces together because we do have to like set that stage for then how do you repurpose that copy?

And like, yes, we can talk about the other ways that you can repurpose copy. It's like, okay, if you make a real post on TikTok and Facebook and Pinterest, you know. So there's that kind of repurposing, but I wanna dig into your expertise.

SARAH: Repurposing content, in my opinion, is not the same thing as recycling it, maybe is the term I'll use. So like recycling, an example of recycling content would be I have a TikTok that I also post to Reels, that I also post to Shorts.

Repurposing content would be, I have a blog that I want to make a series of TikToks from. Or I have a podcast that I want to repurpose content from for my Pinterest marketing strategy. Do you see the difference?

AMY: Yes, I do, I love that.

SARAH: It's not resharing exactly what it was. And you might even take the heart of what the content was and put it in a new format and then build outside of that, but you're not starting from scratch.

AMY: Yeah. That's so good.

SARAH: Like, ever.

AMY: Yeah.

I really like that distinction. I've also, I wanna kinda change my language. I've also found myself saying redistributing in terms of recycling.

SARAH: Oh yeah, I like that.

AMY: Like, we will redistribute.

SARAH: That's very clear. I think I may adopt that.

AMY: Okay. (laughing)

SARAH: I think we're gonna take it.

AMY: Yes. That's good, because that's more what we do, is we'll redistribute as a service for our business. But repurposing in the way that you're saying it feels very out of my wheelhouse.

Yeah, it's just really true to the heart of what content marketing is.

SARAH: Yes. I mean, it's like, at least in my industry, boxed in, jaded mind, that's like, that's like, yeah, that's the same thing.

So yeah, but website copy. So starting with your website and knowing that you need to have a website is so critical. Even if you're not an e-commerce driven business.

So let's say that you have a product-based business and you're located on Main Street in, you know, wherever you are, United States, you still need to have a website because people will be looking for like, that's how people will find you on Google.

That's how people will know that they want to visit you and give you the time of day in the first place. They're going to check you out on Google. That's how they're going to know where to park. how they're going to know if you sell the whatever journal line that they love. So no matter what kind of business, whether you're a service-based business or a product-based business, whether you have a brick and mortar, or you operate your business from a Volkswagen bus that travels from coast to coast.

Like having a website is going to be so imperative and yes, it changes what your needs are on that website dramatically depending on what kind of business you have. But just having a website is such a good start. It lays such a good foundation for Google search for even just, even with word of mouth marketing, it's so helpful.

AMY: So what's your mindset when you're going into writing website copy? What are like the non-negotiables in your head of like, this needs to be there? Or like the mindset of how you approach that?

SARAH: Well, for sure. Like what it is that you do needs to be incredibly obvious, um, like dummy proof. I think it's Donna Miller, who, who says you have to answer what you do and who you serve in the first like three seconds. Like if I like flashed my website at you, could you tell me what I do?

AMY: Yeah, that's good.

SARAH: And so I definitely start writing a website very much like I'm outlining a paper in high school. And in terms of like, all right, what services do we need to promote or what offers, I guess I should say, depending on whether you're a service or product based, what offers are you needing to promote? Who are you?

I mean, every website is gonna have an about page. every website's going to have a homepage, a contact me, that kind of stuff. But like in addition to those basics, what are we promoting and how is that outline going to look on your website?

You know, you've got your main navigation at the top of your website and you don't want that to be too cluttered. So you've got to prioritize what are you going to put in your main nav? Are you going to have drop downs to secondary pages or not? Maybe you have like a couple of different offers, but you don't want, you want to like really heavily guard the customer journey. Maybe you just have offer one and offer two. And if someone clicks through offer one, then they get to see offer one A, one B without having the choice to automatically skip through down to there.

Because maybe there's something that they need to know about the offer in general that they wouldn't think. You've got to kind of educate your clients a little bit. And depending on what you're selling, it changes the outline of your website. So that's very much where I start. And that's essential to have when you're repurposing content because it literally is your list. Like that's your, you know, people talk about all the time, your content buckets.

And your, you know, once you have your content buckets, then it makes life so easy to create content. But what they don't realize is that their content buckets are probably already on their website. Like if they have solid website copy, you probably already have content buckets built in that you don't need to like brainstorm on.

AMY: Yeah.

SARAH: Because they're there. And then the other thing that gets me, (gasping) Okay, so like we're always talking about we need to be consistent in marketing your small business.

We need to be consistent and everyone says consistent, very consistently and it's consistently annoying because no one, it's like what does that mean?

How, besides like does that mean that I need to post every day? Does that mean I need to post every other day?

Does that mean I need to post, does that mean I need to tell you how often I'm gonna post and then stick to it. And while all of that may be true, also none of it may be true, and for your business specifically, but when you follow the outline that you've created or that you've worked with a copywriter to create for your website, yes, you can post sporadic fun, this is what my day looks like, kinds of posts, but in my head, that falls under your about me page, content, bucket category.

So you've got your content buckets when you have your website laid out. And on days that you're like, I have no idea how to provide value, if that's the other thing. You need to post consistently and you need to provide value. And it's like, what does that mean?

And I did hear someone say that providing value is simply just like only talking to people when you have something that they need to know. And I love that, the simplicity of it.

AMY: I like that too.

SARAH: But repurposing content from your website, be it copy from your sales page or content from a blog, whatever, that's gonna keep you on track to make sure that you're being consistent in your messaging and that you're actually providing value.

AMY: Yeah, that's good.

SARAH: My brain is like, I'm really riled up and I don't know where to go from here. So ask me another question.

AMY: I got you, I got you. We've painted the picture, we have the foundation of the website with all the pieces that it needs to have. And then we have the copy on the website that is fantastic and is easily repurposed into something else.

How do you start repurposing? Like what's your springboard and what's the thought process of like, okay, I'm gonna go here and I'm gonna pull this. And I think too in my head, I'm like, okay, but the website content is finite.

So how do you not run out of things? unless you're adding more blogs, then it's not finite. But like, how do you not just repeat yourself? You know what I mean?

SARAH: Yeah. I mean, I'm totally there for a good like, if you've got a short section of website copy that you copy and paste from your website, straight into Instagram, and you're like, oh, this hook still works, this body still works, this call to action still works, I will totally support you posting that. I will totally support you posting that once a quarter.

AMY: Yeah, just post the same thing.

SARAH: Like by the way, social media platforms don't really, they're looking at your keywords now. They have gotten better at that versus just hashtags. But to my knowledge, they do not care yet if you're reposting the same content.

So there's that.

But often, at least me as a writer And writing for my clients, I have to write for, I have to write about the same things over and over and over and over and over again. And I will continue having to do that.

But I think the thing is like taking, if you can take the heart of what your website is outlining and prompting you to write about, and then combine it with like day to day stories or anecdotes that you just like have in your personal life, whether it was business related or not, during your business or when you were six and a half, taking that little, taking that like, "Okay, here's offer one, and here is my personal life story that leads me to this."

Or being able to say, "All right, here's my offer. Here's why I do it.” That's one post. “Here's how I do it.” That's another post. “Here's what I did with this client.” That's another post.

There's just so many ways to go about that. And if you're actively working in your business, you're never gonna run out of stories. It's just a matter of writing them down. And so once you've got your website copy and you know, these are the things I'm gonna have to be writing about all of the time, you'll start to recognize, or your copywriter will start to recognize these are the things, like these are little stories and little anecdotes.

I mean, sometimes my clients will post on Instagram stories and will have no idea that I'm like, "Ooh, yep, that's a caption." And I just like, right? And then I've had people be like, "Oh my goodness, this is exactly what's been on my mind." And I'm like, "I know you posted the stories." Like, I'm not magical. I just, you know, I'm just paying attention with that thought in mind of like, what can I do to switch this up to come at this one offer from a different angle or in a different light.

AMY: Yeah.

SARAH: Yeah.

AMY: I literally feel like you're like, all the pieces are clicking into place in my brain right now. It's almost like your website, your website is your social media strategy to a point.

SARAH: Oh yes, oh yeah.

AMY: Yeah. I don't know, I've never had that thought before.

SARAH: And that's why it's so, that's the other thing of why I switched to wanting to write website copy first. Yes, it's extremely helpful for my clients, but it's also helpful for me because once I've written their website copy, I have a game plan. I already know who they are. We've already gone through edits, blah, blah, blah, blah, but in terms of writing for their social media, or we haven't even talked about email marketing.

I guess we mentioned Pinterest, which is not really social media, But, you know, yeah.

AMY: It's the foundation, you can pull from it and put it in all of the places.

SARAH: For sure, I mean, yeah. And you, like, you have a roadmap.

AMY: Yeah, it's your roadmap.

SARAH: And then you're free to be creative on top of that. You're not starting with a blank page and forcing yourself to be creative, instead you have an outline. The other thing is, you know, we talk about, you know, you're talking about websites being finite and to yes, to an extent, but also your website is likely going to be changing.

More frequently than like, Hey, fun, you know, update on Instagram. Like I'm posting, I'm telling you that I'm refreshing my website's copy and I'm like, outside of any launches, if a client asks you or a customer asks you a question that you've not considered yet and you think, "Oh, I should put that on my website." Do it.

I hear so often people say, "Oh yeah, we keep thinking like, 'Oh, we need to update our website or whatever.'" But websites are changeable things. They're ever-evolving and they can solve so many customer service issues. So many customer service issues. If there's a misunderstanding, that is a moment to think, have I been clear in my website copy?

I'm not saying that the miscommunication is because somebody— Let's say somebody comes into your brick and mortar business. Your name makes them think that you do one thing and you don't. Maybe they've never seen your website before, but you don't know.

By updating your website copy, you could be solving that problem for future you, for future clients. There's just so many, you know, we think about our website as marketing for our business, but it's also very much so our like online customer service arm of our business.

Like if you can get on your website and tell people what they want to know, that's, I mean, that is customer service. How is it not? So anyways, and then you don't feel so sleazy about like, oh, I'm, you know, I need to like get on my website and talk about me and what I do and what I sell and why it's better than the next guy.

No, it's like, I'm gonna have a website that clearly communicates to my customers so that if they like me, they can support me. And if we're not a good fit, they know, and neither of us have to worry about offending each other or, you know, yeah, we're ghosting one another.

AMY: Yeah. Okay. I have a question that's kind of coming to mind with this. So if someone is listening to this podcast and they're like, all of this makes so much sense, but like, I don't know if I have a website that I can do this with.

Like, what would you recommend? Why is like, why not? Why can't I like an audit of like, can I like do I have does my website have what it takes for me to do this? Or do I need a new website? Kind of thing like, what qualities?

SARAH: Well, first of all, I feel like you'll know, when you start trying to do it. If it's not working out, you'll know that you need some new copy. Because or I'll say this too. I think there are two people who could get something out of this conversation.

And that's the people who are like, "All right, I am like bootstrapping this thing, DIY’ign it. It's me, myself and I. Let's do this." And often those people are going to be the ones that like, they're always going to be a DIYer. Not all the time. That's why like, but often. And that's okay. And this is helpful for them.

The other set of people are thinking, I have got to set up some systems and processes so that I can get help because that's what I need. I need help. And so maybe they're listening to this and they're thinking, well, okay, I can DIY this part of it and then outsource content. Or maybe I can, you know, maybe what they need help with is like the actual website copy. And then they'll be good to go. Vice, you know, from both angles, it works.

What was your question?

AMY: How to know if you need to make a change on your website or if you have, it has what it takes to be the springboard already.

SARAH: Yeah, so I think it goes back to your sales process and being able to know and identify where the breakdown is.

So let's say you're like, I've had my website, I've had my website for like eight years. I've got a contact page, but nobody contacts me. hears about me through word of mouth and that's fine, but I'm, I need to scale up a little bit now. I need to reach a larger audience being able to see, okay, this is where I'm losing people. I have 43,872,000, whatever followers on Instagram, but like nobody, that's not translating to anything. And so it's like the breakdown could be what you're posting to social, if social is going to be your method of marketing.

We take that for granted that like, obviously it's going to be, but if it is, then that could be where it is. And there could be a disconnect between what you're saying on social and what your website says. So people love you. So if you can see, I'm just gonna use Instagram 'cause that's my like go to.

If you can see on Instagram that people are clicking through to your website, but then no one's taking action on your website, you should be like, okay, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Something doesn't match up. Like people are loving me on Instagram.

And then like, once I get to the second date on your website, they're like, I don't know about this. Maybe not like for me. Like even if they're great, like even if this business is great, it's not really for me.

And so that is a key identifier of like, okay, my website needs to be updated Or I need to switch my social media strategy, honestly, depending on which one you think is more in line with your business and your values. So that's one thing. If you find that you have offers that aren't on your website, I mean, obviously you'll know that. If you find that there are details, back to the customer service thing.

If you find that people are constantly asking the same questions or asking if you do this or if you don't do that or how does this work, that needs to be on your website. If you approach your website copy, knowing that it needs to answer people's questions, you're automatically at a better point.

And not being afraid, whether you outsource it, and there's a copywriter walking with you along the way to figure out what all needs to be there, or not, like running your business knowing that your website can answer those questions from the get-go, you'll just notice things. And knowing that it's okay to update your website copy, you can update it all the time.

You could update your website copy once a week. And I'm not saying you should overhaul your website once a week, just like you shouldn't overhaul your business once a week. But if you're realizing that your website copy is not matching up to what your business needs to do, small tweaks here and there are a good thing. It's not, you don't need to wait until you need to overhaul your whole website because everything is wrong, just make small changes so that your website grows with your business.

AMY: Wow, I almost feel like we're revealing a best kept secret about how to market. I just haven't, maybe it's just the circles I'm in, but I just feel like I haven't heard this concept of let your website be the foundation of your strategy. But it's switching my whole mindset toward this. And I'm actually really glad that my website's being refreshed right now because we can like take account of all of this. Like, do you offer audits as a service because I might want you to do that for me?

SARAH: I do not at the moment, but I know people who do.

AMY: Oh, okay.

SARAH: Yeah, I mean, and I rave about it all the time just because, let's see, we've talked about that it ensures the value of your marketing strategy. It keeps you on track 'cause you have a purpose, it helps you be consistent in your messaging and not just your like posting strategy.

It helps you avoid decision fatigue of like, every single day I sit down, I'm like, all right, I need to write an Instagram caption. What do I write? Like now you've got a plan.

AMY: Yeah.

SARAH: You've got a system, it guards your creativity tank. So when you do have a moment where you're like, oh my goodness, I have this brilliant idea and it lives nowhere on my website right now, but that's okay because I can write a blog and then I can include that.

Like then you have the space, the creative mental energy to put that idea to use without being frantic about how you're gonna do it. The other thing I'll mention is I feel like I've probably inadvertently implied this, but the way that my business works, I write website copy to then repurpose it to social.

Sometimes what I've realized is I can repurpose social content that encapsulate, that's a hard word, people's brand message or their values or who they are on the weekend and into their website. So it can go both ways as long as you know who you are and what your brand is.

You can repurpose back and forth. So repurposing just in the sense of transforming a piece of content into a different platform's version of that piece of content. So that's good to know too. It's not just a one-way street.

AMY: What are some rapid fire like, "Use this part of your website for Instagram, this part of your website for Pinterest?" Do you have that kind of in your head or is it more case by case?

SARAH: No, I don't. I think because I feel like that if it's on your website, it should be somehow represented everywhere. Kind of part of the, you don't want to show up one way in one place and another in another.

And you want to be like authentic to your brand no matter where it is. However, I will say like when I'm writing specifically, I'm thinking about blogs. When I'm repurposing that content for other various platforms, sometimes the purpose of that post is to tell people “Hey, you can read more about this back on the blog.”

Sometimes it's just here's your nugget of value now go off into the world and do what you will with it or DM me to start a conversation.

Or you know so for these people who want to DIY because they're I'm sure there's people who are listening right now and are like, "Oh my gosh, I have so many ideas. I can't wait to do this all myself."

I want to talk to them and share what they can do. But then there's also people who are like, "Oh my gosh, this is so overwhelming. I can't even imagine." And I also want to talk about like, "Okay, how do you outsource this as well?"

AMY: So how do you get started if you want a DIY? And how do you approach this if you want to outsource?

SARAH: Yes. So I think looking for the DIYer, having other... If you're not going to outsource, having other people look at your website and then ask you questions could be fairly eye-opening.

AMY: I like that idea.

SARAH: You may be a business that has customers or clients who are very supportive. So let's say that you are a coffee shop and you've got your regulars. regulars that are buying a coffee and it's gone from you twice a week, like every single week besides the week between Christmas and New Year's, they're going to be willing to look at your website for just a minute. Or just say, "Hey, this is what we're trying to do. Can you help us spot the holes?"

Maybe it's your friends and family who are willing to do that. Maybe it's, you know, you like you've talked about on the podcast before, the different types of relationships that you need to have as an entrepreneur.

And maybe it's your like business ally kinds of friends who are looking at your website. You know, I definitely would not like reach out to if you're going to be DIY-ing it, and you're not even looking for an audit.

Of course, that's a great option from copywriters who offer it. I wouldn't reach above. I would stick with your peers and stick with your clients and just find the holes. I think prioritizing the time, maybe it's a weekend retreat for yourself or maybe it's just like, "Okay, I'm going to look at a different part of my website every Friday in the last like 30 minutes of my workday or something." To really sit down and look for the holes yourself is likely going to be more fruitful than you would think because of those moments that you just like, those offhanded moments of like, “Oh, I should do that. I should add that to my website.” Random like, “Oh, I should do this. Oh, I should do that.”

AMY: Yes.

SARAH: And I hear that from people all the time. And I'm like, well, why, um, why didn't you update it? Like if you thought about it, you know, and then you get to the point. And that's the other thing is if you're going to DIY it, you really do need to like keep up with your website.

Because if you don't, then you're going to have to like once a year or two years or every, you know, the next time your business shifts, even the slightest, you're going to be like, “Oh my gosh, I have to do a whole website copy overall all by myself again.” And then whereas if you just like keep up with the little things, then they won't pile up like laundry.

AMY: And then from there, once they've got their website in order, how do they go about DIYing the repurposing part?

SARAH: Yeah, I think that goes back to like what we were saying earlier of, yes, sometimes you can just like copy and paste a portion of your website. And that maybe when you're writing your website and knowing that you're going to repurposing that will help you from not like word vomiting onto the page where then you're like, "Huh, I've got this massive chunk of text, which no one's going to read.”

And so that can be helpful too. But taking sections, small sections of content over, maybe it's one sentence that you're like, this is what I'm going to pull this from my offer number one page today and talk about it, even if, you know, sometimes we think that captions need to be really, really complicated and long.

And then there's the other camp that's like, no, I just need like a cute caption and like an emoji to follow it up. And I'm good.

But like, if you have that hook, and you have the body of the caption, and then your call to action and the call to action could be anything it could be go back to your website to look at the offer, (It could be DM me, it could be share the stories, it could be take a picture of your cat and post to your stories and tag me because I wanna say hello to Fluffy).

I don't know what the call to action is depending on your business and what you're growing. But you take a sentence, even if that one sentence is your body copy, you add a hook, you add a call to action, And you are rolling. Like, you're good.

You know, create a graphic in Canva. I mean, from a brand photographer's perspective, this works really well too, right? You're like, "Oh, that's the picture that goes with this portion of copy on my website." And we did that for a reason. Why not just use that same... You know, it's kind of like brainless...Marketing.

Um, like you don't even have to, if you're an unorganized computer file person, like just save the photo from your, all the brand photographers are like, don't save the photo from your website. But anyways, I've done it. So confession time.

AMY: That's good.

SARAH: It's fine.

AMY: That's really good. So what about the people who are super overwhelmed and just want to outsource?

SARAH: I would say plan early and know how much you are willing to invest in terms of money, but also in terms of time. Because often these things are more collaborative than they're made out to be. And that's true for copy and website design and brand.

Just know how much you're willing to invest and know how important it is. I was gonna say to you, but like, no, it's just so important.

And once you find a copywriter who you trust, and I mean that in the sense of like, who you know is gonna follow up with you if something is not working. Because like, you're in, like in terms of the financial investment, like that's a big deal.

Someone who's not gonna take that lightly, who is gonna follow up with you to make sure that what they've written as cutesy or wonderful or professional or confident as it sounds actually converts because it doesn't matter if it doesn't. Anyways, someone who you trust that they are going to get your brand voice. I'm not a someone who thinks, I'm not a copywriter who is like brand voice is the hill I'm willing to die on.

I guess because yes, you, for entrepreneurs who are like the face of their brand, that's one thing, but you're building a business that eventually, like, you know, I don't shop at Target because I know the owner.

Like, eventually it's gonna have its own brand voice and that can be, even if it's highly influenced by who you are, it doesn't have to be exactly the same as long as it's consistent. So I don't worry about that and I don't think that, I think that we, I think that as a marketing industry we worry about it a little more than I would hope to.

I think it's good, but I don't think that's a hill I'm willing to die on. I also wanna go back for just a moment and laugh at myself because I just used a Target reference and my sister-in-laws make fun of me 'cause I don't know where the carts are in Target 'cause that's how infrequently I go. And so I just, once I said it, my brain kind of paused and I was like, "You don't wanna target?" (both laughing)

But anyways, it's very relatable 'cause lots of people go to Target.

AMY: So this is, I mean, I really feel like we've covered everything that my brain has kind of thought of surrounding this, but I want to make sure that you don't have anything else that you want to share as far as just this entire topic. Like, do you have any other wisdom that you want to share?

SARAH: Well, I very much so agree with Anne Handley. She is an incredible writer and marketer and author. And her book, Everybody Writes, has like totally overhauled my work life.

And so just to the person who is DIY-ing, for sure, like I would just say to them, I very much do agree with what Ann says, and like you can do that. The biggest thing about DIYing is how much time, just knowing that it's gonna be an ever evolving process. Like the nice thing about working and outsourcing with a copywriter is that it's kind of a packaged deal.

Like it's one and done and you will have to update it as your business grows and changes, but it's a fast track for sure. In 2023, you can learn anything you want to learn.

Like really, really with how the world is and the internet and blah, blah, blah. Like I sound like an old fart, but I'm just saying like you literally can learn. You could become a cop, like you could start writing your website and be like, well, I guess I'm a copywriter now.

Like I have done this, it's been extremely successful. And I don't actually, like I'm not in love with my old business. But anyways, the point being is like you could, in DIYing your website, anyone can do it.

AMY: Yeah.

SARAH: It's just a matter of how long you want to invest in making sure that it is converting and doing, reaching the goals that you're setting for your business. So be encouraged, but also be warned.

AMY: It's good. Well, I'm about to go do all of that. (laughing)

SARAH: Oh goodness. I didn't mean to add a million things to your to-do list.

AMY: Well, the good thing is I have recently overhauled how I work and how I schedule my time and my energy. And so I don't feel overwhelmed by it because I know that it has to be a step-by-step process. It has to be bit by bit.

I have to do it when my brain is in the right mode. And I've laid out the times in my schedule that my brain is going to be in that mode. So it'll get done. Two weeks ago Amy would have been like, "I need to do all of it tomorrow!"

SARAH: But now... Do you organize tasks for like, even if they're super small, just to like get them out of your head?

AMY: If they're super small, easy, quick, send this file to this person. I have three check-in times every day that I'll like check my Voxer, my email, my Instagram.

And like, I kind of have it built into those times, like the little teeny tasks. But as far as like bigger stuff that I'm going to like sit down and have to do, then I'll sort this into my different theme days.

SARAH: I mean, you have one more question for me and I know what it is. Would you like to ask?

AMY: You have been listening to this podcast.

SARAH: Yes, I've been listening.

AMY: Yes, my last question. Good transition. I don't know how I was going to transition that.

SARAH: So here's your transition.

AMY: Sarah, what's bringing you peace right now?

SARAH: Okay, I have two things actually because of what we were just talking about, which made me think about it. I have started, I use Trello to organize all of my tasks. I'm like, I'm just a Trello girlie. I don't, I've used a couple of different things. I've stuck with Trello.

I have started and anybody who’s email inbox is overwhelming to them, like maybe this is helpful to you. I have started, if I get an email that I know it's going to take me a second to think that through or I need to communicate with somebody else before I respond to them or whatever, I literally just copy the URL to that email.

I don't mark it as unread because if I mark it as unread, then I'll have a million unread emails, not actually a million. Let's not over dramatize, dramatize, dramatic.

I write words for a living. Anyways, dramatize. Okay, feel good now. But what I'll do is I'll copy the URL and put it in a Trello task and label it as a communications follow-up kind of situation and put a deadline on it and all that jazz.

And my inbox is clean, but I know I won't lose it because it's on my Trello board Trello board and I am a huge fan of the calendar plugin or whatever it is on Trello. Yeah. Um, like where you can convert your to-do list to a calendar because I don't use my, I don't use my deadlines as deadlines. I use my deadlines as to-do days. Okay.

So that's the one thing that's like bringing me peace is like a clean inbox and like Trello email organization. because those are genuine tasks and they take up time and they should be with all the other tasks that take up time.

So the other thing is, and I don't want, like we have not even ventured into this line. This was my original answer to this question for today. The other thing that is bringing me peace right now is obedience.

I am living in a season of, God says to be obedient in one thing and I do it and I feel more peace. And then he says to do it in another thing. And I, like I've had those conversations with God where I'm like, all right, listen, I am only doing this because, like I'm not necessarily in like a super lovey-dovey God season. I'm in like a, all right, fine season.

But honestly, it's so, you know, as much as I get myself worked up to obey, like, you know, hopefully this is encouraging someone specific, but as I get myself worked up to obey, even if I'm not like, even though I don't have the best attitude about it, once I do, it's like, yeah.

And so that like genuinely like, that's what's bringing me peace right now. And just knowing like, I don't have to live in anxiety. like peace is a promised gift from God. It's not conditional. Yeah, so.

AMY: That's really good.

SARAH: That's where I am.

AMY: That's really good. Like knowing the thing that you need to do, but not wanting to do it, but knowing that you'll feel better once you do it.

SARAH: And that there's like knowing that there's a reason for it even if I don't know what that reason is or like what it's gonna lead to. And just knowing that God, yes, when you decide, the phrase that was really popular, I mean, I guess it's still probably popular, but for sure whenever I was younger of quote unquote, "Giving your life to Christ" has taken on such new meaning for me.

And I don't know why it didn't hold that meaning back then, but I think it was so cliche. And anyways, just knowing that in doing that, he has given me a new heart.

And like he talks about giving us the desires of our heart and we're like, uh-huh, but you don't know the desires of my heart and this is my plan. And do you know what I mean? And so it's just nice because like in the event, so like I'm in being obedient and giving up things that you think you want.

It's been so nice to see, oh, these other things that I thought would never fulfill me. are beginning to do so and just knowing like seriously that has to have been God because I you know you think you have a picture of what your future will be and who you are and like but God's picture is a turn like he knows who you are from the day you were born until the day you die yeah and like sees the whole picture.

And anyways, it's just very encouraging. It's not easy all the time, but it's encouraging.

AMY: It is. And to what you said about peace being a gift that is not conditional, and just to go back to what I will always encourage people with on this podcast is you can have peace every day. You don't have to wait to arrive somewhere to get it.

And we're just working one step at a time, one conversation at a time to like break down every little piece that we possibly can to get to a peaceful state on a regular basis. And something I was even thinking about this morning was, "Wow, I thought I was peaceful, but then I made this change and now I'm even more peaceful and then I even realized that I could be." It's like there's just, it goes deeper and deeper. So that's been cool to experience too.

SARAH: Yeah.

AMY: So good. Thanks for coming over. This has been so fun.

SARAH: Thanks for having me. Thanks for making me coffee.

AMY: Of course. (laughing) Thanks for being such a sweet supporter of the podcast too.

SARAH: Yeah! My pleasure.

AMY: Well, you're the best. Everybody go find Sarah on social media, @local.type, right?

SARAH: Yep, on Instagram, @local.type and online at localtypeco.com.

AMY: Thanks friend! We'll see you guys next week.

Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. We look forward to connecting with you more, whether that's on Instagram, TikTok or our email list. We'd love to hear what you thought of today's episode and if you have any additional tips to add. We will see you next week with more tips and tools to becoming a peaceful entrepreneur.

Bye for now.