What are content boundaries? And why are they important? And how do they contribute to the overall success of your content? So boundaries are an interesting topic. And it's one that I actually love to talk about, because it's been one of those things that I have been perpetually trying to overcome being a lifelong people pleaser. Yeah, like I just I did, I was always the Yes girl. That was like, okay, yes, I want to, I want you to like me, I want to
be in your good graces. I know, this is dumb as it sounds, I'm actually going to say it out loud. I want to be the good girl that follows the rules. And people pleasing is what I did for a very long time in my life. And I sacrificed so much with that. And so when it comes to my content, I love to set up boundaries so that I no longer have to make sacrifices. I don't have to go back and forth with a guest that's like, oh, you know, I can only do it at this time.
Like, can you move your schedule just a little bit, or having that boundary of I have a hard stop at this time. And I know I'm going to stop recording. And so creatively, I can stop my solo episodes at that time, because that's what I've said, that is the boundary that I have placed on myself and on my content. So we're gonna dive into boundaries today, and it's gonna get a little sticky, it's gonna get a little uncomfortable, but it's a conversation that we need to
have. So let's get right to it. Welcome to the Prophet podcast, where we teach you how to start launch and market your content with confidence. I'm your host, Krystal, Proffitt, and I'm so excited that you're here. Thanks for hanging out with me today. Because if you've been trying to figure out the world of content creation, this is the show that will help be your time saving shortcut. So let's get right to it, shall we?
Okay, so this is a fun episode today, because I'm doing something a little different. I always tell you like the behind the scenes of what's going on. And typically, I will plan episodes may be on paper or directly in a sauna. But either way, I usually transfer everything over to a sauna. And I'm looking at that as my notes while I'm recording. But I didn't have time for that. Today, I'm actually reading my handwritten notes on today's episode, because I want to show you that it all isn't about doing it one way forever. And ever. Sometimes you have to adjust and do what works for whatever you have going on that day. And so I'm reading my notes like straight in my notebook, and we're gonna see how this goes. Because I'm like, Oh, I'm reminded why I like to do this in Asana because it's way more organized. But we're just going to have a go at it. And we're going to see how this works today. But I do have three important things, I want to share with you about content boundaries. And we already talked about the importance of them and what they are. But I wanted to give you a very specific
example.
So this is our number one. I don't let anyone that just emails me or pitches me to be on the podcast, because I have boundaries. And I want that to be like the recurring mantra of today's episode, I want you to leave this and say, I have boundaries, because it really helps you create, like this filter for your show. And so like I said, here's an example. Does this person offer value to my audience? Is it a relevant topic? Do we have any common
connections? So this is the filter that I will go through? If I read an email to me, that is someone, either an agency pitching someone, someone pitching themselves, or a virtual assistant or somebody pitching on someone else's behalf like those are the questions that I asked, this is my filter for if someone's going to be a guest on the show. And just another quick side note about people coming on to the profit podcast, it typically doesn't come through an email pitch. It does happen sometimes.
But that's usually not what happens. What will happen because of the boundary that I've created around this show is I will find someone or they will find me and we create a relationship first. And then I'm like, well, it's no brainer. Why don't you come on my podcast and talk about it. That's what's happened. For the last few interviews that you've heard on this show, some of them were blind email pitches, right? I didn't know who they were, it
was a cold pitch. And others were people that I met at conferences and people that I met, and I just truly enjoyed their company. I'm like, you know, you show it on the podcast, like it was a very simple decision to have them on to the show. But those are my boundaries with interviews for the podcast. So what are your
boundaries? Like? Who do you want to come on to the show, I have seen where podcasts will explicitly state like, if you they have like a pitch, like Google Form, or jot form or any of those, and it will say on there, do you have a six or seven figure business like that is the filter of their podcasts, they only want people coming on the show that can share their lived experience, because that's the audience that they are
appealing to. So even if you're just starting out, or you've been at this a while, you can always change the boundaries around your podcast guest requirements are who you're
going to have on the show. But I cannot stress to you enough how important it is to have boundaries around the type of people that you have guesting in your content, and you're inviting them in because let's be honest, like, I've wasted so much time, I've wasted hours and hours of my life with the wrong people in the other interview seat. I'm interviewing them. And in my mind, I'm actively thinking, Why is this person on the show? Like why is this happening? And it doesn't happen
often. Now, I will say it's not something that happens today. But oh my gosh, the first two years of my podcast where, what? Why are we having this conversation? Like I'm actually thinking, in my mind, this was a terrible mistake, this person should not be on the podcast, because they either eventually become super self promotional, or they can't really articulate and formulate ideas to keep a conversation going. So that
makes my job harder. So I have intentionally set up these boundaries around my content interviews, and that's how I look at them. So cannot scream this enough. Okay, I have boundaries. It's the reoccurring theme.
But I already mentioned this, but this is my second point, I think of boundaries as the filters that my decisions go through. So here's another example. I try not to record anything more than once a week after 5pm. This is another boundary that I have for my schedule and for my family. So when I open up my calendar, I'll have a few like, after school type hours throughout the month, but it's not like a daily occurrence. I definitely don't have like a Monday through Friday, pick whatever time you
want between 8am and 5pm. No, no, no, no, no, that is like few and far between. And those actually probably won't happen at all. In the summertime. Because I have different intentions. I have different seasons of life. I have different boundaries around my content, depending on the months of the year. Same thing goes for around the holidays. I won't schedule any interviews in December. And I used to feel like oh my gosh, like who like
asking myself, right. Like, I'm totally, like multiple personalities here when I say this, but it's like, Who are you to think that you can say, I don't interview people in December. If someone wants to be on your podcast, or wants to have an interview with you in December, you say yes. That is the ex people pleaser in me that wants to say yes to everything. But the woman that screaming I have boundary says no, no, no, you are very busy in December and you deserve a break and you
deserve time off. So we're not scheduling anything in December. Okay. I have foundries. So that's how I look at this. When I look at the calendar slots for when I'm interviewing someone or going to be on someone else's podcast. I always make sure that it is accommodating my schedule. First, my schedule. First and foremost, this is such a healthy way to set boundaries around your content and it will keep
you from burning out. I feel like there's more and more people that are coming to me saying I'm burned out how do I get excited about my content again? How do I want to record and have fun energy even feel creative and innovative behind my show. And the first thing I do is I ask them to show me what their current production schedule looks like, or what are they currently doing that
stressing them out? And most people say, Well, I'm recording, you know, three episodes a week, because I'm guesting on shows, and I'm doing my own stuff. I'm recording stuff. And I'm putting out multiple episodes a week, I'm putting two to three episodes out every single week. And I'm like, well, that's your problem. Why are you creating so much content. And I realize this is coming from someone that's created a lot of content in my
past. And we won't even talk about 2021 When things were real wild, and I was creating a ton of content. I almost burned out that year. But I look back and I say, oh, that's why I have the boundaries that I have today. So that I don't have burnout. So if you find yourself getting into this space of why am I doing so much, this isn't fun anymore. The goal was to do this, and now I find myself doing that. Go
back to I have boundaries. And if at any point you can set new boundaries around your content, it's not something that you set once and say, Well, I decided this at the very beginning of my podcast. So I guess I gotta keep it going. No, you don't. You can change this at any time. And you may have heard me say this once. I will say it 1000 more times. There are no rules to podcasting, you make them up.
They are guidelines that you live by, I don't have any rules for my podcast, I have guidelines that helped me stay like consistent and keep putting out fresh content, new content. But if I want to change everything tomorrow, I can do that. Because it's my show. It is my content. So if you have it in your mind that you can't change things. I'm giving you the permission slip, right? Do you want me to write it down for you, I will write it down on my
pen and paper. I'm actually not writing I'm just kind of scribbling. But I want you to get that audio like sound effect for it sounds like I'm scribbling something. That's me writing on my notebook, you have permission to set your own boundaries, you have permission to create anything the way that you want to create it, even if it's something that I told you. And this is where I feel like this weird guilt, shame, whatever you want to call it.
When someone comes to me and says, Well, I listened to an episode of your podcast where you said, X, Y, and Z. And I immediately say back to them and say, Yeah, but why are you listening to me? And most say, what, what, what do you like, it's that blank stare, like stumbling over their words like, what? You're my podcast coach, like you're, you're telling me what to do. And I'm like, Yeah, but those are just suggestions. Those are guidelines, there aren't any rules. You make up
your own rules. Please make up your own rules, please contradict whatever I say, I'm just telling you, what I have seen work for myself and other podcasters in this community. But that doesn't mean that you have to take everything at face value and do everything step by step by step, I want you to create your own boundaries, your own filters. And that is how you will make podcasts successful
for you. Because you make the rules, you make it fun, you have the ability to be creative, you have the permission to do whatever you want with your show. So I want you to take that liberty and run with it. Create new boundaries, if you must create new guidelines for your show, I don't care what you do, I just want you to have boundaries in place, and have those filters for when you're recording your show or when you're making decisions about your show. So super important.
And I especially want you to apply this to your calendars. I know we've already talked about calendars a few times, but having those hard starts and hard stops will help you as well. And what I mean by that is I don't record anything past 5pm Other than a few times a month, like a few times a month and most months out of the year. That's not gonna happen anyway, the summer months, not happening. December not happening. I won't record
anything. And that's a hard boundary that I have set for myself because I do not want you to burn out and if all of my calendar spaces fill up and someone says, Oh, I really want to be on your show, but you don't have anything available. I say, Okay, well, there's the next month. You can try again then, and I don't feel bad about it. I don't feel bad. about saying, oh, I should accommodate this person, they really want to
be on my show. Sorry. It's my show, like, Sorry, not sorry, I'm gonna have my calendar be this way. Because Say it with me, I have boundaries.
Okay. The third thing. And this is another really important type of boundary that I want to share with you is why it's so important is the format of your content. Now, the format of your content, I don't like to say again, that you have to do it this way, because there are no rules. But when I decide the format of my content, I think about it in a few different ways. So the first one is deciding how long my episode is
going to be. So this podcast that I'm recording right now, before I ever hit record, I decided on the time boundary of this episode, it wasn't just going to be seven minutes, and then we shut the thing off. I'm also definitely not going to 45 minutes because that is way too long for a solo episode. But I decided on a time length that I wanted this episode to be, and that is the boundary for this
episode. So you can think about it in terms of creative boundaries, or content boundaries, those could be used interchangeably. But the same goes with your interviews, whenever I start recording, I'm automatically thinking in my head, okay, this cannot go over 45 minutes. Or if we have plenty of time, then I say, Okay, we can't go over 60 minutes from when the guest enters the interview space to whenever it's time to leave, we have 60
minutes. So whether we spend that time gabbing and catching up, or we just, you know, get in there, you ready, I'm ready. Okay, boom, hit record. And let's get started. This is all up to you. This is these are those creative boundaries that I want you to have in place. So again, whether it's a solo, or an interview episode or your interview content, that boundary will help you keep everything in check, like have those time constraints, so that you can
make fewer decisions. And this goes back to the filters that we were just talking about. I find that I have more creative freedom. And I can actually do more when I have a creative constraint to deal with. And that would be the episode length for this episode today. Like for example, I'm at this is super meta, I'm telling you about a podcast while I'm recording a podcast, I realize that but bear with me here. I'm looking at this. And we are almost at 18 minutes of me recording this
episode. Now that's without any ads or anything dynamic content inserted into this episode, but weren't 18 minutes. And my goal was to record today's episode to be around 23 minutes long. That was what I was shooting for. So it gives me this creative space to now say, okay, you've been recording for 18 minutes, you need to record for at least five more to hit that 23 minute mark. What else can you talk about? And if you haven't realized at this point, I'm vamping a little
bit I'm improving. I'm getting a little creative. Because I hit the bottom of my list, I shared the three things about content boundaries that I wanted to share with you today. But I haven't hit that boundary of 23 minutes. So I have to get creative. And I have to think, well, what are some other things that I can share? So I encourage you to do this too. Before you ever start recording anything have that episode length? How
long do I want this to be? I don't care if it's five minutes or 45 minutes, I want you to have this set before you ever hit record, because that boundary will help you be creative and share things and add in more content or take it away. Like you'll know after you finish recording something and you sit down you're like, man, we recorded that interview for an hour and a half, it was only
supposed to be 45 minutes. Now I know for next time that I need to cut it off because I ended up spending an extra hour editing that episode and it was hard to find breaks where I could cut stuff out and have a very clean finished file. So super important. I could go on and on about content boundaries. But like I already told you this episode is meant to be around 23 minutes so I only have a little
bit more to share. But I want to just really encourage you to think about creative boundaries and content boundaries because the free fewer decisions that you have to make. When you're creating something, the easier it gets to create the thing I know it sounds a little counterintuitive, but it's totally true. So let me do a quick recap. So the first thing is, I don't let anyone pitch me and just be on the podcast, because number one, I have
boundaries. So I have that filter, this is the second one actually have those filters to
make those decisions easier. And another form of content or creative boundaries is the format of your content, it helps you already have those decisions made so that that filter is already preset, around the type of content you're creating, whether it's a solo episode, an interview episode, the episode length, or how you're going to record it, whether it's audio only, or audio and video, you have less decisions to make, you've already made all those decisions before you ever even
come to record your content. And you can actually save these, this is actually top of mine, I was just recording this in the new version of profit podcasting, a room recording all the videos all day today. So this is top of mind for me. But in your content calendar, you can actually include that in
there too. You can have those boundaries set where you're like, you know what, I want to record this for 25 minutes, I want to have this be audio only I want this one to be audio and video, there's a lot of options that you can play around with when it comes to setting those boundaries. And I think using a tool, like your content calendar helps you keep things in perspective, you can even mark on there, oh, I want this one to
be promotional. So I remember to mention something that I'm promoting, or I want this one to be educational, because I'm seeding my audience for an upcoming launch or promotion that I have, or I haven't done a tough love episode in a while. So I want this one to be purely motivational make all of these these decisions ahead of time. This will help you set and keep those creative content boundaries. Oh my gosh, we did
this. This was such a I have been so excited about sharing this because people ask me all the time about boundaries. And I actually read this book several years ago. It's called boundaries by Henry Cloud and John Townsend highly recommend it if you struggle with any kind of boundaries. It is super helpful. I'll link to it in the show notes for this episode. But we've made it to the end. This is fantastic. This was such
a great episode. If you have questions around boundaries or other ideas for what we could talk about when it comes to content or creative boundaries. Shoot me an email I want to hear from you or even better. Go to our pod inbox page. Go to pod inbox.com. Forward slash the profit podcast and submit your question I want to hear from you. You can give me a question and record an audio clip. Tell me the name of your podcast.
Tell me your question. And I would be happy to answer it on a listener submitted questions segment that we'll have in the future. But that's all I have for you today. So take a screenshot wherever you're listening to this and tag me on Instagram. I want to hear what you thought about content boundaries and maybe share a boundary that you've set for
your own content. If you're listening to this episode on your favorite podcast player, please hit that follow or subscribe button because it will update you whenever you have or whenever we have new podcast episodes. And as always remember, keep it up. We all have to start somewhere