How to Save Time and Money Creating Content

to go running. It's basically the running season is anytime but summer, like even getting into May through September, you got to be careful. Like, I remember I almost had like, a total. Like, I mean, it was so hot, it was 100 degrees. First of all, this was not a smart move. I do not recommend ever running, if it's past like 95 degrees outside. But it was like 100 degrees, but I was training for a 10k. And I was like, No, I'm gonna go run. I'm gonna make

it happen. Long story short, I went and ran almost passed out terrible thing. Like, I still remember the moment when I got back to we were living in an apartment. And I got back and I sat in front of the fan forever. And my face was so read and my husband was like, Are you really okay? Like you said, you're okay, but are you really? Okay? So anyway, I'm a runner. And I will get ideas that come to me. And this is what I love having Google Sheets or a sauna on my phone, because I always have my

phone on me. I'm listening to a podcast. And this idea came to me. And I was like, You know what, I needed to talk about the money side of content creation. And then I was like, Well, you can't really talk about the money without talking about the time that I intentionally save, doing a lot of things the way that I do, because to me, they go hand in hand, like if I'm wasting time, I'm wasting money, man, I don't ever like to waste

money. So this is what we're talking about today, how to save time and money creating your content. 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.

right time. Because maybe you can think about some of the things we're talking about today and either avoid some mistakes that I have made in the past, we'll talk about those. But I also just want you thinking about these things. Now before you ever get to a point where like, oh man like this is a little overwhelming, or I feel really lost. So that's where those of you that are just getting started, how this

episode can help you. Now for those of you that have been creating content, let's say for six to 12 months, this episode will really help you take a step back and do some evaluation of the systems you have in place the processes that you're using and the tools that you have already. And maybe you can look at am I really using these things? Are they helping me? Are they saving me time they saving

me money? And so just plan to do a little bit of like that gut check, oh, I don't really know if I need that thing anymore, or that thing that I've been wondering, is it going to save me time or money? Like yeah, it's it's a good idea to invest in that. So those are the two different places. I know, wherever you're listening, whenever you're listening to this episode, those are really the two camps that I see most

people falling in. And then if you've been creating content for a long time, you're probably going to be nodding along and be like, Hmm, I made that mistake, too. Yeah, don't do that. Yeah, this is where I see everybody landing kind of on the spectrum.

Right? Simplify to amplify, oh, okay, that just, it sounds so easy for my high complex like, you know, throw all the fancy tools and gadgets and gizmos at me because I can figure them out and do all the things like I can, I can take this I can conquer this content creation world like this is the idea that I had, when I first got started. It's what led to feeling very overwhelmed. It's what led to me getting in over my head more than once, multiple times, several bajillion times since I

started this journey. But what I have realized, in order to simplify, I wanted to tell you kind of what that means for me, and what it means that I don't need all the bells and whistles to get going. And I think that it's a combination of like the FOMO, like the fear of missing out of doing all the big things right out of the gate is where we feel that pressure because we're looking it's comparison, let's let's just call a spade a spade, right? It's comparison.

We're saying, Oh, I see that person's YouTube channel, I want to do that, or I see how they're creating their podcast. I want to do that. That's great. I think aspirational goals are fantastic. But when they border into procrastinating, because you're like, oh, I don't know which microphone to pick, and I don't know what camera I need to

get. And I don't know, like, No, you're just procrastinating and you're comparing yourself, you're just you are holding yourself back, you are the one standing in the way of your own success. And I'm here to tell you, you don't need all the bells and whistles to get going. And then the second part of that is I want you to think small but reliable when it comes to your

audio and video equipment. And when I say small, I don't actually mean like physically small, I mean, small on your budget, like small money wise, something that you're not saying, Oh, I'm gonna have to get a loan or I'm gonna have to put this on a credit card or I'm just gonna have to, you know, I have to hope that one day I'll be able to pay this equipment off. No, y'all y'all Okay, timeout real fast. I'm sure you've heard this before. But I'm gonna tell you anyway,

because it is worth repeating. I got started on a $20 microphone that I got from Amazon. For my podcast, I used a free audio software audacity for the first two years of my podcast, and I recorded YouTube videos on my cell phone, y'all. This is where I got started, I didn't even buy, I'm trying to remember when I bought my first webcam, I use the webcam on my laptop, it was awful. It was terrible. But I bought a, I think at the time, it might have been a $50 webcam.

Whenever I was like, Okay, I'm gonna get serious about this, I need to invest in a webcam. It was $50. So all in when I got started creating content, it was about 70 bucks. And then I use all the free tools, all the free trials that I could get, because that's the person that I this is the type of consumer I am, like discounts, those are cool, but throw me a free trial and you got a customer for life. Like,

let's just be really honest. And so I want you to think of where am I procrastinating and saying, oh, whenever I have this thing, that's when I'll take myself seriously, or that's when I'll start creating it, stop it, stop it, you're just procrastinating or you're comparing yourself. And the other thing we talk about when it comes to simplifying is I want you to audit your tools and your time.

Now what I mean by this is I want you to either go through your last billing cycle, you know, maybe I'm recording this in March. So maybe look at February, and look at all the bills that came through that you're paying for if you're listening to this in the future, like look at the last 30 days, which bills are you getting from software products and all the different things that you're investing in? And then for me, I always do a check of my books

every single month. And then if I realize that I'm getting a charge, I don't care if it's a $5 charge a $10 charge a $50 charge. I always ask the question, Have I been using this? Do I still need it and if I have not used something in the last 90 days at maximum, it is gone. Sometimes it's the last two weeks. Sometimes it's the last 30 days. 60 Days like, it just kind of depends on which tool it is whether I'm launching or I'm in the middle of a

promotion. And I need that tool for just a little bit like, that is the only like, caveat to this. But I audit my tools constantly, constantly. And I want to, we're going to talk about saving money here in a second. But I do want to bring this up right here. Because I am all about investing in the tools that I know I'm going to need over the long haul. And if you're paying for something on a monthly basis, but you're like, I know, I'm going to need this

in six months. And I know I'm going to continue to use this for the next 12 months because I really love this tool. Opt for the annual plan. Y'all go for the annual plan, you're going to save time, you're going to save money, and you don't have to worry about whether your credit card is going to expire while it's done. And your subscription gets screwed up. Because now they need a new credit card on file. I've been there done it, it sucks whenever something on your website gets shut down.

Because you didn't pay either the monthly payment because your credit card expired. Y'all don't mess around with that kind of stuff. This ties in perfectly was saving you time and money, you could save so much time, not going back and forth with all these companies, if you just opt for the annual plan, okay, there's that little extra bonus tip. That is we're not even talking about saving money yet. But there you go. So I want you to audit your tools, but also

audit your time. Now what I mean by this is looking at where are you wasting time? Where are you just like, oh my gosh, if this process was just so much faster, my life would be infinitely easier, or I wouldn't feel as stressed out, or I wouldn't feel like I'm super overwhelmed. Like, look at the different places of your content creation journey and ask, where are my time suckers and my time savers, because that's what you need to

pay attention to. Whenever it comes to saving time and money in your content creation journey. All right. Are you with me? You're nodding along, I feel it, I see it. I don't actually see it, because I can't see you. But we're on the same page. Right.

then we're going to be back. But then like we're gonna be back but the kids won't be back in school. So we're trying to like juggle some appointments. And we were doing, and we were looking at all this stuff. And I showed him my Calendly calendar, which is the tool that I use for scheduling my podcast interviews for my show, as well as for me to be a guest on other show student calls, like all kinds of things. It's all in Calendly. And I opened up the dashboard.

And I was showing him like, well, here's the availability, but these are all the different, you know, places that people can book events with me or book, you know, calls. And he was like, Oh my gosh, like this is crazy organized, like I don't even understand. And I'm like, Yeah, I'm very, very sacred, and have hard boundaries when it comes to my time. And it has saved my sanity. So much whenever I first got started. And this is a lesson for anybody that's just

getting started. Or maybe you feel you're in this place right now where you're just like, oh my gosh, like I don't ever have time to do my own stuff. I'm always on calls or doing this doing that, like taking control of your calendar will change your life, it will absolutely change your life. And I have a few book recommendations. I didn't even have these in my notes. So I'm like gonna have to go back and add them. But there was a book by Christie right? That was Take back your time.

Super, super helpful for someone that needs help with time management. And then there's a book called boundaries by Henry Cloud and John Townsend. I read it years ago. So so helpful. So if you have like these struggles around setting boundaries with your time, I highly recommend these books. Very, very helpful. Okay, now we can actually get into my practical tactical tips

for really how I save time. And I have two, two main things and you're probably gonna guess these, repurposing and batching these are the things that people are like, you do these so well. And you know, you have content all over the place, and I'm like, it is intentional. I spend so much time planning my content for how I'm going to repurpose it and use something more than once and how I'm going to batch it. And so let's start with repurposing because we're gonna

have more content. I have been getting so much so many questions about repurposing lately. This is hot like it is actually not even coming in the form of a question. It's like, I want to do what you do with your content. I've had multiple people in this community reach out. So if you have specific questions about repurposing, please reach out to me on Instagram, send me a DM, and I'd be happy to answer your questions. And, you know, I may even feature you in an upcoming

episode or a YouTube video. Or we may even just hop on a call and do a podcast interview. But when it comes to repurposing the thing that I've realized of why I think about this so differently than everybody else, is because we have to flip the repurposing like the traditional sense of repurposing that model, we have to flip it on its head, and start thinking about what type of content are you going to create, before you ever hit

record? Because what most people will do is say, Oh, here's a finished final podcast episode, or I publish YouTube video. Now, what else can I do with it? And I don't do that. I don't do that at all my content, I am looking at the planning stages like the back end whenever it's still either pen and paper or Google Doc or a Google sheet or in my asana and I say how can I use this more than one time? How can I get the most mileage out of

this content? And just stretch it and keep it going and going and going like the Energizer Bunny, right? So repurposing oh my gosh, like, I'm not even going to go down that rabbit hole too much here today, because I have some more content about it. But I did want to share something that I wrote in a recent weekly newsletter that I got so many comments on, so I want to share it with you. And it says, so you want to know my thought process when it comes to planning content? Here it is.

What's the main topic, the main theme of the content? This is number one. Number two, what stories and information can I share? So these are all the ideas and the main points of the content itself? Number three, what platforms? Should I share this on? Does it need to be a podcast episode a YouTube video, a live stream? And then I need to cut everything down into an Instagram real? Number four, what changes do I need to make? So each piece is platform

specific? Should I make the podcast episode in a longer format and then cut out the longer stories to make a YouTube video that's more actionable? Number five, how can I tether my platforms together in my calls to action? So is there a YouTube video I can mention in a podcast episode that relates to this topic? Or how can I bring this up in my podcast, so that YouTube videos so I can link them all together. So this is how I think of in plan my repurposing strategy for my

content. Again, I'm just skimming over it today, we're going to talk about this so much more detail, but I want to know your specific questions. So reach out to me about repurposing content. And then the second way that I really save time, is batching. Now batching is not just batch recording everything, this is batch planning. So I've shared this before, but I got a new iPad, and I'm like so I've never had an iPad. So super just this

is really cool. I love it. But my husband makes fun of me because I use it as a notebook. This super fancy, basically computer on the go. And I use it to write on like I got an Apple pencil and I have this app that allows me to handwrite things and then I can convert it into text. This is what I use it for. So I will batch plan, like meaning I will sit down and write out so I don't have all my notebooks anymore. I do still have my notebooks don't get me wrong, but I do a lot more of

this on my iPad. And then I will plan out three or four episodes at one time. And then I will record those at one time. So it's like different tasks that I'm doing. I'm planning in one session, and then I'll record two or three episodes in a different session and then I will edit at a different time so I just know that batching is my

sanity saver. 100% like above repurposing, like repurposing is cool and I love being able to put stuff in all the different platforms and do all the things but if I could only pick one, it would be batching batching is just it's a life changer for those of you that are overwhelmed or you feel like You can't keep up with content creation, like whatever it is that you're struggling with, I highly encourage you to check

out batching. And again, this is something else that I'm going to be talking a lot more about on the YouTube channel on the podcast, because you'll have so many questions about it. So reach out if you have more questions about batching your content. But this is my advice, batch plan, batch record, and Batch Edit in all different places, instead of sitting down to plan an episode, then record it and then edit it all in one session. That's stressful. I can't even think about doing

that. Like right now I'm recording this episode, and I'm going to go do something else after this. I'm not going to sit here and edit, I need a chance to walk away from this piece of content and then come back to it. Because that's how I stay excited about my content. And I'm not stressed out. Because I'm just constantly consuming the same piece of content by recording it and planning it and editing it all. No, that's too much. It's too much. And I did do that for a while. I don't do

that anymore. Okay, that is saving time.

said this before. It's why I spent $20 on a podcast, Mike, I was like, I don't know, if I'm gonna like this. I don't want to spend hundreds of dollars on something, and then it just sitting around. So whenever it comes to saving money, I wanted to break this down in the three different areas of content creation. So have podcast, video, and blog. Okay, these are the different ways that I save money. So first of all, let's do podcast editing, podcast

editing, do it yourself. If you want to save money, do it yourself, learn how to do it, because and this is actually a saving time saving money like ding ding ding. If y'all Listen, the armchair expert, like you totally know what I'm saying. The Ding ding ding. But I think it's really important that if you're not editing your own content, it's really hard to get

better at recording. And the reason why I say that is because I if I go back and listen to original versions of my content, like y'all know this, you can go back and listen to all of my original episodes, I have not re uploaded those edits, and then made them pretty evident anything they are what you see is what you get. And I edited all of those. And because of all the editing, I realized, oh my gosh, I say the word so way too

many times. And I used to say like, so like, do you think this thing like and I don't do that as much anymore, you will still hear it from time to time, but I don't do it as much. Because I would record that listen back and say oh my gosh, like, oh, I don't like that that much. So it helped me become a better podcaster. So that's kind of one thing that doesn't have anything to do with saving money other than if you edit yourself, you're not outsourcing your editing, and you're gonna save

money that way. And then the next thing I wanted to bring up about podcast editing, because people say to me, Well, I have to outsource it. I don't know how to do it. Well, you can figure out ways to edit your own podcast. But if you want it to

actually sound better. And when I say Edit, I'm talking about just cutting out like the basic parts of editing where you snip out a piece where it's like, oh my gosh, there was a long pause, or I had to sneeze and had to take a drink or my dogs were barking when kids are screaming like those things that you're editing out. No fancy stuff. We're not talking about equalizing and compression, and I don't do any of those things. Did you know this? Have I told you this before? I don't do any

of that fancy editing stuff. I don't. What I do is I cut out the big pieces where I screwed up. And then this is the big like, oh, aha moment. She's gonna give it to us why she teased us she should just tell us exactly what she's gonna say. Y'all. If you cannot afford an editor, use the tools that are out there that will help you sound better. This is what I have done before magic mastering

which is what I use today. I use magic mastering because I am a Buzzsprout user shout out to Buzzsprout if you want to go try them out, go to KrystalProffitt.com/Buzzsprout. Go see what I'm talking about.

But magic mastering is this leveling tool that helps everybody sound so much better whether it's me whether it's my guest, whether it's like some weird noises in the background, you honestly can barely even hear it even if it's They're through magic mastering, because what they do is they take something and I love Kevin Finn. He's one of the cofounders over there Buzzsprout. And I don't know if he coined this, so I don't want to give him the full credit, but he was the one that

I first heard to use it. He said, It's like the Instagram filter for your podcast, it makes your audio sound so much better. And that's what I started using way back when whenever it first came available, and it's what I continue to use on the Prophet podcast. And y'all, it makes my audio sound so much better. So

so much better. But if you're like, Well, I can't afford magic mastering which is not much it's like an extra not even $10 a month I think like which is way cheaper than having someone edit your podcast. You could also try a tool like off phonic, and I'm gonna link to all these in the show notes. I haven't talked about the show notes today, y'all. KrystalProffitt.com/episode338 is where you're gonna find everything we're talking about here today. But all phonic is

actually magic mastering. So if you didn't know this, like breaking news, or phonic is licensed through buzz brow, and they called it something else, which is magic mastering. But if you wanted to try it out, they do offer a free, I don't remember how much time length you give, but it's like a certain amount of time that you could use. And that's what I did before magic mastering came about. So you can upload your audio file, it does its magic, and then it spits out a brand

new file. And it again is like the Instagram filter for your podcast where it sounds so much better. Alright, so these are the options for you to save money with your podcast if you don't want to hire an editor. And then the last one that I have the tool that I wanted to share with you about saving money is descript. Now descript is something that I don't use on a regular basis for my podcast, I get questions about it a lot.

And so I'm going to be experimenting with it more but it's not an I always tell you all like I'm very upfront with you. I don't endorse products that I don't use on a regular basis. But I have used it enough to know that if you are someone that just you want to do your own editing, you want to cut out like the arms and the long pauses. descript is perfect for that. And it's again, way cheaper than hiring someone to

edit your podcast. So descript a phonic Matic mastering, I'm gonna link to all this in the show notes for you to check it out. But let's move on to video editing. Actually, while we're here. Let's talk about descript as an audio editor and a video editor because it does the same thing. So it does video and audio editing, I think it just depends on the plan that you get. It's a tool that I'm going to recommend for video editing

as well. Again, I don't use this on a regular basis, and we're going to talk about what I use. But I really love the idea of being able to get really familiar with one specific tool that you love, and you really understand it, you know it well, and you can use it for multiple things. That's why I recommend descript I think it's super, super cool. All right, but let's go back to video editing. So Camtasia. This is the tool that I use. And there's a few reasons. One, it's really

simple, too. I've used it for a long time. Three, it is a one time purchase with yearly maintenance fees, meaning I paid I think like not even $200 For the initial software several years ago. And now I just pay like the maintenance fee if I want the latest updated version of the software, which is around like 50 bucks a year. Y'all this is like two or $300 over the last probably let me see, I guess it might be close to like 350 bucks over the last three years that I've been using it

and I love it. Because it's so simple. Now I did use Adobe Premiere. And so for anybody that is the you have the Adobe suites, like you're already paying for the Adobe stuff and like you're constantly using all the other tools. Adobe Premiere is a great option. But it's so complicated like y'all I'm a

fast learner. I'm a tech nerd. I like to get in and do all the things get nitty gritty, it's too much for me, it is too much for me and it frustrated me to no end that I could not record my screen, like do a screen recording. In Adobe Premiere. I had to do it somewhere else and then import that it was frustrating in Camtasia I do my screen recording I can record I could just record my podcast and Camtasia if I wanted to, and this is what I love about it. But with Adobe Premiere, you had

to pay on a monthly basis. And I don't like that. Going back to saving money. I'm all about the annual plans, like, let me pay you up front, take my money, I don't want to get a monthly bill, saying this is how much I owe. Because it adds up over time, y'all, if you know you're going to use it, get that annual discount, right? Most software, most products offer a discount for you to pay that annual fee, pay it up front, like save money somewhere else and pay it right

out of the gate. So you don't have to continuously pay so much more in monthly fees, you can just pay it. And once a year, you know, hey, in February or March or April, or whenever the subscription is up, you can budget and plan for that next payment to go through. Alright, so that's video editing, blog writing, I didn't have too much on this because I don't spend a ton of money. But um, whenever it comes to like writing my blogs and doing all that I don't have a lot of plugins and a lot

of fancy tools that I use. But I did want to talk about saving money in blog writing, I use a lot of free or very low ticket tools that are crucial, crucial to having a successful website, one Asana, this just kind of fell in the asana could be rolled in anywhere because I literally use it in every process like batching repurposing podcast video, like I use it everywhere in my business. But this really felt right right here, because I use it so much to plan my content.

So Asana is something I use it for free, I use it for free, I'm actually going to be upgrading really soon. But for now, and for the last two and a half years have used the free version. I've never even paid for Asana. But I have fallen so in love with this tool, and I want to use some of the paid features. So but it's something that keeps me organized, and helps me do my job on a regular basis. So this is where you can

save money. Like if you're disorganized, and you need to like you could hire a virtual assistant to help you set up a sauna. And whenever I had a project manager, she helped me do this in a different software. And we set up my content calendar, and we figured out the best ways to have processes and workflow in the business. And then I actually ended up moving that whole system over to Asana and I love it. It is literally what I use on a regular basis.

But hiring a VA to help you set up all of these processes and systems are way cheaper than hiring someone for a like ongoing, like long term, full time roll, you can have someone help you set up the processes. And then from there, it's something that you replicate and duplicate on a regular basis to help you run your content, run your business, do all the things that you're doing. Alright, the next tool is Keywords Everywhere. You've probably

heard me talk about this. It's my SEO tool that I absolutely love, I use it. Oh gosh, I would say probably five or six times a week, easily, easily. If not at least once a day like that. That actually sounds better. Because I would use it like one time to, you know, I'm planning content or doing something, I use it. Let's just call it once a day,

Keywords Everywhere. It's my keyword planner that I use that I can plug into a works for Google, it works for YouTube, it works for Amazon, it works for a lot of places. But this helps me do my keyword research. And it is a lot cheaper than a lot of other ones that are out there because you pay for credits. So I will pay $10 to get all these credits. I think I paid 1010 or $20 a year, a year. This is not 10 bucks a month. This is like

10 to $20 a year. So this is another way that I save money instead of paying on a regular basis for another keyword planner like this is what I use and I absolutely love it. And then the last one I want to talk about is Yoast SEO because it goes hand in hand with Keywords Everywhere. I use it a lot it's a free word plus, I can say that word press plug in was trying to like words mash all that together. This is super super helpful saves me time saves me money. Again, going in line with

the SEO and keywords. You're...

I use. They save me time, they saved me money, and I love them so much, you will not see something listed there that I do not love. And here's a little behind the scenes. I've gotten a lot more emails lately, of people saying, Hey, I love your tools page. How can I get listed there? How can I get featured there? So I know that it's really valuable. It's very

helpful. And please don't email me saying, Well, you add my product or the thing that I'm selling to your page, because it's probably not gonna happen unless I know your product, and I love your product. But I want you to go to the Tools page on my website.

content. And you just keep creating, you don't get burned out, you don't feel stressed out. You are excited to come back to your content every week, every month whenever you're producing your stuff. But I want you to stay consistent. And I want you to do it with confidence. So one more time, KrystalProffitt.com/episode338. But that's all I have for you today. So if you are brand new around here, what a doozy to be like, I'm just I'm so excited

that you're here. Welcome to our content creator community where you're gonna find more information about content strategy, content, repurposing, content, batching, all these things that we talked about here today, there's going to be more of it coming in the future. So saddle up, buckle up, get your boots on whatever that looks like. I just butchered every phrase you would ever hear here in Texas, but you know, this is what you get. Okay, you get some authentic, authentic things

around here. And I am just so excited that you listen, if you love this episode today, I would love for you to take a screenshot and share it on social media, tag me on instagram and let me know your number one takeaway, and I would love it if you would subscribe or follow the show. Wherever you are listening wherever you get your podcast and, as always remember, keep it up. We all have to start somewhere.