Goal progress
I started a new content strategy project, with a kick-off meeting and a lot of background reading (see Learnings). I’m excited and eager to get stuck in. The client has done some great brand work recently, and there are some juicy governance and operational challenges to solve.
I published another 10 Things email, article, and a free toolkit — this time focused on stakeholder interviews. It’s been a while since I shared a new toolkit — I’ve been holding off because of wanting to get my new website out first. But that’s becoming a sisyphean task, and published is better than perfect, so I decided to get this one live. I also checked the numbers for the first time in a while, and saw that 1,350 people are now toolkit members.
As part of my new website, I’ve been looking at the ongoing role of toolkits for my business. There’s a lot of chat about the ‘passive income’ you can earn from digital products. But in my experience, there’s nothing passive about it. If you want to make money, you need to work very hard to market digital products. I have a few toolkits that I charge for, but I only sell a handful because I don’t market them enough. Most of my products are free. It’s mostly a community thing (I want to share resources because other I’ve benefitted from other people doing the same thing) and partly a marketing thing (a few members have gone on the recommend me, sign up for coaching or consultancy). Going forward, I’m rebranding ‘toolkits’ as resources, and there will be a mix of articles, templates, courses, and eventually study cohorts on some specific topics. Most will be free, some will be paid, and I’m going to dedicate a little more time to the marketing side of things.
I also finally delivered the two evaluations I’ve been working on. It felt good to ship these and the clear the decks ready for new things.
Learnings
I’ve been looking at my process for background reading recently. My process for this project was to:
- Read the document…
- …while taking handwritten notes in the Notability app
- Convert to text
- Upload to Dovetail, the research repository I’m using for the project
For whatever reason, hand-writing notes helps me retain the information better than typing them. I also like having the option to sketch out models as I go. I’m hearing lots of people say that they’re using AI for this. I’ve tried this — putting all the docs into something like Notebook — but the output is weak and lacks nuance compared to doing it yourself. I don’t think there’s any substitute for doing the reading yourself. Reading — like writing — is thinking.
Blockers
The blocker I’m mulling over at the moment is overservicing. I hate that word. I can remember hearing it as a client back in my in-house days and being intensely annoyed by it. How the tables turn, eh?
I’ve overserviced a lot recently, because I want to do the right thing for clients. When I’m not busy, it’s not an issue. I love my work, and I only work with organisations I want to support, so a few extra days and hours is fine. But when I’m busy — like now — it’s a problem. It means a combo of running behind schedule or working longer hours, which isn’t sustainable.
I don’t typically tell clients when I’m overservicing. But at the moment it’s an awkward conversation that I feel like I have to have, so that I don’t set unreasonable expectations.
Source
I’m working on a few little creative side projects, including:
- Making a zine about spring flowers and folklore
- Taking headshots for a friend
I mention this because I feel like doing these little creative things helps my work overall.
This week
- Another kick of meeting for a new content audit project
- Lots of planning for upcoming meetings and working sessions
- Making progress with my talk for Lead with tempo
