I’m taking 3 months off to write my book this summer and I scheduled all my content ahead of time. 

Is it hard to batch, schedule and get ahead on all your content? 

Yes. And to be honest, I needed a special kind of focus.

There’s a lot of prep that goes into being “off” so that there’s not a gap in content, especially if you need to take unexpected time off.

What Consistency in Sales and Marketing Isn’t

My dad always said proper planning prevents piss poor performance (as a kid I could care less but the idea grew on me as an adult).

You need to play the consistency game and build momentum over time.  And no, consistency doesn’t mean selling every single day. 

There are things in life you just can’t do every single day. 

You can’t work out at 110% every single day without getting injured.  

It’s the same thing with sales – you can’t show up 110% every day. You won’t be able to keep it up. 

What it takes to be consistent in marketing

A big part of consistency is planning, batching and scheduling your content. 

Knowing exactly what’s coming up in the next year to be able to batch and schedule one quarter of content at a time. 

Once you get that ahead in your content it creates white space in your calendar and gives you freedom and time to unplug. 

But before I could get a quarter ahead on content, I started a week ahead, then a month, then two months. 

To do that you need to spend a lot of time sitting down, thinking, planning and executing. Start slow and build up your momentum. 

Does batching work for all types of content?  

You’ll feel more confident planning ahead when you work with timeless concepts versus something that’s trending. 

So think about your content and whether it’s still going to be relevant in 6 or 12 months from now. 

For example, a lot of what I teach inside Mission Income and Scale to $5k are business principles that don’t change. I’m always talking about the same things over and over. 

So content I schedule this week will still be relevant six months from now. 

Luck versus Preparation and Planning in Content Scheduling

There’s people who want to get lucky in business, and as you grow you might feel like you got lucky. 

When you actually think about all the hours you spent, the different office chairs you sat on, the notebooks you’ve gone through. There’s a lot of preparation that brought you to where you are today. 

The benefit of being in business for five years is I understand things a bit deeper and am able to zoom out more. 

At the end of the day, I’m not building a business so my whole life can be about business. Your business fits into your life, and life comes first. 

When you allow business to be all consuming because you’re not planning (maybe you’re not someone who fears commitment) – you do a disservice to yourself. 

Boring Businesses Make more Money

So many people are getting bored of their businesses. 

But here’s the thing: boring businesses make billions of dollars because they plan. They start with the end in mind and work backwards. 

These founders are passionate about what they do, but they don’t expect that novice passion to sustain them. They know eventually what they’re doing is going to become routine. 

So if  you’re in a rut, feeling like business is boring,  think about other places in your life where you can get that same fulfillment.

Also understanding that when you take time off, you rejuvenate yourself. Bill Gates takes a week off every year just to read and hang out. That time is important. 

How to Reframe your Perspective around Scheduling Content

The goal is to be in a place as a business owner where you’re doing less but doing it better. 

It’s like the first time you run a mile versus the 100th time you run a mile. It’s going to feel much easier and routine the more you do it.

That routine opens up space and lets me go deep with what I’m passionate about. 

That freed up space is only possible because of all the planning and preparation I did. 

(And no… taking time off doesn’t mean I’m completely ghosting my business. There’s still sales coming – I planned it strategically.. You can choose what consistency and commitment looks like in your business) 

So if you’re someone who wants to take time off, start seeing yourself as a planner and start planning. 

If the thought of planning a year in advance gives you hives,  Mission Income will help you build that foundation.

Photo by: Alexa Vossler