Creating a 3 Month Plan with this Worksheet

This month is all about the Quarterly Content Generator to help you leverage your expertise and unleash your passions to bring them to life through a strategic marketing plan.

Before we dive into this, I’d like to share with you something to keep in mind while reading this post:

We all have plenty of content to share; the hard part is extracting it. Using this worksheet will help you extract information within you - even when you don't realize it's there.

A quick story: In the Fall of 2017, I decided that on January 1st 2018 I would launch a new podcast that would have a new episode every single Monday called “Mojo Mondays”. I didn’t necessarily know what the podcast would be about other than to inspire others to never have a case of the Monday’s.

As people who know me well can attest, I wasn’t always this enthusiastic. In fact, I would say that I was introverted most of my life. As I started working professionally after graduating from college, the average Monday simply drained me. However, I became inspired by several people and events that started to shift this mentality:

• The success of the San Francisco 49ers under Jim Harbaugh
• Training for my first Olympic distance triathlon
• Following Eric Thomas (aka, the Hip Hop Preacher

My attitude shifted and I noticed I became a far more energetic and positive person. Now, my passion is to spread this feeling with as many people as I can. However, when I started the Mojo Monday Podcast, I honestly had NO IDEA what the hell I’d be talking about every Monday.

Enter the Quarterly Content Generator

One day I decided that enough was enough and started to map out every single Mojo Monday episode for 3 months. Frankly if I didn’t do this, something critical such as managing my business, two other weekly podcasts, or working with other young professionals that have podcast shows on the WhatUp Silicon Valley NETWORK, would fall through the cracks - and that simply wasn’t an option.

To begin the process, I took out a 20 x 23 Easel Pad and wrote wrote out the weeks for the first 3 months of 2018 and just brain dumped on this large piece of paper.

This concept might be enough for some of you to take it and run with it, but if not here’s a copy of my worksheet and the step by step process so you can start your 3 month content action plan immediately.

I ended up working with one of my virtual assistants to create this worksheet and he did a great job in extracting this initial process and making it what I like to call “dummy proof”. (For more on how to work with virtual assistants; check out my “Getting Started” eBook here). Here’s how to attack the worksheet:

Step 1: Find your passion

In the top left section of this worksheet start writing down topics as they come through your brain. Everything that you love, to what you feel you’re an “expert” on, and even topics that you want to learn about. Anything that comes to your mind, just write it down!  Once you run out of spaces, go through your topics from the first line to the bottom and start looking for common themes. Assign an “A” to the very first line then don’t write in another “A” until you find another topic that is similar to that first “A”. Once you’ve gone down the list go back to the top and at the very first empty column write a “B”. Continue to do this process until each topic has been assigned a category.

Step 2: Categorize

Look through you A, B, C, D, E,  etc. and seek to consolidate? You really want to have just 3 categories (A, B, and C) to represent each of the 3 months. Take that D and now give it an A, B, or a C (you get the idea). From there, take a look at all the A’s.  What do they have in common? What can you theme this category as? Choose a theme for Category A and write in the theme name in the provided slot. Repeat this process for B and C.

Step 3: Themes

This is the easiest part of all! Simply choose which Category (Theme) you want to start with. Choose the category that makes sense to talk about first - you might strategically choose a certain category first if all three themes build off each other. OR you might just choose the theme you know best just to get the ball rolling and comfortable with this new process. The answer (as you already know) is do what works best for you! Now you’ll have some empty slots that need to be filled - so head right back to step 1. By this time, you are brainstorming and the new ideas should flow.

That’s it! That is the Quarterly Content Generator!

One of my favorite parts about this worksheet is it’s not just for marketing purposes. Switch out the word “Content” to “Goals” and now your sales team can start breaking down weekly goals with this resource. You can use it for anything really!

So, whether you have already mapped out Q2 and/or the rest of the year OR not… it’s never too late! Use this concept to take action and make your next 3 month span the best ever. You have the tools, what’s stopping you?!

Remember, perfect doesn’t exist, but getting something done does.

SwagOn!