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Do you ever feel like everyone else just has so much more time to get things done than you do? These people are constantly pumping out content and showing up on social media everyday and all day long and you don’t know how they are able to do it. After-all, your business is just your side hustle because you still work a 9-5 job.  

While I may have never had a true corporate 9-5 job, there have been a lot of things I have had to balance as an entrepreneur. Multiple income streams, school, and now motherhood.

This episode of the Branded Cowgirl Podcast is intended to help you figure out a way to manage both your day job AND your business.

First Things First

I think it can be so easy to have your head on a swivel and look at what everyone else is doing and think that it’s impossible for you to get there too. The thought of never being able to achieve what you want because you have other priorities and things consuming your time. 

Allow yourself some grace and gratitude for what you have ALREADY done this far to get where you are. 

Far too often we spend all of our time chasing the next thing that when we hit a little milestone along the way we don’t even take the time to really soak in that achievement. So what if someone else booked 25 clients this year and you only booked 5? That’s 5 people that chose to invest in YOU. Don’t forget to celebrate that. 

01. CREATE BOUNDARIES

Maybe you are thinking you want to post a piece of content every single day. But when you actually spend the time to look at your weekly schedule, you realize that you only have an hour per week to put towards content creation. This might not be a realistic goal for you.

You need to be open and honest with yourself about what you can produce and how often. Yes there are benefits to producing quantities of content but there is even more of a benefit in posting quality content. So while you may be stressing about pumping about 500 mediocre reels, I would rather see you focus on 3 really good ones.

Think about your time. How much time do you really have to put towards planning and creating the content, executing and posting the content, and on the tail end of the content engaging with others?

• How long does it take you to create a piece of content for Instagram?
• How much are you currently posting on Instagram/social media?

Oftentimes what I figure out when I ask people these questions is they have more time than they think they do. You might think you only have an hour per week but if it takes you 10 minutes to create and post a Reel on Instagram every single day, that’s already over your hour limit. Not by much BUT you also have to take into consideration that there is more to a content strategy than just creating, posting and walking away. 

If you are not taking the time to then engage with your followers, reply to comments and DM’s and upload to stories, your work is not finished. 

02. PLAN AHEAD

All I have done so far is a basic math equation to get an idea on where you are currently at and where you want to go. My guess is that if you are working a 9-5 job you are hoping to come up with some kind of content strategy that allows you to batch more all at once vs. trying to do little bits and pieces every day. 

You are going to get there by planning ahead. Batching 10 Reels in a day takes a lot of freaking time, especially depending on how fancy you want to get. I can pump out 30 reels in 10 minutes if all I am doing is sitting in the same chair and the same outfit recording myself lip syncing – which is totally fine! But it could get boring after a while. And you are probably going to want to add in transitions, and different outfits and move to different locations. 

So by planning ahead and figuring out exactly what reels you want to record, what you are going to wear in each one and any props you might need, you are going to be able to execute them a lot faster. 

In the beginning, batching content like this it will not be a quick process. All of that planning takes a good amount of time and laying everything out does too. But the more you do it the faster and more efficient you will get. 

03. PICK THE DAY YOU ARE GOING TO BATCH CONTENT ON

The next thing you need to figure out is what day of the week you are actually going to implement and batch create all of this content. Assuming you work a 9-5 job Monday-Friday, are you okay with coming home on weeknights and spending 3 or 4 hours working on content? Or is it something where you need to dedicate the time on a weekend? 

The hardest part is truly being committed to your decision in the same way you are committed to your day job. You need to treat this side hustle like a normal job if you want to see results. So if you decide that Sunday evenings from 4-8pm is when you are going to batch your reels for the week, then you need to stick to it and put in the work. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

I just want you to know that I think you are so amazing for what you are doing. Working a full time job whether it be in the corporate world or if you are a stay at home mom and trying to balance a business on top of that is no easy feat. And it’s not for the faint of heart. 

I think you are such an inspiration and I just know that no matter what, you can do anything you set your mind to. 

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