0:03
As a transformation maker - a coach, a consultant, a course creator, you're creating an awful lot of content. Let me ask you a very candid question. Does all of that content equal cash for you?

0:23
Until fairly recently, I would say, in response to this question with a big fat, no. I was creating so much content mainly in the form of Gary Vee style content, where I would take one piece and turn it into hundreds. I just had so much content. I didn't really know what to do with it. I was frustrated. I was discouraged. Because all of that content I was sprinkling across the interwebs were definitely not turning in to cash. And to be even more honest, because I had so much content out there, there was not a lot of reason for people to actually hire me to help them do the things that I was teaching, because they could go figure it all out for free.

1:21
So instead of spending time turning one piece of content into hundreds of pieces, and then just getting frustrated with the whole process, I was getting frustrated for myself, and for my clients because they had so much content, yet there wasn't really a strategy in order to actually turn all that content in to cash. So what I did, instead, I actually stopped creating content aside from this podcast. And I went inwardly. I started to really look and pay attention to all the content I had already created. And getting curious about the different ways that I might be able to use that content, specifically, to monetize it, and turn it in to cash. So today on the podcast, I'm going to break down my three step framework. It's a super simple framework that I use for myself in order to turn my content into cash, and how I help my clients do the same. Are you ready to dive in?

2:31
Have you ever felt like there was something missing in your business, something holding you back from the success you're seeking? If so you are not alone? For nearly 20 years, that's exactly how I felt as a business owner. It wasn't until I discovered Human Design, that it all became clear. And it turns out that I was the missing piece in my own business. Join me on this journey of discovering the real me and hear stories from other business owners building businesses around all of their awesomeness. I'm Yong Pratt, and it's time my friend to Amplify Your Awesome™.

3:16
Well, hey there Amplifiers! You're listening to episode number 335 of the Amplify Your Awesome™ podcast. As always, I'm your host, Yong Pratt, Expert Goldmining Guide and Amplifier of Awesome. Here at Amplify Your Awesome™ we help course creators and coaches, ditch content overwhelm, tap into an endless supply of social media content. And the most important part, the part that everyone loves is making money from the content you have all ready created. And that, my friend, is what we're going to really dive into on today's episode - My three-step framework to turn your content, yep, that content you have already created into cash.

4:14
And who doesn't love a little more cash, especially with summer right around the corner. And maybe there are vacations you want to go or places you would like to visit. Things you want to do with your kids. Things you want to invest in for yourself in your business. While using this framework, you can actually turn on the tap and create endless supplies of cash whenever you need it. Get very excited today because this is the framework that changed everything in my business. It's what I love to teach because it's not talked about in this day and age of online marketing.

4:55
The idea of creating more and more content all those pieces the Gary Vee style Content repurposing. That's what I hear a lot of people talking about it. I haven't really heard anyone else talking about turning that all that content into whole cold hard cash. So I'm so glad you are tuning in for this episode.

5:15
If you haven't caught my last few episodes where I talked about the Myth of More [#333], and last week I talked about Content Gold Mining versus the traditional Gary Vee style content repurposing [#334]. I'll link those up in today's show notes at YongPratt.com/335. So let's dive in, shall we?

5:40
If you don't already know this about me, I live in North Eastern Nevada and it's one of the top gold producing regions in the entire world. Most of the gold in my state isn't found on the surface. When you find things on the surface, that's called surface level gold mining. And I really liken that to the Gary Vee Style Content Repurposing. When you mine on the surface and you can see these different pieces of gold, you can literally pick them up, break them into smaller pieces, and sprinkle them across any platforms that you want to be on. That's really how I see surface level gold mining. It's the low hanging fruit for a lot of business owners. It's really easy, and it's attractive to want to turn those pieces that you find on top of the ground into many, many, many, many, many, many more pieces, using Gary Vee style Content Repurposing. And while I do still teach that inside my signature experience, Your Content Goldmine™, it is just one of four foundational pillars to really mine for all gold that you currently have that you currently are sitting on inside your content. Now, last week, I did share about content gold mining versus Gary Vee style repurposing. And the focus of Gary Vee style Content Repurposing, is not monetizing. Shocking, right. Here is somebody who is a quote, unquote, a Guru in the space. Lots of people try to emulate him. He was someone that I looked at as, as kind of a role model because he was teaching people how to create more content without having to create more.

7:36
But the reality is that to get those smaller bits, there have to be some foundational pieces in place, namely pieces of software, or team members that you have to train, or you have to do it all manually. And that's a really big time suck. That's where I found myself a couple years back. I just was so frustrated with this process, because yes, I had so much content, it was awesome. Literally 1000s upon 1000s and 1000s of pieces that I created for myself in my business, and I helped other business owners set up these automations. And while it sounded good on the outside to have all these pieces, there was never a focus on monetizing. Isn't that funny? Somebody we tend to follow. Somebody people talk about. Somebody that most people know who this person is, you know, he's not really talking about how to turn that into to cash. And maybe he's keeping that close to the vest. I don't really know.

8:38
But I do know that when I started focusing on the monetizing of my content and showing other people how they could quickly and easily monetize their content. I thought, oh my goodness. I felt like I had almost been brainwashed into believing something that has potential to be really awesome. Yet when put into practice, it really was not. Now I will admit that Gary Vee style Content Repurposing does have a place in your overall marketing plan, but it cannot be the entire marketing plan as it was for me a couple of years ago. It was just daunting and overwhelming to do that. Because I really wanted to go deeper than that.

9:26
I want to talk about what's under the surface. We want to do some underground gold mining and really dig in to your content. Now in Nevada in order to mine for all that gold, they have to have a really huge like house-sized pieces of equipment to do this. They need specialized skill sets in their people. They need lots of different people to do a lot of work in order to mine for the gold because most of it is microscopic. They actually have to go through processes to take all those microscopic bits and turn it into those big gold nuggets that most of us have seen before. It is a lot of work. And you may be wondering,

10:12
"Why on earth do gold mines do that?" Because, number one, it's a lot of work. Number two, it cost them millions of dollars plus per month, in order to get that gold. Now, the reason they continue to do that is because as the price of gold increases, their product is valued at a higher level. So even though it costs them millions to extract this gold and put it out into the marketplace, they're getting more back in return. So what they invest is a small portion, a small portion of what they get back.

10:53
And that's really sort of the crux of content, gold mining as well. The good news for you is that you don't need any specialized equipment. You don't need teams of people. You don't need huge amounts of a scientists going out and telling you where to dig. You really just need a three-step framework. And I'm going to share that with you in just a moment. I do want to share that when I was thinking about a way to help my clients remember that all of this gold was literally at their fingertips. And all they had to do was really D.I.G. in. The idea for this three-step framework, kind of sprang to mind. And the three steps are dig D. I. G.

11:41
In order to turn your content into cash, all you have to do is D. I. G.. If you can remember that simple phrase, you literally have a way to monetize your content. Turn your content into cash, anytime you need a cash infusion, or just to create cash on a consistent basis. And this is what I've been doing with my clients recently. This is what I've been doing with myself. And I'm going to dig into these three components and really peel back the curtains so you can see how I've applied these strategies in my own business. So that you can take these ideas and make them in your own and do it in your business.

12:21
But I do want to ask you for a favor. If you use this process in your business, and you're seeing some traction with it. Or if you need help with this process. I would love for you to come back to the website, www.Yong Pratt.com/335 and share with me. You can also share with me directly inside my Facebook community, the place that I love to come and do these live podcast recordings and bring you all sorts of tools and tips and secrets that you can use to mine for the gold in your content. I really want to hear your stories because as I help more and more clients through this process, they're always so excited about it. And they message me and say oh my gosh, I had no idea I had so much good stuff.

13:10
So let's dive in because I know you're probably chomping at the bit and you want to know what these three steps are.

13:17
So the dig framework is D.I.G. The first step is in the framework is D and that stands for discover. So this is kind of a big step. It may be a little bit time consuming. I will tell you that, however, if there are kids in your life, and they know how to use tools like Google Drive, this can be really, really simple and something that you could hire out.

13:47
I know for my kids when they started working for me in my business. My youngest, her love language is quality time. So the fact that we could create things side-by-side, I could empower her with some skill sets. Or she could use skill sets that she had learned in school, and then put them to work in my business. It was it was such a cool feeling to be able to literally sit side-by-side, create memories, have her learn a skill or enhance a skill that she later used to pay for things on her own like going to math camp. So this is a process you can do yourself if you really want to you can dive in and maybe take five or 10 minutes a day. And and do this for over a period of a week or so or enlist the help of some kids in your life. And if you need ideas on where to find kids questions to ask for them. Again come back to today's show notes, www.Yong Pratt.com/335.

14:49
Now if you're watching this live, those show notes won't actually be ready till Thursday because one of the bonuses I have as being a member of my Facebook Community is that you get access to podcast episodes inside the group before - the day before - they go live on the podcast. So one are the many reasons to join me inside the Arena of Awesome.

15:15
So let's talk about this process, the Discover. So this really looks like seeing all your content and discovering everything you've created over the course of your entrepreneurial journey. Now, for me, this looked like so much content. And here's what I did. I actually wanted to keep it super simple. And being a very visual learner, I really didn't have a place where I stored all of my content that was central, that I could share with any team members. I would say, hey, go go on the internet and find out where this piece of content is linked it up here and do these things. It was time consuming. I felt like I had to be a major micromanager. And so I really wanted to take that roadblock away for myself and my staff. So what I did is put it all into one central Google spreadsheet. So literally, I had one sheet in the document that contained all of my blog posts. It would have the link to the blog post. If I had any kind of pretty link or short link that would go in the next column. I would put in the title. And then I would put in the keywords. So I kind of knew so that I was able to at the end, find similar things if I if I really wanted to.

16:38
Another page of mine has all of my podcast episodes. Another sheet has all of my workshops that I have taught links to them, descriptions, all those things, the tags, the keywords that I have put into those things. I have another one for all of my guest appearances. So anytime that I am fortunate enough to be a guest and be invited to someone's podcast, into someone's Facebook group to give a masterclass. Anytime I do things like that, I put a link to this place where that lives online. So that I can always direct people back to that place, right. So for me, it looks like I have five or six different sheets in a spreadsheet. If this is confusing to you, here's what I want you to take away, I want you just to have a central place, whether that is online in a place like Google Drive, whether that is on your computer in Microsoft Word, whatever program you use, that does word processing, or if you want to put it into a spreadsheet, just go grab all the links to all the content you've created, and put it all in one place. Alright, so that's the first part of the Discover part of this framework. Get everything in one place. Whether you do it yourself, or you enlist the help of some kiddos in your life to do that, it doesn't matter. All I'm really concerned about in this step for you is that you have everything in one central place. So it's literally at your fingertips. So if you want to discover and find out, hey, do I have a piece of content about XYZ, you can go use the find feature in things like Google Drive, and discover that.

18:30
Before you do that, though, you may notice something. You know, there's an old saying that the cream rises to the top. And the first time I went in to discover all my content, and saw it all in one place. I found that there were four or five buckets of content that I had more of than the rest. And even though they weren't created linearly, because content creation is not always a linear process, right? They were created at different times, at different seasons in my life, yet they all kind of went together. And in just a moment, I'm going to share with you how I use this particular method in my own business recently to create some really cool things. But I think you'll be really, really excited to hear about.

19:21
So you'll notice that these themes arise these buckets of content. These are the things if you look back really tight into what you're doing now. For me, I owned a performing arts studio for 17 years, right. So a lot of the content I created is not necessarily or directly related to what I do now. However, when I just started podcasting for my business and published my first book, these themes now still come into play, all these years later, because you now that I talked about bringing kids into your business. And ways to empower them to learn these marketable high level skills. It's fascinating to discover that all along, I think creating all this content to get to where I am now. So this discovery phase is quite eye opening. And every time, every time, I take any of my one on one clients through this process, they always are in awe number one at the sheer volume of content they've created. Because most of the people that I work with, has been entrepreneurs for a long time, they've been creating content for literally years. So they have lots and lots and lots of content. And they never really seen it all in one place.

20:56
Kind of like if you were to go around your house, and gather up all the loose change you found from under the cushions and under your furniture, hidden in pants, pockets or coat pockets. You might be astounded at how much you can find by that simple act of discovering what is already there.

21:14
So that's why this particular step discovery is going to be one of the most eye opening and lightning processes that you're going to experience in this framework. So that's the first step, the D in the framework. So now that you've discovered your content, we can move on to "I." And this, my friend is where I love to hang out. Once you've discovered or I help my clients discover all the content, the next step, the "I" is to IDEATE. You get to use your imagination. And you get to create or think about ideas on the different ways you can put all that content together. A few minutes ago, I shared that the cream rises to the top and you'll likely find common categories or themes of content that you could then put together.

22:15
This is the step that I used back in 2016 when I first stumbled into the world of content repurposing, but not traditional repurposing. But really the the way that I talk about it now the content goldmining. I use this IDEATE process to publish my first book.

22:37
How did that happen? Well, I really wanted to have a book, in order to support the relaunch of my podcas. I wanted the the relaunch of the podcast, really to support the book, right, so they kind of went hand in hand. But I didn't have the time to write a book. And in my head, writing a book looked like locking myself away for days or months or years, and just slaving away in front of the computer or a typewriter. And you're having that cursor just blink at me saying Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up. That was my idea. That was the story I had in my head about what an author looked like, what their work looked like. Now for some people, that may be how it looks. But for me, I didn't have the luxury of time on my side.

23:25
So I got curious instead. And my default mode always is asking myself a lot of "What If" questions. I always want to know what if this? And what if this? And what if we did this? What about and what about this? Sometimes it gets me into a little bit of trouble. And I go into deep sometimes, however, I like remaining curious. So I literally in order to publish this book, went back to my blog. And I had been blogging for quite a long time. Up until this point, never really doing anything with it. Using it kind of like an online journal. And if people happened to stumble across it...awesome. I could point my performing arts students' parents, to these places to help them, you know, reinforce the lessons we were. We were going over in class, and really to help them to understand the process of brain growth and physical growth and spiritual and mental growth that happened in our classrooms. That's why the podcast really was there. That's why this book was there. But at the time, it was a series of blog posts. I think I had 10 or 12 blog posts. They were quite lengthy with lots of examples, lots of different ways to really apply these and test these things out.

24:40
Now this book is really all about unleashing your child superpowers. Now in the world of Dr. Howard Gardner, there are eight different ways in which we can be smart, right? It's not just about being book smart or street smart. There's eight different ways. And this book really broke down each of those ways. And it was really a call to arms for parents about, okay, if you're not satisfied with your kids education, if your kid is struggling in school, this may be why. And here are the resources and the questions you can take into your classroom teachers or to the administration, and help them to recognize these traits are these gifts in your kids, right? That's what this book was about. So I compiled together some blog posts, but then it kind of didn't read great, right. It was kind of just a bunch of blog posts, because even though I had written these particular ones at around the same time, it just wasn't all that entertaining, right. And I wanted to make a book that parents can literally use that wasn't, you know, copious like three or 400 pages of them having to wade through a bunch of scientific literature to discover this. This is what I have learned in graduate school. This is what I focused on. This is what I wanted to share.

25:54
I wanted to simplify the process, because that's one of my superpowers is to simplify the complicated, right? So I hired an editor who was a friend of mine. We went through actually a class together, called book in a weekend or something. And so she was my editing partner, and she happens to actually be a book editor. So we hired her to take a look at these blog posts. She helped me kind of craft an intro and outro and like next steps, sections, and helped me to weave the book together in a voice that sounded like me. Because the problem with diving into scientific research and literature is that when I read that, and I go to write it, I kind of pick up that voice. So it started sounding not like me. So she was always great in reminding me. Hey, this doesn't sound like you. How can you make it sound like you? How do you put it in your voice. So hiring somebody outside myself, because that was not my skill set was such a huge, a huge win. Because she helped me really get this book out in a timely manner. And I went from idea to publish book in less than a month. So it is possible, but it was this whole idea of i ideate, how can you take what you currently have and turn it into something else that you could then monetize? Right?

27:19
It's a really exciting step. And if you are joining me live, and you have questions, please drop them underneath. And I'm happy to answer. And if you're listening on the podcast, you can come over to my Facebook group, the Arena of Awesome, or come over to today's show notes at www.Yong Pratt.com/335. And I invite you to drop your questions right there. So that's step number two IDEATE.

27:49
So I want to remind you of this. When you go into the ideation phase, there's no right or wrong. There's no one size fits all. You are unique. You are unique. Your content is unique. And when you ideate on what you can use your imagination to create is, is absolutely endless. No. And so I've given you the example of how I ideated by through my content, and created my first published book.

28:22
Now in the coming weeks, you're actually going to see two other products that I've created that will be available for sale on my website. And there, there are a series of tutorials that I created when I did my work with one on one clients. A lot of times, I had this massive, now I have a massive vault of tech tutorials. What I've done in these products is compiled some tutorials that are very hands on, very action oriented, getting results fast, because I'm really big on getting results fast. I don't want it to take you months or years because the likelihood of you following through with that is pretty slim to none. So if I can give you or help you get the results you want in a weekend in a couple of hours in a day, that's a huge win for me. So that's another way that I have taken this content in my ideation phase, and I'm now going to be offering it up as another type of gift.

29:27
And something I mentioned earlier is that creation is not a linear process. So something else that you're going to see from me is a series of podcast episodes. And you're probably thinking, Wait, your podcast is free right now. Why would anyone pay for that content? Here's the deal, because creation is not linear. I created a bunch of podcast episodes that don't happen to be back to back. I created some last year. I created some the year before. But guess what, in my discovery process, I just I discovered that these things had a common theme. So I thought, what if, what if I could bundle these up together in video format, in audio format, in text format, in case you love to read, that's coming up very quickly. So those are three different ideas in my own business, that I've been able to take my existing content, ideas on it, put a price tag on it, because it has massive value. And I'm gonna be offering that out very soon to you. So look forward for those to those things.

30:44
And part of my signature experience, Your Content Goldmine™, my six-month mentorship program coming up soon, you'll see bits and pieces of this inside that program too, however there the big draw for this program is time with me. My eyes on your business, seeing opportunities, seeing potential, seeing what is possible for you, and your content, and all the different ways you can make money for because sometimes we just don't know what we don't know. And it takes someone like me coming in. And being an outsider in your business and saying, oh, my goodness, you have these 14 things that are similarly tied together, how can we put them together in one way or two ways 10 different ways even, and be able to turn that into cash for you. So that's part of my signature experience. If you want to know more about that, let me know on today's show notes www.YongPratt.com/335. Now, it's probably dropped that link about five times in this episode. But I really do want to be here for you in this process, because as you can tell, I'm super excited about this. I thought this episode was gonna be like 10 minutes long. And I think now we're looking at, wow, 30 minutes already. So I am on a roll.

32:02
So let's get to the third step in this process, G. Now this is the really, really exciting part. And if monetizing your content, turning your content into cash is something that you value, because you value the work you've already created, then this is the really fun part G is going for the gold. After you've ideated on your products, or your gifts you can offer to the world in so many different ways, different mediums. The next thing is to be able to make some cash, turn that content into cash, tap into your goldmine, turn it into gold for you. To support you, to support your family to support this business to support this empire that you are building, right. This is where everything comes together. So my friend, now it's your turn. I want to hear about how this process works in your life. Once you have listened to this episode, and you've gone through this dig framework, I absolutely want to hear were there struggles that you had along the way? What were your wins? What were you able to monetize? Because at the end of the day, your business is there to support you. It's there to support you financially, and in many other ways, too. But without that cash coming in, it's really hard to sustain a business. I know, I have been there. I've been at the rock bottom where I was putting out a lot of content. And there was nothing coming back in to support my business. I was self-funding. And that was not a good place to be. Now that I've discovered this framework, and put it into my own business in my own life, I have shared it with my 1:1 clients. I wanted all of you, my listeners of this podcast to have this framework because it is so powerful.

34:07
If you take some time today, just carve it out, put it on your calendar, and then reach out to me, let me know all the good stuff that comes from this. I was recently on a podcast episode this week. And already, we talked about this D.I.G. Framework on the podcast. And already the podcast host has reached back out to me and said, Oh my goodness, I have a client who went through his framework and she cannot believe all the gold that she has write fast. This stuff works fast. You just need to take action on it fast because the more you put it off, the more you think about it, the more you put it out into the future, the less likely it is to have. I want for you to be able to dig all the gold you can out of your content gold mine. Okay, my friend. It's been my pleasure to be here with you today. It's my pleasure to share my three-step framework to turn your content into cash. All you have to do to do that, my friends is to D.I.G. Now go out there, my friend, D.I.G. into your content. I cannot wait to hear from you, telling me all the ways that you've turned your awesome content into more cash. I will catch you on the next episode. Cheers.

35:27
Thanks for tuning in to the Amplify Your Awesome™ podcast. Let's continue this conversation inside my Facebook community, the Arena of Awesome while it's still free and open to new members, come share your biggest takeaways and ahas. Plus, every week inside the Arena, you'll get access to me and I may even share content I don't share anywhere else. Until next time, my friend go out there today and Amplify Your Awesome™!