Steal My Sustainable (Lunar) Content Creation Routine
Content marketing is undoubtedly one of the most powerful ways to get your products and services out there. It keeps you top of mind, it makes you discoverable, it positions you as an expert in your field, and most importantly, it builds trust with prospective clients over time.
For example, someone might listen to my podcast for months before deciding they want to be my client. If I didn't have a podcast, blog, or YouTube channel, there wouldn't be a way for prospective clients to get a taste of what it’s like to work with me before they buy.
If you want to attract clients, you need to have some form of weekly (or at least monthly) content that you can nurture them with.
The Problem with Most Content Creation Systems
Creating content can get really overwhelming. Most content creation frameworks push too hard and demand too much. They don't work with the natural cycles of your body or the ebb and flow of your creativity throughout the month.
And when it’s not kept in check, content creation can be a huge distraction. If you're a service provider, you’re not a content creator. Content creation is not your job. Your job is to provide your service.
Content creation is a tool to promote your service. Don't get it twisted. You're not trying to be a YouTube star. You're trying to sell your products and book out your services using your valuable content.
Another pitfall of most content creation systems is that they don’t have a strategy. Maybe creating consistent content isn’t a problem for you, but landing clients with your content is.
You need to create each piece of content with the end-game in mind. And as a service provider, your end-game is landing clients.
The purpose of your content isn’t to be educational or to get lots of likes or comments. The purpose of your content is to point people back to your services. And yes, there’s a way to “give value” without giving everything away for free.
In order to create great, strategic content without burning out, you need a system that preserves your bandwidth and keeps the end-game in mind. That’s where my lunar content creation strategy comes in.
Why You Need to Create Your Content with the Moon
Does this sound familiar? You come up with a content idea, produce that content idea, and publish that content idea all in one day. And then? You crash and burn and don’t make any content for a month.
That used to be me. I was exhausted by content creation and always felt behind. But with my lunar content creation system, I don’t just feel organized, I feel balanced and on top of things.
When you align your content creation with the lunar cycle, it naturally fluctuates and has a rhythm. Just like the Moon waxes and wanes, there’s a time to push and a time to retreat. Sustainability is baked in, and you’re more likely to follow through.
Pro Tip: Prioritize Long-form Content
One side note before we go deeper: Although you can use this lunar strategy to create any type of content, I’m specifically referring to long-form content in this post. By long-form content I mean a blog post, a YouTube video, a podcast episode, or maybe an email newsletter. These things have a longer internet shelf life.
Can you use the lunar cycle to make short-form content like Instagram posts? Of course! But as a very seasoned content creator, I suggest that your short-form content always springs from your long-form content. In other words, prioritize your long-form content first.
For example, my long-form content of choice is my podcast. Then, I repurpose that podcast episode into a blog, a YouTube video, pins, and Instagram content.
Lunar Content Creation Basics
The main idea behind this system is that the Moon’s level of brightness reflects your level of energy. The brighter the moon is, the more energy you’ll likely have for high-energy, outward-facing tasks like recording content. The darker the moon is, the more desire you might have for inward-facing, detail-oriented tasks that can be done in your pajamas from bed.
In this system, the lunar cycle is divided into four major phases, and each phase is attached to a part of your content creation process (i.e. outlining, scripting, production, post-production).
The four major phases are the New Moon, First Quarter Moon, Full Moon, and Last Quarter Moon. Each phase lasts approximately one calendar week, although if you count them, the phases may last as short as five days or as long as nine days. But for simplicity, let’s say each seven-day week is associated with one lunar phase.
You’re going to schedule your heaviest lifts under the brightest lunar phases (First Quarter Moon & Full Moon). For example, my heaviest lifting is when I have to record a YouTube video. YouTube recording takes a lot of energy, so ideally, I’ll record during a Full Moon week.
On the other hand, you’ll schedule your lighter lifts during the darker phases (Last Quarter Moon & New Moon). For me, that's editing and post-production, like writing show descriptions—whatever doesn’t require me to do my hair and makeup.
Defining Your Content Creation Phases
Start by dividing your content creation process into four phases or parts. Then, match each with its corresponding lunar phase. Your four content creation phases may be very different from mine. It really depends on the type of content you make and which parts of the process you personally find to be easy or hard.
But regardless, I want you to take your process and divide it into four major phases. For example, maybe you're a blogger and your phases are:
Research (New Moon)
Outline (First Quarter Moon)
Write (Full Moon)
Edit (Last Quarter Moon)
Or, maybe you’re a podcaster and your phases are:
Bullet points (New Moon)
Script (First Quarter Moon)
Record (Full Moon)
Edit (Last Quarter Moon)
My personal phases are:
Outline (New Moon)
Outline and record (First Quarter Moon)
Record and edit (Full Moon)
Edit and write descriptions (Last Quarter Moon)
Notice that my phases overlap. The word phase indicates a gradual shift, not a stark switch. It’s totally okay for your phases to meld into one another.
Also notice, again, that my heaviest workload is happening during the Full Moon phase. These tasks require me to perform, get dressed up, and exert a lot of energy, so I schedule them when the Moon is brightest.
Your next step is to “feed” the Moon your content. As a very seasoned content creator, I “feed” the Moon six pieces of content per cycle. But if you’re just starting out, I recommend something much more manageable, like two pieces of content per cycle.
Before You Start
One thing I recommend before you start implementing your lunar content creation system is to plan out a whole quarter of content ideas at one time. This means coming up with enough content ideas for about three lunar cycles or 12 to 13 weeks. Make it a party!
To be clear, you don't need to flesh out your ideas, just write them down and arrange them on your calendar. Think of this as a rough draft. The topics may change, and they may end up going in a totally different order. But it’s way easier to change things as you go than it is to come up with a random content idea the night before it’s due.
Also remember to keep the end-game (landing clients) in mind. As you’re coming up with your quarterly content ideas, consider what you want to promote. What will you be selling this quarter? And how can each piece of content lead back to that?
How to Get and Stay Ahead: Month Zero
I highly recommend starting this entire process with what I call Month Zero. In Month Zero, you’re going to create content, but you're not going to share it. This will allow you to build up a content bank, and it’ll keep you from always feeling behind.
Start Month Zero on the Monday closest to the next New Moon. During this week, “feed” the Moon your four new content ideas (if you’re doing weekly content), and do whatever tasks you’ve attached to the New Moon phase (e.g. bullet points).
When the next week comes around, you’ll move these four pieces of content into the next phase of production (e.g. script). And so on, and so forth.
By the end of Month Zero, you’ll have four pieces of content ready to go. Again, during Month Zero, you're not releasing any content, you’re just creating it. Right now, you're building up your content reserves.
Once the next lunar cycle begins, you’ll have one piece of amazing content to release each week. And behind the scenes, your lunar content creation cycle starts all over again.
Taking it Deeper
So that’s it—that’s the basic overview of how I use the Moon to create and organize my content. Feel free to play around with this and make it your own. It’s definitely not a one-size-fits-all approach, and that’s why it works.
If you loved this, you will really love my incubator for intuitive entrepreneurs, the Cosmic Business Plan. I’ll give you my Lunar Content Calendar Template (it’s amazing) and help you plan your content by the Moon.
I’ll also review a piece of your content and help you workshop how to make it more conversion friendly. Learn all about the Cosmic Business Plan here.