Podcast S3:E6 Content Alchemy with Melanie Knights

You can connect with the multi-passionate Melanie, over on Instagram or on her website!

Show notes:

In this episode I talk to Melanie Knights, a self-published author, anti bro-marketing mentor and host of the podcast Entrepreneurial Outlaws. We talk about creating content that reflects your personality and values, instead of trying to fit in with what the algorithms demand of you.

Melanie describes her work as being the entrepreneurial intersection of strategy, spirituality and self-inquiry - she advocates for building a business that serves your lifestyle on your terms, inspiring you to rewrite the usual marketing rules rather than trying to fit yourself into a box. Ever inspired by her deep love for the storytelling found in Country, Americana and Folk music, Melanie continues to pave new and exciting paths for her business whilst challenging the status quo of modern entrepreneurship.

You can find out more about Melanie on her website www.melanieknights.com and follow her on Instagram @entrepreneurial_outlaws

This podcast is presented by Ellie McBride from Calibrated Concepts. It was produced by Emily Crosby Media.

Transcript:

(Please note that these are computer generated and therefore imperfect).

Ellie: [00:00:00] Welcome to the capable collective podcast. He plays for women who want to ditch the overwhelm and learn to run their business with ease. I'm your host, Ellie McBride. And I firmly believe that as women and non-binary folks, we work best as a collective. So together with my. We are sharing the tools, systems and ethos behind a simple yet thriving business.

This season, we will be talking all about making great content from your website to social media. My guests and I are here to help you create content that attracts and engages your audience episodes drop on alternate Wednesdays. So make sure to subscribe, to catch everyone ready to dive in. Melanie nights as a self-published author, anti-hero marketing mentor and the host of [00:01:00] the podcast, entrepreneurial Outlaws.

She supports creative business owners to build successful and fulfilling soul aligned inclusive businesses. Melanie describes her work as being the entrepreneurial intersection of strategy, spirituality, and self inquiry. She advocates for building a business that serves your lifestyle on your terms, inspiring you to rewrite the usual marketing roles rather than fit yourself into a book.

Ever inspired by her deep love for storytelling found in country Americana and folk music. Melanie continues to pave new and exciting paths for her business whilst challenging the status quo of modern entrepreneurship. So today we have Melanie Knights, a fellow country music lover, and a expert in, uh, in making business more ethical and more aligned.

Okay. She specializes in this thing that she calls content alchemy, and I'm so excited to bring her on and have her tell us about this today. Hello. [00:02:00]

Melanie Knights: Hi, thank you for having me probably to sit down and chat with you

Ellie: too. I've been following you for awhile. I've been in your newsletter for quite a while. I have your outlawed journal here, sitting on my.

So it's yeah, it's very, very cool. It's just a total dream to put a physical product of your genius out into the world. It's so cool that you did that.

Melanie Knights: Thank you. I agree as well, having there's a big difference between a PDF or a download and actually having that physical thing and seeing it shipped out to people.

Really cool. So are you ready for the rapid round?

Ellie: Sure. All right. So tell me where you're.

Melanie Knights: I am from the UK. Um, you wanna know specifically, I live just outside of a city called Northridge. Um, my accent is very wonky. Most people think I'm Australian American people think I sound English. It's very confusing, but I am from this country.

Ellie: Yeah. I [00:03:00] think, I think that's an interesting point because I think we have listeners kind of all over the place. And, and I think that because I'm an ex-pat, I also also have quite a few followers that have lived in several places and, um, yeah, accents are a whole thing aren't they? Definitely. So what are your preferred pronouns?

Melanie Knights: She,

Ellie: and so tell me how you started your business.

Melanie Knights: How I started my business. So my business, I guess I took it. I started taking it seriously towards the end of 2015. I actually was doing something very differently to what I do now. I had a weight loss journey and I did not enjoy working in the corporate world.

I had wanted to run my own business. That always seemed like this really. It seemed like a thing that would really fit my personality and. The way I wanted to, to kind of live. Um, but I didn't know what I wanted to do. I had no idea [00:04:00] what to do. I didn't really even know what I was particularly good at. And when I hired a trainer, I really became interested in nutrition and the idea of why we eat the way we eat and why, you know, our bodies do the things they do and the choices we make.

And that was really interesting to me. So I got certified as a personal. And over that period of time, I realized that this would be quite great way to leave the corporate world and start my own business. And towards the end of 2015, I'd had my son a year previously. I went back to work and it was miserable.

So decided to hire a business coach. And my business initially started out in the health and fitness space. At the time considered myself to be a fat loss coach. I feel like there's so many stories that could go without one, but over time I realized that it was something I wanted to do at the time. I did not enjoy it towards about two [00:05:00] or three years in.

I just, it, it was harder than I had expected it to be, which I think is funny. Cause it's always harder than. He may be expected to be when you first start business. But there was so many things that I struggled with in the online space and struggled with, as a personal trainer in the online space. I didn't want to be like everybody else.

And I was in such a bubble and an echo chamber. And so my business kind of shifted and evolved probably three or four times over about two and a half years. I just wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I felt like there was so many things I was interested in and I'm now, you know, I feel like I've really settled into this place where it's okay.

Being a multi-passionate. But yeah, I really that health and fitness stuff, like there's still parts of me. I still have that knowledge, but I'm just not interested in like putting together workouts and things like that anymore. And I felt really guilty for a long time, but it's just a part of my story.

Yeah.

Ellie: I love that. I love that you like. [00:06:00] Can honor the fact that it was a part of your journey, but that you, and that you have that knowledge for yourself, for your friends and family or whatever, but that you're not like having to do that as a career anymore, if that's not where you're at. And so tell me a little bit about your, the current iteration of your business.

Melanie Knights: Yeah. So I would describe myself. A multi-passionate creative entrepreneur, which is a bit of a mouthful, but I felt like that's something that I really discovered in the last two, two and a half years, and also became comfortable with there's a lot of oneness in business, in online business, and that works.

So some people never worked for me. And I didn't know why I'm somebody who needs to be kind of creatively challenged. If I can have multiple projects working at once, it's wonderful for me. I need to be able to switch between things. I can't be. I can get tunnel vision to like finish something, but I need to have multiple things we working on.

So I have [00:07:00] two arms to my business. Now I have kind of my self-titled my Melanie nights, part of my business, which I think we're probably gonna focus on today, which is where you'd find. Um, I ran an agency last year called content alchemy markets. And that was where my kind of content methods came from. I put a pin in my agency earlier this year to spend more time focused on creative pursuits.

I published the outlet journal and some other books as well. And I'm working on a content planner and business planner at the moment. And then the other half of my business is my brand called entrepreneurial Outlaws with. Started out as a podcast in 2020 and has kind of evolved into, I feel like it's a movement it's suddenly constantly evolving and it's really the most fun thing I put together in my business.

Um, it's deeply personal to me, but I feel it's, it's reached so many people in different ways, which is really cool. Um, through that I published the Outlaws journal, which kind of is an extension of [00:08:00] the conversations I have on the podcast. And the podcast, we talk about lots of different topics, a lot around how to run ethical businesses, how to run businesses on your own times.

But if we wanted to put it into a niche, it's more about the person than it is about what I talk about. It's for people who want to Zig, when others want you to zag it's people who, the mold breakers, the status quo challenges. It's the people who really want to do things on their own time. And have maybe been burned by business coaching or, you know, manipulate it into making these big investments and just want to do things more ethically and organically and are okay.

Kind of running their business in the slow lane, a lot of slow vibes and really leaning into your own energy.

Ellie: I love that. I love. That's part of why I'm so drawn to you. I'm part of the reasons I've been drawn to following you and, um, are really this whole, like tell it like it is vibe that you have, of course, the love of country music, um, as [00:09:00] well as they, the ethical side and kind of doing it your own way.

Um, I think that that is a narrative that is only recently being kind of talked about at all. And that's part of what this podcast is about, is about doing business with. I think it doesn't have to be this like grind or hustle or any of these things that have been told to us for so long. So tell me what you love about your business, aside from it being, allowing you to be dabbled in lots of things.

Melanie Knights: Yeah. Oh, that's, that's, I'm going to say I love most parts of it, which is actually really interesting. I hadn't thought about this before am, but I do. I love pretty much everything I do. And I think that's before. Intentional and, you know, I created it that way. It also has been six years in the making and there were parts of my business.

I used to really hate. You know, there's always going to be times when I feel anxious or I maybe, you [00:10:00] know, panic about something. I think that's a very natural part of running your own business. It's not always easy, but I've spent the last six to nine months being very intentional about where I put my time, where I put my energy and how I want to grow from that, because I kind of just made a decision that if I love something and I'm really excited about it and really passionate about it, my people are going to also be excited and passionate about it and people interested in it versus doing things because I think that's something I should do or doing it, you know, out of fear of, I need to make more money and I need to do it right now. And what I've found this year is the more I leaned into those parts that I really love about my business being very creative, working with people who really inspire me and having those conversations and facilitating spaces where we can do that. It enables me to continue to be inspired and create and still make an income from my business. And I think that, [00:11:00] you know, the things that really inspire me and the things I really love about what I've created now is that I get to work with people who are so my people and as someone who never felt like they fit today, Before online business and within the online business space, that's really important to me.

And it's important that people who come to me when they see my content, read my emails, buy something, work with me, whatever it might be. I want everyone to kind of, I want people to feel like the hub, the scene, and that they know this is a place where they can be themselves. I don't know if I answered your question.

Yeah, essentially right now, I love most parts of my business. There are tasks, which I'm like, yeah, well, you know, admin things,

Ellie: we all have them all have them.

Melanie Knights: We all have them. But yeah, I think the important thing is just that it's not always easy, but if we can create parts of our business that we really love, I think is a lot easier to run the business kind of effectively as well.

Ellie: Yeah. And then the next thing is. Something, you and I [00:12:00] have talked about a bit already, but I really am making an effort to kind of debunk this idea that solopreneurs do everything themselves. And that's a narrative we hear all the time, or like we don't necessarily see unsaid, I guess. Um, and so it's this thing where I want to talk about what help you have in your business, whether that be contractors, whether that be in my case, sometimes it's therapy.

Um, whether that be. The way that your household runs or your partnerships, or sometimes in my case, it's I have a cleaner who comes by to help me do things. It's these things that mean that I have the space that we have the space to, to run our business in the way that sometimes people don't see.

Melanie Knights: Yeah. I guess I'll start with like my business stuff.

I have a podcast manager from the very beginning. I decided I wanted to stop hold cost last year when I was incredibly busy. And I was like, yeah, of course it seems like a great. But at the same time, I knew that if I was in charge of doing [00:13:00] annotating and any of that stuff, it was just going to completely overwhelming, but also was not my strength.

It was not something that I would become obsessive. And I was like, this is not healthy for me. I should outsource this. And so I knew from the very beginning, I needed to find somebody. So I had a podcast manager from the very beginning. We work together on kind of themes. And she kind of helps me to formulate my ideas because we're always great helping other people, but sometimes I need that support as well.

So she does like, she's responsible for all the editing. She essentially writes the content for the episode specific pieces and I create all the graphics and then do like thrills and everything else in between. And then I have someone who helps me move my website. Those little things like plugins and stuff like that, but just little things that need to be kind of constantly taking care of.

So I have someone who takes care of those pieces. So I don't really have to think about it and make sure that my website is safe and [00:14:00] secure and those kinds of things. So that's, that was a really great investment. And I really love having her do that. And then in times of like outside of my business, Oh, well, actually, no, I do.

I do have a coach. She's not business coach. Um, she is an empowerment, courage, and she I've been working with her on and off for two and a half years, I guess. And we chat once a month now. And it's just really a time for me to talk about what, what, what, what I'm experiencing in my business. Things I'm working on, maybe things I feel stuck or.

And the most wonderful thing about working with her is the, she doesn't give me a laundry list of things to do. She kind of helps me get to where I need to go on my own. And we check in, in between like through box certain things as well, but that is something that I just wouldn't be able to do my business without.

I wouldn't able to do my business without her. Um, and then outside my business, I do have someone who comes and cleans my house once a week. And that [00:15:00] has been, that was something I, I wanted to hire somebody to do that. And working from home. And I guess, you know, you probably feel the same way and I'm so many other listeners probably do as well.

It can be really distracting. You go downstairs or go out of your office to like, make a drink and like, oh, I'll just do this. I'll just do. And that can be very distracting. And I always think if I left, if I left my home to go to an office and work, I wouldn't have those distractions. So being able to have somebody come into my home and kind of keep it clean and presentable throughout the year for a week is really, really helpful for me because it helps me to say focused.

And I don't have to think about those. I don't really have any childcare. I do have help from my parents, but that's, you know, I don't have childcare or anything like that currently, I would say, no, not that I'm not available for open to that, but right now he's in school. So I tend to try and work between his school hours.

And then, um, I am mostly very fortunate. My husband works for himself. [00:16:00] And he worked shorter hours. So it is a lot easier because he tends to what he, the half days, um, when he's quiet or he'll work just till like 3:00 PM. So I do get some time in the afternoon. So it's. If it's perfect, like streamlined machine, but it works for me.

And I did have a big a team last year, but as my business kind of slowed down and I took some time to step back, I didn't need as much help. And that was really hard. But at the same time, I knew that it was the right thing to do. And. I think it's really interesting that you ask these questions. And I think it's really interesting to see how people get help in that business, because there's so much of this kind of push to hire people.

And I think you can get help in so many different ways. And as you say, it doesn't always have to be a contractor like, or VA it can be so many different roles.

Ellie: Yeah, definitely. I think that it's been really good to hear the kind of various parts of your business and life that you have helped with that make your business possible.

Um, and I [00:17:00] just want to say like on the cleaner side, cause I always feel like I have friends that are looking at. Okay. I know, especially in Northern Ireland, which is a fairly low cost of living and therefore services and things, and are pretty affordable and even paying her a great wage. I spend less on my cleaner a month than some of my friends do on nights out pre pandemic.

Like,

Melanie Knights: yeah, I think that's the thing. Isn't it. It's. Having a clean, having someone come in and clean my home, it definitely made me uncomfortable to like, say that out loud. I definitely had some stuff there around like, what do people think of me? People think you're home. You should have to do it. It's like, yeah, I could, but I'm running a business as well.

And when I, you know, when my kid comes to him, I want to be able to spend time with them. Not be like running around with a Hoover and stuff like that. So

Ellie: definitely I think I still have a little bit of a thing about it, but I'm working on it. Okay. So on the other end of like how you run your [00:18:00] business with these is tools and systems.

What types of those do you have in your business?

Melanie Knights: It's a really interesting question. I think it's funny. Cause I think I take so many of them almost for granted now, but, um, tools and things like that. I keep it pretty simple. Again, I think part of this process for me has been simplifying a lot of what I do and how I do things.

So I use, I use click up in my business and everything that I need is kind of in there. It was really overwhelming at first, but we've kind of, again, simplified. And we use that a lot for podcast workflows. That's kind of the main place where everything is kind of creates. And again, my podcast manager created with the workflows, um, so that I know what I have to do, because if it's not there, I will forget.

And we kind of use that workflow and we have everything is really clear and we can work really well together when there's. And then [00:19:00] everything else is kind of my own systems within Google drive. I mean, my entire life is in Google drive. Um, but really it's organized very, maybe too organized. It's pretty one of those things where it's like, it makes sense to me, but nobody else would have any idea where anything is, but I really use that system to keep everything kind of organized nowhere.

Everything is. And create my content and pieces through that. I do pay for some tools and systems, you know, like, um, I paid for my email provider. So I use flow to ask. I find that that really works for my creative side. And then I also pay for my social media scheduling as well. I use that. I feel like I'm trying to think.

I'm like, surely there must be more things like. But I'm also a pen and paper person. So a lot of, again, this is not great for my team, but a lot of my stuff goes into my planet. Cause I recently created a planet. So I have using that right now and a lot of my [00:20:00] content ideas and I try to put everything in that so I can come back to it and like, oh, this was a great idea.

This sucks. Why would you do this? And kind of filter it through. And then once I decide on something, it will go into click up. So I do then transfer it in there as like either a podcast idea. Um, or put it into a Google doc if I'm going to be writing an email about or something like that.

Ellie: Yeah. So I love that.

So you use click up, which is, like you said, it can be kind of intense. It's a really robust tool can do a lot of things. And then you use, it sounds like, so float, ask you just what social media school tool do you use?

Melanie Knights: Yeah, I just started using plan it's P a L double N. Um, yeah, it's a fairly new I use, I looked at them briefly last year and for whatever reason, I didn't go with them.

I'd been using later all of us, Jeff, my agency as well, but because I put a pause in my agency work, I was like, I'm paying a lot of money for [00:21:00] something I'm not really sure. And so I think it's really reasonably priced and you get everything you could possibly need to do. You can schedule stories and reels and everything.

I'm not sponsored by them. I'm just very lucky. Like there is a catch here. Right? I don't, I haven't found it yet. It's very impressive anyway enough about that, but yeah, I use that

Ellie: very, very good. All right. So let's get to what we're actually here to talk about today, which we've kind of touched on in some ways with your agency work and your content planning and what you kind of do in your business.

And have done in previous iterations of your business, but you have created this thing called it content alchemy. Tell us a little bit more about that.

Melanie Knights: Yeah. Yeah. So, um, content alchemy really came, it was kind of born in 2020 and the way it kind of came together. I had been teaching prior to 2020, I had been teaching through a membership.

I've been teaching people how to [00:22:00] plan content and batch content. That was kind of my, my thing, batching. I was known for that. And that was all great. And then 2020 happened and I didn't do a whole lot of planning and I didn't definitely didn't do any batching because the world has changed every five minutes and it felt kind of.

And I started working with clients, um, and I was doing that content for them. And I actually started out mostly repurposing. That was really the mission for my business mission for my agency was that we were going to repurpose content. And as I was working with some really creative people, so artists and designers, I found that things I'd been teaching in my business for like two, two and a half years prior did not work.

And this was really interesting at first I was like, this is really frustrating. And I was trying to like fit it altogether because I was trying to essentially take their business and put it into this, this formula I had created. And it just wouldn't [00:23:00] work because, you know, artists and designers like crisis generally just function a very different way.

They tend to not be as strategic. And need to kind of have somebody, which was the role I played, like, okay, let's take a look, all these ideas and then decide which one you're going to focus on right now. And so I still wanted to be able to help them with that content, but I needed to kind of shift the way I was trying to help them.

And so I kind of shifted away from this very rigid, like putting your business into these four kind of pillars, essentially because it didn't work. And I started to look at ways in which we could focus more on who they work, because this was something I had done very naturally in my own content. Earlier on in 2020, I started talking a lot more about the things that really bothered me in the online space and my audience, very much wanting to hear this.

And that was kind of the star of both entrepreneur Outlaws and [00:24:00] content hub. And so over time, as I started to work with clients, I realized that we were kind of creating this amazing, like combination of the strategic stuff with like that spirituality, like who they were and their values. And we really pull these things together.

And the what outcome me is it means like, Hey, um, somewhat magical transformational combination. So I was like, I really love that word. And that word kept kind of appearing in different places in throughout the year. And it was like, There's something about this. And one of the reasons I went down this route is because a lot of my clients had said to me that most people who teach content marketing or social media marketing, talk about how to fit into the algorithm, how to fit into the platform.

So like you're going to do these things and you're going to show up this amount of time per week and follow this checklist and you're going to fit in. And that just, isn't how I approach business. And isn't how I approach content. And it was [00:25:00] more about who the person is and connecting through storytelling.

So content alchemy method is made up of these three, these three kinds of potions, if you will. Um, the first is your story. So this is a law about why you're here, why you do what you do, why you do this thing and not something else. Um, it's a lot about that connective piece, because your story is what connects you to your people.

Um, especially. If you are focusing on, you know, either a creative or you're focusing on the story behind your work fast is just, you know, quick results and things like that, which is typically who I don't want with those kinds of people. I typically work with people who I am paths and highly sensitive folks and people who are really, you know, there's a lot of emotion and feeling within that business.

And the second part is your values. So this is very much what you stand for, what you're against. Keeping those things front and center I think is more important than ever. [00:26:00] Um, I think we learn a lot in 2020 about big names in business who would not necessarily be telling the truth or had actually been misleading and misrepresenting the things that they may be believed in or just, you know, it never came up.

And then all of a sudden there was these things brought to the forefront and we realized that people who had been paying money to, or investing in, in learning from were not as ethical as we think. And so I really believe that our values need to be front and center as content creators and as businesses.

And the third is your office. And this is actually a very small part of this story, because I believe if we lead with our stories and our values and we connect with our audience, then people will make that decision because it's not our risk. We can't decide for other people if they want to work with us or not.

And I think that's such an, again, another misleading part of the online space and marketing is the. Decide now we can manipulate people, but if that's not how we want to run our business, [00:27:00] then we have to think about other ways of marketing and storytelling. And this is kind of the way in which I teach this content.

Alchemy method is your story is the most important. It's the biggest part of that potion, your values come second. And then your offers of that. And you know, if you put these things into the way you write your. Content and create content. I believe that it will be slower. It will not be a sexy, but you will sleep at night.

I think that's really important because there is a fine line between confidence and believing in what you do and BS, because. I think people there's a lot of talk. There's a lot of MIS misrepresentation online about results and numbers. And again, one of those things that we've seen a lot of in the last year kind of come up is a lot of social proof and testimonials that completely out of context.

And we see them and they look [00:28:00] amazing. And so just being really curious, With yourself and looking at it and saying, okay, actually as this, the full story. So when I create my content and work with clients, it's much more about, okay, let's be as honest as we can. And, you know, we don't have to barrel, but if you lead with that, if you are really relatable yeah.

Relatable and reliable with your audience. That builds trust and that's really important and something

Ellie: I've been, I don't, I don't think it was you, but it was somebody else that I follow that has a lot of the same values and something I've been working on is changing my idea of my audience, which we all, if you're in an online world, you sort of have to my community and you treat a community quite differently than you might an audience.

So at some thing that I'm working on rewiring in my head, and yet you interact and engage quite differently with the community than you would an [00:29:00] audience. Contribution back from a community you don't necessarily with an audience, right? It's not always like back and forth. Yeah.

Melanie Knights: I mean, that's really interesting actually, because as you said that what I thought was an audience feels like you're speaking at people, it feels like you're on stage.

You are. And I know, again, things that we hear and, you know, be an expert, being an authority in your industry, those things are essentially okay. But it can go too far. And I think that. Again, there's a fine line between being an authority and completely alienating your audience. And I'm a big believer in creating content and running a business.

And, and this has be possibly, it doesn't mean that it has to be everybody, but for me, I want people to know that I'm yeah, I may know some stuff, but I'm still struggling. And I still, there's still times when I sit looking at a Google doc, like, I don't know what's right. I can't think of anything today.

Well, this week, or this week, It's still those times. There's still times when I might question my own content. I think [00:30:00] that's just being human. But as you say, having a community, you're a part of that. You might facilitate a space where the community is that you're a part of it. You're part of the conversation.

Having an audience, you are talking at them, you know, it just, I'm kind of visualizing you're onstage and you're like talking at them. You know, the audience don't tend to participate. If you go to the theater. But if you go to like a book club, everyone participates, and that's kind of the difference between the two you buy this, you know, I think that's really important.

And I try to avoid saying my audience as well. Cause it feels like it's like, you're my audience and they're my numbers. They're my people. They're my people.

Ellie: And I think that that is it. It's taken me. I've been playing with this idea in my head for a couple of months and it's taking, it takes quite a long time because of how often you hear the phrase, audience and business, how often you hear engagement over contribution.

Like it's, it's, it's definitely taking a while. So that is really, [00:31:00] really important. Like, I, I love that you are telling people to leave with their stories leading with their values, um, which is an incredibly important you're right. More than ever. People want to know that you care. It's one of the things that on my websites and in my website templates, I encourage everybody to have a values are integrity statement because it matters.

It matters what you're about. And then obviously having the things that you offer that are. In line with those things, it's in line with your stories, it's in line with your values and it's in line with what your community needs from you. That's within what feels good for you. Yeah. So, can you tell us about a couple of tools that people can use if they're working to create some content that's in line and alignment with their values and their stories?

Melanie Knights: Yeah. One of the tools that we all have and it's free, but it's really under, I would say it's undervalued. It's underrated. It's underused is our ability to listen, [00:32:00] our ability to listen in various different ways. Um, I think the most important way is listening to our people, our community, knowing that when we put a piece of content out into the world.

So whether that is a podcast episode, an email newsletter, whether it's, you know, you're pinning or you're writing Instagram, captions, whatever is you're doing content wise, your audience tell you things that they're either telling you that they really love the content, or they're telling you that it's not necessarily.

What they want need right now. Now there are things that impact that yes, there are algorithms, multiple algorithms, but we can't control the algorithm just by what everyone wants us to believe. We cannot hack or beat the algorithm. It's just impossible. The algorithm changes constantly and there's multiples of them working together.

So that's pretty much impossible. So anybody who's marketing telling you to beat the algorithm, it's just no [00:33:00] run. But again, this kind of comes back to the content alchemy method. One of the things that we can do is listen to what our audience are telling us. So when we put out content, obviously we can look at open rates.

We can look at click rates, we can look at engagement rates and those things do matter. Those things are important. Data gives us factual information. And that can be important to track and monitor, but it's important to not take it personally because it doesn't really tell us anything about ourselves or our self-worth.

And as I said, that can be things that impact it, that have nothing to do with what we wrote or, you know, the image that we used or any of those things. But it can be really important to, you know, test and a big fan of testing things out and online business and seeing what works for you as a business owner, and also what really attracts your audience.

So listening to your audience or your people and your community and listening to your data is really important, but you also need to listen to yourself. And this is [00:34:00] the way in which we can decide. Should I post this piece of content this week? Um, what should I say? You know, in the last year we've had a lot of really impactful and really upsetting things that happened in the world, you know, globally.

And these things have, maybe stopped us in our tracks and caused us to. Can I feel really numb and a bit stuck with maybe we were about to launch something and we're like, should I still launch there? Should I still sell? Should I still create content? And those are really valid questions. And I think really important.

And I think anyone who again, is leading that business with kind of empathy and humility is going to stop and ask those questions. There's nothing wrong with it, but the way in which we can make those decisions is by listening and seeing. No, what other people are doing, but what our audience needs. And I took a law about [00:35:00] needs.

I feel like it's the thing that underpins everything in both of my businesses, because knowing what we need is hugely important to understanding our strategy and direction we're going in our business, understanding while audience needs. And I'm not talking about those typical, like ideal client worksheets, but understanding what they need in that moment.

Okay. It doesn't have to be as complicated as it seems. You know, it's just a case of thinking, what do I need? If my people are like me, there's a good chance. We want the same things and we need the same things. And so I saw that a lot in 2020, we saw a lot of small businesses who really were doing good things winning because people were fed up.

People continue to be fed up and yes, there are some elements where we've gone back to normal. I think there's a lot to be said for the small folks, small businesses, really building momentum last year, because people were tired of the same old [00:36:00] stuff. We've seen it still this year. You know, when things have been really difficult, when we see billionaires going to space, that's really frustrating because we're like, yeah, you have this product.

That's incredible. And you've created this place where we can get whatever we want next. But there's going to be people who actually, you know what, I'm going to go find a business that creates the same thing, but I'm going to pay them directly. And those are decisions we make as consumers, that decisions we make as business owners.

We need to think about that when our marketing, so listening is just profoundly important as content creators and business owners. And I think it's really. Really underrated, um, as a tool and when we can use that, we can create content that really impacts, um, and really makes that kind of longtime impact with people as well.

Ellie: Yeah, definitely. I love what you said there. And I think so listening to your community, listening to your people and listening to yourself, a word that you use quite a lot in your business around. Leaning into your intuition, right. You [00:37:00] leaning into yourself, knowledge, trust, and listening to what deep down you know is right.

And right for you, right. For your people. Yeah. Which is really, really cool. All right. Well, thank you so much for all of that. Um, I kind of want to turn back a little and talk more about your business. So I want to hear a little bit about what you think has been your biggest learning experience and running a business.

Melanie Knights: Gosh, I feel like there's so many, but I guess I would say the biggest learning experience, um, has come in the last couple of years after I left what I call the business coaching echo chamber. I think the biggest experience was realizing that there are so many different ways to run a business. There are ways in which you can.

How about there's many, many different types of business models, there's weight, different strategies and tactics, and so many different [00:38:00] options. And that it's really important for us to have a choice in how we decide to do that. Because within the echo chamber, often there is like one choice, one person who was supposed to kind of put on a pedestal and the cops.

And, you know, they bring in their friends who you, you know, the same kind of thing happens. And as we've seen this a lot yeah. But kind of stepping outside of that, realizing that there's choice people do think, I mean, I, I remember that first year after not having a business coach and I was like, look, all these different ways.

You can do things. And that was really, really exciting for me because it was the star of this Jainy, which ended up with me kind of creating this, these businesses. Because for the longest time I was kind of trapped in this one way of doing things. One way of learning, everything was very, was very unethical and I hated it, but I didn't know anything else.

And [00:39:00] so I'm a big advocate for us giving our people choice. And so I never had. But you, my email newsletters, I never have one call to action anymore. I always want to have multiple things that people can do or the ways in which people can learn from me, because I know that my people are more than capable of making a decision for themselves.

Again, it's not always sexy and it's slower, but it feels good for me. But knowing that you can do things on your own times and that you can choose and change your mind. We just don't talk about changing your mind or being realistic enough in online business. And so I think for me, the biggest learning experiences have been a lot.

Trusting myself, trusting my intuition, realizing that actually I knew more than I realized I knew more than I gave myself credit for. I knew more than the online business coaches wanted me to realize or believe, and I believe that's still to be true. Like there's a lot of businesses out there who want us to [00:40:00] talk about know like, and trust, but they do that by kind of taking away the know like, and trust you have with yourself.

They tried to remove that relationship with yourself. And present you with these things that you're not supposed to question. And so, yeah, if we can step away from that and really know, like, and trust ourselves, that is a great way to run a business because we can get to know our people and do things when we're in times.

Ellie: Definitely I have had experiences with some of those same issues that you had, but I've also had really positive experiences with this is with my business coach. Who's never like forced me into anything. Um, but it's more like similar to your, um, empowerment coach where she very much has guided me to the places that help essentially get led me to my own intuition for solving problems.

Okay. So are you working on anything exciting right now?

Melanie Knights: Yes. At the moment, I feel like I'm lacking again, [00:41:00] multi-passionate working on lots of things. So I have been over the summer working on a planner, it started off as a workshop. And then I was like, I wanted to create plan a for years. So I decided to kind of combine the two.

And so over time I was creating these pages to go into a physical planner, um, that you would be able to actually hold in your hands and use that to kind of form a workshop that I hosted in early September. And the feedback has been really interesting. So I feel like I'm cool. So many more ideas, but I'm working on finalizing the manuscript for that planner and it will be released in November ready for the winter season.

And so it's a seasonal planner that people can plan out their business per season and really lean into those energy cycles. Um, there's a big focus on the lunar cycle. This. But the big pieces of feedback I got. So I'm [00:42:00] like, okay, this is really interesting. People really want to know more about the Luna psycho, and this is something I've been doing in my business, but I guess now I've got these kinds of opportunities to use it in relation to creating content.

And so I think this is going to be the next step in my business is looking at how we create content and plan our content in alignment with the lunacy. Because we have these kinds of types of energy throughout the month that we can lean into. And yeah, after that, I don't know what's next, but right now that's what I'm working on.

Ellie: By the time this episode goes live, you should be able to buy that planner.

Melanie Knights: Yes, you should. Yes, it should be available. I'm saying should know it will be available. Um, but I know I'm like, and it could be a little bit different to what I'm thinking. It's going to look like right now, but no, the planner will be available in November.

So when this goes, live

Ellie: citing stuff, And then you're also working on a resource library, correct?

Melanie Knights: Yes. So the resource library is actually now live, but the idea, again, [00:43:00] coming back to giving people choice, that was one of the reasons why I wanted to put together a resource library over the years, I have created so many free lead magnets options, whatever we're calling them, but I had created lots of free content over the years, and I was exhausted of having like multiple funnels because it was just ridiculous.

So I took everything kind of spruced all up and put it into one resource library called the antihero marketing resource library, and this will continue to grow. So you can, um, go in and find different PDFs, different documents that are currently available. And then what I'll do is I will add things as you know, my business.

And update everyone to say, Hey, there's a new thing inside the library again, because I think it's really important to give people choice. And it's like, some people might want Instagram alchemy and somebody else might want some journaling prompts. And all of these things relate to my business, but I want it to be able to [00:44:00] give people choice as to what they need right now.

Like take what you need. He used that and, you know, get results here. That's amazing.

Ellie: Okay. And where can people find you

Melanie Knights: the best place to find me is on Instagram, the time of recording this, I have been focusing on at my podcasting Instagram account, but I do have two accounts. I have entrepreneurial underscore Outlaws, which is where you'll find all of our podcasts, content and information in relation to the episodes and what we're working on.

And then I also have, I guess my more personal it's public, but it's a personal account, which is Melanie underscore nights 87. That is where you'll find a lot more of the focus on content alchemy and the lunar cycle, and really how to create and plan your content around the cycle. I'm also on Pinterest and Tik TOK.

Um, these aren't really places that I necessarily have a community. But they all places where my business is and the tick-tock [00:45:00] thing is like, I'm playing around with that idea where the moment

Ellie: it's always fun to have a play. Yes. All right. Well, thank you so much for joining us and sharing your wisdom around creating content in a way that feels really good for us and for our community.

Melanie Knights: Thank you for having me.

Ellie: thank you for listening to the capable collective podcast. I really hope you enjoy this episode and if gotten value from it, if you did, please subscribe on your chosen listening classes. And if you happen to be listening over on apple podcasts, please take a moment to leave a review. It helps other people to find and trust this podcast.

And it would mean the world to me, this episode was edited by Emily Crosby media. She's amazing to work with. And if you are looking to start a podcast or for some practical media [00:46:00] solutions, definitely check her out. Thank you so much. Again, have a great day.