Episode 176. The Content Bank: The Content Strategy to Add Structure in Your Business and Build Thought Leadership

Let’s talk about a tool that I often like to use in my business, especially in seasons where I feel like I need a bit more structure in my business, content, and marketing… which is, the content bank.

Here’s how this episode will go:

First, we’ll unpack what a content bank is.
Next, we’ll discuss what a content bank looks like.
After that, we will talk about what to include in your content bank.
Finally, we will discuss how to use a content bank.

Let’s dive into what is a content bank?

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How to create more structure in your business, content, and marketing

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What is a content bank?

Here’s how I like to define a content bank. At its core, a content bank is simply a list of content ideas you want to REMEMBER to create.

Sounds simple and too basic, right?

Let me explain why this tool has been transformative for me and my clients.

Here’s what’s happening for a lot of solopreneurs and creators:

First, so many of you are feeling like their business and workflows are lacking structure. For example, you may have an idea about something, but you don’t seem to be able to find time to sit down and write. When you do get to sit down, your mind goes blank and whatever was in your brain earlier disappeared. Or you write a few sentences and that seems to be all you have.

In the end, you don’t produce a piece of work that is substantial enough to post and share with the world. All of this is due to a lack of structure.

Another thing that often happens is that you’re feeling like your thoughts are superficial and you don’t have anything of substance to put out.

Finally, a lot of you are struggling to build thought leadership. Because frankly, you haven’t created a sufficient number of repeated touch points that allow your audience to associate you with certain concepts, messages, ideas, stories, etc.

Your lack of repetition when it comes to those things that you want to be known for is the reason why people just aren’t thinking of you as THE go-to person for a certain subject matter.

The content bank is meant to fill in those exact gaps.

It is intended to help you create more structure in your business and content workflows. It is designed to help you create content that has depth and substance. And it will help you become known for your thought leadership.

That is why a content bank can be a pivotal tool for you moving forward.

With that, let’s now talk about what a content bank looks like.

What a content bank looks like

For myself, my content bank has two primary components:

1) Categories of the core things I want to be known for and build brand awareness for.

2) Under each of those categories, I will have a number of “mini outlines”.

Rather than just having a list of content ideas under each category, I will actually have the content idea alongside several bullet points.

Let me share some examples to better illustrate what a content bank looks like for me

Back in 2020 and 2021, my content bank looked like a Google Doc with pages and pages of “mini outlines”.

Back then, I categorized my mini outlines based on the following categories:

Authority-Building Content (Shows that you’re an authority) → Anything that shows that you KNOW what you’re talking about. This goes beyond simply sharing educational tips. For example, your opinions and unique perspectives are really powerful ways of demonstrating your authority.
Relationship building content (Shows that you’re relatable and likable) → People also need to like and trust you before they’re convinced to buy from you. That’s why it’s important to share personal examples, experiences, and stories.
Attracting Content (Capture the attention of new eyeballs) → You’ll need to get in front of more humans if you want to scale your impact. This can include motivational quotes, memes, tweets, reels, etc… Anything that immediately grabs attention!
Your Offer (Invite your audience to take the next step) → If you want to have a profitable business, you need to make sales.

Example of authority building content:

Start now. Future you will thank you.

It takes time to see results → Practice now so in 2-3 months, you’ll be way better than today.
It takes time to build your own confidence.
[show past IG stories or work]

What are the costs of NOT taking action? What are you choosing?

Growth and change require you to be uncomfortable.
The impact costs, growth, and income you could have been making → Your excuses today = Disappointment tomorrow.
Evaluate the actions and thoughts you’re doing and thinking, and see if you like your reasons for them.

My content bank evolved over the years.

In 2022 and 2023, I was organizing my content bank in a Google Spreadsheet. In 2022, I categorized my content based on the following categories:

My Story and Values – Your dream client wants to work with a coach that shares the same values as them and/or whose story they can relate to.
My Thought Leadership & Opinions – Your dream client doesn’t want to work with just any coach – they want to work with the BEST of the industry. They want to work with a coach who is a leader in their space.The easiest way to do this is to share your opinions related to your niche AND opinions beyond your niche or beyond the coaching industry.
Leading by example – Your dream client wants to make sure that you’re actually in integrity with what you teach, and they want to see that you’re a product of your own product.
My skills and unique concepts – Your dream client wants to learn cool new things from you. They don’t want something they can get from any other coach in your niche.

An example of a mini outline I wrote, under the category of “My story and values”, is my law school drop out story (2018):

Disappointed my Asian parents; Classmates talked about me.
Felt shame and guilt over the resources and opportunities I had.
But I knew that I can do bigger, better quality work in another path.

Another example is my story of leaving my PhD, moving to Singapore, etc (2022)

Grief over various identity shifts happening at the same time. Felt like I was leaving behind everything that worked and letting go of certain dreams like getting my PhD.
Being with my husband and being able to travel to see family mattered most to me right now.
My body of work and side hustling for 3 years allowed me to now create this dream lifestyle.

An example of a mini outline I had under the category of “My thought leadership and opinions” is my 3 philosophies on making decisions in life and business

Sometimes, creating a life that is truly aligned to you and what you want is NOT what others expect of you. This means you have to stand firm when pursuing what you truly believe in and always take full responsibility for your decisions and actions.
It is okay if people don’t support you in the beginning. Stay committed to your vision and goals.
Ultimately, creating an aligned life, career, and business is a choice you have to make. There’s no right or wrong. Just make a decision and move forward!

Now, in the present day, I’ve shifted back to using a plain and simple Google Doc as the format for my content bank. But one thing that’s slightly different right now, is that my content bank categories are my two signature offers: 1) The Thought Leader Club and 2) COWORK & CHILL with Cheryl.

The reason why my content bank is now not centered around content pillars, is because I feel that my brand has already successfully established its reputation around certain concepts and stories.

In other words, what used to be prioritized on my content bank has successfully been built into my brand and now my audience who has been around for a while, are more or less aware of my stories such as quitting law school and quitting the PhD, and are also familiar with my concepts around thought leadership.

That said, this doesn’t mean I’m completely going to stop repeating these stories and concepts in my content, because there will always be new audience members who discover my work and are not familiar with me and what I do. That’s why I will still continue to reference my older content bank categories and mini outlines even to this day.

But now I have an additional set of categories and mini outlines that I’d like to start building more brand awareness for, which are centered around my two signature offers.

For example,

Thought Leader Club (TLC): Building thought leadership is a journey.

It’s a journey that doesn’t just end in 3 or 4 months. It continues on and on until you fully see yourself as a thought leader. Your journey starts as soon as you commit to it. The sooner you sign up for TLC and commit to this journey, the sooner you put in the reps to build your thought leadership and body of work.
My job isn’t to convince you whether or not you’re a thought leader right now. Because chances are, you’re not! You haven’t built that body of work. Instead, my job as the coach is to help you see that The Thought Leader Club is the BRIDGE to becoming that person you want to be.
You already know that it takes time, effort, and work ethic to create a substantial and deep body of work. That’s why it’s so important to start the journey NOW instead of waiting another four months. And waiting another four months, and then letting another year pass.

COWORK & CHILL with Cheryl (CCC): Stop waiting to finish your coaching certification or working with beta clients for free or perfecting your “irresistible offer” before you start sharing your ideas and building your body of work.

None of these things are going to give you that authority you feel like you need before you can start showing up to share your viewpoints and stories.
The more you wait, the more you’re missing out on tremendous opportunities (including the opportunity to start developing your unique voice, the opportunity to start resonating with your target audience and ideal clients, the opportunity to start teaching and helping others through your content, the opportunity to start building a body of work that’s going to compound week after week, month after month. We want to see your behind-the-scenes and follow your journey of growing into an incredible entrepreneur, coach, and/or thought leader in the industry.)
People don’t want the “perfect” version of you. We don’t want the “authority” version of you. We want REAL. We want the real YOU.

Those are my examples.

Now, let’s have a conversation around what you might want to include in your content bank.

What to include in a content bank

First, decide on the categories of content that are most important to you and what your brand stands for.

Then, start writing the key concepts, ideas, stories, etc, that are important for you to repeat and continue to weave into your content and messaging over and over again.

Finally, for each of those key concepts, ideas, stories, etc, flush it out by adding a few more bullet points to supplement it, and essentially create a “mini outline” for each of them.

Personally, I would strongly recommend the following categories to be included in your content bank:

Your story and values
Your thought leadership and opinions
Showing that you are leading by example
Your skills and unique concepts

Let’s break these down further.

First, your brand story is a

1) Past event or experience that has shaped you into who you are today AND

2) Has either direct or indirect relevance to your business, brand, or ideal clients. Note that your brand story does NOT have to be niche-related. For example, it could be a personal experience that demonstrates your values, which are values that are important for your brand and are the same ones that your ideal clients hold as well.

Some further questions to help you get started: What are the challenges or failures that you’ve overcome? How has each of these events shaped you into who you are today? What are your values? For each, what is a personal experience that showcases how you embody this value? Who are you? What would you say is a core part of your identity? What are internal parts of you that stay constant, no matter what the external circumstances?

Also look at qualitative data from clients or ideal clients for further content ideas to see what parts of you and your story are really speaking to your people. For example, I’ve had clients say to me that “We have a similar background (ex: Asian parent expectations). This confirms my decision to continue talking about my law school quitting and PhD quitting story, and how my Asian parents responded to my decisions and how I continued to navigate this complex relationship at the time.

Second, decide on 3-5 opinions you really, really believe in.

Think about what do you believe in, in the context of your niche or industry in general? What experiences led you to these beliefs and opinions? What do you believe in, outside of the industry in general? What are your opinions about life in general? What experiences led you to these beliefs and opinions? What do you strongly disagree with others on, whether it’s niche-related or outside of your niche or industry? What experiences led you to these beliefs and opinions?

Do also look at what clients have said for further content ideas.

For example, I’ve had clients who have said to me, “I feel like I don’t have very special stories to share” → Content idea: Talk more about how I believe we are all CAPABLE of honing in on our own unique thought leadership.

Third, decide on 3-5 ways you’re currently *being* your dream client’s dream coach (both in terms of the way you think, the decisions you make, and the actions you take).

Some questions to help you get started: How are you currently living the “dream life” that the past version of you never thought was possible? How have you grown so much from just 1-3 years ago? How are you continuing to grow and expand, each and every day/week/month/year? Why are you already an “expert” in the eyes of your dream clients? What have you created or achieved that they desire for themselves? What knowledge or skills do you hold, that they desire for themselves?

Again, look at what your people have said to you for ideas. Example: “I don’t see you “fudging” grand transformations or making anything try to seem bigger than it is. You have a normal number of followers, seem invested in growth over the long term, and are using your podcast to funnel most of your content (which I see as my eventual aim). → Content idea: Showcase more behind-the-scenes of my business and talk about my business model, how I implement what I teach, etc.

Finally, decide on 3-5 tools you designed for your specific ideal clients.

Some questions to help you get started: After working with a number of clients (free or paid), what themes do you notice when it comes to who is the client *being* when they ARE creating results? What are they thinking or not thinking when they ARE creating results? What are they doing or not doing when they ARE creating results?

After working with a number of clients (free or paid), what themes do you notice when it comes to who is the client *being* when they are NOT creating results? What are they thinking or not thinking when they are NOT creating results? What are they doing or not doing when they are NOT creating results?

How can the above themes become a new framework or concept that you teach? How can they inspire new free content you create? How can they inform the next areas you coach your clients on?

And again, look at what clients or your audience have said to you. For example, a client has said to me, “Copying others – definitely does not do me any good. But I don’t think I’m a creative writer or content creator so coming up with creative content is a challenge for me” → Content idea: This is why I teach the skill of thought leadership.

COOL BEANS. Now let’s chat about how to use a content bank.

How to use a content bank

The way I use my content bank is I would literally infuse my mini outlines into my content.

I often reference my content bank for both short form content pieces like a LinkedIn post, and also long form content pieces like a script for a podcast episode.

Sometimes, I like to use a mini outline as the overarching structure for a content piece. Other times, I like to use a mini outline as a supporting point in a content piece.

Let’s unpack what both of these mean.

Let’s take Episode 117 of this podcast for example. Episode 117 is called Building a Body of Work You’re Proud of.

The key sections of this episode are:

1) Being a thought leader is a career

2) Being proud of your body of work = The strategy

3) Tips for building your body of work

This was literally inspired by one of the mini outlines that I created ahead of time, where the main idea I wanted to be known for was “build a body of work you’re proud of”. The bullet points underneath this key idea were:

1) Being a thought leader is a career

2) Being proud of your body of work = The strategy

3) Tips for building your body of work

So, your mini outline could literally become the overarching STRUCTURE of your content piece.

Now, on the other hand, you can also use a mini outline as a supporting point embedded in the content piece, rather than being the structure of the content piece.

For example, on Episode 114 of this podcast, the title of this episode was called Building a Coaching Career You’re Proud of. And the key sections of this episode are:

1) My law school quitting story

2) Building your career as a coach, even as a side hustler, and

3) Being proud is the new business strategy

And guess what? Each of these three sections are actually 3 different mini outlines in my content bank at the time.

This means that Episode 114 is actually comprised of 3x different mini outlines I had already written in my content bank, and what I did while writing this episode script was to look through my content bank and pick the mini outlines that would fit well together for the topic I wanted to talk about, which was “building a coaching career you’re proud of”.

Overall, whenever I am writing content, I make a conscientious effort to reference back to my content bank to see what are the key concepts or stories or messages I can weave into the content piece I’m writing.

And because I am continuously remembering to look at my content bank and purposefully adding in those key ideas I want to repeat and be known for, a content bank has helped me to build thought leadership and become known for that thought leadership overtime as I continue to grow my body of work.

The content bank has also helped me become much speedier at writing content because a lot of the heavy lifting has already been done. I don’t need to rack my brain every time and think of new ideas from scratch.

A lot of the brain work has already been done whenever I add to my content bank and write a mini outline. This is how a content bank has helped me create so much more structure to my business and content workflow.

Finally, the mini outlines have helped me add more depth and substance to my content overall. Because oftentimes, we will just think of a key point and say it without actually explaining the rationale behind that key point.

By doing the work of writing mini outlines, you’re doing the work that most people will avoid or stop at, and ultimately, when you spend the time to think of how to supplement your key point with further sub-bullet points, you’re truly building a body of work that has substance and depth.

And that, my friends, is the essence of a content bank. I hope that you’ll start to incorporate this tool into your business and this episode is the kick you need to start thinking ahead at the bigger picture and start taking action steps to build a body of work that’s centered around what matters to you and what you want to be known for.

A content bank is a fantastic tool to support you in building a body of work that lets you become known for your unique thought leadership, your story, and how amazing you are at what you do, and I cannot wait to see what amazingness you create moving forward.

The Thought Leadership Club (TLC)

One more thing before we wrap up: For those of you who are committed to building thought leadership and growing your body of work centered around your thought leadership, I would love to invite you to join me inside the Thought Leader Club (TLC).

Right now, at this point of your business and career journey, you are well aware that you are meant for something bigger than what you’re currently doing. In order to do that, you know you’re going to need to start building a body of work that encapsulates your thought leadership. And guess what? The Thought Leader Club (TLC) is meant to help you with exactly that.

In TLC, we will create a thought leadership strategy to help you step into this new identity both online and offline. In 3 months, you will take concrete steps to become known for your unique thought leadership, create a 1-3 year plan centered around your thought leadership, and also embody this mindset and lifestyle outside of your business.

Maybe your 1-3 year dreams are to attract really cool speaking opportunities. Or you want to set yourself up for a successful book launch. Or you really want to grow your coaching or service-based business to hit certain revenue goals. Or maybe you want to grow an award-winning podcast. Or facilitate workshops for organizations you care about. Or climb the corporate ladder. Or something else!

Whatever it is you want to build in the long term, the Thought Leader Club will help you build thought leadership and a body of work to set you up for these dreams.

NOW is the time to start putting in the reps to build thought leadership, to start building a consistent and prolific body of work that lets you become known for your unique thought leadership, your story, and how amazing you are at what you do, and ultimately to start setting yourself up for making your 1-3 year dreams a reality.

If this is work you’re committed to doing, I want you to consider joining TLC. This is the work we do here.

For all the information on the TLC program, you can go to www.cheryltheory.com/tlc to read all about the program and check out the curriculum.

When you’re ready, your next step is to book a discovery call to chat about you joining us inside the Thought Leader Club. You can book a discovery call at www.cheryltheory.com/discovery

Sounds good? Awesome. Let’s get to work.