How the Heck Does a Busy Founder Find the Time

Welcome to the Lazy CEO podcast, I'm Jane Lu. I escape the corporate grant at 24 and started my own business, show pro, a global nine figures online fashion brand. And now I want to share my learnings here with you every Tuesday. The drama conversations with the entrepreneurs, behind the iconic brands we all know and love. Between interview weeks, you'll find me talking about hot topics that fascinates me in the world of business and personal development, alternating with help my small business episodes where I deep dive into a small business every month to help them grow. And why the lazy CEO you ask? Well, give a lazy personal problem, they'll find a simple way to solve it. Hey, buddy fam, welcome back to part five of our How to Build a Personal Brand series. Today, we're going to talk about where and when you need to show up to make an impact to build your personal brand. And when the heck are you going to actually fit all this in on top of your busy schedule as an entrepreneur? So in case you miss part one to four, I'm not going to go too much into it. They're all super important about the why, who, how, what to building a personal brand, like how to craft what your personal brand is and how you build your credibility and what you need to do to build that brand. So if you missed it, go back and let's do it because it's so free and good if I can say so myself. Self-num, humble brag. Okay, let's go. There is a marketing principle called a seven 11 rule. And basically it was something that was popularized by Google's research on trust building and buying behavior. And it basically shows you what it takes for someone to trust you enough to follow you, to buy from you and to believe in your personal brand. Let's talk about what this means and how this applies for you. So seven in terms of seven is seven hours. That's roughly how long people need of exposure to feel like they know you. So seven hours. And so that's not a single binge session. It happens across platforms and time. So think about long form content like that podcast, like do you so appearing on someone else's podcast, you don't have to say your own. They are a lot of work. Trust me. YouTube, speaking events or even just longer storytelling on Instagram or LinkedIn posts, like a longer form LinkedIn posts. 11 is a number of touch points that you need that for people to interact with you or your brand to feel connected. 11 distinct touch points. So for example, a real podcast, article, PR mentioned like a comment reply at DM and in person moment or newsletter. So you know what scares me? I know it's 11 already sounds scary, but let me tell you when I first started show pro, I have been to like conferences and seminars and blah, blah. They used to talk about seven being the touch point. So it's growing because there's so many more platforms and there's so much more noise. So I'm just like scared of where this will be in five years jumping on this bandwagon now while it's still 11 because you imagine 20 touch points. Yikes. And then four is the number of locations. So people need to encounter you in four different places because appearing multiple contexts, create credibility and familiarity for most entrepreneurs. And this is more like where your own content will sit. So for most entrepreneurs, I think this will be Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn. And then you know, for the fourth and mix of the PR moments like podcast speaking events and PR articles. So just having regular occurrences of those, but not like a mix and the regular occurrence. So now what you all thinking? How the hell can a busy entrepreneur who's already knees deep in tasks, juggling a million balls at once, fit all this in? Well, let's talk about building a realistic system. So first, you need to turn your existing life into content. Sorry, you're already doing interesting stuff. Like the meetings you're going to, the ideas that you're having behind the scenes, the wins, the fails. So you don't need to get new activities. Like I remember back when I was sitting at the level one of content creation. So I told about this in yesterday's episode, part four, where you're just posting updates. I remember I used to sometimes not know what to post. I'll go to a launch and be like, oh, I like to take a nice photo. Like you don't need to do that. And also that's pretty shitty content. Sorry, if you do go to a conference, you can talk about what you've learned. So this could be a video speaking to camera, a LinkedIn post or an Instagram carousel. If there's multiple speakers, you can talk about what different speakers have spoken about. You can cut this up so many ways. Maybe you met someone interesting at the conference and then the founder. You can turn that into a content, talk about your unique thought and your perspective. Also you can film different moments and then put a voice over on top or use it for a day in the life. Also if you've had a bad day, now this might be the last thing you want to do. Pick up the camera, share what's happened and an art your audience for their advice because that is great engagement bait. And then you can also reply to their comments. And that's more content. And you also give people update on how this unfolds and then you've created a little mini series. And then number two is something, you know, and we've all heard it before by I need to talk about batch creating your tasks. Now this is really important and this should be actually the fun part. So at the start of every week, what I do is I actually go through my calendar and I find moments where I'm idle, but I've got my eyeballs and one at least my thumb free. So where could be multitasking for this? So maybe might be a nail appointment or you've got like 20 minutes of travel time in an Uber. But when you tally it up, you got at least an hour a week of idle time to be tacking this onto your existing schedule. Well, I'm actually really, I'm not a modern person. I can't get up in the morning. So sometimes like, you know, they say avoid screen time. I'm like, if that I actually need that screen time to just like kind of like open up my eyeballs. So just put that into your routine. I mean, people are going to be like, that's terrible for you, but I do it. So then save all that into a folder into folders on your Instagram or TikTok. By the way, you might be finding it hard to see content in your niche because you're getting served other content because they might be off your interest. It might become a distraction because you're like, I want to see this or you know, you get distracted. Have us the best of us, you know, because you might see some a fashion video from show pro or something like a cocktail making you want to share to your friends or whatever. So what you need to do is just start a burn or account that you only use for research because then it's because then the algorithm will do the work for you and serve you the content that you're already engaging with and saving down. And then next is to ideate and plan your content. So I reckon if you just like at least set like one or two hours a week to turn your save content into actual plans, just block it out in your calendar as a recurring calendar and just do it. So say in every week you do a day in the live, a training audio and three starting talent pieces, the first thing you have to plan for, right? So you just get into momentum doing this and then you can pivot that pivot into more formulas when you've found something that works for you. Basically, what's going to take you time is to do the storytelling pieces. You save two hours for this. You actually go 40 minutes to write that. That's heaps of time. Also, you probably you might not need as much. The best way to do that storytelling is to a start with a great hook, followed by context. And then it's important to have a conflict or tension point like that's what makes it interesting. You need a story arc and then of course, a turning point and a resolution or maybe not a resolution and hold for a part two, but basically you need a story arc. And then what you can do is repurpose that content. So can you turn a video into a carousel? Can you turn that into a LinkedIn post? Can you, you know, maybe you've written something that's a more where you're speaking to camera in a more formal way. Can you turn that into a car and turn it into a bit of a rant? Like how many ways can you turn an idea into different, well-known formats? And then you can also test what formats work for you. And it's very important to film and edit your content in bulk because I feel like if you just block out the time in your calendar, think about it. If you get sick, or if you're kids, if your kids get sick, you just have to like stop everything and make it happen. Treat content the same way. Just block that time out and just do it. Okay. It's 2026. We're all putting in the newest resolution to prioritize this. Okay. We're going to do it. So I'm going to go to deep into that because I feel like it's pretty dry. Just go edit your content. But the most important thing actually is to post it. Because I honestly think find that this can be sometimes the hardest part. I'm very lucky that I have a team that they're just going to go post it. Because sometimes I've made a lot of things that by the time you've seen this so many times, you've just lost all context of whether it's interesting or not, I think. One of my friends, Kelly McCarran, who's been on the podcast, she's a popular podcast star and she basically told me that one of her friends actually has hired a virtual assistant offshore to do this for her. So she drops all her content into a folder and this person's role isn't even to edit. P.S. You can get that person to edit. You can hire someone to edit. This person's role is literally just to make sure he gets posted. If you're doing it yourself, just put everything, upload everything already into drafts. So then it's done. So the daily time out on your phone and just don't think about it and just hit post. And yes, I say just save into drafts and then post because in case you didn't know, it's not. good to schedule Instagram or TikToks using an external app because of the algorithm. There's just like a theory that it's not good for the algorithm and I'm like whatever it's just not worth like, you know, you can make it a content, give it its best chance. But in my opinion, it's fine for LinkedIn. Number three is that you need to set your own time to do your PR. Just like you have to make time for all the other parts of your business, the operations, the next step in the product sourcing, you need to block out time, meta ads and whatever. You need to set time for this part of marketing because opportunities don't just come to you. I run it click, they will once you have the personal brand, right? But you need to build that personal brand to get those opportunities. So you at this stage need to go out and get them. You don't have to be like, oh my god, what do I do? So put yourself on like a rotation, like a four week rotation. So maybe week one, you're going to go research awards that you can apply for week two, you're going to focus on media, week three, you're going to research what podcasts you can go on and a week four, you're going to look for partnership opportunities. And even if you don't get that much in your first month, just try again the following month. Think about it. By this point, you've also got more experience in all those even just in that researching, you're better at researching, you've learned more about actually the media industry. You've spoken, probably speaking to more people about it because you know a little bit, you're going to pick up momentum just by doing it. Okay. So just get the ball rolling. You will save time in the long term. So I used to go to a lot of conferences more for the networking and for the fun than to learn. But the best hack was for me to speak on a panel or keynote. Because then you're telling the whole room what you who you are and what you need. And then afterwards, people come to you and it's the same on social media to bring this all home. I have a story for you. So Sarah Campbell is my PT with her brand Momma's on the move. Basically, I started seeing her when I had Rosalie. So it's been a few years. It's so funny because like when normally you go to a PT, it's a PT being like, have you been exercising well this week? What else have you done this week? And then I'm grilling her about how much content she's posted. Because I'm like, you told me you are posting five times this week, last week, and you've only posted twice. And then she kind of gets me back with their lips more dead left. She's like, we have our own unique system. But basically my point is since focusing on her brand more, she's moved into a bigger studio three times the size on the main strip. She's hired her first staff member. She's now holding larger classes, rather than just having one or one PT sessions, which is like way more profitable and scalable. And she's even had a five thousand dollar brand deal to make content. If these five episodes haven't convinced you, surely this story will because the proof is in the pudding. There you have it. The why the who the how the what and the where to building your personal brand. And when? Well, there is no better time than now. Let's kick off the new year when you're pumped and you're motivated and let's make this a priority because you can either just do it or you can look back into years from now, wishing that you started two years ago. In no universe, if you've stayed with me for these five episodes, which means you clearly want to do this, will you regret investing time in building your personal brand? All right, party fam. Let's do this. Let's make 2026 Albej. And I'll see you next week for a regular programming. Okay, that's it from me for now. Thanks for listening. If you're loving the podcast, don't forget to follow and I would love it if you can do me a favor and leave us a review. And if you want more, join the conversation on a podcast Instagram @thelazyceo_podcast. All linked in the show notes. Catch you next Tuesday.