Okay, so it’s time for me to give a really good answer to a super-frequently-asked question:
“How long does it take for you to write your long-form posts?
“I’d love to know how you manage to be consistent with posting these regularly without breaking momentum.
“I sometimes find it hard and very time consuming when writing posts and feel overwhelmed.
“Can you share some suggestions regarding that?”
Great question.
So, before I answer – some context:
For those who don’t know, I developed a client attraction method known as the “Strong Method,” which involves writing and posting long-form posts daily or near-daily.
The posts are meant to educate and share your expertise and your offer with potential high-ticket clients – so that they are pre-sold enough to sign up over DM and not need a traditional long sales call (or several) to know that your offer is right for them.
I’ve indeed been consistent with my own method for more than three years, writing new posts nearly daily (with breaks for weekends and vacations and such – though I usually do end up writing a few things even on vacations and breaks. More on that in a minute 😉 ) and have earned over 850K in high-ticket sales without phone calls from great clients who became “sold” through the posts.
I’ve also helped hundreds of people to implement the method for themselves – and based on thousands of hours with clients plus my own experience using my own method, I do indeed have a robust answer to “how to keep writing amazing posts consistently and not get overwhelmed or have it take too long.”
Let’s take it one point at a time:
1. A typical post tends to take me around 30-45 minutes to write.
That length applies to a “standard” Strong Method post, of around 1,000 words. If it’s one of the outliers (like this one) that’s 2,000-3,000 words, those can take up to 2-2.5 hours.
(This post is about 2900 words and took me almost exactly two hours from start to finish)
It’s important to note that length of time I’m citing for the post-writing applies only to the period of time when I am actually sitting at the computer writing.
My brain often works “in the background” on the concept/topic for a post for untold amounts of time before I actually sit down and begin typing. I don’t have any idea how to measure the length of that time, because it’s something that happens almost automatically, even without my being fully conscious of it.
What usually happens is that I’ll see or hear something that’ll inspire a post (like something a client of mine asked or told me, or something that I saw in a conversation in a FB group), but I won’t yet know the exact “angle” or focus for the post, so that’s what my brain will work on without my even trying.
The topics I coach on are so fascinating to me that I’m intrinsically motivated to keep exploring them, learning more about them, understanding them better, and learning how to explain them better to other people.
So that’s what I mean when I say my brain starts working on the topic without my even trying. When I hear or see certain things that intersect with the topics I’m an expert in, I automatically want to make a response.
And so, whenever my brain is free (at idle times like while doing chores or exercise or errands or sitting in a cab), it’ll work. And then after some amount of time, I’ll suddenly have the post topic solidified and it’ll just pop into my head and I’ll know it’s time to start writing.
And I try to always start writing at that moment, no matter how inconvenient it may be (and if I really can’t, I’ll at least capture the first few paragraphs onto my phone using voice text or typing) because I don’t want to lose the insight.
So, not being crazed with too many things to do or glued to a screen every second of the day is critical if you want your brain to be able to work for you on the very elaborate task of creating original writing each day.
This leads me to my next point…
2. If you’re not absolutely fascinated with your subject matter, and very much an expert in it, and doing the work that you’re meant to be doing in this world, then writing these kinds of posts daily will indeed be extremely overwhelming and time-consuming.
The Strong Method is designed for people who are so passionate and knowledgeable about a subject that they CAN’T NOT talk about it, think about it, share about it, come up with new ways of understanding it/teaching it, etc.
I’ve had conversations with people about how overwhelming writing felt for them, where they ended up admitting to themselves that they were not really passionate about their subject matter, didn’t really care about sharing it with others, and in fact might be in the wrong business. (!)
Of course it’s tough to have that realization when you’ve already sunk a lot of time and effort into something, but I was so happy for them because they had pinpointed the cause of their problem – and in all cases they were suddenly FILLED with ideas and enthusiasm for writing, once they were focused on the right topic.
And it’s not just passion for the subject matter that drives people who are successful with writing according to the Strong Method.
It’s also passion for the fact that they’ve discovered how to USE their knowledge to solve a thorny problem.
For me, one of the darkest periods of my life was when I was trying to figure out how to get clients consistently online and nothing was working.
Then I discovered this post-writing-and-DM-sales method and it worked stunningly well AND was a lot less painful and time-consuming than the other methods I’d tried.
So, do I want other people who are in this dark period to know about what I’ve learned so their suffering can cease too? YOU BETCHA.
And every time I see or hear somebody talking about how hard it is to get clients (or the right clients), it just spurs me on to want to write and share MORE – because I know things that can help them!
(It doesn’t even matter if I’m in the mood to write or not. I’m actually a bit tired tonight and have a slight headache as I write this particular post – but I saw that someone had posted this question about writing in my Facebook group, and I was so excited to answer it that I knew my excitement would override my less-than-optimal physical state at the moment. And so it has. 🙂 )
(Even when on vacations or otherwise ostensibly “taking a break,” I sometimes feel so compelled to write about a certain topic that I take a break from my break and go write the thing – and have way more fun doing the writing than I was having doing whatever vacation activity. What can I say? I’m weird like that.)
But yeah – being excited about the things you know and the ways you solve problems is a pre-requisite here.
The folks who’ve learned the Strong Method from me, and are keeping up with the writing consistently, have ALL (without exception) figured out how to solve some kind of complex problem too, and are just as passionate about shouting the solution from the rooftops.
So if you’re not feeling turned on by the writing process, this may be something to look at.
It’s okay if you’re not an expert on anything yet, or haven’t found something you’re super-passionate about just yet. Getting to that point can be a long and winding journey for some people. Stay with it and don’t give up.
For now, let’s assume that you ARE an expert and ARE passionate about your subject matter and way it solves problems. We’ll consider a couple more points…
3. If you don’t have an hour or two available to write each day (or 5-10 hours per week average), something about your business model isn’t set up well.
The Strong Method isn’t just a way of writing content and marketing yourself – it’s an entire way of setting up your business and your program and serving your clients, too. And it’s all meant to work together so that you have enough time for each part.
Those of us who use this method have one main high-ticket program that is set up to get the client their outcome in as little time as possible so that it’s very profitable for us and the amount of time we’re spending.
The goal is to spend less than 10 hours per week on client-related stuff (which is usually calls, sending texts/emails, Voxer, reviewing homework, etc.) so with this method, we usually create an offer that earns us about $1,000 per week per client (or more). For example, $20K for 6 months or $4K for one month.
It’s possible, even simple, to sell these kinds of offers regularly if you have all the pieces of the puzzle – and it all starts with knowing your ideal client and the exact outcome they want, along with the exact starting point where they’ll be coming in to work with you.
With those things in mind, we can create an experience that gets the ideal client the outcome very efficiently – and that’s why they’ll pay a decent amount of money for relatively little time.
Setting up that profitable and efficient offer is key to making the rest of the Strong Method equation work.
Because that lets us earn a minimum of six figures per year with just 1-3 clients per month (could even be 0 new clients for some months), spending no more than 10 hours per week on client-related work.
And that allows us 15-20 more hours per week for writing, fielding the DM inquiries from interested prospects, and growing our audience – and that’s still only a 25-30 hour work week!
Sometimes when I talk to people who can’t find the clarity or time or enthusiasm for writing, I discover that they don’t have the “profitable/efficient offer” piece nailed down, and are exhausted from spending 8 hours a day with clients and THEN sitting down trying to write something.
Of course that’s not going to work well!
You only have so much energy and focus in one day, and if it’s all going to clients, there’s nothing left for writing.
Sometimes I also find that people are deviating from the Strong Method model in other ways, like trying to launch a gazillion small/low-priced offers in addition to their main high-ticket one. Or getting on a bunch of podcast interviews. Or offering a bunch of free challenges or webinars to their audience. Or fiddling with their website.
None of that stuff is required to make six or multiple-six figures if you’re using the Strong Method.
If you WANT to do it, that’s one thing. (Totally up to you, of course.)
But if you really want to use the Strong Method way of writing and be consistent with it, all of those other things just cannibalize your writing time.
Now, there are some actual things that are specific to the writing process that may be the cause of it taking a long time and/or your feeling overwhelmed.
So that leads me to my next (and final) point…
4. Writing will usually take a long time and feel excruciating if you don’t have a standard, repeatable process for how to do it.
And that standard, repeatable process is exactly what the Strong Method offers.
So it makes sense that it’s usually non-clients of mine who are asking for tips on how to write faster and not feel overwhelmed. 😉
Writing more efficiently and quickly tends to happen naturally for my 1-on-1 clients after we’ve done all the pre-work I have them do to understand the different components of a post and how to assemble them.
Once you have the Strong Method blueprint anchored in your mind and know exactly how it applies to your business and offer and ideal client, you’ll realize that each post tends to unfold in a similar way, and your brain will get used to it.
Just like cooking something for the first time can feel excruciatingly time-consuming, but once you know what tools and ingredients work well and where they’re located in your kitchen, you can do it faster and faster in the future.
Same with getting speedier at lifting weights and doing other exercises – at first you don’t know exactly what equipment you’ll need or what corner of the weight room to find it in or how to move your body, but eventually, you settle into a routine and barely think about any of it anymore.
So how does “assembling the components” work in the Strong Method way of writing posts?
I keep it simple – REALLY simple. My work with clients is literally just showing them how the following blueprint can apply to their unique expertise and offer:
First, you understand what OVERALL problem you solve and what OVERALL method you use to solve it – and build an offer around that.
Then, you break up overall problem into smaller problems and your overall method into smaller pieces.
And then each post in the Strong Method style usually talks about one of the smaller problems, and one piece of how you solve it.
(Sometimes, in mega-posts like the one you’re reading right now, it’s multiple pieces of how you solve it, not just one piece – but that’s not the standard/most common way of writing these.)
Once your brain grasps what a mini-problem and a mini-piece-of-a-solution look like for your particular offer (which I can help you to see VERY quickly if we work together 1-on-1), you’ll have a whole list of writing topics to choose from.
And honestly, knowing EXACTLY the topic of the post you’re going to write is half the battle (maybe even more than half) when it comes to getting it written.
Have you ever sat typing away on a document for several hours and finally realized “I have no idea what I’m even trying to say”?
Yeah, we want to avoid that. 😉
So I’ve set up the Strong Method writing process so that you always know what you’re trying to say before you try to say it.
That “knowing” comes partly from being able to recognize what your problems and solution pieces look like.
And the other part is when you’re off living your life away from screens and letting your brain work on how exactly to phrase it before you sit down and try to type.
For me, I’m working with clients nearly every day, as well as reading online discussions and points of view about my subject matter, and I’m very attuned to how these experiences can feed me the right words for the problems and solutions to write about.
Again, it’s something to get used to, just like anything else.
But you’ve got to have the unflagging passion for what you do (see point #2 above) in order to be immersed in the subject matter every day like that, and not feel like you’re forcing yourself to do it.
Phew! So… that’s my best thinking on how to write efficiently without getting overwhelmed. 🙂
At this point, you might be wondering if there’s a way to get my help with setting up your business and mapping out your written posts in the Strong Method way.
Indeed there is! 🙂
My main offer is a 1-on-1 program for 30 days, where I take you through my proven processes for everything – offer/program setup (or tweaking, if you already have one), pitching the offer in my proven 500-word framework, mapping out and writing your content, handling the DM sales chats, growing your audience, and more.
That program can be started anytime as long as I have availability. (I do have room for two new people starting next week.)
I also have another offer that’s a small group workshop to get my help articulating the overall problem you solve (that’s the piece from which everything else flows, and people often have huge “ahas” just from that clarity alone).
I offer those workshops a couple of times per month. To find out when the next one(s) will be, you can always check out this page, as I keep the dates updated there.
If you’re interested in either offer, you can just send me a DM on Facebook and I’ll take you through my quick and easy qualification process to see if the offer matches what you’re looking for.
Here are quick links to more information on both offers:
1-on-1 program: SEE HERE
Group workshop: SEE HERE
I also want to let you know that I’ll be launching a certification program soon, for those who’d like to learn how to teach the Strong Method to their own clients. I’m keeping a waitlist for that, and you can DM me on Facebook if you’d like to be on it!
Have you ever struggled with writing and want to comment on the ideas I shared in this post? Feel free to add your thoughts here (on the Facebook version of this post). 🙂