08:22Maria Wendt · Listicle
How to Easily Create a Reel a Day (in 8 Minutes)
A business coach breaks her daily-Reel routine into four habits and three bonus tips — no editing software, just friction removal.
April 11th 2023The argument in one line.
A simple content system, built on clear buckets, one platform, an ideas parking lot and scheduled blocks, lets a busy person post consistently for years without burning out.
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
- You run a business or hold a day job and want to build a personal brand without turning into a full-time creator.
- You start content ideas, lose them, and stare at a blank page when it is time to write.
- You are unsure which platform to start on and are tempted to post everywhere at once.
- You want a lightweight Notion-style workflow for ideas and a content calendar.
SKIP IF…
- You are already a full-time creator with a team and an established production pipeline.
- You want platform-specific growth tactics like hooks, algorithms or editing techniques; this is about workflow, not craft.
The full version, fast.
The creator argues that sustainable content comes from a system, not from grinding. First define what you want to be known for and turn it into three or four content buckets so every post feeds that goal. Pick the single platform with the least resistance and master it before adding others. Keep an ideas parking lot in a tool like Notion so you never face a blank page, and put recurring writing, filming or editing blocks on your calendar. Finally, post often early on to generate data, then double down on what works.
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00:00 – 00:44
01 · Not a full-time creator
Sets up the promise: building a brand without burnout through a content system.
00:44 – 02:01
02 · What you want to be known for
Define your reputation, then create three to four content buckets that all feed it.
02:01 – 03:50
03 · Choose one platform
Pick the platform with the least resistance and master it before expanding.
03:51 – 04:37
04 · The ideas parking lot
Capture ideas as they arrive in a Notion content hub so you never face a blank page.
04:37 – 06:23
05 · Calendar blocks
One writing block for text platforms; ideation, filming and editing blocks for video.
06:23 – 07:58
06 · Review and double down
Post daily for 30 days to build momentum and collect data on what works.
07:58 – 10:13
07 · Results and sign-off
Expanding to Substack and YouTube, client results, and call to action.
Lines worth screenshotting.
- Decide what you want people to say about you when you are not in the room, then make every piece of content feed that answer.
- Three to four content buckets are enough to keep everything you create aligned with what you want to be known for.
- Pick the platform you will resist least: if you dislike being on camera, a writing platform beats video.
- Mastering one platform before adding others beats spreading thin across LinkedIn, YouTube and Substack at once.
- An ideas parking lot means you sit down to flesh out ideas instead of staring at a blank page.
- Ideas arrive at random moments like dog walks and conversations, so capture has to be instant.
- Writing needs one recurring block, while video needs separate ideation, filming and editing blocks.
- Posting every day for 30 days builds momentum faster than posting once or twice a week.
- More posts means more data, and more data tells you what to double down on when you don't yet know what resonates.
- Video takes longer than writing for most people, so splitting it into two weekly blocks makes a weekly cadence manageable.
Systems beat grinding for sustainable content
WHAT TO LEARN
Consistent content comes from a few decisions made up front: what you stand for, where you post, where ideas live, and when you work.
- Write down what you want people to say about you when you are not in the room, then sort your content into three or four buckets that feed that answer.
- Choose the platform with the least resistance for you and commit to it fully before adding a second, since spreading thin slows results on all of them.
- Keep one capture place for ideas so that writing time is spent developing existing ideas instead of staring at a blank page.
- Match calendar blocks to the work: a single writing block for text, and separate ideation and film-plus-edit blocks for video.
- Early on, post often for a fixed stretch like 30 days to build momentum and gather data, then double down on the formats that perform.
Terms worth knowing.
- Content buckets
- Three to four recurring themes that everything you publish falls into, chosen so each post supports what you want to be known for.
- Ideas parking lot
- A single place, here inside a Notion content hub, where raw content ideas are dropped the moment they occur so they can be developed later.
- Content block
- A recurring slot on your calendar reserved for one stage of content work, such as writing, ideation, filming or editing.
Things they pointed at.
04:37toolNotion content hub (ideas parking lot and content calendar)
Lines you could clip.
00:01
“I am not a full-time creator. I do not want to spend my entire life sat in front of screens.”
03:57
“When you sit down to write, you are not staring at a blank page.”
07:05
“The more posts I make, the more data I have to figure out what on earth is going to work.”
Word for word.
Read-along
Don't just watch it. Burn it in.
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I am not a full -time creator. I do not want to spend my entire life sat in front of screens or behind a screen filming things. I have businesses to run and more importantly a life to live.
But I have been able to build a loyal and engaged audience on LinkedIn in just 18 months. Now I am starting to expand onto other platforms like YouTube and Substack and importantly I've been able to do everything else in my life while building a personal brand without burning out and getting incredibly overwhelmed and the reason that I've been able to do that is my content system which is what I want to walk you through today.
The first thing that you're going to need to do is get clear on what it is you want to be known for. This is something that I did at the very start of my content creation journey and getting clear on this from the start made my life so much easier because this is the principle that is going to guide everything that you do next.
So have a think about what it is you want to be known for, what it is that you want people to say about you when you're not in the room. Once you get clear on that, you are then going to create what I call your content buckets. Now, everything that you create is going to go back to this.
I would recommend choosing between three to four content buckets. For me, these are intentional productivity, leadership, governance, and business, systems and notion. and personal stories and lessons learned.
The reason that this step is so important to get clear on before you start creating content is it ensures that when you create a piece of content, it feeds back into this overall question of what it is you want to be known for. You don't want to be producing content for the sake of producing content. You want to make sure that the content that you are creating and putting out there is aligned with where you want to get to.
Once you have your content buckets clear, you then need to think about what platform makes the most sense for you. When I was starting out at the end of 2024, I did not want to be on camera. And so for me, I felt a lot more comfortable with the idea of a writing platform.
So I looked at Substack, LinkedIn and X. LinkedIn made the most sense for me because it was kind of a middle ground between X and Substack. It wasn't super long form and it wasn't these shorter notes that X is known for.
So make sure that you pick the platform that makes the most sense for you, that you are going to have the least resistance to creating content on. If you are someone that really does not want to be on camera for whatever reason, don't pick something like Instagram, TikTok or YouTube. If you really enjoy making videos, then perhaps those platforms are right for you.
But if you are someone who enjoys writing more, like myself, then something like LinkedIn would make the most sense. Also think about barrier to entry. Do you know anything about these platforms?
Do you know how to create content for these platforms? If you are very savvy on video and with editing then again maybe one of the video platforms makes the most sense for right now. My personal advice, and I know that this is controversial, would be to pick one platform.
to master that and to get into a really consistent rhythm of creating and posting rather than spreading yourself too thin and trying to do all the platforms at once. I do not think I would have gotten the results that I have gotten on LinkedIn if I was doing LinkedIn and YouTube and Substack at the same time. Now we have laid the groundwork.
for our content systems. We have our content buckets. We know what platform we're going to be posting on.
And now we're going to talk about our ideas capture or what I like to call the ideas parking lot. I get ideas at very random times during my day. Sometimes if I'm on a walk with my dog, an idea will pop into my head.
Sometimes I will be mid conversation with someone and an idea will pop into my head. You need a way to capture your ideas as they come to you. Number one, so you don't lose them.
But more importantly, number two, when you sit down to write, you are not staring at a blank page. You have all of these ideas that you just need to flesh out now. My content system lives inside of Notion so I have my ideas parking lot inside of my Notion content hub and then I also have my content calendar.
The next thing that you are going to do is set blocks in your calendar. Now these blocks are going to look slightly different depending on what platform you have opted to go for. So let me explain a little bit more.
So for LinkedIn, your blocks are going to be quite simple. They're just going to be a writing block. Now, I would recommend that you do this every couple of days if this is something that is very new to you because you are trying to build the habit of writing more frequently.
If you have picked one of the video platforms like YouTube or Instagram you're going to have a couple of different blocks so you're going to have an ideation or a scripting block then you're going to have a filming block and then lastly you're going to have an editing block. I tend to do my filming and my editing in one go so I group those together which means every week and eventually every two weeks once I start getting ahead.
I'm going to have an ideation block where I sit down and I look at the ideas that I've popped into my parking lot and I flesh those out until my YouTube video starts to form. And then I have a filming and an editing block where I sit down, I film the video and then I edit it. Video creation is...
a lot more time intensive in my opinion than writing. Writing is something that I think I'm fairly good at and it's something that I've had a lot of practice with. So I need less time to sit down and write and it's something that I enjoy doing.
I do it daily. It comes very natural to me. Video creation and editing takes...
a little bit longer and so breaking it up into these two blocks of time every week make it more manageable for me. It also makes sure that I'm sticking to this cadence that I've set for myself of one video a week. And the last step in my content system is to review what has worked and to double down on what is working for you.
I think one of the reasons that I had success with LinkedIn so early on is because I committed to posting every single day for 30 days now the reason that I did this was twofold first I knew that posting every single day was going to allow me to build momentum faster than if I was posting once or twice a week The second reason is I wanted to have more data.
I didn't really know what was going to work. I didn't know what sort of posts would perform well. I didn't know what would resonate with people.
And so the way that I saw it is the more posts I make, the more data I have in order to figure out what on earth is going to work and then to double down on that. So that is something that I do recommend. It may seem a little bit overwhelming, but if you implement this content system, you'll find it far less overwhelming.
Of course, this is for LinkedIn. Again, I've seen people do this on Instagram. I've seen people do this on TikTok.
It probably is a little bit more time intensive. Again, video for me takes longer. Maybe for you it doesn't.
For me, it certainly does. But I do think it is worth doing because you'll be able to ramp up a lot faster and just figure out what works given the context of your niche and what you are talking about and what you want to be known for. And that is everything.
It is pretty simple, but this is the system that I have been using for coming up. to two years at the end of 2027 it has allowed me to consistently post and grow my audience on linkedin it is now allowing me to branch out into other platforms i have been pretty consistent on substack for the last two months i'm publishing a long form article every week on a monday And as of recently, I have also expanded onto YouTube.
So I'm posting a video every single week moving forwards. I wouldn't be able to do this without my content system. Again, I am not a full -time creator.
I don't just sit here and create content. I work with CEOs. I work with businesses.
I am, yes, building my own personal brand, but... That is not what I do day to day. I am inside of businesses, fixing things, working with founders, mentoring.
This is not my full time job by any means. However, I have been able to build up pretty quickly and stay consistent without getting overwhelmed, without burning out. And it's been almost two years and that is down to.
my content system and those few steps that I walked you through before the actual system of writing and ideating and all of that. I hope this has been helpful. I have shared this content system with quite a few of my clients and they have all reported back that it has been incredibly helpful.
It's allowed them to stay consistent on social media and It has allowed them to build audiences without the overwhelm, without the burnout, without the hustle and the last minute scrambling. So I hope it does that for you as well.
If you have any questions or you want me to dive deeper into any one of those specific areas, let me know in the comments. And if you like this video and you thought it was helpful, then please do like and subscribe and I will see you in the next one.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
She opens by saying she is not a full-time creator, has businesses to run, and still built an engaged LinkedIn audience in 18 months. The rest of the video is the system that made that possible.
Named ideas worth stealing.
00:44list
The five-step content system
- Define what you want to be known for and set content buckets
- Choose one platform
- Keep an ideas parking lot
- Block time in your calendar
- Review and double down on what works
A lightweight workflow that ties every post to a reputation goal and keeps creation sustainable around a full life.
Steal forany busy professional building a personal brand
How they asked for the click.
VERBAL ASK
09:50subscribe
“If you have any questions or you want me to dive deeper into any one of those specific areas, let me know in the comments. And please do like and subscribe.”
Soft, low-pressure close that invites comments; the free parking lot template link lives in the description.
MENTIONED ON CAMERA
Visual structure at a glance.
