752: 120X Your Content’s Lifespan in Just an Hour per Week

0:01Okay, I have been on this ruthless pursuit to purge any clothes that I'm not actually wearing. Like if I haven't reached for it in months, it's got to go. I am trying to be really intentional about what I bring into my closet right now, which means I am only buying pieces that I know I will actually wear and use. Revolve just gets it though. I'm literally wearing my brown Autry sneakers from there right now and my new suede purse. It fits my laptop in it. So it's basically a fancy shoulder bag that works for everything. I love finding pieces like that. Things that look good, but also work hard for my actual life.

0:35Their holiday shop is live right now with all the good stuff. Sparkly party dresses, cozy sets, cute gifts, everything you need for whatever is on your calendar. And it's all in one place, which makes shopping feel way less overwhelming. Whether it's a weekend away, a big night out or a holiday party, your dream wardrobe is just one click away. Head to revolve.com forward slash gold digger, shop my edit and take 15 % off your first order with the code gold digger. Fast two day shipping, easy returns. it's literally the only place you need to shop from. That's revolve.com forward slash gold digger to shop by favorites and get 15 % off your first order with the code gold digger offer available for a limited time.

1:15So happy shopping. People can see your pin for months after you've shared it. This is creating a much different experience when we're talking about ROI. One pin on Pinterest has an average lifespan of six months compare that to six minutes, six hours or a day. That's huge.

1:59growth, loss, and marketing are all topics we discuss here. Think of this as your one-stop shop for happy hour with a gal pal mixed with business school. Pull up a seat, make sure you're cozy and get ready to be challenged and encouraged while you learn. This is the Gold Digger podcast. If you're an entrepreneur, there's a really great chance that you are also creating content. And while you might not be quick to call yourself a content creator, the work that you're doing surrounding your offer, whether it's a digital offer, a service, or a physical product is considered content. If you're showing up on the internet, if you're posting anything, if you're shooting off emails, recording podcasts, writing blogs, or making videos, you, my friend are a content creator.

2:40And as a business owner, the content that you spend your precious time creating is so valuable. You pour your insights into a social media post, a blog, a podcast episode, and oftentimes it only lives on for a few minutes or a few hours. That's such a bummer, right? Today, I'm going to share with you my secret weapon in multiplying the shelf life of your content that you're already creating with one of my favorite free platforms. It's not Instagram or Facebook. It's not even TikTok. I'm talking about Pinterest. Most platforms have lifespans for their posts that only last minutes to hours, depending on what time they're posted.

3:20However, Pinterest pins can have the lifespan of six months to years. This means people can still see your pins years after you've shared it, creating an incredible stellar organic return on your investment. If you're ready to make the most out of your content, get more eyes on your business and work smarter, not harder than this episode is for you. I also have an amazing free class for you to learn even more about this platform. If you want to attend my free webinar, it's called 20 extra traffic in one hour a week with Pinterest. You can save your seat at teachmetopin.com and you can learn how to leverage Pinterest to help you consistently bring in fresh traffic to all of those amazing things that you're creating.

4:03That's teachmetopin.com. It's also going to be linked in the show notes and the episode description for you today. Now let's dive on in to the power of Pinterest and why it's a platform you shouldn't be skipping. Sales super teams aren't built overnight. They require unicorn level talent, hours upon hours of training, huge bottomless budgets, and the perfect mix of impossible luck and 24-7 work. Or they just have a better sales platform like HubSpot Sales Hub. It's an all-in-one platform filled with all the tools and insights to deliver personalized communications people are looking for. Smarter prospecting, check.

4:43Faster revenue, yep. Scales with you, it sure does. Plus, with tons of AI powered features, teams can spend less of the day on boring, time-sucking tasks and focus on growing the relationships that matter most. Let's face it, your old platform just isn't cutting it. It's cumbersome, it's expensive, it's causing a rift between marketing and sales. I could go on, but let's focus on the keys to winning. Are you ready for your sales team to reach all-star selling status? Sales Hub is a dream come true for sellers. Visit hubspot.com slash sales to stop dreaming and start selling with Sales Hub. That's hubspot.com slash sales.

5:23One of the toughest parts of starting and growing your own business is figuring out how to use social media. Like how do you talk about your products without sounding salesy? What should you even talk about? There's a recent episode of a great podcast called This Is Small Business that talks all about this. You'll learn how to reach your customers with social media, how often you should post, and how to infuse fun into your online identity. Speaking of fun, host Andrea Marquez is joined by none other than Kat Norton, Miss Excel herself, who somehow managed to make spreadsheet formulas joyful. So you know this episode has some great advice.

6:00The episode is called How to Create a Social Media Strategy to Reach New Customers, and you can go listen to it right now wherever you get your podcasts. This is Small Business answers so many of these kinds of questions, questions that all entrepreneurs have. Whether you're dreaming of starting your business, looking to take a part-time side hustle full-time, or you're a few years in and you're ready to grow, this show covers it all. Learn more about how to start and grow your biz by listening to This Is Small Business, an original podcast from Amazon. Big thanks to This Is Small Business for supporting Gold Digger.

6:33Go show them some love on your favorite podcast app. So get this, this was kind of mind blowing to me. The average entrepreneur is spending 20 hours, 20 hours a week on marketing, 20 hours per week. Now, most of the business owners that were surveyed in a study by Constant Contact, 82 % of them say that they spend at least 20 hours a week marketing their business across multiple platforms. This includes web, email, social media, all of those big platforms. But 20 hours is a lot of time that we are trying to get eyeballs on our offers. Now, the reality is, is that most of our content that we're working so hard on creating is landing on a platforms where there are algorithms and algorithms are dictating how our content is seen, how it's experienced, how it's consumed, how it's engaged with.

7:24This means that so much of our efforts are out of our hands. They're at the mercy of the platforms that we are sharing this content on. We don't own these platforms. We can't control them. And there's also a very good chance that when we are busy creating work, the people that we're creating that work for are probably not even getting a chance to see it. So I wanted to do a little research going into this episode because I just think it is so interesting. And I want to paint a little bit of the picture of why this is so important. For me, when I look at the work that I do, and I look at the life that I want, I am often pulled in two directions.

8:02I've shared this before. This is no surprise. Part of me wants to like shut everything down, live in the woods, have a chicken coop and make sourdough bread with my kids every day. And the other part of me wants to make this business as powerful and impactful as it can possibly be. Now, this means that every single hour of my day, I want to make sure that wherever I'm spending it, if I'm with my kids, or if I'm working on the business, there is a return on the investment. And when it comes to business, I want to be able to tie my efforts to a true ROI. I want to make sure that not just the money I'm spending on my business, but the time I'm spending is actually worth it.

8:40So I had my team look up the average lifespan per post on different social media platforms, just to paint this picture, because this is a huge thing I don't want you to miss. So the average longevity of an Instagram post in the general feed is about 48 hours. And that's slightly generous in my opinion. This is when it's going to get the majority of its likes, comments, saves, shares, all those things. After that 48 hour period, the post is far less likely to receive much attention at all. Now on LinkedIn posts last even shorter. They are usually shared and distributed within a time span of about 24 hours.

9:17Facebook, although it varies, a post typically receives about 75 % of its total activity within the first five hours. X, which is formerly Twitter, is even shorter. Since users can send up to 5 ,000 tweets per second, it's no wonder tweets lose their relevance very quickly. So this is undoubtedly the most competitive venue with the fastest disappearance of your posts. The number of people that follow you on Twitter determines how long your tweet lasts. So if you're one of 3 ,000 people, your tweet is most likely going to be limited to like a few seconds. TikTok videos have a much shorter lifespan than videos on other platforms.

9:54Within the first few minutes after it's released, your video gets most of its views. So unless it goes viral after that, it's pretty much dead. So when we're thinking about all these different platforms that we're likely thinking about or creating content on, 48 hours is like the most generous time span of that content, which is kind of heartbreaking, right? We're spending our precious time today, hoping that something is going to last for a day, maybe two days. Like if you went into the grocery store today and you were going to buy produce and they were like, Hey, those apples you're getting are literally going to last two days.

10:27Like you'd be kind of disappointed, right? Like I'm buying these and I don't know if I'm going to eat them in two days, but I like really hope they're still good. And so we want to be thinking about shelf life in that way. Now let's talk about Pinterest. So as you can see, most social media platforms have lifespans that are hours, minutes, maybe days if we're lucky. Pinterest pins has an average lifespan of six months to a year. Some of my pins are still driving traffic to my website and they are years old, years old. This means that people can see your pin for months after you've shared it. This is creating a much different experience when we're talking about ROI.

11:09One pin on Pinterest has an average lifespan of six months. Compare that to six minutes, six hours, or a day. That's huge. Look, I've become kind of a systems nerd and anything that gives me more space in my day, I'm all in. And a reliable connection is a huge part of that because when the internet lags or cuts out, everything pauses and suddenly the simplest tasks take forever. I learned really early on that dependable internet, it's not a luxury, it is a must. Whether you're a content creator like me, a restaurant owner, or running a busy dry cleaning business, you need that steady connection to support your team and your clients.

11:48That's why I'm excited to share a solution for my fellow business owners. Spectrum Business keeps businesses of all types connected with internet, advanced Wi-Fi, phone, TV, and mobile services, all with connectivity solutions built for your budget. And they have a truly incredible offer. Business owners can get free business internet advantage forever when you add four or more mobile lines. It's simple with no contracts and no added fees. Visit spectrum.com forward slash free for life to learn how you can get business internet free forever. Restrictions apply. Services not available in all areas.

12:26When we were young, we dreamed of castles and fairy tales. And as we grow up, those dreams might shift into building something real, like starting a business. You need a website, payment systems, a logo, and a way to reach customers. It can all be overwhelming and confusing, but thankfully that's where today's sponsor Shopify comes in. Shopify powers millions of businesses around the world and 10 % of all U.S. e-commerce, from big brands to folks just getting started. They offer beautiful, ready-to-go website templates so you don't need design skills to look professional. Their AI tools help with product images, descriptions, discount codes, and more.

13:04Shopify also makes it simple to run email and social campaigns so people can find you. And if you ever feel stuck, their award-winning 24-7 support is always available. Turn those dreams into... And give them the best shot at success with Shopify. Sign up for your$1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com slash gold digger. Go to shopify.com slash gold digger. Shopify.com slash gold digger. now when we are thinking about content creation this totally shifts things for us because as we're thinking about creating content a lot of times we're working on these things and then we're just putting them out at the mercy of algorithms they're living they're dying and they're not creating any sort of return for our time our investment or for our business and so when we start to think about where our time is going as CEOs, I think we have to be able to connect the dots on like, this time is worth it.

14:03And I think ultimately that's what we all want to do. We want to finish our days and be like that time that I just spent, that was so worth it. So let's talk about ROI because return on investment is just huge for me. It's, it's basically the one thing that I look at in making any business decision, whether it's hiring a contractor, getting a new software, time spent creating, I want to make sure that everything created is linked to the result that we desire. So from an ROI standpoint, most of the content that we're creating, the goal of it, the return on it is likes and comments, right? Like that's what most of our content is.

14:43Like we're creating it because we feel obligated to create it. We know it's something we should be doing as a business owner. But if we were to be asked, what is the return on this, it's really hard to connect the dots of saying, hey, this Instagram reel that I just created of like me dancing around and pointing at the screen, that's going to be tied to a real subscriber or purchaser or customer or client. It's really hard to do that, right? And so what we're doing right now, when I'm thinking of most people are spending 20 hours a week, we're focusing on things like vanity metrics. And for me, that is not the best way that we should be spending our time.

15:18So when I think of ROI, I want to look at return on time. Time is my currency, especially in this season of life. Anything I'm spending time on, I want to link it back to a result. So for most of us, when we create content, it's like we start with this idea, then we create it, we write all the things and do all the extra parts, the hashtags, the location, the geotag, whatever it is, then we publish, then we're back at the very beginning again. It is literally like this rinse and repeat cycle of being on this hamster wheel of constantly creating. We have adopted this churn and burn philosophy, whether or not we like it.

15:56And so for so many of us, it's just, we're constantly creating, but we're not actually thinking about like, how can I get the most results with this one post? Like, how can I figure out how to get the greatest lifespan, the greatest results, create something once and think about it long after it's published. Most of our content gets this like one chance to land and then we're on to the next piece. We're never really stopping to figure out how we can change the system until now. So for me, ROI shifted dramatically when I was in my season of trying to start our family. And most of you know our story, so I'm not going to go deep on it right now.

16:41But I was a wedding photographer. I was solely a wedding photographer, shooting weddings all summer in Wisconsin, booked like crazy for six months out of the year. And Drew and I had finally decided that we wanted to start our family after thinking we were never going to have kids. And I remember having this really, really deep moment. Like I think a lot of us have these specific burnout moments or these like breakthrough moments. And for me, it was during our trial of becoming a family. I had experienced one loss, one pregnancy loss, and I was going through my second one and I still had to show up to a wedding.

17:22So I basically had my doctor's appointment on a Thursday and on a Friday, I was in my car going to show up to shoot a wedding, knowing that my pregnancy was no longer viable, but my body was still holding on to it. And it was really traumatic for me. I just remember being really sad that I had built such a beautiful business, but like there was no humanness in it. Like I, I had to show up to my job that next day in that moment. I really vowed to myself, like I want to build a business that can run while I rest. Like I wanted to be in the fetal position in that moment. I didn't want to be charging batteries and getting memory cards ready.

18:02And that was really a huge turning moment for me when it came to looking at ROI and thinking long-term, not quick dopamine hits of social media, but thinking about like, how can the work that I'm doing today last longer than tomorrow? And I feel like when I look back at the timeline of my business around that time was when I really started getting serious about digital marketing and podcasting and creating other ways to make money that didn't require me a human to show up. Because during that dark time for me, it was so hard to really recognize like, Jenna, you've built something really awesome, but it's not supporting the type of life you want.

18:49And so it really just changed marketing for me. It changed business for me. It changed the way that I looked at success. social media is something that's hard for so many entrepreneurs. The more that I talk to entrepreneurs this year, especially the more people are like, I'm sick of it. I don't want to create. I want to get off. I'm tired of it. I've been creating for years or I'm too afraid to post anything because I'm scared of the judgment. And like the interesting thing was, is at that time of my life, if I were to have stopped everything and my social presence, my business probably would have suffered.

19:24That is what's so interesting when we stay on that churn and burn cycle is we recognize that in order to keep the fire burning, we have to keep churning. And that's kind of a trapping feeling as an entrepreneur. It's not usually why we became entrepreneurs in the first place. The algorithm is quick to forget about us. And so we get afraid of taking a break, logging off, slowing down. So how do we transform the way that we not only think about content, but how we strategically create it. It's not us working for it. It's working for us. So here are some questions to ask yourself when you are creating content.

19:59So first, am I creating content that is more evergreen? So evergreen means it is still relevant. It is still valuable and it still will be weeks, months, and maybe even years later. So am I creating content that will stand the test of times? And I think that's a really good mentality to adopt right now is to think of not how is this going to make sense today or tomorrow? Yes, you can have short term promotions and things like that. That's a part of doing business. But the majority of your content should be evergreen. It should be content that is going to live on much longer than the timeframe of when you hit publish to the algorithm robbing it and its ability to reach the people you created it for.

20:42The next thing is, is are we focusing more on promotion of the content or creating new content. I see this so often. Most creators spend 90 % of their time creating and 10 % of their time promoting their creations. When in reality, they should spend 10 % of their time creating the content and 90 % of their time figuring out how to promote that one content piece. And so thinking through, are we focusing too much on the creation and not enough on the promotion? And the answer is probably yes. Number three, are we leveraging platforms that favor longevity, that favor the long game versus the platforms that are focused on these quick dopamine hits and keeping users engaged and entertained, but not necessarily connected.

21:35And so thinking through what platforms are we prioritizing and what is the goal of that platform? Is the goal of that platform really to show people my business, my offer, what I'm working on? Probably not. And then next, are we working smarter or harder when it comes to the amount of time going into our business? So when we really look at a breakdown of your day-to-day, whether you are a side hustler and you are just crunching those final hours in your day, or you are a full-blown entrepreneur looking hour by hour of your day, and can you connect each hour that you're spending on your work to a real tangible result.

22:14And so are you working harder? Are you working smarter? Which one is it? And then the last one is, is there a way to repurpose this work to toss just a little bit of strategy into it to elevate my results without a lot of added effort? I often joke that like, I am often a lazy marketer. I am constantly looking for more ways to get greater lifespan out of the content I'm creating? Because to be honest, I'd rather create less content that is higher quality and figure out how to get that content in front of the right people instead of just constantly tossing spaghetti at the wall and hoping the algorithm favors me in that special day.

22:54And so can you repurpose things? Is there just a little tweak in the system that will allow you to get more life out of the content that you're creating? These are great questions to ask yourself. So here's what I want for you to think about. And this is something that I'm going to teach in my training. So if you want to learn how to do this, go to teachmetopin.com. This is amazing, but think about this. Is it easier to create one piece of content? So let's just say, for example, I'm talking about this podcast episode. I'll break down like how much time goes into it. So is it easier to create one podcast episode or to create just 10 little promotional pieces about the one podcast episode.

23:35Let me break this down. So this episode specifically, I have probably spent about three hours ideating, outlining, researching, working with my team to get this ready, setting up my camera, setting up the microphone, putting on makeup, looking presentable, thinking through all these different things. So three hours, I'm going to give it three hours. us about how long it's going to take to do this whole episode. It's time for Cyber Monday, Dell technology's biggest sale of the year. You'll find the lowest prices of the year on select Dell PCs like the Dell 16 Plus with Intel Core Ultra processors.

24:12And with built-in advanced AI features, it's the PC that helps you do more faster. From smarter multitasking to extended battery life, these PCs handle the busy work so you can focus on what actually matters to you. Plus, earn Dell rewards and enjoy perks like free shipping, expert support, price match guarantee, and flexible financing options. They also have the biggest deals on accessories that pair perfectly with your Dell PC, improving the way you work, play, and connect. Whether you just started holiday shopping or you're finishing up, these PCs and accessories make perfect gifts for everyone on your list.

24:51Shop now at dell.com slash deals and don't miss out on the best prices of the year. That's dell.com slash deals.

25:03Can you believe that we're already wrapping up 2025? This year was packed with travel and so many new memories. One of my favorite moments was our team retreat in Arizona with the incredible women who helped me keep this business running. I also recently took the kids to Nashville during fall break and somewhere in between I squeezed in a trip to Puerto Rico with friends. We booked some of our most memorable stays this year on Airbnb. There's something special about finding a place that doesn't just look great in the photos, but actually feels welcoming the moment you walk in. That this feels right kind of feeling.

25:36If you've got trips coming up, whether it's a family vacation, a retreat, or a work trip, your house will probably be sitting empty while you're gone. Have you considered hosting your home on Airbnb and letting it work for you? It's a simple way to earn some extra income that can be put towards a future trip or home improvement projects. Your home might be worth more than you think. Find out how much at airbnb.com forward slash host. So let's break down some of the marketing things. So let's say you are going to write an email out to your email list. That can take anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes, little less, little more, depending on how you are writing one single marketing email, 20, 30 minutes, we could say, right?