Why Your Current Content Strategy Isn't Generating Leads with Pixistock CEO

In this episode, I’m chatting with Alicia Powell all about content systems, what they are, what they’re not, and how to make them work for you. We dive into why execution matters more than just having a plan, how to figure out what type of content actually connects with your audience, and why your software isn’t the whole system. We also touch on personal branding and finding a good balance between personal and business content. This episode is a good one, especially if you’ve been feeling all over the place with your content.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Content Creation Systems
• 2:38 Understanding Content Execution vs. Strategy
• 5:28 Short Form vs. Long Form Content
• 7:44 The Importance of Messaging in Content Creation
• 10:26 Finding Topics for Content Creation
• 13:03 The Role of Software in Content Systems
• 15:45 Personal Branding and Content Strategy
• 18:16 Creating Relatable Content Without Oversharing
• 21:56 Final Thoughts on Sustainable Content Systems

Transcript

Alicia Powell (00:00)

entrepreneurs, we think about systems in all the other areas of our business, but we think more so about strategy for content or we think planning for content.

And oftentimes we think of systems as an I just need a content scheduler. But it really starts, you know, way before that.

Kenniqua Lewter (00:16)

Welcome back to the systems rehab podcast. I am joined by Alicia Powell, who is the founder of Pixie stock. She is a, has a content creation platform that helps female entrepreneurs, small business owners and online service providers streamline their marketing efforts with stock photos.

videos for social, Canva templates and content planners and playbooks. She is passionate about helping women overcome content fatigue and build sustainable content systems so they can show up consistently online and grow their businesses without feeling overwhelmed. I just want to go ahead and welcome you to the podcast.

Alicia Powell (00:57)

Thank you so much. I'm excited to be here and talk about of our systems. This is my jam.

Kenniqua Lewter (01:02)

Yeah, I'm so happy that you had that you accepted this invitation to, come on to the podcast. I'm really excited about this because like we were just talking about prior to hitting play on this is that I have been a member of the Pixie stock program for a few years since I started my business. So I started in 2017 and I think I joined the lifetime membership around 2018 and I've found it so far very helpful to help me to be able to do the

the playbooks, the selling eBooks. I use all of those templates in my digital products. But I really want to dive into, because on the podcast, we talk a lot about systems. We talk a lot about client management systems and running your business. But I think part of running your business is having a sales system or a content system for, especially for the business owners that are listening. So I kind of want to...

kind of jump into that of how we can get started making content easier for us to create for our business.

Alicia Powell (02:02)

Great, yeah. Yeah, a lot of...

entrepreneurs, we think about systems in all the other areas of our business, but we think more so about strategy for content or we think planning for content.

And that is actually, you know, like how I started. But you can have so much planning and so much quote unquote strategy, but you're you can forget about the execution part of content. And oftentimes we think of systems as an I just need a content scheduler. But it really starts, you know, way before that.

And it

of goes beyond just like the templates that you download and the images and things like that. It's really just thinking about, how am going to execute this and what kind of, not necessarily everything doesn't have to be automated, but like what are the repetitive things that consistently work for me that will help me execute faster and reduce that decision fatigue.

Kenniqua Lewter (02:54)

Yeah, I totally agree with that because I have been creating content with long form content doing YouTube and now just recently started podcasts within the last year. And I feel like I do have a system for my long form content. Like I have it down pack. Like I can record, I can get it out. But where I find that I'm struggling at personally is in the short form content.

Alicia Powell (03:10)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Kenniqua Lewter (03:19)

and creating

a system around that. think it's getting in my head about it. Like I can record on my phone and it'll just, it'll sit there. It'll sit right there in my drafts because like you said, I don't necessarily have a system for that. I think that's a lot of business owners.

when we're trying to go through and we're trying to create content, what would you tell someone that is struggling trying to go through and either do short form content or even long form content? Where should they get started with trying to figure out how can I post? Because I think we could, I don't think we have any problem creating the content. It's the posting and the descriptions and the.

Alicia Powell (03:54)

Yeah.

Kenniqua Lewter (03:58)

the graphics or whatever, the hashtags, is that part that I think we get caught up in and stuck.

Alicia Powell (04:03)

Yeah, there are a lot of things and my system might look different from yours, my strategy, my plan might look different from someone else's. And long form content is...

fairly easy to get and then you can easily just break that up or people can see the path to making that short form content and getting it out on their platforms. But when you go from short to long, like let's just say you did a reel and then you're like, man, that reel hit off. Now I need to like create a blog post or do a podcast episode of that. That can feel kind of overwhelming. And so really with short form content, we want to start thinking about like,

What are the foundational topics or the foundational beliefs that we have around the transformation we provide people? We start there and we don't kind of keep branching off to all of these random different topics. So it first starts with the messaging and then the thing is you can be so passionate about, when you're so passionate about your message, it compels you oftentimes to like post. And so if you are just thinking about random,

content pillars or topics that you can get from chat gbt or like from online or you're looking at content topics from other people because like it's not coming from you it's not coming from like your experiences and your you know your personal like stories and things like that and what you stand for or believe in it can be hard to to have the motivation to put it out there into the world so it starts with messaging and then from there um you really

just need to be thinking about what content types align with you. So you don't have to post on all of the different content types. And there are five content types.

Kenniqua Lewter (05:44)

Okay.

Alicia Powell (05:50)

generally with short form content, which are, you you've got your short form video, you've got your text based content, that's like your threads and your blue sky, your X, you've got your like community driven content. So like if you have like a Facebook group where you're in a lot of forums, we have that, then we have stories and then we have carousels.

So you have to figure out, well, which types align with me? Like, what are the ones that come more naturally to me? And just pick like one or two. And then when you do that, commit to that, commit to your message and commit to that content type. And that's the start of really like, you know, starting your content system. That's the start of execution there.

Kenniqua Lewter (06:31)

Yeah, I love that. One of the things when going through and creating the short form content, I understand you said that it can be like maybe one or two different. Like, so for example, with myself, I would say my short form strategy, my attempt on short form strategy is really threads because I enjoy.

Alicia Powell (06:52)

Yeah.

Kenniqua Lewter (06:52)

I absolutely enjoy threads. I don't have to worry about pictures. I don't have to worry about videos. All I need to do is just put some texts and that's it. Like I never was on Twitter, never had a Twitter account, but I enjoy threads. I enjoy using it and we've gotten clients from it. It's awesome. But then when it comes to the short form, like Instagram, I don't have TikTok, but like Instagram,

Alicia Powell (06:57)

Right.

One, and two.

Kenniqua Lewter (07:15)

There is a lot going on there. Like you said, there's reels, there's stories.

Alicia Powell (07:16)

Yeah.

Kenniqua Lewter (07:19)

Is there a certain type of content that you see works best or a certain mixture that you see works best for businesses that are trying to create content?

Alicia Powell (07:31)

Yeah, so.

What I'm seeing now is that it's really all in your message. So the message is going to move people, like getting your voice out there, getting the words out there. So like we can do like all the trendy stuff and we can do the cute lip-stinks and the cute dances and all of that. when we talk about trying to actually get clients, trying to get people into our programs and all of that, you want to... I would recommend focusing on content types that really get your core

messages out there. So yes, that will be your text base. So that would be like your threads. And then I see Talking Head, not even necessarily educational videos, but just like...

Sometimes you just come on camera and like you speak your truth about the transformation that you provide people and that that literally will move that that will start a movement of cause people can get behind and then that's how you start to get people further into your funnel and into your brand's ecosystem. So like we love educational content and we love trendy content and those things can help you get traction. But you know,

I'm starting to lean less towards the things that are cool about Instagram video and fun about Instagram video. And now it's like, well, we're spending a lot of time. And so if I'm going to be spending my time creating content, I want to create content that moves people into the specific direction that I want them to go. And so that's the word-based content, using your voice, using words to get your message out there.

Kenniqua Lewter (09:01)

Yeah, that's good. Because I know one thing with myself, so this month, and we're recording this in April, so I haven't posted any, not a single Instagram reel. I haven't did any YouTube. I haven't did, I haven't uploaded a single podcast episode this month. And it's not necessarily because of that I didn't want to per se. It's the messaging, what you're saying.

Alicia Powell (09:09)

Yeah.

Kenniqua Lewter (09:26)

I just wanted to really just sit with it this month and really try to figure out, let me make sure that my messaging is.

is good across the board because I am the person or was the person that was always doing educational podcasts or educational content. I felt like I had to teach every single time. Every single time I created a piece of content, it always had to be educational. And so what I found was that

First of all, I don't want to wear the teacher hat all the time because when you wear the teacher hat, for me, I just felt like it seems like you are trying to tell people what to do. And I don't want to tell people what to do. I'm just sharing tips and tricks or things that worked for me, but I'm not telling you what to do. And so I'm like, you know what? I'm not even going to post.

this month and I'm just going to kind of look around and see and find inspiration and I did. I'm like, okay, I can do the tech space. That would be great. I can do a couple sitting in front of the camera. I can do myth busting about certain systems, what people believe and what they don't believe. And so I found that very, very helpful for me. Like you said, as far as the messaging and kind of getting around, you know, getting around, trying to create short form content, as far as the topics. So,

As far as topics for short form content, what do you think and what part of the system should I say that that part really comes into when we're talking about creating content? Like how should we really be going through and finding our topics for content?

Alicia Powell (10:58)

Yeah, so I feel like it's kind of changing a bit because now we have chat GBT and you can just go in there and say, like what content topics should I talk about when it comes to systems? And it'll give you like all these how to.

And it'll be very generic. Even if you try to get it specific, it's still like general topics. And we have to, if we're trying to convert people, move away from what's general and generic and start to really focus on your convictions. So this is what I call belief-based messaging. And so we're moving away from what we call content pillars towards marketing pillars. So it's like, I build my brand off of these pillars.

And these are my core convictions, my core beliefs about, like I was saying, the outcome or the transformation you provide. that's not necessarily like how to start a business.

We can find that on Google. Not saying that you should never post something like that, but you're going to have more success when you say something more specific like, you know, I don't think people should be starting X type of business in 2025. Like that's coming from like a conviction and that's going to resonate more on social and like your hooks resonate on your sales pages, it's a resonating your video content way more than like five ways to start a such and such business.

Kenniqua Lewter (11:56)

Mm-hmm.

Alicia Powell (12:20)

you know, because we have that information already, right? So yeah, I hope that makes sense.

Kenniqua Lewter (12:25)

Yeah. And I, yeah, no, that,

makes total sense. And I love to as even as far as the topics, because I noticed, and I think this is something, it may be relatively new or you may have came, come out with it within the last year or so. I think it, what is it? Stella the bot? Yes.

Alicia Powell (12:41)

Yes, sell the stock

bot, yes.

Kenniqua Lewter (12:43)

Yeah, stock box. So I

have been playing around with that and I'm going through the, what is it? The content playbook. And I know that we can download the playbook and then upload it into, into Stella. And what I like about it when I've been playing around with it this month is that it's not just generic. Sometimes when people go through and they kind of build these custom chat GPTs, they can be generic. It's like, okay, this really doesn't really, really help, but

Alicia Powell (12:50)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Kenniqua Lewter (13:11)

I found that it does, and it does give you some,

based off of the information that you put in, and then it has your whole framework for your content strategy and your content system built into it. So I really do like that, which has helped me to be able to, like, this month kind of sit with, like I said, the messaging and what type of content I do. I should be posting going forward and things of that nature. So that's very helpful.

Alicia Powell (13:19)

Yeah.

Kenniqua Lewter (13:36)

Do you think that with our system, because certain systems, like I think a lot of times when people think about systems, they automatically go to software. And so they want to go through and they're like, hey, they're using this particular software. This person is using this software. And they believe that software is actually the quote unquote system. And they feel like they have to use exactly what someone else is using. What would you say to that as far as even with content systems?

Alicia Powell (14:02)

Yeah.

Software is part of the system, but it doesn't encompass your entire system. Software is like the last part. Like you have to have certain things figured out before and then you're saying, okay, well now how can I make execution easier? And that's going to be like your different automations, like your social media schedulers and all of that. But don't think like you were saying that software is your entire system. Like you have to have the other pieces that you can, you know, kind

build your brand off of and then you execute it like with the system. For example, like I use Metricool for scheduling but

yeah, that's gonna help me publish content, but it's not gonna help me generate what's going to actually convert. You have to lay that groundwork first and then, you know, plug it in there. And then obviously that can help. And then sometimes software doesn't help at all. Like when I'm posting on threads, like sometimes it's just a random thought, like, or I'll just, you know, type something out really quickly and I'll just save a bunch of content ideas into my drafts without using quote unquote a software at all.

and that's enough. But because I know the pillars that my brand stands on, I know the transformational outcome that I want for my clients and customers, I can pump out quote unquote content ideas really quickly on that platform. And then another good thing is that when you start with smaller platforms like that, and I don't mean smaller as in the amount of users that they have, but just smaller in terms of the amount of

effort it takes to produce a piece of content. When you start with just a one-liner on threads, now you can test messaging there. And if it works there, you can kind of build that out into some of the other platforms. Like you can make it a quote on stories, or you can make it a quote reel on Instagram reels. And then, you know, if that does well, it could be like a headline or something that you can use to build out, you know, something longer.

So yeah, that whole software thing is, it's just a myth that, you know, is the encompassing the entire system for your content when really it's just a part of it.

Kenniqua Lewter (16:13)

Yeah, and like you said, it's normally with no matter what type of system that you're creating, it's normally the last part.

of your system. A lot of times, like I try to tell people, hey, you can write a system for almost anything on a piece of paper. You can write your step-by-step process on a piece of paper. Then you can implement some type of tool or software to then help you automated or to help you streamline it. But for the most part, these are things that you're taking out of your head and just simply just writing it down and figuring out from there. when we're talking about creating content,

Alicia Powell (16:20)

Yeah.

Great.

Right, yeah.

Kenniqua Lewter (16:45)

It's really just about from what I'm understanding is making sure that you have your messaging down first your content pillar, your content strategy and then post that content Is that correct?

Alicia Powell (16:55)

Yeah, so...

Yeah, in a sense, I think it's just because we've been so trained on content pillars that we feel like we absolutely need them. And that is a tactic for influencers and creators who really don't have a business, but they're really just trying to get brand deals. So they're just kind of creating general content to get general awareness, but they're not leading their audience anywhere. So when it comes to systems for content creation, we really need to make sure, yes, one, that we have our

.

transformation or outcome that we get our clients or customers, we have that down pack, like we know exactly what that is. And then from that, we're going to build marketing pillars, which is our belief based messaging. And that's going to help us create the individual topics that we need. And then from there, then we start to test that messaging on easy platforms like threads and easy platforms like your communities. know, even like carousels for some people are really easy because you don't have to have like

You don't have to have your face. You can just create a graphic really quickly and then once you have that you tested your messaging maybe over, know some time Now you can like do some of the more heavy type of content if you so choose to but then there are people who are just really good with Talking heads and doing all the edits and doing all that fancy stuff. It's really just important that they're they're Creating content based on like core convictions rather than just general

like how to do this without that or five things you need to xyz. It's just you have to go a little bit deeper than that so you can get the traction that you need on social.

Kenniqua Lewter (18:32)

So I have a question about that too. how does, you are, like you're a business owner and maybe you're wanting to build a personal brand alongside your business, how does that personal branding piece weave inside of, into that system?

Alicia Powell (18:50)

Are you talking about like they want to have their their business brand separate from their like individual personal brand or are they trying to merge the two?

Kenniqua Lewter (19:02)

Yes, I would say

so like for example, myself, so even though I'm posting, of course, I only have like Instagram, I don't have a personal at all. Like I only have just a business one. But as far as like front facing, it's just myself. But a lot of times, and I'll just say what they say, like on social media is

You have to start, you you've probably seen it. You have to start a personal brand. You have to start a personal brand. And so it's like, okay, how deep in personal brand are we going? Because I'm not really a social media person. So like, if I wasn't doing business, I probably wouldn't have a social media account at all. Like I don't.

Alicia Powell (19:31)

Yeah.

Kenniqua Lewter (19:42)

I don't, have like a personal Facebook page, but even there I don't post. I really wouldn't have social media if I wasn't doing it for business per se, maybe threads, maybe. But, but as far as, but I mean like, far as weaving it in for still keeping it together, I would say, I would say still keeping the business and personal together, but not going so deep on personal, like really just.

going through and showing people that you are a person, not just like business, I guess that's what I mean. And of course, not going too deep on like personal, like I'm not going through and I'm showing everything that I'm doing. That's just not really me. So I'm just curious, like how does that kind of weave into the strategy or system?

Alicia Powell (20:11)

Bye.

Yeah, so you can kind of stair-step it. Well, you can go as deep as you want to go. There are people, obviously, who everything is content to them, which is something that I don't believe. Everything doesn't have to be content. And you should be setting boundaries around your content creation. So you could go as deep or as, quote unquote, shallow as you want to go.

I've seen some really great creators where they don't necessarily have a faceless brand.

but the majority of their content is you don't see them and then every now and again we see like the face behind the brand so we see like some brand photography or they're just popping in to say hi or you know they're just subtly reminding their audience that hey I'm the person behind this account but the majority of their account is you don't you don't really see them at all. Another thing is

We can hear your voice over seeing your face if that's also something that appeals to you. like if you're somebody like, for example, who runs a podcast, you can do audiograms and, you know, kind of just take snippets of pieces of your podcast and just put it over a graphic. And now we have AI that can help you create graphics where, you know, there's like different words on the screen as you're saying them, which is an audiogram, these different soundbites.

or just like voiceovers over b-roll maybe you are

you know, 30 seconds of you working at your desk or doing something that your ideal customer avatar can like relate to. And then you just put some voiceover over that. So there's just these subtle ways of interjecting your personality into your brand to bring it, you know, more to life and to show people that, you know, this isn't a lifeless account.

Kenniqua Lewter (22:16)

Yeah. I love that. Cause yeah, I don't, it's, I don't mind being on camera. So I don't mind like showing up on camera, like having the page on camera. I think the biggest struggle is like you said, like a lot of people they'll go through and it's like, everything is content. And so they are recording literally everything. Like you're, you know, you're just getting out the shower and you're doing this and you're doing, so I am not comfortable doing that part, but I don't mind.

showing some of the stuff, but it's just like, is the, where is it enough to show like, okay, yes, hey, I'm here, I'm regular, but not to where it's like, hey, I saw you were doing X, Y, Z. And it was like, you know, or you see my kids or something like that, which is not something that I show like all the time. So it's just like one of those things where, where is the line drawn in this?

Alicia Powell (23:10)

And I love it because you create that line yourself, know, and whoever's on board is on board and whoever is not, you know, there's other content from other creators who they can watch and get that in-depth life experience if that's what they're looking for. Now I'm not gonna say that...

Kenniqua Lewter (23:24)

you

Alicia Powell (23:28)

I will say that if you are interjecting some of those things and people do like to see that, you know, because it's just very relatable. They can instantly see themselves in that type of content. So it can help, but it's not necessary. And at some point you just got to be like, well, this is where I, this is where I draw the...

you're not gonna see, I'm not putting my kids' faces on camera. Like if that doesn't resonate with you or I'm not gonna be recording when I wake up in the morning, you know, and I'm not even like in the mindset yet to create content. And then, cause some of that stuff is fake anyway, you know, you're recording yourself waking up, but you didn't really just wake up. It's like a thing. So yeah, it just magically appeared there. Yeah, so.

Kenniqua Lewter (23:56)

you

You

Yeah. So the camera just got there.

Yeah, I love that.

I am, like I said, I am going to be working so much harder on just creating a content. So I definitely will use those tips that you gave to up my content system and strategies, especially like I said, for my short form content, like long form, I'm good. I...

I have everything straight. know exactly what I need to do. I know my posting schedule and maybe it's so much easier because you don't have to produce as much long form content. Maybe that's why it's so much easier. And I can break it down into short form content, but it's just like those short form clips just always get me. I feel like I'm recording them a million and one times and trying to get them posted. So it just always seems like a lot.

Alicia Powell (24:54)

Yeah, I mean a lot of the...

bigger brands who serve clients and they're really into marketing. I don't see them often creating short form content. I see them taking their long form content and repurposing it into short form content. I see them, and that's where your tools can come in, your Opus Clip or they have Cast Magic now, your Descript, all of those can really help you get the short form content that you need.

Kenniqua Lewter (25:17)

Mm-hmm.

Alicia Powell (25:23)

And that's something that you could outsource to somebody and you don't even have to think about it. And that literally can be enough if your messaging is on point, if it resonates with your perfect person.

Kenniqua Lewter (25:35)

that love that well did you have any like tips or not tips because you shared a lot of tips but is there any takeaways that are because this was very helpful I know it's helpful to me I know it'll be helpful to my audience but is there any like takeaway like you just wanted to drive home for the listeners what what would it be

Alicia Powell (25:54)

Yeah,

so it's definitely systems over strategy. I think a lot of people are strategied out because social media changes so much. Like next year, we don't even know. You could have your strategy all put together and then next year Instagram doesn't exist. We don't know. And so you've got to be able to build something with your content that can work wherever your online presence is going to be. It has to be sustainable.

Kenniqua Lewter (26:03)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, it's like...

Alicia Powell (26:23)

wherever and so it definitely starts like with your messaging and it starts with like knowing like what you stand for what you believe in and what you what your convictions are because that type of content no matter what happens with the platforms is gonna work it's gonna work everywhere and yeah definitely

Yeah, don't think that the software is the system, but whatever you want to do, make sure you get it out of your head, put it down on paper, know, try our playbooks. And yeah, just really kind of visualize like how you want your content system to be and what types you want, how you want it to work for you, where you want to have your brand present and just kind of run off of that.

Kenniqua Lewter (26:50)

Yeah.

that. All right, so before we close this out, I like to ask all of our guests if there is a book that either you're currently reading or that you've maybe read in the past that you think all of us should go check out.

Alicia Powell (27:17)

There are a lot of books that I'm reading. One that I recently picked up is a book called The Power of Moments by Chip and Dan Heath, I think. Yeah, Heath. And they also have written other marketing books like Made to Stick and some other things. But it's really just about getting your

your clients and your customers, making special moments for them and celebrating milestones and celebrating transitions and really where to insert that in your marketing. you have like a just they have an overall better experience and they tell other people. so, yeah, I'm loving that look right now.

Kenniqua Lewter (27:54)

Awesome, awesome. Okay, awesome. I'm gonna have to go check that out. I love getting all the book recommendations

from everyone. Well, Alicia, I appreciate you joining me here today on the podcast and I'm gonna go ahead and just close it out and I appreciate you coming.

Alicia Powell (28:11)

Absolutely, thank you. It was a pleasure being here.

Kenniqua Lewter (28:13)

Thank you.