A Week in the Life of a Content Strategist: Kicking Off the New Year With New Clients

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Late last year, I shared a week in my work life as a content strategist. 

The responses from you were overwhelming positive — thank you, everyone, who gave feedback! 

So I’ll be recapping a “week in the life” more often in my weekly newsletter. I hope it sheds light on one of the million ways to be a content strategist. 

A week in my work life as a content strategist

This was the first week in January. While I am decidedly NOT in the camp of New Year’s resolutions, diets, or major overhauls — I was raring to go after a long time off. The week was, unsurprisingly, spent ramping up new clients and projects.

This was a busy week for me, but I recognize that “busy” is subjective. For me, I cap out at about 20 hours per week Monday-Thursday. 

Monday

  • Pick up work with an old retainer client. Their business is pivoting; I spent today pulling together a “listening tour” to better understand how content can support that pivot. I’ll be listening in on leadership meetings, holding 1:1 interviews, and digging through lots of documents in the next few weeks.

  • Catch up with a few contacts I’ve worked with in the past (and loved doing so!), due to some availability in the new year.

  • Run payroll for 2022 with help from our payroll contractor. We switched from an LLC partnership to an LLC S-Corp this year. If you have no idea what that means and are curious, listen to this podcast episode of The Business of Authority.

Primary challenge:
Getting back into the groove: Namely, retraining my brain to concentrate for long periods again.

Solution:
I’ll be honest. I was hard on myself today. No solution found.

Tuesday

  • Kick off with a new content strategy client. Today, we’re reviewing the project timeline, needs and questions I have, and my next steps. 

  • Create a user survey for a client’s newsletter to better understand what content their audience is resonating with.

Primary challenge:
This is the point in a project where I go “Wait, I’m supposed to do all this?! By [insert end date]?!”

Solution:
Take a walk post-call and recognize imposter syndrome for what it is.

Wednesday

  • Prepare for my workshop with said new client. I’m holding a workshop early next week to better understand this new client’s perspective on content. I spent all day digging into their documents and tools, familiarizing myself with their content, and organizing the workshop structure.

Primary challenge:
None. I LOVE content workshops. Dare I say, they’re my favorite part of a content strategy. Hmm… maybe I should write a newsletter issue about it…

Solution:
None

Thursday

  • Kick off my listening tour with my retainer client. I have tons of ideas on how content should support their business pivot. But I’m sticking to my 2023 mantra of “listening without preconceived notions of what works, what doesn’t, and what should be.” I bet I’ll be surprised by the things I learn.

  • Write my newsletter for the week and send the agenda for The Content Strategy Lab. 

Primary challenge:
Asking the right questions when I don’t know what I don’t know (yet).

Solution:
Turning on my facilitator brain: Actively listening and following up thoughtfully. Being present and worrying about note taking later (I record and transcribe!).

Friday

  • Catch up on life stuff, as I call it. Rework my budget with my husband, migrate from gmail to Hey.com, book some flights, make some returns… Even though I have a 4-day work week, Fridays are often packed anyway. 

Primary challenge:
None. It’s motivating to get through my personal to-dos before I spent the weekend with my family.