"I Dont Have Time": The Lie Holding Back Your Content - EP5 - Content Wars

Nathan Yerian: What's the real thing that we're dealing with? Because when we say, hey, we want this person to be on camera or to be involved in content, and the answer is they don't have time—well, it's funny you say that, because we haven't mentioned how much time it's going to take yet.

I think one of the most interesting objections that I hear, especially when we're working with a new client—their marketing team, their content director, maybe even their executive team—is, "Oh, so-and-so, they would be on camera, they would create content, they would show up for the shoot, they would X, Y and Z... but they just don't have the time."

Adam Marquardt: You heard that once or twice.

Nathan Yerian: I hear it all the time. It's almost expected. One of our core pieces we need to establish early is: who is the content team? Who's going to be on camera? What is their message? What is our routine to collect that message?

The first blank we need to fill is, who is on the content team? Well, the CEO—he’s great, so smart, has a great perspective and a really commanding presence.

Adam Marquardt: But you’ll never hear from him.

Nathan Yerian: Oh, he doesn’t have time to do content. Which is a really odd perspective. And it’s not just the CEO. It’s the sales leader, it’s the director of engineering—it’s usually the most valuable people that you would want to be on camera.

Are those people busy? Yeah, I would hope so. If the CEO’s not busy, you’ve got bigger problems. Same for the director of engineering or sales.

But is it the case that we actually don’t have the time to do content? Or are we afraid to ask for the time? Or do we just think they don’t want to be involved in content because they don’t think it’s important?

What's the real thing that we're dealing with? When we say, "Hey, we want this person to be on camera," and the answer is "they don’t have time"—how would you have come to that conclusion? We haven’t even said how much time it’ll take.

Adam Marquardt: Do you think they have a preconceived notion or maybe bad past experiences? Maybe they didn’t see results? Do you think it’s limiting beliefs or they truly don’t have time?

Nathan Yerian: It really depends. In some cases, the marketing team is so far removed from the C-suite that they’re almost intimidated to even ask. Or they’ve been told in past initiatives that leadership won’t be involved.

Especially with a CEO—their job is to represent the company. To investors. To customers. To the world.

What better way than to get on camera talking about the company? Their perspective, value, ideas. That is part of the job, it seems to me. So if a marketing team won’t even ask, that’s a problem. If they’ve been told no repeatedly and have given up asking, that’s a different problem.

But the CEO—or any exec—should not be too busy to be part of the go-to-market motion. That includes getting the message in front of the target audience.

Now, what’s the time commitment we’re even talking about? If I’m the CEO and you walk into my office and say, "Hey bro, we’re going to do a daily podcast and need an hour every day," I’m going to tell you no. That’s not a realistic ask.

So how do we get them involved and create a scenario they can say yes to? If the ask is daily—doesn’t matter who it is—the answer is no. Even the janitor doesn’t have time to meet with you every day to work on content.

Turns out, that’s the marketing team’s job—to work on content daily. Anyone else? Not so much.

So, first establish that they’ll be involved. Then, figure out how much they can commit. If it’s not daily, maybe it’s weekly.

Some of the busiest CEOs I know will do a weekly podcast. Are they really recording weekly? Who knows. But it comes out weekly.

Which brings us to the next point—just because the publishing schedule is weekly, biweekly, monthly—that doesn’t mean that’s how the content was created. If a CEO says, "I’ve got a few hours per month" or "a half-day per quarter," you can still make that work with the right planning.

So the big thing for marketing is: don’t rule it out. Get buy-in. Figure out what makes sense message-wise. Build a production schedule that fits.

Once per day. Once per week. Once per month. Once per quarter. What can we realistically do?

It might change over time. That’s fine. But the key is: how can you align their availability with the content needs?

Because one of the worst things you can do is say, "We’re doing a podcast weekly," and it starts strong, then becomes biweekly, then monthly, then every couple of months—then it dies. Your podcast is dead.

Instead, ask what they can consistently commit to as a minimum. If they go beyond that—great. If they just hit the minimum—fine. But most executives who take their role seriously as a company spokesperson will agree to some level of content involvement.

And as the marketing or content team, it’s on you to take the time they give you and make the most of it.

From my perspective, it’s not that they don’t have time—it’s that:

1. You haven’t clearly explained what they’re doing.

2. You haven’t made a reasonable ask.

3. You haven’t given them a way to make it work within their schedule.

Adam Marquardt: That’s a great point. We just worked with a client last week who didn’t have time for weekly or monthly recording. So we sat down and said, "Let’s make this a quarterly production."

That let us batch-produce episodes in one sitting. We maximized their time. Too many people in the C-suite assume it’s going to be a burden. They picture it taking up half their day every week. That’s unrealistic. So instead, they just say no. But if you give them structure and a clear path to doing it efficiently, they’ll say yes.

Nathan Yerian: When you plan it like that—batching episodes—you say, "We’ll take a couple hours of your time, we’ll knock it out, get you in and out."

That client does it quarterly. That’s max batching. But that executive? Very busy. Out of town. Out of the country. So we have to be flexible.

But when he shows up, he knows what he’s doing. He’s prepped. He brings outfit changes so we can make it look like it was filmed on different days. We change, reset, new topic, go again. I think we did six episodes in a day.

Adam Marquardt: And the cool part—he got better as the day went on. More comfortable. Clearer. Stronger delivery. By the end, the content was better than when he started.

He wasn’t just popping in for 30 minutes. He created high-quality content at scale—for his team to use all quarter.

Nathan Yerian: And when they set that time aside, they’re not running to other meetings or calls. That time is dedicated. And when you only do this once per quarter, you give it 100%.

And they take it seriously. They know people will see it. Employees. Customers. Investors. They bring their A-game.

Adam Marquardt: It starts with setting expectations and making it manageable.

Nathan Yerian: Exactly. At the end of the day, it’s not that they don’t have time—it’s that they weren’t properly told what they’re doing or why. They haven’t been given realistic expectations or options. That’s just a management issue.

There’s a better way to present it. A better way to explain their role. And any executive who understands their impact as a company spokesperson will be open to contributing.

They’ll be open to understanding how they can be part of go-to-market. And they’ll appreciate the flexibility you offer to make it happen.

Adam Marquardt: And they’ll be more receptive if you come in saying, "Here’s what we’re doing, here’s why, and here’s how we’re making it efficient because we know you’re busy."

They don’t have to figure it out. They don’t have to say no. They can just say yes because you’ve already made it easy.

Nathan Yerian: Yep. And they appreciate that. They don’t always know what they’ll be doing next week. So if we say, "We’ll batch this at one dedicated time," it gives them a plan.

But also, don’t be rigid. If we schedule it for the 15th and something comes up—cool. Let’s do it the 17th. Or the 19th. Or whenever works.

As long as we stay flexible—marketing, production, and execs—and stay focused on the mission of getting the message out to our audience, everyone’s going to be better for it.