I Won’t Shut Up About My History Degree
How My Academic Training Taught Me to Repurpose Content
I always wanted to be a teacher. Ever since I fell in love with history in 8th grade, I knew that I would spend my life explaining how seemingly insignificant moments led up to life-changing historical events.
What I did not know is that I would be doing that from my apartment as a full-time online business owner. But I’m still doing exactly what I thought I would: helping people understand the smaller pieces that create a larger whole.
My academic training as a historian is present in every decision I make. As a podcast editor, this means listening for weird background noises and knowing which “like” sounds repetitive and which one tells your listeners that you are a real person. As a marketing specialist, I’m an expert at finding the themes in your main content piece and presenting the narrative in a new way.
So What is Content Repurposing?
Saving time without shortcuts. Optimizing your workflow. Marketing that makes sense for you. All of these descriptors are fit to define content repurposing but my favorite comparison is upcycling: “to recycle (something) in such a way that the resulting product is of a higher value than the original item.”
Content repurposing is transforming work you’ve already done into new pieces of content that can be posted across your social media marketing platforms.
Your original content, especially long-form media like podcast episodes and newsletters, is highly valuable. Anything written (or spoken!) in your authentic brand voice is a goldmine of aligned copy. Repurposing your content adds even more value by refining your message for your current audience, speaking directly to your ideal client without spending hours coming up with brand-new ideas.
Especially for online business owners who have been marketing their services for years, saying the same thing over and over again gets exhausting! And I guarantee your audience still hasn’t heard enough. As Sara Joelle at Between the Lines Copy once said: you’re NOT annoying (even tho your brain might be telling you otherwise).
Content repurposing is more of an art than a science. There isn’t one master strategy or perfect formula because your unique brand identity and business structure determines the process. (If you scroll down, I am giving you a formula that I think is pretty great, but the best method is still the one that makes the most sense for your brain!)
Examples of Content Repurposing
Podcast Episode → Blog Post → Newsletter → Instagram Carousel
Video Podcast → 9:16 Clips → Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest and LinkedIn
Blog Post → Pinterest Pins
Newsletter → Blog Post → Instagram Carousel
Reel → Blog Post → Pinterest Pins
Threads Conversation → Newsletter → Blog Post
To be clear, there are SO MANY more options than this list can contain; these examples are just to start the brainstorming process. In reality, one piece of content will become 5+ pieces of marketing material for your other platforms.
The possibilities are endless! But time is not, so let’s plan accordingly.
Big Picture, Strategic Thinking
What I love about history is seeing the bigger picture and understanding the moments that lead up to major turning points. Content repurposing follows the same process.
We can outline a week of content with the same process I used to write historical analysis essays. First, you’ll need about 12 hours before the end-of-semester deadline that you’ve known about for months, your energy drink of choice, and a blank document.
Just kidding! The ADHD-procrastination still runs strong but we can be a little more intentional about this process:
Start with a new space.
Get in the right mindset.
Just write.
Revise the heck out of it.
Painfully ignore perfectionism and post your good work like it’s due at midnight.
What I’m NOT going to do is use AI.
Can you? Sure, but I do not recommend willingly providing your authentic voice to a large language model that is going to smoosh it together with a bunch of other stolen work and conversation histories to produce writing that will always sound at least a little like AI wrote it.
I’m in favor of using AI to automate tasks and I am thankful for the many medical and accessibility advances that artificial intelligence technology has provided, but I am strongly against using generative AI like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini to produce content. Please reference my AI Usage for Online Business Owners blog post (a placeholder for a more detailed AI usage disclosure coming soon).
How I Use an Essay Outline for Social Media Marketing
Writing content for real humans on the internet is very different from drafting 16 pages of historical analysis for a tenured professor. Essays are not blog posts or newsletters or Instagram captions, but they are an edited braindump of what you’ve become an expert in. That’s exactly what your audience wants to read.
1. Start with a new space.
I organize my content in Notion so my first step is to open a task, either for an idea in my Blog Planner or a new one for a fresh idea. You can do the same in ClickUp or Asana.
When I’m in the early stages, I prefer to keep my work inside of Notion. This helps me avoid perfectionism because it’s not a “real blog” yet and I can dump ideas into the task on the go. Once I have my outline and a sort-of first draft, I move over to Google Docs so the final format will be easier to import into Squarespace. Do whatever works best for you!
2. Get in the right mindset.
Gather your beverages and snacks of choice, then complete the most important step: deciding which piece of content you want to repurpose. I recommend choosing something long-form like a blog article, podcast episode or YouTube video but this process can work with popular social media posts too.
Spend 5 minutes reviewing the content. Then, we are going to think through the outline.
This is a very simplified version of an historical analysis framework, and I think it fits perfectly for creating content that connects with your ideal client. I also love that this formula works for any number of platforms, because what matters is the objective in your content, not the location. Use these definitions to structure your content writing:
FOCUS - broad category + perspective ( historical era and the lens through which you are interpreting that time period = niche + unique approach)
THESIS - USP (unique selling point), what do you want your audience to hear, hot takes
ARGUMENT - why your offer is the solution to their problems, process description, answering questions, etc.
EVIDENCE - client testimonials, case studies, how do they know you are the solution
For Example…
I could take an episode on How to Start a Podcast for Chronically Ill Business Owners and pull out my rant on why podcasting is the most authentic form of marketing. My goal is to be active on Threads, Pinterest, my blog and to eventually start a newsletter.
Threads is the FOCUS because I can use the transcript to write a multi-thread post about my main topic (why podcasting is the most authentic form of marketing) and get people’s thoughts in the comments.
Newsletters should have variation across all four categories to keep things interesting for your audience. In this case, THESIS is a good fit for a potential email because I can tell the story of the unplanned rant, explaining my thinking in a few sentences, and promote the Chronically Cozy Business Chats podcast that I recorded with Randi Pullar (@chronicallycozylife) in May 2026.
Blogging would be a great way to expand on my ARGUMENT for why online business owners could benefit from starting a podcast, especially when it’s designed to support their marketing ecosystem with intentional content repurposing.
Pinterest is the EVIDENCE because I am linking back to my conversation on the podcast. Being invited as a guest already gives me credibility as an expert and in this case, the interview itself is the proof I want my audience to connect with.
3. Just write.
Set a timer for 30 minutes, and braindump your thoughts about the content. Write down the sentences that stood out to you, something a follower commented, or any perspective shifts you’ve had since releasing this content. Nothing is bad writing at this stage.
4. Revise the heck out of it.
Stop when your timer goes off and read over what you word-vomited. Spend the next 30 minutes organizing your thoughts into content for the platforms you are posting to.
You’d get in trouble for this in school, but for social media marketing, you can absolutely plagiarize yourself by posting direct quotes. That said, I recommend posting links to the original podcast episode or blog post so your audience can engage with you more. Bonus points if the links direct them to your very own website!
5. Painfully ignore perfectionism and post your good work.
If you are anything like me, you’ll want to spend more time making it perfect. I understand the temptation, I really do, but it’s not worth it. My approach is to wait a day before scheduling the content, read over it one more time for any grammatical errors or better phrasing that I may have come up with in the shower, then post it. Trust that you know what you are talking about and who you are speaking to.
I Won’t Shut Up About My History Degree…& You Don’t Want Me To
If content purposing sounds like way too much to deal with, hire an expert! I do this work because I love living out my history student skills in the real world, especially when I get to work with aligned business owners to share their amazing content.
If this is starting to make sense but you’ve got questions, let’s chat! I offer Strategy Calls for all things content repurposing (or podcasting) so bring your thoughts and we’ll walk through every step of the process as it relates to you and your business.
FAQs
Why should I spend the time repurposing my content when the algorithms demand new everything?
To be free! Platforms like Instagram, Threads, and Pinterest may be pushing AI features, but they got the hint that their users don’t really care about AI-generated content.
In the marketing world, we are living the era of the Personal Brand (check out @laurendudley and @gabrielaflax for explanations and inspo) so that means being your real-life human self* on the internet is the most effective marketing strategy. The algorithms will reward content that highlights your unique voice and perspective.
(*Authentic does not equal 100% unfiltered and unhinged. Think about your favorite out-of-the-house outfit that you feel super confident wearing. That is the energy we are channeling to show up as our real-life human selves online — with all your hot takes, flaws, successes and struggles. Amanda Litman frames this well in her book, When We’re In Charge: The Next Generation;s Guide to Leadership. Part One and Two cover how to responsibly be yourself on the modern internet.)
Is content repurposing really better than Generative AI?
100%. Your brain is infinitely better than what a bot can spit out.
“But Abigail, I can customize them to my brand voice.” Sure, you can give away your most valuable asset for a machine that will still sound like a machine OR you can explore the wealth of expertise you have already released into the universe (yes, this includes shit-posting on Threads) and create content that aligns with your authentic voice and brand identity.
