When I joined a startup a few years back, I went from being part of a 10-person content team…to being the content team.

When I got there, there was no strategy. Every Monday morning, we’d sit down and ask the same question:

“What content are we putting out this week?”

Then we’d scramble to hit some arbitrary quota because that felt like the best thing to do.

It was exhausting. And I knew at least 50% of what we were doing was a waste of time.

And here’s the part I didn't realize when I started that new role:

Walking into a new job and cutting things that have “always been done” is risky.

"What if leadership thinks I’m lazy?"

"What if results tank?"

"What if I’m wrong?"

But I knew something had to give.

So I did an 80/20 audit.

I looked at everything we were doing and cut the 80% that wasn’t moving the needle.

• We paused the weekly blog grind
• We stopped scattered PR pushes
• We pulled the plug on half-baked social channels

Instead, I doubled down on the 20% that was working:

• Repurposed high-performing blog posts into fresh LinkedIn content
• Resent old but valuable email content in new formats
• Built a proactive monthly plan so we never have to scramble again

Within six months, our content impressions and engagement were up over 700%.

I wasn’t guessing anymore.

I had a clear, focused plan, and leadership was completely on board.

And I realized I could make a huge impact without doing a million things.

If you’re a solo content marketer juggling 50 different “priorities,” I’d love to know:

What’s one thing you’d cut tomorrow if you knew it wouldn’t hurt your results?

Hit reply and tell me.

Have a great week!

Justin