What exactly is a "content eco-system?"

I’ve been talking lately -- here on the blog and on the Marketing Mentor Podcast -- about building a content eco-system...(check out episode 556)

...but I have yet to define what a content eco-system actually is. (Oops :)

So in today’s episode, my 3rd conversation with messaging strategist (and fellow content machine), Stacy Eleczko, we start with that definition. (Listen to previous episodes with Stacy here and here.)

From there, Stacy shares what it takes to build a content eco-system and why it’s so much better than creating piecemeal content. 

By the end of our conversation, it will be super clear that you don’t have to be a content machine to have a content eco-system.

You can start small with one big idea or theme, then simply build on it, which is actually very natural.

The point is to connect the dots so that your content builds on itself and your message comes through clearly, even if no one is paying much attention.

(BTW That's what I'm doing here with this content about content eco-systems. A bit meta, I admit.)

You can listen here (or below):

And of course If you want my help figuring out your own content eco-system – or even what your main messages should be, I hope you’ll take advantage of my free mentoring session. 

Read the complete transcript here

ilise: Hello, Stacy, welcome back to the podcast.

Stacy Eleczko: Hi, ilise, thanks for having me back.

ilise: Of course — this is our third conversation and podcast episode. Introduce yourself before I go any further. Go ahead, tell the people who you are.

Stacy Eleczko: Yeah, absolutely. So I'm Stacy Eleczko, I'm a messaging strategist, speaker, and workshop facilitator, and I help B2B service businesses figure out how to stand out in a crowded market with bold, deeply human messaging.

ilise: Nice, alright. On episode 551, which wasn't too long ago, we talked about your email newsletter — that episode was called The Newsletter That Had No Business Working.

ilise: I think you only have one newsletter, right?

Stacy Eleczko: Just one, yeah.

ilise: Good — one is definitely enough. One is enough for most people. And before that, we talked about why AI won't replace you — that was episode 539. So if anyone wants to hear more from me and Stacy, you can listen to those.

ilise: But today, the reason we scheduled this third conversation right after we recorded the second one, is because we were talking about your newsletter as part of your "content ecosystem" — and that phrase has been coming up a lot with people lately.

ilise: I also just recorded another episode — which will definitely be out by the time this one comes out — with Val Roskens Tews, all about her content ecosystem. So that's what I wanted to dig into today. How does that sound?

Stacy Eleczko: Yeah, that sounds great. I'm thrilled we're having this conversation — and some of my content ecosystem has actually come to fruition just because we were talking about it. It was a little kick in the pants to get started on some things that had been on my list for a while.

ilise: That's awesome. That's a big part of my job description — the kicking in the pants, although I don't actually do any kicking. But it seems to help to have told someone "I'm going to do this" and then have to actually do it.

Stacy Eleczko: Exactly.

ilise: Alright, let's start with — maybe, especially because you help others build their content ecosystems — let's define "content ecosystem" first, and not assume everybody knows what we're talking about. How would you define it?

Stacy Eleczko: So the way I define it — actually, I've never said this out loud before, so let's see — is that you have a system of content that works together, as opposed to just creating a whole bunch of content in isolation from each other. You've thought about how the content relates to each other, how it relates to your business goals, and how you're being strategic to keep it aligned and consistent. So people hear from you across different platforms but get similar information — you're not saying one thing on one platform and something else on another. You have an organized plan for it.

ilise: I love that definition, Stacy. I think that works.

Stacy Eleczko: Awesome, I'll go back and listen to it.

ilise: One thing that's reminding me of is something I've been thinking about a lot — the compartmentalizing I see people doing with their marketing, their business, maybe even their life. I'm focused on marketing, so the compartmentalizing I see is kind of the opposite of a content ecosystem — a blog post over here, a newsletter over there, a social post over here, and never the twain shall meet. The idea is connecting the dots between your marketing assets, each one building on the next.

ilise: I imagine people are wondering: what do you need to have in place first to create — it could be a simple content ecosystem, because I feel like the phrase almost implies there's a lot to it, and I don't think there needs to be. "Ecosystem" just implies that everything is connected. Respond to that.

Stacy Eleczko: Yeah, absolutely — honestly, I was exactly what you described for a long time. I was piecemealing everything: what do I want to write about on LinkedIn today, what's this week's newsletter going to be about. In my head there was a thread — I knew, in some way, these things were related, but I didn't have a plan. It was incredibly overwhelming. So when people said "content ecosystem," my chest would get tight and I'd panic, because I thought: does that mean I have to be on every platform all the time? Because if I only spend time marketing my business, how do I actually work in my business?

Stacy Eleczko: For a long time that really dissuaded me from even trying to build anything. So one piece that was missing for me was: what's my anchor piece of content going to be? What's the one piece I build everything else off of? For me, that became my newsletter — the anchor of everything else I've planned.

Stacy Eleczko: Let me back up. I've been on LinkedIn for a long time — that's been my primary platform — and I send an email once a week. I just sent out issue 102, I think. Around issue 94 is when I finally came up with a system, so I wasn't every Monday night trying to figure out what's going out Tuesday morning. That's when I had a solid plan in place for the newsletter, and I understood my content pillars — the three to five things I consistently talk about that I know my audience needs to hear and that relate to my business goals. What are my strong beliefs, my point of view on those things?

Stacy Eleczko: I used that as the basis to build a strategic plan — I used Claude Cowork to help me think through a lot of it — a plan for what my next 12 newsletters would look like. I wanted to start with just the first 90 days, knowing that once that was in place, I could layer in the other pieces.

ilise: Let me respond to one thing there — the idea of creating a pillar piece of content, sometimes called cornerstone content. For you that's your newsletter, and you've got four or five ideas to focus on based on what you know about your people — their needs, their pain points.

ilise: I agree with that, but I'm often channeling my listeners as I listen, and what I hear is: wait — you mean I'm going to repeat the same thing over and over? I don't have to come up with a brand-new, profound idea every time I send a newsletter? You actually want me to repeat myself? What would you say to that?

Stacy Eleczko: Yes. Absolutely, 100%. This is a conversation I have with clients all the time, because I've dealt with the same thing myself — the fear that people will get tired of hearing it.

ilise: We're the ones who get bored of it.

Stacy Eleczko: Exactly — we're the only ones who get bored of saying the same things over and over. People need to consistently hear the same ideas, the same message. We live with this stuff day in and day out, so we know what we're saying, but our audience is only getting bits and pieces — part of a YouTube video while walking to a kid's soccer game, a LinkedIn post while scrolling past other things. They're not consuming all of our content at once. So it feels repetitive to us, but it isn't — our people need to hear the same things multiple ways, across multiple touchpoints, before it really sinks in.

ilise: Two thoughts here. First — and this feels a little meta, because I think we talked about this last time too, and that doesn't bother me, because people need to hear it again and again — a client once told me, after she'd been receiving my content for a long time: "I finally realized what you're doing. I used to think you were saying something different every time, but now that I'm creating my own content and analyzing yours, I see you're just saying the same thing over and over." And I said, yup.

Stacy Eleczko: Yeah, I tried to buck that for a while, because I didn't want to keep saying the same thing — I have so many thoughts, ideas, opinions I want to share. But you want people to associate you with one thing. I associate you with the idea of making marketing simple, because that's what you consistently talk about — that's what you need people to think of first when that problem comes up for them.

Stacy Eleczko: You're the first person who comes to mind.

ilise: Exactly. And it's not like I'm literally repeating the same thing verbatim — and I'm sure you're not either. Every time I articulate it, I say it a little differently, a little better, a little simpler and clearer. It's constantly improving on itself. Do you do that too?

Stacy Eleczko: Absolutely — and a powerful byproduct we don't always realize is that the more we talk about something, the more we distill our ideas and get clearer on how we think about it and want to say it. Our message becomes clearer, more memorable, more relatable, because we've thought it through so many different ways and times, and we start to notice what's actually resonating with people, where they lean in. It's done so much for my overall messaging.

ilise: Yeah. Okay, good — I think we've done a good job defining what a content ecosystem is. So let's talk about what's actually in your content ecosystem. Maybe walk through it in the order it evolved, since I imagine this wasn't "do this first, then this, then this" — it's an evolution. I never know what the next thing will be until it's time to do it.

Stacy Eleczko: Agreed. I started with LinkedIn — that was my primary platform for a while, and I liked it as a starting point because it let me experiment and see what resonated with people.

ilise: You mean posting on LinkedIn.

Stacy Eleczko: Posting on LinkedIn, yes — I wrote a couple of articles, but mostly it was posts. Even commenting helped; when someone says something and you leave a thoughtful comment related to what you do, it helps you think it through. So that's where I started. Then — and we talked about this last time — my newsletter came next, about two years ago.

Stacy Eleczko: That started because I help clients with their newsletters, and I was about to speak at a women's luncheon about starting email lists. This was May 1st, 2024, and on April 30th I thought: I can't go speak to this group without having my own newsletter. So I posted on LinkedIn saying I was starting one — come join me — and got about 24 subscribers.

Stacy Eleczko: I started looking at which posts people reacted to, engaged with, or left thoughtful comments on — or sometimes, early on when I wasn't getting much engagement, just the ones I enjoyed writing — and asked how I could turn that into a longer newsletter. Someone would ask me a question, or I'd see someone talking about something interesting I could reframe, and I'd add it to a running note in my phone of possible content ideas. That's how I muddled my way through the newsletter for a while.

Stacy Eleczko: So those were the two things I had going. Most recently I've been thinking it's time to diversify. I know who I serve, what my differentiators are, what my audience needs to hear — I need to be in more than one place, and I need to align that with my business goals.

Stacy Eleczko: That's another thing people miss — we feel like "everybody's on TikTok, I need to be on TikTok" or "everybody's on Instagram," without asking which platforms actually align with our business goals, where our audience is, and what bandwidth we actually have.

ilise: Right.

Stacy Eleczko: So — LinkedIn first, then the newsletter. Now my newsletters are fairly long-form, roughly 1,200–1,500 words each, and that's become my anchor piece. The next layer is YouTube, which I actually just posted my first video to this week — on your calendar invite I saw the question "have you started your YouTube channel yet?" and thought, yes! I recorded it Wednesday, published it Friday, based on the newsletter that had gone out Tuesday.

ilise: We'll share a link to that video and your channel. But for people listening — what did you do, read the newsletter aloud? What's the format, and why YouTube?

Stacy Eleczko: Great question. I didn't want it to just be a regurgitation of the newsletter, since I expect some overlap between readers and viewers. So I took the big idea and went deeper on a couple of things I hadn't covered in depth. My last newsletter was about whether people are really being strategic about optimizing for LLM search — that's the big topic lately: you have to "get seen," get recommended, be visible in AI, and everyone feels pressure around it. But they're not necessarily stopping to ask whether that's actually the right move for their business. I wrote about that and listed questions to use as a filter, then took three of those questions and went deeper in the video.

Stacy Eleczko: I used Claude Cowork to help me think through a lot of this — I fed it my past newsletters, my content pillars, my business goals, how much time I have per week, what I'm already doing, and where I want to go, with the newsletter as the anchor of it all. We worked through what my workflow and rollout timeline would look like, and where I could go deeper for YouTube.

Stacy Eleczko: Right now the plan is: write the newsletter, then do a related YouTube video. I've channeled you on this — I'm doing a 90-day experiment, one video a week, just to see how it goes. I'm not stressing about production quality (you could see me half-reading, half-talking in that last video, and the lighting wasn't perfect) — the point right now is just to get the reps in and find out: is this sustainable, do I enjoy it, do I want to keep doing it?

Stacy Eleczko: As for why YouTube specifically — one of my big business goals is hosting more workshops and speaking on more stages, which are great lead generators for me. Being on YouTube serves multiple purposes: people who might want me to speak in their community can see me on video, which is more personal and relatable. The other reason — and this may sound like it contradicts what I said earlier, but it doesn't — is that I know AI tools pull from LinkedIn, Reddit, YouTube, and places like that. I'm not expecting to rank at the top when someone asks Claude a cold query, but if someone meets me or hears me speak and then goes and asks a chatbot to tell them more about me, I want there to be content for it to reference and pull from. Plus, a YouTube channel has been on my list for two years — it felt like time to experiment and see what results I get.

ilise: You know I love experimenting, so that all sounds good. But — do you think of speaking and podcast guesting as part of your content ecosystem? You haven't mentioned it.

Stacy Eleczko: It's funny — as I was just talking, I realized that's something I have on my list. I have tons of clips from podcasts I've been on. Yes, I probably need to start using those. One plan is to start posting on Threads — I did a listening tour recently, talking to a lot of ideal clients, and Threads kept coming up. I'm not a big social media person, but Threads feels less "social media–y" than the rest, so I want to be there and could use some of those clips.

Stacy Eleczko: I also usually prepare talking points before podcasts, or hosts send me questions ahead of time and I jot down notes. I've gone back through those looking for themes — things I can drill deeper into for the newsletter or potential YouTube videos. So those are becoming planning material. I'm really just trying to figure out how to repurpose things, because I was constantly reinventing the wheel before — every LinkedIn post was a brand-new post, every newsletter was brand new. It wasn't sustainable, and I'd never tell my clients to do that. So I need to be more strategic about reusing those, and it's on my mind as I map all this out.

ilise: Interesting. That topic of your newsletter this past week was really interesting — let's talk about it a bit, since it relates to AI. The way I interpreted it: everyone's saying search is going away, or changing, that no one uses Google anymore, and now you have to be found in the large language models. So — how do you do that? Do you need a specialist for that? And is it even important? That's the main question for me: how important is it to be found in AI search, the way people have always wanted to be found in a Google search?

ilise: I'll ask you to answer that, but I want to give my opinion first, since I don't think I've talked much about it: I don't think being found in search — when you're a solopreneur, freelance writer, freelance designer, or small agency — is how you get clients. Clients come from relationships. All the tools in the Simplest Marketing Plan are about building relationships, not being found on search. It seemed like you were leaning that direction too, but saying: if your business is like this, being found in AI search matters; if it's like that, maybe not.

Stacy Eleczko: Yes, 100% — I'm nodding along to everything you're saying. The question I posed at the start of the newsletter was: if you weren't worried about getting found in Google search results before, why are you suddenly worried about getting found in an LLM?

ilise: How's everyone else doing it?

Stacy Eleczko: Exactly — and I get it, there's a fear with AI of getting left behind, missing out. Overnight we have a zillion AI experts, everyone shouting about getting recommended and being visible. In the YouTube video I went further into this: yes, if you were already showing up in Google search results, you should be optimizing for LLMs too. But if you run a high-trust, high-ticket service, you're building on relationships — nobody hands over five figures to a contractor based on a search query they found in an LLM. They do it based on relationships. And even for businesses that aren't five-figure contracts, many service businesses are relational, and clients find you other ways.

Stacy Eleczko: Where I think it matters is what I mentioned earlier — not as a discovery channel, but a confirmation channel. If someone types your name into a search, what shows up? What I really wanted to get across in the newsletter and video is that, just like every platform or tactic that's ever worked in marketing, you have to have strong positioning and messaging first. It doesn't matter how much content you put out — unless you're spending millions on ad spend — if you don't have a clear, consistent message and aren't articulating what sets you apart. That's what both humans and "robots" respond to and look for.

ilise: Yeah. Alright — one more question, and then we'll definitely have to continue this conversation another time, since you're running so many experiments and we'll need updates. You've talked about podcasts and speaking gigs, which I'll say plainly I see as a form of content marketing — that's why they're part of your content ecosystem, in my view.

ilise: So how does one get speaking engagements and podcast guesting opportunities?

Stacy Eleczko: I've been very fortunate — a lot of podcast opportunities have come to me, but it goes back to relationships. Many of them happened because I was engaging with people on LinkedIn, or met them at a conference, or someone said, "I was a guest on this podcast, I think you'd be great for it — want me to make a warm introduction?" If you don't have those relationships yet, start building them. If there's a podcast you want to be on, or people are on podcasts you'd like to join, start connecting with them genuinely, and eventually you can ask: "I'd love to guest on your podcast — here's something I think would help your audience. Would that be interesting?"

Stacy Eleczko: (brief technical interruption) Sorry, my screen went black for a second.

ilise: No worries.

Stacy Eleczko: So — it all goes back to relationships, and also knowing where your audience is and not being afraid to ask. That's what's worked for me with podcasts. For speaking gigs, same thing — people with communities have asked me to speak because of other content I've put out, or because they've heard me speak and offered to make an introduction. Relationships are always the answer. But also — and this is why I'm building out YouTube and being in more places — the more visible you are, the better your odds of being in front of people whose stages you'd want to be on, or who can make good introductions.

ilise: The phrase coming to mind is: content begets content.

Stacy Eleczko: Yes, exactly. I spoke at a conference maybe a year ago and got six invitations to guest on podcasts right afterward, just from people in that audience who'd heard me speak. So if you're thinking "I don't know any podcast hosts" or "I don't have a chance to be on stage" — what platforms do you already have? Can you shoot a quick 30-second video and post it? Do a LinkedIn Live? Go to more in-person networking events, offer to speak for free? The more you put yourself out there and the more value you give, it comes back tenfold. That's what I did — I reached out to people running local women's networking groups or lunches and said, "I'd love to speak to your group — here are a few topics, would any of these help your audience?"

ilise: And what most people don't realize is that those hosts need your content — they need good speakers and presenters, they have slots to fill. You're not doing them a favor by showing up; it's the other way around. It's a win-win.

Stacy Eleczko: Absolutely. The biggest thing I keep telling myself this past year is: I'm not going to be the one to tell myself no. I'll let them tell me no. For a long time I wouldn't put myself out there because I was worried, "what if they don't want me on their podcast?" Well — then they don't want me on their podcast.

ilise: Who cares?

Stacy Eleczko: Right, who cares — because I also wasn't going to be on their podcast if I never asked. Now I ask. Maybe I'm still not on their podcast, but at least I asked. I'm done being the person who tells myself no.

ilise: I love that. Okay, one more question: do you see yourself as a confident person?

Stacy Eleczko: I think it's very situation-dependent. (pause) Can you clarify — are you thinking in general, or something specific?

ilise: In general — I'm channeling my listeners again, who are probably thinking, "she can do that, but I don't have the confidence to." So: do you think you have the confidence? Does it take confidence?

Stacy Eleczko: Yes and no — the confidence comes after. If you wait for the confidence to do the thing, you'll never do the thing. Right now, if someone asked me to be on their podcast tomorrow with zero prep time, I could do it, because I've put in enough reps. A year ago, that would've sent me into a tailspin — I'd have stayed up all night imagining every possible question and rehearsing every possible answer.

Stacy Eleczko: It's just a matter of putting in the reps, and remembering there's always at least one person one step behind you. If I can say something helpful to even one person listening, I've done my job. Take the pressure off yourself — you're not competing with someone who's done a thousand podcasts or gets paid five figures to speak. Just put your ideas out there, and you'll get a little better every time.

ilise: Yeah — and comparing yourself to others will kill you.

Stacy Eleczko: Yes.

ilise: Alright, this was awesome — we'll definitely have to talk again, Stacy. Thank you so much. Tell people where they can find you and your content ecosystem.

Stacy Eleczko: Now I have more places to point people to! LinkedIn is generally where I am. You can also find me on YouTube now — I think I just hit double digits in subscribers, very exciting.

ilise: What's your YouTube channel called?

Stacy Eleczko: Great question — I think it's just my name. That's hilarious, I think I just set it up under my name. I'll send you the link.

Stacy Eleczko: LinkedIn, my website, and YouTube are all under my name: Stacy Eleczko — S-T-A-C-Y, E-L-E-C-Z-K-O.

ilise: Perfect.

ilise: Alright, you're the best, Stacy — thank you so much.

Stacy Eleczko: Thank you for having me.

ilise: Of course.