Have you ever struggled to get yourself to sit down and actually create content? Like you find yourself procrastinating the task? Does it feel like a chore? Another thing you have to do in the never ending list of priorities in your business?
If so, I totally understand. And by the way, you’re definitely not alone. From working with beginner entrepreneurs all the way through to 8- and 9-figure entrepreneurs with millions of followers, this struggle is a constant.
In fact, I used to struggle with the same thing.
Until I figured out three things that were holding me back. When I solved these three things, it changed everything for me. Suddenly content creation became fun again. I found myself being more creative and easily coming up with new ideas. And as a result, the quality of my content improved, and started to perform so much better.
So let’s break down these three things and show you how they might be affecting your content production:
Is the topic you’re talking about 100% aligned with you and what lights you up? Or are you creating content around that topic because you feel the “need” to?
Really spend some time with this question. You see, most entrepreneurs are taught to simply choose a target market, research that market, and deliver what that market wants to hear.
And don’t get me wrong, it’s a viable strategy. I, and many other creators, have built big audiences off this strategy. It’s a great way to get started.
But ultimately it can lead to burnout. Inconsistent posting. Procrastination. You might not even realize it’s happening. But the bottom line is, you’re just not having fun.
On the other hand, what if instead of always talking about what you think your audience wants to hear, or what you think will “work”, or get you the engagement, leads, or sales you’re looking for…
What if you just talked about what you want to talk about?
I’m convinced that the added joy and aliveness that comes from you will ultimately attract way more people than any strategic attempt to win people over.
I recognize that this is hard. It’s exposing. It’s vulnerable.
But it will not only add a much needed energy to your content (that results in higher performance and deeper audience connection), but it will also make content creation more fun. You’ll find yourself enjoying creating content again. And it will actually get done.
Practical tip: Start small. Just commit to once a week, or once a month (or just once total) to make a post about something only loosely related to your topic. Share your opinion on something, share something exciting that just happened in your life, talk about your family, something… and see what happens.
My friend Annie Grace took this challenge just yesterday. She was reluctant to share anything outside of her normal topic, because she didn’t want to alienate her 150,000 followers. But I pushed her to do it and she did. She made a post about the tattoo she just got on her ankle. It got over 1,000 likes in the first 12 hours (her posts usually get less than 100 likes total).
But more importantly, you could feel that she was sharing something that she was really passionate about, and that’s what matters.
This is a deep topic so I wont go into the why right now, but let me just assure you right off the bat that once again, you’re not alone. Some of the biggest, most successful entrepreneurs I work with have the same fear. It looks like this:
You sit down to shoot a video and you can't spit it out because you're thinking about what you have to say, what clothes you're wearing, the words you're using, your hand movements... basically anything BUT the message you're trying to share.
It’s weird, because you can have a conversation with friends and not think once about any of those things. But once you hit record on something that is going out into the world, it’s like your brain fogs up and you can’t focus.
I get it. It's hard. But you need to realize that what you say and HOW you say it is your single greatest asset. Read that again.
If you’re like most of the messed up people in this world who have been traumatized by other peoples’ opinions and life experiences that happen to us (hello, that’s all of us), it’s perfectly plausible that you maybe sometimes don’t like the way you look, the way you talk, or your ability to create content.
And since there’s no quick, tactical “hack” to help you get over this in a jiffy, I’m going to ask you to just trust me on this.
You are your greatest asset. The way you are is what people love about you the most. And anytime you're trying to be anything else other than who you are, your content is coming across flat, uninteresting, and sometimes downright awkward.
Give yourself permission to just be you. I promise you it's what people want to see.
Maybe this will help: Record a video of yourself that you are going to post online. Then record another video of yourself that you will NOT post online. No, you're not trying to "trick" yourself into thinking you won't post it. You are actually NOT going to post it.
Shut the door. Close the windows. Make everyone leave the house. Whatever you have to do to feel totally comfortable that nobody is watching or ever will watch this video in the future.
Create the video and focus your energy entirely on the message you're trying to share, but most importantly on just having fun. Show your personality, be quirky, be boring, stutter over your words, whatever feels natural.
It's going to feel weird, but remember, nobody is ever going to see this video but you.
Now, take the video and hide it on a thumb drive, lock it with a key, whatever you have to do, and promise not to look at it for at least a week. Give yourself time to get out of the scared energy and allow yourself to forget about it enough that when you watch it again you're doing it with a fresh pair of eyes.
When you finally do look again, watch both videos back to back. Pay attention to the energy. Ask yourself which one is more interesting, more entertaining, and more fun to watch. Which one has your light? I'll be amazed if it's not the second one.
Now delete the video. But take with you the lesson. Your light comes across when you're being real. And that's what people want to see. Lean into it.
If you can't get yourself to create content, because you have to set up the camera, make the lighting look good, think about the edit, write the scripts, etc., then you're headed for burnout.
Maybe you've tried being consistent before, but the actual "production" of it all is overwhelming. Of if you're a filmmaker or editor, maybe it's coming up with ideas or determining a strategy.
But if you're an entrepreneur, and you're NOT a videographer, an editor, a writer, a content strategist, or a social media expert... then why are you doing those things?
If you're just starting out, you're probably doing all of these things by default, and that's okay for a little bit. But if you try to do it all long term, the burnout is coming.
That's why it's extremely important to start getting a team of people to help you as soon as you can. It can be simple at first, like hiring a VA, a social media manager, or an editor. You can even get them part time to just work on your videos for a few hundred bucks per month.
This one thing will completely unlock your content inconsistency.
But here's the really huge benefit: It allows you to focus on doing what you love and do best—your craft. Your unique gift. You get to go deeper into your creativity, because suddenly you're not so bogged down with all of the task work of creating content.
Your job is to be the creator, to show up and share your expertise. And let your team do all the rest.
When you do these three things, you'll start to LOVE creating content because you’ll be talking about what you love, you’ll be comfortable being yourself, and you’ll only have to do the parts of the process that you enjoy.
When I discovered this framework, it was like a whole new world opened up to me. Suddenly, content creation was fun again. I found my creativity. I began to enjoy writing and coming up with ideas. I focused more of my energy on serving my audience. And all of this resulted in far better content that performed better than ever.
So let me know… is there something else holding you back from creating content consistently? What is it? Hit reply and tell me. I read every response.
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…and you’re ready to take your brand, your content, and your business to the next level, here’s a few ways I can help you:
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