The real reason you’re not creating content

I’ve been pondering this morning the question of why do so many people seem to struggle to create content in their business?

Why do they find it so hard to consistently release the stream of thoughts and ideas out into the world with the intention, of course, of drawing attention to whatever is that they’re ultimately trying to sell?

Now before we get into it, I’m talking specifically about the people who are the heart, soul and face of their business. The people that have come up with an idea or are following a pull within them to offer a certain service or to sell a certain product.

The reason that they’re selling this thing or making this offer isn’t purely based on how much money it will bring back to them, it’s is based on answering the questions:

• How can I help people?
• How can I contribute to the world?
• How can I use my own skills, gifts, experiences, expertise to greater serve others?

These are the people that I am talking about. And it’s often these people that I see struggling the most to create content, to share their message with the world. And I believe personally, it’s because we have become too obsessed with becoming and being “strategic”.

We have been completely (I want to say, brainwashed, but that’s a little bit strong) intoxicated by the messaging from lots of businesses out there and business strategists and business teachers who, all have very valid things to say don’t get me wrong, but this level of “must be strategic, must be strategic otherwise it’s wasted energy and wasted time” can also cripple our own creativity.

Very much like a hand at the throat, this obsession with strategy keeps so many of our ideas and inspiration locked within us, unable to actually express it in a clear way because we feel we need to overly shape it, overly construct it and edit it so that it appears and is presented in a way that fits and ticks that strategic box.

But I believe when you are somebody who is creating and bringing their offering to the world from the motivation of being able to serve and help others and use your own gifts, skills, experiences, and expertise to do so… this obsession that we have with being strategic is also the thing that will actually cut us off from the source of our own creativity and therefore cut off the flow of people that are able to find us and experience our message.

And so with this in mind, if you find yourself in the position where you are the person I have described and you are experiencing yourself in that state of:

“I am finding it incredibly difficult to create content. I’m finding it incredibly difficult to consistently release things into the world. I have a million ideas, but I feel unable to express them.”

I think there’s an opportunity for you to look at is the reason that you’re struggling to create because you don’t feel that what you have to share meets some sort of standard that is acceptable for a business or for an online brand.

Is your obsession with staying on message actually completely limiting your ability to share your message?

Because if what you are bringing to the world is an expression of your skills, experience, expertise, gifts or whatever it is, if it comes from a place within you, then every single thing, every single idea and creative nudge that emerges naturally comes from that same place.

So even if you worry that talking about something does not contribute to the overall selling of your offer, if it comes from you? It can’t not do that because you are a living, breathing expression of your message and your offer is an expression of that same thing. It’s an expression of what you are here to bring and give to the world.

To follow this thread: you might have something that is a very simple product, a very simple item that assists people with something very simple in their lives. So in this case, you might have a product that enhances the flavor.

(I’m referencing somebody very specific who I spoke to only this morning before I hit record on this who told me that they were struggling with creating content)

You might have this product, you might find yourself in a position of: How can I take this cool thing and create a whole load of content around it? And you might find that you struggle with thinking “I want to talk about all these different things, but how do I link back to this idea of selling a product that enhances flavor?”

Well, I would argue that that product of enhancing flavor in food actually represents something much bigger. It allows people to experience flavorful, joyful living. That’s what it does. Like, you know, when you’ve eaten something and it tastes incredible, you will know what a joy that is. And so although this product might feel simple, it represents so much.

It represents the joy of life, the joy of living. And I would assume if you are a person that feels called to share this with the world, this product, it’s probably because within you you understand the importance of joy in life. Of making joy simple and accessible. That most likely comes from somewhere deep within you. And so instead of obsessing about “how can I keep my content strategic and only focus on the product” you can talk about the joy of life and then you can bring your product into this message as an example of a really simple way to access it.

Can you see how what we offer is only ever an expression of our deeper message within?

Let’s take myself. I help people clarify their message. I help them put words to what they do. And yes, I have offers that take you through a structured process of discovery and organizing your thoughts. But actually, what I share and what that offer represents is me encouraging everybody to express freel. To be yourself. To love yourself so that you see the value in what you have to bring to the table as you are right now. That’s where my work comes from.

And so that’s why I can create a video like this, which is seemingly… well, I would say actually it’s probably fairly obviously connected (content and messaging go hand in hand baby).

But it’s why I can also do a video about our periods and our menstrual cycles for example!

“How is our menstrual cycle connected to our messaging?”

Well, because it impacts the ability and our way that we are able to share!

So I would encourage you, if you find yourself in this position of feeling creative block to quite simply forget about being strategic and just start sharing.

Just start exploring what it feels like for you to speak from the heart. If you feel a message is within you, if you feel idea is within you that wants to be expressed, express it. Don’t worry about how it’s going to come out. Don’t worry about the strategic nature of it. Let it be and exist in the world.

Because if you have an offer, if you are the person that has brought your business to life for a reason other than just to make money, if your intention is to help people and the offer you’re bringing to the world is an expression of that, then every single other thing in your mind, in your heart, in your soul, by its very nature, will also be that same expression.

It will come from the same place and therefore it will be connected. It is connected because it comes from you.

And I often find, particularly with myself, if I let myself share, if I don’t overly worry about how I will connect things, about how it will make strategic sense for my business, when I look back and reflect on what I’ve created, the connection is obvious.

The dots are easy to connect. I can see it.

So let yourself share freely. Let yourself just express.

Please stop being so caught up in the strategy of things.

Now to caveat this whole thing that will be some people that probably do need to bring more strategy into their business, into the way that they actually physically share that content.

So, for example, I apply strategy to my own business in the places I share my content in. The hashtags that I use on Instagram. In the way things are formatted after the fact. This is where I let strategy lead.

But in the act of creation, the act of sharing… for me personally, strategy has no place in that conversation.

But I will admint that that’s only the case because I have stripped back enough layers of conditioning. I’ve been able to really get to the core of what is it that I’m trying to share, in a very much “felt sense” – as in I can feel the message within me. I can feel the resonance of it, the vibration of it, and through the sheer act of continuously sharing and letting it out, I’ve been able to create enough perspective, and almost create enough “data” in my creations to understand what that message is that is trying to come through.

But you only learn this in the doing.

So as long as you keep your ideas hidden, unexpressed, unpublished, you are blocking yourself from discovering what it is.

Because I actually think when we start doing these things and start sharing like I’ve been in this for coming up to five years this year and I’ve been continuously sharing, and if I look back at year one, I almost had to get a lot of stuff out of my system that wasn’t mine to share. That was effectively “immitation” to get myself to the point where I felt comfortable enough in myself and who I am. Then the gold started to come through.

If you’ve not been in the process of sharing content for a while, if you’ve never really like built up a rhythm of it, you can think of it almost as like a water tank that’s been sat there for a long time and all your creativity stored in it.

But because you haven’t been releasing it, there’s an element of like stagnation that’s happened. So when you first turn that tap on, the water that starts to flow might not be well… it will most likely not be your best work, but there’s an element of clearing that stagnation so you can start to let new ideas flow through. That’s what’s going to then start to allow your true message, your true being, your true gifts to emerge.

Be have to let (particularly if you’ve held back for so long) you have to kind of honor that initial process of “I have to get this out of my system first.”

But in the act of sharing, in the act of releasing, I will be creating, a vacuum within this space in which new ideas can be pulled through, which is why I just always say to people, just start sharing! Take messy action, create freely, let it flow through you.

Because it’s in the act of doing that you will find your resistance to creating will likely decrease, because actually in those initial stages all your resistances will be brought up to the fore for you to inspect and question and understand what’s really holding you back.

And so naturally, as you continue to share and continue to work through those resistances, you will transform them and release those patterns and release that resistance. So turn the tap on, my friends!

Let it flow!

In the act of creation, strategy has no place in the act of sharing and publishing and understanding where to place things… that’s when we can start to bring in that more strategic view.