Content is great! I love content! I love planning it, creating it, publishing it. I just love it. That is why I am doing what I'm doing in my business. It's my ZOG – Zone of Genius and my ZOJ – Zone of Joy.
I know that not everyone feels that way.
Would you rather go to the dentist to have your teeth pulled than create content for your business?
There might be a few reasons why you feel that way. They are all valid reasons. Let me unpack some of the most common ones for you.
I have encountered these while I have been working with people. I have also bumped into most of them myself while looking for ways to put myself and my business out there.
Some of them are a little dark and speak to our fears and some are just things we are ignorant of.
If you are looking at ways to overcome your aversion to creating content, this blog will definitely give you something to chew on.
Content envy
When you see someone creating awesome content and you feel that tinge of jealousy. That green eyed monster can get out of hand pretty quick if you don't call it out for what it is.
It will have you feeling that resentment that comes with the envy when not acknowledged.
It manifests in you punishing yourself by not creating content that can demonstrate your own awesomeness.
We all have the ability to do that. No one is incapable. Incapability is a belief, not a handicap. There is always a way and you may not have found it yet.
For some, envy can be a driving force. For others it can be a force that will paralyse and freeze. It's also signpost towards what we really want.
Content is never an issue here. When jealousy is what's stopping you from creating content, it's not your capability that is missing.
It's more likely to be about your conscious awareness of what you really want.
Let's follow those breadcrumbs and not just stop at the surface where that envy is felt. There is something you want, deep down that the other person, whose content you are jealous of is achieving with their content.
Is that recognition? Is that visibility? Notoriety even? Is it that they sound eloquent, competent and put together?
Something else?
Once you know what it is that really bothers you about their content, you know what it is that you really want.
If you watched the series Lucifer, starring Tom Ellis, his hypnotic gaze when asking people what they really want, makes them reveal their deepest desires.
We have been conditioned to believe that visibility is bad. That we need to shrink and dwell in the shadows as women. That wanting to be seen and recognised is dirty and unbecoming of a woman.
Is that possible that you have been triggered by that conditioning?
Feeling content envy is a great opportunity find out more about yourself and what you really desire.
Platform confusion
There are dozens of content platforms out there, for all types of media. It's easy to be completely and utterly confused about which ones to use.
There are new ones being added constantly. People swear by the ones they use.
In that mix of all the things, how you know which ones you should be on. Consequently, which ones you should be creating content for?
What media to use? Should I use, video, audio, written? short, long, with images, without images, what time, how many words, what format, and the list just goes on and on and on and on and on.
Is your head spinning yet?
No wonder!
People are happy to give advice on what works for them. That's great! How do you know though that it will work for you?
My advice usually is to see what feels right for you. I can talk about the benefits of doing live video on whatever platform, until I'm blue in the face.
If video is not your "thing" it will not be your first choice to create content for.
If you have sitting at your computer for hours at a time, trying to smash out a blog, good luck with setting aside time to do that. You'll end up finding creative excuse to avoid writing those blogs.
What is that you enjoy doing? Do that and learn how to make it work for you and your business.
Try other platforms and media to see how you like them and maybe somewhere down the track you will get into other ways of creating content.
Can't even tech
What happens when you know what media and platforms work for you but you're not a "techie". It all just seems to hard and complicated and you just can't deal.
I felt that way about WordPress. I knew that it was the best platform to build my website on. I knew that I didn't have the knowledge I needed to have to create a site the looked good.
I also didn't have the $$$ to hire someone to do it for me. So I made the decision to train myself up in it.
Here's what I learnt from my experience.
Don't be scared of learning new things. Start training from the very bottom and learn the basic. Give yourself enough time to figure things out.
Ask for help only from those who are pros, not your neighbour or your friend's 16 year old highschooler.
Lower your expectations of yourself. Integrate what you can to make processes smoother.
These can be applied to any platform or new tech you need to implement for your business.
Once you get over your intimidation and fear of "breaking things", you will have that sense of achievement that you empowered yourself.
When in business, you need to be open to learning new things.
That is a universal truth.
So is the fact that when you're in business by yourself, you are a one woman badn and it's all up to you to motivate yourself.
No $$$
You love consuming content and you'd love to create the type of content you know your audience would also love.
There is just one problem.
You don't have the money. At least you don't think you have the money to create the type and quality of content you're happy with.
You don't want to create anything that is not hitting your high standards, so you just don't create anything at all.
I hear you!
I had the same reservations.
Then I started looking for free content creation platforms.
I love free stuff.
If I can get something done for free, I will use it. Most of the tools I'm using are free. So are the platforms and media. I'm the queen of using what I have and squeezing every bit of value out of it.
There are apps and tools for everything under the sun.
Some with free version of limited features, some with limited time free version with full features.
Either way, give them a go and see if they vibe with you . You can't break them. Literally, you just can't.
Feel free to use and abuse those feel version to hour hearts' content.
That's what they are there for!
Ain't nobody got time fo dat
The age old excuse. If no other reasoning works, the good old "no time" is always reliably there.
Time, is never the issue here.
Everything I have listed above can be fixed easily with a little work.
This, however is something that is used as a safety blanky when we just don't wanna.
This is where self-discipline will do you well.
Consider outsourcing business tasks to create the space for content type activities.
It's also a good idea to delve deeper and discover the real reason that makes you want to not dedicate time to content creation.
Need help sorting out your live video strategy? Book in for a free 15 minute chat with me to see if I can help.
