Have you ever looked at your calendar and see it's time to write a blog post or create a new video for your YouTube channel or Facebook feed and mentally groaned? It's just such a slog sometimes, you think, creating content.
Or maybe you're someone who resists even putting time to create content on your calendar because, well, it just seems so…heavy.
Perhaps it's hard to come up with what you want to talk about or maybe you know the topic but when it comes to actually putting words to it, your inner critic starts having a field day:
That's a lame beginning. Who wants to hear about that? This topic has been written about by so many others, I don't have anything new to say. It won't be any good. I get started and then it gets so muddled! Will they even read it?
Maybe putting out blog posts or other content, like doing a podcast, has become so difficult, you're doing less and less of it. Or maybe you're soldiering ahead, gettin' 'er done, but honestly, it's the least favorite part of owning your business.
This is so, so common. And it's really painful.
The thing is, though, many coaches, healers or other creative don't realize that creating valuable content for their audience is a skill to be learned. They think that because they are skilled, experienced practitioners that creating content to grow their business should be second nature.
Well, the truth is, it's not.
Beginner's Mind vs. I Should Know This
This year, my journey through two incredible learning experiences demonstrates this really well, the first on energy reading and the other on short story fiction writing.
In the energy reading courses, it was 100% clear to me as I started out that I had no earthly idea how to do this. No one does, or almost no one, anyway. :) Accessing our intuitive gifts and reading energy isn't something we're taught is school. It's something you can't see, and, if you tell most people about it, they'd be highly skeptical.
When I started this course, I knew I had lots to learn. I was an open book. I was taking in the teachings hungrily, experimenting, being amazed at what worked, fascinated when I was wrong. I was overjoyed learning. It has been fun!
Contrast this with my second course, an equally powerful course on short story fiction writing. Those of you that know me know I've wanted to be a writer since, well, forever. In this course, I came in with lots of years writing, but in hindsight I was looking for the Rules. (Turns out, there are none.)
While I am studying craft in this course, most of my learning has been around becoming even more keenly aware of my own resistance and harsh inner critic. From Day 1, I noticed I was nervous about sharing my work and compared myself to my peers (some who'd already finished novels or were working full time in publishing). I was afraid my stories wouldn't be good enough.
Again and again, I saw myself questioning the creative decisions I made, even when I was following my intuition. I was a little surprised, actually. I should know this stuff, I'm a coach already!
The different way I experienced these two courses comes down to one thing: my own expectations about which course was on a skill I needed to learn and which one was something I thought I already knew a lot about but needed to learn how to be much better.
It turned out, both were skills I needed to learn, to practice and get better at.
Content Creation as a Skill
Creating content for marketing your business is much like writing a short story. Everyone knows how to write - you went to school for 12 years, usually more. You can watch others' marketing and glean information. You think you should know how to do it. And that you should just do it!
The coaches, healers or other creatives I work with as clients come wanting to know the rules of content creation. They want a formula. A way to know for sure what will connect with their ideal clients and what won't. They want the rules, so they can do it right from the get go.
Like writing a short story, though, there are guidelines you can follow, but there aren't any hard and fast rules. You want to create content in your own voice and based on the principles of authentic marketing. But each person's content will be unique, developed through paying attention, practice and care.
And, just like I discovered in my short story class, content creation and the marketing of that content, has the tendency to bring our people's inner critic. And that often pushes people back into resistance and avoidance.
How to Change the Content Creation Dynamic
If you can approach content creation like a skill you need to learn, however, it changes the dynamic.
Here are three things to help you do just that:
Begin at the Beginning
Treat learning to write about content as you would learning any new skills. Bring a beginner's mind and stay open to learning. Just because you know how to write, talk or make videos, creating content to grow an audience has principles you can learn. Even if you know broad strokes about content creation, I invite you take in teachings. See what works for you and what doesn't.
See Your Content as Drafts
One of the things that helped me through my short story fiction writing course was to look at every assignment as a draft. Even my final short story is a draft. The more I learn about writing short stories in particular and fiction in general is I see how many drafts these pieces go through before publication.
Now, I'm not recommending you revise your blog post seven times before you hit post. Check for typos and stuff, but as you publish your content pieces (the same for your audio, videos, etc.) consider each one as a draft of a sort. You don't know yet which topic, or article, or video will connect with your audience and why. You're creating content to discover that. Looking at your regular content pieces as experiments helps you find that out while lessens its creative weight and lets you feel freer making it.
Cultivate Fun
This one will only be possible if you're already doing numbers One and Two above. Once you've got those down, take a few minutes to dream up what would make content creation more fun for you. Maybe you create a touchstone - something to remind you of your intention to hold this lightly. Maybe it's writing to fun music (this is one of my favorites I like to write to: Fire Dance.) Perhaps it's taking your laptop outside and sitting amongst the trees.
When creating content to market your business, it's tempting to see it as something you should already know how to do and "just do it". Instead, reframing it as a skill you need to learn lets you stay open to new and more effective ways of doing it.
If you remember to bring a beginner's mind, treat your content as drafts in progress, and cultivate fun when you can, creating content can feel freer, lighter and more fun. And who doesn't want more of that, especially right now?
If you're looking for guidance on content creation, check out this free eBook that will help you learn how to create content your ideal clients will value. The link below will give you more information, and if you want, a place to request the guide for free.
If you'd like to talk more about content creation or any aspect of your business' marketing, feel free to sign up for a free assessment.
In that discussion, we'll spend time talking about your business and your marketing and content goals. I'll give you my take on what I think's going on and where you can best focus your next steps.