4 Steps to Consistent Content Creation

The best way to show someone you can help them it to help them!

That is why content creation is a key to success in business today. Your ability to share your knowledge and experiences, to both help others and get paid for it, is easier than ever. Even better, getting in the habit of showing up and sharing value is a great way to become seen as a go-to in your industry.

Content creation, whether it be articles, videos, or informational social media posts, consistently puts you in front of the eyeballs of current and potential clients. By doing this often, you can have someone see or hear you right when they need to. Your voice or words might be the thing they “needed to hear today,” and that keeps you top of mind (it might also get you hired for a gig you never even knew was out there!).

But, for many, creating content consistently is easier said than done. The main roadblock people run into is, ‘How do I keep coming up with new ideas?’

These four steps will help you to have a constant flow of ideas to talk or write about.

1. Capture — everything, all the time. You probably don’t realize how often you have thoughts, opinions, and perspectives that you share verbally, but because you don’t capture them, they just go away quickly. Use a notebook or an app on your phone to be constantly capturing observations and thoughts you have. If you do this, you will never run out of things to talk or write about.
2. Separate writing and editing — they are two different jobs, do not ever try to do them at the same time; if you do, you will fail and never publish anything. Do your writing and then put it away for a couple of days. Then, and only then, should you hand it over to your editor (you) to look at again. When you try and edit while you write, you will never finish anything! You are going to spend a bunch of time second guessing, doubting, and trying to find the “right” word. What a waste of your time. When you write as a writer, without editing as you go, you free up your creativity and you will brain-dump some wonderful ideas that will definitely end up in the final draft! When you edit while you write, all you are doing is censoring yourself in real time.
3. Not everything is a full article or video (it doesn’t need to be!) — think in series or segments. Always thinking you need a “complete” anything is another waste of time and energy. People love their information and motivation in small bites — use that to your advantage! It’s so much easier to create in bits and pieces than it is to write essays every time you sit down. Know that being short and to the point is not only effective, but is gives your readers/listeners something they can take away and implement quickly without getting bogged down with additional information.
4. Talk it, don’t write it — Your brain moves much faster than your hand! Get used to speaking your thoughts into a voice recording app that transcribes it onto words. Find one that works well for you. Then, when you sit down to edit, all you have to do is copy and paste the transcription into a document and edit! (And, no, it won’t be perfect — why would you expect it to be perfect?!? Focus on the fact that most of it is perfect, and the rest is something your editor can easily clean up in the editing process.)

The bottom line? Don’t overthink creating content. You are always filled with potential content, you just might not realize it yet.

The concept of ‘writer’s block’ can be applied to any type of content creation. But, as author Seth Godin explained so well,

“No one ever gets talker’s block. No one wakes up in the morning, discovers he has nothing to say and sits quietly, for days or weeks, until the muse hits, until the moment is right, until all the craziness in his life has died down.”

No one gets talkers block! We open our mouths and we talk. We add value, ask questions, and have conversations. Creating content is the same thing; you always have something to say, it’s just a matter of giving yourself permission to say it.

P.S. What would you do if you were more confident? Check out my 16 week course, Owning Your Confidence, to learn how to shift your self-talk, body language, and mental-game so you can have less stress and more confidence.

Originally published on Medium.

Photo by Thought Catalog on Unsplash