Overwhelmed by content? Reclaim your personal sovereignty.
Some of my approaches to content overwhelm might not be popular but they work for me-- and might for you too.
When I was a teenager my best friend Amy had this white cat named Casper. Casper was a strictly indoor cat.
“You mean, she never, ever goes outside?” I asked. I mean, I’d only ever grown up with dogs so what did I know about cats….
“Well, she has been outside, but watch what happens,” Amy said.
Even though I knew how much Amy loved this cat and wouldn’t do anything that would endanger her, I still felt a knot of tension in my stomach when I thought about what Casper might do.
With her newfound freedom, would she get the zoomies and race around the yard?
Would this be the one time she’d leap over the wooden fence and take off?
She did neither of these things.
Casper shrank close to the ground as if she were a diminutive version of Atlas carrying the world on her back.
She crept around sticking close to the perimeter of the back porch. I could see she was experiencing sensory overload in this suddenly uncapped world — insects humming, birds chirping, the feel of the grass under her paws, the noise of cars rumbling by and airplanes overhead, different smells and the hot, humid Texas sun bearing down on us like a wet, woolen blanket.
This memory reminds me of the way many business owners feel about content creation — it’s overwhelming and overstimulating. So we research best practices, batch write, consult with experts and take classes…. we do all of the right things to try and control the overwhelm.
And yet, it’s never enough. We can still hear the rumbling of the content beast’s stomach like some kind of hungry minotaur waiting to leap from the shadows. It’s sort of traumatizing.
The content we do create often leaves us wondering if the tiny flares we’re launching into the big noisy sky can even compete with the rockets blasting by.
One of two things often happens — the business owner gets a case of the zoomies churning out tons of content until they’re burned out from their efforts.
Or they turn into a Casper and hover on the edges, uncertain and apprehensive—overwhelmed by the sights, sounds and everything they aren’t doing.
If you find yourself in one of these camps or somewhere in the precarious middle, here are a couple of recommendations.
Forget best practices.
Other people’s best practices aren’t necessarily your best practices.
I’ve heard experts say you MUST post on all of the social media sites daily. They may not be wrong about algorithms and all that, but is that really what you must do?
I don’t know about you, but I get resentful and stubborn when someone tells me I have to do something.
I realize this is likely a personality flaw. It’s right up there with depriving myself of my favorite foods.
The minute someone tells me I can’t have something or I have to do this, that or the other thing, I come up with all of these reasons why I won’t. I turn into a petulant brat.
So instead, I do what makes sense to me. I ask myself questions like:
Why am I producing this content?
Why am I showing up on this platform?
How will it serve my audience?
Do these activities nourish my creativity so that I can continue to deliver ongoing value?
How does this content and platform align with my business goals and support my long-term vision?
My activity level on social media, for example, fluctuates. The truth is I’m easily distracted when I get on social media and if I’m not careful, it tends to deplete my creative energy resources.
Also, my best clients come through word of mouth so I focus most of my energy on relationship building like connecting with people in small groups and 1-to-1.
Create content buckets.
Creating neatly labeled buckets of content for yourself can provide some boundaries and make content creation less intimidating especially when getting started. Ask yourself questions like:
What is it I’m trying to communicate to my audience?
What matters to them? What matters to me?
What won’t I be using my business platform to talk about right now?
For example, my three main content buckets for Word Energy include:
Content writing strategies for health and wellness providers.
Creative well-being practices.
Content marketing storytelling techniques.
What am I not talking about? Everything else.
By having clarity and boundaries about how I want to use my platform, I feel less overwhelmed and more empowered to create valuable content that serves my audience.
Break the rules.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but this world has a sh*t ton of rules.
Many of them are designed by people who don’t have our best interests at heart or have any interest in understanding our individual needs and experiences.
One of the biggest hurdles I’ve had to overcome is changing my mindset from an employee mindset to an entrepreneur mindset. We’re raised to believe that there’s only one way to operate in this world. It’s a false, misleading narrative that if believed and followed like a religious dogma, is incredibly disempowering.
As a business owner, you have the sovereignty to decide what works best for you and your business.
Maybe you have created boundaries for yourself but they’ve started to feel like a choke collar. That’s a sign it’s time to evolve, pivot, crash through walls and shatter ill-conceived ceilings.
Most of all, go at your own pace. There’s no rush. Trust divine timing. Have faith in yourself. Get curious. Permit yourself to experiment with new ideas.
Meanwhile, I’ll leave the back door open. Come out and play when you’re ready. It’s beautiful out here.