The Real Reason You're Not Making Content for Your Business

Episode 62: The Real Reason You're Not Making Content for Your Business

In this episode, Holly Hibbard - Social Media Consultant & emotional intelligence nerd - shares with you...

• the most common reasons coaches, consultants, and service providers give for not posting content about or for their business 
• the #1 thing you need to start paying attention to today that will actually make or break your ability to create content and post it
• how to immediately - with this new knowledge - create a small social media content strategy that you’ll do for real and enjoy

If you like what you've read so far, I’d love it if you’d SUBSCRIBE to the show, and TURN ON your notifications so you don’t miss a future episode.

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WORK WITH HOLLY IN OCTOBER, 2024 //

• Ready to launch your social media brand quickly and finish your 2024 with elevated impact? Hire Holly as your social media strategist and coach! Book a quick call with me here: https://tidycal.com/thehollyhibbard/quick

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Transcript

Welcome to the Holly Hibbard Show.
I'm Holly, a relationship coach and emotional intelligence nerd turned social media consultant.
This podcast podcast is for coaches, consultants, and service providers ready to simplify their social media strategy, create impactful content, and grow their audience without the overwhelm.
If you want to attract dream clients and free up more time for the things that you love, you are in the right place.
Let's make social media work for you starting now.
Hey, everyone.
Welcome back to the Holly Hibbard Show.
I am your host, Holly Hibbard, and I am excited to chat with you today about the real reason you are not making content for your business.
And I'm specifically talking about social media content, but this can look such a variety of ways and I wanna get into your head a little bit with today's episode.
I want you to consider, what are the reasons you tell yourself that you do not make your business, your coaching, your consulting, the service that you provide, the skill that you teach, the education that you offer to others, what are the reasons you tell yourself that you don't put content out about that?
Content could be you bragging on yourself and sharing a client testimonial or a review of a student who completed the class that you teach and they loved it, applied it in their life, and got an incredible result.
Maybe your post could look like taking a snippet of your wisdom and posting it as a short video or even simpler, a couple of lines in a written post.
What are the reasons that you tell yourself that you're not doing this?
And I've been talking to a lot of people lately who are in those industries, coaching, consulting, service providers, and I've been asking them what keeps them from posting more about their business or if they feel like they are posting content about their business, what do they think is missing?
So let's start with the reasons that people have told me that they're not posting about their business at all to begin with.
There are a slew of people who are afraid to put their face on camera.
They're afraid to make video content.
They're afraid to record any type of video.
Some folks don't even wanna have their picture taken and posted someplace, let alone a video where they're talking into the ether, you know?
And what if they fumble over their words?
What if people judge them?
And so they just don't put themselves out there to begin with because they're afraid that there could be a backlash.
And I did a whole other episode about, handling the backlash of social media.
If you haven't checked that out yet, go go back and listen to that one.
But oftentimes, I think to myself, okay, I get it if you don't wanna be on camera.
I get it if you don't feel like you are the most experienced speaker.
But what about just sharing a written sentence or a paragraph, talking about a success story or something that you do that is uniquely you?
A way that you work with your client that you know has you stand out in your industry or could stand out in your industry.
Maybe there's a special licensing or certification level that you have accomplished or completed that sets you apart from others that are doing the same thing that you are doing.
But you just won't tell people.
So it could have have something to do with, okay, I'm holding back because I don't wanna be on camera.
Okay.
Got it.
Or I'm holding back because I don't want to brag about myself because I want to appear to be humble or people might think that I'm too much of a bragger and not so much of a humble brag or whatever you wanna label it.
Okay.
I get that too.
But the next thing that I hear from a lot of the people I've spoken to is, it's a time constraint.
I just don't have the time.
Or I try to put content out there and I just can't seem to do it consistently.
And time is a real, real construct.
Yes.
But it can be a real obstacle.
Case in point, just full transparency here.
If you're watching this on video on YouTube hi, by the way.
I'm recording this at 9 PM, the night before this episode is gonna go out.
Never made it to makeup today.
Never just no.
Not even jewelry.
Nothing happened in here.
Lighting is not the greatest.
This is not the time.
This is not the ideal time for me, but my commitment to put an episode out on Tuesday Thursday and do it on video.
Because that takes more work.
That takes more energy.
My commitment is stronger than wanting to settle and fall back into that pattern of, oh, I just don't feel like it.
But time is a real thing.
My life is busy.
Today, it was full of conference calls, a meeting with my personal trainer, which I only do once a month for check-in purposes.
Some of these people I was speaking to, the coaches and consultants and service providers talking with them.
I had a healthcare call today.
I also have, you know, responsibilities as a parent to handle.
Household responsibilities, prepping for Halloween tomorrow, making sure all the laundry is done.
Why there's a lot of things that are happening.
And not ideal for, like, someone like me who I love creating content, and I could just do that for hours on end.
But that's real life.
And that's where I feel my perspective with content creation is different than some because, one, I'm completely self taught.
So I know it takes time to learn these things.
It takes the desire to learn these things.
It also takes a desire and a willingness to mess up a lot and to stay committed to the learning process.
But I also think also think that my perspective is one where you gotta fit it in where you can fit it in and stop questioning if it's enough.
I understand that consistency is more important.
So, yes, time does come up as a reason why people are not posting about their business.
And I hear you and I get it.
And there are so many types of content that you can put out into the world on the social media in literally less than 2 minutes.
If all you did was post 2 sentences to your social media platform, like every day, or ask your audience a question every day, that doesn't require much time at all.
And if that is not happening, this is an invitation for you to really check-in with what is keeping you from doing, to me, the bare minimum, which is that, which is writing a sentence.
And I get to ask myself this too because I will have a week where I'm on it with not just creating the content, but then posting it on a regular basis.
But then I have a string of a few days where I never get around to posting it.
And I think to myself, oh, but then to edit the thing I wanna edit, that's gonna take me 10 minutes, and even 10 minutes feels like a lot.
And then I remind myself, Holly, all you have to do is post a sentence.
All you have to do, why are you making this so difficult?
So there's a lot of reasons that people give for why they're not posting content about their services, their perspectives.
And it's not that all your content, by the way, has to be about your service itself.
Definitely doesn't need to be you selling your products.
In fact, that's that's a no no out the gate.
You wanna make sure you're letting people in on who you are.
But I also like to share things that aren't related to content creation.
I'm sharing with you today in this episode, roughly what my day was like.
I'm sharing with you photos of my family at a trunk or treat over the weekend.
I'm sharing a short video during the summertime that my dog is terrified of thunder.
There are certain components.
And if you think about people who are in your industry or people that you follow, because the the the coaches, the consultants, the service providers, the leaders that show up, think about the stuff that they're putting out there.
They're not always talking about their service.
They're taking the time to show you who they are and what they're interested in as well.
It doesn't have to be constant, but there's more than one way to get content out there.
Because your business is not just your service, your business is you as your brand.
If you are running an office or an agency, for example, the attitude of the people there, the vibe of the environment, share that.
That's part of it too.
We're thinking too small on what content has to be and that's keeping us from posting.
But even with all I've just said, the title of today's episode is, the real reason you're not making content for your business.
Everything I've just said, that's not the real reason.
I actually feel that the real reason that you're not making content is coming from something having to do with, yes, the time constraints, but more importantly, your energy constraints, your bandwidth, your ability to focus, your ability to figure things out and persevere.
And if we're creating content, that means that some iota of what you're going to write or film or type up, however pretty or black and white it is.
It requires creativity.
And if you are not in a space where you can carve out 5 minutes of time and a peaceful calm energy, then your creativity is going to be stunted by your exhaustion.
Now you might be listening to this and going, okay, Holly, I kinda get it so far, but I don't really consider myself an exhausted person.
I'm tired.
I have a busy life.
I have a lot of responsibilities, but I don't feel like I'm exhausted or complete or, depleted.
Okay?
But what I'm saying here is sometimes I will have 5 or 10 or 20 or 30 minutes to make content, but my emotional capacity is not present at the same time.
It's like I have to know the sweet spot between when I'm going to have both a window of time and an amount of energy to focus on the task, commit to the task, follow through with the tag, and then know when the content is going to go out there.
It sounds like a large order.
But really what I'm highlighting for you here is, it's kind of rare until you really get in the groove of creating your content on a regular basis.
It's pretty rare that you're going to have both the window of time and the opportune amount of energy or focus to sit down and do the content.
Okay?
So what do we do in those moments where we have the time, but our energy is feeling kinda low?
Maybe physically, because remember your energy your your diff there are different bodies of the human.
Okay?
So let me put it this way.
You have your physical body, your emotional body, your mental body, and your spiritual body.
If a multitude of those physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, if a multitude of those or even just one of those is feeling completely wiped out, you're going to feel a little off.
Probably not going to feel super inspired to come up with an idea, or to sit down and focus on making content.
If you're physically tired, your brain might not be firing off ideas like you would like.
If you are emotionally drained, let's say your business is a side hustle and your current main hustle is something that causes you frustration, stress, anxiety.
Those are things that need to be remote like handled in the moment as much as possible, so that you can set aside your your mental well-being in that moment.
I don't wanna say set aside your mental well-being.
What I really mean is, like, sort through the emotion of, okay, I'm feeling really anxious from this main hustle today, and I know I need to create a piece of content.
I know I'm not feeling, like, super, super inspired, and I'm not gonna come up with the most genius thing in this moment.
But what can I do that's going to be simple?
Very simple?
So I can say it's consistent.
Or what can I take about what I'm feeling right now?
This anxiety, distress, this frustration from my main hustle, for example, and turn that into a piece of content to say, hey, anyone else ever feel super inspired to make content about their business or talk about this service or talk about their coaching, but they had such a frustrating day they can't bring themselves to do it?
You see what I did there?
I'm not even sharing about what actually I'm feeling or going through.
I'm just taking it and asking my audience a question, because that counts.
You don't have to spill your guts on everything, but you can make it simple.
So if your physical body, your mental body, your emotional body, your spiritual body, if it's feeling off, that can impede your creativity.
That can start to feed a dialogue in your mind again or furthermore of, oh, I have nothing to say.
I'm too depleted.
I'm gonna show up on camera and it's gonna come off bland.
They're not gonna think I'm serious because I I'm so exhausted.
Or they're not gonna think I'm connected.
Or they're not gonna think that I care.
All of that is coming from your energy level feeling pretty low or off.
So I am a big fan of and people tend to create content in a couple of different ways.
But there are some folks who have the ability to plan out, this is the content I'm going to create on what day, and I'm going to film it as a video or write it as a blog or I'm going to do this.
And no matter what they write down, come hell or high water, they can go ahead and do it.
I wish I was that person.
I am not that person.
But there's a slew of people who are and kudos to them.
But then there's another form of people and this is more me and it took me a while to learn this, that realize, you know, I need to ride the energy wave when it's high.
When it's a high tide on that energy wave, I better make a few pieces of content.
I better set a couple of them aside.
So for example, after doing this for so long, I know that for my content for a week or 2 weeks, my energy is always the highest on Mondays.
I am the most rested.
Sometimes I have inspiration from the weekend.
Sometimes I don't.
But I just have the most clarity.
I don't know another way to describe it.
You know?
But I guess, physically, I feel the best.
Emotionally, I get excited because, it's a new week.
I've had some rest.
Mentally, I wanna turn the creative juices on and make something cool happen and serve people.
I'm fired up like that.
Spiritually, I'm probably coming off of a weekend and and being restful and Sabbath and all those things.
Right?
And I know that Mondays are my sweet spot.
And so, intentionally, I do my best not to take meetings or clients or offer classes on Mondays.
Because I've dedicated that window of time for the creation process.
Because I know that as the week goes on, those bodies I talked about, physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, they will become depleted to some extent.
All of them, some of them, none of them, whatever.
But usually by Thursday, I start fading.
And by Friday, I'm I'm not in creation mode on Friday.
I'm in, like, doing mode, you know, but, like, tactical things.
Like, I'll I'll type something up.
Right?
Something that's mindless.
I'll say mindless.
Like, really simple.
Not very emotionally involved.
Robotic.
Yeah.
That's a good word.
Like, robotic stuff, I can do by the end of the week.
But creative stuff, it's gotta be done earlier in the week.
Now that is my energy wave.
Way back when I started my business, my main hustle, I worked about 35 hours a week, and I worked on some weekends additionally in a contract role facilitating massive workshops.
And I was running these workshops.
I was on a microphone, and it would go from, like, Friday night at 5 PM until, like, Sunday at 10 PM, nonstop.
It was the I'm smiling and laughing because it's so much fun, and I can't say more than it.
It was awesome.
It was really awesome.
And my feet never hurt so bad.
They did when I went home Sunday night.
And I had a routine on that Sunday night.
I would leave where I was facilitating a workshop, and it was carryout for dinner and go home.
And I would eat my dinner in my bed, and I would go to bed.
I was so exhausted.
Really fun job, but very exhausting.
And in those days, Monday was not my high tide of creativity.
Absolutely not.
Abs I knew I could not give anyone anything on a Monday because I knew that my time to recharge from what I had just done in that role would deplete me so far.
So I didn't create content on Mondays back then.
It didn't work for me.
But what did work for me but, again, I had a main hustle.
So Mondays were my days off from both, and then I was back to my main hustle on Tuesday.
But I would take the energy from being invigorated to go back to the office on Tuesday and go do my thing.
And those were the days on Tuesdays that I was up in the morning, I would have to be at the office by, let's say, 10:30.
And I would get up, I'd shower, I'd do my makeup, I'd get dressed.
I'd film some content.
And then I'd drive, and go on to my other job.
Or I would work all day and then come home.
Or before I would leave the office, I would film something there, or record something, or post something there because I was in the energy of producing, making something, creating something.
And I similar though, by the time I got toward the end of the week, my energy would start to dip down.
And then sometimes I'd go into those really intense weekends again.
So I'm highlighting both of these examples so that you can see that in the last 11 years I've been doing this, I have had to pay very close attention to, yes, my time constraints, but more importantly, my energy constraints.
And what am I able to give without resenting content creation in my business?
Because I don't wanna hate it.
I wanna enjoy it.
I want it to fit my life.
And my life is incredibly different now than it was 3 years ago, than it was 5 years ago, than it was 11 years ago.
We are evolving as humans so quickly, but your business is also evolving.
The people you're serving is all are also evolving.
And we've got to find ways to recognize when our creativity is being stunted by these different types of exhaustion.
Because if we keep blaming, I don't have enough time.
I don't have enough time.
I don't have enough time.
I promise you, you have time somewhere.
That that 5 minutes, I'm not joking about that 5 minutes.
And I'm preaching to myself on this too.
That 5 minutes, you can get a lot done by writing 2 sentences.
You can go very far.
You can change your doom scroll while lying in bed to commenting back to people's comments or engaging in other areas of social media where your future clients could be.
Right?
There's so many things you could do with 5 minutes.
So I want you today to start to focus on your energy wave.
If you're looking at your work week, where is your energy the highest?
When is it the lowest?
Are you the most inspired early in the day or at lunchtime?
Or and and a hint.
Here's like a really cool hack here.
Very simple.
If you are a gym goer or a worker outer, if you're a person who works out, notice that energy wave.
If you're a person who goes to the gym in the evening, I hate that.
But if you're a person that goes to the gym in the evening, that's probably a sign that your energy wave is pretty high in the evening.
Unless you're going because that's the only time that you have to do it.
Maybe you would but what would your ideal time of day be?
Because that's probably when your energy is the highest, And it might be different weekdays compared to weekend.
It also if you are raising a family, absolutely different.
Summer to school year, absolutely different.
Because we're needed in different capacities, different times of year, different months.
You might, let's say your main hustle, let's say you're, you know, a money mindset coach and your main hustle is you're an accountant.
Okay.
Everywhere between January April, like, you actually earlier than that if you're helping businesses.
Your main hustle is gonna suck up a lot of your energy.
So you've got to find ways to rework so that your content creation strategy can fit your life and what you say you want to have happen.
And this isn't just about content everybody.
This is a mechanism so so that you can get your brand, your method, your unique style of teaching, or treating people, or providing for people.
We wanna get that out to as many people as possible, with as little time as possible, and also leveraging our energy as well.
And that is why social media is so key.
People complain about low views all the time.
Oh, my video, It only got 60 views or 14 views.
I'm sorry.
When was the last networking event that you went to in person that you had 14 people that you've never met before actually listen to you?
I love leverage.
Like, I love knowing.
I'll take the 14 any day, but if you don't set aside the time and start to learn when your energy is the hottest, the content will never get created, and nobody's gonna know who you are and what you do.
And if you wanna grow your audience, if you wanna attract clients, if you wanna build community in the online space, if you want to establish yourself as an expert, if you want to make your brand known, even if it even just to the extent that you want it to be known.
Okay?
Social media is great for that, and it doesn't require more than 5 minutes.
Okay?
So that is your homework.
Yes, know your time constraints, but what are your energy constraints?
When is your energy the highest?
When is it the lowest?
I would love to hear from you.
Comment on this episode.
If you're watching over on YouTube, you can comment on the video.
On every audio, by the way, you're able to it says, send me a text.
You can absolutely click that, and it'll send me a text of your comment.
So tell me what your reflection is on this.
I would love to know if you're like me, if you're different from me because everybody is different.
Every season is different.
And let's get your content out there.
Okay?
The next time your creativity is stunted by your exhaustion, that's the real reason that you're not making your content.
But the good news is there is something that you can do about it and I really hope that this episode helps you with that.
So until next time, I will talk to you next time and I love you and I mean it.
I'll talk to you soon.
Thank you for listening.
I'm giving you a virtual high five for prioritizing your personal growth.
If you enjoyed today's episode, I'd be so grateful if you could take a moment and leave a 5 star review on Apple Podcasts.
Share the show with friends and family, or snap a screenshot this episode and tag me on Instagram at the hollyhibbard.
You are not alone on this journey, my friend.
I'm always here cheering you on.
So until next time, stay curious, stay encouraged, and keep empowering yourself.
You are doing better than you know.