Majority of people who think they have a cashflow problem, actually have a marketing problem.
In today’s world, your content IS your marketing. It’s how people find you, get to know you and make decisions about doing business with you.
The three most popular formats for creating content are written blogs, video content and audio content.
People typically know what to do, they struggle with how to do it and how to do it well. (Especially when inspiration is lacking). It’s easy to write content when you have a great idea that you want to share. It’s much harder to do when you’d rather be doing something else.
Here is the thing…if you’re NOT feeling very inspired to write, that is exactly the time you need to step up and START.
6 Ways to get inspired when you don’t feel like creating #content. <–Tweet it out!
In Steven Pressfield’s book, The War of Art, he talks about resistance and how most writers face resistance every single day. The only way to overcome resistance is to start and once you start, something magical happens. Suddenly you have something to write about and more often than not, it turns out quite good.
The magic is really about self-discipline and a willingness to simply start. That’s not what you were hoping to hear, were you?
It’s okay, I’m here to help…
6 ideas you can borrow when you are feeling uninspired:
1 Get inspired by the news
Pick up a newspaper and search for a topic that is relevant to your industry in some way and write about it. You can write a commentary on the article, or you can use the article as inspiration to write about that topic.
2 Keep a question log.
One of my blogs on “playing a bigger game” was written as a result of a message a client sent me. She wanted to talk to me about how she could play a bigger game. It struck me when she asked the question that she was not the only one wanting to play a bigger game. Her question sent me down the path of considering what I do when I want to play a bigger game and that was the inspiration for the blog post that I wrote.
3 Make a list blog.
For example, if you’re a Realtor, you could write a list blog on five things you need to know when buying in a particular area. Or five things you need to consider before selling. Or five things you should look for when hiring a realtor. Maybe the five things that make your listing stand out online. When you pick a topic that is in your area of expertise, you should be able to riff and find 5-7 ways to talk about that topic easily.
4 Interview experts.
People tend to be really open and responsive if you ask direct and simple questions. For example, I am hosting a year-long business book club called Thought Readers and I could easily reach out to seven authors and ask them what book they are reading right now. Simple, direct question that is easy to answer quickly. Then, I could create a blog listing the seven books these best selling authors are reading.
5 Transcribe it.
If you’re creating video content, doing Facebook lives, or even Podcasts, keep a library of transcripts you can pull and use to create content. This is something you can always delegate to a member of your team to help you when you’re in a pinch and don’t have time to write.
6 Use other people’s content.
By this, I certainly don’t mean COPY someone’s work – but you can curate it. A couple years ago, a client of mine did a TEDx talk and asked me the best way to get views. I suggested she write a blog and share her top 5 favorite TED talks and add her own blog to the list. She did this and now has over 25,000 views on her TED talk. Curating content from other people is a great way to create content.
No more excuses, because I’ve now given you six ways to easily create content when you’re not feeling inspired (and I’ve fixed my own lack of inspiration by creating). Creating isn’t easy for anyone when they are not feeling inspired. That’s why we need to also have a commitment to creating and the discipline to do what is necessary to build our business.
Remember, if you’re trying to build a bigger business, your content is your marketing. Without it, you’re making it much harder than it needs to be for people to get to know, like and trust you.