Episode 549: 10 Tips For Creating Consistent Content (best of the podcast) Leave a comment

Most perfectionists struggle to create content consistently. They’re scared of what people will think, that they’ll say the wrong thing, that no one will like their posts, that their friends will laugh at them, that it’ll be a waste of effort, the list goes on!

In this best of the podcast episode, I’m sharing 10 tips I’ve learned over my years as a content creator that have helped me get out of my own way, show up consistently as who I truly am and change the lives of thousands of people in the process.

Enrollment now open: Join Perfectionists Getting Shit Done (aka PGSD) to learn how to create consistent content without burning out. Doors are now officially open until 11:59pm EDT on Friday, 25 July. To sign up today and get instant access to everything inside, visit samlaurabrown.com/pgsd.

Listen To The Episode

Listen to the episode on the player above, click here to download the episode and take it with you or listen anywhere you normally listen to podcasts – just find Episode 549 of The Perfectionism Project Podcast!

Subscribe To The Perfectionism Project Podcast

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Introduction
Hi and welcome to another episode of The Perfectionism Project. A podcast full of perfectionism advice for entrepreneurs. My name is Sam Laura Brown, I help entrepreneurs release their perfectionism handbrake, so they can get out of their own way and build a fulfilling and profitable business. I’m the founder of the Perfectionists Getting Shit Done group coaching program, which is otherwise known as PGSD. And for even more perfectionism advice to help you with your business, you can follow me on Instagram @perfectionismproject.

Sam Laura Brown (Custom Intro)
Okay, this episode is going to be so helpful for you if you have been enjoying the consistent content series that I just released here on the podcast. So at the moment, my program Perfectionist Getting Shit Done, aka PGSD, is open for enrollment, and what I wanted to do was curate some of the episodes on my podcast, some of my favorites, where I have taught on the topic of content creation. So in the episode that you’re going to be hearing today, I shared 10 practical tips that really helped me to go from being inconsistent and overthinking with my content to consistently creating content. This is something I have been doing now for quite a few years, and consistent content initially was just my biggest struggle, honestly, in business, and I just knew if I could just show up consistently and create consistent content, that would be the unlock for my business.

And that’s what it has been. The business that I have today has been built with content creation as the engine for that, as the fuel for that. But I had to figure out how to go from stopping and starting posting and ghosting being so in my own head, overthinking having so much pressure on every post, especially if it had been a while since I posted, I needed to figure out how to go from that to creating consistent content, drama free, while feeling like myself and while not having to spend all of my time on content creation, because I didn’t want it to consume every hour that I had for my business. So I figured that out, and that is now what I’m going to be teaching inside perfectionist getting shit down.

So the episode that you’re going to be listening to today was recorded when I had figured out for myself how to create consistent content. Even at the time I was recording this years ago, I was already coaching PGSDers on how to do exactly the same thing, but I hadn’t yet distilled it down into a process that I could clearly articulate and lead people through the specific yet simple steps of that. So that’s what’s happening now inside Perfectionist Getting Shit Done. We are going to be doing study on the first of August, a creative cocoon together. It’s a three month experience inside PGSD.

Where I’m going to lead you through my simple process for going from inconsistent content being in your own head, overthinking, procrastinating, putting it off, having lots of drama around it, to consistently creating content with ease. I’ve helped so many people do this, and I’m really excited to be able to help you too, so you want to join us inside Perfectionist Getting Shit Done so that you can get the structure, the support, the like minded community, and actually be able to do this work and not just intellectually understand what might be required for consistent content creation, particularly when it comes to creating safe visibility for yourself, and being able to get into creative overflow, create spark content, all of those things that I’m now able to articulate.

I didn’t yet have names for any of those things when I recorded the episode you’re going to listen to. But if you want to actually be someone who is creating consistent content, and not just someone who’s constantly working towards that, I really want to invite you into PGSD to get this solved, so that you can show up consistently in a way that you love and in a way that builds your business. So enrollment is open right now for Perfectionist Getting Shit Done, and it’s closing at 11:59pm New York time on the 25th of July. So you want to get yourself inside samlaurabrown.com/pgsd, it’s in the show notes below, you can go there to sign up. If you have any questions about it, email me at support, @samlaurabrown.com, I will reply to you personally, answer any questions you have. You want to get yourself inside. This is going to be such a game changer for so many perfectionists, including those who are already inside, those who’ve already joined us, and I want to invite you in too. So I hope you enjoyed this episode on 10 tips for creating consistent content, and I hope to see you inside Perfectionist Getting Shit Done so we can do this work together.

Sam Laura Brown
Today, I want to share with you 10 tips to help you create consistent content. If you have a business and you have been struggling to post online, either on a blog or on Instagram or on YouTube or on a podcast, and you keep making promises to yourself that you’re going to be consistent, and then you don’t follow through on that promise. I’m going to be sharing some pieces of advice that will help you. And I have had my own journey with creating consistent content. When I first started my blog, I really struggled to show up consistently, and even when I have left my full time accounting job to pursue blogging. I still was only posting on my blog. This was before the podcast, before anything else. I was posting once every two or three months, and because I was only posting that often, I put all of this pressure on myself of well, I haven’t said anything for a while. So this really has to be perfect, which of course, made it extremely challenging to show up.

But over the years, I have learned how to show up consistently. Though I still have a lot to learn in different ways that I need to get out of my own way with that. So I’m not trying this advice as someone who is perfect, but someone who’s also been on this journey and had this struggle, and has made a huge amount of progress. So I hope that the pieces of advice I share with you are really going to help you feel the fear and do it anyway, because these tips aren’t going to make it feel comfortable or motivating or inspiring for you to show up. They’re just going to help you be courageous and put yourself out there and to lessen some of those perfectionist tendencies that might be causing you to overthink and to feel anxious and to hold yourself back.

In this episode, I’m not really going to be sharing tips about calendaring things, or often like what people will share in this kind of episode on how to create consistent content. They will talk about this whole system for scheduling things out and all of that. But really, what I’m going to be talking about in this episode is all of the mindset stuff, because unless you have your mindset on board, you are not going to be able to implement anything. So even if you learn the perfect way to plan out your content, if you don’t believe that people want to hear from you, or that you’re good enough to be sharing or that you’re going to be rejected, then that doesn’t matter. So we want to make sure that you are doing that work on your mind, so that you are willing to actually show up and put yourself out there, and then when you’re in that mindset, that’s when you’re in a place to go out and figure out, Okay, do I need to use a calendar?

How can I set this up so that things can be easy for me to show up consistently, like, how much content do I need to create ahead of time? And I get asked that question a lot as well, how far in advance do I need to create things? You have to get that wisdom yourself. And people will say, okay, it should be one month. It should be three months. And a lot of times, in that perfectionist mindset, we’ll say, Okay, I need to have three months of content before I can even think about hitting publish. I don’t recommend that. I recommend what would this look like if it was easy? Maybe it would be that you create content just before it goes out in the initial stages, though, I’m recording this on Sunday, and this episode is going out on Monday. So it’s really not about having those crazy standards or having these rules about it has to look a certain perfect way for me to be able to put myself out there and show up. Because often we’ll say things like, Okay, I need to have three months worth of content in the bank before I can publish.

And then, of course, we get in our own way and don’t create three months worth of content. So we never actually have to do the scary thing, which is showing up. So I’m going to be sharing again 10 tips to help you show up, and once you’re really in this mindset where you’re willing to be courageous, put yourself out there, that’s when you can then go and do any research you have to do if needed. Though, I don’t recommend doing really any research, because perfectionists love procrasti-researching and trying to find the perfect system in order to execute, I really want to encourage you, instead of looking for that perfect system, to just practice executing and showing up and putting yourself out there. And then, as you get more comfortable with that, then you can figure out, okay, what systems do I need to put in place?

So these are 10 pieces of advice that really helped me, or that I’ve had to learn over the last six years as a content creator. The first one that has really helped is something that I learned from Gary Vee, Gary Vaynerchuk, who talks about documenting rather than creating. So if you don’t know Gary, he is an entrepreneur, and he shares a lot of advice about how to show up online and grow an online business. And I love the way that he talks about this idea, particularly, which is to be in the mentality that you are documenting your journey rather than creating something. Because when we’re in that mindset of creating, that’s when all of those perfectionist standards tend to come along, that we have to have the perfect microphone, the perfect camera, the perfect setup, everything has to be perfect so that we can create this masterpiece.

But if you are in this mentality of I am documenting what I’m doing, not only is it so much more interesting for the person who is watching it. But then you can release all of those standards and stop expecting yourself to have to be this perfect person who knows everything, and you can just start creating by documenting what you’re doing. If you search on YouTube for Gary Vaynerchuk document versus creating, I think, or something like that. I’ll put in the show notes too, but you will find a video where he talks about that idea and how powerful it is to be documenting your journey instead of in that mindset of I need to create something. And in case you haven’t noticed, I really throughout this podcast and on Instagram, I’m always just in that mentality of documenting. I am sharing what I am working on and the lessons I’ve learned. Instead of being here and being like, Hey, I’m an expert on perfectionism, here’s what you need to do. Instead, I say, Hey, this is what I’m working on, and I hope that this can help you too, or this is what I’ve helped my clients with, and documenting that side of things as well.

So that, for me, was a huge game changer when I heard about that idea of documenting rather than creating. So if you have been in your own way with content and you’re wanting that perfect camera, that perfect lighting, that perfect microphone, there’s always that something’s stopping you. Maybe it’s that perfect system from creating content. Then I would love to encourage you to get into this mindset of documenting what you were doing, because it’s so fascinating to us as humans to hear the behind the scenes of what someone else is doing, and often will think, Oh, but I can’t show people what I’m struggling with, because then they won’t trust that I actually have the answers, but they will trust you so much more. And if you don’t believe me on that, then just look at this podcast as an example. I’m always talking about what I’m struggling with. I am working on basically everything I talk about on this podcast, I am working on that for myself as well, at some level still, and that makes it more relatable.

And you’re like, Okay, well, Sam has also had these struggles, and she’s figured it out. So there’s hope for me. Instead of thinking, well, Sam’s perfect, she’s never procrastinated before. She’s never felt overwhelmed before. And here’s her pieces of advice, it’s just so much easier for you to apply what I talk about because I’m actually sharing, hey, I’m not that different to you. And this is really about being willing to feel vulnerable because we as perfectionism in that mindset. We want to have this perfect facade and always be pretending that we’re doing everything right and that we’re never struggling with anything, especially if we’re teaching that we have this idea that, well, I shouldn’t struggle with something that I teach. No, if you are thinking that you need to really release that you only need to be one step ahead, half a step ahead. And also, when it comes to coaching as well, it’s not even about having actually been through that experience that someone else is going through, you can be a really powerful coach just by holding space, being a mirror and asking great questions.

So you don’t need to be a certain age to be able to do that. You don’t need to have had every kind of life experience that is so really recognize that you don’t have to be perfect at something for you to be able to teach it, and a lot of times, people who are pretending that they’re perfect is something it’s not really appealing, because we’re like, well, they wouldn’t even get it. They’ve never actually had the struggle that I have. So that’s something that has been immensely helpful. Definitely check out that YouTube video if you’re interested in knowing more about it. But I hope I’ve done a decent job of summarizing that idea that really think about, like, how could I document my journey, and is there anything that I’m working on that I might be able to share? And know that your brain will say, Oh, well, that’s really boring for everyone else. Like, basically everything I create when I’m documenting, I think that this will be boring, but it’s not true, and I love watching other people’s content. There’s, like, that morning routine, or like watching them put laundry away, like all those things I actually really enjoy, but they to that person, probably seem like, Oh my God. Who would want to even watch this?

But well, nosy, we love hearing what people do behind the scenes, and know that even though you might not see the value in what you are documenting that for others, it can be incredibly comforting, even if you’re struggling with what you are documenting like you’re documenting a struggle, a journey that has ups and downs, which all journeys do. It’s just so comforting, even if you don’t have advice or you don’t have answers, for people to see that they’re not alone and that someone else out there is going through the same thing, and they’re showing up and they’re persisting, and even when they aren’t persisting, that they don’t quit and that they then eventually get back up and keep going. It’s just there’s so much value in that people just want to feel like they’re not alone, they want to feel seen, heard, loved. And so it’s not about having perfect answers. It’s not about having the perfect tips for people or advice, especially if you don’t have a particular person you’re talking to. If you don’t have a niche, it’s going to be really challenging for you to create, because you won’t know who you’re talking to.

And then you’re going to have to wash everything down, and then it won’t really resonate with anyone. But the reason that you probably feel like I’m often in your head is because I’m talking to a very specific person who struggles with perfectionism and that mindset in a particular way, and I’m also sharing my own journey and what I’m going through. So if you’re having a similar experience like, oh my god, she gets me. It’s because I know exactly who I’m talking to. And that developed over time. When I started blogging, it was called Smart Twenties. I didn’t even know I was a perfectionist, and I was just talking about how to make the most of your 20s, because I was just sick of seeing people who were either saying my life is perfect, or people who are like, Oh my god, I’m so broke and just winging. I was like, Why are these people who are just really trying to figure out what to do with their lives and failing to do that? And I really didn’t feel like I had anything to offer.

I would just share a video someone else had posted on YouTube and one sentence about it, or a blog post that I had read on a personal development blog, and in the beginning, I didn’t have any opinions, I didn’t have any advice. It wasn’t like I saw this gap and thought, I’m the perfect person to fill it. No, I thought, Who the fuck am I to be doing this? And I had so much resistance around it, and was so scared to do it. And if you want to hear more about those early days, I talk about it in episode one, also episode three of the podcast. So go back and have a listen to those. But just know that when it comes to that niche stuff, that you don’t have to have it perfect from the beginning. Again, I didn’t even know what perfectionism was. I didn’t even identify myself in any way whatsoever with that mindset. And it was only through getting started that I realized, like, holy shit. Like, why am I so in my own way? Why am I scared to tell anyone about it?

Why do I keep procrastinating and through discovering different people’s work, I kind of pieced together this was the mindset that I had, and then how to actually get out of that mindset, but all of that to say, don’t wait until you have the perfect niche or the perfect business name. And this is all a bit of a tangent, but really, just remember, there’s so much value in you documenting what you’re doing, including and especially the struggles, especially the stuff you think, Oh no, if I share this, people won’t want to learn from me, because they’ll know that I don’t actually know what I’m talking about. If you were thinking along those lines, that means that you’re about to share something that’s going to be incredibly helpful for people.

What’s most personal is most universal. If you were struggling with something, there are other people out there struggling with it too, and if you were just half a step ahead, maybe you have a little bit of awareness they don’t have, or you’re just at least trying to overcome that struggle that is immensely valuable. The second tip I wanted to share is not falling into the trap of thinking that you need to be more qualified. Talked about this in a few episodes, particularly episode 149 about imposter syndrome. But I wanted to touch on it here, because often we can think, Oh, well, the reason I’m not creating consistent content is because I need some more education, and I’d feel more confident if I had that additional education, and then with that confidence, I’d have no trouble at all showing up consistently. But I want to argue here that that isn’t actually going to be the case, that if you get education because you’re trying to compensate for a lack of self confidence, when you get that education, you will feel even less confident, because now you’re meant to know what to do, and you still won’t know everything.

And I really encourage you, if you’ve been thinking, Okay, I just need to go and get certified, or just need to go and do that degree because of self confidence, to instead invest that time and energy and money into actually just directly working on your self confidence, instead of trying to do that in a roundabout way by getting more education, because it is not the case, and you’ve probably already experienced this, you’re just not recognizing it that education creates confidence. It’s your brain, your mindset, the way you’re thinking, that creates confidence. And I have a lot of you know, I have a law degree, I have a finance degree. That doesn’t mean I feel like I know everything about the law or everything about finance, and it actually makes me feel like I know less than the average person, because now I know that there’s so much I don’t know. And you might have had that experience too, where you’ve got a degree in something, or you’ve studied something, and you’re like, holy shit.

Before I started this, I actually thought I could get to this place of mastery, and now I’ve learned a lot about it. I realize there’s so much I don’t know about it. And I talk about that in episode 149 about imposter syndrome, and how the more that I have learned about perfectionism and personal development, the more the more that imposter syndrome, that self doubt, can come in because I now know how much I don’t know, whereas when I first started, I didn’t know how much I didn’t know. Hope that makes sense. Check out episode 149 if that’s something you’re thinking of doing, of getting a qualification or going out there and getting more education. Instead, I recommend investing in your personal development, in joining Perfectionist Getting Shit Done if you’re not in our group coaching program already, and actually just doing that work directly on confidence, instead of in a roundabout way.

The third tip is really just something that helps to put me at ease, and has helped me to develop my own style of content creation, and that’s has been from really looking at the content that I like to consume and creating content that I would personally enjoy consuming. And that’s not the only way to approach content, and there are a lot of people who have businesses and who create content that they do it in a way that they wouldn’t actually personally like consuming it, but it’s very effective, and a lot of people love it. But for me, I have found this to be a very effective approach, and it has just helped to release some of those perfectionist tendencies, because I really reflected on, okay, what kind of content do I like consuming the most? And for me, I would say that long form podcasts, long form anything I love, long form content, blog posts. I really am biased towards long form.

If something is short, like I really don’t listen to episodes of podcasts that are less than 20 minutes, that’s probably not a good thing. I’m probably missing out on a lot of great advice and things to learn. But I really love long form content and getting into the nitty gritty, and I love as well Instagram stories. And when I look at that, the reason I love that kind of content is because it’s imperfect. Especially like Instagram Stories, you can see that some people like do really polished ones. I really don’t like that whatsoever. I love just feeling like you’re with someone in their day, feeling like it’s not polished, that it’s unproduced, and I love it when people share vulnerably. I love like my favorite podcast episodes and blog posts and things like that to read are about when people are struggling with something or they’re failing with something, that gives me that sense of comfort that I’m not alone. And it also really helps to provide a lot of valuable advice, because we learn so much more from our struggles than we do from our successes.

So I love consuming that content, consuming content where there’s not much editing, and where there’s not really high quality in terms of production value. So there’s not a perfect microphone, there’s not a perfect YouTube background. There’s not a script or anything like that. I love it to just be raw and to be real and to really feel that sense of connection with a person, instead of it feeling more like I’m watching TV or listening to something that a big media company has produced. I also really love content. As I said, that’s kind of mundane in the sense that, like I will never, ever watch a travel vlog on YouTube. And it’s why, when I’m traveling, I don’t actually share that much about it, because I don’t enjoy consuming travel content. I love just the day to day stuff over seeing someone in this city that they’ve never been to, and it’s absolutely beautiful, and they’re going to this amazing restaurant, like, for some reason, I just don’t really find that interesting.

Instead, I find it much more interesting to just see, like, what people’s day to day life is like, and I can’t get enough of that kind of content. So that really informs the way that I create my own content. My Instagram captions are typically long form, and on Instagram, I just share what I’m up to without it being perfect or anything like that. And that just helps to remind me that, wait, I don’t actually like things to be polished and things to be perfect. So why am I thinking that other people want all of my stuff to be that way? And of course, there are people who would prefer myself to be polished, and for me to have a script that I’m reading off, and to have all these perfect bullet points, and to never go on a tangent. And I get people who tell me that it should be different to how it is.

And when I’ve been going through this journey, I’ve had to really decipher, okay, yes, I want to take on constructive feedback, but maybe that person who is saying that they don’t like how chatty my podcast is. Maybe they’re not actually my person. And so instead of trying to change so that I can please this person who doesn’t even like my content, to actually focus on the people who are like me, who like long form, chatty, vulnerable, just sharing what’s really going on to focus on those people. So just remember as well that there will be people like, no matter how good you are at content creating, there will be people who don’t like it and people who will tell you to do it differently. Like, recently, I had a review of the podcast that said you should stop laughing on your podcast. So there’s stuff like that where people don’t even want to hear someone else who is happy and like, just like I did then, like, I kind of laugh sometimes as I’m talking through something, and I don’t care. Like, I think that’s a good thing. I don’t have any issues with that.

That’s how I really talk in person. I’m not going to edit that out, just so someone can hear this perfect, polished script kind of podcast episode. There are other people who do that. There are plenty of people who are out there who are creating that more professional, quote, unquote, content that’s scripted and never there are any tangents or anything like that. But I don’t actually like consuming that content, so I’m really just here creating what I would personally want to consume and attracting the people who like to consume that as well. And it just makes it so much easier for me. And then when people say, hey, actually, you should be more structured or whatever, like, Yes, I’ll take that on board. Definitely there are ways I can improve, but I’m not going to change the essence of what I enjoy creating just because it doesn’t suit this one person who doesn’t even like me.

So just be aware of that too. Not everyone’s gonna like it. That doesn’t mean you’re doing the wrong thing. Something else that has helped is creating more quant more content, like a higher volume of content, and in our PGSD forum does a business section, and often we’ll be talking about things like content. And I noticed that quite a few PGSDers we’re talking about, okay, my goal is to post on Instagram one to two times per week. My recommendation, if that’s your goal that you’re having, is to post every day. The reason for that is because, a, it’s not actually going to take more time. My guess is, if you’re posting one to two times per week, and you can relate to what I share on the podcast, you are probably spending an hour writing that caption. Instead, I recommend taking the time that you would usually spend to write one or two captions or to post one or two times, and to instead create seven pieces of content. And depending on the kind of content you create, you may be like, well, that’s a lot of images that I need to produce. Like, part of the reason I started doing quotes is because I was like, I don’t know what to actually post visually on Instagram, so I’m just going to write these quotes and have them.

And a lot of the ones I post are ones that I’ve already posted before in the past, so giving yourself permission to repurpose content as well, instead of thinking, well, everyone saw that before, so I can’t share it again, like even if they did see it before, it might be helpful for them to see it again. And probably they haven’t seen everything that you’ve ever posted, and if they have, they’re a super fan. And. Won’t care about seeing it again. But really, when you think about creating a higher volume of content, it means you have to stop overthinking, and you have to stop over analyzing and being in that perfectionist mindset. Because if you have an hour to write seven posts on Instagram, or an hour to write one post, it’s that Parkinson’s Law of you know, the time you allow for a task is the time it’s going to take. It’s going to expand to fill that time.

So instead of overthinking everything, you’re going to be like, Okay, I’m just going to have to make this good enough. Instead of, I need to word this perfectly. I’m sorry that it could win a prize for how perfectly it’s written to instead, just be like, I’m just gonna have this be good enough. And then when it comes to images, if there are images you need to create for the content like that, for me, that’s why I’ve done some photo shoots. I found a local photographer who I actually met through being at a friend’s engagement party, and she was a photographer there. I was like, Hey, do you happen to ever take, like, lifestyle kind of photos? And she’d done a bit of it before, but not too much. I was like, could you do that with me? And so that’s where a lot of my photos on the blog, because, as well, my content is personal development. It’s not really about the images, but on Instagram, you need to post an image. So that has really helped me to be able to post more often.

So if you’re like, I can’t post that often on Instagram because I need to have an image instead. Just like, take a step back and think about, how could I easily create a lot of images? And it could be that you just have maybe a friend that is also doing something similar, and you say, hey, like, let’s spend a day and just take a whole heap of photos that we can use and create a bank. Instead of being in this mentality of, I’m just going to take one photo, post it. Take one photo, post it. And on that note, as well, just in terms of Instagram, I use Planoly, P, L, A, N, O, L, Y, to schedule out my content. If I am scheduling out in advance and I have in there already all of the images. So I just need to choose an image and put a caption with it. Instead of being like, holy shit, I need to post right now. I’m going to go search through my camera roll for something. Then I’m going to write a caption like, that’s so time consuming.

So you really want to be thinking about batch creating, and how can you create a lot more content in the same amount of time? Instead of being in this mentality that if I create more content, it’s going to take more time? No, you’re probably being very inefficient, especially if you’re like, holy shit, I need to post right now. I don’t know what to say, I don’t know what image to use, or I’m just not going to use, or I’m just not going to post it all, because it’s not going to be perfect to be like, Okay, I’m going to spend an hour, I’m going to pick out seven images, I’m going to write seven captions, and I know that my brain’s probably going to tell me they’re all going to be shitty, but I’m still going to post them anyway. So I have found throughout my journey that having more content going out helps me to just show up. And it’s very counterintuitive. But as I said at the beginning of my journey, when I wasn’t posting very often, I had this pressure that I put on myself, of Well, I haven’t showed up for a while, so when I do say something, it has to be amazing. Part of the reason I do two podcast episodes every week is because if I feel like I completely botched an episode, I know that one’s coming in three days time, and very quickly, it will just be part of the archives.

So that’s been really helpful for me. Just having more quantity, more volume of content has been really helpful. It helps me get out of my own way. So I want to suggest that to you, if you have been thinking, Okay, I’m just going to post one to two times a week on Instagram or like, if you’ve got a low number, a low number of pieces of content that you’re trying to create, to instead up that and have it take the same amount of time, but that you have less time to overthink each individual piece of content. And back when I started blogging, and I realized that I was posting something and then edit it after it was already posted, because it felt so vulnerable. And all that I did, I think this was in January 2014 so a few months after I started my blog, and for the first three months, I didn’t post anything, because I was just like, holy shit. This feels so scary when I finally did and I was being inconsistent with it, I thought, Okay, I’m just gonna post every single day for a month.

And that meant I had to actually be more creative and overthink less, and it really helped me to get some momentum going, because, like, Okay, well, I just have to post something today, and I’ll find something to post. And we think, Oh, but if I do that, the quality will be lower. Actually, the quality tends to be higher because it’s better to create a piece of content and put it out in the world than to not do anything at all. People don’t want perfect content. They want something that’s going to help them. And if you can actually just get out of your own way enough to be like, Okay, this isn’t perfect. I could probably spend an extra hour perfecting this, but I’m just going to get it done and put it out there and then move on to the next thing. It’s with that repetition that you’ll become better at creating content. Instead of, in a year creating 50 Instagram posts, you can create 365 Instagram posts, and some of them will be shitty, but some of them will be great.

But over that period of time, you’re going to get better and better and better because you’re showing up more often, and you’re going to be in that growth mindset of, okay, well, that one didn’t work well, what can I do differently next time? Differently next time? Instead of, oh my God, every post has to be perfect, and I have to get X number of likes or X number of downloads for it to have been worth it, I need all these people to be commenting. And you might be thinking that even though you’d never comment or like other people’s things, that everyone should be commenting and liking on yours, but I recommend creating a higher volume of content as a strategy for giving yourself less room to actually overthink what you are doing with that it’s powerful to be clear on exactly how much content you’re going to create and also having a time limit, rather than seeing how long it will take.

So for example, with the podcast, I do an episode every Monday and every Thursday, so I know exactly how much I’m creating and when it needs to be published. Instead of saying something like, I want to be more consistent or show up more often, like, what does that even mean? You need to actually be clear on, okay, I’m going to post on these days this many times per week. And if it’s this many times per week situation, I recommend choosing the days that it’s going to be done, because otherwise you’re going to create decision fatigue, because you’ll be like, Should I post today or tomorrow or the next day? I don’t feel like it today, I don’t have time. I’ll do it tomorrow. No, instead, just be like, I post on Mondays and Thursdays, or I post Monday, Wednesday, Friday. It doesn’t matter. And I don’t recommend googling best day of the week to post, because with the algorithms now, it doesn’t even matter back in the day that used to matter, because things would show up as they were posted in real time, not anymore.

So just post when it suits you and decide exactly when it’s going to be instead of saying something vague, like I want to be more consistent. I want to post more content. I want to post X number of times per week. Choose the days that you are going to post and give yourself a time limit. So if you are currently spending an hour writing an Instagram caption, I recommend instead giving yourself 10 to 15 minutes. So choosing it’s either 10 or 15 minutes, setting the timer and then committing to posting whatever you come up with in that time. And that’ll take practice to get into that and to have it be something that doesn’t feel scary in the beginning. It will because you’re like, shit. I need a lot of time to perfect this. We’re in this false thinking that the more time we have for something, the better it will be. Actually, we tend to really overthink when we have extra time, which tends to reduce the quality, because we tend to edit out vulnerabilities and things that are really going to be helpful for people to hear and to learn.

So that’s my piece of advice on that create a time like a deadline for yourself, a plan, a clear plan. You don’t have to go in and announce it to people, though it can be helpful to do that so that people know when to expect content from you, and that can help to create a sense of accountability. But I just recommend at least on the back end, knowing how often you’re going to post and exactly when you’re going to post, and also having a time limit for content creation and using something like Planoly for scheduling, if you’re doing Instagram or something like that, like trying to find a way to batch create instead of, okay, I’m going to post on Instagram every day. So this morning I’m going to write a caption, then the next one I’m going to write a caption. Just be like, No, I’m just going to spend an hour on a Sunday. I’m going to write seven captions. My brain’s going to tell me they’re shitty. I’m going to post them anyway, and the world will keep spinning, even if they’re shitty, and that’s how you can improve over time.

And on that note, my brain tells me all the time, like every time I post on Instagram, basically every time I do a podcast episode, like, no one wants to hear this. This isn’t very good. You shouldn’t post this. You should do it again, all of that. And it’s not true. So know that when your brain is telling you that often, it will actually be lying. My next piece of advice is to feel the fear and do it anyway, and know it’s going to be shitty. It’ll feel shitty to show up consistently, especially if you haven’t yet created that self image around being someone who shows up consistently. It’s going to feel really uncomfortable, because you’re going to have to be wrong about. Who you believe you are in order to show up consistently. But just get out of this mentality that you need to feel motivated and inspired and confident and excited. You’re probably not going to feel that way.

And I love how Steven Pressfield, I think it is, talks about this idea of the amateur versus the Pro, and the amateur will create content or write or do whatever it is they’re doing creatively when they feel like it, and the Pro is diligent, and they will do it even when they don’t feel like it. So having that mentality, and of course, if you feel motivated and inspired, capitalize on it, but know that if you’re putting yourself out there and doing things that will make you feel vulnerable and you’re risking rejection. Why the hell will you feel motivated and inspired to do it? Your brain’s gonna be like, Ah, this is a bad idea. So if you’re really showing up, fully expect to feel uncomfortable. Expect your brain to tell you all sorts of things about how it’s not good enough and just do it anyway. Commit to getting it done anyway.

Another thing that’s helped me is understanding that I’m too close to the value of what I create to actually see the value a lot of things I talk about here on the podcast, or when I’m coaching in PGSD, I think, well, everyone knows this, when really that isn’t true, but I’m too close to it, and like, when I’m coaching, I just feel like I’m chatting because I love doing it. I’ve always been that that kind of person that’s always just asking questions and really helping people work through things. So when I’m doing that, I don’t feel like, oh my god, this is so hard for me. So it must be so valuable. It feels really easy. And I’ve had to go through this whole journey around letting it feel easy to create content and easy to show up, because I had this association before that if it was too easy for me, it wouldn’t be valuable, and that only hard things are valuable. But actually, if I was really struggling to record this episode or quote, it wouldn’t be more valuable. It’s actually more valuable to you if I’m having an easy experience on my end, and that doesn’t mean avoiding things that require courage, but that just means not unnecessarily over complicating everything, just so that we can feel deserving.

But this point is just really about understanding, especially if you are documenting your own journey and sharing content about what you’re up to, that a lot of things that you will say, you’ll feel like everyone already knows this, and a lot of us actually miss a lot of great content opportunities because we think no one wants to hear about this. Everyone already knows this already, but people really crave that 101 advice and hearing things that we think like a common knowledge, they’re typically not common knowledge, and it can be hard to recognize that there’s this curse of knowledge, which I talked about in a previous podcast episode. I’ll link it up in the show notes if you’re wanting to have a listen to that one. But I just like to remember, actually, I’m too close to the value, like I can’t see the value of it, because it’s me. And over time, I’ve been able to understand more how valuable it is. But still, I’m like, well, it’s just me, and I’m in my own head all the time, so it doesn’t feel particularly special when I’m sharing something.

So just let it be okay that it is that way, instead of expecting to feel like, oh my god, this is life changing content, and what I have found myself is that when I record a podcast episode and I feel like, oh my god, I stumble over my word so much. I was just rambling. It didn’t make any sense. It was so unhelpful. Like the recent episode I did on burnout. I felt that way about it, and I was like, Oh, should I redo it? And I was like, No, I’m just gonna put it out there. I’ve got so much feedback about that episode and how helpful it was. And so it’s just having those experiences of putting myself out there, even when it feels imperfect, very imperfect, like very vulnerable, to do that, and then just letting it be okay, and even if people didn’t like that episode to not then make that mean something about whether I should show up again next time. But it’s really been interesting for me to see that a lot of the stuff that I think is going to be amazing, actually, people don’t resonate with that as much as the stuff where I feel like I’m not hitting the nail on the head.

So, yeah, I’m just sharing that with you in the hopes that when you are showing up and you feel like this is really shitty, that actually there might be a lot of other people who find that extremely valuable, and you’re just too close to the value to actually see it. Another thing this is tip number eight, is to not think that there’s a content wagon. Perfectionist love all or nothing, thinking and thinking that they’re either on the wagon or off the wagon. And you might have done this with content creation, where you’ve made a promise to yourself to show up every day on Instagram or to post on a podcast every single week, or to record a YouTube video and publish it, all of these things, and you’ve wanted to have this streak, and then as soon as something’s happened, life has gotten in the way, or you let the self sabotage win, and that’s totally okay, but as soon as that’s happened, you’ve gone, oh, streaks broken. I may as well just quit. Like, what’s the point? That is not helpful, obviously, and it ends up being at all or nothing.

Mentally, you’re either doing something perfectly or you’re not doing it at all. So what I like to think about instead is to just get as many individual pieces of content out there as possible. So for example, with the podcast, I publish every Monday and Thursday, but there are some Mondays I’ve missed over time. There are some Thursdays I’ve missed over time. But instead of being like, oh my goodness, the streak is broken, I’m like, Oh well, I will just show up the next time that I had planned to show up, instead of going into that all or nothing mentality. So if you’ve been thinking about having a perfect streak, or if you’ve been using a habit tracker or something like that to keep track of it. I have no issue with habit trackers. The only time I think it’s not helpful for a perfectionist is if you break the streak and then you make it mean you should quit. We get to choose what we make it mean when we break a streak.

So there’s no issue at all with doing that, that you need to make sure, if you were tracking things, that instead of being like, Okay, I need to have a perfect number of days in a row. Instead of going, Okay, I need to do 31 days this month. Or if I’m not on track, as soon as I mess up, I should quit. To be like, Okay, I’m trying to get as close to 31 as possible. So even if that means I post 25 days, or 20 days or 15 days, that’s better than one day. Instead of being like, well, I need to have that perfect streak. Or there’s no point doing any of that at all. So that can be really helpful, particularly if you tend to be an all or nothing mindset, and then you feel like every time you get back into content creation, you have to announce your return. I recommend, if you have been on a bit of a hiatus, you’ve maybe been your own way.

You haven’t been posting instead of announcing it and feeling like you need to provide an explanation for where you’ve been or why you haven’t been showing up to that’s a great content opportunity. PS, if you are documenting your journey, you can really pull a lesson out of there and share it. So if you want to use that as the content itself, that’s great. You could definitely do that. But otherwise, don’t announce that you’re back. Just show up as if you’ve been showing up every single day, because people won’t be like, typically, oh my god, where have you been? They’ve got their own life. They’re the center, like everyone’s the center of their own life. They’re not thinking about you all the time.

And so instead of feeling like, Oh, my God, I need to announce that I’m back, and what would people think just show up as if you had been posting right on schedule. So that’s really, really helpful to do, and will just help to ease that pressure of like, oh, I have to have this perfect comeback. And when I come back, I’m going to say, okay, hey guys, I’m going to show up every single day, but then maybe you’re scared you won’t stick to that so you’re not even posting it all because you’re worried you won’t be able to follow through. Just show up as if you’d already been showing up consistently.

Another thing that helps. What would this look like if it were easy? I did a whole podcast episode on this question, so I will share that in the show notes. I can’t remember the number off the top of my head, but really, this is about removing that extra complication that we tend to add so that we can avoid showing up. So for example, with this podcast, and this is a question I learned from Tim Ferriss and his great podcast, the Tim Ferriss show. So this question, what would it look like if it were easy for me in the podcast, it would mean I don’t edit. So as you can tell, I don’t edit out when I stumble over my words or anything like that, I let it be part of it.

So that is because it’s easier for me to create content that way, instead of having to say things perfectly and having the option to edit, which means if I mess up my words, I’ll have to re say it, which then means I’ll end up losing my flow, because I’m repeating the same thing over and over again till it’s quote, unquote perfect, and then I’m adding all this time in post production, having to edit it or having someone else edit it for me, when really my favorite podcast, they actually have this unedited style where it feels like you were talking to a friend. And when I’m with a friend, I don’t repeat something again and again and again and again until I say it perfectly. If I mess up my words, I just carry on. So that’s what it’s like in real life. So I let it be that way in my podcast as well, but also in terms of Instagram and other platforms.

Again, that’s why I created my quotes like, Okay, I don’t have all these images to pose. What would it look like if it were easy? Okay I would actually spend a day, half a day, with a photographer, invest a few $100 it really wasn’t as much money as I thought it would be to do something like that. I think for my I’ve done three photo shoots now, and I think they were like $400 each. So to invest in that, to get a bank of content, and to also do quotes, so that I don’t have to have a pretty image every time. And you can also ask this question when it comes to planning. What would planning look like if it was easy instead of having, okay, what would planning look like if it was perfect? Okay, I’d have three months of content in advance. Don’t do that. Instead, think about, if it was easy, what would I do? And in the beginning, it might be if it was easy, I just record it the day of or the day before, and then over time, as you develop a new identity as being the kind of person who shows up consistently, you can then be like, actually, it’s going to be easier if I just spend a day bulk recording, or things like that.

But really coming back always to this question, what would this look like if it were easy? And that’s part of the reason I love documenting rather than creating, because that is what would be easy for me, to just document my own personal development journey and share what I’m learning along the way. Instead of having to create all of this personal development content and having this illusion that I’m some kind of expert. It’s just so much easier to be like, Hey, this is what I’m up to. Hope it helps you to these are things I’ve learned along the way. And of course, the more and more you document your own journey, and you’re constantly showing up for yourself. And it’s really helpful too, because if you’re documenting like you want to have something to actually document, so you are going to be showing up in your life more so that you have something to talk about.

So it’s really great in that way as well. But the more often you show up and document then over time, you’re like, hey, actually, I can see this pattern here. And that’s when you can start to get into that mode of these are pieces of advice that I have. Like, everything I’m sharing with you in this episode is because I have actually showed up and tried to figure this out myself and learn things from other people. And now I’m at a point six years in where I do have opinions about how to create content consistently as a perfectionist. But even though I have those opinions, I’ve been doing this for six years. At this point in time, I’m still not here. Like, hey, I’m an expert. Here’s how to be perfect with your content. It’s like, Hey, I’m still struggling with this myself, but I’ve made a lot of progress. Here are some of the mindset shifts that helped me. So again, you can see I’m still creating in a way that is centered around what would this look like if it were easy.

Again, remembering that the content is more valuable for you if I’m not over here having a really miserable time. The final piece of advice I wanted to share is really just a mentality around I’m going to say exactly what I need to say when I need to say it, and people will hear what they need to hear when they need to hear it, instead of this needs to be perfect, or if I don’t say this perfectly, then everyone’s gonna reject me, or everyone’s gonna laugh at me, or everyone’s gonna think I’m that kind of person who’s on Instagram sharing their life, or whatever it is to instead just be like, I’m gonna say what I need to say when I need to say it. So when I’m recording a podcast episode like this, I have maybe 100 words worth of dot points, and that’s it, and I’m just showing up in that mentality of, I’m going to say what I need to say, when I need to say it, and not this mentality of it needs to be perfect, and I need to cover absolutely everything that I possibly could cover, and it needs to be able to be easily applied to everyone in every situation. Not I’m just sharing from a place of my own personal experience.

And in this mentality of this can be extremely valuable, even if I mess up my words, even if I say things imperfectly. And actually, that’s going to be really empowering for people. Because if you can hear me talking about content creation, and I am telling you that I’m recording this the day before it’s coming out, and that I’m messing up, and you can hear me messing up. It gives you that power to also do the same, instead of thinking, well, Sam’s always perfect on her podcast. Mine has to be the same as well. And there are times where I will be a couple of months in advance with my podcast episodes, and there are times where I’m recording the day before. That’s still what I’m learning to do, to batch record consistently so that I’m always ahead of schedule, but sometimes that just doesn’t happen.

And the most powerful thing I can do for myself is, instead of making that mean that I need to halt everything until I can get way in advance, I just keep showing up, and then I do the best I can to learn how to show up in a way that allows me to batch, record multiple episodes in a day, and everything like that. So they are my pieces of advice. And if you are still struggling with this, the final thing I want to say is that I want you to just reflect on the fact that I myself have never done any formal training as a coach or anything related to perfectionism or psychology, I have spent a lot of time learning about it, like a lot, a lot, a lot of time, but no one’s ever given me a little certificate to say you have permission to coach, you have permission to talk about perfectionism, you have permission to run your own online business. So why do you consume my content? Because I’m not perfect. I share with you that I’m not perfect. I also share with you that I’m not qualified, and yet here you are listening to me for almost a full hour today on the podcast.

So what is it about this that is appealing to you? Because it’s not my qualifications and it’s not the fact that I’m perfect, and I hope that in you reflecting on that you can start to see how you showing up in a real and vulnerable and honest, caring way is so much more valuable than you showing up in a perfect, perfectly structured, scripted way. So I hope that that will help to give you some insights as well. And like, Wait, actually, maybe people don’t really care about my qualification. Of course, if you’re gonna be a doctor or lawyer, like, you need to get certain qualifications for that. But for a lot of what we do online, it is still the wild wild west, and you can show up just by giving yourself permission to do it. So instead of going out there to try and get a certificate so you can feel better about it, give yourself that permission to actually show up and for it to be imperfect and to learn along the way, and to as well know that people love seeing other people grow.

Because we think, okay, every episode say with the podcast, every episode has to be perfect, because you never want to give this illusion that you weren’t perfect from the get go, but I love now that I have been creating for so long, that I get people who are like, Oh, I love seeing like, how much you’ve grown in your business, and that they feel like they’re on this journey with me, because I showed up in the best way I could when I first started, and now I show up In the best way I could, I can now, and in the future, I’ll show up in the best way I can, and it’ll be constantly improving because I’m in that growth mindset around it’s best to show up, do the best I can, and learn as I go, instead of okay, I need to be perfect. Then once I’ve got my shit sorted out completely, then I can start showing up. It’s not appealing for someone to be showing up, especially if you’re doing something similar to what I’m doing, and to not witness growth.

Really having your own growth on display as well can be just such a great marketing method, because they’re like, holy shit, look at how her life has changed. She must know something that I don’t know, and I want to learn from her. So don’t be afraid for those pieces of content you put out to be shitty, because that will help to paint this story of your journey, and will be inspiring. And I love myself, like going onto YouTube channels that I love, and searching via oldest video and seeing how shitty they looked and how the person felt so insecure, and you can really. Really tell they’re not comfortable on camera. Like, I love seeing that. When I was starting my blog in 2013 I would go back on all these other blogs and back then, like everyone had all the archives up, so you could really easily see it. But you can go onto Wayback Machine, if you type that into Google, and look at old versions of websites to see, like, wait, they started at the beginning, too, and it’s so beautiful to be on that journey with someone.

Instead of being in this mentality of, I need to be perfect all the time, otherwise, no one wants to work with me, or no one want to consume my content. It’s actually the fact that you have growth to do that makes it appealing, that makes it more relatable, more human, and that people will be able to show up with that guard down. Because if we’re preaching and saying you should do this, you should do that, people like you don’t know me. You don’t know what I should do. But if like, Hey, here’s what’s worked for me. Here’s what I’m trying to do, I don’t even know if it works. Maybe you could try this too, or not even saying, maybe you could try this too, just being an example of showing up and trying to improve yourself or improve a certain skill set, that’s so helpful, because then people have their guard down because they don’t think they’re being told what to do, and they’re much more likely to take on board what it is you’re saying, or to extract those lessons for themselves from whatever it is you’re going through.

So I hope this has been really helpful for you, and I also wanted to recommend another episode, episode 117, it’s my advice on live streaming, podcasting and public speaking for perfectionist so if you are particularly interested in doing anything live, or where you are showing up and not editing, say with like a podcast, and you have all these fears about I don’t know what to say, and what if I mess up and all of that, then I highly recommend checking out that episode, but I am going to sign off here. And if you are a PGSDer, and you need help with this, be sure to post in the business section in our PGSD forum, or you can submit a request to get coached by me, one on one on our business coaching call that we do every month, so make sure you make the most of that. Hope you are having a beautiful day, and I will talk to you soon.

Outro
The doors to my program are officially open. PGSD, Perfectionist Getting Shit Done. Is open for enrollment right now, but enrollment won’t be open for long. Doors are closing at 11:59pm, Eastern Time on Friday, the 25th of July. 2025 so if you want to become someone who can create consistent content without needing lots of time for content creation, without having to be someone you’re not, without burning yourself out and constantly being on the wagon then off again, then I want to invite you inside the program so that you can learn how to create safe visibility, overcome your visibility fears and confidently put yourself out there so that your business can grow. So samlaurabrown.com/pgsd, is where you can go to find out more about the program and sign up today. It’s a lifetime access program. You get instant access to everything as soon as you get inside, I can’t wait to see you in there.