87. Content Creation for Busy Moms: How to Stay Consistent Without Burning Out
Content creation can feel heavy, especially when you're first starting a business. It can feel like one more thing you should be doing but can't seem to follow through on, especially when you're juggling work, kids, and a million other responsibilities. In this episode, I'm giving you tools and mindset shifts so you can think about content creation in a way that actually supports you and your business, rather than completely draining you.
I'm breaking this conversation into three big areas: what's important to know about content creation as a business strategy, especially early on; how to think about choosing where and how you want to show up; and, most importantly, how to actually be consistent with content creation, whatever mode you choose. Whether you've been telling yourself this is the year you're finally going to post weekly, start blogging, or launch a podcast, it is about building the habit and the comfort of sharing your ideas and expertise.
You'll learn why visibility and credibility matter but shouldn't consume most of your time early on, how to temper your expectations around results, and why staying flexible is essential as platforms and algorithms change. You'll also discover how to choose a content creation method based on what brings you joy rather than what you think you should be doing, and practical strategies for building the consistency muscle through planning and accountability.
Ready for clarity and a simple action plan to get your business started? Schedule a free 1-hour consultation with me here!
What You’ll Learn from this Episode:
Why content creation supports your business but doesn't replace foundational actions like talking to real people.
How to choose where to show up based on what brings you joy rather than what others say you should do.
The importance of planning specific times for content creation so it doesn't get bumped by more urgent things.
How to build internal or external accountability into your content creation process.
Why getting curious instead of judgmental when you fall off will bring you back to your goals.
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Full Episode Transcript:
Content creation can feel heavy, especially when you're first starting a business. It can feel like one more thing you should be doing but can't seem to follow through on, especially when you're juggling work and kids and a million other responsibilities. But believe it or not, content creation can be energizing. It can be easy and fun.
And today, I'm going to be giving you a few tools and mindset shifts so that you can think about it in a way that actually supports you and your business instead of completely draining you. I want you to get excited about creating content and sharing your expertise because your unique perspective is what the world needs.
If you've been telling yourself that this is the year you're finally going to put yourself out there, whether that's write consistent blog posts, create a weekly newsletter, post on social media, or anything in between, this episode is a must for making sure you follow through and do it consistently with ease.
Welcome to How to Quit Your Job, the podcast for moms ready to ditch the nine-to-five and build a life and business they love. I’m your host, Jenna Rykiel. Let’s go.
Hi, Mom friends. You're listening to episode 87 of the How to Quit Your Job podcast. And today we're talking about content creation. And honestly, I cannot believe I've gotten to this point in the podcast, 87 episodes, and haven't talked about content creation more broadly yet. Back in episode 36, I talked specifically about social media, but I didn't really zoom out and talk about content creation as a bigger topic. And content creation is actually a really big and important piece when you're starting a business.
It's important for a few reasons, some that you're probably already thinking about and that create a lot of anxiety for you, and some that you might relate to deeply even if you haven't consciously connected the dots yet.
I actually think this is the perfect time to talk about it, right at the start of the year if you're catching this episode live, because if you're anything like I was when I was starting my business, consistency with content creation often makes the New Year's resolution list. I used to tell myself things like, okay, this is the year I'm going to post weekly. This is the year I'm going to start blogging. This is the year I'm going to start my podcast. And most of those years, none of those things actually happened, or maybe even worse, they did happen briefly and then quickly fell by the wayside.
Of course, you're seeing me and my business at a time where the podcast did happen and episodes are released every Wednesday like clockwork. But that's not how it always was. And some of what I'm going to be sharing today is what helped me to shift from somebody who was inconsistent and confused and self-conscious to someone who is consistent and confident with creating and sharing content with my audience.
Today I'm going to talk about content creation in a way that's honest, realistic, and actually helpful. And I want to break this conversation into three big areas. Number one, what's important to know about content creation as a business strategy, especially early on when you're first starting your business. Number two, how to think about choosing how and where you want to show up. And three, most importantly, how to actually be consistent with content creation, whatever mode you choose.
If content creation is anywhere on your resolution list, or if you keep telling yourself that this is the year you're finally going to put yourself out there, this is a must-listen episode, because there are some really important things to know going into it. And if you're like I was, you've tried so many things and keep failing at being consistent and beating yourself up for it. This episode is also very much for you. By the end of this episode, you'll have direction and feel energized to start creating.
Before we dive in, I want to make sure we're on the same page about what I mean when I say content creation. For the purposes of today's episode, content creation is really any method of putting your ideas out into the world. Most often people think about things like posting on social media, creating a podcast, blogging, sending emails to an email list, but it can really be anything. Any way that you want to share your ideas and any way that you find yourself wanting to show up, but struggling to do so consistently. That's what we're going to be talking about today, because we've all been there.
We start a social media account and it sits dormant because we're too scared to post or we don't want to post once without an entire backlog of ideas and posts. We think about what we want to post and feel energized about it until we actually have to click the post button. We stress over making the post and the caption perfect. We feel like we need a full marketing strategy before we start. We find lots of reasons and excuses to not put our ideas out there. and that's what I'm talking about today with content creation. Any mode of sharing our ideas and expertise, that's content creation.
Content creation absolutely is a business strategy, and it doesn't have to be a big part of your business or a time-consuming part of your business early on, but it's something that you need to consider. It's important.
There are three important things I want you to know about content creation as a business strategy, especially early on. Number one, visibility and credibility matter, but they're not where most of your time should go early on. Yes, being visible online matters. Yes, building credibility matters, but if you're early in your business, content creation is not the most important place to spend the bulk of your time.
That doesn't mean we ignore it, avoid it, or now have an excuse to not put ourselves out there, right? That's not what I'm saying. Visibility and credibility are important, and the earlier you start sharing your ideas and expertise, the better, but it's not where you should spend most of your time.
I see so many moms get stuck here and I was also personally stuck here for what felt like forever, spending hours tweaking captions, overthinking posts, rewriting things again and again. And when that's happening, it means we're avoiding the more important work that we could be doing in our business, which is talking to real people about our business or our business idea.
And when that's happening, it means we're avoiding the more important work that we could be doing in our business. The important work of talking to real people about our business ideas or the business in general, which means we're actually avoiding figuring out what people need or want and what they are actually willing to pay for. It means that we're avoiding market research and figuring things out by actually doing.
Content supports your business, but it doesn't replace those foundational actions that we can take, especially at the beginning. You will learn more from 10 conversations about your business idea than you will from 10 blog posts or social media posts that you write. I promise, 100% of the time. I'd rather you spend all of your time and energy getting out there and talking to real people and potential customers than for you to spend your time and energy creating content. But ideally, let's create a balance, okay?
So if you're beating yourself up about not having found a way to create content consistently, but you're out there going to networking events, talking to people at conferences, doing market research, setting up coffee chats, all those things, you're spending your time in the best places. Keep showing up in those ways. Those are actions that I love to see. And then of course, let's build in some content creation, but you absolutely don't want to spend the majority of your time behind the screen. It's an easy place to hide. And as I'll share next, most of the time, it's an important long-term strategy, not designed for immediate results.
Which leads me to the second big thing, or second most important thing, you need to temper your expectations. This one is big. You are not going to see immediate results from content creation. You may see some likes, but you may not. You may see some followers, but you may not.
I've had a few clients create their own clients from content creation early on, but most don't. If you don't see immediate results from putting content out there, that doesn't mean you're doing it wrong. Content creation is a long-term strategy. It compounds over time, and most people quit right before it starts working because they expected results too quickly.
If you go in expecting immediate payoff, you will feel discouraged very fast. I remember when I first started my podcast and working with my podcast team and they asked me the goal of the podcast. Of course, I love when clients come from the podcast, but I knew that was wishful thinking at the beginning. I remember sharing with them that really I just wanted to accumulate content that I could share with my already clients and to develop a structure for more consistency in sharing my ideas, more consistency around content creation.
Now, mind you, this is a few years into my business, so I had already crashed and burned a number of times with content creation. And when I told this to my podcast team, the one I've been working with for a couple of years now, they were thrilled by the answer because they'd worked with so many people who wanted to see immediate results from their podcast and then quit when they didn't get a client after the first few weeks. No matter what the content strategy is, it's about building a library of knowledge that ultimately builds trust with your audience. Trust takes time.
Of course, there are going to be people who need less time to know, like, and trust you. I had a number of people reach out to me within the first few weeks of the podcast, but the majority of people will want to get to know you through the content you share before they feel comfortable hiring you or buying from you. So that's number two.
The third important thing that I really want to share is that the landscape is always changing, so you need to stay nimble. What works now won't work forever. Algorithms change, platforms change, trends come and go. Your job isn't to perfectly predict what will work forever. It's to stay flexible and not overly attached to any one way of doing things. I had an entrepreneur friend of mine who fell victim to this reality.
She had such great success on Instagram, just regular posts, that when the algorithm changed and it no longer worked well, she shut down her business instead of adapting. And this broke my heart because her business and expertise was so vital and important to have out in the world, especially for women.
And I wanted her so bad to just move away from Instagram, try new things, experiment with new ways of creating content and building trust with her audience, but she was so angry and frustrated that the algorithm changed that she just preferred to just give up. I don't want that for you, because change is inevitable and it's happening faster than ever because of technology. So make sure the strategy you choose, which I'll talk about next, the type of content you create stays flexible. Make sure you stay flexible. Okay? Know that if one thing works, it will likely not work forever.
So let's talk about choosing how and where you show up. When I talk about content creation, I'm talking about any mode of visibility, okay? Like I said before, social media, blogging, podcasting, email newsletters, YouTube, webinars, all the things. Anytime you're using your beautiful brain to create and share ideas, that is what I'm talking about with content creation.
And here's the most important thing to consider when you're choosing where to start. And this might be a little bit of a hot take. I'm sure most people, especially in the marketing industry, are not going to agree with me. The most important thing is to choose a space based on what brings you joy. That's it. If you love long-form writing and hate social media, start with a blog. If you love to post on Instagram and have never been on LinkedIn, start with Instagram. If you love talking and hate writing, lean into audio or video.
And if you don't know yet what you enjoy, be brave and try things on without committing forever or without judging yourself if it doesn't work out. What I don't want you to do is to make your decision based on what you think you should be doing or what people are telling you should be doing. That's what I did for a long time. I tried blogging early on, I tried social media, I tried newsletters, I tried LinkedIn, and no matter what I committed to, I struggled to stay consistent.
And the worst part wasn't even the inconsistency, actually. It was how I judged myself for it. When I stopped blogging, I told myself that I was lazy or I wasn't a good writer. When I wasn't consistent on social media, I told myself something was wrong with me. I wasn't confident enough to put myself out there. I questioned my discipline, my writing ability, my confidence.
And none of that negative self-talk helped me to show up more, right? Because when we beat ourselves up, we feel bad. And when we feel bad, we avoid. We avoid being visible, we avoid our businesses. So early on, it's far more important to choose the path that feels less heavy and difficult, or even a little bit fun, than to choose the right platform. And like, when I say right, I mean the quote-unquote right platform, what people are saying is the right platform for engagement.
You will get a ton of messages from people telling you what you should be doing, and I want you to kindly disregard that advice until you're further along in your business. Until you're feeling comfortable and confident sharing your ideas, then you can push yourself to dabble in other modes of sharing. But if you're struggling to be consistent with anything, choose the thing that feels fun or brings you joy. And if none of it feels joyful yet, choose the least evil option. If you choose the thing that's the least painful, you're more likely to come back to it every day or every week or every month, whatever your goals are.
Please don't set up an Instagram account if you hate social media and hate being in picture or on video. It doesn't mean that Instagram is out of the cards forever. It just isn't the best place for you to start. Set yourself up for content creation success early on. Choose something that feels good or at least better, and just start by building the content creation muscle.
So the third piece of all of this that I want to talk about is how to actually be consistent. Choosing something you enjoy helps. Okay? But consistency also requires structure. There are three strategies. I feel like three is like my go-to number for this episode. But there are three strategies I recommend to be consistent with your content, and they all introduce more structure into the process.
Number one, you have to plan. Okay? I'll say this anytime we talk about consistency in any aspect of life. You need a habit of planning how you spend your time. Whether you're planning out your week or just planning out when you're going to work on content, you have to intentionally plan when it's going to happen. If you don't intentionally plan for content creation, it will always get bumped by more urgent things, things like kids and work and life. Okay? If it doesn't get planned, it doesn't get done.
Content creation isn't the most urgent thing in your day-to-day life. It isn't the most urgent thing in your business, but it is important for building momentum and confidence as an entrepreneur. So if it makes it onto your New Year's resolution list, make sure you have a strategy to plan out exactly when you're going to create and when you're going to share. It doesn't have to be elaborate. I actually suggest spending an hour at the beginning of each week planning out everything for life and business and making sure that a small sliver of that logistics is writing down when you're going to do content creation.
I release content each week in the form of this podcast, and so I schedule time each week for the development and execution of that content. Every week, I decide when I'm going to write out my notes and script and when I'm going to record, and also when I'm going to create and schedule any emails and posts about the content itself. I do it on a weekly basis, but you could also do content creation in bulk.
If I spent an entire day coming up with and recording content for a month, that would save me a ton of time throughout the month and probably a good amount of stress, but I haven't gotten there yet. But if that sounds good to you, do it. If the content you're creating doesn't require a ton of time, I would recommend working on a few pieces or posts at once. Creating in bulk and then releasing or submitting the content on a daily or weekly cadence can really help with consistency. Either way, make sure that you are planning ahead of time what and how you're going to create the content.
Second piece of this, build accountability into the process. You either need internal or external accountability to make this happen. Internal accountability is obviously the most risky. You've likely tried to hold yourself accountable and it may not have worked, similar to my experience. That doesn't mean you're a lost cause. There are probably shifts in planning or even shifts in your schedule or process that can support more consistent content creation. But if you find forms of external accountability, that would be best.
Years ago, I used to meet with a fellow mompreneur every Friday for two hours and we'd work on content together. We would sit silently in a Zoom room and we would work on our own content. And it was nice to catch up and chit chat at the beginning or at the end, but then we would just go to work. The accountability of someone else showing up is huge. If you can find someone to do that with, great. You could also just ask a friend or someone you trust to hold you accountable.
So let's say you're wanting to send more regular emails to people who are maybe on your email list if you have one. Ask a trusted friend to join your email list and tell them your goal. If it's weekly emails, give them permission to reach out if they don't receive an email every Friday. Bring people into your journey, ask for help, ask for accountability. It doesn't have to be forever. Okay? It's just until you get comfortable with the habit of content creation.
And once you are comfortable building it into your schedule and making it happen, you will absolutely need less external accountability, because you'll have more internal accountability. That's how these things work. Once it's a habit, there's more internal accountability.
For years, I struggled with content because I couldn't find something that I could sustain. So I'd start something and fall off. So like vacation would happen or holidays or illness or like even just the weekend would happen. And then it was so easy for me to allow content creation, all the many forms I tried out early on in my business, to just fall by the wayside.
My motivation for starting a podcast was it would give me structure each week to create content. And knowing myself, the only way I could make weekly episodes happen was by creating external accountability. I knew that if I was going to do a podcast, it was going to be great for content creation. But if I was going to do a podcast, I'd need to hire someone to hold me accountable. And you know what? There's nothing wrong with that. The result is that my original content and expertise is released every week like clockwork.
If I didn't have a team helping me, shout out to Digital Freedom Productions, would that make what I'm sharing more or less valuable? No. You just get the end result of content and value and mindset shifts and tips and practical strategies. But if I didn't have a team helping me, I definitely wouldn't have made it to episode 87 or probably even episode one. So the value of finding external accountability has allowed me to provide so much more value than if I had tried to tough it out and create it on my own without that accountability.
I'm not saying that you can't create an amazing podcast without help. Plenty of people do it. Not everyone needs the level of support that I do, but everyone needs some form of accountability.
The third piece of this is get curious instead of judgmental when you fall off. This is where I struggled the most, and I know all of us who are our biggest critics can relate. When you miss a week or fall off a routine, your instinct is going to be to judge yourself. But judgment pushes you further away from the goal. Curiosity will bring you back.
So instead of asking things like, what's wrong with me? Why haven't I made this happen? I want you to ask things like, what made this hard? What got in the way of me seeing through the content this week? What do I need more of? What would make this easier next time? Harsh criticism from anyone doesn't feel good, and it's usually not what leads to change. So check yourself if self-criticism starts to become a pattern with content creation. Trust me, self-criticism and judgment will not help.
Before we wrap up, I want to leave you with one very simple action that you can take this week, something that will actually move your business forward when it comes to content creation. Here's what I want you to do. Choose one place to show up. Just one, not forever. It doesn't have to be for the rest of the year, just for the next two weeks or maybe 30 days, depending on how much content you want to create, when you want to release it.
And I want you to ask yourself, where does it feel easiest for me to share my ideas right now? Where do I feel the least resistance? Where do I feel a little bit of curiosity or even excitement to show up? Then decide what consistent looks like for you. Not what sounds impressive, not what that other person's doing. Choose something that's realistic for you.
So maybe that's one Instagram post a week, one email every other week, one short blog post a month, one event every month, or even just drafting ideas in a notes app to build the habit of putting your ideas on paper. We're so good at consuming ideas that sometimes when we get into the process and habit of sharing ideas and putting our own ideas down, it can feel really hard and uncomfortable at first.
I also want you to plan when you're going to create. I want you to put it on your calendar, name the time, and commit to showing up imperfectly. And if you don't make it happen, get curious and try again. Maybe you try a different mode of sharing, maybe you try a different system of accountability, keep tweaking and trying things until you're regularly putting your ideas out into the world.
I know I said it was like one simple thing, and then I explained it and it felt much more complicated. But really, I just want you to choose a place to show up, and I want you to take all the information and all the advice from this episode and put it into practice to really try putting yourself out there in a consistent way.
And if you want support, reminders, and encouragement as you practice showing up this year, I would love for you to follow the podcast and connect with me. You can follow, of course, by clicking the plus sign button or whatever follow button exists wherever you listen, and you can connect with me on LinkedIn or by joining my free Mom Entrepreneur Circle that meets twice a month. So if you follow the podcast, you'll always be notified of new episodes. Like I said, a couple of times, they drop every Wednesday consistently.
And while I do share on social media, it's still not really a place that brings me joy, which is why my Mom Entrepreneur Circle is my safe space for me to show up, share, and connect with moms who are eager to start their own businesses. And that space is completely free.
So you can connect with me in all the ways by going to the show notes of this episode, jenna.coach/87. I want this to be the year that you start putting yourself out there, building credibility and creating impact. I want you to start small and stay curious. It's okay to fall off. It's really about building the habit and the comfort with sharing your beautiful brain and all your ideas and expertise. It might be sloppy and it might not be perfect right now, but you have to start somewhere and you have to get comfortable with putting your ideas out there.
So find that internal or external accountability. Connect with me, connect with this podcast, follow the podcast so that you can stay committed and consistent for the next week, the next month, the next year. I believe in you. You are capable.
I'll talk to you next week. Happy creating.
Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of How to Quit Your Job: A Mom’s Guide to Creating a Life and Business You Love. If you want to learn more about how I can help you stop making excuses and start making moves, head on over to www.jenna.coach. I’ll see you next week.
And today, I'm going to be giving you a few tools and mindset shifts so that you can think about it in a way that actually supports you and your business instead of completely draining you. I want you to get excited about creating content and sharing your expertise because your unique perspective is what the world needs.
If you've been telling yourself that this is the year you're finally going to put yourself out there, whether that's write consistent blog posts, create a weekly newsletter, post on social media, or anything in between, this episode is a must for making sure you follow through and do it consistently with ease.
Welcome to How to Quit Your Job, the podcast for moms ready to ditch the nine-to-five and build a life and business they love. I’m your host, Jenna Rykiel. Let’s go.
Hi, Mom friends. You're listening to episode 87 of the How to Quit Your Job podcast. And today we're talking about content creation. And honestly, I cannot believe I've gotten to this point in the podcast, 87 episodes, and haven't talked about content creation more broadly yet. Back in episode 36, I talked specifically about social media, but I didn't really zoom out and talk about content creation as a bigger topic. And content creation is actually a really big and important piece when you're starting a business.
It's important for a few reasons, some that you're probably already thinking about and that create a lot of anxiety for you, and some that you might relate to deeply even if you haven't consciously connected the dots yet.
I actually think this is the perfect time to talk about it, right at the start of the year if you're catching this episode live, because if you're anything like I was when I was starting my business, consistency with content creation often makes the New Year's resolution list. I used to tell myself things like, okay, this is the year I'm going to post weekly. This is the year I'm going to start blogging. This is the year I'm going to start my podcast. And most of those years, none of those things actually happened, or maybe even worse, they did happen briefly and then quickly fell by the wayside.
Of course, you're seeing me and my business at a time where the podcast did happen and episodes are released every Wednesday like clockwork. But that's not how it always was. And some of what I'm going to be sharing today is what helped me to shift from somebody who was inconsistent and confused and self-conscious to someone who is consistent and confident with creating and sharing content with my audience.
Today I'm going to talk about content creation in a way that's honest, realistic, and actually helpful. And I want to break this conversation into three big areas. Number one, what's important to know about content creation as a business strategy, especially early on when you're first starting your business. Number two, how to think about choosing how and where you want to show up. And three, most importantly, how to actually be consistent with content creation, whatever mode you choose.
If content creation is anywhere on your resolution list, or if you keep telling yourself that this is the year you're finally going to put yourself out there, this is a must-listen episode, because there are some really important things to know going into it. And if you're like I was, you've tried so many things and keep failing at being consistent and beating yourself up for it. This episode is also very much for you. By the end of this episode, you'll have direction and feel energized to start creating.
Before we dive in, I want to make sure we're on the same page about what I mean when I say content creation. For the purposes of today's episode, content creation is really any method of putting your ideas out into the world. Most often people think about things like posting on social media, creating a podcast, blogging, sending emails to an email list, but it can really be anything. Any way that you want to share your ideas and any way that you find yourself wanting to show up, but struggling to do so consistently. That's what we're going to be talking about today, because we've all been there.
We start a social media account and it sits dormant because we're too scared to post or we don't want to post once without an entire backlog of ideas and posts. We think about what we want to post and feel energized about it until we actually have to click the post button. We stress over making the post and the caption perfect. We feel like we need a full marketing strategy before we start. We find lots of reasons and excuses to not put our ideas out there. and that's what I'm talking about today with content creation. Any mode of sharing our ideas and expertise, that's content creation.
Content creation absolutely is a business strategy, and it doesn't have to be a big part of your business or a time-consuming part of your business early on, but it's something that you need to consider. It's important.
There are three important things I want you to know about content creation as a business strategy, especially early on. Number one, visibility and credibility matter, but they're not where most of your time should go early on. Yes, being visible online matters. Yes, building credibility matters, but if you're early in your business, content creation is not the most important place to spend the bulk of your time.
That doesn't mean we ignore it, avoid it, or now have an excuse to not put ourselves out there, right? That's not what I'm saying. Visibility and credibility are important, and the earlier you start sharing your ideas and expertise, the better, but it's not where you should spend most of your time.
I see so many moms get stuck here and I was also personally stuck here for what felt like forever, spending hours tweaking captions, overthinking posts, rewriting things again and again. And when that's happening, it means we're avoiding the more important work that we could be doing in our business, which is talking to real people about our business or our business idea.
And when that's happening, it means we're avoiding the more important work that we could be doing in our business. The important work of talking to real people about our business ideas or the business in general, which means we're actually avoiding figuring out what people need or want and what they are actually willing to pay for. It means that we're avoiding market research and figuring things out by actually doing.
Content supports your business, but it doesn't replace those foundational actions that we can take, especially at the beginning. You will learn more from 10 conversations about your business idea than you will from 10 blog posts or social media posts that you write. I promise, 100% of the time. I'd rather you spend all of your time and energy getting out there and talking to real people and potential customers than for you to spend your time and energy creating content. But ideally, let's create a balance, okay?
So if you're beating yourself up about not having found a way to create content consistently, but you're out there going to networking events, talking to people at conferences, doing market research, setting up coffee chats, all those things, you're spending your time in the best places. Keep showing up in those ways. Those are actions that I love to see. And then of course, let's build in some content creation, but you absolutely don't want to spend the majority of your time behind the screen. It's an easy place to hide. And as I'll share next, most of the time, it's an important long-term strategy, not designed for immediate results.
Which leads me to the second big thing, or second most important thing, you need to temper your expectations. This one is big. You are not going to see immediate results from content creation. You may see some likes, but you may not. You may see some followers, but you may not.
I've had a few clients create their own clients from content creation early on, but most don't. If you don't see immediate results from putting content out there, that doesn't mean you're doing it wrong. Content creation is a long-term strategy. It compounds over time, and most people quit right before it starts working because they expected results too quickly.
If you go in expecting immediate payoff, you will feel discouraged very fast. I remember when I first started my podcast and working with my podcast team and they asked me the goal of the podcast. Of course, I love when clients come from the podcast, but I knew that was wishful thinking at the beginning. I remember sharing with them that really I just wanted to accumulate content that I could share with my already clients and to develop a structure for more consistency in sharing my ideas, more consistency around content creation.
Now, mind you, this is a few years into my business, so I had already crashed and burned a number of times with content creation. And when I told this to my podcast team, the one I've been working with for a couple of years now, they were thrilled by the answer because they'd worked with so many people who wanted to see immediate results from their podcast and then quit when they didn't get a client after the first few weeks. No matter what the content strategy is, it's about building a library of knowledge that ultimately builds trust with your audience. Trust takes time.
Of course, there are going to be people who need less time to know, like, and trust you. I had a number of people reach out to me within the first few weeks of the podcast, but the majority of people will want to get to know you through the content you share before they feel comfortable hiring you or buying from you. So that's number two.
The third important thing that I really want to share is that the landscape is always changing, so you need to stay nimble. What works now won't work forever. Algorithms change, platforms change, trends come and go. Your job isn't to perfectly predict what will work forever. It's to stay flexible and not overly attached to any one way of doing things. I had an entrepreneur friend of mine who fell victim to this reality.
She had such great success on Instagram, just regular posts, that when the algorithm changed and it no longer worked well, she shut down her business instead of adapting. And this broke my heart because her business and expertise was so vital and important to have out in the world, especially for women.
And I wanted her so bad to just move away from Instagram, try new things, experiment with new ways of creating content and building trust with her audience, but she was so angry and frustrated that the algorithm changed that she just preferred to just give up. I don't want that for you, because change is inevitable and it's happening faster than ever because of technology. So make sure the strategy you choose, which I'll talk about next, the type of content you create stays flexible. Make sure you stay flexible. Okay? Know that if one thing works, it will likely not work forever.
So let's talk about choosing how and where you show up. When I talk about content creation, I'm talking about any mode of visibility, okay? Like I said before, social media, blogging, podcasting, email newsletters, YouTube, webinars, all the things. Anytime you're using your beautiful brain to create and share ideas, that is what I'm talking about with content creation.
And here's the most important thing to consider when you're choosing where to start. And this might be a little bit of a hot take. I'm sure most people, especially in the marketing industry, are not going to agree with me. The most important thing is to choose a space based on what brings you joy. That's it. If you love long-form writing and hate social media, start with a blog. If you love to post on Instagram and have never been on LinkedIn, start with Instagram. If you love talking and hate writing, lean into audio or video.
And if you don't know yet what you enjoy, be brave and try things on without committing forever or without judging yourself if it doesn't work out. What I don't want you to do is to make your decision based on what you think you should be doing or what people are telling you should be doing. That's what I did for a long time. I tried blogging early on, I tried social media, I tried newsletters, I tried LinkedIn, and no matter what I committed to, I struggled to stay consistent.
And the worst part wasn't even the inconsistency, actually. It was how I judged myself for it. When I stopped blogging, I told myself that I was lazy or I wasn't a good writer. When I wasn't consistent on social media, I told myself something was wrong with me. I wasn't confident enough to put myself out there. I questioned my discipline, my writing ability, my confidence.
And none of that negative self-talk helped me to show up more, right? Because when we beat ourselves up, we feel bad. And when we feel bad, we avoid. We avoid being visible, we avoid our businesses. So early on, it's far more important to choose the path that feels less heavy and difficult, or even a little bit fun, than to choose the right platform. And like, when I say right, I mean the quote-unquote right platform, what people are saying is the right platform for engagement.
You will get a ton of messages from people telling you what you should be doing, and I want you to kindly disregard that advice until you're further along in your business. Until you're feeling comfortable and confident sharing your ideas, then you can push yourself to dabble in other modes of sharing. But if you're struggling to be consistent with anything, choose the thing that feels fun or brings you joy. And if none of it feels joyful yet, choose the least evil option. If you choose the thing that's the least painful, you're more likely to come back to it every day or every week or every month, whatever your goals are.
Please don't set up an Instagram account if you hate social media and hate being in picture or on video. It doesn't mean that Instagram is out of the cards forever. It just isn't the best place for you to start. Set yourself up for content creation success early on. Choose something that feels good or at least better, and just start by building the content creation muscle.
So the third piece of all of this that I want to talk about is how to actually be consistent. Choosing something you enjoy helps. Okay? But consistency also requires structure. There are three strategies. I feel like three is like my go-to number for this episode. But there are three strategies I recommend to be consistent with your content, and they all introduce more structure into the process.
Number one, you have to plan. Okay? I'll say this anytime we talk about consistency in any aspect of life. You need a habit of planning how you spend your time. Whether you're planning out your week or just planning out when you're going to work on content, you have to intentionally plan when it's going to happen. If you don't intentionally plan for content creation, it will always get bumped by more urgent things, things like kids and work and life. Okay? If it doesn't get planned, it doesn't get done.
Content creation isn't the most urgent thing in your day-to-day life. It isn't the most urgent thing in your business, but it is important for building momentum and confidence as an entrepreneur. So if it makes it onto your New Year's resolution list, make sure you have a strategy to plan out exactly when you're going to create and when you're going to share. It doesn't have to be elaborate. I actually suggest spending an hour at the beginning of each week planning out everything for life and business and making sure that a small sliver of that logistics is writing down when you're going to do content creation.
I release content each week in the form of this podcast, and so I schedule time each week for the development and execution of that content. Every week, I decide when I'm going to write out my notes and script and when I'm going to record, and also when I'm going to create and schedule any emails and posts about the content itself. I do it on a weekly basis, but you could also do content creation in bulk.
If I spent an entire day coming up with and recording content for a month, that would save me a ton of time throughout the month and probably a good amount of stress, but I haven't gotten there yet. But if that sounds good to you, do it. If the content you're creating doesn't require a ton of time, I would recommend working on a few pieces or posts at once. Creating in bulk and then releasing or submitting the content on a daily or weekly cadence can really help with consistency. Either way, make sure that you are planning ahead of time what and how you're going to create the content.
Second piece of this, build accountability into the process. You either need internal or external accountability to make this happen. Internal accountability is obviously the most risky. You've likely tried to hold yourself accountable and it may not have worked, similar to my experience. That doesn't mean you're a lost cause. There are probably shifts in planning or even shifts in your schedule or process that can support more consistent content creation. But if you find forms of external accountability, that would be best.
Years ago, I used to meet with a fellow mompreneur every Friday for two hours and we'd work on content together. We would sit silently in a Zoom room and we would work on our own content. And it was nice to catch up and chit chat at the beginning or at the end, but then we would just go to work. The accountability of someone else showing up is huge. If you can find someone to do that with, great. You could also just ask a friend or someone you trust to hold you accountable.
So let's say you're wanting to send more regular emails to people who are maybe on your email list if you have one. Ask a trusted friend to join your email list and tell them your goal. If it's weekly emails, give them permission to reach out if they don't receive an email every Friday. Bring people into your journey, ask for help, ask for accountability. It doesn't have to be forever. Okay? It's just until you get comfortable with the habit of content creation.
And once you are comfortable building it into your schedule and making it happen, you will absolutely need less external accountability, because you'll have more internal accountability. That's how these things work. Once it's a habit, there's more internal accountability.
For years, I struggled with content because I couldn't find something that I could sustain. So I'd start something and fall off. So like vacation would happen or holidays or illness or like even just the weekend would happen. And then it was so easy for me to allow content creation, all the many forms I tried out early on in my business, to just fall by the wayside.
My motivation for starting a podcast was it would give me structure each week to create content. And knowing myself, the only way I could make weekly episodes happen was by creating external accountability. I knew that if I was going to do a podcast, it was going to be great for content creation. But if I was going to do a podcast, I'd need to hire someone to hold me accountable. And you know what? There's nothing wrong with that. The result is that my original content and expertise is released every week like clockwork.
If I didn't have a team helping me, shout out to Digital Freedom Productions, would that make what I'm sharing more or less valuable? No. You just get the end result of content and value and mindset shifts and tips and practical strategies. But if I didn't have a team helping me, I definitely wouldn't have made it to episode 87 or probably even episode one. So the value of finding external accountability has allowed me to provide so much more value than if I had tried to tough it out and create it on my own without that accountability.
I'm not saying that you can't create an amazing podcast without help. Plenty of people do it. Not everyone needs the level of support that I do, but everyone needs some form of accountability.
The third piece of this is get curious instead of judgmental when you fall off. This is where I struggled the most, and I know all of us who are our biggest critics can relate. When you miss a week or fall off a routine, your instinct is going to be to judge yourself. But judgment pushes you further away from the goal. Curiosity will bring you back.
So instead of asking things like, what's wrong with me? Why haven't I made this happen? I want you to ask things like, what made this hard? What got in the way of me seeing through the content this week? What do I need more of? What would make this easier next time? Harsh criticism from anyone doesn't feel good, and it's usually not what leads to change. So check yourself if self-criticism starts to become a pattern with content creation. Trust me, self-criticism and judgment will not help.
Before we wrap up, I want to leave you with one very simple action that you can take this week, something that will actually move your business forward when it comes to content creation. Here's what I want you to do. Choose one place to show up. Just one, not forever. It doesn't have to be for the rest of the year, just for the next two weeks or maybe 30 days, depending on how much content you want to create, when you want to release it.
And I want you to ask yourself, where does it feel easiest for me to share my ideas right now? Where do I feel the least resistance? Where do I feel a little bit of curiosity or even excitement to show up? Then decide what consistent looks like for you. Not what sounds impressive, not what that other person's doing. Choose something that's realistic for you.
So maybe that's one Instagram post a week, one email every other week, one short blog post a month, one event every month, or even just drafting ideas in a notes app to build the habit of putting your ideas on paper. We're so good at consuming ideas that sometimes when we get into the process and habit of sharing ideas and putting our own ideas down, it can feel really hard and uncomfortable at first.
I also want you to plan when you're going to create. I want you to put it on your calendar, name the time, and commit to showing up imperfectly. And if you don't make it happen, get curious and try again. Maybe you try a different mode of sharing, maybe you try a different system of accountability, keep tweaking and trying things until you're regularly putting your ideas out into the world.
I know I said it was like one simple thing, and then I explained it and it felt much more complicated. But really, I just want you to choose a place to show up, and I want you to take all the information and all the advice from this episode and put it into practice to really try putting yourself out there in a consistent way.
And if you want support, reminders, and encouragement as you practice showing up this year, I would love for you to follow the podcast and connect with me. You can follow, of course, by clicking the plus sign button or whatever follow button exists wherever you listen, and you can connect with me on LinkedIn or by joining my free Mom Entrepreneur Circle that meets twice a month. So if you follow the podcast, you'll always be notified of new episodes. Like I said, a couple of times, they drop every Wednesday consistently.
And while I do share on social media, it's still not really a place that brings me joy, which is why my Mom Entrepreneur Circle is my safe space for me to show up, share, and connect with moms who are eager to start their own businesses. And that space is completely free.
So you can connect with me in all the ways by going to the show notes of this episode, jenna.coach/87. I want this to be the year that you start putting yourself out there, building credibility and creating impact. I want you to start small and stay curious. It's okay to fall off. It's really about building the habit and the comfort with sharing your beautiful brain and all your ideas and expertise. It might be sloppy and it might not be perfect right now, but you have to start somewhere and you have to get comfortable with putting your ideas out there.
So find that internal or external accountability. Connect with me, connect with this podcast, follow the podcast so that you can stay committed and consistent for the next week, the next month, the next year. I believe in you. You are capable.
I'll talk to you next week. Happy creating.
Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of How to Quit Your Job: A Mom’s Guide to Creating a Life and Business You Love. If you want to learn more about how I can help you stop making excuses and start making moves, head on over to www.jenna.coach. I’ll see you next week.
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