I hate creating "content". 🙄

Hey, welcome back!!

If you're reading this, it probably means that I haven't scared you off with my first diary entry. Thanks for sticking around! 😂

It's funny because when I first decided to convert my blog into a "diary", I felt a LOT of resistance to the idea.

I mean, why the heck would I convert something that's perfectly sound (from a business standpoint) into something that serves no purpose other than being a glorified outlet for the pent-up thoughts and emotions I experience throughout the week?

Honestly, I'm still figuring that out for myself...

But if there's one thing that I know FOR SURE — it's that the blog posts I was writing before were putting ME to sleep as I was writing them.

Like...

Have you ever gotten so bored with your own content that you've wanted to just stop making it?

And have you stuck with it for so long that the initial feeling of boredom eventually turned into resentment (because you're putting all of your time and energy into something that feels like sh*t for you and isn't actually even helping your business)? 🙄

Yeah, that's what my blog eventually became for me.

If you're in the same boat, I'd encourage you to take a step back and ask yourself these few questions that I asked myself when I decided to change things up for the way I was creating my content:

• Why am I NOT enjoying this?

• Is what I'm creating serving my business in any way? (Like is it ACTUALLY effective)?

• (If creating this kind of content is necessary for you...) Is there a way I can still do this in a way that feels good for me AND it gets the job done for my business?

I think it's important to ask ourselves these questions at least once every few months... because if you're not excited about your own content, why should anyone else?

Ooooo that's savage... 🙊

But seriously, this is something that's been burning in the back of my mind for a while.

Call it a pet peeve if you will...

It's this frustration I have with the way we're using platforms such as social media, which were INTENDED to help us connect with others (like actually being social)...

Rather than using it as the vomiting ground for all our business stuff. Free advertising. Open billboard. Blast 'em with sh*t until they get sick of you sorta deal.

I don't know about you, but if I'M tired of seeing this kind of content in my feed, how are my followers feeling when sometimes I know that I'm guilty of contributing to all of this noise?

This is the dilemma I've been facing.

Because if you honestly asked me... 👀

I'd very much rather use my social media as a platform to express myself rather than using it as a tool to churn out content that annoys everyone (including myself) for the sake of making money.

(Yep, I've always been an artist at heart and I always will be. Entrepreneurship for me is just another tool that helps me get my work in front of more people. I actually hate business, it's not really my thing and I'm not gonna sugarcoat it) 🤷‍♀️

But if I gotta make ends meet and use social media to stay at "top of mind" for people... IS there a happy in-between with all this content stuff?

So far, here's what I've got... 💡

I love using my stories as a way to share about what I'm up to day-to-day. It's where I feel like I can show up as myself, be fully candid, and receive a BUTTLOAD of engagement.

Like... I'm not sure what's considered "normal" for story engagement, but for an audience size of ~800 followers, I usually get 80-100 people who regularly tune into my stories and actively engage with them — meaning that they react to the ones they like, participate in the polls, and reply to the stories that really resonate with them.

Honestly, it gets scary sometimes because there are certain people who check my stories immediately after I post them (no matter what time of day it seems) and while it kinda creeps me out... I can't say that what I'm doing isn't effective! 😅

But what's most important is that I feel GOOD about what I'm posting, how I'm posting it, and it's doing exactly what I need it to do for my business by building a sense of connection with my audience!

So if you want to steal that story formula, here it is:

Always split the content of your stories 50-50 between "work" stuff and "personal" stuff. Remember that people are tuning in to see YOU, not the stuff that you're trying to sell them. For me, that formula looks like:

• Work stuff — Sharing behind-the-scenes process work with my clients, sharing a new offer I have, talking about a branding tip I recently discovered, etc.

• Personal stuff — Talking about my current fitness journey, sharing snapshots of my cat, talking about the novel I'm reading, and any other funny, random things that happen to me throughout the day

When you share stuff, always share it as a continuous train of thought as if you're telling a story. People flip through your stories like they're turning the pages of a book, and each "page" needs to connect with the "page" that follows it to entice people to keep flipping.

If you're going to re-share other peoples' posts, keep that at a minimum and ALWAYS re-share with your own thoughts added to it ✏️

(Again, people are checking your stories to see what YOU'RE up to, not get a re-broadcast of someone else's content).

And most importantly... watch and see what people choose to engage in! See what they react to and lean into that to see if there are areas that both you AND your audience are really excited to engage in!

Wow ok that wasn't meant to turn into a lesson, but I hope that helps!

Can you see that I've been stuck writing informative blogs for way too long? 😂

Anyhow, if you found this helpful or if you resonated with any of the stuff I shared here, I'd love to hear about it!!

This diary is still an exploration for me, so I'd be pleasantly surprised if you made it through to the end of this long entry.

If you did... send me a DM on Instagram @racheltylee and let me know! You get extra brownie points if you do 😉

Anyhow, that's everything that I wanted to get off my chest this week! I'm already looking forward to the next entry!!

Cheers,

Rachel 💖