You Know What...
You know what’s crazy? Going into this year I had a whole list of content ideas and strategies that I had brain dumped and planned to put together. Then when it was time to grab my tripod and get to work, I was just like “yea, no. I don’t wanna to do that.”
(In New York yea, no = absolutely not)
In my last blog post I spoke about the unconventional approach that I took to welcoming in the New Year. After coming out of my short hiatus, I returned to social media to catch up on what I’d missed and to be honest, I just felt sooo… uninspired. My first thoughts were…
“Everyone looks tired.”
“I’m tired just watching everyone look tired”
“What are we doing here?”
“Where is this going?”
“What are we doing it for?”
“To sell?”
“To stay in the loop?”
“To stay on top of the algorithm?”
All of these questions made me take a long hard look at my approach to content creation, because what I’m looking at right here, and the cost to participate, is not giving the Eat, Pray, Love vibes I’m aiming for in life. It’s looking more like an episode of Survivor. And I’m not knocking anyone’s hustle because content is the heart of marketing and is required in order to sell. But since working smarter, and not harder has always been my creed in life, I had no choice but to make some changes before jumping back into the ring.
Change of pace
The first thing I did was reflect on what I wanted to do and create. What is the end goal of all this? Again, bite-sized, constant, and quick content doesn’t align with the pace I’m looking to operate at. So, I decided to focus on creating full bodies of work to share with my audience. And what do you know, a new passion project came to mind. (but we’ll get into that later) The life I am creating for myself is slow, intentional, and blissful, so I have to stay true to that.
Are you creating or making content?
Next, I needed to get off this hamster wheel of making content and get back to creating. What’s the difference? Creating always implies making something but making something isn’t necessarily creating something.
For example, you create life, you create a work of art, and you create a story. Whereas making something is just producing something that might already exist - you make a car, you make a loaf of bread, you make a copy of a book.
A lot of content creation, I feel, has relied heavily on (if not solely on) the (re)making of the same day-to-day trends. (Tik Tok dances/voiceovers, popular reel audio, the same toxic masculinity topics on Twitter) I guess that’s why I’ve found it to be so uninspiring lately. It’s rare to come across a creation of something original, refreshing, or new, on social media at least. * shrugs *
The best way to stay in a creative flow is to live your life and allow yourself to be present. Pulling from real-life experiences and emotions, that are unique to you, makes for the best works of art and productions. So, I’ve given my focus more focus. That focus is making the conscious decision to remain present.
Don’t be afraid to step off for a bit
“Will they forget about me if I step off for a bit?”
Ya know, there’s nothing I appreciate more than a well throughout and intentional rollout from an artist. I love witnessing the process of an artist resurfacing to the spotlight to present something they’ve been working long and hard on. Tyler The Creator, is one of my favs for this. You can see his growth in each of the projects that he presents, and you can tell how seriously he takes his craft. I think he explained it perfectly in one of his latest interviews, On Top of a Mountain with Fast Company.
When Bobby Womack said, “I can’t be in two places at one timeeee🎤😩...” I lowkey felt that lol because trying to outdo your last project while MAKING content for trends on social media is tough. What I appreciate most about my tribe is their understanding, the space they give me to focus on my craft, and their embrace when I do resurface with something new. And for that, I will always put my best foot forward before stepping at all
““Do not be afraid to disappear from it, from us for a while, and see what comes to you in the silence.””
