[Transcript starts at 1:09]
Hello, hello, hello, my podcast people and thank you for joining me for yet another episode of my favorite podcast. If you're listening to this when it drops, it airs, it whatever another word is, it's going to be Thursday, October 12th. I almost said second. That's wrong. October 12th. Welcome to the… second week of October, the, the days go by quickly.
Hopefully you're making the most of them. Uh, this means that business or that means that Business and Bullshit with My Bestie parts one and two have already dropped. Hopefully you've listened to them. They are coming out. Those episodes are coming out the Mondays, every Monday in October, the first four Mondays of October.
If you're not up to speed, I'm not sure how, but if you're not to speed Business and Bullshit with my Bestie, that is a four part episode series that I'm running with my bestie, Jill Fit and we're talking all things business and bullshit. It's actually been really fun recording the first two and uh hopefully if you listened one of the calls to action that we had in the second episode was let us know if you want this to be a a long term thing if you want this as a show.
We've been talking about it but as you know we don't build things unless people actually want them but I think it would be actually pretty cool to do. Yes, I'm going over the kind of thinking about the logistics of things and how to make it work and not at all talking myself out of it, but thinking about, you know, what it would, where would it actually live?
How do we host this thing? Cause we actually use different podcast hosts. Um, the editing of it, I want to really step back and not be doing a lot with it. Um, I would love to record it in person, but that just adds another layer. It's been really easy. We've been using Riverside and that, that, that is easy.
Um, so having a blast with it. And I, I think I would like for it to, to be a full time thing, a regular thing and Jill and I have talked about it and she's on the same page, but we want to know what would you like? So slide into the old DMs, let us know if you want it as a, as a full time thing, full time show.
Um, but that is a good segue actually for today's conversation, today's podcast episode, um, which is how to create when you're out of ideas. One of the cool things about creating with Jill, having a partner for that podcast, those, those podcast episodes is that they come up with ideas or, you know, we have conversations and it sparks other ideas.
So it can be really nice um, if I don't have a specific idea or, you know, I'm thinking kind of future, future pacing, future forward here. If I don't have an idea, she has an idea or just in, you know, in having recorded the past two episodes or the previous two episodes, I have a loose, I don't want to say outline, but I have some things I want to talk about, but so does she.
So that fills the content and then we actually kind of go on tangents and things like that. So good segue for the episode. Which is all about how to create when you're out of ideas. Now, I kind of want to clarify this cause I don't think that you necessarily run out and I want to be specific with this and intentional with what I'm saying because I don't want to make creativity sound like it's a finite resource.
And I do believe it's renewable. And perhaps we think of it like we do with energy that like it is renewable. You have to rest and kind of has to come back, but I don't, I kind of hate saying you run out of ideas. Cause it's like, shit, could I actually like run out forever? And like, it never comes back. No.
Um, but I think we've, we've all been in that place where like, I ain't got nothing to say. I'm not excited about anything, right? And so those are actually kind of different problems. And we're going to discuss that in the episode. I'm looking at the camera right now, not at the lens. I'm looking at the actual viewfinder thing.
Um, I'm recording this episode in the evening. It is 7. 15 at night. I usually record this during the day and I use the daylight because the lighting is just so good. I've talked about this in like every episode, but every episode since I moved. Um, but we're running into that night, so it's a little bit different.
We might get some banding, what's called banding, over the Maestro M. If you're watching this on YouTube, you see what I'm talking about. I can't really tell in the little viewfinder thing, but we might get some of that. And that's just because with this camera, the frequency that the light comes out, um, of that LED that, that, I think it's an LED M.
Um, it's back there. The, the neon m that's back there, it doesn't match up with the recording speed of the camera. And I've tried a bunch of things and the way that I can get rid of it is actually by putting a light directly in front of it. But I didn't flex any of that up, so I was like, you know what?
Whatever, it's what it's, but I got the lights going tonight. It's a little bit of a different look. Lex calls it the fishbowl. Look, I don't, I, I, I like it. So hopefully if you're watching, you're like, oh, little, so different. But hopefully you like it as well. But anyway, into or onto these suggestions of what to do when you have days when you feel like you got nothing to say.
You have no ideas, but you still want to create.
So first thing here, have a running list of ideas. Now I know you're like, but I just said this kind of feels like circular argument. You're telling me not to run out of ideas. Yes, I am. One of the things that I will do, and I've spoken about this before is that I have running lists of ideas for all the different types of content that I create, whether it's for the newsletter, whether it's for the podcast, whether it's for posts, whether it's for tweets or threads, or just going to have quotes.
Anytime I get an idea that I'm not going to be posting or creating in that moment, I write it down. And this way, if I do have moments where I'm not feeling super inspired, I can go and hit up that list of ideas. So if you don't do that, that's my suggestion to start those lists. Again, I do it in the Notes section of my phone.
I have an iPhone. You can, I think Google Keep is like kind of the equivalent. Um, but I make a folders for each of these things. I, where, it has a feature you can use on, do on notes. Just create different folders. And I have folders for all the different parts of my business. And I have folders for different types of content that I create, different areas that I create.
So this way you can pull from those lists when you're not feeling super inspired in the moment.
Next suggestion is to let it be good enough. Sometimes it's not that we don't have any ideas. It's that we don't have new ideas or they just kind of feel bleh. We're not really inspired by them. We don't feel like real jazzed up about them.
Of note, this is why I really encourage posting in the moment because typically things don't hit the same the next day. So when you're feeling inspired, lean into it. But if it's that you're just kind of like feeling bleh, blah about the content, that's okay. Feel blah and share it anyway. Right. Especially if consistency is your goal.
If you're looking to build that content creation habit, you may have to lean into some days where you just let it be good enough. And the reality is, trying to think of how I want to say this. The reality is sometimes what is just good enough in your mind is actually great depending on what kind of what your standards are, but, as always, remember, it's always new to someone, and if it helps one person, it's worth it. Even if it helps nobody, it's worth it because it helped you to stay consistent with, with, you know, the thing.
We've all been there as well when it comes to social media. And oftentimes it's the stuff that we make kind of in the spur of the moment or like, just kind of like, ah, I'm just going to make this thing and I just want to get it out there and make it quickly.
That's the one that does really well. I know, it's frustrating as hell. I know, I get it. But that's something to consider when you're like, ah, I do want to post something. I just want to get something out there, but like, I don't know, I'm not really inspired. I don't know what to post. Let it be good enough.
Next one, reuse old content. Like literally verbatim, just repost the same thing, right? Yes, this doesn't necessarily apply to like a podcast episode or an email. Maybe you don't want to send the exact same one out, but when it comes to posting content, which is oftentimes what, you know, people listening to this podcast are kind of thinking about, like, I don't have anything to say.
I don't have anything to post. Literally just repost something from before. The exact same thing. You don't have to change anything. You could, if you want, change the format. So you could take a tweet or a thread and turn it into a carousel. Take the caption and turn it into a carousel, right? Take the caption of something and turn it into a reel.
Take a caption and turn the actual caption, that you like, take the caption of another reel, whatever, and turn that into a carousel. Or vice versa, right? You can flip flop and go the other directions. So take the old content and repurpose the old content or repost the exact same content. And then let's move on to the next day.
Cause we, you know, you have a new day and suddenly you're like, Oh, I am inspired today. Something happened. You see something and you're like, Oh, I, someone asked a question and suddenly you were inspired to create content. So if you're looking to get through the day, stay consistent, reuse, repost old content.
Next one, repurpose the ideas of old content. So maybe you take a post and you flesh it out and turn it into a podcast episode. It can, I will say, it can be hard to take short form and expand it. Like, sometimes it's why it's short form. That's why the post is just a simple tweet because we don't have anything else to say about it.
But sometimes you do. And maybe you can read through the caption, especially if you have that body of work and you've been creating for a bit. You probably have posts in the vault, right? Old posts. So you're like, damn, that's actually pretty good. Which maybe you want to just repost it. Or if you're like, nah, I want to take this content, this concept rather, and repurpose it and make it as a newsletter, expand on it and make it as a podcast episode, or just make it into a new post.
You can totally do that. We can bring AI in on this and use chat GPT. One of the things that chat GPT to me, or I should say the number one thing that chat GPT is good for, in my opinion, is consolidating things, making things concise or condensing things. So I don't think it's great at creating content, but if you want it to summarize something, I think that's, it can do a phenomenal job.
So if you put in your own original content and you're like, Hey, summarize this, or pull out the important parts of this, or make talking points out of this, you could absolutely use ChatTPT to come up with content that way. So, um, Courtney, if you could link the episode that I did about ChatTPT, and actually I think it was like, you know, the full video, um, I'm very proud of that YouTube video, that would be amazing.
So if you link those two things, thank you. Um, but you could absolutely, I did this before I did this, I tried this before I recorded this episode just to see kind of what it would turn out, because I have not done this, but I was like, hey, this is the thing you could do. You could take a transcript from a podcast episode and have it, have ChatGPT turn it into posts.
Yes, it's always about the prompt that you use and you could probably use ChatGPT to generate prompts so that you could then create content. Right? You could do anything on this thing, but you could have ChatGPT go through the actual transcript and pull out verbatim, you have to say, specify that you want verbatim quotes that could be used as social media posts.
And again, the more specific you are with that prompt where you're specifying the intent, you're specifying the audience, you're specifying the length, you're specifying where it's going to be used, like what, what, um, platform, the better the outcome that it's going to, the better the output, but you can absolutely do that.
Right? So that suggestion is repurposing ideas of old content in order to create new content. And that last part was have jet jet. That's wrong. Have chat GPT help you out.
Next one. We all know this one. Move your body. Move your body, get the endorphins going, get the blood flowing, give the muse an environment that she actually wants to visit.
Get outside, go for a walk. We all know our best ideas come like we're in the shower, we're moving around, doing stuff, we're out for a run, we're working out. Cool. Go do that. And then when the inspiration hits or the idea hits, write it down or even better, create that content in the moment. You can ask Lex, uh, she brought stuff the other day.
She was, it was, we live together now and she was like, it's been really cool to see your creative process and see how, like when something hits, you just have to go to it. And that's exactly what I teach, right? Where it'll be 11 o'clock at night. And I'm like, the idea is here. I'm not going to sleep on it.
I'm going to go write this email out. I act on it in the moment because it doesn't hit the same the next day. And also as soon as you forget. So if you're really tired, you just have something by the bed, use your phone or whatever, where you can, you know, write that idea, and write that idea down as much of that idea as possible.
But when inspiration hits, when the muse visits, go, go all in.
Next suggestion on what to do when you got no ideas, if you have an audience and you've been giving, you've been showing up, been having conversations, been providing value, go ahead and ask them. You can put a question box up. You can ask them on the podcast.
You can ask them in your email, right? Open ended question. I think that this is another opportunity where you can use ChatGPT to create prompts. That's really not my forte, is creating prompts. Um, so use ChatGPT to create these prompts. And when I say prompts, I mean what you should be, what you can be asking your people.
Right? Because often times you put the question box up and you just ask, Hey, what do you want to see more of? It doesn't always yield the best results. Right? I have a really dope audience, and when I put that up, it doesn't always yield the best results. It gives people some guidance. I think it can help out, and so…
I would use ChatGPT to generate some of these prompts and kind of maybe lean into more pointed questions than what do you want more of. Maybe you put into ChatGPT what your niche is, what you've been talking about, what you're really excited about, and you have it generate some questions that could be useful for engagement with your audience.
Something like that. Right? So, using question boxes to ask people basically what they want more of, um, but perhaps in more pointed ways, um, and giving them some more direction. You could offer free calls. We just, I just did a, recorded the second episode of Business and Bullshit with My Bestie, yesterday with Jill, and I know it's weird. It feels like we're in the Matrix or something because I'm like, I was talking about it earlier that the episodes already dropped, but as I'm recording this, they haven't dropped yet. So I just said that I recorded the episode yesterday. I understand. Time is the flat circle. It's very weird.
Um, but was recording that episode yesterday. One of the questions I asked Jill was like, what would you suggest in terms of getting, um, getting, getting language from your potential clients if you don't have any clients yet? Right? Because that's how that's best for marketing is to steal the language of your people.
But suppose you don't have any people yet. How can you get this language? And so this is one of the things she suggested was offering free calls, going into your, your physical environment, going out into wherever you live and talking with people. I love that calling people that are in your family that may be of a similar demographic of who you're trying to serve and asking them questions and seeing what they're saying.
Uh, similarly, you could go into like a Facebook group and see what the comments are, or if you don't want to go Facebook group, cause I get it, it's Facebook, go onto Instagram and go to the big creators and see what people are saying in the comment section and use that to create content. Lastly, take a break.
Take yourself a goddamn break. I got nothing against rest, but I didn't, I strategically and specifically put this last because I don't think it should be the first thing that you do. Perhaps this can look like stepping away for the moment, but you know, if you constantly need a break from this thing, then this thing probably isn't the thing.
If it's just constantly draining you, something's got to change there. I do think that as it relates to taking a break, the goal, it does really matter what your goal, your ultimate goal is. Meaning if you're looking to build a habit, you're kind of in the newer phases of the beginning phases of creating content, then I would suggest that you don't take the break and you lean in.
You lean into the fact that quantity can absolutely beget quality, and you figure out a way to make it sustainable. You lean into letting it be good enough. If you've been at it forever and you're like, I'm tired. Cool. Take a break. Take a step back. Your business is not fragile. Like, you're cool. I know there's a lot of nuance here.
And I'm, was thinking about the words I wanted to use. And in terms of this episode, and I was just like, honestly, I don't think that if you're in the beginning, you're going to rest your way to the success that you want. I've said it before, Britney Spears said it, you better work, bitch. All right. But you figure out where you're at and what's going to allow you to create.
I think the big thing though, irrespective of whether you're a newbie, where you're advanced, you're taking a short break, long break, whatever, I think the main thing is that if you do decide to take any kind of break, whether it's a long break or you're just stepping back for a second, it's to use that break to lean into joy, lean into things that bring you joy, lean into things that make you happy.
Don't use it to lead into more content consumption. Consumption oftentimes leads to comparisonitis, which makes people stop. Or you just get like constipation where you just like consume, consume, consume and nothing comes out. So use that time to get happy, to get excited about something instead of going and scrolling and being like, Oh, whatever.
What's everyone else posting? That doesn't matter. Go do things that bring you joy. And once again, I kind of said it earlier, give the muse an environment where she wants to live and hang out. She's not trying to hang out where it's dusty. She didn't want that. So go get excited about things. Go walk, go lean into joy.
Go get some sun on your face. Go hang out with your dog. Go hang out with someone that you, that you like. Go to the beach, whatever it is, go to the cold. If that's what you like, go bring some joy, attract the muse and watch the inspiration come back.
All right. I'm looking at the time, I'm looking at the notes, it's all I got for you.
I'm gonna follow my own advice, which I gave, I don't know, a few bullet points ago, and uh, ask if you got any requests for content. I didn't look at a chat GPT prompt for this, I didn't. I'm just like, I'm saying what I'm saying. But if you got any quests for any, any, eh. Whoa, leave it in, Courtney. If you got any requests for content, send them my way.
You can text me 310 737 2345. It is me, I promise. The text will be green. It's my sideline, but it is me. Or you can shoot me a little DM at @themovementmaestro. Would love to hear from you if you got any questions, comments, concerns. But also don't hesitate to use the search box on my website. Because I, I know, I have a shit ton of episodes.
And this is not to say that I don't want you to ask me a question. And you know, I'm not going to be like, Oh, I already did that episode. But if you have a question and you're like, Hey, does this already exist? Go ahead and use that search box on the, on the website. If there's an episode about whatever it is that you're searching for, it will come up.
Um, but if it doesn't come up or if you're like, hey, refresh this, give me a new take, by all means slide on to the DM, slide into the DM, shoot me a text. Um, I'd love to hear from you. All right. No reviews that I'm going to read today. Keeping the episode shorter. Don't forget next Monday will be part three of Business and Bullshit with My Bestie. Would love to have you tune in. All right. All right. All right. As always, endlessly, endlessly appreciative for every single one of you. Until next time, friends. Maestro out.
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