5 Ways To Show Up Consistently When You're Not In A Season Of Creating *NEW* Content
As I’m writing this, I’m 3 weeks away from having my first baby and I’m SO excited! But I’ll be honest…
Preparing for motherhood as an entrepreneur has been quite the adventure. Even though one of the sole reasons I started my business is so I could have more flexibility and have the chance to stay home with my babies one day, as soon as I got pregnant, my mind started spinning with how I was going to make this work.
Between client work and all of the work that I want and need to do in my business, it scared me at first. As someone that’s always been super scheduled and routined, I quickly realized how throwing a baby in the mix was going to change that.
But as I prepare to enter this new, insanely exciting season of life of becoming a mom, I’ve given myself the permission to change the way I currently do things to match that season.
Up to this point, I’ve really prided myself on being consistent with almost everything that I do. I’ll humbly say that if there’s one quality that I believe that I hold really well in life AND in business, it’s that I’m consistent.
Prior to pregnancy, I was insanely consistent with my personal routines. And then suddenly my 4:30am morning routine was no longer in the cards. That one was hard to accept, but once I realized that my productivity isn’t tied to the time I wake up, I was able to adapt and be more flexible. (Here’s a closer look at a day in my current pregnant life 🤰🏻)
In business, this quality shows up too, specifically with the way I create content. In the almost 2 years I’ve been in business, I’ve successfully posted a new blog post every single Wednesday except TWO... and one of those days was planned. Same with my newsletter – we’re 63 entries in without missing a single week.
Social media content has been pretty consistent too. I don’t remember a time that I went radio silent or didn’t show up in some way.
And I don’t say any of this to give myself a pat on the back. That’s not the point at all. The point is that I simply value consistency in life and business.
With this new season approaching, however, I’ve had to be honest with myself and ask – what does consistency look like with a newborn? What will this look like while you’re on maternity leave? How can you adjust what you do, but still remain consistent in some way?
Because here’s the deal: I know better than to believe that I’ll want to write a new blog post or newsletter every week when I’m covered in spit up and have barely slept.
Not to mention the fact that more than being consistent in my business, I WANT to spend uninterrupted time with my baby and allow myself to truly take off for a period of time.
After all, that’s why I started this business in the first place – to have the flexibility to do just that – right?!
As I was pondering those questions and thinking about what this could look like, I quickly remembered that you can still show up consistently even when you’re not creating NEW content.
So that’s what I want to share with you in this blog post!
Next week I’ll specifically dive into how I followed my own advice to prepare for a 3ish month maternity leave as a freelance blog writer, but for now I want to share 5 main ways you can continue to show up consistently in your business even when you’re not in a season of creating new content.
5 Ways To Show Up Consistently In Your Content WITHOUT Creating New Content
Refresh your old content
The first and most straightforward way to do this? Refresh OLD content! If you’re like me and have a bank of blog posts or newsletters, do yourself a favor and use what you’ve done in the past.
There is no rule out there (and if there is it should be thrown in the garbage 🗑️) that says you can’t update, recycle, or refresh content you’ve created in the past.
In fact, I believe if you’re NOT doing this, you’re doing yourself and your audience a disservice. The truth is, very few people (if any) will remember what you created last week, last month, or last year.
So, why not use that to your advantage and audit your existing content to decide what could use a refresh to serve you in a season where you aren’t creating anything new?
Permission granted.
Create low lift content topics
Another one of my favorite ways to show up consistently without necessarily creating new content is to act on a few low lift content ideas.
Low lift, meaning it doesn’t require a ton of your time or energy, or thinking capacity.
These are typically content topics that are a little more straightforward and don't require as much of your creativity.
A few examples of low lift blog topics could be:
A roundup of your favorite books regarding your niche (like this!)
A list of blogs that you love to read each week (like this!)
Newsletters that you can’t get enough of
Diary style blog posts, such as a Day in the Life
With content like this, you’re still technically creating new content, but the difference is that the content isn’t requiring as much of your time or creative energy, making it a bit easier to complete!
Adjust your consistency to match your current season
If you’re a Type A, recovering perfectionist like me, this might sound like a crazy thought… but what if you just… stopped trying to do so much and allowed yourself to actually take a step back for a hot sec?
Trust me when I say, I know this is easier said than done. As mentioned above, I pride myself on being consistent, which means if I decide that I’m going to do something – like post a new blog post each week, for example – then I’m going to do it and it’ll probably be reallyyyy hard for me to stray from that.
But as a business owner PERSON, it’s important to acknowledge that life ebbs and flows and it’s okay to honor that and adjust as needed.
In fact, just a few weeks ago in The Writer’s Room, a member shared how she’s in the middle of a launch season in her business and is having a hard time keeping up with the consistency of her weekly blogs and emails, so she asked if she could simply change that consistency for the time being.
My answer? HECK YES. I would be made if you didn’t!!
Whether it’s the consistency with your blog content, newsletter, social media, client work, [insert any other business thing that you need to scale back on], give yourself the permission to do just that.
Collaborate with others in your industry
Last year when I was rebranding Natty Writes into what it is today, which included writing the copy and designing my website, I knew I had a lotttt of work to do and I didn’t have as much time as I would’ve ideally wanted to get it all done.
I had a date in mind for my re-launch and between client work and the weekly work for my own business, I started to question if I could really make it happen.
So that’s when I decided to get creative and lean on others in my network to collaborate with in order to continue showing up consistently without being the actual person doing the creating.
For me, that meant calling on a few people that I know, trust, and look up to to feature on my blog for a guest expert slot. Not only did this give me the capability to scale back on the content that I needed to create, but it also gave me a chance to highlight and support a few people that I genuinely love to learn from and give my audience a chance to get connected to them as well!
Focus on engagement versus creation
Lastly, if you’re in a season where new content creation just isn’t in the cards, one of the best things you can do is simply focus on engagement versus creation.
When it comes to social media specifically, there’s a lot of pressure to consistently show up in some capacity, but what if you took that pressure off and simply allowed yourself to engage with the people that you love to follow?
After all, social media is meant to be… well, social. So, engage with the people you follow, start conversations in their comment section, respond to stories, and genuinely connect.
There’s not just one right way to be ~consistent~, so determine what that looks like for you in your current season and roll with it!
And there ya have it - 5 ways to show up consistently even when you’re not in a season of creating new content.
As cliche as it might sound, give yourself grace and remember that we aren’t meant to do everything all the time! You’re allowed to slow down or speed up whenever you please, so lean into that and take the pressure off.
As my friend Nicole reminds me often: it’s PR, not the ER. Aka most of us aren’t saving lives here. The content creation can wait if it needs to!
New to my world? Nice to virtually meet ya. 👋 I’m Natalie, but everyone calls me Natty (you can too) – blog and email writer for creative business owners and service providers.
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