Do you feel like you are creating content but going nowhere?

Creator burnout, writer's block, creative block, or however you want to call it, is REAL. You are not alone.

Beyond creating content, you manage socials, build a community around your brand, and deal with product and logistics. Life is crazy running a company, and the idea of being creative can feel repulsive.

I like to keep things honest; I am feeling that now. I would hate to write a newsletter to encourage you to keep pumping out photos and videos if I feel not in it to win it myself.

Instead, I will walk through what I am doing to get through this creative block, and hopefully, you will have some tools to help yourself and your team work through a season of burnout or creative block.

Find the root of the burnout.

You can't heal a wound if you don't know how you got it in the first place. Take a step back and assess what is making you feel overwhelmed. Why is your team feeling overwhelmed?

For me, I have a massive swell of content shoots for clients that all have lined up in the next few days. This amount of work is excellent for business, but I am drained with a lot of planning involved. It isn't anyone's fault, but I first need to recognize that there is a lot of work on my team's plate.

The other tricky thing is that when you set goals or a posting schedule, it is easy to feel bad about missing things if you fall behind. Now it is a spiral of feeling bad, behind, and tired.

That is a recipe for disaster.

Take a look at your creation schedule and content plan. Maybe you scaled the amount of posting too fast that it is not manageable for your team size. Perhaps there are too many initiatives that you underestimated the time needed to accomplish these initiatives.

If you are a team, take some time to have an open discussion but focus on getting to the bottleneck or most significant stressor. You want people to air frustrations, but you still need to get to the root of the issue.

After you read this newsletter, if you are by yourself, go for a walk away from the computer or phone and just listen to yourself. Our minds subconsciously know the root of the problem; we spend so much time distracting ourselves. Sit with your thoughts, let them run crazy, and you will stumble upon the heart of the issue.

How to deal with the creative block

1. Scale back or Push Back

Something is too much. After going through the exercise above, it is now time to scale back something or push back the release date. The health of you and your team is more important than keeping a growth-at-all-costs mindset.

Less is more.

You have pushed your team to a limit that isn't sustainable, and that is okay. You had to find the limit, but now that you know the boundary, find the sweet spot of quality and consistency.

If you had a release date on something, it is okay to push back the release date. Having that extra time might alleviate the pressure to create and bring clarity to have better ideas or a more successful launch.

2. If it ain't working, cut it.

Content creation is about testing more so than getting it right on the first try. There might be an idea that sounds great in a meeting, but that idea is not working out once everything is set in motion. Maybe the type of content is not working or is draining the team, that is okay.

Take a step back and remember that content is driving revenue. If your work isn't moving the revenue needle, consider cutting that idea or figuring out what needs to change.

We hear people talk about consistency and keep creating, which I believe is helpful but not at the expense of your published quality. This balance is hard to find, but I think it can limit us from making decisions to cut an idea or change the marketing initiative for the sake of consistency.

How I am dealing with burnout!

I got into this business because I am OBSESSED about making photos and videos. This art is what I want to do, and I am blessed that I have this opportunity to work with you and many other clients.

If I want the best work to show for my clients, I need to make sure I am working at my best. I am ambitious, and I have seen how I underestimate different tasks that take a lot of time away from the creation part of my job.

I have had to take a few walks and figure out what is draining me, and then who can help me with these parts of the business to help serve others through content creation.