Strengthen your marketing muscles through The Content Diet
Image by: @jonathanborba
Since I went full time on both my photography and this marketing business last year, I have been going full steam ahead. Fueled in equal parts by validation that I have it in me to go full-time and succeed, and the need to replace my working income, I have put a lot of time and effort into the GO.
About 6 months ago I finally hit on my groove that included a powerful morning routine and a pace for the rest of my work. The spaces in between have been filled with education and inspiration. It doesn’t help that I’m a type A because I have filled literally every space to keep the momentum up. I listen to educational audiobooks in the car, on the dog’s walks, when cooking and cleaning. I’m often scrolling through feeds while I watch TV and answering questions and generating blog ideas. I watch educational videos while eating breakfast and lunch, as I’m the only one home. I’m replaying things in my mind while laying in bed. Recently I wrote a new product guide to offer for marketing (in the margin on the right) and then challenged myself to go live in my Facebook Group to run a 13- video series on the ABC’s of Marketing (also available on Youtube) and to promote the new guide. I believe this was the tipping point.
Last week as I finished up the video series, I felt overwhelmed. I have been able to maintain my ShineSparkL harmony with my routine for my Body, Mind and Intuition Pillars, but I think I was going overboard on my Brand and Business Pillars, and it tipped the scales into disharmony. Usually we are neglecting one or more pillars and falling into disharmony, but in my case I had some at a good level but was on overdrive on others, creating a similar effect. Journalling (part of my Intuition Pillar) was what helped me to identify and work through this disharmony and the creative thought that emerged was The Content Diet.
What is the Content Diet?
I am a constant education seeker, which is part of what drives my success to offer not only my photography services, but to run this blog and website to help other photographers. It is definitely a strength, but even good things overdone can tip into negative territory. I realize that because I consume so much outside education and inspiration that my learning cup is full and constantly overfilling but the implementation and synthesis of that education hasn’t caught up.
When we work our bodies, we need periods of rest and recovery for optimal advancement. I had an AHA! that I have been inundating my brain but haven’t given sufficient time to digest, synthesize and embody the information into my life and business. There is a very real phenomenon that is disguising advancement by getting lost in the expertise of others. For example, many years ago I watched a documentary that indicated with the rise of viewership of inspirational cooking shows, the number of people cooking at home was reduced! An effect where people got their fill of beautiful food and beautiful table-scapes from the shows and instead of gaining that knowledge and applying it into their own lives, went to pop a frozen dinner into the microwave! The show was satisfaction enough without having to go further to bring the show into real life. I feel this effect was at play here for me. Constantly consuming education prevents me from applying it fully into my own life and my own business.
I have had plenty of education that I am not lacking answers. What is lacking is the rest and recovery period for converting knowledge into gains and answers. Education is like the RAW image format. It gets fed into the post-processing software to be finished. We use education as raw material that gets processed in with all the previous education and experiences, to innovate and fuel our own ideas, imagination, creativity and beliefs.
The Content Diet is the Intermittent fasting part of my learning cycle. I decided on the Monday of this week, that for the remainder of the week I will consume NO OUTSIDE EDUCATION. I have enough. This week I won’t listen to any books, nor watch any videos nor seek out any articles or blogs. I will play music in the car. The dog walk will be full of the sounds of nature and my surroundings. Cooking and cleaning will be silent. I am on day 4.
The marketing gains of the Content Diet
With space created in my day and week by removing all outside education, my thoughts were the source of my education. They have been informed with a boatload of information already so now it’s time to let that information soak in and to see how it transforms into my business values, beliefs, confidence and gains. And I’ve even surprised myself! I have had a ton of insights that have tumbled in from the annals of my mind. There is room for all information previously consumed to emerge and to be put together in unique ways. Like a sponge, I was saturated and needed to wring myself out before I could absorb more. I realized that this is a natural cycle, but like other driven individuals I kept pushing past the point of saturation until I hit a wall.
The new cycle of learning
Some time ago, I came upon entrepreneur Dan Lok. In one of his videos, he suggests doing a deep dive on one educational topic at a time, for a period of time like a quarter. I instantly latched onto this idea because it makes sense; learning a subject for 3 months will really allow learning to happen. While I haven’t been great at this so far, it came to my mind again when this concept of the Content Diet materialized. In allowing myself a period of quiet, I put old information together with new and came up with a learning process that I will try:
My Learning Ladder
Idea Initiate: approximately 8 weeks
On a quarterly basis, pick a topic to learn: SEO, posing, lighting, pricing, whatever it is.
Learn (and act, if there are immediately actionable items)
Intuitive Idling: (the Content Diet): week 9
Put everything away. Do not consume ANY education or inspiration on the selected topic or any other topic. Allow your mind to be idle and open. This is time to let go, be quiet, digest, incubate and mull over all that was learned. Like a week long meditation! If any flashes come, write them in your journal or in your Notes app but don’t start anything even if you get excited. Give time and space.
Inspired Implementation: weeks 10-12
This is the time to act! Create a plan from the notes you took in your idle phase. In this phase do not consume any additional education or information either; the idea is to execute on the ideas that formed from previous education, to completion.
Then, start a new quarter. I am going to do this starting in January and will complete 4 quarters by the end of next December. I am eager to see how this might change how I consume education and excited that I have a plan that will keep me accountable from the learning phase to implementation. I wonder what business will look like a year from now. Who’s with me to give it a try?
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