A (0:00)

Foreign welcome to the Courage and Clarity podcast. I'm your host, Steph Crowder. I'm a former sales training director who's helped thousands of entrepreneurs earn a living doing something they love over the past 10 years. On your journey, you'll need the courage to be bold, to take risks, and to do what looks crazy on paper. You'll also need the clarity, the brass tacks, simple strategies that actually work. And on this podcast, we deliver both in equal measure. Oh, and by the way, we've got absolutely no time for bs, gross marketing tactics or get rich quick schemes. Just sustainable business strategies for good humans with big dreams. If that sounds like you, you're in the right place. Let's go. Hey my courageous listeners, welcome to the podcast. Let's talk about my 10 minute content habit that will really transform your visibility in 2026 and beyond. If being more visible and creating content consistently is something that you have on your goal list or a habit that you would like to create, I really want to talk to you about how you really do not need as much time as you're likely thinking that you need in order to create really great content that is going to do its job. And as a reminder, the job of content is really to move the needle on your revenue and help you reach people who are going to become clients and help you sell out your offers. That's really the whole purpose of why we create content in the the first place. So we're going to talk about this 10 minute strategy. If you can come up with 10 minutes, then you can come up with content from start to finish. And I'm also, as a little bonus, I'm going to throw in something that I'm calling the Finish Line Strategy. Because as I record this episode, we are in mid December pretty much. And I mean, I know I'm recording this on a Friday and for a lot of folks next week, the week that you might be listening to this, this may very well be your last work week or your full working week of the year. I know it is for me and my company, lots of other people that I talk to. You're probably going to be trying to things down for the holiday season and so we're going to talk about this finish line strategy to really help you close the open tabs that you have in your brain and just feel like the loops are sealed and everything is good so that you can truly give yourself the relaxation and rejuvenation and restoration that I'm guessing you desire. In the month of December, the second half of December, when we have holidays and time with our family and all of the things that you probably started your business to help you enjoy more of. Right? So for today, I want to talk about this topic because I really do believe it will save your business in 2026. Save your, your ability to be visible without breaking your neck in the process. Specifically, if you are any of these things, if you're a mom, a multitasker, a human being with a real life who's got responsibilities, maybe you have a job, maybe you're a caregiver to anyone, maybe you're a caregiver to a pet. Whatever you have going on, you're busy, right? And it can be, it can really feel chall, especially when you start getting clients champagne problems where you're like really busy delivering and you're busy helping your clients. And it's like for many, many people, myself included, content can really become the thing that gets pushed to the back burner. It becomes the thing that's like, well, if I get to it, I'll do it, but if I'm really busy, it's just not going to happen. And I notice in my own brain, and certainly with the clients that I coach, there's really this lie that is floating around. It's floating around in our brains. It's even floating around on parts of the Internet when you, you know, maybe start to learn about like content creation. And it goes something like this. If I can't sit down for a two hour strategy block, I can't create good content. Okay? So I want you to ask yourself, have you been telling yourself some version of this story? Oh, I have to block out two hours, three hours, five hours, a whole day, two days, whatever it is, Right. Like, if I can't come up with a two hour strategy block, I'm not going to be able to produce something worthwhile. When the truth of the matter is, and this is, I think the exciting part, the people, many people, not everybody. I'm not going to make a blanket statement. I mean, some people are still creating, you know, some people are creating content that way. Absolutely. But, And I think TikTok is a really, really great microcosm of this. There are plenty of people who are blowing up right now who are filming thoughts in their car, right. Taking 10 minutes between meetings, talking about what's real, not what's overly polished. And I really hope that that can be a permission slip for many of us. Right. It's not just TikTok. You might be thinking, I'm not on TikTok. That's okay. I also see it with threads where it's like, you know, people, you can just type up a quick thought that you have in your brain, put it out there, and you may catch a wave, you may catch some attention, and it's great to go viral. I think going viral is a perfectly okay aspiration. But we don't even need you to viral in order to reach people and be in front of people, remind them that you exist and create more clients. Like I said, that's the whole goal. And so this episode is really going to show you, like I said, that tip. Simple 10 minute daily content habit that will shift your visibility. We're going to talk about why perfectionism masquerades as overwhelm and how that's been freezing you and what you can do to get yourself out of it. So if you've been feeling overwhelmed when it comes to content, there's perfectionism wrapped up in there. And we're gonna break that down so you can move past it. We're also gonna talk about how to decide what actually matters when your schedule feels shredded. That is really ironic coming from me because if I'm being totally honest. And so I love podcasting so much, I am in a bathrobe right now. It is a snow day, my kids are home, my cleaning ladies here like it's bananas bonkers over here. And that's not even to count all of the holiday stuff that's going on. So my schedule is shredded. I bet your schedule is shredded too. And what's most important is that you decide what actually matters. Notice that that isn't stopping me from recording this podcast right now. Right? Perfect episode for me to be recording. And we'll also apply, like I mentioned, that finish line strategy so you stop starting and actually finish so you can wrap up your year. Okay, so this is really the episode you need if you're wanting to go into 2026 with more traction, more Clari consistency without having to burn your life down or have perfect conditions in order to do it. So let's dive in. Let's talk more about the myth of the two hour block. Right, so the online business world really does over glorify long, polished, uninterrupted time. And I think in our brain, I know for me, I over glorify that as well because it sounds really nice, doesn't it? It's like, let me get my favorite coffee and have this luxurious, delicious, juicy two hour open white space on my calendar. Actually, I'm going to be honest even more Honest and tell you that is what I had planned for today. Like I cannot even make this up. I didn't really think about this before I hit record, but I had on my calendar today it's Friday. I don't typically do calls on Fridays if I can help it. And I was going to have a creative day, I was going to have a content day and then ba bam, we have a snow day. And it's not even a true snow day for my kids. It's the dreaded NTI or digital like online learning day. So they have homework and people are melting down and it's just a whole thing, right? So there goes my day, there goes my any hope at a two hour block that I was gonna have. But I don't want that to be the reason that I don't get this podcast out like I said I would. And so the truth is, if your strategy relies on two hour blocks, your strategy is going to be incompatible with your real life. Right? Sometimes that'll go great and I love that. But other times, it's gonna be a snow day, somebody's gonna be sick, you're gonna get in a car accident. Like whatever happens is gonna blow up your life. And you have to be able to create in imperfect conditions because those blocks sound super productive and they feel like, you know, grown up business, serious people do this type of thing. But in practice, even when you are able to protect the time, okay, so let's say that you don't get interrupted, which is great. I have run into this, and I see it for my clients too, that you, if you have that time on your calendar, you might sit down and run into the inability to actually create because you start procrastinating, you start feeling shame about the procrastination, you start heading into avoidance and then you go into a I'll start when I have more time spiral. Because now you've maybe like gone around and around for an hour trying to figure out what you're even gonna say and maybe then a client email comes in or whatever and you're like, oh, nevermind, like I, I, I'm just gonna have to reschedule this. Does that sound familiar? Here's the thing. The truth is that you don't need more time. You don't, you don't need more time. What you need is more touches. And what I mean by touches is like quick touches, micro momentum, okay? A content habit that can actually accumulate. So when I say touches, I mean touching your content touching ideas in short periods of time. This is why for me, some of the most successful pieces of content that I've created for social media. For example, you will see me in my car. First of all, the lighting is great in your car, right? And secondly, if you're a mom or a parent, you know that that can be one of the only quiet places, truly quiet, private places that you have. And this is amazing news for us. I like to record videos when I'm driving and an idea strikes me, I'm coming back from the gym, I will pull my car over and I will just hit record. That's all it takes. And if you want to have some time where you're being more methodical, I'm not here to demonize that at all. But I want us to give the micro content, the micro quick. Like, let's just get this out. I want us to give that a shot as well, because it's a perfect segue into my second idea here, which is that perfectionism disguises itself as overwhelm, right? There is such a thing as having too many ideas. It's happened to me. I have a list in an app that I use of over 100 ideas for this podcast. And I have definitely sat down and be like, oh, my God, how am I going to pick? What am I going to do? Like, which one's the best? Which one's the right one? And so that's one reason that you might freeze. Other reasons are you think your content has to be really profound, right? Like, it has to be really good. It has to be good enough, it has to be juicy enough, it has to be worth people's time, right? You might feel like, okay, if you're creating for social media and you're doing a carousel, you might feel like you have to work on these slides and tinker and tinker and tinker and make them look good enough, right? Maybe if you're doing a reel or a short form video, you start to believe you need a perfect hook, right? You have to say the perfect thing right out of the gate to catch people's attention. And you may even be thinking, if it's not fully fleshed out, it shouldn't be published. Like, I need to think about it for longer. I need to work on it, I need to make it better. And here are some of the sneaky ways that perfectionism does show up. You might be thinking, I need to think about it more. I need to plan it better. This isn't ready yet. And then this last one I think is the sneakiest, which is, I'll batch it Next week I need to batch my content. Like that's what professional CEOs and like real company like leaders there. I, I just need to batch it. That one is so sneaky because it feels like you're being productive. You're like, oh yeah, yeah, no, I'm gonna batch it, I'm gonna put it on my calendar. But remember, Procrastina planning is also a thing. And it, it's really sneaky because it does give you, at least for me, it gives me that hit of dopamine to put on my calendar. Two hour block. Like this is when I'm making the content go me pat myself on the back like I planned it. Good job. Your brain kind of thinks you did something, but let's be real, you didn't do anything. And I don't mean to be mean, but it's just the truth. You didn't actually do anything except put an event on your calendar. I've had to learn this one the hard way. And so if you put it on your calendar and you actually do it and that works for you, that's a to. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about you put it on there, you feel like it's kind of like playing dress up as a content creator wearing like your mom's high heels. Right. Like cosplaying as a organized CEO. But unless you're actually able to follow through and do what you say you're going to do in that time, it's okay to just be like, that's not working for me. All right. In some ways, and this is where I really want you to audit your brain and give yourself an honest look. Here is it might be that your brain isn't even overwhelmed. It's telling you that this is overwhelm. But what if what it's really doing is giving you like a really sophisticated way of protecting you from being seen? Right. Like we're not going to be seen if we're constantly planning when we're going to batch something or waiting for perfect conditions. Right. It really often is a very sophisticated, highly evolved way of keeping you in hiding. All right? And that's why the 10 minute habit really does work, because it bypasses the perfection circuit entirely. So let's talk about how this can work for you and what it is. We're going to break it down into three steps. Yes, we have three steps. That's all three steps. All right, so step number one is going to be set. A 10 minute timer. 10 minute timer. Okay. So not, you know, 30 minutes, 10 minutes. And honestly, maybe even five minutes. Five minutes can be enough. Five to 10 minutes is perfect. Okay, so you're going to set that 10 minute timer. That's step one. We haven't even done it yet. Step one is just set the timer. Okay. Step two is going to be brain dump. One thing that. And this is where we can kind of have, like this can come from multiple places. But one thing you got, Coach Sean. If you, you know, you have a mentor, you're in a program and you got coached recently and something was like a big eye opener for you, what's something you've gotten coached on? What's something you've coached others on? If you have clients, okay. Or if you're a service provider or you do something else besides coaching, what's like one client interaction that you've had recently that's kind of stuck with you? Okay, that's another idea. And the third one could be just something that you thought about today. Like, literally, like, that's kind of my favorite one is like, what's something that you thought about today? So for example, mine could be like, what I do when I plan to work and my kids have a snow day. That's something that I'm thinking about today. Cause it's happening in my life, right? If that's not enough for you, here's some more things that you can ask. You can ask yourself, what did I say today to someone? A client, a friend, a spouse, a mom, whoever. What did I say today that someone else needs to hear? What did I say today that someone else needs to hear? I have this rule with myself, which is that if I've said it more than once to a client, it needs to be content. Right? I give myself, I can say it one time and I might be like, that's really good. If I say it again, that means like, it's come up again. It needs to be content. Either curriculum for my clients, like a training, or here on the podcast or on my social media or for my email list or something. Okay, so what did I say today that someone else needs? Number two is similar, but just a little more specific. What reframe shifted someone? Have you offered a reframe to someone? It could be a friend, in conversation, it could be a client. But what reframe shifted someone to someone? Could be you. Did you coach yourself? Right? Like maybe you do journaling and you had an aha moment and you shifted something. What was that? Okay, number three idea is what moment gave me goosebumps. Maybe you heard something again, convert. It could be a conversation. It could be something you overheard. It could be something you read, an idea, something that popped up for you that really was like, whoa, okay? And then the fourth one is, what problem did I solve for a client? For anyone that felt universal or that feels like it could apply universally, Right? So this conversation I'm having with you all on the podcast today is definitely something I've been helping my clients with lately, Especially as we head into the end of the year. The overwhelm is at a high. I mean, we all are juggling so much. We have this finish line of wanting to wrap up work. We have sugar plum fairies dancing through our heads, right? We have Christmas lists and Christmas cookies, and don't forget to buy the bus driver a gift. That one's for me. You know what I mean? Like, there's so many things on your brain right now. The overwhelms at that all time high. So I've been coaching my clients about this 10 minute content habit, and it's definitely universal. I know more of you need to hear it. Okay, so that's it. Pick one. One thing that was step two. And those were just some prompts to help you brain dump that one thing. And then number three is publish it as. Is publish it as it's coming up in your brain. No optimizing, no overthinking, no perfect lighting. Don't worry about captions, don't worry about batching. This is genuinely just about getting in the reps and saying what needs to be said, not having polish on it. I mean, seriously, if you all could see me right now, you could not. You could not pay me enough money to show you what I look like right now. My hair is not even fully on the top of my head. I'm in a bathrobe. I am wearing slippers. Like, I need to take a shower. Right? But it doesn't matter because what I'm saying on this podcast episode is going to get out there and it's going to help people and it's going to do what it needs to do. So this is the example of, you know, me doing my 10 minute method on a podcast. But again, you could also do this with content for social media. So I know I already shared the example of, like, if I'm driving and I have a great idea, the next time I can safely pull over, get to a parking lot, or get to my driveway, I'm just going to put my phone up. I actually have a little device I got off of Amazon, which holds. It actually hooks into my like air conditioning vents and it's, it, it holds my phone so that it, you know, centers me sitting in my driver's seat and I can just talk to the camera, right? Like kind of like a tripod for your car. I think that's a great thing to have. So have an idea and just start talking. Just start talking. Right? You can make notes if you need to, but I think there's even value in just trusting yourself to get one idea out there for something like a reel or a TikTok. My little rule of thumb is like one sentence. It's like, if it's more than that, it could probably be an email to your list or it could even be a podcast. But if it's like one micro concept, one sentence, you can expand on it a little bit in short form. Video. Right? Here's the amazing thought that I want you to have. How about this? Your best content. Or what if, what if. Let's just. You don't even have to believe this yet, but let's just play with it, right? What if your best content is hiding in what you say off the cuff over coffee, to a client, on a zoom call, to your assistant, to your partner, whatever. What if the best content is actually hiding in what you say off the cuff, not in what is overly scripted? This is why, and I can prove this, this is why car videos are starting to outperform studio videos. You can go look at this for yourself. Look at how many highly produced studio videos are not doing that well unless it's a really big brand or a really well known podcast host. I think a lot of people are really craving the humanity, the relatability, the. You just feel like a friend coming through the screen, right? They want immediacy, they want intimacy and they want honesty over, like, is it your brand colors? Okay. And don't get me wrong, I love a good brand. I love a good. Like, I really want to be clear, this isn't me saying never plan anything ahead. Like it's truly like transparently. It's absolutely one of my big goals because this is always something I've never been able to quite do. One of my big goals is to start working ahead on my content. I think that would be great for me and for my company, but it's not going to stop me when it doesn't turn out like that, right? Like when I only have 10 minutes, I want to be able to continue to have the thought. 10 minutes is always enough. Like, what if you could Believe that. Right? And then what if you posted and this is just, you know, extra credit now, but if you post five of those a week, seven of those a week, think about how your visibility curve changes in a month. Okay, I want you to have the thought. And I was talking to a friend about this yesterday. What we landed on is it's always better to post. Like, if you're like, should I just finish that sentence? Like, the answer is yes. Yes, you should. Okay, if you have an idea, just do it. Just do it. Nobody's gonna see your video and be like, whoa, like, why is she, like, not wearing makeup? You know what I mean? So make sure that you just answer that question with a yes. I think that's so important and can, like, that's always going to be better than continuing to hide. Your ideas are doing you no good sitting in your brain or sitting on a calendar invitation for yourself that's two weeks from now in your batching time. Think about that. Okay. All right, let's talk about the finish line strategy. So a little bit of a transition here. So the 10 minute habit for content handles your visibility, but what about everything else that you're juggling right now? It's not just content that you're juggling. And like I said, I know my clients have really been feeling this because I've been coaching them on it, but you have other stuff that you're trying to finish up as well. So I want to talk about this, this idea of a finish line strategy, which what we're going to do here is we're going to work on what moves revenue not coming from a place of anxiety. Okay? So when your schedule is limited, I want you to change and you're thinking to yourself, like, I gotta choose what to do. I don't know what to do. I don't know. Like, that might be playing over and over in your brain. I don't know what to do. I want you to choose based on two questions. Number one is what task has the most juice for the squeeze? Okay. What task is another way to say that is what task is highest impact with the lowest effort? If we were to put that into a matrix, which is actually something I do with my clients as I have them rank their ideas, highest impact and lowest effort is going to be the best. Now, that's not to say you don't, you can't do things that are high effort, but if they're high effort, they've sure as hell better be high impact as well. Too many times we're doing Things that are low effort, but low impact or even worse, high effort, low impact, that's the worst. Okay, so you want to make sure, like looking at your list, like what on your list has the most opportunity to bear fruit for you? What is going to give you the most juice for the squeeze? What's going to give you the most, I don't know, I keep using idioms here, but like the most bang for your buck, right? What on your list is going to give you the best return for the time that you have? And then the second one that kind of goes in tandem with this is what moves me closer to revenue. What moves me closer to revenue. Because right now, if you're listening to this, in December, guys, we're already in January, okay? We need to be thinking in January. And so what, you don't want to come back in January and be like, oh my God, I'm, I'm in, in client drought or I don't have a revenue plan. We need to be thinking about that now and making sure that you're going to come back in a, in a peaceful place. So what moves you closer to revenue that you can work on now? Right. You don't have to do everything. You don't, but you do have to do the few things that actually matter. Right? And I think something that can help with this is recognizing that people often mix up what is actually important. Okay? So I want you to think of the things on your list that are important but not urgent. There's a difference between important and urgent, isn't there? Things can be important and they can be not urgent. Right? Content is a great example. Prospecting, networking, reaching out to people, having new conversations, getting sales calls booked in. So important. But it's not really urgent unless you can't pay your bills and like, until you're freaking, freaking out. Right? But urgent things are like the fire hydrant that's spraying in your face. It's like, you know, your long term revenue drivers like your content, your offers, your audience growth, that stuff's never gonna jump up and down and like, and beg for your attention. So that means it's not urgent. It's not urgent until it's urgent. Right? But the problem is there's a lot of things in your business that are not important and either urgent, not important urgent, or not important not urgent. And a lot of times we end up falling into those things. So that can look like, okay, so not important, not urgent would be like tweaking your website, organizing your ClickUp, rewriting your about page Again, that is not important and not urgent. Okay. Or we could say less important. If you don't like not important, maybe it's a little bit important, but it's less important. Right? But then there's also not important and urgent. And to me, that looks like the phone ringing. Okay? The phone ringing with some random call, the email hitting your inbox. Right. And most of those emails, I would argue the vast majority are really not that important. Maybe there's a handful that are, but they're urgent because they're coming at you. It's the doorbell ringing. It's like the thing that's happening in real time. And so that's a stimulus and you automatic respond. And this is why it's really important to be thinking about being a emotionally regulated business owner, because it's the only way that you can tell the difference. If you aren't regulated and you're overwhelmed, you will just kind of go with the thing that's asking for your attention. Okay. So that's why you might feel like the whole day goes by and you're like, what do I even have to show for it? Okay, so here's what you want to think about. Your nervous system is not a reliable filter when you're frazzled. So we need to take away the feeling of being frazzled. The finish line strategy gives your brain objective rules for what matters. So if you're frazzled right now, if you're feeling a little bit overwhelmed, if you're feeling like the holiday season's got you in a bit of a tizzy, it's okay. Like, you don't need to have shame about that. You honestly don't even need to change that. You just need to use the finish line strategy to have objective rules and kind of be like, okay, I can't trust myself. Exactly. Right now. Like, I'm coming from an. If you're coming from an emotional place, I personally really like to not do it on feels and vibes. When I'm in that place, I want to have that objective rule for what is actually going to be most aligned with my goals right now. Right. So then I'm not going with what do I feel like doing? Because let me tell you, if it's what I feel like doing, it's almost never going to be the things that are the long term revenue drivers. It's going to be organizing my Google, my Google Docs or something. Right. It's going to be playing in Canva and that is gonna be probably not important, not urgent. So you've got to have that, those brain objective rules to keep yourself on track. Okay? So, you know, as we kind of start to wind this down, I want to think, I want you to start thinking about this idea of closing the open tabs in your brain. So many entrepreneurs, again, especially this time of year, are walking around with 47 open tabs in their mind. And I get it. Cause me too. And they're like. And I'm not talking about browser tabs, I'm talking about brain tabs. Like, you're just thinking about 47, probably 4700 different things, right? So I just want you to remember that when you combine the 10 minute content habit with the finish line strategy, you can close those tabs, like put those two together that we talked about today and you'll be able to close them. And the reason that works is because you're not. You're no longer trying to record the perfect video. You're no longer trying to write the perfect email. Right. You're not trying to overhaul your whole content plan. You're not trying to build a studio level production schedule. You're just showing up for 10 minutes, moving one thing closer to the finish line and staying consistent in the simplest possible way. So if you're looking for a nervous system friendly visibility strategy, this is it. And here's the thing, you won't always be in a place where your nervous system's like a little fried, okay? You won't always be there. You'll get out of that. And that's when we can. I think that's actually really interesting to think about. That's when we can be, quote, unquote, more strategic. That's when we can think about batching. Batching. And those more sophisticated strategies are for a regulated nervous system, my friends. Okay? And it's okay if you're a little bit in a tizzy right now. Again, there's nothing wrong. You're not broken, you're not like in trouble. Everybody's nervous system gets a little bit tapped out, I would say, especially if you're a parent, especially this time of year, your nervous system is just. And a lot of that's good. Like nervous system, you know, being kind of like in overdrive gets a really bad rap. But also like being excited, right? Being excited has, takes a toll on the nervous system. Like I recently went on a coaching retreat to England. As I shared on the podcast recently. And coming home, I wear an aura ring. My nervous system's like totally fried. And that doesn't mean that, that I didn't have an amazing time. Like, it was fantastic, but it takes a toll, right? So there's nothing wrong with being in a place of, like, high demand on your nervous system. You just need to be honest with yourself about where you actually are right now and trust that there will be a time and a place to be. Super methodical and super batched and whatever. But maybe it's not right now for me. It's definitely not. Right? So in closing, if you're entering 2026, wanting more visibility, but maybe you're tired, or maybe you're excited, or maybe you're burned out, or maybe you're whatever, okay? Insert your adjective here. If you want more consistency, but you don't really have the time right now. If you want your business to grow but you're living a real life in December, then maybe this is your path, right? Maybe it's 10 minutes a day. Maybe it's one idea. Maybe it's the bathrobe. Okay, one finish line at a time. This is how you are going to become unignorable in 2026. Okay? So I really, really hope it's helpful. I hope this gives you the inspiration that you need to just go create one 10 minute thing today. This took me a little longer than 10 minutes because it's a podcast. What? I've been talking for 30 minutes. But, hey, I'm pretty happy with that, right? Like, I was gonna log off for the day and give up, but instead I got this podcast done and I'm really proud of that and I know that you can be, too. So, my friends, I hope it helps, and I can't wait to see you in the next episode. Until then, I'm wishing you the courage and the clarity to go after what you love.