What Type of Content Creator are You?

I recently worked with Megan, who came to work with me on her content strategy and creation for her business. She said, “I’m really struggling. I want to create content like videos, blogs and podcasts, but I just feel like I’ve lost my creative mojo. I feel like I don’t have any ideas anymore. I’ve exhausted everything I can think of.”

Megan felt so depleted, she was worried she would finish the year with no new ideas. So, I asked her to identify which type of Content Creator she thought she was. This way she could put together a strategy for the year ahead based on her energy, routines and creativity.

We all have a natural cadence and flow when it comes to creating content. Knowing your natural style helps you to generate more ideas. It also helps you to improve productivity, become more prolific in your content creation and make better decisions about how to get your content in front of people so that you can grow your influence, impact and income.

By creating content, you put yourself ahead of the game. This is because not enough people are doing it! In fact, only 1% of people on platforms like LinkedIn create content. There are more than 575 million LinkedIn users, yet only 3 million of them create content.

So, while it may seem like there’s a lot more content on LinkedIn these days, there isn’t. User content creation has been at this 1% rate since the platform began. Now that we have algorithms to compete with, we must be more strategic and targeted with our content to get the most from it.

In today’s world, we deal with cognitive overload. The problem is that for most people, they’re struggling just to get work implemented and maintain the status quo. This reduces their creativity and ability to create content.

However, if you are prepared to put in the effort, be prolific and create content, you give yourself a significant advantage. You will have the greatest influence. As Donald Miller, author of Building A Story Brand, says, “The only people who influence culture, after all, are the creators.”

Types of Content Creator

THE INFLUENCER

 Influencers have a high volume of ideas. They are able to find a balance between the organisation of these ideas and their creativity. They’re like a Steve Jobs. They ensure they capture their ideas, use tools to create less work and block time for execution. They’re deliberate, intentional and harnessed in their approach, and are unafraid to fail with their ideas fast and quietly.

Their advantage:

Influencers realise that perfectionism is the enemy. They are not concerned about each piece of content being “just right.” They know that creating high volume and being on message allows them to go deep with their communications and become prolific.

Influencers treat their content creation process like a conveyor belt. It’s a process that continually flows through their practice, with idea generation moving to creation to distribution with ease. They know what parts of this process they can delegate, and what parts they need to do. As a result, they don’t suffer from creative blocks. 

They’re present to their ideas, and they prioritise their content creation in a way that works best for them. Influencers understand they need to create a high volume of content to get to the really good stuff. As Jobs said, “That’s what makes great products. It’s not process, it’s content.”

How to optimise your content creation:

The Influencer’s advantage is being strategic and disciplined. Their challenge is to open themselves up to new and unexpected experiences to create deeper insight. Rather than simply reading others’ content, it’s about making a creative space to apply their lens to other contexts.

Look for fun, meet people you wouldn’t normally spend time with, read books you wouldn’t usually read and go to places you wouldn’t usually visit. Try to find different ways to disrupt your mindset and different ways of asking yourself, “What do I think about this?”

THE INVENTOR

 The Inventor comes up with ideas all the time. They’re fully present to the amount of ideas they create, and they value their thoughts, ideas and interpretations.

Their advantage:

Inventors are prolific in the amount of IP they create. They’re like an Albert Einstein. Einstein created more than 50 patents. He constantly looked at the world around him and tried to find ways to improve it. For example, he didn’t have a five-year plan to create the Einstein refrigerator; he simply noticed that people needed a better way to keep food cold, and so he created the patent.

The difference between today and the early 1900s is the advent of distraction. The Inventor in all of us struggles to be present to and capture ideas because we’re constantly distracted. Social media, texts, phone calls, interruptions in open-plan offices – the list goes on. We’re switched on 24/7. Einstein could focus far more easily than we can today because he didn’t deal with the same distractions.

How to optimise your content creation:

The challenge for the Inventor is to ensure they maintain focus. Generally, they’re naturally creative and disciplined people. But they do need good systems in place so they can capture, create and catalogue their ideas and content. This may mean turning off technology for an hour or even a few days at a time to do deep work on their content. Apps like Memo Mailer are useful for capturing ideas on the run. As Einstein said, “Creativity is intelligence having fun.”

THE THINKER

In Act 3, Scene 1, of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the protagonist says, “To be or not to be, that is the question.” Hamlet was the classic overthinker, although his challenge was more about obsessing, and obsessing has a circular narrative – it goes around and around. Similarly, thinking does not always follow a linear narrative and can stop people from progressing. Thinkers often say to themselves, “I just need time to think,” but they don’t make the time.

These Content Creators tend to overthink everything and have a perfectionistic approach to unpacking their ideas. They can worry too much about what others think, and they’re often stuck in the paralysis of analysis, dwelling on a situation for so long that they can no longer act.

Their advantage:

Thinkers are adept at creating a space where they feel safe. This improves their confidence in the short-term and maintains the status quo. Once they identify a process that allows them to capture their thoughts, they spend less time in their heads and more time sharing their ideas and content.

How to optimise your content creation:

Thinkers need to unlock their ideas with a daily cadence and rhythm that creates new neural pathways for creativity. In the short-term, I recommend making a list of the top 20 things they know about in their area of expertise. Doing this each day for for just one week helps them make the shift from thinking to doing, which results in generating more ideas to gain traction and momentum. From there we can get the deeper insights.

THE FEELER

One of TV’s most loved characters is Homer Simpson. Homer likes to do the least amount of work with the least amount of effort. He is a man of leisure and doesn’t do anything he doesn’t feel like doing. One of his famous quotes is, “If something’s hard to do, then it’s not worth doing.”

Their advantage:

Feelers tend only to create when they feel like it. Like Thinkers, the advantage is that they remain safe. They don’t lose energy and they maintain the status quo while waiting for their moments of genius to arrive.

Another, less obvious advantage is that Feelers often have valuable insight into what stops people from taking action in their area of expertise. They’re so close to the problem and can articulate the issue in greater detail than almost all other Content Creator types. Being aware of those insights and seeing them as valuable is key to their content creation. Otherwise, the assumption is, “Isn’t that everyone’s issue? How is that even helpful?”

How to optimise your content creation:

Feelers need to focus on two areas to unlock their creativity and content creation: cadence and empathy. Quite often, Feelers face challenges around the Imposter Syndrome. “I don’t feel like I have any good ideas,” is a phrase commonly said by Feelers.

Letting go of perfectionism is also valuable. Feelers can feel hopelessly unoriginal, as though it’s all been said before. They have a fear of looking incompetent and must overcome their need to be liked. They’re often not used to asking for help, and their self-talk is about not being good enough. They are excellent procrastinators and tend to avoid creating content because of how they feel about it at that moment, instead of thinking about the long-term benefits of having influence and leading change. Having some accountability and support in a fun environment can make a massive difference to achieving some momentum.

By identifying your Content Creator type, you will be able to channel your ideas, become prolific, make a greater impact and wield more influence as a change agent. As creativity expert and best-selling author Elizabeth Gilbert says, “Creativity is a crushing chore and a glorious mystery. The work wants to be made, and it wants to be made through you.”

What type of Content Creator are you? What strategies do you need to put in place to become more prolific in your content creation?

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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Jane Anderson is a Strategic Communications expert, speaker and the author of 7 books including the upcoming “Catalyst Content.” With over 20 years of experience helping people to communicate confidently, she is obsessed about creating human connection to drive business growth in a world of disruption and automation. To inquire about her working with you or your organisation please contact us here.