10 Exercises For When You Want To Get More Intentional & Focused With Your Content Creation Process
As a creative coach, I work with many of my clients to help them get more focused and intentional when it comes to the content they’re creating and sharing online.
I’ve found, in both my own journey and my clients too, that a big part of creating and sharing impactful, intentional, and focused content is rooted in our intuition - I call this putting our brand at our “core”. I’ve found that once we do the work to really intuitively understand our brand, our message, and what it is we’re trying to say, our ideas and our content starts to flow easily and with intention.
If you’re currently struggling to find focus and create with intention, I have 10 exercises I walk my clients through that I want to share with you today. These are the exercises I also walk myself through when I want to get a little extra focus and clarity with my brand and content (especially whenever I feel like I’ve transitioned or evolved into a new season of what it is I want to say and share) and once I do the work behind the scenes to put my brand at my core, I’m then able just to move forward and create intuitively along the way.
1. Sixteen Words To Describe Your Brand
The first exercise is to outline 16 words that describe your brand - these can be values that guide you, inspiration that fuels you, intentions that you keep at the centre of everything you do, and abstract or literal or a mix of the two.
This helps you to spend a little time with your brand and put at the forefront of your mind what you’re really trying to bring to the table with the work that you do.
For example: Four of my brand words are space, explore, connect, and vulnerability.
2. Four Core Personal Values
Content is a whole lot more than just sharing your expertise and knowledge - it’s also a representation of who you are and what you value. This is why I really believe that our personal values and goals shape up our work along the way. For this second exercise, outline four core personal values - these are the values that shape your life, how you navigate the world, and the decisions you make in your personal life and your business too. Break them down into how they practically look in your life too.
For example: my four core personal values are:
All in
- Give 100% to everything I do
- Be present
- Choose endeavours, tasks, and areas of focus that I am capable and willing to give 100% too
- Be devoted to my craft and my life
Vulnerability
- To take risks and exist outside of my comfort zone
- To share and create from a place of authenticity
- To have opinions and to use and share them responsibly
- To live my truth out loud
Space
- To reflect
- To explore
- To grow
- To breathe
- To create
- To evolve
- To have impact
Gratitude
- For what I have so I can pursue new goals without being over attached to the outcome
- So I can be at peace and content even when I’m striving for more
- So I can make space for joy in my life
3. Four Core Brand Values
Now it’s time to explore your core brand values. These are the values that shape your business decisions, the services you offer, the products you create, the relationships you cultivate, and the way you position yourself within your industry. These will naturally be shaped by your personal core values too.
Just like with the personal values, break each value down into the specifics that go into them too.
4. Four Core Personal Goals
For exercise four, explore the core personal goals that are guiding your life right now. They may be related to personal development, your wellbeing, your relationships, and how you want to prioritise and spend your time.
I’ve found that our creative life is so much more fulfilling when our personal goals are fuelling our brand/business goals, and when we utilise our content as a space to honour them both.
5. Four Core Brand Goals
Now it’s time to explore your core brand and business goals in this season of your life - these are what are guiding and motivating your output right now and what you’re hoping to achieve in the months to come.
It’s helpful to think of this in smaller goals rather than big lofty ones - that way you can really utilise your content to help you move forward in the here and now in your work and life.
6. The Creative Purpose Guiding The Content You Share
This is where you can start to get a little more focus and start to see the connection between your values, your goals, and what you’re trying to achieve with your brand.
Ask yourself: what am I trying to achieve and do with my content? Why is creating content something I want to put my energy, focus, and time into?
For example, some of my reasons are:
- To live my truth out loud
- To share the insights and lessons I learn as a creative coach
- To share my gifts of knowledge
- To share stories, conversations, and insights that encourage, inspire, and motivate creatives
- To make space: for growth, new ideas, clarity, and reflection
- To build relationships and connect with likeminded creatives
7. The Strategic Purpose Guiding The Content You Share
The seventh exercise is when you can start to really align your brand goals with your content - this is where you can start to really craft and cultivate your content marketing strategy in a very authentic and intentional way.
Ask yourself: how do I want my content to help me work towards my brand goals?
For example, some of my reasons are:
- To share and establish my ideas, message, and point of view
- To build trust and relationships with the right community for me
- To attract and repel so I can work with dream clients in my coaching business
- To bring awareness to my work as a coach and my services
8. Who Your Content Is For
This is where you can start to get a little more focused on who your content is truly for. Ask yourself questions like:
- What are their interests?
- What are they passionate about?
- What are they struggling with?
- What are they looking for when they consume my content?
- Who are 5 specific people I’d love to read and connect with my blog?
If you’re utilising your blog to help you attract clients and customers, who your content is for is going to be those dream clients you’re aching to work with.
9. How You Want Your Content To Make People Feel
This is an exercise that I think makes all the difference when it comes to creating content that really resonates and connects and moves your brand forward along the way - intentionally deciding how you want your content to make people feel and how that aligns with your brand goals and intentions too.
Do you want them to feel guided? Inspired? Encouraged? Challenged? Connected? Pinpoint how you'd like them to experience the content you share. Outline 3-5 specifics for how you want your content to make them feel.
For example, mine are:
- Clarified
- Connected
- Guided
- Encouraged
10. Build Your Eco-System
Now it’s time to build out your content eco-system - a process I’ve outlined in depth in this post here. This is where you can explore and decide what content belongs best where throughout your different content streams (maybe you have a blog, a youtube channel, and a monthly email) and how your content eco-system can best serve your intentions, goals, and values along the way. One of my biggest beliefs when it comes to content eco-systems is that they are usually most effective when each content stream has a different purpose and focus - so that way they can all move your brand and work forward in their own way instead of all just doing the same thing and limiting your potential for impact and reach.
To Finish
If you’re aching for more focus and intention with your content, I hope these exercises can help you along the way. The advice I always give to clients is this - when you’re doing the nitty gritty work behind the scenes to find focus with your content, don’t get too lost in the process that you forget to keep creating, even if it’s just ideas in draft. Don’t let these exercises take over your creativity, instead let them help you find a way to say what you want to say and share what you want to share through your content online.
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