[00:00] being creative is not something that we can all do on demand. As many as creators know creativity comes and goes and waves it's hard to be completely on all the time always bursting with inspiration
[00:12] and creative ideas but because of the social media landscape that we live in so many creators are being forced to create at levels and speeds to turn around to hit algorithms to make sure that they're consistent and that's kind of created this space where we have gotten all of us right into creative
[00:29] ruts feeling lack of inspiration towards our businesses taking really long pauses and also just burning out. It's so interesting having a creator membership of my own where I get to see the ups and downs of what it's like to be a creator every single day. I see that there are really
[00:45] big highs and really low lows especially when it comes to staying creative and being productive. There will be people who show up to my calls and they're like one week like I just got a $20,000 deal but they're like super excited and really pumped and then they'll show up three weeks later being
[01:00] like I want to quit. I'm done. I'm quitting. It's over. I don't want to do this anymore and the amount of creators that I hear on a day-to-day saying they want to quit is so very normal because what we find that happens is that it's really hard to maintain that high level of inspiration, that high level of
[01:18] motivation. What I really want to talk about in today's video are some tools to keep you guys not always at that peak performance, high level inspiration because it's really just not possible doing this for 10 plus years. I know that there are ups and downs but it's really more how I can get
[01:33] you out of that creative funk if you are in a funk, if you're in a creative rut, how we can kind of lift you back up and get you in that place where you belong. I think it's funny because when people talk about defining burnout you often tend to think of like extreme exhaustion and in my case it feels a
[01:48] little bit different. It doesn't feel like anything. It actually feels like a difference which is even worse than feeling any sort of a hate towards your business because when you're indifferent when you really are just going through the motions, rinse and repeating, just kind of like going with
[02:03] it and you're just not motivated and you don't care, that to me is a sign, really not a good sign. It is that sign of whether it be burnout or just the rut, you're in that rut and sometimes you don't
[02:15] even recognize it so obviously having that moment that you do recognize it is always the first place to start. You have to recognize I'm in this slump. I am not only feeling overwhelmed, exhausted but I also just feel like a lack of love towards my contact or a lack of love towards this platform,
[02:32] your example for the platform and so much of this comes from mindset. This girl the other day posted in her WhatsApp group, she was like I'm about to post something and I'm like so scared what if it doesn't do well and this other creator jumped in and she was like you loved making that video like who cares
[02:47] if it doesn't do well. We have to remove this emotional attachment that we have created to validating ourselves through our content, through our likes and like if it does well, unquote. So if you are
[02:59] feeling in that sort of funky space and you want to lift yourself up, here are some things that I do personally for myself and that I have seen creators do within their own businesses to get them out. The first is always going to be setting boundaries in your own business and being able to say no to
[03:15] things. I actually got this email the other day from a pitch that I sent to a brand and it was one of the best like let down emails ever because the brand was really honest. They're like listen we're a really small team. We do not have capacity to take on not one more thing or something like that. They're
[03:31] like we love your company, we love your business reach out to us in six months and to me that email was setting a boundary. It wasn't trying to find a way to make it work. The time doesn't exist like they could not make the time up. They're already committed to certain projects. They have that visibility about
[03:44] what they're doing and what they've committed to and anything else is a no. They think having boundaries as a creator is really important to avoid that overwhelm and that also comes with having very designated
[03:56] work time and designated personal time. Being a creator those lines are so blurred but I am telling you creators that I know that are making a million dollars a year plus on content creation and on being
[04:09] a professional influencer. They are not on their phones 24-7. They're just not and again I can tell you I've seen it happen. They have work time and they have off work time and that's the same for creators that are like you know traveling maybe they're travel influencers. They have a B-roll list,
[04:25] they know what they need to shoot. If they're on a work trip it's different because they're like go ahead I need to shoot these sort of things to create these sort of assets but I think the big sign that we're seeing is it comes to organization. When we feel that we have things that we need to do
[04:40] and organize in our content this does help us stay you know on task and it helps prevent that overwhelming feeling of again I always have to be on my phone. I'm mentally exhausted. I have all the footage on my phone. Now what do I do with it? How do I edit it? And then nothing ever gets done.
[04:55] So being able to say no setting boundaries with your own time and also the content that you want to create I always kind of joke with my students that I work with that. Sometimes these ideas come and they're trying to distract you. Sometimes your creativity is trying to distract you. You were such a
[05:10] big brain and you have so many creative ideas but it's hurting you and the long run because it's distracting you from getting whatever task you need to get done and therefore you take it on and it ends up just being like forget it I'm tired I'm done and that's what leads to the burnout and
[05:24] that's what leads to the rut because you are literally drowning in your own work. Now something that has really helped me in terms of getting inspired and again this is because I'm on YouTube and I create videos for YouTube but it has been creating space where I shoot content professionally. So like going
[05:40] to the studio has been a really big game changer for me because think about it this way from an energy perspective I used to be in my office and do emails and calls and Zoom calls and then I would literally have to just like turn my chair and set up my video and start filming. It is hard energetically
[05:56] to do that. It is hard to be like one way and then swap and be another but going out like going to work leaving my home shooting content in public that has helped me get a reboot. I recently did a big
[06:10] photo shoot in Miami where I just went and shot like B-roll for my Reels like vlog style B-roll just quick shots right but again leaving the home helped me get inspired. I talk about this a lot. Y'all you
[06:22] may be in a rut you may be stuck because you are by yourself at home like truly shooting content here and there. You need to find ways to either set up systems that you can enable you to leave the house
[06:34] to shoot content outside to again or with other people. We were not meant to do this alone. Being a content creator is very lonely and a lot of us are in ruts because we don't have accountability partners or friends or people keeping us motivated and helping us. It's like when you don't want to go to the gym
[06:49] how great is it to have that friend that's like nope you're going let's go. You know we all need people and you know to help bring us out and I think by shooting content outside the home or having accountability friends that you can like me up with in real life is a really valuable way to help you stay
[07:06] inspired. That's like for me the number one thing I'm like get out get out of the house because of not I can get just like really locked in. Changing your environment for me has saved me so many times
[07:18] when I'm in that rut it just helps give me that boost of energy. Something that has also always helped me and this is again a very personal tip when I'm in business slumps and funks which I often fall into because again it's life is finding that morning routine for me. When I am doing my morning
[07:36] routine I am at peak performance. Now do I fall off that morning routine? Am I perfectly consistent and do it every morning? No I do not but there are phases that I go to that morning space because that's what I needed the most because I am in a funk. It's like the motivation comes from doing it. I love
[07:52] that quote that motivation is a byproduct. It's not something that comes to you. It's something that's a result of doing. So again if you push yourself to find those little self-care practices that work for you
[08:04] you will find that motivation reignite. So I will actually link a book that's in our Amazon shop. It's called The Morning Miracle. I loved this book. It was so quick to read. It basically talked about the importance of that morning routine. Different steps that you can do. I remember reading this and this
[08:19] set me off and once I was in that morning routine this book helped me get there. I was just feeling creative again. I was feeling myself. I was able to like really push myself to not be in that low
[08:31] energy but to be in that mindset you know positive mindset and feeling good about my business again. I've got ahead and linked it inside my Amazon shop along with other business books that I recommend literally getting into business books like reading a little bit every single day is just so good
[08:46] for your brain especially as a creator who's just like I don't want to read the nine don't want to do this. Trust me once you start kind of slowly getting into it you're rewiring your brain and you start attracting the things that you're into. It's just like a push and pull. I think one of the reasons I've
[09:02] been able to be truly successful in business and for so long is because I've always surrounded myself around others that inspire me. I love to be around other you know creators and business owners
[09:14] and continue to like not see them as composition but like to push ourselves like that community support and again I think these conversations while they're great virtually I do them virtually every week. Nothing beats in person. Nothing beats surrounding yourself with like-minded people in your own
[09:29] community and telling you these communities exist and if they don't I always say start your own right find other people in your hometown to link up with to get that community support. Now what's really awesome is that here at Sidewalker Daily we know the importance of community we've built a
[09:44] community of creators and we've seen firsthand the positive effects community does for the soul for the business spirit being around other people. This July we went on a five-night who's all together
[09:57] there was like 60 of us we were creating content together we were building those bonds of friendship we were networking we were learning and I think these are such amazing spaces to get that boost of energy to be reinspired so many people came to this trip in that slump and left being like oh my god
[10:14] this was exactly what I needed to kickstart my business so many creators that came on this trip this was their first time ever going on a retreat so many came by themselves and they're like I'm so scared I'm going on a retreat by myself I've never done this and that ended up being such an amazing
[10:28] experience for that we have so many testimonials of creators who are like oh my god this was life changing transformative and again because think about it so many of them are at home doing their own little thing and then here they are coming together shooting content with other creators collaborating
[10:44] you know finding people that are just as passionate as you learning growing I mean it is the perfect combination of all the things that you need as a creator to just keep on track so if you're looking for
[10:56] your creator community and you're looking for people like you make sure to learn more the link is below as I mentioned in the beginning of this video inspiration comes and goes and there's ways that we can try to like hold on to it as much as we can and try to sustain it as much as we can even though
[11:12] there's going to be waves where it's just way heavier and then again it closes up a bit I personally love the practice of journaling I love to journal not only things that I am grateful for but also things that I've learned throughout the day anything that kind of comes to me like a little wisdom
[11:28] thoughts inspiration ideas I think they're practice of writing it out even if you don't even like go you know do it it's the practice of writing it out is always so very helpful to helping you see inspired I also think that when I try to go set I try to do things like bit by bit rather than like
[11:45] massive undertakings I really believe that creativity can be a distraction especially for people like us that get so many ideas we have to just silence those ideas and tell them to quiet but being able to kind of set goals like okay what are the goals of the year like here are the three big ideas I'm
[12:01] going to allow myself to execute on in 2025 and this is it you know anything that comes out of that I'm not going to like say yes to because again it may take you away from your day to day work that you need to get done I'm really old school I have like this huge to-do list obviously I have like
[12:17] agendas and all the ways and different management systems to keep our tasks managed but I'm old school and there is something about having my to-do list my weekly to-do list and crossing it off and seeing everything that I get done it's such a great confidence boost like visually seeing everything
[12:35] you do because think about how much you do in a day right like if you were to be like even just making a real you have to edit it script it film it put the cover if you were to break down all those tasks and see wow yeah I produced one reel but look at all the things that went into it I think
[12:50] maybe you would actually start to be a little bit more grateful for yourself and just feel like a little bit more productive once you're able to see the task that you have accomplished because sometimes we're uninspired because we just think that we're not doing enough and then we're just like I can't
[13:03] do anymore and done but you're probably doing a lot more than you give yourself a credit for another big big tip y'all if you have made it this far in the video is the comparison game it is so easy
[13:15] to compare yourself to others and let that be the reason you're in a funk because you were seeing how productive everyone else is how much money everyone else is doing how everyone else is fully on on on on on and posting their successes and that is just bad energy and a bad vibe I can't tell you
[13:30] the amount of people I have personally unfollowed who trigger me because I'm just like stop it is ridiculous and sanglancing those voices has been really helpful for me and at least my mental health because when you're constantly comparing yourself to people and seeing what everyone else is doing
[13:45] you never feel enough right social media is always on it's always posting do give yourself grace if you do need to take rest and taking rest is important you are choosing this lifestyle because of the lifestyle that it brings to you I always tell myself that I want to be able to pick up my kids at school
[14:00] I want to be able to take a day off if I need to to do xyz that's why I do what I do if not I need to be corporate I want to live this life because of the freedom that comes with it so also remember you can build the breaks into your schedule you are better working at night okay go for it you know
[14:16] build in those breaks that also helps keep the motivation going because you're not completely burnt to the crisp and you're feeding yourself those breaks to do whatever it is you need to do to help you grow spiritually or help your mind body soul whatever you need to do to kind of just like
[14:31] reset yourself daily versus work work work work work work and then have the big blow out and then that it hurts your business anyways y'all I hope that the strategies and tips that I've been able to share and from my personal experience and others in the communities can help you and I'll see
[14:44] you guys in the next video