Making writing a sustainable & profitable habit

A guide to creating habits that allow you to consistently add value that helps you and your clients to grow

Sustainability is a word that is trending but is usually not associated with writing.

However, sustainability is a key factor for growth, health, and success.

In the context of writing, we don’t look at sustainability from an ecological perspective but from a productivity, influencing, financial, motivational and sanity angle.

Sustainable writing – what is that???

Writing sustainably allows you to do a few things that you might be struggling with when writing irregularly, without writing foundations, without a growth plan and without a writing habit that works for you.

One of the biggest issues that I come across regularly is, that content creators struggle with content creation taking up too much of their time.

When the balance between content creation and revenue generation is not quite right, business owners are often left at an impasse.

You know that you must create content to grow but feel that you don’t have the time to do it consistently and to a level where it creates positive outcomes for your business.

You need to create content to connect, build your network, and generate leads. Automation, AI, or working with assistants can help – but only to a certain degree.

Business owners often find it hard to…

generate topics
be super productive and manage their writing time
stay motivated and inspired
enjoy writing
write quality content on a high level

Maybe you start off with good intentions but find it hard to maintain the momentum. Writing consistently feels like a constant battle. And when you stop writing because you are stressed out and your other priorities consume you, you are left with the discomfort that you are doing yourself a disservice because you know that sustainable writing habits lead to…

personal, reputational, and business growth
writing mastery
recognition & growing into a respected expert
more substantial contributions to other people’s growth and success

If you want to succeed and grow your business, you need to market your business.

Content marketing is key to growing a (referral) network and connecting with the right audience, nurturing them, generating leads, and converting those leads to clients.

At the same time, you must run your business (create revenue) and stay sane. You don’t want writing to hover over you like a black cloud, impacting your mood and reminding you that you are not meeting your writing commitments. Your content creation is “stealing” time that you could have spent working with clients.

Content creation can generate a lot of pressure and this pressure quickly transforms into dread and a negative attitude towards writing.

Not writing is not an alternative.

Without writing – or other forms of content creation like podcasting or video creation (for which writing is the foundation) – you create roadblocks that prevent you from marketing and growing your business.

To overcome those roadblocks, it helps to look at content creation from a different perspective…

Why writing sustainability should matter to you

Sustainability fosters consistency

And consistency is the key to building your brand, growing your audience, nurturing, and converting your audience.

A consistent and sustainable writing practice also helps you to get better and faster at creating content. When you establish writing habits that work for you, then you become more productive, create more content faster, and create better content.

That in return gives you satisfaction and positively affects your mindset and attitude towards content creation. Writing is no longer a dreaded exercise but becomes something that you are looking forward to. And something that your audience is asking and waiting for.

Sustainability allows you to contribute in a meaningful way

With time you will see your content as a source for educating and serving your audience, a means to increase your brand recognition, and a source to establish your position as an expert.

Over time, that will enable you to grow into an influencer or leader in your field. There is huge power and possibility in the ability to lead, influence, and create positive change.

Besides that, serving others is a meaningful activity that will make you feel better because you are feeding your very human desire to contribute to the advancement of others.

Grow to enjoy the content creation process

Even if you find content creation hard now – it is possible to learn to enjoy the process. Learning the craft of writing, and creating foundations from which to draw your messages, will enable you to write with ease and flow.

Once you have reached a skill level that allows you to enjoy the process, you will find that writing has a positive impact on your mind.

Mastery will help you to stay sane and balanced throughout the creation process.

You’ll reach an almost regenerative aspect that allows you to get into a state of creative flow that leads you to reflect and write with abandon.

This habit of reflection is the foundation for writing on a higher and more meaningful level where you can verbalise new concepts and ideas with ease. As a result, you and your brand will become more relevant because you are sharing ideas that matter to your audience.

Sharing your positive energy

When you are writing with ease, you will feel better about your writing and that changes your energy. Your positive energy will flow into your writing and that has the ability to…

motivate people
uplift people
inspire people
make social media a good place to hang out in
add vibes and value that your audience needs to grow

You will see that by sharing positive energy, you will find it easier to connect with people. People crave positivity. They have to deal with too much negativity and seek more positivity in their lives.

Increase your productivity levels

Earlier, I shared that many business owners find that content creation takes too long.

With mastery, you will be able to create content faster and thus have more time to work on revenue-generating tasks. You will develop or adopt processes that work for you and allow you to reduce creation time and create your content in batches so that you can use scheduling tools more effectively.

Your content creation will become more strategic and efficient - and you will be able to introduce more and better automation processes into your business.

How you can create better and more sustainable writing habits

Creating more sustainable writing habits is a simple process.

However, you have to put a bit of work in.

Here’s what I recommend:

Get clear on your messaging and topics
Learn how to write content and copy (at least the basics)
Get systematic and strategic (create a writing process & a content strategy)
Plan your writing (including an editorial calendar)
Schedule your writing (what isn’t scheduled won’t get done!)
Execute (Taking action is essential to making it work)

And all of that starts with a little reflection…

Take some time to reflect on your writing

Maybe you have been thinking about outsourcing your writing to avoid all the pain and struggles that you are currently experiencing.

My suggestion is to take a little time to reflect on your emotions, processes, expectations, beliefs, and pain points that you are experiencing in connection with content creation.

Be honest with yourself and capture everything in a document or a mind map. Consider the points that I presented in this article.

Capture the things that make content creation easier and more time efficient for you like automation, batch-creating, and repurposing – and then get to work.

If you want some support and/or learn more about how to implement these six steps, then send me a message.

Depending on where you are, I have several options how I can support you. One of them is my new content and copywriting membership. You can find more details when you follow this link.

Another one is my messaging foundation programme. Please DM me if you want to know more about how that could work for you.

And don’t forget – if you want to change how you create content today, then you need to take action!

Categories: Brand Messaging, businessfoundations, businesskills, Clarity, Content Creation, Content Creation tips, content marketing, Content tips, Contentwriting, Conversion, Copywriting tips