I went three years without creating content.
During the 2010s, I was writing for Entrepreneur, had a column on Inc. Magazine, and was contributing to every blog I could find. Over two million people read my work. I had momentum, a voice, and an audience that was growing.
Then I just stopped.
I told myself the work wasn’t good enough. That maybe I was a fraud. I needed to watch what everyone else was doing before I put anything else out. So I opened the feed instead of the doc. I studied other people’s content and called it research.
It wasn’t research. It was death by comparison. Every time I sat down to create something, someone was doing it better, further along, more polished. I didn’t think I had any value to add.
So I published nothing.
It was paralysis dressed up as preparation.
Then something happened.
I read about a photography professor at the University of Florida who split his students into two groups at the start of the semester. He told the first group their grade depended on taking the single best photo they could produce. He told the second group their grade depended on volume. Take as many photos as possible. Quantity over everything.
At the end of the semester, he looked at the best photos from both groups.
They all came from the volume group.
Not because they got lucky. Because they got better. Every shot taught them something about aperture, lighting, focus, composition, etc. They learned by doing what the other group was too precious to try.
I had become the first group. Waiting for the perfect idea. The perfect angle. The perfect moment to come back.
There is no perfect moment. There are only reps.
So I started creating again in 2021 and didn’t stop. Since then, I’ve published:
- 1,200 social media posts
- 350+ podcast episodes
- 103 newsletter editions
None of it would exist if I kept waiting to feel ready.
The only way to get good at content is to make content. Your first video will be bad. Your tenth will be better. Your fiftieth is when things start to click. I’ve interviewed 250+ CMOs and the ones building the best content programs aren’t the ones who studied it the hardest. They’re the ones who pressed publish.
So if you’re sitting on ideas right now, telling yourself you’re still in research mode, hear this clearly.
You’re not researching. You’re stalling.
Put the phone down. Turn the camera on.
Make something. Then make something better.
-Jordan
This post is part of the Building The Agency series, where I tell you stories from behind the scenes of building an agency. You can read more below.
