In Part 5 of this 5-Part Consistent Content Series, I’m talking about the importance of giving yourself a 3 month period to navigate the content learning curve without pressure. I’m introducing the Creative Cocoon – a new part of my popular program Perfectionists Getting Shit Done that helps you create consistent content while developing your voice and identity. You’ll hear how it works, why it matters and what to expect when you join.
This episode will bring together everything that I’ve been sharing throughout the Consistent Content Series so you understand what’s required to put it all into practice in your own business.
Enrollment now open: Join Perfectionists Getting Shit Done (aka PGSD) to do this work with structure, support and a like-minded community. Doors are now officially open until 11:59pm EDT on Friday, 25 July. To sign up today and get instant access to everything inside, visit samlaurabrown.com/pgsd.
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FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Introduction
Hi and welcome to another episode of The Perfectionism Project. A podcast full of perfectionism advice for entrepreneurs. My name is Sam Laura Brown, I help entrepreneurs release their perfectionism handbrake, so they can get out of their own way and build a fulfilling and profitable business. I’m the founder of the Perfectionists Getting Shit Done group coaching program, which is otherwise known as PGSD. And for even more perfectionism advice to help you with your business, you can follow me on Instagram @perfectionismproject.
Sam Laura Brown
Okay, so today’s episode, part five of the consistent content series. This episode is all about the creative cocoon. So you want to have we’ve talked about safe visibility and this idea, this really, really, really important concept of being able to create safe visibility for yourself, so that you have your own personal needs met when it comes to feeling safe to show up, that you aren’t having to force yourself to do it and push yourself and kind of go against your fears and your doubts that you have, you are able to just actively create safety so that even though there are fears and doubts, that you’re still able to show up in a way that doesn’t trigger you, in a way that doesn’t make you freeze, in a way that doesn’t make you try and just polish and really perfect everything you feel safe showing up, even though it might be a little bit scary. And you are therefore able to create consistent content.
You’re able to go from the overthinking, the procrastination, getting stuck in planning mode and research mode, you are able to move into consistently creating content that is high quality and that builds your business. Doing that without burning out, without needing a lot of time for content creation. Maybe you have little ones like me. Maybe you have a full time job, maybe you have a health condition, whatever you’ve got going on in your life, if you don’t have a lot of time for content creation, you want to work on the other things in your business, we want to have you doing it easily with not much time required, and having that content be really high quality, but not because you are doing what you should be doing, but because you were doing it in a way that feels really easy to you. You feel really successful doing it. It’s very valuable content. Because you are in your zone of genius.
You haven’t got your handbrake on, you’re not in your head. You are actually just allowing yourself to show up in the world with your gifts and to have them flow from you in a really safe way. That’s what we’re doing. That’s what the creative cocoon creates, that safety, that bubble so that you can, if we think about literally, a cocoon with a caterpillar, you go in the cocoon as a caterpillar, and you come out as a butterfly. You come out not as this, like now I’m loud and I’m out there and I’m like, the kind of person who draws attention to themselves. That’s not what it means to be a consistent content creator. I am definitely not that kind of person, and I am a consistent content creator. It is I am allowing myself. I’ve given myself permission to be me out into the world, to not have to be this perfect version of me. I know you don’t want the perfect version of me. You want the real version of me, the flowy version of me, the self trusting version of me. The same is true for your audience, no matter what you do.
So this isn’t about becoming someone that you’re not you as the butterfly. Isn’t you becoming someone you’re not you as a butterfly is you being more you. It’s you being truer to yourself. It’s you giving yourself the permission to be who you are instead of trying to be someone that you’re not. So when it comes to this creative cocoon and this idea, why is it three months, I just want to talk about why it’s a three month experience that we are going to be doing. It doesn’t require you to be available the whole time. You’re not going to be creating content every single day. There’s you’re going to have time to go on vacation. You’re going to have a lot of time to rest, if you know anything about what I teach, there’s going to be clean rest, there’s going to be time away, there’s going to be buffer time so that if something unexpected comes up that you don’t then have to get completely thrown off your plans.
So this isn’t a three month experience where you are having to do something every day related to content creation. If you’re anything like me, your ideal content creation rhythm doesn’t actually have you creating content every day. You might be more like me, where you create when you are just feeling like I have so much I want to say, and I’m just feeling like putting myself out there. And you do that, and then you have times where you’re like, I don’t want to say anything. I don’t feel like putting myself out there. I don’t feel like being seen. This is part of say visibility, not requiring yourself to have to be on every day, to have to be creating content every day. For some listening, it might be that doing it every day is something that’s very supportive, that feels like you to do that, but what I have you be able to actually honor your content creation rhythm. I’m going to be teaching you how to figure out what that is for you, because with perfectionism, we get so caught up in the shoulds and the have to that it can be really hard to actually tune into what is in alignment for us what we want to do.
So I’m going to teach you how to do that inside the program, but this three month experience, why is it three months? Why is it not six weeks? Why is it not longer? Why is it not a week? Three months. It, for me, has always been this sweet spot when it comes to allowing myself to have an experience of growth that it really is this amount of time where and this dates back to I’ve talked about this on the podcast before, because for me, this was just such an epiphany to have this experience that I used to do a lot of Bikram yoga, so hot yoga, 90 minute class, and what I found was that I had a hard time being consistent with showing up for my yoga classes. It was a 20 minute drive each way, plus a 90 minute class. Plus, at the time, I was studying full time, I was also working, I wanted to be able to go to these classes, but it felt like it would take a lot of time.
There’s just a lot of drama around going, and I also expected it to feel at some point relatively easy that it wouldn’t, I wouldn’t have so much drama about it that I’d actually feel the results of going, and all of that quiet expectation, this perfectionist entitlement that I had around going that made it hard to go consistently. So what I would do is that I would set a goal of, okay, I’m gonna go three times this week, and then I would do that for a couple of weeks, and then I would fall off. It was really hard to motivate myself to go. I’d fall off the wagon with it. Then I’d wait to get really re inspired and be like, Oh my god, I’m gonna totally be consistent this time. You might be familiar with this kind of cycle, I’m going to be so consistent this time. I’m really going to show up. I’m really going to be motivated maybe get myself a new outfit, really commit to it this time, like just make a lot of promises to myself, but then I would fall off the wagon again.
And it was so frustrating to be in this place of knowing I had the potential to do it, wanting to do it, having the capacity to do it, but not actually just doing it. And so this can really definitely be true for content creation. And just think about your own content creation journey, if you find yourself in that cycle. So anyway, with this Bikram yoga, what I ended up saying to myself, was a couple things, and this relates to what I’ve been talking about in the consistent content series, because this for a lot of those concepts, like was how many of them were born. Even though it’s yoga, there’s just so many analogies. But anyway, that’s beside the point. At this point in time, what I noticed was when I had the expectation that I should be able to do a good class, like I only wanted to do good classes. The same way that we want to only create good content. Was that I would judge before going to a class, is this going to be a good one or not? Do I feel energized? Do I feel motivated, or do I feel really sluggish? And do I feel really tired?
And so I wanted to be feeling good to be able to go to a class. And so this would stop me going to a lot of classes, because I wouldn’t feel good before going. And so I only wanted to do a good class. I had the same thing with running. I only wanted to go on a good run or do a good workout. So if I wasn’t feeling great beforehand, I would write it off before I even went and say, no, I’m just gonna wait till I feel good, till I feel motivated. I don’t really feel like it right now. I don’t wanna have to push myself to go, so I will just go another time. But what was happening was that I just had this idea in my head that I should only do good classes, and it stopped me from doing a lot of classes, and it stopped me from getting good and doing good classes, because I didn’t have enough skill and enough practice to even do a good class. It just kept me in the beginning stages of doing yoga. I never got to graduate into actually being skilled and experienced when it came to yoga.
So there was that issue that was going on. And also I found when I was going three times a week, I would constantly negotiate with should I go today or not go today, I would it was just so much drama around, should I go today or not? So what I did was a few things. One, I said I am going to do three months of yoga before I judge whether or not I want to keep going. Because that was the other thing. And this could definitely happen with content creation. Is you might be like, I don’t know if this is the niche I want to do forever. Like, do I even want this to be the platform that I’m on? Maybe I want to do something else. Maybe I want to create a different kind of content for a different kind of audience. We can make it into this really, like, big deal of to take consistent action in this direction is me deciding I want to do this forever. So then we just get stuck in this, like, analysis of, Is this really what I want to do, or is there really a gap in the market here? Like, we have all of these really nice sounding ways, like, have I nailed the niche of getting stuck here?
And so with yoga, I was like, I don’t even know if I want to do this kind of yoga. If I, like, really want to do a lot of it. And so I’d also have that drama going on as well. So what I said is, I’m just going to do three months of Bikram yoga before I decide whether or not I want to continue doing yoga. I’m gonna give myself that period. And if at the end of that, I’m like, I actually don’t like yoga, I don’t wanna keep doing it, then that’s okay. I never have to do it again. But I’m gonna give myself that three months. Yeah, because I want to get out of this beginner stage where, if you’re in the first few classes, I’m still trying to figure out, like, what the postures even are, what is it even like? What is involved in a yoga class? How do I need to hydrate before? Like, I’m just really stuck there, and I want to just get past that initial point and actually be in the place where I can do a yoga class without having to be in my own head about it. I can actually be familiar with what’s happening and be experiencing yoga the same way with content creation.
We want to have you out of this drama of, is this a niche that I want to be in forever? Like, how do I even create this content? We want to have you just actually being in the flow of it. So if you are having those questions about, I don’t even know if I want to do this, you can actually get the proper data that you need to be able to decide that if you’re constantly in drama about it, especially in those beginning stages, whether because you’ve just started creating content for the first time, or maybe you’ve started many times, but every time you start over, it’s like you never get past those beginning stages, if you’re constantly stopping and starting. So I wanted to be able to get into the place where I was actually able to experience what it was like being consistent at yoga versus my experience of being inconsistent at yoga. I knew what that felt like. It didn’t feel great. I wanted to experience consistency. So I said I’m going to have three months where I’m just going to be doing yoga consistently, and then I will decide so I’m going to remove this constant judgment of it, is it going to be a good class today? Is yoga something I even want to do to remove that judgment specifically around, is today going to be a good class or not? And all of that drama, what I said was I’m going to go six times per week instead of three.
And this is I’ve talked about having, when it comes to your power publishing, we want to have you have a higher volume of content go out than you’d actually think. And is really supportive for your perfectionist brain, because it removes this constant judgment of, is this going to be good content or not? I don’t feel like I’m going to create good content. Good content today, so I’m not going to create anything today. Or like judging once you’ve created it, is it good or not? With perfectionism, this constant judgment, and we make it into this big morality issue of, is it good or is it bad? Am I good or am I bad? And we want to remove that. It really helps you to be consistent and with yoga, I said I’m going to go six times per week, because I have so much drama around going three times per week because of the negotiation that happens when I have the option not to do it. So what I wanted to do was change the question from, should I go today, to what time will I go today? That became okay. Well, I go in the morning and do a morning class. Will I go in the evening and do an evening class? Because I am going to go today.
So now I just need to solve for what time instead of should I go or shouldn’t I go? There was just so much more drama. So what happened was, I said three months, six times a week. Again, I’m working at full time. I kept working lots of hours. And I’m also a university student studying a law degree, a finance degree, a Diploma of French. I have a lot on my plate, but I wanted to be able to do yoga, and I wanted to be able to see what it would be like to actually be consistent at it. So with those parameters in place, I was able to show up consistently. After struggling to get there three times a week, I was able to actually get there six times per week. And what happened? And this is what happens with content creation, what happened by giving myself a longer time frames is where the three months comes in, instead of being like, well, I’ll judge two weeks in whether I want to continue with yoga. Well, two weeks in I’m going to really be in the messy middle of it. It’s going to feel so awkward. I’m not going to have adjusted yet, like I’m not going to be in a little routine with it yet, like I’m still going to be figuring out so much. Two weeks in is not a good time to make any kind of judgment call about it three months in, really, is that sweet spot?
Because I’m able to, in that three month period, navigate a lot of the ups and downs and the learning curve that comes with it, and I’m going to be in a much better position at the end of that three months, especially because I haven’t been constantly judging. Should I keep going or shouldn’t I? Should I go today, or shouldn’t I? I’m just gonna go and then I’ll judge at the end. So I still get to have the judgment. My perfectionist brain is pleased. It still gets to have a judgment period. But I’m not going to be judging it every day, every moment. Is this good or not? I’m just going to get to work with doing these other classes. So what I found is three months in, and it happened before being actually to the three month point. By the three month point, it was a no brainer to keep going, because I had done six classes a week, every week, I had solved for any of the issues that came up. I did classes when I was tired. I did classes when I was motivated. I did classes when I was excited about it, I did classes, but I didn’t have any desire to do it at all. I just stayed true to my ultimate desire, which was to be able to do these classes.
And I let myself have different feelings week to week and day to day, and I didn’t make that a problem. I just kept showing up. I did good classes. I did bad classes. And through all of that, by continuing to keep going, instead of consistently judging whether to keep going and whether I was good at it or not, or whether it would work, or would this actually end up getting me engagement. If we talk about content creation, I just kept going. And by the three month point, it was such a no brainer to continue with the yoga classes, because I had become very skilled in a short place of time, a short amount of time, just from doing that many classes without all the judgment about it. I had gotten very familiar with all the postures I was able to actually This happened about a month into it. I noticed this shift of where I didn’t have to be in my head anymore, about, okay, where do I put my arm and where do I put my leg? And, like, What do you mean bent over that way? Like, I was able to actually, because I had enough familiarity with the process of the class, which did take a while, but not that long in the scheme of things.
And I also had permission for myself to experience it in all sorts of ways that I then became, like, I was very flexible. I was able to really, in a lot of ways, like, exceed all of the expectations I had for even where I could be a year into a yoga practice, I was able to exceed that within 10 weeks of it, just from removing the judgment, allowing myself to have this learning curve. That’s what we want to have with the creative cocoon. It’s allowing yourself to have a learning curve, to have good content and bad content and everything in between, and to not judge it, and to not go back and do okay, maybe I shouldn’t do this platform, or shouldn’t do this niche. Okay, you don’t have you’re not beholden to it forever. We’re not saying, okay, once you create consistent content in this direction, you have to do that forever. And we can have this real fear of, once I show up as a certain person in this certain way, I have to always do that. No, you don’t.
You have full permission to not. You have a complete a complete option to go out the back door and just say, I have this option. I’m don’t have to ever create content on this topic or on this platform again, but I do have the desire to do it. It keeps bugging me. If you were the person and you’re like, and this is what it was for me with yoga, and this is what it was for me when it came to my business, and like wanting to create content in the first place, that I just knew if I didn’t actually let myself fully pursue this, I would always have this restlessness. If I just decided, okay, this isn’t for me, I’m not going to give it a go. I would still have the desire to do it. I would still keep finding myself being like but maybe I could.
And what would it be like? Like? I just had to actually play out that desire and play out that want, instead of just like, basically, instead of pretending I didn’t want it, I just needed to admit to myself I wanted for me, initially with content creation, it was as a blogger talking about personal development, I wanted to give that a go, even though that felt really scary to me. So if that was the case, how could I honor that desire and actually give it a go? And then I didn’t have to ever be a blogger forevermore, I’m not still like I’m not currently a blogger, but that was how I found my voice, and how I was really able to solve for a lot of what I’m teaching now, which was how to create safe visibility, how to show up as me in the world. I was then able to transfer that to different platforms. So then I went onto Snapchat, then YouTube, then having a podcast, Instagram. I also started in 2014 so we’re about a year into doing things. I’m still on that platform.
So there’s, it’s not like you have to be on a certain platform forever. I’ve renamed my podcast. It was initially The Smart Twenties podcast, and if you listen back the first 50 episodes I recorded, I like, Hey, this is a Smart Twenties podcast about how to make the most of your 20s, but by consistently creating content and just allowing myself to do that. Instead of constantly being like, do I want to talk about how to make the most of my 20s forever? Well, clearly, not, clearly not, especially with that niche I’m not going to be like in my 50s being like, how do I make the most of my 20s? Clearly? And people used to ask me as well, once I had enough safe visibility for myself to actually tell people in my life about it like, are you going to talk about, like, what are you going to do when you turn 30? Was the question I was like, Well, I know for sure, by the time I turn 30, I will have pivoted to something else, because I’m not going to have the desire to keep talking on this topic.
It will have emerged and evolved into something else, but only through the process of me allowing myself to be all in on the niche that I have right now. Instead of constantly being like, well, I don’t know if I want to talk about how to make the most of my 20s forever. So like, what do I call myself? And, like, all of that drama of just like, Well, right now, I know that the question I’m engaged in is how to make the most of my 20s. I want to figure out about personal development. I’m interested in that world. I really, currently know nothing about it, so I’m just going to share stuff that I’m interested in and put it out into the world. I’m too scared to tell anyone in my real life that that’s what I’m doing, so that’s okay. I’m going to do it in private, but still publish it publicly, but I’m not going to link to it anywhere that anyone in my real life could find it. But I am going to let this evolve. I’m going to let this iterate. I’m going to let this like, be all in on the current iteration of it, the current way that it looks right now, so that it can evolve into something else.
And if you are someone who has been and we’ll talk about niche inside PGSD, if you were like, I don’t know what niche to do. I have coached on this topic of niche for so long in PGSD, and we can solve that in 20 minutes, even if it’s something you’ve been struggling with for the last six years. So if you are the person who has had a really hard time figuring out your niche, part of the problem with it, part of your issue, is that you’re in that constant judgment that I talked about with the yoga it like, do I want to do this forever? Do I not? Should I do it like all of that judgment has stopped you from actually being all in on it and giving it a go and then either letting it evolve into something else, or just deciding, hey, this isn’t actually for me. If you don’t actually allow yourself to get past that decision point, then you won’t actually be able to make the decision. You won’t actually be able to see what it’s like to be consistently talking about a certain niche, and we’re just constantly as perfectionist trying to preempt failure and wasted effort, like we don’t want to waste effort, because that’s a sign that we’re not good enough if we just put effort into something that never worked.
So we’re constantly trying to decide ahead of time what the perfect niche is, instead of actually, and this is what we do in PGSD. This is what you’ll be doing as part of the creative cocoon. You’ll be able to transfer any momentum that you create inside pgsd into whatever it evolves into that you’re doing. But you first of all, just need to allow yourself to create that momentum and create that consistency and to get unstuck with that niche question, or with the do I go on Instagram or Tiktok or podcast or YouTube or email newsletter or whatever that you need to actually just decide. And so we support you with that in PGSD, super simple process that, again, if you have been stuck with this for years, we know how to get you out of that very quickly, very easily, in a way that feels so good to you, like it won’t be you forcing yourself out of it, of like, oh, it’s actually very clear to me now what needs to do. So I love helping people with that.
So if that’s you, join us inside PGSD. But we want to have you actually allowing yourself to create momentum, to create consistency, knowing that you don’t have to do that forever, and it can and will evolve and transform into something else. And I know for me, if I had never allowed myself to just be out of the questioning of the niche and being like, well, for now, I know I just want to talk about how to make the most of my 20s and personal development and the sharing documenting my own journey, if I hadn’t allowed myself to do that, and I’d be like, well, what am I going to do when I turn 30? If I’d been in that then I would have never actually, like, through the process of of trying to create that content, I was like, why? What is this motivation issue? Oh, wait, it’s perfectionism. Okay. What is actually perfectionism? Okay. How do I solve for that? So through that process, by the time I was 30, I knew that what I actually wanted to do was talk about perfectionism and how it impacts business, because that was what I had to figure out.
But I never would have known that from the beginning, that that was a niche that I wanted to be in, and that’s what I wanted to talk about. I never would have known that, because I had to give myself permission to just do it without judging if I wanted to do it forever. And so what we want to have you do, and this is the creative cocoon. I’ll talk a bit more as well. What’s going to be inside there, what it’s going to look like, how to work. You go to samlaurabrown.com/pgsd, to get all the details. But what we want to have you doing is allowing yourself to go all in. It doesn’t have to take all of your time. It definitely won’t. If you’re inside PGSD, you’ll learn how to create consistent content without it taking all of your time. But out of this constant questioning of, is this a forever thing for me, and ironically, if we are in this is like, the most ironic thing, if you’re in this question of, like, well, I want to make sure it’s the right niche or, like, the right platform for me. You will spend so much longer, like you might have spent months, if not years, in that question, because you don’t actually allow yourself to explore it.
Instead, inside PGSD, with the creative cocoon, you literally will just have three months of exploring that, and then can have the actual answer to that question in three months, instead of like by trying to avoid giving yourself a longer period of time, it has taken you way longer, and you’re still stuck there. So it’s a three month experience, not just for that reason, though it’s very important. You want to have the time and grace to have a learning curve, to have all kinds of different emotions throughout your experience as well, to be able to actually allow yourself to be someone who is learning something new. With perfectionism, we just expect ourselves, especially if you’ve learned, and this is a really important thing, if you know a lot about content creation, whether it’s because you’ve helped other people with it, whether it’s because you have taken programs about here’s how to create content, you’ve done market research, you’ve studied it, then as a perfectionist, you will equate that knowledge and that intellectual understanding with well, if I know how to do it, I should be able to do it.
What you’re missing is actually you need a couple of other things that are really important. You need emotional capacity. So you’ll learn this. This is really what say visibility helps you with. You need the emotional capacity to not just create but to actually be able to hit publish. You need that emotional capacity just because you intellectually understand the components of a really compelling reel doesn’t mean you have the emotional capacity to actually create that and publish that. You also need skill, and skill requires repetition and showing up and practicing the same way. If you wanted to be someone who is a professional basketballer, just because you watch a lot of basketball doesn’t mean that when you pick up a basketball you should be pro level. You actually need to practice. You actually need to develop a skill set there.
And so we want to have with content creation, you’ll you need to be thinking about it the same way. You need not just the knowledge about it. You probably already have that knowledge. Now we want to have you have the emotional capacity, that safety to create and to publish, and to have you have the skills that are developed only as you practice the same with me and the yoga that I needed to be doing it for at least a month, of doing a lot of it without drama, to be able to start even being in a place where I could begin developing the skills of yoga, of being in certain postures and stretching and being flexible and strong at the same time and all of that, like I needed to actually have a certain amount of repetition there. And when we’re constantly in this judgment or that creative spin that I talked about in part three, we just don’t even actually allow ourselves to develop the skills. We’re just in this entitlement of like, if I intellectually understand it, then I should be able to do it.
And then what will happen is with that mindset, you go to create content, and it’s so painful to witness yourself not being good at it, to witness yourself being awkward, to witness yourself not knowing what to say that you then make yourself wrong for that when it’s just part of the normal experience. You make yourself wrong for that because you intellectually understand how to do it. You know how to do it, so I should be able to do it. That stops you from actually doing it. It stops you from actually developing the skill, and it makes the emotional side so much harder, because there’s so much more pressure and so much more expectation. So we want to have you creating safe visibility. That’s what we have you do in the creative cocoon. Have you create your spark content? Have you create a spark content bank where you don’t have to publish any everything in that there’s creative overflow, there’s so much safety we’ve taken the pressure off, which allows you to explore good ideas, and your not so good ideas, which actually spark your best ideas, because you gave yourself permission and space to explore them.
You allowed yourself to show up and to publish, and to actually have a publishing system that supports you so that you can publish content even when you’re not feeling motivated. You can publish it even when you’re not feeling excited. You can actually be a consistent content creator in a way that feels like you You don’t have to be loud, you don’t have to be out there, you don’t have to be drawing attention to yourself. Don’t have to be dancing in a reel or anything like that, or like talking really fast or really loud. You can actually create content as you and do it really consistently. But we need to have you get out of the thinking of you need to be different to how you are. You need to be better and all these shoulds and shouldn’t you shouldn’t talk about yourself and your content. Well, if you’ve paid any attention to what I do, I’m constantly talking about myself and my content.
And the reason that lands with you so deeply is because you when I articulate what’s in my own head and I talk about me, I’m articulating something that’s been in your head that you’ve never been able to put words to. You feel so seen not by me talking about you and what you should do, but by me talking about me and my own epiphanies, and also, now that I’m a coach, and I’ve coached so many people over the last five or six years of coaching people, so initially it was just me sharing my own experiences and then sharing as well. Here’s an epiphany that my client had, here’s what they’ve been working through. So I’m always talking in first person or what my clients experience is, or once I’ve coached so many clients on a certain topic, and then able to articulate it in a way of, here’s what my recommendation is for you, and then able to teach a process which is what the creative cocoon is. And all these concepts that I’ve created, it has emerged not from me trying to think about, what should you do?
I’ve thought about, okay, well, what works for me? Okay, now what works for me and my clients, having enough people go through that process that it actually produces results, I’m very confident in that I’m able to articulate it, and now I can teach it. And then here’s the steps to take. But I had to let it emerge. I had to let myself experience myself feeling bad at content creation, feeling awkward, feeling like I don’t know exactly what I’m saying here, but I’m just gonna let myself say it. And that required time and space and having this creative cocoon, having the self trust to navigate the ups and downs and have that experience that came from having a container for myself, a creative cocoon for myself. Initially, in the beginning, that creative cocoon was, I’m not going to share this with anyone. It feels too fragile of an idea of an identity to actually be able to share with anyone who knows me as I have been in the world.
So my creative cocoon was, I’m going to publish this out into the world without anyone knowing about it. And that was a creative cocoon for me to actually allow myself to begin showing up, to begin finding my voice, to begin figuring out for me what that spark content was. So we need to have you having a creative cocoon and having, and this is I’ll talk about what’s inside PGSD. Having not just in your own world, in your own head. And we can, as you know, it can become a bit of an echo chamber when it’s just you in your own head, even if you are self coaching, and even if you’re using other tools to help you self coach, that you need outside perspectives to help you see what you’re not seeing, and also, as well, to guide you through, to bring you back to the process, bring you back to the foundations when our perfection is praying. Can really be convinced, Oh, my God, I just, I feel so inspired to do this completely different thing and to just be able to navigate okay, like, yes, let’s explore that. But is that self sabotage, or is that not, we want to be able to have, you have a place where, anytime those questions come up, and they will when you have been the person who is inconsistent, and you are now becoming a consistent person.
Your perfectionist brain is going to freak the fuck out, even though it’s something you want, even though it’s more than within your capacity, your capability to do it, your brain is going to freak out when you’re becoming a new version of you. What if this means people in my life don’t love me anymore? So your handbrake is going to come on in all sorts of different ways, and I know exactly what those ways are, and I’m going to help you solve for them. I’m going to teach you exactly how to do that. I have walked so many people through this process, not just myself, so many people through it that I know in week one, here’s what you can expect to happen in week three, here’s what you can expect to happen in week 12, here’s what you can expect to happen in week seven, this is what’s going to be coming up for you. Because in the most beautiful way, you are not that unique. You are not that unique no matter you do have unique circumstances.
But your perfectionist brain, if you can relate to what I talk about in this podcast, your perfectionist brain, is going to go through a pretty predictable pattern that you aren’t able to see because it’s just you and your own brain. But I have seen it across so many people that I’m able to articulate it and guide you through it and get you to the other side, where you are able to to go with the analogy of the creative cocoon, you are able to be the butterfly, which isn’t you being someone you’re not, you’ve been better. It’s you being more you feeling more safe to be you. You putting yourself out into the world in a way that you love, in a way that builds your business. I’m able to guide you and support you through that. Give you the exact resource you need, exactly when you need it, and you’re going to have coaching and support along the way. So any questions that come up, you’re going to get answers to those. You’re going to be able to get unstuck whenever obstacles come up, whenever you find yourself in questioning and doubting. You’re able. You’re allowed to make changes. You’re allowed to decide, update decisions and things like that along the way.
You’re not going to be locked into anything, but you’re going to have support as you navigate the different decisions that come up, the different things that your perfectionist brain offers you along the way, we want to also have you having, and this is really important inside pgse, having like minded community, being around other people who get what it’s like to have a fear of showing up and putting themselves out there, even though they know they have so much potential to make an impact and to be that person. They had the same fears. They had the same doubts. They’re navigating them too. So when you hear those people getting coached, you were gonna have and this is why I love PGSD being the way that it is, where you can see other people getting coached. And it’s not just one on one coaching. I love one on one too, don’t get me wrong.
But when you can get one on one support inside pgse, which you can you get all your questions answered, you’re able to get coaching on the weekly calls and and a lot of PGSDers like, just for me, what I have found and so many PGSDers that it can feel really vulnerable to get coaching yourself. It can feel a bit embarrassing at times and things like that. So to just see other people be able to get coached on the exact things you’re struggling with that either you couldn’t articulate yourself yet because you didn’t have the self awareness to or you did have the self awareness, but it felt too vulnerable or too awkward, or like you just it felt too much to just actually get on a call and put your hand up, or maybe you’re just not available at the time that the coaching calls are, whatever it is, you’re able to actually get all the breakthroughs that you need just by hearing other perfectionists like you getting coached, getting supported on exactly the same things that you are going through, the same fears of visibility, the same doubts that come up.
You are able to have so many breakthroughs and have so much shame release and again, this is why I love PGSD, being a community and being somewhere that has that aspect of being able to see others getting coached and get supported. Because probably you think you’re the only one struggling with all this stuff, and it feels like a relief to listen to these podcast episodes, because it’s like, oh my god, it’s not just me. Well, imagine inside PGSD when it’s not just me and you that are being able to relate on this, but you are able to see so many other people in this struggle, and to realize that it’s not a you thing. It’s not because there’s something wrong with you, that you’re a very smart, intelligent person that isn’t able to currently post consistently, that you were able to have that shame released by not being the only one struggling with it. Because when I was just doing one on one, coaching, everyone that I was coaching, they were struggling with the same things, but they felt so alone because they didn’t know anyone else struggling with it and anyone else is sharing about it. They would have known other people struggling with those things, but they weren’t sharing about it with others. Others weren’t sharing about it with them.
So they needed a safe place to go, where they could actually just witness others and be witnessed in that and just have so much shame removed from that alone, which makes it so much easier to be consistent. It makes it so much easier to feel safe putting yourself out there. But also, what we have in PGSD, and this is really just naturally developed over the years of the program, is having PGSDers be able to share like if they’re not yet comfortable sharing in front of their loved ones who are so supportive and kind, or maybe they’re not, but they’re not comfortable yet sharing in front of anyone else, having PGSDers be able to cheer them on and to be able to really support them with their content. Or if they want feedback about it, you can also get feedback as well inside the program on your content, but also you can get that community aspect as well, and have people cheering you on and celebrating you. And even if you don’t have anyone else in your life who is creating content or has a business or is figuring this out, you have a place to go where people get you and people understand you, and they can cheer you on and they can support you through the ups and downs. They can share their experiences like it just makes such a difference. And I really, really, really wish I had had that for me when I was in those first years of struggling with this.
I felt like there was something seriously wrong with me, because what I was seeing out there was everyone else was creating content, and if they did that, they then shared it on their personal Facebook page, and there was no way in hell that I was going to do that. And so I felt like, what is wrong with me that I am not able to do that, instead of actually realizing it’s very normal to have that fear and not having a community around me that could really support you, that I felt too vulnerable to share that with people, and also I don’t know anyone else who was trying to create content or any of that. It makes such a difference to have that community support, to have the expert coaching, to have a place where every question gets answered, and to just be able to get out of this struggle, because the three months in the creative cocoon they’re going to pass anyway.
So do you want to emerge from that three months consistently creating content, even if you do decide to pivot your niche, even if you do decide to change business, even if you decide to be on a different platform, you can, at the end of that three months be a consistent content creator, creating content that you love, that feels like you, that is high value, that makes an impact on the world that is actually you getting to be the self expressed version of yourself that you want to be, even if people in your real life don’t know about it, you’ll be out of the drama of, I’m not consistent. And just like, do I need to have a different AI tool. Maybe I need to do it like this person, like out of the drama into consistency. Or three months from now, you can still be deciding what’s the perfect niche for me, what’s the best platform for me, what’s the most optimal way to do it, trying to motivate yourself every Monday to do it, and then by Sunday, feeling ashamed that you haven’t, or if you have, wondering when you’re going to fall off the wagon, either because you’re so burnt out from doing it, or because you just know it’s not going to last.
Let’s actually solve this. So in pgse, I want to invite you inside. If you cannot tell I know I have the solution. If you can relate to this and you’ve listened this far, I know I had the solution to the exact problem that you are experiencing. So join us inside PGSD. What we’re going to be doing in this creative cocoon. It’s going to be a guided process. I’m assuming you’ve got a busy life, maybe you’ve got a vacation going on in this period. Maybe you have a health issue that unexpectedly comes up. Maybe, like me, you’ve got little ones like you’ve got life lifeing, and let’s have you be consistent anyway, by actually assuming that’s going to be happening, instead of waiting for this perfect three months where life’s not going to get in the way. Let’s just assume life will be lifeing. So that’s all baked in to this three months with buffer time and with the way that this is formatted, so that you don’t have to be creating content every day. You don’t have to be creating content every week to be able to be publishing it consistently.
So in the first six weeks, is broken down into two six week blocks, two six week momentum projects. So in the first one, we’re going to be having you being in creation mode, being in your spark content. I’m going to guide you through figuring out exactly what that is for you. It’s probably different. It might not be different. You might really resonate with what I talk about, because you believe spark content for you is going to be quite similar, but for a lot of PGSDers spark content looks different to what I’m doing. So we want to have you in your spark content. We’re going to get you into creative overflow. We’re going to have you really, actually being in that content creation mode without having the pressure to publish it. And a question that could come up here is, like, but if I’m not, like, if I have that time, like, how am I actually going to be building my business?
Particularly if you already have an offer of things you’re selling, I just want to share if you already have an offer or things you’re selling, some PGSDers do it, some don’t you will naturally be making more money by the end of this, without a doubt, but you can still be publishing it. If you’re already in a place where you’re confident with publishing, you’re able to publish things, you will still be able to publish. There’s no like ban on publishing anything if you can’t tell there’s none of these strict rules that we have. There’s a lot of parameters and decisions that have been made so that you can just step into that and do them without drama. But you’re the CEO, you’re able to make any decisions you want. You’re able to publish during that time, for sure.
But what we’re really focused on is having you create spark content, having you get into creative overflow, and then what we’re doing in the second part is we are creating your power publishing system so that all of that creative overflow has somewhere to go, so that you are able to create a lot without feeling like, oh my god, now I’ve got all of this content to manage. Like, how am I even going to make this get published or whatever. We have a simple system. I’m going to teach you how to do it, whether it’s yourself doing it, or whether you hire a VA. I’ll teach you how to hire a VA, what to say in the job ad, how much time you’ll need, what you’ll need to pay them. It won’t be much that you’ll need to pay them. Like, if you’re thinking it’s going to be hundreds of dollars, it definitely won’t be. You’re going to be able to do it in a really affordable way. If you want to have someone else being the publisher, like I did with my podcast, or, like, with my YouTube, I publish it myself. With Instagram, I publish it myself.
So it’s like, I’ll help you decide that for you, what actually is the best decision for you. There’s no right or wrong. We’re going to decide what that looks like for you, and regardless, we’re going to have you have a very simple, this isn’t just a mindset thing. We’re going to do a lot of work on mindset and workshop capacity. Content Creator. Identity, all of that going on too, but we’re going to have a very simple, practical system. So for me, I use Airtable and Google Docs to be able to manage my content. I will show you exactly what it looks like for me, exactly how to set that up in a very, very, very simple way. Super important, because any system with perfectionism, we want it to be optimal. And you might go and look on YouTube and see someone who is at a very different point in their business as well, but someone who has this full blown content creation notion situation set up. And you can use notion if you want to use notion, nothing against that.
But we tend to want to have this really complicated system, because a we get to be busy creating the system, and we don’t have to be busy then putting out content and being vulnerable and feeling exposed and all of those things that we might feel if we don’t have safe visibility. So we love being busy with the back end system, and then we constantly just get to have all this drama about the system, and like all of that, we want to just have a really simple system that supports you, and whether you’re the one who’s personally pushing publish or someone else is doing that for you, we want to have you be able to have your content creation rhythm, not have to be that you create content every day, like for me, when I first became a consistent content creator, I wasn’t full time in my business yet. That had to come first.
The consistent content had to come before I could be full time making a full time income from my business. So instead of waiting to have more time, I needed to figure out how to create consistent content before I have more time, and that required having a really simple power publishing system. So we’re going to be doing that in the second half of the creative cocoon, so that at the end of that, you are going to be able to consistently create content you love that feels like you that is high quality, if you have an offer already, you’re going to be able to make more sales from that if you’re also as well. I got this question about, what if you don’t know where to have your content go to like, say you do have an offer or like, you do have things you’ve created, whether it’s a freebie or things like that. What if you don’t actually know where the content fits in within your business model?
So you’re not really sure, even when you’re creating content, like, do I talk about this or that, or like, all of that, all of that will be entered inside PGSD, inside the creative cocoon. I don’t have time to go into all of that. In this series we will be working on that. So anything that is stopping you, literally anything that is stopping you from creating content consistently and feeling like you knew exactly what to say, exactly how to say, exactly when to say it, we are solving for all of that in a very simple way. I have walked so many people through this, and I am so excited and honored and privileged to now be able to walk you through it as well, to now have a process for it, to now have clear names for it, and it will keep evolving naturally. But I’m just, I’m really excited for this. I’ve mentioned that a few times I just this has been, this was the unlock for me. How do I go from inconsistent content, being in my own way, perfectionism, handbrake on being so scared to show up as me, to put myself out there, and not just from a business perspective, I felt like I couldn’t actually be myself fully.
Because I really needed to be able to explore my business and expressing myself in that like that was just part of my own personal development as well. So being able to figure out how to create consistent content, how to have that safe visibility, how to remove the perfectionist pressure without having to compromise on quality. How could I actually do that? Solving for that is what has allowed me to have a full time business. I’ve been full time in my business, paying myself a full time income, working less than full time hours, but a full time income from my business through navigating as well three maternity leaves, like I’ve had four kids, like four kids under four when Liam was born in May, and being able to still have consistent content going out without having to create consistently. I’ve been able to honor my own content creation rhythm, to not have to be on all the time. I love showing up, and then I love retreating and going into this like hermit mode.
So anyway, all of that to say, I want to invite you inside. Inside PGSD, we’ve got weekly coaching calls where you can get coached. You can watch others like you getting coached. We’ve got all of the replays of that going out on the PGSD private podcast. And our PGSDers love that private podcast like nothing else. It is such a really simple, easy way to just plug into support and motivation on the go. If you love listening to podcasts, you’ll be able to listen to that podcast just as easily as this one. We label all of the podcasts, sorry, podcast episodes. They are like podcast episodes. All of the coaching call replays as though they are podcast episodes. So you know, any moment, if you’re like, I’m really struggling with a fear of what someone else will think, you can go exactly to a coaching call on that specific topic.
And also, all of the content for the creative cocoon curriculum will be available via podcast as well, so you don’t have to log in and sit down at your computer. I’m assuming, again, you’ve got a busy life. You’ve got shit going on already. So you’re going to be able to listen to everything that you need and soak it all up just on the go. You don’t have to take notes. I’m going to be creating it in a way where you can really easily absorb it, apply it, and do that work as well. That is part of this. It’s going to be simple, it’s easy, and I’m going to be guiding you through that. So we have the calls. I’m just thinking I should actually go and look at the PGSD website and see it or later. But we have the weekly calls. We have the creative cuckoo curriculum. We also have, if you’re a long time listener, we also have everything else that I’ve talked about as being inside PGSD.
So we have power planning. You’re going to have the power planning course. You’re going to learn how to plan properly as a perfectionist. So if you’ve been like, well, I have all these plans to create content. I don’t follow through with my content creation plans. We’ve got you covered. We have got you covered inside PGSD. We have power planning. We have clean rest. We have if you want to have a growth goal, if you’ve already got an offer, if you’re already at a point in your business where you’re making money, you can have a growth goal that really supports you. That’s completely optional, but that’s there for you. Power planning is optional, but that is there for you. Our PGSDers love it. It is if you’ve been working from the endless to do list, if you have really just even been working from a calendar, but then you keep ghosting your calendar, power planning is really there.
It’s incredible. I know I’m biased when I say that, but like yesterday, even when I was doing my power plan, I was like, this is so insanely helpful that I have this tool because I am at the moment, I have a nine week old, three kids. I feel like I’m getting sick as I like, listen to my own voice. I sound a bit stuffy. I feel normal. I feel a bit tired, like we have obviously, Liam waking up overnight for feeds. We have Lydia waking up. We have the twins waking up. So there’s all of that going on. And also I’m able to in the work time that I have that I’m wanting to work, because I want to work in the time I have, which isn’t that much that I have, that I want to have for my business, because I want to have time for other things as well. I’m able to use that incredibly effectively without oftentimes, if we have not much time, we then put so much pressure on ourselves to use that time perfectly that we then end up working on things that don’t even matter or not even working at all.
And so you have power planning in there. You have all the coaching call replays from calls we’ve already done. So as soon as you get in, you can start listening to the private podcast and instantly be plugged in to things that are going to be so helpful for you to hear. And just like those light bulb moments, are going to be coming thick and fast, and you’re going to be actually able to implement all of that as well. We have the PGSD forum, where you can get every question that you have answered, where you can meet other PGSDers well, and get so much support. The way our PGSDers cheer each other on. It’s just such a supportive, safe place to show up and share. We don’t even have to like monitor that inside PGSD. It’s just such a. So it’s just, I think, from the people that are naturally drawn to us, it’s just such a safe place to show up and share if you’re tender about things, if you feel vulnerable about things, if you are sharing dreams that you haven’t even voiced out loud to anyone in your life before, if you’re wanting to make the kind of money from your business at some point that is going to exceed other people in your life, their income that they make after working 20 years in a certain job or whatever like it’s just such a safe place to share those dreams and to be able to have that cocoon like PGSD is the ultimate cocoon, and with this creative cocoon curriculum that is coming out as well.
It is just going to be you guided through a simple and easy process you can apply even if you’ve got a busy life, and especially if you’ve had a lot of fear of visibility. Maybe you’ve taken content creation courses and programs before, but you haven’t been able to actually push publish consistently like this is solving for that root issue. This is the best way to invest your time and money into actually solving a root problem for yourself. You don’t need more information about what kind of content to do, though we will talk about that. You need safety. You need the cocoon. You want it. You’re craving it, and that is what you will have in PGSD. You have lifetime access so you can work at your own pace. You have lifetime access as well, to the coaching calls, to everything inside PGSD. It is just the best place to be. It’s the ultimate it’s it’s where you want to be. If you can relate to anything that I’ve been sharing on this podcast, if you’re someone who’s been thinking about pgsc for a while, this is your sign to sign up and join us.
If you only just come across me and come across pgsc And all of this like the best timing ever. Thank you, universe, the best timing. So get yourself inside, samlaurabrown.com/pgsd, that’s where you can go to find out all the details about the program. If you have questions, DM me @perfectionismproject on Instagram, I’ll personally reply to you, and if you have any questions, anything you want to talk about related to it, DM me or send me an email support@samlaurabrown.com. I am on standby all throughout open enrollment to be able to personally answer any questions that you have. I really want to invite you in so with that said, welcome in advance for those who are joining us can’t wait to meet you and to support you and to just have you in that safe haven that you have been craving to be able to explore and act upon your business dreams and ideas, whether you’ve just started your business, whether you started it a long time ago.
If you’ve been spinning your wheels, it’s time to feel safe enough to stop the spin and to get into creative overflow and to shop as yourself in the world in such a safe way. So samlaurabrown.com/pgsd, enrollment. Just to give you one last detail, enrollment is now open. So at the time of release of this episode, enrollment has officially opened. So when you go to the PGSD website, you will be able to sign up either the pay in full option or the payment plan option, and then join us and get instant access to everything. And enrollment is closing at 11:59pm eastern time, so New York time on the Friday, the 25th of July. So enrollment is only open for one week, so you want to get yourself inside during that week. We are strict with our enrollment periods. And then on the first of August, even if you’ve got plans on the first of August, you want to be inside. You want to be able to be part of this creative cocoon. We can adjust dates if that’s what’s needed. Don’t deny yourself this experience just because the dates aren’t exactly the perfect dates. We want to have you inside. We can help you with any adjustments needed so that you can become a consistent content creator, as you have been craving to be. So I hope to see you inside. I can’t wait. Any questions, reach out and I’ll talk to you again soon. Bye.
Outro
The doors to my program are officially open. PGSD, Perfectionist Getting Shit Done. Is open for enrollment right now, but enrollment won’t be open for long. Doors are closing at 11:59pm, Eastern Time on Friday, the 25th of July. 2025 so if you want to become someone who can create consistent content without needing lots of time for content creation, without having to be someone you’re not, without burning yourself out and constantly being on the wagon then off again, then I want to invite you inside the program so that you can learn how to create safe visibility, overcome your visibility fears and confidently put yourself out there so that your business can grow. So samlaurabrown.com/pgsd, is where you can go to find out more about the program and sign up today. It’s a lifetime access program. You get instant access to everything as soon as you get inside, I can’t wait to see you in there.