Step 1: Review & Reflect
Darren stared at the blinking cursor on his screen, his desktop littered with half-started folders. One was labeled “Podcast Clips,” another “Webinar Notes,” and a third, “June Ideas (Old?)” hadn’t been opened since March. Every time he sat down to create something new, he felt like he was either repeating himself or reinventing the wheel. The ideas were there, he knew that, but they were buried under digital clutter and mental fatigue.
He had always been a big believer in content. It had helped build his consulting business and made him “the guy” people turned to when they needed to make sense of complex tech. But somewhere along the way, content creation stopped feeling creative. It had become a burden, a box to check off. Publish a post. Film a quick reel. Write a newsletter. Check, check, check. Yet none of it seemed to move the needle anymore.
Reality Hits
One night, after skipping dinner and snapping at his partner over something trivial, Darren sat on the couch and opened the Notes app on his phone. He just typed: “What am I even doing with all this content?” It was an honest question, not just about strategy. But it was about purpose, about energy, and about whether this work still felt like his. He scrolled through old client call transcripts, random voice memos, and screenshots of past slide decks. There were nuggets of brilliance hidden in plain sight. But it felt like finding diamonds in a landfill.
Time To Do Something Different
That weekend, he blocked off two hours, not to create, but to review. No new tools. No strategy rabbit holes. Just him, a notebook, and what he already had. He printed out three blog posts from last year that still made him proud. He listened to a recorded Zoom session with a past client and found himself nodding along to his own advice. For the first time in a long while, Darren didn’t feel behind. He felt… anchored. The gold wasn’t gone. It was just buried under the noise. That moment changed everything, not in an explosive, dramatic way, but in a quiet, grounding one. He realized he didn’t need more content. He needed to see his content differently. It wasn’t about producing. It was about rediscovering. That insight lit a small fire, the kind that doesn’t flare up fast, but keeps burning.