I recently asked my peeps on Facebook where they got their shower ideas. Y’know those brilliant flashes of inspiration that fuel our creativity and addiction to being the boss of our passion-led businesses.

Is it through activity or inactivity?

Whichever habit they recognised it was always when their mind was elsewhere, partly disengaged while ‘doing’ something else. Even if that something else was waking from sleep or driving.

No one said it was while they were at their desk or computer. Which is a drag because that’s precisely when you need them most!

When you’re searching every corner of your brain for blog post inspiration and it’s completely blank…

Or staring at your screen, cursor blinking as each second passes while you wonder what the heck to post on Facebook that will get your Page some Like love.

Because that amazing shower idea you were blessed with as you strolled around the park left you long ago. Never to be remembered. Ack!

All while you’re cursing those charming, successful entrepreneurs who just seem to have natural ability in spades – persuasive blog posts and social media updates simply rollllll off the keyboard for them.

Don’t you believe it!

Most of them have a medley of tools to call on including swipe files, journals, writing exercises, and a commitment to writing every day – whether that’s 10 minutes or 1000 words – to keep that writing muscle fighting fit.

Another popular tool is a content library. An easy-to-reach file to store your great (and sometimes not so great) shower ideas so you can later share them with your folks on line.

(Hint: if it’s buried away somewhere out of arms reach, you’re screwed – you’ll never use it)

Boring but insanely practical spreadsheets do it for me.

Storing my l’il ideas into neat cells, columns and rows creates spring meadows of space in my big ol’ brain giving my mind room to breathe.

It’s a central store of ideas for when I need them most (at my computer!), fed by the Notes app on my iPad or iPhone, and sometimes napkins, voice messages, notebooks – whatever I have to hand so I can jot it down and transfer into my content library later.

Too often in the past I’ve relied on that overly confident thought:

“That ideas is WAY too brilliant to forget – no need to write it down. I’ll remember!”

And be kicking myself forever afterwards because it’s GONE. So I’ve formed the habit to always get it down somewhere, somehow.

You can create a library of social media updates, blog ideas, email updates – any type of content or communication you need that will serve your ideal clients (who’ll go on to lavish you with accolades + attention in the process).

Think of it as a living file that you create over time. Whenever and wherever inspiration hits (running, yoga + walking does it for me) you can add those ideas to your library to develop, flesh out and get creative with later.

The reason I champion content libraries so much is because without question they had the biggest impact on my marketing.

And it’s something you can get into the habit of using quickly that will shave hours from your day so you can get on doing what you love.

Before I started my content library I would frequently find myself in these scenarios:

• Incessant worrying and indecision about what I should blog about
• Putting it off because I didn’t want to think about it (no visibility = no business)
• Overwhelmed by the choice of topics I could write about
• Drifting and wasting time on social media searching for inspiration
• Taking a slap-dash approach = not targeted on getting customers

Ugh! A total waste of time and a complete confidence sucker.

Content libraries helped me be more consistent, focussed, productive, decisive, and professional – clearing space for FUN things I want to do in my business.

And that leads to more visibility, website traffic, better connections and business opportunities.

Does that sound good to you?

You can easily get your content library started with a healthy bunch of ideas in just 30 minutes of brainstorming.

Make it happen!

There you have it. Congratulations – your very first content library to store your ideas that will harvest even more than you know what to do with!

And most importantly giving you the most precious commodity of time back.

Now you can make it look pretty, correct typos and save somewhere easy to access.

Bonus tip: If it’s a blog library you could add your ideas to your calendar straight away – the startings of a super professional editorial calendar (every serious business blogger has one).

======

Do you WISH for a simple step-by-step so that you can confidently create stylishly hot social media updates that attract the right mix of attention, prospects, opportunities and sales?

Then you’ll LOVE Social Media Summer Camp – a guided, interactive session with ME.

STOP second guessing if your updates are client magnets or wasted opportunities. Let’s LICK this social media thang together (with ice cream!): Social Media Summercamp