The importance of learning to adapt | Ep. 3 Content Magic with Lindsay Smith

In this episode, I'm chatting about the need to pivot in our business. One unexpected setback in particular had me almost rebranding myself the one-armed copywriter. Kidding. I'm also getting into that never-ending loop of comparison and how looking at content creation as an art form will change the way you show up. So, tune in and discover how to infuse your business with creativity, adaptability, and growth mindset.

00:00 Embracing change, ready to dive in.

05:42 Shift in content creation leads to growth.

08:48 Launching new ideas is an experimental process.

11:43 Moved a lot, good at Spanish, uncomfortable.

14:57 Entrepreneur for 10 years, cares less now.

17:58 Copywriting should capture brand voice authentically. Content as creative self expression, not marketing.

Speaker A [00:00:03]:
If you have an online business, you're creating content.

Speaker B [00:00:06]:
And the way you create content is more important than ever. It's really noisy out there, and learning.

Speaker A [00:00:12]:
To stand out is the only way. Hey, I'm Lindsay, and I'm the host.

Speaker B [00:00:16]:
Of the Content Magic podcast, all about being an entrepreneur and creating kick ass content to market yourself and your business. I have a not so secret superpower for copywriting marketing and content, and I've helped hundreds of folks just like you show up with a ton of confidence.

Speaker A [00:00:34]:
In the online space.

Speaker B [00:00:35]:
I've been doing this content sync for 20 years, and I believe the real magic is a combo of intuition, creativity, and strategy. You can create content for your business without losing your mind, I promise. So tune in every week for tangible content tips, inspiring guests, and some real spicy opinions.

Speaker A [00:00:55]:
Probably mine. Ready to dive in? Let's go. Hey, so welcome back. Here's something fun. As I sit here today while I'm recording this, I have a big ass cast on my arm and on my hand. So I thought this would be a good time to talk about adapting in your business, pivoting in your business comparison, what all those things mean in your business. What happened earlier this week? I have a dog. If you follow me on social media, you know that I have a dog that I'm obsessed with.

Speaker A [00:01:39]:
Anyways, my dog does not like most other dogs. She is what you would called a reactive dog. So all dogs have their own weird stuff. So this is her weird thing. She doesn't like other dogs, which, to be fair, I don't like all other people. So same thing. Anyway, so what she does is she reacts out of fear, which means she barks and lunges. She's only 45 pounds, but she might as well be like a hippo.

Speaker A [00:02:10]:
So she pulls really hard on the leash usually. I'm very prepared for this. I've done a lot of training, I've done a lot of research. I know what to do. I'm usually prepared once in a while, another dog that she does not like just comes out of nowhere around a blind corner, and then I'm not prepared. So this is what happened recently. I was not prepared. Another dog came around a corner.

Speaker A [00:02:38]:
Sort of blindly, she lunged. My instinct is to grab onto the leash and my middle finger got all mangled and is broken. So that's what happened. So that obviously got me thinking. And as a copywriter, it's very tricky. I can't really type with one hand, so it's been tricky. And this is actually not the first time I've had a cast on my arm. Almost a year ago, I fell on some ice and broke my wrist and had a cast.

Speaker A [00:03:14]:
And today is November 23, so I'm like a month shy of my castiversary anywho, so all that to say, even over the past two, three days that I've had this thing on my arm. I've had to adapt. The good news is I've been through this before, so I know what's what. I know that getting dressed is a challenge. I know that finding something like a shirt that fits over my cast is a challenge. And what does that have to look like? I can't wear my regular stuff that I would put on in a day. I have to find something with buttons so that I can get dressed. You have to adapt.

Speaker A [00:04:03]:
I have a couple of copywriting clients this week, and I have to adapt. So the way I've been doing that, because I've been through this before, is I use my phone and I can type very quickly with one thumb. So I just email myself the thing that I have to this one client. I'm writing some emails for her, so I just write an email to myself of the copy that I have to create for her. And then I get to my computer and I copy and paste that into a Google Doc and do my best to sort of format it with one. Right? You have to adapt. And I think the same is true in any business, even if you don't break a wrist or a finger, right? Like, we always have to adapt, and we always have know, pivot. And I always think of that scene in Friends, right, where David Schwimmer and Matthew Perry and Jennifer Aniston are moving that couch up the stairs, and David Schumer's character keeps yelling, Pivot, pivot.

Speaker A [00:05:16]:
Pivot. That's always what I think about. And it's know, and this is the thing, right? And I guess it's true for anything if you have kids. It's true for parenting. Like, as soon as you think you have it figured out, something shifts. And we talked about how failure is not even a real word. I don't even think it's the right word for it. It's more like a lesson or an experience.

Speaker A [00:05:42]:
So I think to say, if you think about it, things don't always go the way you plan. And I think about when I shifted more from like a done for you content person to more of a done with you content person. I let go of doing creating content for other people, and now I teach people how to create content. That little shift. I think about the first thing that I launched three or four years ago, and I thought it was the shit at the time, and now I look back and I've grown and changed so much already since then. I look at that and think, like, it makes me want to barf a little bit because it's not at all what I offer now. And probably another three, four years from now, as I grow and evolve, it's going to shift again and something I'm going to have more knowledge to share or different programs that I want to offer. Honestly, I think you kind of have to look at everything as an experiment because it really is all an experiment.

Speaker A [00:06:47]:
And you could do as many courses as you want and hire coaches and mentors and masterminds and do a ton of learning and training. But I'm going to guess that you probably already know what you're doing, and you probably already have all the knowledge that you need. It's just a matter of sort of trusting yourself and also taking the leap into whatever it is, launching something, creating a new product. Let's say if you make stuff, if you're a maker, right? Like veering away from whatever it is that you've been making for a long time. Because we've all become entrepreneurs because we have some sort of creative spirit, especially if you're a service based no, well, not even true. Not even if you're a service based entrepreneur, even if you have a store, or even if you are somebody who sells stuff on Etsy, like essentially whatever it is, you essentially came up with this idea or this concept out of nothing. You just created this thing out of nothing. And you were just like, this thing doesn't exist.

Speaker A [00:08:00]:
Now it's going to come out of my brain and I'm going to make it exist. I think we are all creative geniuses. I think all entrepreneurs are creative geniuses because we just invented something out of nothing. We took something out of thin air and we made it into a thing. And I think that goes for so many different businesses, like even a restaurant, right? Like there's a concept behind a restaurant, like, what kind of food you're going to prepare, what it's going to look like inside. That's a concept. And I dated a chef once and coming up with the specials of the day, that's constant creative invention. He'd pour over different cookbooks and kind of just get inspired.

Speaker A [00:08:48]:
And we live in Canada, so there's different growing seasons, so you'd have to rely on what was in season at the time. So even that is inventing something out of nothing. So when you think about it, really, it's all just an experiment. And if you think of it that way, I feel like it takes a lot of the pressure off whatever it is that you're launching or you want to put out into the world. It really is an experiment. And I feel like you're just like, okay, I'm going to try this thing and see what happens, and we get to do that. And sometimes it can't be a double edged sword because on the end of that, there's a lot of emotion tied to it of like, what are people going to think? And what if it fails? And what if nobody buys this thing? And what if it's like, what if everybody hates it? There's all this emotional investment. So if you can take all of that emotional nonsense away and just kind of be detached from the outcome and rely on that creative genius because it's led you this far, right? Then it's always going to be a success.

Speaker A [00:10:08]:
And I think something else I've been thinking about too, is this idea. And in the last episode, the first episode, I talked about alignment in your content, which I still stand by, right? If you're creating your own content and you're following someone else's schedule or someone else's prescription or someone else's idea of what makes good content, then it's not going to feel aligned to you and your business and your values and your goals. So I still maintain that's true. However, when it comes to growing your business, I think there's sort of two things happening. Especially if you're like a solopreneur, it cannot outgrow you because you are your logo, you are the face of your business. It's you. It's all you. No pressure, but it's all you.

Speaker A [00:11:04]:
So your business cannot outgrow your growth. So as you grow and move and shift, your business is going to grow and move and shift. So there's two things here. One, that growth might feel kind of barfy. Like you might kind of want to throw up where some opportunities are going to come along that you know are the right step, but you still might want to throw up. So I think that's different from this idea of everything having to feel aligned. So I think those are two different things. Like, for example, I'll give you an example.

Speaker A [00:11:43]:
So in my twenty s, I already told you this, I moved around a lot and I lived in Latin America and I spoke Spanish. I was really good at Spanish. So recently actually wasn't that recent. A little while ago I saw in the town where I live, there was like a Spanish speakers meetup or something, and it was all these women who were Latina, like their first language was Spanish. And I was like, oh, that'd be cool to go and practice. Anyways, I committed to going and they were meeting at a restaurant, so I was the only person whose first language was English. So I went and I sat in the car and I wanted to throw up. I was like, what am I doing here? Why am I here? Like, this is going to be really uncomfortable.

Speaker A [00:12:33]:
My Spanish is not great. It's been 20 years. These women are all native Spanish speakers. Anyways, I went in and I did my best and I fumbled and I didn't die. So that's an example of growth that makes you want to throw up, right? And I came out on the other side feeling like a million bucks and being like, okay, I did that. I didn't die. I just wanted to throw up, right? So it's the same as if, like, you know, you had to give a speech in front of a bunch of people. You knew it was good for your growth, but you still wanted to throw up.

Speaker A [00:13:11]:
So I feel like that's different from feeling unaligned about something, right? So growth and unalignment are two different things. Like, unalignment feels like wrong in your soul and in your guts, but growth feels barfy, but like the right next step. So I feel like those are two different things. And sometimes we can get mixed up with that, especially if you've been caught up in fear and comparison for a long time. So a note on that, fear and comparison, I think none of us are really immune to that. I don't think any of us, especially comparison, I don't think any of us are immune. Like, it's always going to happen. Sometimes I'm not really sure if anybody cares that I've been doing this for 20 years.

Speaker A [00:14:05]:
And sometimes I think for the longest time I would say, oh, well, I've been doing this content thing before instagram existed, and I'm not often convinced that's a good thing. Or it just makes me sound like I'm 90 years old. Also, I'm not 90 years old, I'm 44. But still, I don't know, it's like an insecurity. And then on the other hand, I think the thing that the winning thing of this shit ton of experience does for me is that I don't get stuck in that fear and comparison for very long. And even if it does come along, I'm very aware of it and I can recover very quickly. So I think that's sort of the difference. Yes, I have this 20 years of experience.

Speaker A [00:14:57]:
I've been working for myself for ten years. So the entrepreneurship thing is not new to me. And also, I think when you get to be 40, you just give a lot less shits and you just don't care anymore. No, that's not true. You don't not care. You just don't get caught up in the same things you used to get caught up in when you were 20. So it's interesting, when I shifted to this sort of teaching space, I saw someone else who was like, teaching content, and I remember saying to a business coach then, right, her website was really pretty and it was all designed, and she had all these professional photos, and I didn't have any of that at the time. I do now, but I didn't at the time.

Speaker A [00:15:44]:
And I remember she had this really cool sequin jacket. And I remember saying to my business coach, I can't do this. I don't have a sequin jacket and pretty hair. So that was my first impression. And I compared myself to this woman. I don't know her. I still don't know her. I have no idea.

Speaker A [00:16:02]:
And it's so interesting that that was my first thought anyways. And I still get caught in that comparison thing. And I still look at other people who are doing very similar things to what I'm doing, whether it's copywriting or teaching people how to create content. And you think, well, they're doing it better than me, or they have this and I don't. It's just that I can recover faster. And here's something also that I've learned. If you're comparing yourself to someone, reach out to that person and be like, hey, listen, I know we do something similar. I sort of been creeping what you're doing.

Speaker A [00:16:44]:
I'd love to jump on a connection call and just learn more about what you do and why you do it and how you do it, because I've been doing that recently and it's been very eye opening. So these people who I kind of thought like were not competition, but just kind of like I felt threatened. I think I felt threatened by these people. So that has really worked out wonderfully because it's opened my eyes to being like, oh, even though this person does something very similar to me, we have completely different backgrounds, completely different skill sets. And to be fair, all of us could be selling gadgets and gizmos aplenty and who's what's in scalore. And I'm not going to do it the same way that you're going to do it and you're going to attract someone completely different than who I'm going to attract. Right. This is another reason why showing up as you in your content is so important, because nobody is going to be to capture that brand essence the way you are.

Speaker A [00:17:58]:
Like this example of I have a client, she needs a few emails. My number one goal if I'm doing done for you copywriting, is to make sure I'm capturing the brand voice of their brand, of their company, of their business or whatever, right? Like, I know the way I write is very approachable and friendly and witty, right? But that's probably not the way that may not be how that brand or that person expresses themselves. So it's really important that if I'm doing for someone else, that it has to sound like them. So whatever you take away from this today, just remember that everything you do, just look at it as an experiment. Even your content can be an experiment, right? And what would shift if you thought about creating content not as like a marketing strategy? What if you thought about it as creating art? What if you thought of it as creative self expression? What if you took the whole marketing thing off of it? And would that take less pressure? And would that make it easier for you to show up in the online space, whatever that is, your emails, your Instagram, your Facebook, your LinkedIn, whatever, it like, would that make it different for you if you approached it that way when you were creating your content?

Speaker B [00:19:35]:
Thank you so much for listening.

Speaker A [00:19:36]:
If you loved what you heard, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review or.

Speaker B [00:19:40]:
Share this episode on social media. And don't forget to tag me on Instagram at Lindsay Smith creative. And if you do all three, I'll be your best friend forever and invite you to all my birthday parties. That's it for today. And I'll see you next time.