The fear of judgment that keeps you from publishing content
One of the biggest hindrances to creating content consistently? The fear of judgment. Can you relate?
What if I get one (or more!) of the facts wrong? What if there are typos or grammatical errors? What if later I realize that my ideas were wrong? What if people think I’m uninformed or stupid? What if I unknowingly say something offensive?
These are judgments inside your own head. You probably know this as well as I do: our own self-judgments are usually much harsher than our audience’s.
You are simply called to put stuff out there, and let the audience tell you what they like. If they don’t like something, they will be silent and move on... because they have a lot of other content to look at! They won’t pay attention to things they don’t resonate with. They’ll just ignore it.
Knowing this, I practice the cessation of judgment on my own content.
What if I get one (or more!) of the facts wrong? What if there are typos or grammatical errors? What if later I realize that my ideas were wrong? What if people think I’m uninformed or stupid? What if I unknowingly say something offensive?
These are judgments inside your own head. You probably know this as well as I do: our own self-judgments are usually much harsher than our audience’s.
You are simply called to put stuff out there, and let the audience tell you what they like. If they don’t like something, they will be silent and move on... because they have a lot of other content to look at! They won’t pay attention to things they don’t resonate with. They’ll just ignore it.
Knowing this, I practice the cessation of judgment on my own content.
I simply create and share when I’ve scheduled to… even if I’m not sure it’s the right topic, or has mediocre execution, or suboptimal timing, or I might change my opinion later, or whatever.
My job is just to create consistently.
It's your job, dear audience, to decide whether the content is good, and what feedback to give me.
(By the way, I always welcome your feedback, whether it’s comments, private messages, or even anonymously: www.georgekao.com/feedback )
"Good content” is in the eyes of the audience, not in your own mind.
One person may love my videos, and another person doesn’t like any of them. Therefore, it’s not whether the content is good -- it’s whether our energy signatures are aligned.
Naturally, those who don’t align with my energy or “speak my language” won’t resonate with my ideas or presence. That's what "good" content is -- a message that is well-matched to someone who is seeking it.
Our own self-judgments are often very inaccurate. We work on something and fall in love with it. We put it out there, and are surprised that it isn’t well-liked.
Or vice versa: we think something is not good enough to put out there, but if we take on an experimental mindset and share it anyway, we will find that some people really get a lot of benefit from it.
Stop judging your own content, and just publish.
Unfortunately, as human beings, we are evolved to pay more attention to negativity than to positivity.
Here's how to deal with negative comments.
Rarely will you actually get one. But if you do, know that it’s (1) someone who is hurting, or (2) they have bad social skills, or (3) they didn’t actually consume your content and they’re only reacting to the topic, because they are tired or sad or angry about something else.
Remember this, and practice forgiveness.
Weigh the negativity in proportion to the total. If you get 5 total comments and only 1 is negative, then take the negative comment with only 20% seriousness! Don’t make it a big deal, which is what our evolution has built into us. Practice transcending that outdated instinct.
Instead, let the positive comments be your rock. Then, extract any benefit you can from the negative comments, for the sole purpose of helping you improve. Practice forgiveness, gratitude, and moving on.
The thing is: you won’t know which of your content is going to do really well, and which ones are going to fall flat.
I’ve become “agnostic” as to the quality of my content.
After creating many pieces of content, I’m still often surprised by the reactions (or the lack of it).
My only responsibility is to share what rings true for me in this moment, or what I’ve seen to be helpful for my clients.
I let it be my audience’s responsibility to “like” the pieces they genuinely like, and “share” the pieces they actually want to share.
Unlike some content creators, I don’t urge you to “Please like and share this…” because I prefer to err on the side of fewer but honest reactions from my audience, that don’t come with any pressure to give praise. This gives me better data about what kind of content I should create going forward.
This process -- create, publish, observe -- is how we get to authentic content quality.
Our primary job as content creators is just to say/write stuff that feels true.
Our audience’s job is to point out what resonates, of the many things we say.
Our secondary job as content creators is to observe the data (what is getting more engagement, and what’s getting less) which will keep honing our intuition about content relevancy.
Separate the two tasks: creating VS. observing results.
While creating, don’t get ahead of yourself and try to predict the reactions. You will be surprised.
You need more content out there for your audience to do their job of telling you which pieces are good.
Their reactions are simply data. It helps you get clearer about that intersection between what they want, and what is true for you.
My job is just to create consistently.
It's your job, dear audience, to decide whether the content is good, and what feedback to give me.
(By the way, I always welcome your feedback, whether it’s comments, private messages, or even anonymously: www.georgekao.com/feedback )
"Good content” is in the eyes of the audience, not in your own mind.
One person may love my videos, and another person doesn’t like any of them. Therefore, it’s not whether the content is good -- it’s whether our energy signatures are aligned.
Naturally, those who don’t align with my energy or “speak my language” won’t resonate with my ideas or presence. That's what "good" content is -- a message that is well-matched to someone who is seeking it.
Our own self-judgments are often very inaccurate. We work on something and fall in love with it. We put it out there, and are surprised that it isn’t well-liked.
Or vice versa: we think something is not good enough to put out there, but if we take on an experimental mindset and share it anyway, we will find that some people really get a lot of benefit from it.
Stop judging your own content, and just publish.
Unfortunately, as human beings, we are evolved to pay more attention to negativity than to positivity.
Here's how to deal with negative comments.
Rarely will you actually get one. But if you do, know that it’s (1) someone who is hurting, or (2) they have bad social skills, or (3) they didn’t actually consume your content and they’re only reacting to the topic, because they are tired or sad or angry about something else.
Remember this, and practice forgiveness.
Weigh the negativity in proportion to the total. If you get 5 total comments and only 1 is negative, then take the negative comment with only 20% seriousness! Don’t make it a big deal, which is what our evolution has built into us. Practice transcending that outdated instinct.
Instead, let the positive comments be your rock. Then, extract any benefit you can from the negative comments, for the sole purpose of helping you improve. Practice forgiveness, gratitude, and moving on.
The thing is: you won’t know which of your content is going to do really well, and which ones are going to fall flat.
I’ve become “agnostic” as to the quality of my content.
After creating many pieces of content, I’m still often surprised by the reactions (or the lack of it).
My only responsibility is to share what rings true for me in this moment, or what I’ve seen to be helpful for my clients.
I let it be my audience’s responsibility to “like” the pieces they genuinely like, and “share” the pieces they actually want to share.
Unlike some content creators, I don’t urge you to “Please like and share this…” because I prefer to err on the side of fewer but honest reactions from my audience, that don’t come with any pressure to give praise. This gives me better data about what kind of content I should create going forward.
This process -- create, publish, observe -- is how we get to authentic content quality.
Our primary job as content creators is just to say/write stuff that feels true.
Our audience’s job is to point out what resonates, of the many things we say.
Our secondary job as content creators is to observe the data (what is getting more engagement, and what’s getting less) which will keep honing our intuition about content relevancy.
Separate the two tasks: creating VS. observing results.
While creating, don’t get ahead of yourself and try to predict the reactions. You will be surprised.
You need more content out there for your audience to do their job of telling you which pieces are good.
Their reactions are simply data. It helps you get clearer about that intersection between what they want, and what is true for you.