February 2020 - Jenny Rose Spaudo - Freelance Copywriter and Content Marketer

Month: February 2020

Podcasting
How to Conduct an Engaging Podcast Interview
- February 25, 2020
- 0 comments
- by Jenny Rose Spaudo
Have you ever started your favorite podcast, eager to listen to the upcoming interview?

The episode starts and you settle in for the long drive or run. You are ready for this.

But then, five minutes later, you realize you’ve been zoned out. You weren’t listening to the interview at all.

Why?

It was boring.

The conversation wasn’t catching your attention. Or the host was monologuing in a monotone voice. Or the questions were just bland.

In this article, I want to teach you the main keys to conducting an engaging interview that not only keeps your listeners’ attention the whole time, but also makes them want to share it with their friends!

Key 1: Define Your Takeaways

The first thing you should do as a podcast host is ask yourself these questions:

What do I want my listeners to get out of this episode? What do I want my listeners to learn, believe, change their mind about or feel by the end of this show?

It is crucial that you figure this out before you click the Record button.

I’m embarrassed to admit this, but I’ve actually conducted a couple interviews without fully fleshing these questions out. And the result is always an episode that could have been better.

The interviews I’ve done that seemed to flow the best always started way before I entered the podcast studio. They’re the ones I took the time for to write out my questions and, if possible, talk with the guest beforehand and get a better feel for the lessons and stories they have to offer.

Make sure the questions you prepare beforehand draw out the kind of insights your audience wants to hear.

Remember, this interview has a purpose. It’s not a pick-your-brain opportunity. It’s a message.

Key 2: Tell Stories in Your Podcast Interview!

Ooh, this one is so crucial to engaging your audience.

Before every interview I conduct, I always ask the guest if they have any specific stories related to the topic we’re about to discuss.

People love stories.

We love reading them, listening to them and watching them unfold.

And—I find this so fascinating—we actually learn best when lessons are mixed with stories.

So if I’m interviewing someone for a health podcast, I’m going to ask them about their health journey. I’m going to ask them about that really low point in their lives when they felt terrible about themselves, and I’m going to ask what brought them out of that place.

Remember this: People don’t just learn from stories. People relate to stories.

That’s why stories are one of the most effective ways to conduct engaging interviews. In a way, they make the listener feel like they’re part of the interview. The listener puts themselves in the storyteller’s shoes to feel what they felt—and learn what they learned.

If your podcast topic is particularly subject-oriented (as opposed to story-oriented), make sure you ask for specific examples of any takeaways or lessons the guest offers.

“Do you know anyone who has experienced that? What happened?”

Key 3: Make Your Podcast Interview a Conversation

Podcast interviews are not an opportunity for the guest (or the host!) to simply provide one giant monologue.

I’ve had my fair share of podcast guests who, after the first question, didn’t stop to breathe until 20 minutes later.

By the time I got a word in edgewise, I knew my audience had zoned out.

This is actually one of my biggest struggles as a podcast host.

It’s so much easier for me to simply ask a question and then become invisible and let the guest completely take over the show.

But that’s a recipe for disaster. Trust me, I’ve tried it.

When a listener hears only one speaker go on and on for a while—unless the topic or story is especially fascinating and cohesive—they will likely tune out.

So if you’re the kind of person who likes to take the stage, be aware of this and try to back off a little so your guest has more speaking room.

And if you’re the type of person who would much rather disappear the entire interview, force yourself to engage with the guest like a friend and have a conversation.

This doesn’t mean the speaking time for you and the guest should necessarily be 50-50. But the interview should feel like a two-person conversation, not a sermon.

Sometimes it helps to explain to the guest beforehand the kind of feel you want the podcast to have.

If you invite a book author onto your podcast, you might want to reiterate that you are going for a conversational tone to the interview. (Authors and pastors are probably the most likely to take over the interview with a monologue. You know it’s true!!)

If you don’t have that conversation beforehand, don’t blame the guest when they take the entire 30 minutes to expound on their favorite point.

****

I hope these three keys help you conduct more engaging podcast interviews that keep your listeners tuned in the entire time.

And now that you’ve conducted the most engaging podcast interview ever, check out my blog post on how to promote your special episode!

Comment below with your biggest struggles in conducting engaging interviews!

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Podcasting
15 Creative Ways to Promote Your Podcast That Won’t Cost You Any Extra Money
- February 18, 2020
- 0 comments
- by Jenny Rose Spaudo
Congratulations on publishing another crazy-great podcast episode! That was the easy part. Now, you have to promote your podcast so others can benefit from the episode’s valuable content.
But maybe you’re tired of the same old ways you’ve been promoting your episodes. After all, it can seem much easier to promote a blog than a podcast. You want to breathe fresh life into your podcast promotion strategy.
Fantastic!
Let me make that process easier for you by offering 15 creative ways to promote your latest podcast episode.
And not to worry, these strategies won’t cost you ANY extra money.
(Yes, you read that correctly. Each strategy in this list is FREE to do.)
I’ve saved the most effective strategy for last, so be sure to stick with me to the end of this blog!
1. Promote your podcast by sending it to your email list.
This one might be a no-brainer for you. But you’d be surprised how many of your listeners will forget you come out with a new episode every Tuesday.
Remind them with a fresh email that gives them a sneak peek behind the podcast studio veil.
2. Create a blog post out of the episode. (Or several blogs.)
You can either create one giant blog post that encapsulates your episode’s entire message. Or you can select specific portions of the episode and create an article around them.
Either way, use the blogs to point readers back to the podcast episode. Then promote that blog on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, or wherever your listeners hang out online.
Success!
3. Create a Q&A out of it.
If your episode was an interview, consider turning it into a Q&A and posting it on your site. This can be an easy way to work on SEO for your podcast and draw in readers who care about your content.
4. Post the best quotes from the episode with a link to the podcast.
The best quotes are often inspirational or eye-opening. If you hear any of those gems, snag them and save them for social media promotion!
If your episode is an interview, use a quote from your guest and attribute it to them.
Then simply design an image with that quote and promote it on your favorite social media.
5. Post a snippet of the audio with a link to promote your podcast.
OK, so this one is actually super cool! You basically create a short video that plays a snippet of your podcast episode.
You may have seen podcasters use these on Instagram or Facebook.
And oddly enough, it doesn’t HAVE to cost money. There are several apps that offer free plans you can use to promote at least one episode a month.
Check out Wavve, which lets you customize your design and create 1 minute of video monthly. (Their design is included in the video with the free plan.)
Another way to do this is with Headliner, whose free plan lets you post 10 videos a month directly to social media, transcription included.
6. Share on social media the top 3 takeaways people will learn from the episode.
If your podcast is your way of drawing visitors to your business, then your listeners are likely tuning in to learn something from you.
In those cases, their ears are perked to hear what they’re going to get out of the show.
So tell them up front!
In your social media post promoting the episode, tell people the top three things they’re going to learn from your latest podcast.
7. If the episode is an interview, share a photo of you and the interviewee with a link to the episode.
This is a fun way to let listeners look behind the scenes and see you and your interviewee actually bonding.
If the person is in studio, snap a quick selfie with the two of you. Or if you have a photo of the two of you in general, post it!
8. Take a selfie of you recording the episode and share one major takeaway people will get.
This goes back to the whole idea of people loving to have a look behind the scenes.
You can build up hype for your upcoming episode by promoting it beforehand.
Or you can simply post the photo once the episode is live with your favorite lesson from the episode and link people can click to listen.
9. Create an Instagram story about why you’re excited about this episode and how it will impact your listeners.
I think this is one of the most engaging ways to promote your episode, honestly.
At least, it works to pull me in! I’ve heard some podcasters share why this episode was so important to them or share some of the feedback they’ve already received from it.
10. Tell listeners to promote your podcast by sharing it with a caption related to the topic.
When they share it, tell them to tag you so you can either keep them accountable or cheer them on, whatever the episode’s topic calls for.
An example would be that you just released an episode about waking up 15 minutes earlier than normal every day to exercise. You could tell your listeners to share your podcast episode with a caption declaring what small habit they were committed to forming so they could make time for exercise.
It’s an easy way to connect with your audience and create a sense of commitment to what you’re teaching.
11. Stick your latest podcast episode at the very top of your website.
I see a lot of podcast hosts do this, and it seems pretty effective.
At the very top of your website, even above your menu and your logo, create a header that promotes your latest episode.
12. Tell listeners to share the podcast episode and tag you for a chance to be a guest on the show.
This is especially great for podcasts that occasionally host live coaching calls or Q&As.
Tell your listeners to share the episode with a question they have and tag you.
And the “prize” doesn’t have to be inviting them onto the show. That may not be feasible for you for some reason. Find something else to incentivize them to share your content.
13. Create a quiz out of the episode and share it on social media to promote your podcast.
Now, you could go all out and be super fancy with this one with a paid quiz tool.
But if you want to keep things simple, then simply form a few questions around your topic and post them online. Then say, “Find out your results in my latest episode” with a link to your podcast.
It could be the type of quiz that tests people’s knowledge, like “How Much Do You REALLY Know About Content Marketing?”
Or it could be something more fun, like “What’s Your Podcast Style Based on Your Personality?”
14. Tag your podcast guest on social media.
This one is especially helpful if your guest has a large social media following. When I’ve interviewed Christian influencers, I try to remember to tag them when we promote the show.
This isn’t just so that the guest sees it. It’s so that their followers see it.
15. Ask your podcast guest to promote your podcast episode on their social media.
This one is, by far, the MOST EFFECTIVE promotion strategy I have ever seen when it comes to podcasts.
I mean to the point of making the difference of thousands of downloads.
And, again, if your guest has a large following, it makes it that much more effective.
Whenever I interview someone for a podcast, I make it my goal to share the link with them and ask them to please share it on their social media and, if they have one, even with their mailing list.
And there you have it!
What are some other free promotion strategies you use for your podcast? Share them in the comments below!

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Marketing
What Is a Content Marketing Strategy and Do You Even Need One?
- February 12, 2020
- 0 comments
- by Jenny Rose Spaudo
For many Christian entrepreneurs with at-home businesses, you say the phrase “content marketing” and their eyes glaze over.

After all, let’s be honest, marketing yourself is probably NOT the most exciting task you have as a business owner.

In fact, I know a lot of entrepreneurs (including my own mother!) who absolutely hate the sales and marketing parts of their businesses.

In my mom’s words, “It just feels … weird.”

I get it. I really do.

(This is why I was hired as an editor at my 9-5 job and not a sales rep…)

But if you’ve been in business for any amount of time, you know that sales and marketing are absolutely vital to the health of your business!

So what do you do?

Well, the good news is that content marketing is not the creepy-car-salesman kind of marketing you’re used to seeing on TV.

In fact, once you actually understand what content marketing is and how to apply it to your business, it easily becomes the most exciting part of your job—and the most profitable!

What Is Content Marketing?

But first … what is content marketing?

Well, according to the Content Marketing Institute: “Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience—and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

If I lost you there for a second, it’s totally OK.

Basically, it’s when you provide free and value-packed content to your ideal audience so that they trust you and eventually buy from you.

The free content you consistently give them signals that you actually care about them. As your audience feels cared for, they begin to trust you. As they trust you, they begin to trust your solution to the specific problem your product or service solves.

I’ve heard content marketing defined as “pull-down” marketing, where potential clients come searching for your content. This is way different than “push” marketing, which advertises to the masses, whether or not they even want what you’re offering.

As Neil Patel points out, there are hundreds of different ways to do content marketing—from cartoons to movies to infographics to e-books to giveaways.

But for the sake of your business’ needs, I’m going to narrow down my definition of content marketing.

After all, you’re not a huge company that’s marketing to the masses. Your business might still be on the small side right now, and you’re probably running it out of your own home. Your strategy will be much more personal and nuanced.

So from now on, whenever I talk about content marketing in this article, I’m talking about using your blog or podcast to deliver free, value-packed content on a weekly basis so you can build a loyal following of people who need exactly what you’re offering and trust you enough to buy it from you.

Now, there is more to it than this. For you, content marketing will also likely include social media, your emails to subscribers and so forth.

But it all hangs on your weekly content, whether that’s a blog or podcast.

Do you have a set method of delivering free weekly content?

If not, check out my blog on “Blog vs. Podcast: Which One Is Better for Your Business?”

Already decided? Great! Then the next question is …

How Do I Create a Content-Marketing Strategy?

Your strategy begins with figuring out a three-step plan that will lead bystanders who consume your content on a journey to becoming loyal followers.

This does not have to be as scary as it sounds.

Creating the first part of your content-marketing strategy simply means:

1. Deliver free weekly content that solves your audience’s problem, answers their burning questions, or satisfies a deep interest.

2. Promote your content online where your audience spends time.

3. Create a freebie (also known as lead magnet or opt-in) specifically designed for your ideal audience. You will use this freebie as an incentive for people to sign up for your email list.

This three-step process doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a journey of building trust with your audience, which leads me to my next point.

You Need to Be Trustworthy

In my opinion, it’s crucial that you approach your content-marketing strategy with the mindset of “How can I serve?” instead of “What can I get out of this?”

Believe me, if you approach your audience with the latter attitude, they will sense it and they will distrust you.

I mean, come on. Give human beings at least a little credit. We can typically tell when someone is trying to take advantage of us, right? (OK, maybe not always. Unfortunately. Thanks, Eve.)

This attitude of giving is one of the reasons I get so excited about content marketing.

It’s all about giving before you take.

It’s about serving before being served.

It’s about honoring others before yourself.

The apostle Paul credits Jesus as saying it’s better to give than to receive (Acts 20:35).

And in Matthew 20:28, Jesus says that He “did not come to be served, but to serve and to give [His] life as a ransom for many.”

Now, I know I’m not Jesus. And neither are you. But we are called to abide in Him, walk as He did, and clothe ourselves in Him and not in the flesh (see Romans 13:14).

I think content marketing is a great opportunity for you to exercise that command.

Now that you have the right mindset about content marketing, let’s flesh out your strategy.

1. How to Be Strategic With Your Weekly Content

Your weekly content should always, always, always revolve around your audience’s needs.

Your content should answer their questions, entertain them, solve their problems, or shed light on something they’re confused about or doing wrong.

And it should also always revolve around your solutions to those needs.

If you’re a legal contractor and your audience has questions about how to interpret LLC laws, how to word a client contract, and how to help their kid sleep at night, which topic do you think you should NOT write about?

(Hint: It’s the third one.)

My example was overly simplistic, but the point is still valid.

I’ve seen entrepreneurs stray out of their niche with their weekly content, and the results often damage their brand. People get confused and wonder, Wait, what do you actually do again?

Stay laser-focused on what needs you meet and your audience’s concerns and questions within those needs.

The reason for this is that by focusing on your niche, you position yourself as an “expert” in that area.

Don’t let yourself freak out at the word “expert”!

Positioning yourself as an expert in your niche to your audience doesn’t mean that you have to know everything about that topic. It means you know enough to guide your followers to their next step.

I am certainly not the world’s foremost expert on all things marketing. For example, even though I’m doing a lot of research on social-media advertising, I don’t have a ton of first-hand experience with it.

But that’s OK because I’m not teaching you about Facebook, Pinterest or Instagram ads!

What I DO have is several years of experience creating and posting content that captivates an audience and using it to drive organic traffic to an intended site.

That is the key element to your content-marketing strategy, and that’s what I’m teaching you how to do.

For your weekly content strategy, I want you to answer the following questions:

WHO exactly is my audience?

What are their fears and concerns? What do they want to learn from me? What is their main pain point?

WHAT is my solution?

What answers can my products offer to their questions? How can my services assuage their pain point?

HOW can I write about those solutions in a way that adds value to my readers’/listeners’ lives?

What topics can I write about that will position me as an expert in my niche to my specific audience? How can I add solutions, ideas or strategies that will make them feel seen, heard, and satisfied?

Once you’ve answered these questions, you need to make a promise to yourself to follow this one rule:

Post. Every. Week.

The point of valuable, consistent content is that it’s … consistent.

Consistency is important because it tells your audience that you’re here for them long-term. (After all, content marketing is a long-term strategy, not a short-term one.)

No one wants to follow a flash-in-the-pan. (No offense to the followers of Korah and Absalom.)

The once-a-week rule isn’t necessarily a gold standard. But you should avoid the temptation of posting five or six blogs in one week and then nothing for a month or so.

You may find that you want to post twice or three times a week. Just choose a consistency and stick with it.

If once a week is too much for you, start with twice a month. (I would be careful of only posting once a month because it can be very hard to build organic traction with fewer fresh posts.)

So proud of you, friend! You’ve completed step one of your content-marketing strategy!

Ready for step two?

2. How to Promote Your Weekly Content Online

Promoting your content online can be really easy—provided you know where your audience is hanging out online.

So before you create your detailed plan for how many times you’re going to post on social media, ask yourself this question:

Where does my audience spend time online?

Is it Facebook? Instagram? Pinterest? Twitter? LinkedIn? A combination?

Do a little digging and find out which social media are their favorites and what they do on there.

For instance, my mom (who also happens to be my ideal customer—I just really like her a lot) spends time on Instagram for entertainment, Facebook for her work and personal connections, and Pinterest for work and learning.

This is valuable information for me to know. If the rest of my ideal audience is like my mom, then this impacts what kind of content I post on these media.

I may hammer my blog posts on Pinterest with “how-to” language, post engaging and inspiring content on Instagram, and work on networking within Facebook groups.

Researching your audience may take a little time, so give yourself some breathing room here!

I would recommend starting with just two or three social media and being really strategic about it. As you finesse your strategies with these and you feel you can start experimenting with other social media, try it out. But first, just start with a couple.

As you learn more about your audience’s habits, take notes and adjust your posting strategy as necessary.

You can also work on playing around with how often you post.

For right now, since this blog is still new, I’m experimenting with the following social-media schedule:

Pinterest: 5 to 10 pins a day, the first 5 being my own content. (Everyone seems to be saying 30-50 pins, which just seems crazy at the moment.)

Instagram: 3 times a week

Facebook: 3 times a week

LinkedIn: 2-3 times a week (Posts include article links to my site as well as articles created within the LinkedIn platform.)

I will likely adjust as I analyze the response to my social media posts, and I encourage you to do the same!

The algorithms and rules for engagement are ALWAYS changing on social media, so it’s crucial that you stay flexible and keep alert regarding how people are responding to your posts.

3. How to Be Strategic With Your Free Lead Magnet

The next step in your content-marketing strategy is creating a free lead magnet that’s valuable enough that people want to subscribe to your newsletter in order to receive it.

Your free lead magnet could be practically anything! Just make sure it’s something your audience would find truly valuable, something that would make them say, “I can’t believe she’s just giving this away!”

For right now, my main lead magnet is “19 Irresistible Headlines” that you can customize and make work for your blog or podcast titles.

In my freebie, I provide some of the top-performing headlines I’ve written or seen over the years and then provided the formulas behind why they work.

I find that sometimes freebies that give away 100 or so headlines have a lot of unnecessary overlap in their list. And they often don’t explain why the headlines work.

So then when bloggers go to use the headlines, they may choose words that don’t actually resonate with their audience and, again, no clicks for their blogs.

Will people respond to my freebie and sign up for my list? I think so!

In listening to my ideal customers talk about their frustrations with not knowing how to craft compelling headlines, I found that this list of headlines is probably something that can add a lot of value to their businesses!

But here’s the beauty of freebies.

If you don’t get a great response with your lead magnet, you can ALWAYS adjust!

If I find that I read my audience wrong and they don’t actually want a free cheat sheet to improve their headlines, then I simply analyze, ask questions, listen, and pivot.

Don’t overcomplicate this part of the process. You can always change your freebie later on if you want to.

For now, settle on something you strongly believe your audience will want and make it the best you possibly can!

How to Create a Freebie

There are probably thousands of different things you could offer as a freebie. Here are just a few basic examples:

Checklist

Workbook

Journal

Planner

Recipes

Unit Studies

E-books

Business Plan

Quiz

Reading List

List of Tips

How-To Manual

Video

Podcast/Audio

Educational PowerPoint

Once you’ve chosen what type of lead magnet you will create, it’s time to design it!

Thankfully, there are free services like Canva where you can create awesome freebies that look professionally designed. The free version of Canva offers a wide variety of templates you can work with to get started.

And if you want to upgrade to the paid version, they have even more.

I personally decided to purchase a template for my lead magnet. I figured that between my full-time job, ministry responsibilities and duties as a wife and homeowner, I didn’t really have a ton of time to design my freebie from scratch. (Nor do I have the creative talent to do so.)

Maybe you don’t either! If so, no shame in your game. There are plenty of places to buy lead magnet templates. (Tip: CreativeMarket.com has several templates for lead magnets that look professional and are simple to edit in Canva.)

Using Your Lead Magnet to Gain Subscribers

Remember that the whole point of your freebie is to add to your email list.

For that reason, make sure that you create an opt-in page for your freebie with a sign-up form that’s connected to your email service provider (ESP).

You can check out my opt-in page here.

Once people sign up for your lead magnet, you can send them the link to your freebie in your welcome email.

Amy Porterfield suggests housing your freebies on Amazon S3 so that the PDFs don’t take up a lot of space on your website. There’s a lot of wisdom in that.

Since I’m focusing on only one freebie at the moment, I personally use Dropbox to house it. (You can’t beat free!)

Once I uploaded my freebie PDF, I created a sharing link where people can view the freebie but not edit it. I then embedded that link into the automatic email that people receive after signing up for my email list.

(Confused about this part? Shoot me an email and I’ll walk you through it!)

The Next Step of Content Marketing

If you think this is the end of your content-marketing strategy, you’re totally wrong!

The incredible thing about content marketing is that is that it builds up the trust between you and your ideal client so that you CAN sell to them.

If you’re struggling with writing sales copy, check out my blog on “How to Write Sales Copy That Doesn’t Sound Sleezy.” And check out my other blogs for more insights into how to strengthen your content-marketing game!
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Blogging
7 Easy Ways to Jumpstart Your Creativity When It’s Just Not Flowing
- February 5, 2020
- 0 comments
- by Jenny Rose Spaudo
I still remember the deep frustration I felt that day.
I sat down to write, with my interview transcript in front me and … I didn’t know where to start.
I had just had the hour-long interview with a delightful Christian influencer. I got plenty of great quotes. I knew the basic story that needed to be told but …
I didn’t know what to write in that moment. There was just no creativity flowing whatsoever.
In an earlier post, I explained the ultimate cure for writer’s block. I stand behind that article 100%.
However, there are times we know what we need to say; we’re just struggling to know how to say it. We lack the creative energy we need to put into words what we know we need to write.
In those cases, try these strategies:
1. Pray for creativity.
This is my go-to strategy for creativity, and I must say, it works really well.
God always knows what I need to write better than I do. (Which is why it’s a good idea to pray over what you write, even if you don’t have writer’s block!)
When you’re struggling to craft the right words for your blog or podcast script, it’s always a good idea to bring it before the Lord and simply ask for help.
Confess your weakness to Him. (He knows how much you need Him anyway!) Be vulnerable with Him.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve stepped aside from my cubicle just to steal away for five minutes alone with Jesus before diving back into a difficult article.
Because prayer works.
2. Do a creativity brain dump.
Write down every idea you might want to include in your article. The ideas don’t have to be in order. They don’t even have to be connected. Just dump them.
Once you have all those pieces out of your head and onto paper (or on your computer), it’s much easier to recognize where all the pieces should go.
After a brain dump, start creating an order and eliminate the pieces you don’t actually need.
3. Do something physical or rote.
Sometimes when your creativity doesn’t want to play along, it helps to do something that lets your brain go into autopilot while your hands do all the work.
For me, that might mean promoting articles on social media or scheduling things on my calendar.
Even better, I try to do something rote AND physical, like washing dishes or doing laundry or organizing files.
4. Make an outline.
Your outline doesn’t have to be detailed or complicated. Just get a rough idea of where you want to go in your article.
If you already did a brain dump and got a rough order for the pieces, this step should be a lot easier.
How do you want to hook your reader?
Write it down.
What are the main points you want to make?
Write it down.
How do you want to close? What action will you call your readers to take?
Again, write it down.
5. Talk to a friend to get your creativity flowing.
Sometimes this works for me and sometimes it doesn’t. It depends on which stage of processing the data I’m in.
In the early stages, my brain just needs time to soak in all the information. Later on, it will suddenly “Ding!” and tell me which order the info needs to go in.
At that point, if I’m still struggling, talking to someone else helps.
But not everyone’s brain is like this.
Some need to talk it out before the information can even make sense.
Is that you? If so, grab a trusted friend and talk them through the idea you’re thinking about.
Ask for feedback and actually listen to what they say. (Don’t let pride hold you back from listening to their advice or answering their questions.)
6. Sleep.
Again, this goes back to the whole “letting your brain subconsciously put the pieces together.”
Several amazing things happen when you sleep.
One study revealed that you can process complex information when you sleep. Even while unconscious, your brain can process and organize detailed data.
Research also shows that when you’re sleeping, you’re actually forming new memories and consolidating old ones. (This is why sleep is so crucial when you’re learning.)
This is helpful because sleeping can bring a connection or a point to mind about your article that you didn’t think of before.
And, what I find most interesting, your brain actually makes creative connections when you’re asleep.
When you’re sleeping, your imagination has pretty much zero inhibitions. (As I’m sure you can tell by your strange dreams!)
But sometimes, those obscure connections can be exactly what you need to boost your writing creativity.
So go ahead and take a nap. Research encourages it!
7. Take a shower.
I’ve heard it said that the ions in the shower actually release creativity.
I have yet to see any scientific study about this (if you know of one, comment with a link to it below!).
But I can personally attest to getting some of my most creative ideas while in the shower.
I’m sure you’ve experienced it too.
This is likely because you’re more relaxed in the shower, which releases dopamine in your brain.
That handy-dandy dopamine allows your brain to meander wherever it wants, often cracking open that creative block.
Hence, why this little doo-dad that lets you take waterproof notes actually sells.
This is obviously one trick that I can’t do at my 9-5 job, but I can certainly practice it at home!
Creativity Bonus Tip
I hope these seven tips help you when you’re facing a serious bout of creativity block.
But before I close, let me offer one more bonus tip:
Write every day.
Often when you’re facing writer’s block, it feels like a short-term problem that requires a short-term solution.
But that’s so far from true.
If you’re like me, your real creative growth is long-term.
Get your brain and your hands into the habit of creating words that work well together every day.
It will soon become easier and easier. And your writer’s block will pop up less and less.
If you’ve tried these writer’s block tips and they worked for you, share this article on your social media.
It may just be what a fellow creative writer needs to read!

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