842: How to Stay Creative Without Always Creating Something New

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2:02Creativity isn't about reinventing the wheel every time. It's about finding fresh ways to enhance the things you've already created. Sometimes the most impactful thing you can do is to pivot your focus from creating to refining, repurposing, and promoting. And that is what I will tell you is the secret to my success. I'm Jenna Kutcher, your host of the Gold Digger podcast. I escaped the corporate world at the age of 23 with nothing more than a$300 camera from Craigslist and a dream. Now I'm running a seven figure online business that feels even better than it looks all from my house in small town, Minnesota with my family.

2:41Here we value time as our currency. We mix the woo and the work, and we are in the pursuit of building businesses that give us the freedom to live lives that we love. I've always loved turning big goals into reality, and I'm here to help you do the same. This isn't just a peek behind the curtain. Come along with me and my guests as we tear the whole curtain down. Every week, we tackle practical, no-fluff marketing strategies and host honest discussions on what works and what doesn't. Join me and my expert guests for actionable insights to help you grow your dream business with confidence. Pull up a seat and get ready to be challenged, inspired, and empowered.

3:20This is the Gold Digger Podcast. Do you ever feel like you're hustling nonstop? Like you're churning out new ideas, you're launching fresh offers, you're showing up on social media, you're reinventing the wheel, only to find yourself asking, is this it? Is this what I'm working so hard for? My question for you is this. What if the secret to scaling your business wasn't about creating more, but doing less? I know that sounds good, but is it a reality? Here's the truth. As entrepreneurs, we are wired to crave the thrill of creating. But that constant cycle of chaos might be the very thing keeping you on the hamster wheel.

4:01Sound familiar? You're not alone. I used to live in that chaos too until I realized something that changed everything. In this episode, I am spilling the exact shift that I made that helped me stay creative, stop scrambling, and build a rinse and repeat business that has grown exponentially without launching something new every single year. If you've ever felt trapped in the cycle of constant creation, this episode is for you. Stick around because by the end, you'll have a whole new way to think about creativity, growth, and freedom in your business. Let's dive in. Growing a business isn't for the faint of heart.

4:38It's a whole lot of everything. Building an audience, nurturing leads, managing channels, tracking metrics, and juggling all the moving pieces of your strategy. And let's not forget those late nights, long days, and working weekends. Sound familiar? Sometimes it feels like you're wishing for just one thing to make it all a little bit easier. Well, meet Breeze, HubSpot's brand new collection of AI tools built specifically for marketers just like you. With Breeze, attracting the right audience, increasing leads, and turning those leads into loyal customers just got faster and, dare I say, easier than ever before.

5:13Imagine less stress and more success, more wins and fewer all-nighters. With Breeze, you're not just keeping up, you're staying ahead. And pretty soon, your business is going to have a lot to celebrate. Check out Breeze at HubSpot.com slash marketers to learn more. That's hubspot.com slash marketers. I get excited for all of the content I create for this show, but this episode feels incredibly impactful because over the last year, I've started to really deconstruct and uncover why I've been able to have the sort of business I have while maintaining a level of freedom and peace and ease that so many entrepreneurs unfortunately never get to experience.

6:01And what's been interesting is that behind the scenes, I've been doing some private coaching with a few entrepreneurs who I know and whose businesses and business models I know so well. And I've been diving into those businesses to help them create the type of peace and ease and freedom that I've experienced in my own business. And in doing this coaching and consulting, I've learned and seen time and time again that there is one main challenge that so many entrepreneurs face that we never really talk about. And so as we dive into this idea of how to stay creative without constantly creating new things, we first have to talk about why we have a tendency to do that.

6:48And as I was thinking about this episode, I really kept coming back to the word chaos. A lot of times as entrepreneurs, we create our own chaos. And secretly, I would argue that we crave chaos. You know, there's something really exciting about new offers. And for entrepreneurs that have been in business for a number of years, there is that thrill at the very beginning of your company when you put out a new offer and somebody buys it and you get that insane dopamine hit of like, oh my gosh, this could really work. I've created something that people are willing to pay for. You know, I experienced that a lot in my early years, especially when I shifted to a more digital business.

7:34When I was a wedding photographer, I was in the business of trading time for money. If I wanted to earn more money, I either needed to continue to raise my rates or I needed to work more. And I just hit a threshold, both in life and business, that I wasn't willing to do that anymore. I wanted to figure out a way to run a business that didn't mean trading time for money. And when I shifted into the digital entrepreneur space, running the business that you now see today, I started creating a lot of new offers. Before I knew it, I had six different online courses and I had created this rhythm in the business where I was constantly building something new from scratch.

8:14I loved the thrill of it. I loved the thrill of creating something new. I loved the thrill of marketing it. I loved the thrill of seeing that people were excited about it. And, you know, there have been so many instances in my business where I can look back and smile now, but while I was in it, I can see that I was creating and craving chaos. Like the time where I decided that for every single podcast episode, I wanted to have an email freebie. I kid you not, in one single year, we created over 50 new freebies to grow my email list. Now, why I laugh and smile about this is like, wow, that girl was like driven.

8:55That girl was crazy and I love her for it. But looking back, that pace and that level of creation is absolutely not sustainable. And what I realized after that year, I remember taking a spreadsheet and listing out every freebie we had and looking not only at the freebies we had created, but the results they had generated. I realized that this approach of constantly creating something new led us to neglect what was already working for us, led us to not mine for gold in what we had already created in our existing offers and assets, and it also added a ton of unnecessary chaos to my business. So what is this idea of chaos and why do we crave it?

9:44Entrepreneurs have this tendency of discarding existing assets to pursue new creations because we want the dopamine rush that is associated with novelty. This behavior is commonly linked to sensation-seeking traits, which are more prevalent among entrepreneurs. We are those people that are the thrill seekers when it comes to business. And what's interesting is, is that when you really get to the core of it, this craving that a lot of us have that's insatiable for chaos can stem from boredom, can stem from a desire for control, or can often stem from the misconception that a new endeavor equates to progress.

10:27Research actually indicates that entrepreneurs might have a genetic predisposition to novelty-seeking behaviors, which can influence our pursuit of constantly going after new ventures. And honestly, that isn't shocking to me. And so why does this thing of creating and craving chaos keep us stuck? Because constantly chasing the new thing keeps us from scaling what we've already built because we're too busy starting over to refine, to promote, to focus on and figure out how to optimize what is already there. It's basically like spinning our wheels without getting anywhere. So if you are someone listening to this and you are feeling exhausted, if you're feeling like your work style is inefficient, if you are feeling burnt out or like you're on the fast track towards it, this might be the cause.

11:18Because when we jump from idea to idea without fully seeing things through, we create unnecessary chaos that makes it so much harder to grow and thrive in our business. Now, what's interesting about this idea is that I can absolutely see that period of my life where I craved chaos. It was like that hustle part of my life. And I acknowledge and honor that because I do feel like there has been a cultural shift of people that were like, you know, wake up earlier, work harder, just hustle more to get to success. And now there's this shift of like, you know, work at this slow, peaceful, sustainable place.

11:54And I think that there has to be a mix of both, but I can look back to those days and see the ways that it made me feel in control. It gave me that dopamine. It gave me that notoriety. It felt novel. It felt exciting. And for me, a huge shift happened when I had kids and there was novelty in being a mom and I didn't have the energy or the time to execute at that level, nor did I have the desire any longer. And so if you are someone that is resonating with this idea, here's what I want for you to consider. So first, I would love for you to do an inventory assessment, just like how I had that spreadsheet that had all 50 plus different freebie opt-ins that I had created.

12:42I want for you to look at your current offers, your current products, your current opt-ins, your current content, and make a list. Do an inventory of all the products you have for sale, all the offers you've created, and just get it all down. And you might even just be shocked when you just do that alone to see, whoa, I have been creating a lot of chaos. The next thing is once you have all of your offers written down, I have two questions that I want you to ask. The first one is, is this still valuable to my audience today? You might need to go back into that online course you've created, or you might need to review that freebie that you wrote or that email sequence that you have.

13:23Is this still relevant and valuable to my audience? Once you've answered that first question, then the second question is this, how can I enhance or repurpose or reuse this without starting fresh or starting over? So once you answer those two questions, you are on your way to eliminating chaos in your life. And here are the action steps that I would argue should follow. The first action step is to update and relaunch your existing products or offers using fresh marketing strategies. A lot of times when we create something, we put it out there, we put it out once, maybe twice, and then we move on to the next creation.

14:03How can you update and relaunch using different marketing strategies. The second is repurpose the content into different formats. I teach this in one of my programs called the content lab, and it's how to take one piece of content and promote it 10 different ways or leverage it onto different platforms. So maybe taking a top performing blog post and turning it into a podcast episode, maybe taking a podcast episode and turning it into social media clips. How do you do that and repurpose it. And then lastly, focus on promoting and scaling current offers to maximize their potential. This is the idea of mining for gold in the business that already exists in the offers that you already have.

14:44By shifting your focus from constant creation to strategic enhancement and promotion, you can break free from the chaos cycle, leading you to more sustainable growth, which I think is what all of us want, and beyond just growth, a more balanced work-life dynamic. It was really interesting. So over the last few months, I've gotten back into doing private coaching for just a very select few people. And it's people that I've known for years, businesses that I know the guts of, and people that I know that I can help. And even just this morning, I was on the call with an entire team of one of the top creators, like someone that you absolutely love and follow.

15:25And she said, oh my God, we are literally sitting on a gold mine. And I said, yes, I've literally been telling you this for years. You stay in this constant chaotic state. And it was funny because I think she had this moment of realization of like, I am creating chaos and I'm creating it not just for myself, but also for my team. And so when we shifted to a more sustainable way and talked about how to leverage things that she's already created, I could almost see the relief come across not just her, but also her team. She wants more peace. She wants more freedom. She wants more ease. I would argue that that's what a lot of us want this year.

16:01And so this is the way to do it. So again, take an inventory assessment, ask yourself the evaluation questions, and then start to take action. This podcast is brought to you by Mercury, banking that helps entrepreneurs do more with their money. Okay. I remember in the early days of my entrepreneurship journey, clients would literally mail me checks and then I would have to drive all the way to the bank to deposit them. It took me literal years to make things go digital. And I am ashamed to admit, I still have a filing cabinet with paper contracts because I'm way too afraid to throw them away. But that's a beauty of growth, right?

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17:52Start building your sanctuary of comfort this fall with Bowl & Branch. For a limited time, get 20 % off your first set of sheets plus free shipping at bowlandbranch.com slash golddigger. That's bowlandbranch, B-O-L-L-A-N-D branch.com slash golddigger to save 20 % and unlock free shipping. Exclusions apply. The next thing I want to talk about is this shift in thinking that has to happen. Creativity is not just about creating new things. Now, I'm a creative person. I would classify myself as a creative human. I started my entrepreneurship journey blogging and then as a wedding photographer. I love all things creative.

18:35I am deeply involved in the creative process behind my business. I am always in Canva. I'm doing the web design. Like I just love how things look and I love creating new things. But what is interesting is that while I'm a creative person and I crave staying creative, the truth is I do not have the time or bandwidth to be whipping up brand new offers. So I've had to get creative with how I'm being creative in my business. How many times can I use creative in a sentence? That was just it. So how do I do meaningful work that nurtures that part of who I am at my core? And how do I love to do that work without having to start over again?

19:18So one of the gals that I'm coaching, I texted her last night and I said, Hey, is it cool with you if I just talk a little bit about this idea and how we've implemented it into your business. And she sent me a seven minute long voice message about how this has changed her business, her life. It has changed her team. So she sent me a voice memo and said this, she said, I had this belief that if I want to be valuable, I have to be hardcore creating like I always have. And what is more true is that I have created products over the last few years that can help people for a very long time. And I have to get excited about them again and see the value in them again.

19:59And she said to me, she said, I've got to find new excitement in life in what I've already created, because frankly, I'm exhausting myself and I'm exhausting my team. And if I really get honest, I am just avoiding the fact and hard reality that I don't have a system to market the things that I've already created. And so I am learning how to remarket and refresh and update the old, which is the true gold. And I loved this. I loved this feedback from her. And this is something that I've been challenging her on because I've watched from the outside looking in and now from the inside looking in how it seems like every few months, it's a brand new offer.

20:42And then you don't really hear about it again. It launches and then it's quiet and it launches and it's quiet. And when we took the inventory, we realized, oh my gosh, not only are you sitting on gold, but Pareto's principle is at play. There are just a few key signature offers that are driving the majority of your revenue and you haven't updated any of the promotion around them in years. And you don't even feel good sending people to the sales pages of these things because you haven't updated them. And so we were redirecting her creativity. Like in my business, I have redirected my desire to create into creativity in branding updates, in fresh marketing strategies, whether it's social media content or new ad graphics or videos or new ways to talk about existing offers.

21:26I've redirected my creativity into creating new content that leads to existing offers, whether it's email sequences or social media campaigns or landing pages or thank you pages. I have had to figure out ways to almost gamify the way that I do business to feel like I am still being creative, but I've had to channel that creativity in different ways and really pull back on this desire that it has to be new to be exciting and to find the excitement in the old. And so we have to start to normalize, not constantly creating. I don't think any of us was built to be in a state of constant creation. Let's get one thing straight.

22:08Staying creative in your business doesn't mean that you have to be constantly putting out something brand new. creativity isn't about reinventing the wheel every time. It's about finding fresh ways to enhance the things you've already created. Sometimes the most impactful thing you can do is to pivot your focus from creating to refining, repurposing, and promoting. And that is what I will tell you is the secret to my success. Let me tell you this. Over the last six years, literally since I became a mother. I have not put out a single new offer minus that time that I wrote a book. My courses have all been the same.

22:47They have all been refreshed, re-recorded, updated. All of the promotion around them is brand new. It feels like an entirely new offer while the core offer itself stays the same. I have put all of my energy and creativity into refining, repurposing, optimizing, and promoting. And guess what? It has led to greater results. Just last year, we increased our net profit by 30 % with not a single new offer. This year, we're actually simplifying the business model even further, taking away offers so that we can continue to go deeper instead of wider. And what I want for you to understand and hear loud and clear here is that this shift doesn't make you less creative.

23:29It makes you more intentional. It makes you more focus. Diluted focus leads to diluted results. By giving yourself permission to pivot, you are not abandoning your drive to be creative and to innovate. You are channeling it into areas that truly move the needle. This is why I am obsessed about talking about the possibility of working smarter and not harder and recognizing that progress often comes from doubling down on what's already working, not scrapping it for something brand new. Let me tell you, I am not impressed with the entrepreneurs that are constantly putting out new offers. I am more impressed with the entrepreneurs who are able to put their head down and to focus on how to strategically optimize the goal that they've already created.

24:17So this leads me to my next point. Promotion matters more than creation. Let's start with a really big reality check. No matter how amazing your offer is, whether it's a course, a product, a podcast, a service, it's not going to sell itself. I'm sure you have discovered that quickly on your entrepreneurial journey. You could pour your heart, your soul into every single detail, making it perfect, making it flawless, making it beautiful. But if nobody knows it exists, all of that effort goes unnoticed. It doesn't make the impact that you intended. it. The create it and they will come mindset, it's not only outdated, it is holding you back.

25:00But the truth is the success of your offer doesn't just depend on how good it is. It depends on how well you communicate its value to the people who need it the most. This is where promotion comes in. So what is the common mistake? The common mistake is this, and this is where so many entrepreneurs get stuck. They spend 90 % of their time and energy creating the offer, perfecting every module, the feature, every deliverable. It's beautiful. It's amazing. And then they spend only 10 % of their time and energy on selling it. And they wonder why the sales don't meet their expectations. Does this sound familiar?

25:35Have you ever done this cycle? Now, let me tell you this. The problem isn't the quality of the offer. It's the lack of time, energy, and creativity spent on promoting it. And so here's my challenge here. What if we flipped the script? We have talked about this on the show, but I'm bringing this back up because I am seeing it over and over and over again. What if you spent 90 % of your effort on promotion and only 10 % on tweaking and refining your offer? That is where the magic happens. Selling isn't just the final step. It is the most important step because without it, the people who need your offer never get to experience its value.

26:14It's so crazy to me because even when I step into other people's businesses, they are spending so much time creating the offer. And then all of a sudden they lift their eyes up and it's a week before launch and they're like, oh crap, we should put up a couple of posts on Instagram and maybe send an email or two. And it's like, wait a minute, you spent so much time and energy on this thing and no one's going to get to experience the thing if you don't sell it. And so what if we reframed promotion? Because promotion, I think oftentimes has this negative connotation in our head. We love the thing.