When you don’t know what to post?

You’ve got a whole life to post about (so use it)

Everyone hits the wall. You sit down to write a post, the cursor blinks back at you and suddenly you've got absolutely nothing to say about the thing you do all day, every day, and love. Marketing yourself is weird like that - you can talk for hours down the pub about your work but ask you to write three lines for LinkedIn and your brain files for early retirement.

So here's the good news: you don't need to invent content. You've already lived it.

Think about it - every project you've delivered, every problem you've untangled, every "oh thank god you fixed that" message sitting in your inbox is a post waiting to happen.

That awkward brief that turned into your best bit of work? Post.

The thing a client said that made your week? Post.

The mistake you made in year one that you'd now charge people to avoid? Absolute goldmine.

You don't have to have climbed Everest. You just have to have turned up and done the work, and you have. Loads.

Expect the unexpected

I didn’t expect to post about wooden bottle openers shaped like penises but there we are.

I’ll set the scene, I was on holiday in Zakynthos and front and centre outside a souvenir shop was a rotating display rack full of bottle openers.

But oh no, these were no normal bottle openers, they were shaped like the male appendage, you know the one. Anyway, never to shy away from a controversial post, I decided it would make a funny talking point (engagement indeed). After I’d stopped laughing and my then 12 year old daughter had dragged me away - I thought it would make a good post.

The lesson buried in the innuendo? The best content rarely arrives when you're sat at your desk "doing marketing". It ambushes you on holiday, in a queue, halfway through a coffee. Your job is just to notice it and have your phone ready. Snap the photo. Save the voice note. Put the idiotic thought down in your notes before it evaporates.

Future-you, staring at that blinking cursor, will be very grateful.

Repurpose it

It then led on to a post which used the above picture about websites and hard finishes - I know, I know, I should know better. That angered the LinkedIn AI moderation (even though it wasn’t real and wasn’t explicit) and the post got taken down by them, I appealed and now it’s back up.

And that's the bit I want you to clock - one silly holiday photo became two posts, an appeal saga and now this blog. One idea, worked three different ways. That's repurposing, and it's the laziest, smartest thing you can do with content.

A good post can become a newsletter.

A newsletter can become a blog.

A blog can become five smaller posts and a talking point for your next call.

Squeeze every drop out of an idea before you go hunting for a new one - you've done the hard bit already, you had the thought.

Add some quirk

I’m not suggesting you post about oddly shaped wooden bottle openers, but do be yourself and add your personality into your posts, your blog, your newsletter and any kind of communication.

Trying to sell constantly in an already saturated place means you need to be a little different in your approach. People don't remember the 400th "5 tips to boost your productivity" post. They remember you. The way you say things, the stuff that makes you laugh, the opinions you'll actually put your name to.

• Think about how you speak to people when you’re passionate or excited about your work - let that shine through
• Consider how everyday things relate to your business or services - this can be used in content or making a service more relatable
• Don’t police yourself - if you’re thinking “I can’t post that because it seems too weird" - sometimes things out of the ordinary work well (within reason, obviously) and if you’re still unsure, ask someone who knows you whose opinion you trust.
• Remember the goal isn't to go viral, it's to sound like a human being someone would want to work with - personality does the heavy lifting long before the sales pitch does

The outcome?

I’ve now got a few web projects in progress so it can’t be all bad. Guess that "hard finish" was attractive to some people. Would I have won that work by posting another beige "here are my services" update? Doubt it. Being a bit different, having a laugh and being unmistakably me is what got people leaning in - and leaning in is where the conversations (and the projects) start.

Want to connect?

You’ll find me over on LinkedIn but for ease, just click here to connect and the link to the original post about the bottle openers is here (in case you were curious).

And no, my daughter wouldn’t let me buy one *sigh*