Why content creation feels so exhausting
I started Telling Tales Media on the back of being made redundant, days earlier. It wasn't a new idea, setting up this business. I'd dreamt of it for years, if I'm honest. I pictured a business where all my processes were slick, everything worked seamlessly, my branding was nailed, and I knew exactly who I was and who I wanted to work with. Ambitious - yes, but perhaps a little naive too on reflection, given it was just days into setting up a new business.
That's when I really realised a dream and reality are different things. I remember sitting at my desk on a cloudy Monday morning last September, trying to come up with ideas of what to post that week, to start building my visibility. And I completely froze. I had ideas, but everything felt random. I'd worked in communications and social media for years. I knew how important clarity of audience was to clear messaging. And yet here I was, unable to see through the fog myself, because truth be told, I didn't really know yet who I wanted to work with, or how best I could support them.
The real reason content creation feels so hard
What I've come to believe, having sat on both sides of this now, is that the exhausting part is never a lack of ideas. Most founders I work with now have more stories sitting in their week than they realise. What's exhausting is not having a content strategy for which ones to tell, to whom, and why. Without that, every post becomes a decision made from scratch, and decision fatigue is real. It's the reason a five-minute caption can eat away at an entire evening.
For me, that clarity took a little time. Over the next few months, as I began speaking to new clients, founders, and business owners, I started to work out where I wanted and needed to be. I spotted the conversations that lit me up, and the ones where I felt quite flat, which told me where I really needed to be putting my effort. Slowly, I began to get clearer on my who and what.
What actually changes with a clear social media strategy
When you're clear on who you're actually talking to, everything really does get easier:
You know what to say, because you know who needs to hear it.
You know how to say it, because you understand what actually matters to them.
You stop guessing at what "good content" looks like, because you've got a filter for it: does this serve my audience's goals, or am I just filling space?
You know which numbers to actually check each month, because you know what you're trying to achieve.
Nobody talks enough about the emotional toll of posting without a plan. It's not just inefficient, it's genuinely draining. That low-grade stress that builds every time you sit down not knowing what to say. And it shows. Random, reactive content doesn't land the way considered, story-led content does, because your audience can feel the difference between something written for them and something written because you had to post something.
Why I believe so strongly in story-led strategy
So if you ever see me talking about the value of a clear roadmap, a social media strategy, it's not just a sales pitch. It's not just filler for my grid. It's me talking from experience. I've been on both sides, pre and post strategy, and I've felt all that fog you may be feeling right now. And hand on my heart, I can say that clarity gives you everything. Not just in a business sense, it also stops you dreading content creation every single week too. And that's a pretty nice place to be.
Ready to stop guessing what to post?
If any of this sounds familiar, I’ll be certain you don't need more ideas. You just need a plan for the ones you already have. That's exactly what Summer Story Spark walks you through, or if you'd rather have your strategy built for you entirely, that's what I do inside The First Chapter.