Refuel Your Creativity On Slow Days

Stuck in that “blah” headspace but still need to ship content that moves the needle? We’ve been there—staring at a blank calendar, juggling client work, family, and admin, while the algorithm and your sales pipeline quietly drift. Today we share the exact system we use to market consistently even when inspiration doesn’t show up, and why it led to a 25% lift in sales after just thirty days of steady posting.

We start by breaking the cycle of stop‑start marketing and the frustration that follows halfhearted posts. You’ll hear how we map a month of content in one sitting with three simple prompts—service, audience, message—then schedule it so low‑energy days become execution, not invention. We also walk through the mix that actually works: weekly service spotlights, clear buyer‑focused copy, social proof, and behind‑the‑scenes posts that build trust without draining your time.

Then we get honest about delegation. For years we trusted our content lead with every client but clutched our own brand out of perfectionism. Handing over our channels created better work and steadier results. We outline how to brief a creator with voice, pillars, and approval guardrails, plus the cadence that keeps quality high while freeing you to focus on sales, delivery, and strategy.

We wrap with the mindset and energy tactics that prevent rework: protect generous blocks for deep creative tasks, avoid forcing big ideas into tiny windows, and use short resets—walks, workouts, family time—to return with clarity. Creativity is seasonal; consistency is a system. If you’re ready to trade willpower for a plan, this conversation gives you the tools to stay visible, build authority, and grow revenue even on your slowest days.

If this helped, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s stuck on content, and leave a quick review so more builders can find it.

Chapters

• 0:53 Why Creativity Feels Missing Today
• 2:30 The Cost Of Half‑Hearted Marketing
• 5:08 Consistency Test And Sales Impact
• 7:45 Delegation Breakthrough And Trust
• 10:12 A Simple 30‑Day Content Plan
• 12:41 Scheduling Around Energy, Not Guilt
• 15:28 Creative Blocks, Time Space, And Rework

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:27

Hey guys, what's up? It's Shelby, the Marketing Happy Hour podcast. So glad you tuned in again for another episode of Learning How to Market Your Small Business or Big Business, or maybe you're a marketing grad student. I just found out there's actually lots of grad students that listen to my stuff either while they're in school or they may have just graduated. And so, hey, you guys, if you're tuning in, I'm so glad that you are also part of my audience because you get to learn from the things that I have done wrong. And then you don't have to worry about doing that, right? And also all the new things coming up with marketing and things like that. Today's a really great topic. Um, I was kind of scrolling through my chat GPT list of things that I have like um made note of for marketing like this podcast and like the topics and stuff that I really want to um cover with you guys. And I just didn't really feel like anything was sticking out today. And so I think it would be a really great opportunity to discuss what I do on days that I do not feel creative. Because let's be honest, if you guys are a creative, let's say that you're maybe in marketing or um you help with a marketing team, you have days that you don't feel creative, you just don't feel inspired. Like I wake up sometimes and I'm like, today is not an inspiration for me. I don't feel inspired by anything. I'll try to go for a walk, I'll come back inside to my office. And I'm just like, ugh, I just kind of feel blah on those days. But we can't stop on those days, right? Just because we feel uninspired or we feel kind of blah doesn't mean that we can't do our job or shouldn't do our job. And also the business owners that kind of feel burnt out on marketing, I completely understand because you've got everything else to do, right? You have your team that you are trying to make sure you're managing appropriately, they're doing their job, they're selling, they're doing the admin work. Um, then you have also like the selling side of your business, the service side. Maybe you still work in your business like I do. So you still have all of those things to do as well. And so marketing kind of goes on the back burner. And at the end of the day, you're just like, ugh, I have to post on social. This doesn't seem like something I want to do right now. So let's talk about a few things that I do on the days that I don't feel inspired. And this goes back to um, I'm gonna talk about before I even had a team that works for me. So on the days that I did everything, I would sell my business, I would do the client services, I would do the contracts, I would do the invoicing. And then I also did all the marketing of my own business, and that was the last thing that I actually did, and so it had the least amount of energy put towards it, which is not good. We don't want marketing to be the least amount of energy because that's a huge driver for our sales for our business and growing and getting leads and networking and things like that. So on the days that I didn't feel creative back then, I honestly just kind of like push forward and didn't really think about it. I'm very stubborn, I'm very hard-headed, and I just put push forward. I was also much younger and I didn't have a child, I didn't have a family, I didn't really have anything outside of my business that was pulling me in different directions. So I could just be disciplined and do it even when I didn't feel creative. But what I noticed was it wasn't that great of things that I would put out into the world. I would just kind of like half-ass it in a way, and I wouldn't really see any results from it, and then that would frustrate me anymore, even more. I'd be frustrated that I had to do it, then I would half-ass it, then I'd be frustrated with the results because it wasn't good stuff that I put out. So fast forward a few years and I started really being intentional on the content that I'm putting out to the world. I did have seasons of where I would not post for 30 to 60 days and then I would start posting every day. Then I wouldn't post for 30 days and I'd post every day. And I'm gonna be honest, I saw a huge fluctuation in my business sales on like based on the content that I was putting out. In fact, I did a little test at the beginning of 2025. I hadn't posted for like, I think I didn't post in December 24, January of 25, and I believe it was like February or March that I was like, dude, I like really need to get back to a consistent basis of marketing myself and like posting my content. I just didn't feel inspired because the end of the year and the beginning of the year are two of the busiest times, like that end of uh fourth quarter, beginning of first quarter. That's the busiest part of my um time as a marketing person because people are spending money at the end of the year, and then at the beginning of the year they want to start fresh, do things, all the marketing. I'm sure you're doing it right now if you're listening to this in January. So I was really distracted with a bunch of client work that I hadn't delegated appropriately for the team at the time. And then I was also super controlling over my own marketing and content that went out to the world. So I thought that I was the only person that could do it, and I did it better than anybody else, even though my chief content creator has worked for me for like eight years now, and I trust her with all my clients. So why would I not trust her with myself, right? So we'll come back to that in a second. So I did this little test of what my analytics and sales and stuff look like before I started posting again versus when I posted for 30 days straight, and it was exponential. And I believe that the energy that we're putting into marketing is the energy we're gonna get out in our sales. So if we're not putting good energy into marketing, if we're not putting money towards marketing, if we're not putting effort towards marketing, we're not gonna see as much sales as what we could. So yes, you could sell here and there and through networking and referrals, but ultimately when we're doing marketing, we are putting good energy out there and we're gonna receive that back from the world, the universe, God, whatever you believe in. But I wasn't always creative. Like I said, I didn't feel the need to do it. I didn't feel the urge to be creative. It's not like something we can turn off and on as a creative person. I can't just be like, yes, okay, from the hours of 10 to 2 today, I'm gonna create this. Even when I'm doing these podcasts, guys, I have it on my schedule to do it on a certain day each week, but I give myself ample amount of time and to like get other work things done in the beginning because I don't want to be forced to be creative and like teach and educate because sometimes I don't feel like it. So, like I just told you, I didn't feel like it today, okay? And podcast, I went to Chat GPT. Why do I use Chat GPT? Because Chat GPT knows me better than I do sometimes, and I have an entire list of things that I can go through and be like, okay, if I just have a topic, I can teach about it. So I go through and like, uh, nothing was really like standing out to me today. So I said, you know what? Let's talk about me not feeling creative today or not feeling creative in the moment um when I'm trying to do content for clients or strategies for clients. So let's go back to last year. Whenever I did the 30 days online and being consistent and actually putting good energy towards it, it worked. I grew my sales 25% and people started seeing me online again because that's a validation of us guys. If we're not online, we're not validated. But then I dropped down and I got busy during the summer, and I'm a mom, so then I had to have my kid most of the time and just all the things happen. And then in November of 2025, I said, you know what? I'm gonna hand everything over to Chelsea. Chelsea is my content creator, she's amazing, she worked with me for eight years. I'm giving her this task so it gets off of me because I could not let my sales go up and down anymore. I need a more consistency in my life sales-wise or marketing-wise. And so I handed that and delegated it to her. And you guys, it's the mid of January, and she's been amazing and done better work than what I did. And that's a lot for me to admit, guys. But now I'm not stuck in that like not being creative mode, right? So, what I recommend if you don't feel creative, um, if you don't feel like you are um in the mood to go to Canva and create a graphic and do this, I want you to plan out your month because it makes it so much easier. This is what I would do when I would feel not very creative. The moments I did feel creative, I took advantage of it. I created content for myself, an outline at least. Something that I can be like, okay, on this week I'm gonna do these three posts. I need these graphics, these are the pieces of content, this is like the copy that's going with it, and this is when I'm gonna post it. So when I didn't feel creative, all I went to was my spreadsheet. I saw the date. Okay, I need to do this and this, I put it together, I scheduled it out. If you feel really crazy while you're being creative and you're just trying to spend that energy as best as possible, I want you to create the content and schedule it out 30 days in advance so that way it's easy for you to do. And creating that schedule is not hard whatsoever. I have a 30-day content like calendar guide that you guys can download on my website, but it is very simple. I'm gonna go through it. So I want you to see like three different questions. So, what are the services that you can offer your clients this month? Who are those clients that you want to offer it to? And what's the messaging that you need to put with it? You answer those three questions and then you post them out one per week. And if you wanted to add a fourth one, you can as well. Um, but you can do those one per week. So you need to just have a different message every week about a different service. You can add a client testimonial in there, you can add a proof of product, as in like if I put my sign shop on my social, I can put branding shoots on my social. Um, I also like to do filler content on like websites that I develop. So those things can help develop in between. But just think of the services that you offer, create three or four different ones for that, and then create the who you want to work with and just schedule that out for the month so that way the moments that you don't feel creative, you already have a plan in place. You don't have to worry about it. Your past self has already thought of your future self. I find I find myself sitting here going, oh my gosh, thank you so much, Shelby, for being prepared. Because some things I just don't feel like doing in that moment. And if you don't have the budget to delegate it to an employee or to a freelancer or to an agency, then you can actually delegate your time ahead of time. So that way you don't have to worry about your um business not being consistent and your social media not being consistent. I also want you to know that not feeling creative, so I'm gonna talk to some of my creatives right now. Not feeling creative in the moment is not bad. It's okay. Sometimes we have to rest our brain. I know after sitting at my computer for an entire day thinking of strategies, um, replying to emails, doing some graphic design work, I'm in the middle of three different websites right now that I'm developing. So in the middle of all that, I am feeling overwhelmed. At the end of the day, I'm feeling very overwhelmed. And so my creativity energy is just not there. And it's okay. Sometimes we have to reset. I'll use like a time to go workout. Like for an hour, I'll go work out and I'll be okay, I'm energized again. Let's go back at it. Or I'll be like, okay, I'm gonna go pick up my kid early. We're gonna go spend some time together. And once she goes to bed, I'm gonna go back at this project. Or tomorrow, I'm gonna come back to what I was working on because I'm gonna feel more refreshed. The worst thing that we can do as creatives or business owners is forcing something. We don't want to force, like, okay, I've got to get this done between this hour and this hour, and if I don't, then I'm failing. And then we're forcing it and then it doesn't come out like we want it. I can't tell you how many projects that I have redone because I forced myself to get them done in a certain time period, or I couldn't create enough time space for myself to get the project done, which is very likely on in my world. So I didn't create enough time space for that project, and so I was forced to get it done. I didn't do it efficiently, and I didn't look great. It wasn't as good as what I thought it was gonna be or what it should be. So I've redone projects so many times because of that. So let's think about ourselves and let's think about our own mental health when it comes to creating marketing materials for ourselves, creating the content. I want you to feel less pressure on yourself. Take advantage of the creative space that you feel. Uh, if you're a business owner that's outside of marketing, you do HVAC or roofing, or maybe you're a consultant and you're like, marketing is just like a different world from me, but I'm also creative. Okay, great. Well, let's take advantage of that creative time that you have and that energy that you have, and let's schedule things out 30, 60, 90 days. So when you don't feel that way and you're overwhelmed with the other things of your business, you already have it outlined for you and it's gonna make it so much easier. So, all my creatives, let's also make sure that our time space for our projects is good and it's a great amount of time because if we don't, then we may feel forced to do something we're not feeling at the moment, and that's okay. It's okay to not feel creative and to feel stuck. When I was writing Market Like a Boss, I had so much writer's block because I was also managing my team. I was also being a mother, I was also managing my clients and building my business and going, well crap, now I have to like write tonight. And I would, I would remember like, okay, I've got between seven and eight tonight that I have to write two chapters. Y'all, you can't write two chapters in an hour for one. And two, um, I wasn't creative between seven and eight at night because it was at the end of my day. I was exhausted. I didn't really have any more energy left inside of me. And so I was forcing something that wasn't supposed to happen. And so once I would write even a little bit, I would go back the next day and rewrite it because then I'd be like, ugh, okay, I've just created more work for myself. So just know that it's normal to not be creative all the time. But also we want to stay consistent with our marketing and our digital content. So just make some space on your calendar to be like, you know what, this is when I'm gonna do this. I'm feeling it right now. I'm gonna push some other things back so I can keep going on this one project. And just know that it's normal not to be creative all the time, but we want to take advantage of it. And of course, if you need any help or if you need any guidance, you can always um book a consultation with me on my website, themarketingbroker.com. That's the mktgbroker.com. I would love to talk to you about your business so that way we can really see the efficiencies and inefficiencies and how we can make those better for you. All right, guys, I'll catch you on the next one.