Create meaning first, then create content
Exploring the tension of creating to express, and optimizing so your work can be discovered.
There was a time when sharing online felt like playing in an open meadow.
A space of beauty and belonging. A digital notebook where wonder could live in real time — blurry photos of cotton candy skies from a 3 megapixel iPhone 3Gs, lyrics that held your season, and captioned prayers that didn’t need to sell a thing.
We didn’t have brand pillars. We had presence.
We didn’t have content calendars. We had instinct.
But somewhere along the way, the meadow became a funnel.
The artist became a content creator.
The creator became a brand.
And the rest of us got quiet.
We live in a time where Content Creators, Personal Brands, and the simple act of creating are often used interchangeably. Publishing anything started to feel performative. Expression began to feel like it needed to fit.
These days, some only post when they travel or have something “worth” announcing — an engagement, a new baby, a milestone that signals their life is moving forward.
Others show up regularly, but always in service of something. They’re selling, promoting, building. Their content is precise and purposeful. Often strategic.
Then there are those who are content creators by craft. Short-form is their art form.
I’ve done all of the above. And still — none of it felt quite like me. So I needed to step back and give myself space to simply create first.
If you’ve ever felt caught between your creative voice and the culture of content...
If you long to express but feel boxed in by format…
If your thoughts don’t speak in punchlines or viral hooks…
Hey, me too. Here are my field notes so far:
Understanding Digital Language
I’ve always felt an affinity to sharing about creativity and vocational work. But when I began creating as a profession — feeling expressive and effective felt like swimming up against an downward stream.
The online space changed. The stakes changed. Platforms developed their own native language. And the vastness of what I wanted to say rarely fit within the frame I was told to speak inside.
As a content strategist, I understood why.
Our brains are trained to move at different paces depending on where we are.
Say Instagram and TikTok move at 100km/h. At that pace, even when we encounter something good — even beautiful — our brains are often too rushed to stop and fully receive it.
So we scroll past nourishment and binge on novelty.
It’s not personal. It’s pace.
That’s why I enjoy being on Substack. It feels like 20km/h. A place where slowness isn't penalized. Nuance has room to unfold here.
But back to the original point: Ultimately, platforms reward what performs.
And when you’re a thoughtful creator, trying to translate the movements of your heart into a feed... It can leave you feeling disoriented.
When Creation Becomes Content
Let me be clear: I value content creation and believe it’s an art form of its own.
Some of the most beautiful and effective storytelling I’ve seen lives in short-form video. It takes skill, intuition, practice, and creativity.
But for those of us who process our raw thoughts deeply, creating on a canvas that doesn’t fit can feel like being asked to paint a mural on a sticky note.
What gets lost in the algorithmic shuffle isn’t just nuance.
It’s the essence of the work.
The Framework that Works for Me
If you feel suspended between your inner artist the outer algorithm, here’s what’s helped me protect creative integrity:
1. Drown Out the Consumption
Again, I’m going to drop my Brick link here. Getting this device was truly the turning point that helped me consume less and create more.
When you're always inputting, you rarely leave space to metabolize or create.
Let yourself be bored.
Let your thoughts be messy.
Let them wander and ramble and not resolve.
This is where the raw material of real work begins.
2. Find an Appropriate Canvas for the Raw Draft
Create your bigger work freely — offline or long-form. Give yourself a space where your truest work can live in its rawest form
Before I started on Substack, I would endlessly try to force long-form reflections into a caption or carousel. But the ideas felt cramped. The format didn’t fit.
So I gave myself permission to let the first draft live off-grid.
Finding an appropriate canvas to house the first draft of your work is for you. This is the space where you can process the bigger picture of things.
3. Then, Offer Breadcrumbs
The interesting thing with creating the bigger, raw work for ourselves is that not everyone is ready for it. And that’s ok. Eventually when you’re ready to serve others with your work, you need to let go of how much of it fits into the sticky-note version. You’ve already made space to create for you.
Here, we focus on parring the essence of your larger pieces down into bite-sized pieces of content that can serve as invitations for people who are discovering on short-form platforms.
These are the Rick Rubin quotes everyone shares, that lead those who want to explore further to The Creative Act.
Short posts, reels, or quotes aren’t always going to be the food-for-thought that nourishes. They’re little invitations.
Let your “content” be doorways to the garden — not the garden itself.
Note: You don’t have to do this part. Personal digital spaces are needed, and not everything needs to reach a lot of people. I write this for those who want to reach like-minded people, but want to maintain creative integrity. I want to help you understand that not everyone can think at the frequency of your raw work from the start. In fact, not everyone will read a book by simply looking at the cover. They need to interact with simple ideas. Bite-sized pieces. Before diving deeper.
It needs to serve others, and therefore needs to be constructed in a way where others can discover and resonate with it. Sometimes, it just so happens it’s both — and that’s always fun.
In short: create for your expression first, and then create the sticky-note invitations to serve others.
If this has also been a wrestle for you, I’d love to hear your findings so far! What’s helped? Let’s exchange notes.
Notable Conversation from the last piece: You Don’t Need a Title — You Need a Project
It feels like you’re talking directly to me. I’m currently in this “raw” stage with my work. Unsure how to package it for the right people, but I think less consumption is the first step right now.
Sometimes I’m scrolling to see “where do I fit within all this” but the answer doesn’t really come there. I have to focus on creating what doesn’t exist, not pushing against the things that already exist.
This really speaks to me! Every word resonates. I’m new to substack and have been grappling with how to show up on instagram with short form captions/stories and visual trends that never seem to feel right or capture my message. I often start an idea in long form that doesn’t go anywhere public but I love your idea of using this as a base and creating smaller invitations to a much more in depth message.