As business owners, it can be extremely overwhelming the amount of information that we can consume at our fingertips.

And one thing that has taken me a while to really figure out is where I should spend my time and focus my attention when it comes to content consumption.

So in today’s episode, I really want to break this down into 3 really simple steps for you to get clear and focused on where you should spend your time-consuming content.

Because there is so much available, we really have to be careful that we do not fall into the trap of becoming only content consumers.

And so I’m so excited to share with you just 3 easy steps for focusing your content consumption. So if you’re ready, let’s jump right in.

Hey, Mama, welcome back to the show. I’m so excited to be here with you for another week, and another really important conversation.

But before we jump in, I would love to just take a moment to say welcome and introduce myself. For those of you who don’t know who I am, my name is Ashley Freehan, and I am the founder here at The Purpose Gathering, which is an online community and education platform designed to really help overwhelmed mom photographers create more efficiency in their business, increase profitability, and enjoy motherhood all while working less.

In addition to this weekly podcast, I also have a brand new 12-week group coaching program that is launching next week. I don’t have a name for it yet, but I am so excited for it. It is essentially going to be an incredible roadmap for you to find more efficiency in your business, get organized with your time tell your time where to go, create your ideal week, and just make sure that every area of your business is organized and taken care of with a system a due date.

That way, when you go to sit down and work, you are not feeling overwhelmed or frazzled not knowing what you’re going to be doing, everything is going to be in a proper place. And you’re going to know exactly what to work on when so I am so excited for this program.

You can check out more details over at thepurposegathering.com/coaching.

If you are listening to this episode when it airs, or sometime the same week that it airs, then you may have already heard that I am hosting a summit called The Focused Mom Photographer Summit. And this is a great opportunity for you to show up next week and consume a lot of really great content. So I thought this would be the perfect episode to air right before the summit.

So that I can really give you a clearer picture of how to focus your content consumption, I’m going to be giving you examples that are not related to the summit in case you listen to this at a different time. But I just thought that it would be really helpful for you to understand and kind of be able to unpackage what it is going to look like and feel like at the summit.

Now what’s really unique about the summit is that it’s all really relevant information to you all in one place. And the really cool part about this summit is that it’s designed specifically for home photographers.

And so that’s what I think is really helpful and unique that sets us apart from other summits, where maybe you’re just going to get general business knowledge, this one is going to be more specific to those mom photographers.

So I hope that you will join us for that summit, you can grab your FREE ticket at momphotographersummit.com.

Okay, but let’s jump right into today’s topic.

I want to give you 3 steps to really focus your content consumption in the right places.

Step 1: Commit to Stop Overconsuming Content

I know this seems simple, but I kind of want to break it down for you because this is something that I have struggled with in the past and actually currently still do struggle with. I hope that you guys learn that every episode that I speak to you guys on is an episode that I have struggled with. And that’s how I have come to find the tips, the strategies, the steps, all that kind of stuff for you guys.

So I want you to know that I’m in the same boat with you. And I never want to come from a place that makes you guys feel like I am somehow have arrived. And I’ve somehow overcome the thing because I just believe it’s always an ongoing struggle, some of us struggle with more things than others. And some of us just really know how to course correct faster.

And so that’s what I really want to help you with, is to draw a line in the sand and decide that you’re going to stop overconsuming content.

And what I mean by this is to be very specific and clear about when you’re consuming content and what type of content you’re consuming.

I think a lot of times, just in our society, when there’s quiet or silence, we don’t know what to do with it. And so we reach for our phone, and we try to fill that silence. And we might be doing the dishes, or we might be going for a walk. And instead of just sitting in our thoughts, we’re like, Oh, hey, this is the perfect time to pop into podcast, or this is the perfect time to listen to that webinar that I downloaded or, you know, check out that free guide, or whatever the case may be when you are consuming content could even just be, you know, scrolling on Instagram.

It’s really important to understand, number one, like, why are you consuming that content? Is it just to fight boredom? Is it because you genuinely want to learn about that topic? Or are you just
filling the silence, which I guess is really similar to just fighting that boredom?

But it’s kind of that same balance of like, are you just listening to listen? Or do you really care about that certain thing? And so I think that’s really important.

And you’ve heard me talk about this on the podcast if you’ve listened to it before, but

I think this idea of input versus output is really a big thing that we all struggle with.

We have so much content at our fingertips, as I mentioned in the intro, that I think we just have become serial consumers, we just love to learn.

And so we take in all this abundance of information. And then we are left feeling really uninspired to create our own content.

Sometimes, we’re left feeling overwhelmed, and just not able to make any action or make any changes or take any action or make any changes in our business because we’re overwhelmed by the amount of things that we think we’re supposed to do, because we’re listening to too many voices.

And so I really want to challenge you, and continue to challenge you, that you have to be so careful about what you are consuming and why.

Okay, so that’s the first step is to really be aware of what you’re consuming and stop overconsuming. It really splits your attention. And it sometimes paralyzes you, and makes you not want to focus on anything. And there’s really something super important about allowing yourself to sit in your own thoughts sitting in the quiet, get used to being in the quiet, get used to not always having someone chattering in your ear.

And this is hard for me too, because I really love YouTube videos too. And I always want to like put on YouTube videos about home decor and decorating and like I just want to like listen, watch and like actually implement that stuff into my life. So I am preaching to myself as well when I’m talking to you guys.

Step 2: Assess What is Consuming A Lot of Your Time and Mental Energy

What is frustrating you the most about your business? Try to identify the problem areas in your business, and these are the areas in which you should be investing time into learning about and educating yourself and consuming that content.

So I think so often we just fill with either an overabundance of stuff, or maybe we’re filling with mindless stuff because we’re just trying to escape from everyday reality.

We cope with the escape of just consuming content, like maybe you have had a rough day and you just are like, I just want to do something for me. And maybe you put on a crime podcast that is so not my jam. But I know so many people love those crime junkie podcasts. Or maybe there’s something else that you just love to consume. And you find yourself like, Oh, I just overconsume this.

So I just really want you to be mindful of that. And I want you to instead, shift some, I’m not saying all of your content consumption on business, because I do feel like having your personal outlet and like, content that’s just for pleasure is great.

But when it comes to business content that you’re consuming, be really careful about what you’re consuming. And make sure that it’s things that you actually need some support with, and you need some encouragement and help with, that’s where you should spend most of your time investing.

And then I want you to also think about setting boundaries with your content consumption, I think this can be a really kind of sticky situation where you think that you’re being productive, because you’re consuming content that’s related to business, right?

You’re like, I’m educating myself, this is awesome.

But even a good thing you can have too much of, and so I just really want to encourage you to set some boundaries.

I actually am going to be recording an episode here pretty soon about why I took four weeks off of Instagram, and sort of, you know, the things that I noticed and the mindset changes that happened for me being away from Instagram for so long.

And it was really hard. But it was really good.

And like, I’m kind of craving more of that more time away from social media. It’s just all-consuming, honestly. And a lot of it is stuff that like I don’t need, right, I’m getting all of this input. And I’m like, I don’t need this. Some of it I don’t even want, right, like some of the political stuff, some of the news that you hear on social media that I just don’t want to fill my mind with. It’s overwhelming.

And so setting boundaries with your content consumption is really important.

With this, you have to make sure you leave yourself time to really learn what you’re just consumed.

This is huge. This is so important. Because if we are just listening to content just to listen to it, then honestly, all it is is a time waster right? Just fighting boredom.

That’s really the only use of that particular type of content. It really pays dividends and makes a difference when you are actually implementing what you are learning.

And if you have a problem, implementing what you learn, and you’re like, Okay, I really need some support with this, I really need help with this, then I have two different episodes that I’ll link in the show notes. It’s episode 127, and episode 104. So be sure to check those out after this episode.

If you’re joining us for the Focused Mom Photographer Summit that starts next week on April 17, and runs through the 21st, then I want you to hear my next piece of advice for you.

So you’re going to be really overwhelmed with a bunch of information, there’s going to be 20 different presentations all on various topics. And a lot of them are probably topics that you want to listen to you want to learn about. And I’m going to challenge you to just pick a few to start with.

Now there is an upgrade called the Focused Photographer Toolkit, where you’ll be able to purchase ongoing access to all of the presentations so that you don’t have to worry about catching them live because they are only free for 24 hours. And then they go straight into the toolkit and they’ll be available.

Included in that toolkit are also so many incredible speaker bonuses that you can get. And it’s just such an incredible way to not feel like you have to rush and not feel like you have to consume all this content. And that’s really the way that I feel like it should be digested in the best way.

So make sure that you are only starting with those presentations in which you feel like you need the most support.

Step 3: Regularly Assess Where You Are Consuming Content, and Then Check Your Priorities

So I think that the best way to do this is to set a standing appointment in your calendar in order to check in on this.

And if you’ve been listening to my podcast for a while, you know how much I love a CEO day. And that I think it’s really important to implement that into your regular routine. And so this is a perfect opportunity for you to put this check in right into your CEO date.

And really, what I want you to do is I want you to just run through a few of these questions.

The first question is going to be: what content did I consume this week that I want to implement?

The second question is: what is my plan to implement that thing I learned?

I think often we get really ambitious, and we’re like, ooh, we have this new thing, and we really want to implement it. And then we don’t give it a due date. And so it never gets done in it, we push it off, and we push it off, and we push it off.

And what that says to me is that it’s not important to you. Right? And so if it’s not important to you, then why is it on your to-do list, right? And so I think that’s really important.

That’s one of those things that we need to constantly be assessing. And it’s okay if you decide this used to be a priority, but now it’s not. And so when you come to that realization, put that thing on your shiny object list, everybody should have one of these, you can title it whatever you want. But put those ideas, put those courses that you want to take, put the webinars that you want to consume, put links to freebies that you, you know, signed up for, that you haven’t had a chance to look at, if you’re really interested in them, put them on that list.

And then when you have some time, or when you’re going to, you know, map out your quarter, you can look at that shiny object list and say, ‘Hey, do any of these align with my goals?’

And that’s actually question number three: is the content I consumed aligned with my business goals?

And if you don’t have business goals set yet, that’s okay. I also have a podcast episode about that. And inside my 12-week group coaching program, we talk a lot about goals and I walk alongside you and I help you create those goals, I help you stick to those goals.

There’s accountability in there with coaching calls, and support in the Facebook group. And so this is really great opportunity for you to be able to recognize your business goals, clarify them, solidify them, actually put them into a plan and then be able to revisit those.

So if the content you’re consuming is not aligned with your business goals, then it needs to go on that shiny object list for later.

And then finally, the last question that I want you to ask yourself is: what did I spend too much time on this week?

So that could be you know, anything, honestly. But really, when it comes to consuming content, or just I guess anything, ask yourself this next follow-up question, do I need to create a system for this? Do I need to set a boundary? Or do I need to learn how to streamline this process?

So I often find that when I’m struggling with something, that’s where I need to focus my content consumption, whether it’s business or personal, right, this is a business-related episode, but it can absolutely 100% be applied in your personal life as well.

If you’re dealing with marital issues, if you have a kiddo that you’re struggling with, if you can’t find time for self care, if you need to, you know, change your diet or implement a workout routine, all of those things should be where your your consumption is focused, focus on those things. Because where you are focused, that is where your actions are going to follow.

So that is what I have noticed in my business as well. When I am struggling with something in my business. If I switch all of my consumption to that one thing that I’m struggling with, it inevitably gets better. It gets a little bit easier because I am actually listening and applying what I’m learning to that specific area in my business.

So let’s recap the 3 steps to really focusing your content consumption in the right places.

#1: Commit to stop overconsuming content, and focus more on the quality of the input. Focus more on being really strategic about what you are letting in.

#2: Choose the areas to focus on in which are the biggest problem areas, the things that are frustrating you the most, and consuming so much of your time and mental energy.

#3: Regularly assess this content consumption, check your priorities, move those things that are not a priority right now to that shiny object list, and get to it when you do have the time.

I hope that you have found value in today’s episode.

If so, please take a screenshot of it, share it out on Instagram and tag me @thepurposegathering and share this with more mamas who might be having this issue as well, where they’re just not sure where to focus their time and they’re spending too much time consuming and not enough time implementing.

And I can’t wait to see you guys next week for the Focused Mom Photographer Summit!

There’s going to be 20 Incredible presentations with 19 different speakers across five days. So get ready for a jam-packed week full of incredible, actionable, very short and sweet presentations where you can start taking action right away.

You can grab your free ticket over at momphotographersummit.com

As always, Mama I am here rooting for you. And you are not alone on this journey.

Resources

• Find me on Instagram: @thepurposegathering
• Join us for The Focused Mom Photographer Summit