How to Build a Content Channel in 7 Steps
Creating content is like building out the path to better understanding your own self and the world around you.
When I began to realize that writing out your experiences allows you to grasp your thoughts more concretely and then construct a bigger idea through the processing of those thoughts, a lightbulb in my awakening mind illuminated a new outlet for expressing this curious knowledge-seeking energy. Take an active role in your life and create intentional content. So here I am, currently activating my life and sharing a few things with you fine readers while I do it up.
The different ideas we all entertain have importance and value toward our collective world in the simple fact that our differences also imply abundance. If we all had the same ideas, well, you get the picture. Actually, you wouldn’t get the picture because it would already exist, and you would not have a new picture to look forward. Think about that for a minute.
Whatever knowledge or wisdom we possess will never flourish in the world around us if we don’t express it. And I don’t mean by conversation alone. Our exposure to conversation has diminished greatly anyhow so now we must take the conversation online.
But then, dear readers, I started to think about the epidemic of misinformation amidst a growing distrust in mainstream media. While we cannot control the media outside of us, we can control how we process information. This process of content creation can transform us into active participants in the fight against disinformation.
Now, this also implies that we should not be posting incendiary content that will generate fear and chaos. When creating content, it is wise to remain unimpassioned and to keep a neutral perspective as a curious observer otherwise we can easily miss important nuances and cultivate an environment that does not nurture the creative and inquisitive mindset. After all, the whole point of creating content is to better understand ourselves and in turn the world outside of us.
Make the decision to build a content channel
This step seems pretty obvious but as someone who is a former master of procrastination, this is important to acknowledge to ourselves. No one else is forcing you to do this work. You are doing this work because you have a message to get out or because you haven’t found anything else that you feel satisfied doing, or something else. Whatever the reason, having the drive to make work for yourself is essential. Whether its crafting woodland creatures out of fallen forest materials or having a knack fixing household appliances, we all have knowledge, skills, and talent that the world could really use right now.
If we can’t find work in the outside world, remember, we do have it within us to make our own work and build value for ourselves. The only thing that is required to do this independent work is finding the will within ourselves to do it.
What about experience, or lack thereof? Experience is always available as soon as you begin doing activities repeatedly. If you have a passion in animal biology but no formal education or experience, you can conduct your own study. As long as you keep meticulous records of your activities and findings, you are showing hard, physical proof of your work which can be tested by others.
You can spend x amount of time everyday learning about animal biology, or rocket propulsion, or botany, or consciousness; whatever interests and fascinates us. You can also formulate your own questions, using your personal everyday life as a starting point for the research. Each of your life’s experiences are all excellent material for your future content channel. Bonus points for bravery in sharing your personality in the midst of your work.
Create a master document
The Master Document is your road map toward success. Think of it as your scratch pad, your brainstorming space. This is where you are going to be planning our channel. As you plan, you will find yourself writing down actionable tasks, or ideas that you come up with that you can do something about whether its conducting a study, researching a topic, building a working system, collecting materials, or gathering information.
You will begin to notice the types of thoughts you have and when you see them on the screen, patterns will begin to emerge. Your master document will be a seed for other documents to grow and branch out from and you are the gardener who waters it every day.
As you go on this journey of creating your content channel, you will be building a foundation and your master document will be your information keeper. Eventually, you will have integrated the document into your consciousness the more time you dedicate to this work; i.e. you know swaths of your work by heart, memorized like a pianist and their compositions.
Sometimes, it is difficult to think of how to structure your document. The very first idea I included was my channel mission statement. Before you can complete this, you must determine what your intentions for this channel are. Think about what you wish to accomplish by putting this content out. It is good to have a few points but try to keep it succinct.
Already, we can say we have one mission by creating content and that is to better understand ourselves by realizing the types of ideas and messages we gravitate toward. Be sure to personalize this because it is the whole reason you are doing the work.
Create an intentions plan
When embarking on this journey, it can seem really overwhelming because you have such a broad scope in the beginning stages. This is where you really have to do some soul searching and dig deep in your subconscious. What do you really enjoy? What do you wonder about? What is your expertise? We are all experts at something, but no one is going to tell you what you are an expert in. You are the only one who knows what you are an expert in. You have to realize it for yourself.
How do you figure this out? Well, you figure out your strengths, weaknesses, interests, by asking yourself questions. At this point, we must turn our questions switch on and ask our way into the future. Questions help us flesh out any lack of knowledge and carve our way into understanding ourselves and the world around us. Questions allow us to bridge connections between our external and internal world. Let your questioning mind lead you on the quest of building a content channel. You know the main culprits; who, what, where, when, why, and how.
Keeping an Intentions plan can help us reason our way through the thinking mind into the doing mind. Some people can accomplish this by talking out loud (this is a practice I do find value in), but there is something about writing our ideas down in written form which allows us to keep coming back to our work. When you see all the ideas compiled in one place, the Master Document, suddenly the magic becomes apparent.
What should you include in your Intentions Plan? This is entirely personal. At its very core, your intentions will be 1) an action, the cause and 2) the reaction, the effect. In our case, we want to build a content channel which serves as our action and the reaction would be to better understand oneself and the world around us. As you begin to list your intentions, let their implications wash over you. Focus in on what is important to you. Ultimately, there is no wrong answer because this is your channel. Once again, the main goal will be a greater understanding of yourself and the world around you through your unique and limitless mind.
Create an action plan
Now that you have pinned down your intentions with your content channel, it’s time to give yourself parameters to keep the workflow going. This part of the process gives you a direction to aim toward. The Master Document is an excellent space to work out your Action Plan in the beginning stages.
You will want to think about how you can break down the tasks that will bring your content channel to life. Remember those actionable tasks from earlier? In the Action Plan, separate those tasks into daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly tasks. Organize them into a Workflow Schedule based on difficulty of the task, time needed to complete the task, and the type of task. As you continue on this process, you will notice more ways to subdivide and organize tasks. Be open to any inspiration that may come to you. There is no wrong way if it helps you work more efficiently. Don’t be afraid to be excited to plan out your project, the more of your personality you input, the more authentic your work will be.
Keeping a Tracking Spreadsheet can help to visualize your progress and project where you want to go. It is important to continue placing deadlines and goals on yourself as you find your workflow pace. As you finish tasks and projects, make a note of the date of completion. This is an excellent way to keep your fire lit.
When you see completed tasks begin to build, you will find motivation to continue on this road.
When work feels like it is plateauing, it is always a great idea to flex your work muscles and give yourself more goals and tasks to continue building out your content channel.
Create idea banks
These Idea Banks will be a manifested form of the value you are creating. You can call them lists if you like, but I like the idea of repurposing the use of the word “bank” to imply a valuable collection of personal ideas.
Also, this is a good point to mention that the terms you decide to utilize in your content channel system build, are going to be completely up to you. The repurposing or reimagining of word definitions is another aspect of your content channel build that can help to add more complexity to your work. Thoughtfully using language while understanding the etymology and grammatical conventions will also open up and broaden your perspective.
One new favorite activity of mine is to meditate on a single word and to draw out all the different uses of that word that I have experienced in my personal life and readings. This is also an excellent way to unblock any idea blockages you may have.
The process of creating an Idea Bank not only serves to catch our fleeting ideas but to crystallize them within our consciousness. As these banks grow and we continue to deposit our very unique ideas, we will be creating our own infrastructure which we will know intimately because it came from within.
The types and quantity of Idea Banks you can create is limitless. Isn’t that exciting? There is no limit to how many different ideas that can come out of you as long as you are breathing. Sometimes you will have an idea block but I will discuss how to overcome this obstacle in the next section.
You have to start somewhere, though, so here are a few examples of banks you can utilize: Title/Headline, Subject, Characters, Plots, Series. Again, this is a very simplified list but I think they illustrate the point. Here are a few more examples to drive the point home: plant identifications, astrological correspondences, world religions, collected family anecdotes, female philosophers of the 21st century, luminaries of quantum physics, significant events of WWI, figures in western esoteric history, high level mathematics. I could go on and on. And the best part is, so can you.
Determine what medium you wish to work in
No matter what your medium preference is, whether it’s written, or visual, or audio, YouTube, Medium, Patreon; your core work will initially be written. It’s pretty important to embrace our innate writing skills. Just because we aren’t writing like Jane Austen or Fyodor Dostoevsky doesn’t mean that our writing can’t be impactful. Every movie, tv show, documentary, song, research study, book, all came from an idea and that idea was written down in some form.
In keeping a written record of your content creation, the Master Document will build out your scope of knowledge and also serve as proof of your work and understanding. It also allows you to be flexible.
These days, it behooves us to branch out into different mediums and subjects that we maybe aren’t as familiar with. Certainly, we should be dedicated to our strengths but at the same time, it is good for our mental health to continue seeking out new knowledge and new truths.
When it comes to the technological gap that we may be facing, we can generate income from writing initially, if we are dedicated and focused enough. As we do increase our monetary gains, we can invest in new technologies which can help us express our ideas in new and unique ways. Just because we are not at a spot right now to be buying new equipment, it is a good strategy to focus on what we can do and work toward our advances. This type of discipline will pay off in the future because it instills a work ethic within to project our goals and then work toward achieving them. Where there is a will, there is a way.
Utilize conscious breathing, visualization, and intentions in your routine
Now, this last step may seem woo woo and you may scoff, but I guarantee you, it is very helpful if you keep an open mind. Being a content creator is an active job and you will begin to notice unwanted compulsions and desires that will try to distract you from doing this active work.
This is why it is important, at this time, to recognize our collective weakness of attention focus. I think we can all agree that the effects of our evolving technological advances have given us great tools in connecting with people we are physically separated from. On the opposite side of that coin, however, is the temptation of attention focus on our exterior world via our screens. We must be sure that we understand how those kinds of readily available attention-grabbing influences impact us and often interfere with our inner goals and dreams.
How do we do this? One method of regaining our attention is to retreat into a meditative state. As we quiet our minds from the external distractions, we can begin to recognize our own unique ideas coming through in our inner voice. This inner voice is who we should be consulting if ever any fears crop up to steer us off course. The voice that tells you that you are on the right path, to trust your instincts, to keep going even when you feel like giving up; I like to think that voice lives right around our heart space.
When you have made a connection with this voice in your heart space, let’s call it the “inner light” (if that doesn’t work for you, maybe higher consciousness vibes with you better), try to integrate some conscious breathing while holding your intention in mind. One simple breathing pattern to utilize is called the four-fold breathing technique. It goes as follows: inhale four counts, hold four counts, exhale four counts, hold four counts, repeat.
Before you begin working on your content channel, it is a good idea to clear your mind so you can hyper focus on your intention. It is important to maintain a steady and focused mind and to begin each working session with intention paired with conscious breathing. Spend at least 5 minutes before a working session practicing your breathing and keeping your intention in mind for this prolonged period. This is a simple mental training technique known as visualization. Keeping your own ideas and intentions in focus for a prolonged period while intentionally shutting out external influences will strengthen your mental discipline. When you feel like you have an idea block, this is a good technique to get that creative energy flow going once again.
This by no means is an exhaustive list. Heck, I am still a beginner. My channel hasn’t even been created yet. I am still in the planning stages, but this article really wanted to be expressed. Maybe it’s because I needed to read it too. But hopefully it is enough inspiration to get you fired up to express your ideas and me to express mine. The world needs all of it, right now.
