No one is going to do the work for you
Your success or failure as a content creator depends on you
Gary Bloomer | SHAKING THE TREE # 262
Image the scenario: you’re staring at a blank screen, the cursor is blinking back at you.
You have a vague notion that you “should” be creating content—a blog post, a LinkedIn article, a video script.
Whatever.
Maybe you’re waiting for a bolt of inspiration.
Maybe you’re hoping a competitor’s strategy will finally reveal the secret formula.
Maybe you think a new AI tool will magically fill your calendar with winning ideas.
Or, maybe you ought to stop waiting and dive right in.
I’m advising this because sadly, no one is coming to save you. No one is going to do the work for you. Your degree of success or failure is down to you and the efforts you put in now and in the coming months and years.
Years?
Yes. Years.
This isn’t meant to be discouraging. In fact, it’s the most liberating truth you’ll ever embrace in your professional life. There is no magic bullet, no shortcut, no winning formula: it will probably take at least a year before you see any significant return on your content creation investment efforts. More likely it will take two years. Better yet, allow three years. I’m serious.
The entire digital landscape is a chaotic, noisy bazaar in which everyone is shouting, vying for attention. The ones who are heard often aren’t the loudest; they are the ones who show up again and again by virtue of them being the most consistent, the most deliberate, and the most well-prepared.
These people aren’t relying on motivation, luck, or on going viral. They’re more likely to be running on a proven system built on three non-negotiable pillars:
discipline,
commitment,
and strategy.
Take the time to master these three things and you’ll be unstoppable. Ignore them and you’ll probably wait and wait and wait for something to happen.
Discipline is the engine
Motivation is a nice thing to have but it’s a fickle friend.
It often shows up unannounced and regularly leaves without so much as a thank you or a fond farewell. Relying on motivation alone to power your content is like relying on a sugar rush to help you run a marathon. It will work for a while but when it wears of, you’ll crash and crash hard.
So, what rolls up its sleeves, gets stuck in and takes over when motivation has left the building? It’s discipline: the stalwart, unsexy, gritty act of showing up.
Discipline is what fuels you through the writing of an email when you don’t feel like it. It’s recording the video on a Tuesday morning when you’d rather be doing anything else. It’s the commitment to your content calendar as if it were a meeting with your most important client—because it is. You are the client.
Back in the middle of May of 2023 I made a promise: that I publish an article twice a week, every Tuesday and Friday at noon, (Eastern Standard Time in the United States) no matter what.
True, there have been a few weeks when I’ve been late publishing but what there hasn’t been is any sort of gap—at the time of writing this, early November of 2025, I’ve written and published something twice a week EVERY WEEK, for the last two and a half years.
I’ve written when I haven’t felt like it.
I’ve written when I’ve been fed up and pissed off.
I’ve written when I’ve been ill, while I’ve been on vacation, and even while I’ve been in hospital.
If I can do this and come up with something new and fresh to write about twice a week—even when few people have been reading my stuff, so can you.
I’ve found that discipline is the practice of reminding yourself that your audience’s attention is the most valuable currency there is, and that you earn it by showing up again and again and again, and by providing relentless, predictable value.
Commitment is the fuel
OK, so discipline gets you to the desk; commitment though is the thing that decides what you build once you’re there.
A one-off blog post is a whisper in a hurricane.
A sporadic video is a single drop in an ocean of content.
These things can and do disappear without a trace. And because most beginner content creators have been conditioned to expect instant success, when that doesn’t happen, that’s when they get depressed, despondent, and when they give up.
Regular readers will know giving up and quitting is a recurring message in my writing, one that, when I first started out, I was oblivious to, which is why I struggled for such a long time.
Commitment is about understanding and playing the long game.
It’s the understanding that momentum takes time to build up, that your initial posts will probably be sad, scrappy little things, and that trust is built not in a single transaction, but during the course of a consistent and continuing narrative.
Commitment is about the promise to your audience that you will be there this week, and next week, and the week after that, and next month, and this time next year, and that every time you’ll show up with more insight, more value, more of whatever it is that solves their problems.
This commitment is the thing that forges your reputation and that transforms you from a random voice on a haphazard platform into a reliable resource that people in need of your message can rely on and turn to.
People don’t buy from logos; they buy from people they have learned to believe and to trust. And it’s that trust and that belief that’s the dividend paid out by unwavering commitment.
Strategy is the blueprint
But what are you building with all this discipline and commitment?
Well, without a plan, without a strategy, you’re just piling bricks haphazardly. You might end up with a nice looking pile, but it won’t be a house anyone would want to live in.
You need a plan. Without one you’re spitting in the wind.
That plan is your content strategy. A content strategy is your blueprint. It answers the critical questions before you ever type a word:
Who am I talking to? (A specific audience, not “everyone”)
What problem do I solve for them? (Your core value proposition)
How does this piece of content lead them to a solution? (Your call to action)
How does this fit into the larger journey? (Your funnel)
Your content strategy is the thing that turns random pieces of content into a cohesive, compelling narrative that guides your audience toward some sort of goal or outcome. It ensures that every email, every post, every video is a purposeful step towards a business goal, not just toward more noise for the algorithm gods.
What about the unfair advantage?
Well, there isn’t one. Not really.
Discipline, commitment, and strategy are not secrets, known only by some sort of mysterious inner circle. There is no secret code. There are no shortcuts or magic pills.
The trick, if there’s a trick at all is to simply put in the hard background work that most people are unwilling to do.
I read recently about the work that J.R.R. Tolkien put in before he started writing The Lord of the Rings.
Long before Tolkien began writing the books themselves he spent twelve years—TWEVLE YEARS—writing the detailed histories and backstories of the the main characters, of the lands of The Shire and beyond, and of the ruling royal families and their many offspring. Tolkien even invented several new languages with their own grammar and syntax. He drew dozens of maps. He invented and fleshed out the entire world in which the story takes place and before he set about telling the story. And this was all to make the stories themselves more believable.
While i’m not suggesting you dedicate twelve years to building your content landscape what I am suggesting is that the more ground work you can put in, the better your results will be. Most people are not willing to do this because it sounds like work.They’d rather chase hacks, trends, and quick fixes.
Don’t be one of them. Make your work effort your unfair advantage.
Ultimately, the path is clear. There may be times when it gets rocky and steep; there may be times when the weather of time, attention, and effort is against you. There will be times when the going is not easy, but the process itself is simple: to keep putting one effort on top of another, over and over again.
Create your plan.
Define your audience.
Map your content to their journey.
Then, with relentless discipline and unshakable commitment, execute.
Day after week after month.
The blank screen is waiting.
It’s not your enemy; it’s your opportunity.
No one is going to fill the screen for you.
The work is yours, but then, so will be the reward.
Now, get to it.
As always, thanks for reading.
—Gary
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P.S. If you found this useful, share it with another creator who needs an ego check (in a nice way). Want more unfiltered takes on content creation? Join my newsletter. No fluff, just the stuff that works.
Next time on Shaking the Tree: Why your brain is hardwired to look for trios
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Originally from the U.K., Gary Bloomer is a writer, branding advocate, marketing specialist, and an award-winning graphic designer.
His design work has been included in Creative Review (one of the UK’s largest design magazines). Since 2009, he has answered over 5,000 marketing and business questions in the Know-How Exchange of MarketingProfs.com, placing him among the top 3% of contributors. He lives in Wilmington, Delaware, USA.