Happy New Year, and welcome to the Muthership Creator Strategy 2026. We're gonna kick off with two products because I like to do my unsponsored by content in the hopes that it will soon be sponsored. So here we go. First one is crazy, but it's the dental pod. If you are someone who has had Invisalign and wears a retainer at night or has any kind of dental thing that you wear, whether it's a mouth guard or whatever, this is a must in my opinion now that I have one.

It's a dental pod. It's basically a cleaner, and it comes with the little tablets. Now granted, now you have to keep buying the tablets, but my take on this is if however you're cleaning your apparatus now and mine, was just quick soap and water. I wasn't even getting crazy with it. So when I ran this the first time, when I tell you they came out sparkling clean like new, I was so excited.

And if you choose that you don't wanna really invest in the tablets because there it's about $20 a month if you use the tablet every day. So that's a lot. In my opinion, that's a lot. But if you, let's say, do it every other day, do it like three times a week and run this thing, it will clean it and make it look like new. So I think it's worth it even if you use it, honestly, once a week so that you don't have to make that $20 a month investment.

The $20 will last you, like, four months or almost a whole year if you do it once if you just do it once a week. So worth it. It runs and it does this little zh zh zh zh sound for five minutes, and it washes your your retainer, and it makes them look like new. So I'm all about it. I'm I'm all about the dental stuff.

So I love the dental pod, and the tablets are and the brand is Zima, z I m a, and those are where the tablets are from. That's number one. Number two, if you don't have a dental apparatus, dent any kind of dental wear that you need a cleaner for, the Barefoot Dreams cozy short jacket with the hood is it. Oh, I can't put it on right now because I have my Happy New Year hat. Well, here, I'll take off the Happy New Year and I'll put on But how cozy is this?

Oh my gosh, I'm in love with it. I'm a Barefoot Dreams blanket girl ever since chemo because somebody gave me one, and it was it's literally my favorite blanket. Just I don't know. It's just the texture I like. So now this has become my favorite little jacket from my Christmas presents.

Yay. Now back with my happy New Year hat to celebrate the New Year. So those are my two things. If you don't know about Barefoot Dreams, blankets, you should. I think that Tommy and Jenna have the baby blanket version.

They make robes there. It's just a certain quality that works. And some people maybe don't like the texture, but I happen to love the texture. So it's worth a it's worth a peek if you don't know about it. Okay.

Now for today's topic, we're gonna talk about I don't know if I wanna call it atomic habits, but the topic is inspired by the book Atomic Habits, which sits in my office at all times. It's always here with me nearby because I refer to it. I think I like to remind myself often about how easy it is to create habits and stick with them. And so having this nearby is just a constant reminder. I even have pages marked that I mark once in a while, so then I go back and look at them.

Crazy. But I use that to inspire this episode, which is basically how to create consistent content without a Herculean effort. So why making good social media habits a part of your routine can actually make you more successful? So here's here's the thought. Consistency could feel hard, but it doesn't have have to be.

And a lot of creators fail not because they're not talented, not because they don't have good ideas, because they can't keep the consistency going. And it feels overwhelming, and so then they keep slacking off or they do phases where they do well, and then they slack off again. So it's really about creating a consistency that you can keep up with. And using that, this the thoughts from Atomic Habits to create good habits can really help you turn the game around. So I'm gonna share some of my, I guess, my favorite tips from here as I've related them to social media.

Alright? And this is really gonna help you if you're a person who can't stick with something or you you go go hard for a couple of weeks and then, you know, something gets overwhelming and then it's almost like the people who do the January exercise month and then they fall off by February. And I've never been that kind of person. I've always been very consistent with whatever it is I take on, and I think a lot of the mindsets I have come from this system, from James Clear's Atomic Habits. So let's go.

A lot of creators think that they can't do it because they think they need motivation, but what they actually need is a system. And it's not necessarily motivation. Motivation is there because you have a system that works, and it keeps you in in it keeps you in motion. So the system keeps you motivated. Okay?

So it's not the motivation first. It's the system you create, and then the motivation follows. The goal is to build content habits small and easy so that skipping them feels harder than doing them. You know? Like, you if make it so easy in the morning, like, if you don't if you think about I like to relate it to exercise.

Sorry. But if you think, oh, I have to exercise an hour every day, and you feel like, oh, I can never I'm never gonna set aside an hour, and you're constantly putting it off because in that hour, you have to do other things first or whatever. If you break it down and you go, I'm gonna do ten minutes at this time of day, ten minutes at that time of day, ten minutes at that time of day, and you break it up, that hour is not gonna feel so overwhelming. So that's just a system. I mean, I'm not suggesting to do that with content.

I'm just trying to explain that if you set yourself up for something that's too much, you are gonna fail because you're you're never gonna make the time for it. It's always gonna feel like a pain in the neck. It's always gonna feel like a disruption or, too big of a task. Okay? So you gotta reframe the goal.

To start things off, we're gonna try and identify things that are gonna help you and not make you feel more pressure. Okay? And the first one is you're not gonna say, I wanna post five times a week. Even though that might be your goal, you're not gonna say that. You're gonna start saying, I'm the person who posts consistently.

I'm a person who posts consistently. And this way, you don't have to feel that, oh my god. I skipped a day. You're gonna be like, that's okay. I post consistently, so I'm hitting it up the next day.

You're never gonna feel that, caught up by failing. So it's like you ate the cookie. You were on a diet, you weren't gonna or whatever. I hate to use the word diet because it's so, like, we're in an anti diet culture. But if you think you're gonna eat healthy, you're gonna do really well, and then you fall off it, that those people who don't who can't just regroup and get back on it, those are the ones who really fail spiral.

And it's the same thing with content. If you think, oh, I missed a day and now I didn't keep to my to my goal, I'm a failure, and then you stop. So, no. You're not gonna post five times a week. You're not gonna post every day.

You're gonna post consistently. And whatever that is is gonna be what it is. Okay? You're gonna say that to yourself. I am the person who shares ideas, consistency.

And that comes from who you believe you are, how fired up you feel about it. Because every post you create is creating your identity as a creator. So you're going to start seeing yourself as a creator. Now this is a funny, like, side story, but when I was in the pandemic, I didn't even know what a content creator meant. Isn't that weird if I think back?

I can remember not knowing, like, oh, a content creator. I I wanna be a content creator. I remember saying it and not even understanding what that meant. It's crazy to think about now. It's like not knowing what the Internet was, and I can remember not knowing what the Internet was and thinking it's a place.

Like, where is the World Wide Web? But where is it located? So it's hard to have that kind of thought when you are you know something so well you don't remember not knowing it. Same kind of thing, you know? If you it's like, I didn't know what a content creator was.

Anyway, I digress. But you're gonna start voting for yourself as a content creator. You're like, I am a content creator. Therefore, I post consistently. Okay?

So get the goal reframed in your head. It's not about posting something every day. It's about, I'm a content creator. What I do is I post. I post consistently.

And that's gonna really help because this whole saying to yourself, I have to I have to post a video today. Oh, the pressure. It's gonna start making you feel crazy. You're just gonna start thinking, I wanna share something today. I wanna share something consistently.

This week, I'm gonna share consistently. Okay? So that's how we're gonna do So habit rule number one is make it obvious. Decide when and where the content happens. And you're not gonna be doing, I'll post it later.

You're gonna decide when and where the content happens. So anchor your content to something you already do. And you could decide, oh, when I have my morning coffee, when I go for my morning walk, when I complete as soon as I take a shower, before I get into the next task I have to do, before I leave for my errands, You have to find a place and connect your content with that. Okay? This is a strategy, and it's a strategy I beg you to try.

And you can't you could be a person like me. Well, I'm never gonna do anything the same because I don't have a morning routine. I don't have an exact routine. I'm a little haphazard with it. But my routine is that I know that I'm gonna post something because I'm gonna share something in the course of a day.

So I don't have to anchor it with a thing because I know I'm gonna do it. I've already created the habit. Alright? You have to now create the habit. So attach it to something.

Attach it to a part of your day where it becomes a thing you do. There are a lot of people who record when they go when they go out for a run. I can think of some creators that I see where they're always making content when they're out for a run. Great. They're connecting it with that, and therefore, are consistent.

There are hi, Lorna. There are people who flip their coffee cup every day because that's their Lorna's content is attached to her making her morning coffee and saying good morning to her followers. That's amazing. That's a habit. And that little habit can go a long way because it's gonna make you forgiving about what you look like at the time.

You're just gonna do it. You're not gonna care. Oh, my hair's a little messy. It's not wasn't a hair wash day. Whatever.

You're just still gonna do the content because you're gonna be more connected to doing it when that happens versus doing it when I look better. Okay? So kind of work with that. Process that because I do think it's gonna help you reframe. Attach it to something that you know you're gonna do, and Julie and I did this recently when she we were gonna do journaling.

She's really good at journaling and I'm really not. I do it for a stretch and then I fail. I just I fall off the wagon. And her suggestion was, decide you're gonna do it before something else that happens that you do every day. So this is what I did, which is funny.

In the morning, because she's in California time and I'm in New York time, we start our workday together at noon. So I'll be doing work or whatever, and then at noon, I around noon, I hear from her, and she'll say hi, and I say hi. Good morning. Hi. Good morning.

We go back and forth. So I decided I'm gonna use that as my cue that I have to have journaled do a quick journal entering before I say hi to Julie. So then I just knew, well, oh my god. It's getting close to noon and she's gonna be saying hi. I better get my journal entry done.

So that worked for me. And that it worked for me for a long enough period of time where I did it consistently. But now I'm gonna be honest with you. This is terrible to say. I don't really care that much about journaling.

So I wasn't really like, no. I'm gonna be a journaler every day. So I did fall off the wagon because other things took priority because journaling is not my priority. Content creating is a priority. So therefore, that is my way of journaling more consistently.

My I always say that my TikTok is like my diary, which it kind of is because it's like you could see what I've been doing. And now it's a little tricky because I can't post my granddaughter on TikTok. So I it's a balance between TikTok and Instagram where my journaling is because she's a part of my life now that I can't quote video journal about on my TikTok as, you know, for the obvious reasons. So, anyway, I am, like, all over the place, but I think what I I hope that I'm communicating to you is if you're someone who needs to have an anchor point, this is a good thing to do. Anchor your content with something that is consistent in your day or anchor it that it's gonna happen before x happens in your day.

So you can't get to x in your day until you've made a piece of content. However it works for you, create that small little habit. Okey dokey. Make it obvious. That was that was number one.

Make it obvious and create that small habit. Habit rule number two, and this is the game changer one. Make it easy. Okay? You don't need more discipline.

You need less struggle to make it happen. You're not gonna sit there and go, I'm gonna make a transition every day, a transition video, if a transition video is a Herculean task for you. No. You'll pick one of those a month to do to try and then you'll have some fun with it. But you're not gonna make that your everyday thing.

Otherwise, believe me, you're gonna give up much quicker because it's gonna become frustrating faster. It's gonna take longer, and it's too much friction. It's too much barrier. Okay? So you have to shrink you have to basically shrink the habit down to something easy and doable.

One idea, one take, one minute or less, one sentence on screen, whatever it is, quick, less friction. How easy can you make it? Is it a quick trend today? Is it a quick speaking video tomorrow? Is it a quick highlight video of a couple of things, a couple of photos with some text or with some music?

Easy, easy is the goal. Okay? Because you have to make less friction. And if your content plan now includes perfect lights, perfect long you know, the perfect outfit, the perfect makeup, it's not gonna stick. It has to be the minimum viable type of content that still counts.

Now I'm gonna add into this because you could say, oh, but how am I gonna stay on my on brand if I'm just doing silly trend videos? Well, I'm not suggestion you suggestion. I'm not suggest suggesting. I can't speak. I'm not suggesting that you go off the rails and you start now just making a trend every day because it's a lot easier.

No. You still have to do the content within what your strategy is. What who's the audience you're trying to reach. So, let's see if I can give a very simple example. Let's say you are a content creator who is going to share her, Gen X life or life with pets or whatever that topic is that's gonna be the main goal.

I'll even use, Brooklyn Girl in India since I just did I just looked at your your account. So for somebody like that, she's a Brooklyn girl living in India, and so she should be posting about her interesting life with her Indian husband, the different perspectives they have, what she what her lifestyle is in India. So at the moment, if she's posting random just trends and lip syncs, but they have not no connection to what her username is and what her page is supposed to be about. It's a little bit of a wasted content. So if even it's a trend, it should tie back to something about her life.

So the example would be she when she did the John Ham Ham trend, it wasn't just her thinking about her day and then imagining herself in a club. It was oh, what was it? It was something about her husband oh, yes. It was her husband seeing snow and because he's from India, it's something unfamiliar to him, so he's like feeling the vibes of the snow. Okay?

So it was my when my Indian husband sees the first snowfall. Okay? That is interesting and connected to her brand, to her niche. So you want to make sure you're even if you're doing a quick piece of content, it has purpose and intent and intention and connected to your page. A lot of times when I do a simple transition, I like to try and make sure it's connected like when I know I'm gonna teach the tutorial.

Even if I'm doing a transition, it's just for fun. It's like boom. And when I do the transition, when I know I'm gonna teach the tutorial. Like, it's something to let people know that that's what I do. I teach how to do content.

So I try to bring it back to that. I mean, I do have some off the rails content that I post now that I have a solid following that is interested in my other content. But for the most part, when you're building your account, you need to stay somewhat in your lane so that you can find your tribe. Alright? Habit rule number three, make it attractive.

So pair your content creation with something you enjoy, whether it's your favorite music, whether it's, if you do like putting doing makeup, if that's something you like to do, attach it to that. Go, oh, I'm gonna do my content after I do my makeup because I love how I feel after I do my makeup. Whatever. I'm not saying don't do makeup. I'm saying don't make it a barrier to do makeup.

If you like doing makeup and that's like, oh, that's a great thing you wanna do, and therefore then you'll do your content, that's a good habit to create. Create a a ritual that sets you up for being creative. Your ritual is this is my creative time. How am I setting it up? Okay?

You wanna focus on how you're gonna feel after. This always goes back to after I go running. It's like, it'll make you feel better. I said that to Julie all the time. Go for a run.

It'll make you feel better because I always felt better after I ran for a run. It was mental mental freedom. I would spend time thinking. It wasn't and probably endorphins and all the things. But because I felt good after, I wanted to do it.

So think about even if you are a little bit like, I don't really want to do this right now, you are going feel so good after that you made your video. Know that you are going to feel so good after when you have that piece of content. Okay? And habit rule number four to wrap it up is to make it satisfying. So you want to track that you showed up and not I got a ton of views.

If you start getting obsessed with views, bummer. You are going to be bummed before you could even get past it. The people who are focused on views, their content gets worse and worse and worse. Why? Because they're chasing views.

They're trying to second guess what would have got better views. What would my audience have liked more? Oh my god. It is a downward spiral you will not get out of. I see it and I see it to a painful degree on big creators who are like spiraling.

I'm not even gonna say who, few of them have reached out to me, and they're like, oh, my views, my views, my views. That's because you're so obsessed on your views. You're not even enjoying making your content. You could see that there's so much effort behind it to be extra this or extra that to try to push the views or making videos about having low views. Oh my god.

Please. No. Okay? Like, keep it simple. You posted today.

Checkmark. Don't care if it gets 20 views. Don't care if it gets a 100 views. Feel good that you did it. Feel good.

It's there. I did it. This past week, I posted the most random because it was in between and it was the holidays and I was like, I don't even care. I posted myself making a wafer cake. I knew it was gonna get the shittiest views.

I didn't care. I was like, good, then I'll have that wafer cake out there. For anybody who happens to be looking for those Nabisco wafers, now they know how to make it without them. Even if it's for like 20 people. I don't care.

And this is the truth deep down in my soul. That's the part you have to feel. Feel the truth deep down that you don't care about how many views it gets. It's momentum. It's you showing up.

It's you being consistent, and someone's gonna come to your page and go, swing, swing. Wow. She posted day, day, day, day in those posts. Yes. I love it when I see it, when I go to audit someone and I'm like post, wow, they've posted consistently for a week.

That is good. That's what I like to see. Then I know this person is committed and this person isn't like going to give up after a week. Okay? That's what it is.

Because in the end you ready for this big statement that I wrote down? You don't rise to the level of your goals. You you fall to the level of your systems because if you don't make a system, you're not gonna be able to achieve your goals. If you don't make a plan, even if it's a plan that's loose, because my plan's loose, you know, even if you make a loose plan. I'm getting a little interruption in this.

One second, Jonathan. So if you have a plan, you're going have an easier time being consistent because you won't have to try and everyday hunt and pack and figure it out. I know that Julie's a big, really proponent of planning and she makes the systems for the studio. I will sit here and tell you, if we didn't have systems, it would be so hard to keep the thing moving and keep it exciting and interesting, even for me. It just it doesn't get old because I'm I'm refreshed all the time thinking about, oh my god, what we're gonna work on next month.

And it's constantly energizing for me and that's the only way to be energizing for other people. So if your content is energizing for you, it will automatically become energizing for other people and that's the energy that you put out there. That's how you attract people back. You're not going to get friends, friends in real life by sitting in a corner at a party and not talking to anyone. I don't know.

I don't know anybody. No. You got to get up. You got to chat. You got to meet people.

You got to make some friends. Make the effort, make the connections. In the same way, if you're sitting in a corner and you're not posting, because it's the same thing as not posting as sitting in a corner, you're not gonna even put yourself out there and make the opportunity to have friends and have followers. Okay? Consistency is removing the obstacles, not adding pressure and giving yourself space to be happy, fun, creative, feel successful and just live your new truth, which is you are a consistent content creator.

Okay, that's what it is for the new year. If you want to join the content challenge, we are hitting it up and we're going go and listen, I'm going to tell you right now, you could say, oh, I'm going to post every day. Don't say it. Just say I'm going to post consistently. And whatever that looks like is what it will be And you will be happy about it and you'll feel good about it and you're going to kick off the year in a positive way.

So if you're not a part of the studio, join the challenge. I'm sure you'll get a lot out of it. Even if you just try it for a month and get yourself in a rhythm. Plus you'll make some friends, you'll get some support and you'll feel all the love. All right, hopefully we'll see you there if you're not already there.

Thanks for listening as always. Thanks for being here with me and let's kick off the New Year on the right foot. Happy New Year everyone.