Flow State Business

Why Your Content Feels Hard (and How to Fix It with Flow Science)

• Ruby Lee

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Today, we’re talking about creating content in flow—without the resistance, the rigid plans, or the pressure to follow strategies that don’t actually feel good.

I share:


✨ Why clarity in your message eliminates friction and makes content effortless
✨ The neuroscience behind creativity and how to activate flow state
✨ Why rigid content plans don’t work for everyone (and what to do instead)
✨ How to create spaciousness for ideas to land
✨ The mindset shift that made me fall in love with content instead of seeing it as a task


Whether you’re struggling to stay consistent or looking to make content creation feel lighter, this episode will shift how you approach it.


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 Hello everybody. Welcome back to the Flow State Business Podcast. I'm guessing you've clicked on this episode because you may be right now scratching your head on what kind of content to create for your business and how to also ensure it's magnetic and ensuring that it's speaking to your most ideal clients.

And I cannot tell you how many times I have conversations weekly about this topic with my current clients and how frustrated they are, or maybe it's not even frustration. They're just really trying to find the answers and they're trying to align, which comes from a really, really powerful place. Because when you're asking those questions of yourself and of your business, that's when really cool things happen.

So we're going to be talking about content creation today in flow. I don't remember the last time. I spoke about this. I don't identify as a content coach. I definitely don't talk about how I'm someone who can help you create amazing content for your business. I am definitely about ease and effortlessness and.

I love talking about product and pricing and messaging. Content is something that for the most part is what I just get on with and I get done. And that's been my mentality from day one. I understand the power of content and how when you say the right things, you make a lot of money. When you say the bland, boring, blending into the whole community and what everybody else is doing thing, you fall into major procrastination and that feeling of just being very bland.

So let's talk about this, but I, you know, me being me, and if you didn't know, I'm actually a certified coach. This is something that I don't really talk about too much, which I don't know why. Maybe I just don't value certifications as much. I have a lot. I have a lot. I've done a ton of studies in university, postgraduate studies, coaching with certifications.

All the things, but you'll never really see me advertise it. But just for the purposes of this episode, it's good context to know that I am a performance neuroscience certified coach, which is a big mouthful, but it does actually lead into some of the aspects around flow science that I want to bring in behind eliminating friction when it comes to creating content, because a lot of us overcomplicate the whole damn thing.

And then you get stuck in planning and. overthinking and forcing strategies that literally kill your creativity. But, you know, I really want to break it down and share with you some of the practical aspects of what I do. Also what I understand of the science and how our brain works in productive flow.

And ultimately bring you to the conclusion that. Content doesn't have to feel hard. It can feel very effortless. It can feel very flow driven and it can feel very magnetic. So one of my amazing followers on Instagram, shout out to Coby asked me how I stay so magnetic. And I have to say there's been an extra kind of magic around.

Definitely since November, like every single metric in my business right now,  killing it. It's doing so well. Everything has gone up. My following has grown across all platforms that I'm on. So as you know, my primary platform is LinkedIn. Where like, even last week, about 15 grand worth of services came through LinkedIn, Instagram is my second most active platform.

I actually do a lot more work on Instagram than I do on LinkedIn. Like on LinkedIn, I can post one thing. On Instagram, I have to post stories and I do reels. And then I answer a lot of comments and don't get me wrong. I do enjoy it. I love it, but God, my God, LinkedIn is just so much easier. It's just  a lot less demanding.

It's a less needy, you know, it's like you're less needy friend. And then you've got a friend who like needs you to answer all of their text messages. That's Instagram.  Then I have the podcast, which I absolutely adore. And that's pretty much it. I've stopped YouTube for now. I'm not on Tik TOK. I deleted the ad.

And I don't have any other platforms. So yeah, just thinking out loud, that's where I'm at. My email list has exploded because of the many chat strategy that I implemented since November. Engagement in every aspect of the word, every data, every single stat has skyrocketed. Like I've actually got a post Instagram feed.

If you want to go have a look, I've. Screenshot all of my data as well. So just go through my feed and go and find it. Everything is moving forward. And I'm telling you right now, it's not because I have this rigid content plan. I actually have none. I don't have anything to show for it. I don't have a spreadsheet.

I don't have a Monday. I don't have a Trello board. I used to have those things. Honestly, it just really. It really caused more friction than eliminating it. So you have to go with what feels good for you. I'm just speaking from my experience. If I had a really rigid content plan, it would definitely feel a lot more difficult.

And that's something that you have to decide for yourself. You've got to try both to understand it best. You can't just make a presumption. I've tried both and it's driven my team. Absolutely nuts because I know that they would love to have this and they would love to see what's coming out. My brain just doesn't work that way.

So this is where we want to talk about flow science and how that feeds into how you create, like take content creation out of it for a second, just creation. And when you're in creation, the flow that you're experiencing is really in its optimal state. 12 flow triggers. As identified by the grandfather of Flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

And he talks about how without creativity, a lot of the other aspects of flow gets very muted in, you know, I'm ad libbing here, but that's the way I have. Really taken on his work and understanding of it. So when you are in this state of creative flow, you are really at your best. You perform at your best, your brain releases this cocktail of neurochemicals. 

You've heard of dopamine. You've probably heard of serotonin, endorphins, of course, there's anatomy, there's neuroephatrine. Like there's so many amazing chemicals that really helps enhance focus, creativity, motivation. And like, I don't want to just sweep past a lot of these chemicals. I'll quickly try and explain it to you because I'll probably reference them quite a bit.

So dopamine is like your motivator. It's the reward chemical. This is what drives pleasure. This is what gives you that reward seeking behavior. It helps you really learn and goal set. And it increases when you achieve something. So the way that you can really bring on dopamine and one of my favorite strategies around this is setting small achievable targets and goals because the more you achieve something, the more dopamine is released, meaning that progress is made, meaning that you are setting very healthy challenges.

You're eliminating this like sense of procrastination because the reason why we're in procrastination is because the goal can sometimes feel so massive and so big. And it can literally be when it comes to content creation, open up the app and open up the bit where you select a photo. That could be one goal and then your dopamine levels will go up because you've hit that goal, you know, like I know I'm simplifying it, but that is literally what it feels like.

The next chemical that I want to talk about is Norephrine. I'm pretty sure I'm saying it completely wrong, but this is the chemical that is about focus and energy. This is what helps with the attention. This is what helps with alertness. This is what helps with also your response and reaction time to things, especially like when you're super stressed, how you respond to a problem and what you can do to quickly go ahead and problem solve that.

But it also really increases. So much energy. I definitely have a lot of this going around in my neurochemical cocktail in my brain, for sure. Too much of this can cause a lot of anxiety. So this is where I've spoken about giving yourself these flow breaks, these circuit breakers, where really your brain gets to a certain capacity after 90 minutes of deep flow.

So give yourself those breaks. That's when you go to the gym, that's when you go for a swim. That's when you read a trashy novel because too much of this really puts you in a state of. Restlessness and you have a lot of trouble relaxing and coming out of flow, which is a very dark side of flow, which is not what we want.

And I think one of the best ways to counteract this chemical, which works so beautifully for a 90 minute period of time is to have a nap or to go into a state of meditation. This is why I really love meditation in the middle of the day because it just settles everything down. There's also, uh, obviously, you know, serotonin.

So this is the mood enhancer. This is your happiness chemical. And what it does is that it regulates your mood and it really helps you sleep, digest better. Your social behavior is, you know, really on point. That's when you're like in a networking event or at a dinner with a lot of friends or a group of people.

And people are really drawn to you because they. Can sense that you just have this really beautiful emotional stability around you. So you can really optimize serotonin by the way, by getting morning, sunlight, serotonin is highly activated by natural light. And I'm not talking like getting out there in the 45 degree heat.

If you're living in Dubai or something, it's just natural light of any kind. Like even if you're out and it's snowing right now, because I know a lot of you are in the Northern hemisphere. There's beautiful natural light around. Just go for a walk and enjoy that. And you can also, you know, to enhance this beautiful serotonin chemical in your brain is to actually limit excessive caffeine.

You know me, I love my coffee, but I have really limited it. I used to be the girl that drank like five cups of coffee a day. No kidding. I now have one and a half cups, one and a half. Let's go with that. And it feels really, really good. The last one I'm going to talk about is endorphins. We know this, this is really like your natural painkiller.

And it really helps you reduce a lot of stress. It's like your natural, you know, paracetamol, so to speak. And it gives you a lot of joy. It's like, if any of you here listening are runners, it gets you on that runner's high. It helps you with a lot of emotional healing and. Resilience and busting through a lot of resistance, which is going to be the main thing that we're talking about today and how you optimize having a lot of endorphins in your system.

You know, no surprise, exercise regularly, get your 10, 000 steps. Just every day I get my 10, 000 steps. It's also where I get a lot of creative joy when I'm on my walks and I'm thinking about things and there's more spaciousness. Find ways to incorporate that in your day. It might even just be because it's Really freezing outside at the moment.

It's hard to get your steps and you can't afford a full on gym membership where you don't want to maybe look into having one of those, like walking things at your desk, like have a walking desk, you know, like I think they're actually quite available now on Amazon and things like that. So. That outside of exercise, definitely practicing gratitude.

Okay. Gratitude is a trigger of endorphin release. They've done so many studies on this. And of course it is like, if you think about it practically, that's how you find joy. That's how you find a lot of peacefulness. That's how you find. A lot of happiness. It makes you laugh. It makes you smile. That's really what we're looking for here.

Okay. So that's the basics of the flow science neurochemistry that's going on in your brain when you're creating content. And they are like, that's the cocktail that we're looking for here. I've given you some really quick tips on how to supercharge that, but let's get clear on your message and what you actually want out of eliminating resistance from content creation.

I really want you to just stop for a second. Like I've just thrown a lot of. information at you. So let's just take a breath, 

just like  five seconds of  calming down the frequency.  If you're listening to me at like 1. 75, it's probably one second just then  it still works  and just give yourself  space to think  space. 

The brain craves  clarity.  It really doesn't do well when you're overloading it with decisions. We all know what decision overload feels like. We live in 2025.  There's a lot going on. Most of my audience, we're in our thirties and forties. We've got kids and careers and lifetime goals and parents maybe that we're looking after now.

So many decisions. So when you're unclear in anything, you don't really know what you're doing. Like no duh. And the same thing applies when you're creating content for your business. When you're unclear on what you're saying, your cognitive load actually increases and you burn so much more mental energy and so much more creative luster just trying to figure it out.

That this creates resistance. So a very practical thing that might be happening right now is you've got a course that you're wanting to launch, and you know that you need to create content to get more eyeballs on your business. But for the majority of your day, you're overthinking what filter to use.

You're overthinking what trending cells to use. You're overthinking what one coach who's launching a course. And how they're creating that, do they, do you do a carousel, do you do a reel, do you post on LinkedIn, do you post the same thing on LinkedIn to your email list and all these things are you just trying to figure out and neurologically your clarity is reduced significantly because your prefrontal cortex right at the front of your brain, which is the part of your brain that's responsible for overthinking and self doubt is in overload and this Is not allowing your brain to enter into flow state more easily.

It's actually making it a lot harder. So space, the more refined your message is, the more your brain can automate the content creation process. So  how we do this is. At the start of your journey, when you've just started the business or even further along, you're just starting to get to know your offer.

Like every offer I feel is kind of like having a baby and you're trying to understand what this particular baby needs. Or if you haven't got kids, like if you get a new animal, what this particular cat, bird, dog, puppy, what it needs from you, every single. Living organism requires something slightly different.

We're not all the same and same goes with your content. So if you're not giving it spaciousness to actually tell you what it needs, and you're just like this, this, this, this, this, this, this, it's a lot. So in practice, what I want you to really look at is locking in the understanding of the core transformation of what it is that you stand for.

I stand for flow. I don't stand for hard work. Like some of my girlfriends, like this is the year of working hard. We're just going to every single entrepreneur I know has worked super hard to get to where they're at. I'm like, no, I don't believe that. I believe every single entrepreneur who's gotten to where they've gotten to feeling really good about it is because they've learned how to access their flow state to other people.

It's misunderstood as hard work, but to them it's understood as flow state. So you need to understand what you. At the core stand for, and put that in front of your, wherever you sit, like in your office, put that on your cork board, your whiteboard, put it on your phone so that you remember, I know that sounds silly cause it's your thing, but remembering what your core transformation is and what you stand for is going to be epic.

It's actually going to really help you burn less mental energy. Trying to figure it out. And this way you can just naturally allow the communication to come out in the best way. And that might be writing, speaking, visuals. I don't know, wrapping it out, things like that. The clearer the message, the faster your ideas are going to come.

And the faster the ideas come, the less friction exists.  Secondly, I mentioned this very quickly, so I'm not going to spend too much time on this. Rigidity, isn't going to give you rhythm. And for me, that was batch creating in bulk. My brain didn't want to work like that. And studies actually show, this is interesting, that rigid structures activate this block around your prefrontal cortex.

And it's, that's the kind of thing that suppresses a lot of creative thinking. And the willpower aspect isn't stronger than the flow of creative thinking. You can try and like push your way through everything.  I really want this point to be about creating and finding your personal rhythm rather than trying to rigidly make it happen for you.

And like I said earlier, the only way to understand what your natural energy peaks are, like simple questions are, when do you feel most creative in the day? If you had nothing major on your plate and you had a beautiful free day. When would you sit down and actually create some cool stuff? And if you can't think about that in your business.

So many of you are natural creatives. You play an instrument, you love painting, you're an artist. When do you like doing that? Is it first thing in the morning or do you kind of need to wake up first? So maybe it's not first thing in the morning where your creative chemicals are really at its best. It might be later on at night, we can light a candle and then that's when you can feel most, you know, at that state where you can compose music in a really beautiful way.

You know, so think about it from that.  I want this creative chemical in your brain to feel really naturally alive rather than forcing it to happen. Okay. And there's so much more that I can teach you about this, but this will be like a three hour long episode. The third point I want to make is, and I've made it probably at the start where I don't think that this can be said enough, make space, not just time.

Remember like when we made that space to just calm down the frequency, make space.  I'm going to say something which is probably a very unpopular opinion. Time blocking is not the same as creating space.  Oh my gosh, one of the things that really shit me about this certification that I did was this, oh my god, they had a module in there called calendar worship.

And it sounds exactly like the title, worshiping your calendar, time blocking every single part of your day. Like, I swear there was probably like in there a time to actually go take a shit in the toilet. I'm sorry, but that is literally to the extent they were teaching it. I'm like, guys, I had to put it into the chat, like in the coaching chat room.

I'm like, this just doesn't feel like flow to me. And this is where I disagreed with their interpretation of flow. Because I really think that most people think they need to make time for content, but time alone doesn't spark flow. Space does. Space does. And everyone's got their own opinion, but that's mine.

And there it is. Like I got fired up about it. Okay. Flow state to me requires this beautiful intuitive balance between feeling very challenged by what's to come. So the challenge might be, I want to get my message out there because it feels really exciting, but the challenge is, how do I help people understand what that is?

And then balancing that with the ease around it. So, you know, how do I easily get this out without tearing my hair out or just bursting out into tears because I put so much energy and two hours behind it. And I've only had one, like, that's not it. That's just your cognitive overload. And you just feeling into like way too much pressure around it.

You know, Ching Simi Hai, who's the psychologist behind flow science, he's done this research paper showing that when we are too busy or when there's just too much on our cognitive plate. We actually block access to flow because the prefrontal cortex is just so massively overwhelmed. It's like your circuitry is just sparking all over the place and overheating.

So this is what I want you to think about when protecting that white space. And that's what it feels like, this white space in the day for ideas to really drop in.  Effectively, just creating more space to have this mental downtime. I look around some of my most successful clients and I see how much space they create for mental downtime.

When I catch up with them month on month, the first thing we talk about is like, I dunno, just our beautiful walks that we've had in nature or the non work activities, how many facials and massages they've booked in for themselves, or not even that, just window shopping. Like getting into that space of, you know, this is really lovely, or just going on long drives.

And this is what allows the subconscious mind to really protect ideas. That's Simmering in the background and it needs to be nurtured and how you work in your rhythm and your cycles. And that's really where the deep flow wants to come through. Like, have you ever gone on a beautiful long drive and a beach walk, and you've been out in nature and you have this sense of like, I need to get on the laptop now because I know what I need to say.

And then the space opens up for you and like, nothing else really matters. Like emails are coming through or text messages are coming in from your friends and you're like, later, I'll deal with that later, or I'll answer them later it's because like your brain is just so ready and all those creative ideas have come up very naturally in your rhythm through space and it surfaces in the most easeful way.

All right. Lastly, I want to leave you with this. What keeps me really motivated? I'm a big believer in. consistency. And like, even when I started, I started with 100 days of content on LinkedIn. Guys, go and grab the free challenge. I nearly forgot to say I've got a brand new LinkedIn challenge. It's absolutely free.

And when you sign up, you'll get a hundred days of emails from me and don't worry. They're not long winded. They just literally like post ideas. So that way it takes the overthinking out of it, but it's not meant to be like copy and paste this and, and, you know, put your own throat on it and make it your own.

Then there's going to be, there's already 300 of you in the challenge. It's going to be 300 of you doing the exact same thing. Please don't do that. Make sure that you're making it your own, but they're just ideas. So it's like really helping you release that cognitive load. Go and check it out. It's in the show notes right now, a hundred days of content.

I'm just going to be honest with you. I know the majority of you will not finish the a hundred day content challenge because it will feel like overload. And this is going to be part of that beautiful journey where you get to look at how do I make more space in my life. So either way, it's going to serve you go and grab it.

But I really see that consistency game has come down to a belief system of mine. That content is a privilege, not a task. I truly see content as a privilege, not a task. And because my brain is wired to feel this. reward. You know how earlier we talked about dopamine and how it's like the motivational chemical, the reward chemical?

When I rewired my neural pathways and my belief systems in eliminating resistance of creating content, one of the core beliefs is because it's no longer like I need to do it, but it's such a privilege. And that's when like every day when I post, I get a bit of a reward rush and it feels amazing. And I can't wait to do it the next day and the next day and the next day.

And when something feels like an obligation, those dopamine levels, they really tank and motivation plummets, procrastination takes over.  And that's when you know you're not really doing something, not necessarily that you don't enjoy, but the belief that you put behind that is off. It's not right. But when something is framed as a privilege, when something is framed as a joy, the dopamine level spikes so high, it reinforces this desire to keep going.

And instead of you thinking, I have to create content today, or I need to stay consistent. Otherwise, otherwise, otherwise,  I choose to think  I get to create something that really helps thousands of people. I get to have this privilege to run a business that lets me share my ideas so freely. That shift activates this dopamine pathway for me.

If you could put like, you know, all those nodes on my head and my face, and you could see those dopamine levels spike. That's what you would see when I create content and that creates momentum and that's what makes it feel so effortless. This is the same exact energy that drove that first hundred day LinkedIn challenge, which led me to my six figures in a hundred days.

Once again, go grab it like right now, if you miss me saying it earlier, there's a new free challenge in the show notes below. I honestly started, like, it took about 10, you know, to 30 days for it to not feel like a chore, but once I broke through it, I started to see it as this experiment in possibility.

There's another belief. So if the privilege thing didn't quite hit, maybe it's like an experiment in possibility. Like imagine what would happen if I stayed consistent for a hundred days and I had no attachment to it and just allowed the content to be the content. Imagine what would happen. And the results changed everything for me.

You know, it really made everything so, so beautiful. So I hope today has really helped you think about how to eliminate that resistance around content creation. If it has, I'd love to hear from you. Come on over wherever you hang out with me, LinkedIn or Instagram.  I don't know if you listen to this off the back of the email that I send every week, letting you guys know that I've got a new episode out.

Just reply to that. I want to know what really struck a chord with you the most. I, this is a very, very big, I would say it's like an entrepreneurial epidemic of feeling so meh about content. I am definitely one of the most consistent creators on the internet. I'm not saying I've ever really gone viral or, you know, recognized for that, but I just know amongst all of my friends who are in the content game, if you're an entrepreneur online, you're in the content game, like newsflash. 

I just know that I don't miss a beat. It's so important to me. It's so it's the lifeblood of my flow. And it's the way that I reach out to you guys. And I tell you guys, everything's going to be all right. And it's okay. I've got you and going through what you're going through too. It's a privilege. It's a privilege.

Okay. So I love you all so much. If someone that, you know, really needs this episode, please share it with them. I really appreciate that. I love you all as always. Don't forget. You can pick the easy pathway and follow the flow of what feels good. I'll see you in the next episode. Bye, my loves.