How to Stop Overthinking Your Content (When You Already Know What to Post)
You don’t need more information. You need permission to stop looking for it.
I want you to meet a woman I’m going to call Linda. She’s not one person. She’s about fourteen of them, mashed together, which means if you see yourself in her, you’re in very good company.
It’s Tuesday morning and Linda finally asks her question out loud. It’s directed at the person she pays to answer these kinds of questions.
Her hands are a little sweaty, though that could be the question or it could just be Tuesday, hard to tell these days. She asks what she should focus on first, Instagram or her email list.
The answer comes back in about four seconds. Instagram. No question.
Linda writes it down and underlines it twice. This is good. This is decisive. She’s a decisive woman. She’s made decisions with far more on the line than a Tuesday Instagram post.
By 6pm She Had Six Hooks and No Post
By Tuesday afternoon she thinks she has a plan.
By Tuesday at 4pm she has a hook she likes, mostly, though she wonders if “likes” is doing too much work in that sentence.
By Tuesday at 6pm the one hook has become six hooks, none of them quite right, and a brand new question has wandered in and made itself at home. She’s been fighting with AI for about an hour, trying to get clarity. But wait. Should this be a Reel? A carousel, maybe, since somebody in a Facebook group said carousels are performing better right now. She goes in search of that post in the Facebook group. Hmmmm. It’s dated March, of LAST year. It’s July. Maybe it’s old intel.
Maybe she should just wait. Not long. Just until she can commit to being more consistent, because showing up once and disappearing for three weeks is worse than not showing up at all. Somebody said that too. She was paying attention!
She opens a new tab.
The Google Rabbit Hole
Hold on. When she asked her question that morning, the answer was simple. Now it seems too simple. The coach who answered the question probably simplified it because she thinks Linda can’t handle the full answer. There has to be more to it.
So Linda decides to Google “should I start with Instagram or email list 2026” real quick.
One article says email. Another says Instagram is dead. A third says Instagram is NOT dead and anyone who says it’s dead is lying to sell you a course. She checks who wrote that one. A 26 year old. Ummmmm. What does he know? He wasn’t even alive when Linda bought her first home computer.
Maybe she’ll ask her friend Debbie. Debbie did that program with the other gal last year. Although Debbie also told her celery juice would fix her sleep and she’s still up most nights at 3:14am, sweating through the sheets like she’s being slow roasted, so Debbie’s credibility is currently under review.
She’s decided. She’ll just sit with it. She’ll decide this weekend. She’ll put it in her planner, the pretty one from January. Then she realizes she doesn’t know where that planner is. So she heads off searching and finds it, under the printout from the free masterclass with the OTHER lady, the one with the good hair.
Oooohhhhh….maybe she should rewatch that one too, just to compare? It feels irresponsible not to compare. This gal has decades of professional experience. Linda knows better than to make an uninformed decision.
Wait. She realizes she’s already had the answer to this. She’s had the answer for fourteen hours and she still hasn’t posted exactly what her coach told her to post.
The Part Linda Never Saw Coming
Here’s the part Linda never saw happening.
While she was somewhere between tab six and tab eleven, a woman I’ll call Georgia was scrolling, looking for exactly the kind of answer Linda had already drafted four days earlier and never posted. Georgia didn’t even know that Linda offered this kind of help. She found somebody else instead, over paid for a course, got about a third of what was promised, and watched that course creator vanish into the algorithm the way these people tend to do.
Now Georgia is a little more careful, a little more burned, and a lot less likely to hand her credit card to the next woman who shows up with an answer, even a good one, and even if that woman turns out to be her friend Linda.
Linda never knew any of that happened. Three weeks after the call where she had her answer, she’s still deciding between the carousel and the Reel. The planner is still unopened. The tabs are still open, though a few new ones have joined them.
You get the gold medal, Linda. In the overthinking Olympics
Overthinking Isn’t a Character Flaw
I didn’t invent this woman. I’ve watched some version of her spiral in my own group calls more times than I can count, and if I’m honest, I’ve caught myself in the exact same loop over decisions that had nothing to do with Instagram.
Overthinking isn’t a character flaw. It’s just what happens when a decision feels bigger than it is and there’s no one standing next to you saying, that’s enough research, go post the thing.
The fear of making a misstep, being misunderstood or promotional/cringe-y is real.
Three Questions If You Saw Yourself in Her
If you’re seeing a little too much Linda in your own patterns, try working with these three questions.
1. What am I afraid will happen? Keep asking yourself this SAME question. There will be layers to your fear. Keep asking until you feel the answer in your body. You know…that, “Omg, THAT is why I spin!”
2. What do I need to feel safe and confident? Keep asking this one, too. Peel back the layers. Get to the heart of it
3. What can I do to overthink less and take more consistent action?
Journal on them. Daily. Think about them as you stare into the flames of a campfire. Process them out loud with your business besties.
Hopefully, you’ll get closer to understanding why you’re holding yourself back.
If you’re like most of the women I work with, you might be wondering why ALL of your efforts on social media have rarely (if EVER) turned into a client.
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