How to Show Up Online Even When You’re Overwhelmed Offline
Not everyone likes posting online.
Some of us (achem) went decades avoiding it. As I write this blog entry, several sources in offline life have me feeling overwhelmed, and writing content is the last thing on my mind.
At KNG Services, we know how hard it can be to consistently produce thoughtful and authentic messaging for ourselves and our clients. Between building our personal, professional, and client platforms, launching an author brand, and keeping up with our regular blog, it can be easy to find a reason not to show up consistently.
But thought leadership, like content marketing, is a long game, and showing up is half the battle.
A platform of consistent and high quality thought leadership can lead to new and increased business opportunities, but we know staying consistent isn’t always easy. Here’s our approach to showing up, even when it’s hardest.
Showing Up Matters
Social media feeds, articles, websites, personal branding: a digital presence has become the new way to build credibility. When people want to know who you are and what you stand for, they search for you online. You can have greater control over what they see with consistent messaging across multiple platforms through targeted thought leadership.
In fact, 70% of decision-makers and executives say consistent, high-quality thought leadership is very likely to positively influence their opinions of the thought leader’s company. Seventy-three percent say "an organization’s thought leadership content is a more trustworthy basis for assessing its capabilities and competencies than its marketing materials or product sheets." (2024 Edelman/LinkedIn Thought Leadership Study).
Consistency is how you stay top of mind. Through authentic and well-founded content representing your unique perspective, you build familiarity and trust. But it takes sustained visibility to support that growth. And nothing happens if you never show up at all.
Understand Your Barriers
Content creation can feel overwhelming. Sometimes it seems like I do it all day long, and I often struggle with that consistency.
The first step is to understand what’s getting in the way. It’s not always a lack of ideas making it hard to follow through. Ask yourself:
Do I worry about having the time?
Am I unsure where to start?
Do I fear that what I have to say isn’t original or valuable enough?
Am I afraid of being criticized or misunderstood?
Do I feel overwhelmed by the pressure to be perfect?
Have I internalized the idea that visibility is no more than vain self-promotion?
These are real barriers, and naming them is the first step to moving past them. Time management tools won’t help if the real issue is fear of judgment. A scheduling platform won’t solve perfectionism. Acknowledge your patterns and you can build systems and seek support to address them directly.
According to 2025 McKinsey research, leaders who operate from a higher state of self-awareness are also the ones who create the most enduring impact. Self-awareness, vulnerability, and humility dramatically improve decision-making and influence. By understanding what blocks us, we can more easily clear a path to find a way through.
Simplify Your Strategy
When facing overwhelm, a good first step is to simplify. The word “consistency” only seems scary if it means being online and producing every day and everywhere. But rather than more effort, consider creating consistency through simpler, smarter systems:
Streamline: Maximize your efforts by targeting one platform (LinkedIn is a good professional place to start) before branching out into others
Repurpose: Remember that not everyone sees every post. Reduce, reuse and recycle. Revisit past blog entries or high performing posts and turn them into carousels, updates, or quotes
Framework: Design a structure to use as a template for your chosen platform — from insight to anecdote to takeaway
Focus: Keep each post centered around one main idea at a time instead of trying to say everything at once
Build Systems You Can Stick To
Don’t rely solely on creativity on demand. Consistency can also be a matter of preparation for times when showing up is hardest. Build a content creation system you can maintain. Block off one hour per week to:
Batch two or three posts
Work on completing one monthly blog
Comment, engage, and be visible for your desired audiences
Leave notes, set reminders on your phone, or use a scheduler to remind yourself to be consistent when it’s the last thing on your mind. You may still overthink every word. I still do. But with a good system in place, I get more done with less stress.
Remember Your “Why”
We all hit walls. Obligations stretch us thin. Work burns us out. Some weeks, nothing feels worth saying.
But we keep going because consistency builds influence. At KNG Services, we want to influence executives to leverage our thought leadership services. Consistently showing up means keeping the dream of our small business alive.
We believe leaders today have an amazing opportunity to use their voices to positively impact their team, their consumers, their industry, and the way others do business. In a world where silence leaves others to shape the narrative, the way you show up matters.
It doesn’t have to be every day. Just consistently, with authenticity and alignment.
Ask yourself: “If I had 30 seconds to tell the world the kind of leader I am, what would I say?”
Start there. Then work on simple content systems that protect your time and maximize your influence.
