Getting Real About My Motivations in Content Creation
Discerning our true motives to create content and build a business online
We need to talk
As Catholic creatives and business owners, we don’t talk honestly enough about this.
To start, let’s contemplate on some tough questions.
I admit, they’ll be difficult to answer truthfully.
But from here, as we get really (though painfully) honest with ourselves and each other, we can take our creative and entrepreneurial path to a deeper, spiritual level.
Ask yourself:
What truly motivates me to create and share content online?
Why do I actually want to start and build an online business?
If God were to look in my heart right now, what would he see and say are the real roots for why I put in all this work on social media and in the digital business space?
From personal experience
I’ll start with the most common, obvious, and pervasive reason why many of us creative Catholics feel compelled to fervently create content and launch an online business: the promise and attraction of making money.
I’m certain this has happened to you too: You’re scrolling online, and you’re flooded with images of influencers with uber-successful personal brands on social media, who look like they’re just living their best life.
They look so incredibly rich and problem-free while they show off their big modern houses filled with beautiful furniture, their fancy expensive cars, international luxury vacations, state-of-the-art home gyms… and they get to enjoy it all with their perfect, happy family.
As we watch with resentment, we’re then left frozen, our eyes fixed on the screen, our chest heavy with fear of missing out.
Inevitably, we wonder
The next question without fail, eventually surfaces.
Challenging ourselves pridefully, and bubbling with envy, we ask ourselves:
“Well now, how can I have all that too? If they can get rich like that, just from being content creators and online business owners, how can I get a piece of that for myself?
As we’re bombarded with influencers’ perfect posts that only make us feel jealous and lacking and wanting, from deep within our bones, our minds spin and buzz with all this longing and possibility.
Our hearts groan as we grasp at the idea:
How can I successfully use the online space so that I too, can make more money?
Oh, and not just make some little money, you know.
I’m taking about making that real, freeing money like them - that kind of recurring earnings that make it possible to build my dream home, take my family on Insta-worthy vacations, enlarge my investment portfolio, pay off my mortgage, clear my credit card debt, secure a college fund for my kids, eliminate my own student loans, grow my savings comfortably, afford nicer things, give more to the poor, amass a mounding emergency fund, etc. etc. etc.
I want to make that same kind of money that makes me feel like I’ve made it too!
We all want to know
You’ve had this dream-vision for yourself like me, surely.
And ultimately, this is the same question and same sentiment that fires us up as content creators and online business owners.
How can I use social media and the digital world - to make a lot of money too, so I can also be a member of the Truly Rich Club?
I’m tired of feeling financially insecure, like I’m behind in life, so even as tacky and superficial as it sounds: Yes, my quest for money is my greatest motivator.
Now I’ve listed all these common money motivations and sentiments above because ever since I started taking Catholic content creation more seriously back in 2020 during the pandemic, I honestly share this with you - often times, I’ve asked the same questions!
For me too, it’s the attraction of money and the promise of financial gain that over the years have sparked me, sustained my interest, and kept me enticed to create and coach online.
Money misunderstood
But here’s the hard lesson I’ve learned, whenever I’ve elevated money as my top motivation to create online.
Feverishly reaching for more money and running wildly after this idyllic life as my primary motivation to be a Catholic creative and business owner, never felt satisfying enough to be my most lasting and meaningful reason to create and be more visible online.
The shiny, glistening, siren-song of money, eventually rotted my work as a Catholic creative.
Whenever financial security became the dangling golden carrot that I kept pursuing, I only ended up burned out, anxious, and impossibly content with my creative work.
Tragically, I ended up forgetting and dismissing altogether, the spiritual source and purpose of my vocation and calling as a Catholic coach and speaker.
As I’ve tried to climb that influencer mountain the past 6 years, I’ve had to painfully learn the hard way that primarily going for more and more money, quenching that unquenchable thirst for financial gain, and feeding my never-ending appetite for more monetary success - only harmed me.
Not only was my focus on money and my lofty financial dreams distracting and misleading me from the real reason why God even planted those creative and business goals in my heart in the first place, my attachment to financial growth was diminishing my soul.
Instead of following God’s will, I followed money.
Instead of focusing on my craft, I focused on money.
Instead of desiring to lead a virtuous life, I desired money.
Instead of serving others, I served money.
Getting money out of my mind
It wasn’t until I stopped glorifying money as my sole motivator so I could instead offer my best and sincerest work online, that my joy as a Catholic creative returned.
I realized that pursing money wasn’t enough to make me happy. Money could and would never make me feel whole. Because instead of fulfilling me, chasing money was corrupting me.
Here’s my overall point with this reflection. It’s not that money in itself was the problem.
It’s my LOVE for money, my adoration for making more money, and my coveting being “rich” like others that became just absolutely ruinous for me.
As I chased all the most lucrative ways to earn money and grow my business online as a Catholic content creator, my desperate and misguided pursuit only poisoned my creativity, strained my relationship with my husband, tampered with my sincerity to help others, polluted my calling as an evangelist, and surely worst of all, my fear of not having enough only diminished my faith that the Lord will provide.
For the love of money is the root of all evils; it is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced their hearts with many pangs.
- 1 TIMOTHY 6:10
Rich but poor in what matters
Now, let’s circle back to my questions at the beginning of this post.
To be transparent, let me share my personal answers.
At the height of my greed, when money was my only and biggest motivation as a content creator and coach, my answer would be:
What truly motivates me to create and share content online? Money.
Why do I actually want to start and build an online business? Money.
If God were to look in my heart today, what would he see and say are the real roots for why I put in all this work online? Money.
If these answers feel familiar, and resonate with you too, please know that I’m not judging you at all, because I understand.
As a parent with young children, I know the pressure and obligation to help provide for them.
Like you, I want to enjoy with my family a good, thriving, comfortable life.
I also want to feel like I have vast financial options, stability, flexibility and freedom.
And I even know how it feels to believe (falsely) that being unashamedly motivated by money is the only thing - the one true thing - that’ll get us to that pot of gold at end of the rainbow.
I’ve realized though that even though money is commonly the greatest motivator here in the online space, I’ve had to learn the hard lesson that money can’t be the main reason, it shouldn’t be the the only reason, it’s not the most important reason, why God is calling us to create a platform, share our gifts, and build our presence online.
Go for what is good, true, and beautiful
There are greater and worthier reasons why the Holy Spirit moves us to pick up our phones, open up our laptops, and put ourselves out there.
And as hard as it is to admit, it’s not just about money.
We are called to be creative and productive Catholics online - not to be rich.
Because there’s more to success and abundance and flourishing - than just making some money from our online efforts.
There are more enriching reasons to be online, than just creating for money.
There are more gratifying and rewarding ways to take up space in the digital world - than just chasing wealth.
Doing a new thing
In my conversion away from being so money-charged and money-hungry, I’ve since archived all my previous work soiled by my greed, and decided to start all over again, to rebuild from scratch, but with cleaner intentions.
This time with a commitment to co-create with the Lord’s blessing, guidance, and commission for me to serve others and show up online without being motivated primarily by wealth as a Catholic coach, speaker, and encourager for Catholic women.
Thanks be to God, money is no longer my anchor, money is no longer my north star as a Catholic creative.
Discerning what the Lord wants me to do with my charisms and creating from a place of selflessness and humility has made all the difference in me feeling fired up and on purpose for the right reasons again in my work.
New questions to ask
So you’re ready to pivot too, great!
It’s time to turn your heart away from using money as your creative and entrepreneurial fuel.
Here’s what’s likely swirling in your mind at this point.
Okay Khristine, I agree. Money isn’t everything.
Money can’t be my main motivation when I create and build my online business.
Yes, I need to let the Lord lead my motives, have faith that God will provide, and remember that Jesus, not money, is my only Savior.
But as a Catholic creative and online business owner, if not money, then what else can motivate me?
What other incentives can inspire me to do my greatest work online, and still keep God at the center of creativity?
If prioritizing money isn’t the right motivator, and if seeking financial gain just hurts my soul, what then are alternative motives that can uplift my intentions, efforts, and priorities as I show up to create spiritually online and build a faith-based business?
Let’s contemplate and course-correct together
This is what we’ll cover for the rest of the week. We’ll continue to explore non-financial motivations for us to focus on and invest in, aside from just pursing money and prioritizing our earning potential so we can show up online authentically to express our creativity and build a meaningful faith-led business, without being consumed by money, without sacrificing our souls.
In the next few days, I’ll share some personal stories of my own failing from greed, and falling from pride as I allowed money to solely motivate me in my creative efforts and business pursuits.
Burned out and disappointed
Back in 2020. When money was my number one motivation to create content and launch a business online.
We’ll reflect more deeply on what should be the greatest and most gratifying motivator for us, so as fruitful Catholic creatives, we can finally aim to create and build online not just to fatten our wallets, not to keep up with the Joneses, but to truly please the Lord, to fully trust in His great providence.
What does it profit a man to gain the whole world and lose his soul?
- ST. IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA
Follow for more heart-opening spiritual business foundations.
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