The Lie of More — Why Doing Less Leads to Greater Impact
🔥 Episode Summary
“If the algorithm is your master, then burnout will be your reward.”
In this raw and timely episode, Jim Burgoon exposes the hidden cost of hustle culture for Christian creators—and offers a better way. You’ll discover why doing less, with more intentionality, leads to deeper impact, greater clarity, and Spirit-led momentum in your business.
Whether you're overwhelmed by content pressure, burned out by trying to "stay consistent," or wondering if rest is even allowed—this episode gives you permission to stop striving and start building from a place of peace, purpose, and partnership with the Holy Spirit.
Whether you’re burned out, overwhelmed, or caught in hustle mode, this episode is your invitation to shift from obligation to overflow.
💬 What You'll Learn
- Why social media burnout is so common for Christian creators
- How hustle culture masks itself as “progress” but drains purpose
- What the Bible says about rest and work
- Why doing less, with the Holy Spirit, can lead to deeper impact
- How to shift from chasing metrics to creating Spirit-led conversations
🧠 Key Takeaways
- More content doesn't equal more impact—often it dilutes your voice
- You weren't created to serve the algorithm—you were created to partner with God
- Rest is not laziness—it's obedience
- One post with anointing can do more than 100 clever ones
- Chase conversations, not clicks
📖 Scripture References
🛠️ Apply This
- Ask the Holy Spirit what to create before scrolling for inspiration
- Focus on 1 high-quality piece of content and repurpose it
- Build daily and weekly rhythms of rest into your workflow
- Let your content start conversations, not just impressions
- Trust God to promote what’s aligned with His purpose for you
🎯 Take the Next Step
- Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | iHeartRadio
- Leave a review on Apple Podcasts
- Share this episode with a friend
- Subscribe, like, and comment on YouTube
- Join our newsletter → www.leadwithjim.com
🎙️ Got a question? Leave a voice message at leadwithjim.com/ask
#FaithDrivenCreator #HolyHustle #ChristianEntrepreneur #ContentWithPurpose #RestIsObedience
Transcript
If the algorithm is your master, then burnout will be your reward.
Speaker B:Welcome to Online Business for Christian Creatives, the show that helps you build a business that honors God, fuels your creativity, and actually pays the bills.
Speaker B:I'm your host, Jim Burgoon, leadership coach, Faith first, entrepreneur, and a guy who's made just about every mistake so you don't have to let's get into it.
Speaker A:Hey, guys, welcome back to the show.
Speaker A:I'm your host, Jim.
Speaker A:And today's episode, we're going to cut through the noise of hustle culture.
Speaker A:We're going to stand in the face of the need to produce more and more.
Speaker A:We're going to see what happens when we stop chasing the algorithm and start chasing the Holy Spirit.
Speaker A:So today's episode is going to be part wake up call that says, hey, we need to step back from what the stuff that we're trying to do and actually partner with God.
Speaker A:And then the rest of this episode is part of permission slip to give you the permission to do less for greater impact.
Speaker A:With that being said, let's go ahead and get into it.
Speaker A:So let's call social media what it is.
Speaker A:It is a machine.
Speaker A:It is a machine that needs more of your attention.
Speaker A:It needs more posts, it needs more engagement.
Speaker A:It needs more of you.
Speaker A:And if you keep feeding it, it's never satisfied.
Speaker A:It's never stop being hungry.
Speaker A:It always wants more and more.
Speaker A:And here's the kicker.
Speaker A:The social media algorithm works in such a that if you don't produce what it's asking you to produce, it punishes you with less numbers.
Speaker A:It punishes you with less engagement.
Speaker A:And we don't want to be in a place where we're constantly in this fight or flight or this.
Speaker A:This push and pull of reward and punishment.
Speaker A:Because our master is not the algorithm.
Speaker A:We were not created to serve the algorithm.
Speaker A:You were created to serve Jesus Christ.
Speaker A:You were not created to be living in fear and in scarcity, in exhaustion.
Speaker A:You were created to build what God has asked you to build.
Speaker A:With honor, with integrity, with love, with compassion.
Speaker A:And doing it because you absolutely enjoy doing it.
Speaker A:And God's not running a popularity contest.
Speaker A:So I think with social media and trying to be the influencer and trying to do all these things that you see others doing, it becomes a popularity contest.
Speaker A:And then you find yourself looking at more vanity metrics and you find yourself, did I get the likes?
Speaker A:Did it get the shares?
Speaker A:Did I get the subs?
Speaker A:And God is not interested in a popularity contest.
Speaker A:No, he's interested in you and I creating impact that builds the kingdom of God across this world.
Speaker A:And social media, if done in the right way, partnered with the Holy Spirit, can amplify your message, amplify your reach to build the kingdom of God as God builds your business.
Speaker A:So now we have to get to a place where, when we ask when is more too much?
Speaker A:I mean, it sounds like a good thing.
Speaker A:If I do more, more people will be reached.
Speaker A:More people that are reached are more people that are impacted.
Speaker A:When I do more, I' reaching the fullness of what God puts in my heart.
Speaker A:Because I can get it faster.
Speaker A:I can get it, I can work harder, and I can hustle, hustle, hustle.
Speaker A:But here's the problem.
Speaker A:Creation, or the process of creation, doing more feels like progress, but in the end, it has nothing to do with progress.
Speaker A:I get.
Speaker A:I go back to the metaphor of the rocking chair.
Speaker A:If I.
Speaker A:If you know rocking chairs, you ever been Cracker Barrel, they still have them.
Speaker A:Or you had a grandparent that had a rocking chair.
Speaker A:But I remember being in rocking chairs, and you would rock and you would rock fast and fast, and no matter how fast you want on the rocking chair, it.
Speaker A:It never moved forward.
Speaker A:And there is the challenge.
Speaker A:When we create so much content, what happens is, is we're having the feelings of forward momentum without the progress.
Speaker A:And what we're finding is that it's creating burnout, it's causing our voice to be diluted, the quality has gone down, and we're silently and slowly getting to a place where it steals our joy.
Speaker A:And I, I don't know about you, but I don't want to create from a place that steals my joy anymore, because I did it for years.
Speaker A:I was creating just to create.
Speaker A:I was trying to help everyone.
Speaker A:I was trying to do things that says, oh, look at this, or, oh, look at this.
Speaker A:How does this make you feel?
Speaker A:And I was trying to do it as a pastor, as a content creator, as a digital podcaster and, and digital marketer and all these things.
Speaker A:But guess what?
Speaker A:I found the more I created, the more burnt outs I felt because I wasn't partnering with the Holy Spirit.
Speaker A:I was just hustling.
Speaker A:And behind the scenes was more of a husk of a person trying to just keep up with the Joneses, as they say in.
Speaker A:In.
Speaker A:In the creation process, as opposed to just creating more impactful content a little less frequently, but at a sustainable pace that creates consistency, trust, and value, that allows people to be impacted and the kingdom be built simultaneously while I maintain health.
Speaker A:And I lost that plot.
Speaker A:But you don't have to.
Speaker A:I mean, does that sound like you?
Speaker A:I mean, have you ever asked is, am I doing too much?
Speaker A:Is this enough, you know?
Speaker A:Or are you still trying to get the vanity metrics?
Speaker A:Are you still trying to create to the place where you don't have any joy in anymore?
Speaker A:Because the truth about less, and let's get into this part, is that.
Speaker A:And here's the.
Speaker A:Here's the wild part about it.
Speaker A:Less is where the power is.
Speaker A:And now this sounds almost anti equated.
Speaker A:This is like, what do you mean?
Speaker A:If I create more and more eyeballs, and that means more people can potentially be impacted.
Speaker A:Not true.
Speaker A:It's like less is where the power is.
Speaker A:Because when you create less, we do it with more intentionality.
Speaker A:Let me say the word again.
Speaker A:Intentionality.
Speaker A:Why do I say that word?
Speaker A:Because so many people create without intention that you just get bland content that really don't do anything.
Speaker A:You're not creating with the Holy Spirit.
Speaker A:You're not raising the quality.
Speaker A:You're not deepening your message.
Speaker A:You're not fostering conversation.
Speaker A:What we're doing is we're just creating to be out there and get the likes, but we're not having conversions.
Speaker A:We're not building our business.
Speaker A:We're not doing the things that are important.
Speaker A:That's why we have to do it with intentionality.
Speaker A:If you say in consistency, you want to post once a day on Facebook or do a podcast a week, I do one podcast every week.
Speaker A:That's my consistency for this podcast.
Speaker A:Then stay to the course and be consistent and do everything you can to make the 1 post on Facebook or the 1 podcast each week to be the highest quality that you can do in your ability at your current level.
Speaker A:And then learn how to do more.
Speaker A:Not more as in more content, but learn how to do what you do better.
Speaker A:Let me say it that way because I don't want you to get back into the contradiction of, oh, you just told me not to create more.
Speaker A:Now you're telling me create more.
Speaker A:No, I'm.
Speaker A:What I'm telling you is to get better at your craft so that when you do your one post a day on Facebook or your one podcast a week, it's the best you can do.
Speaker A:And now you're creating a quality because you're increasing your skill, because all of this is a skill set.
Speaker A:And as you increase your skill, you will increase your impact.
Speaker A:You will increase how people receive it.
Speaker A:Because now you're.
Speaker A:You're creating from a place of depth, a place of partnership with the Holy Spirit and A place of intentionality.
Speaker A:Because now you're looking for conversations that matter, not just eyeballs that make you feel good.
Speaker A:Because we have to understand that the world builds consumers, the world builds consumption.
Speaker A:I mean, think about how you look at social media.
Speaker A:Do you ever go in there and go in there as a creator and say, oh, I wonder how they built this post.
Speaker A:I wonder why they use this word placement.
Speaker A:Or do you go, oh, that was cool, and just skip by?
Speaker A:Because it's a consumption mindset, we need to look at it through creators.
Speaker A:Go to your favorite creator, go to your favorite podcast and say, what are they doing?
Speaker A:How are they breaking it down?
Speaker A:What are they using?
Speaker A:Are they using images?
Speaker A:Are they using video?
Speaker A:Are they using voice only?
Speaker A:What are they doing to create the thing that they're creating that has caused so much interest, that has caused so much impact?
Speaker A:And why are they doing.
Speaker A:Then here's.
Speaker A:Here's the kicker.
Speaker A:Here's the kicker and why it's so powerful.
Speaker A:How can I take the principles, not exactly what they're doing, because you can't do what they're doing, but how can I take the principles of what they're doing and apply it to my context, in my personality, to do better with what God has given me?
Speaker A:And I'm telling you, if you follow that, you are going to impact people in such incredible and deep ways.
Speaker A:Because now it's intentional.
Speaker A:You're learning instead of consuming.
Speaker A:You're creating instead of just living in the hustle culture, you're moving and partnering with the Holy Spirit to touch someone's life, as opposed to just creating to make your own ego happy.
Speaker A:So let's do less with greater intentionality because the power is in less, which, because here's where it comes down to.
Speaker A:And if we get back to the conversation, we're chasing clicks.
Speaker A:Like, when you're just creating more and more, you're just chasing clicks, because we think clicks equals money.
Speaker A:But if you have poor messaging and you have poor conversion, it just goes hands in hand.
Speaker A:So we got to shift that mindset.
Speaker A:I've already kind of mentioned this.
Speaker A:Let's chase the conversation, not the clicks.
Speaker A:Let's chase the interaction, not the vanity metrics.
Speaker A:Now, do we need to learn the metrics?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Because why?
Speaker A:Because metrics will.
Speaker A:Will give us indications of what people are liking and not liking, what they're engaging in and what they're not engaging is.
Speaker A:So your metrics, your algorithmic metrics should be one thing that says, hey, here's the one.
Speaker A:What they're responding to Let me make content more like this and less like this.
Speaker A:So those metrics will, analytics is another word for it will inform how we create.
Speaker A:But they shouldn't be our master that drives our creation.
Speaker A:We should be chasing the interactions because each person that interacts is a human that God loves.
Speaker A:And you're here with a message to get out there and share with them.
Speaker A:So let's interact.
Speaker A:And yes, part of that sharing is that you have a product you want to sell.
Speaker A:And part of that is allowing them to see the product that solves their problem in order to buy from you.
Speaker A:That is okay.
Speaker A:All of that is okay.
Speaker A:And that's what we want.
Speaker A:But we have to be less about the desperation of needing people to see us needing the attention and more about, I'm here to serve.
Speaker A:And let me chase this conversation because we want spirit led conversations.
Speaker A:That is a turning point in someone's life.
Speaker A:Think about this, like, just stop for a second and think, man, what if I just made a post and it was something that radically shifted someone's life?
Speaker A:How would you feel about that?
Speaker A:As opposed to, hey, this post got 45 clicks of people.
Speaker A:I have no idea who clicked it.
Speaker A:It.
Speaker A:I would rather have this be a spirit led conversation.
Speaker A:That's a turning point as opposed to anything else.
Speaker A:But what if this, what if this turning point led to healing, led to breakthrough, led to spark somebody to chase legacy?
Speaker A:All because you were less in the amount of content and more intentional in the, in what you're doing.
Speaker A:So the content has greater power, greater reach and greater impact.
Speaker A:We got to stop asking questions, who will this work?
Speaker A:And start asking the question, will this transform?
Speaker A:Stop asking the question, will this get a lot of clicks and start asking, will this create conversations that convert?
Speaker A:Do you see the difference in the mindset?
Speaker A:And this is why we have to really chase the Holy Spirit and not chase the hustle and not become slave to the algorithm.
Speaker A:Hustle culture tells us that rest is laziness.
Speaker A:But I'm going to tell you, biblically, rest is obedience.
Speaker A:God tells us to rest.
Speaker A:We're to produce or work from a place of rest.
Speaker A:And rest is, you know, we can define this as trusting that God is taking care of all the details and that as he does his part, he's calling me in to do my part.
Speaker A:But I'm going to rest or trust that God has got the whole thing settled out and he's going to lead me, guide me and direct me every step of the way.
Speaker A:And we live in this place, so we're not going.
Speaker A:What about this and what about this?
Speaker A:And what if this doesn't work?
Speaker A:And how if this doesn't work?
Speaker A:And what if this and in the cycle of fear and the what ifs?
Speaker A:Then I ask, well, what if it does work?
Speaker A:What if God has shown up in such a way that it really takes off and your business is being built more, more faster than you thought?
Speaker A:But if you're living in the fearful, what if you'll never see God working because you're always like, well, what if I do this?
Speaker A:What if I don't do this?
Speaker A:What if.
Speaker A:What if people like me?
Speaker A:What if people don't like me?
Speaker A:And we've got to stop building from this place of fear in this place of fomo, in this place of all these things, and start building from a place of rest, knowing that your business is going to take off when God wants it to take off, knowing that it's obedience to be restful.
Speaker A:It's not obedience to be hustling.
Speaker A:We work from a place of rest.
Speaker A:We don't work to hustle and grind.
Speaker A:It's the.
Speaker A:It's a difference in mindset through the Christianity, through the Christian mindset, the biblical mindset and the world mindset, they're two different things.
Speaker A:And I mean, Genesis even shows us God worked for six days.
Speaker A:He rested on the seventh, not because he needed to rest, but because he wanted something holy.
Speaker A:Rest is a rhythm.
Speaker A:Rest is resistance.
Speaker A:Rest is worship.
Speaker A:Rest is a rhythm.
Speaker A:I'm going in the place of rest.
Speaker A:I'm creating from the place of rest.
Speaker A:There's a rhythm to it, a heartbeat.
Speaker A:You're following the heartbeat of God.
Speaker A:Rest is resistance.
Speaker A:For two points, you're resisting the world.
Speaker A:Now, remember, Peter tells us that we're called to be counterculture.
Speaker A:We're called to look different than the world.
Speaker A:So we're going to get resistance because the world is going to tell us that we're lazy.
Speaker A:The world is going to tell us that we don't know what we're doing.
Speaker A:And then we're even going to have our own resistance because of the lies we told ourselves.
Speaker A:That if I'm not doing this ever shifting magic number of enough, then I'm not good enough.
Speaker A:I'm not talented enough.
Speaker A:I'm not going to make the sales.
Speaker A:That's.
Speaker A:There's a lot of resistance.
Speaker A:So live in the resistance and understand that God's got you and he's going to take care of you.
Speaker A:But there is going to be resistance.
Speaker A:And then rest is a place of worship.
Speaker A:Because when I worship or actually When I'm in a place of obedience and that, remember we said rest is obedience, then I'm following into the to the word of God and Jesus says, if you love me, you'll obey me.
Speaker A:So if I rest, guess what?
Speaker A:I'm obeying him.
Speaker A:So therefore I'm demonstrating my love.
Speaker A:And what is worship other than demonstrating our love for our Creator?
Speaker A:Let that sink in for a second because I'm going to tell you, and this is a bottom line thing is the anointing of God will get you further than your creativity ever will.
Speaker A:One post with the anointing is going to dynamically shift everything.
Speaker A:Instead of a hundred posts with your cleverness, just let that, let that hit you.
Speaker A:So we start creating out of overflow, not out of obligation.
Speaker A:Which brings us to starting to land this plane of this episode.
Speaker A:And we're going to say, how do we create less but with more impact, right?
Speaker A:Because I always want to make sure that every episode we have some practical tips.
Speaker A:So, so here's here.
Speaker A:So we're going to step on some toes here.
Speaker A:And the first thing we're going to say is check with God first.
Speaker A:Not Instagram, whatever your flavor of social media.
Speaker A:Like don't scroll for inspiration, go to the Holy Spirit for inspiration and then you can scroll to look for, for things that match the inspiration that you're given.
Speaker A:I think we do it backwards.
Speaker A:We go to inspiration through social media and then we say, hey, Holy Spirit, what do you think about this?
Speaker A:Why don't you say Holy Spirit, what is the inspiration?
Speaker A:What would you have me create today?
Speaker A:And then go to Instagram, tick tock, Facebook, podcast, whatever.
Speaker A:And then see what's out there that matches the inspiration that God has already given you.
Speaker A:Here's, here's the thing.
Speaker A:Inspiration from God first creates anointing in it.
Speaker A:Inspiration from Instagram first creates hustle.
Speaker A:You choose.
Speaker A:The second thing is we're going to focus on one piece of good content, not five.
Speaker A:Now I am a big person.
Speaker A:Excellence over volume.
Speaker A:So there should be some place where you're doing long form content.
Speaker A:I do a 20 minute episode for my podcast and then once created, I'm going to places like Opus Clip.
Speaker A:And what I'm doing is I'm going to let that be cut up and then I'm going to use it on all throughout my social medias.
Speaker A:I'm not recreating anything, I'm just using things I already did and I'm repurposing.
Speaker A:So remember, we're creating one great piece of content and just repurposing into other places.
Speaker A:So that's, that's number two.
Speaker A:Number three is what we really want to get down into is build space for rest into your routine now.
Speaker A:Create sabbatical moments.
Speaker A:Now you can put a whole day with this, you know, sabbatical days, but you could do moments.
Speaker A:Maybe you go through the day, says through my greatest time.
Speaker A:And this is me personally, my greatest time of is somewhere between like 10, 11am and 2pm and then after 2, I just crash because of my illness.
Speaker A:But.
Speaker A:And before that, it's hard for me to get going.
Speaker A:So those are my creation times.
Speaker A:So what I do is I try to create as hard as I can in those times.
Speaker A:And then after that, I'm going to take a period of rest.
Speaker A:We get dinner together.
Speaker A:I watch a show with my wife because I want Sabbath routines every day.
Speaker A:So take care of your health first, not your socials, let's say it that way.
Speaker A:So here's the thing.
Speaker A:Let your content, here's the next thing.
Speaker A:Let your content be the conversation starter, right?
Speaker A:You're serving your people through conversation because conversation creates dialogue and dialogue drives us deeper.
Speaker A:This is where the iron sharpens iron.
Speaker A:And it's sometimes it's hard truth that opens up deep conversations.
Speaker A:But you have to be able to share your voice and your message and allow feedback from others, even if they disagree with it, so that you can have great dialogue and great conversation.
Speaker A:And the other thing is trust that God is your promoter, not the algorithm.
Speaker A:It's going to hit exactly where it's supposed to hit, who it's supposed to hit, how it's supposed to hit, when it's supposed to hit.
Speaker A:The algorithm can do the algorithm things, but guess who is in charge of all of it?
Speaker A:That's right.
Speaker A:Holy Spirit.
Speaker A:It'll get where it needs to get to, when it needs to get to.
Speaker A:So trust him, trust God and you will get exactly where you need.
Speaker A:And let's get into the final encouragement and then of the episode.
Speaker A:So here's what it is.
Speaker A:I want to say this with all love.
Speaker A:I want to say this with all encouragement.
Speaker A:Let go of the idol of more.
Speaker A:Let go of trying to be enough.
Speaker A:Let go with trying to do enough.
Speaker A:You can't even define enough.
Speaker A:Like try to define it for me.
Speaker A:Really, you can't.
Speaker A:It's subjective.
Speaker A:So we want to make our content strategies devoid of fear, devoid of anxiety, devoid of keeping up.
Speaker A:That's not a strategy, that's a stronghold.
Speaker A:And if you're in that stronghold, then you have an idol.
Speaker A:And we want to start tearing that down brick by brick is what Corinthians tells us so that we can build something with God and not for applause.
Speaker A:Build something with God and not applause.
Speaker A:Build something that has God in it.
Speaker A:Something that, where you can breathe, pause, recalibrate, create.
Speaker A:Because our Father is a heavenly creator and we're in his image, so we are creators.
Speaker A:But you can't create it from an empty cup.
Speaker A:You've got to fill your cup up.
Speaker A:Take your time of worship with God, take your time of creation with God, and do it.
Speaker A:Do it from a place of sheer joy and passion, not devoid and flat.
Speaker A:Because I want heaven in it and I don't want the world in it.
Speaker A:And that's just really comes down to and if this hits you in the gut today in the best way, possibly, I don't want to just gut punch you and say, hey, boom.
Speaker A:And just leave you there.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:If this hits you in the gut in the best possible way, I want you to invite you to share this episode with somebody who needs it.
Speaker A:This is a message that most Christians are struggling with, but I want to be able to bring freedom, breakthrough.
Speaker A:Share this message.
Speaker A:If you really want to help the show, leave a review and just let us know how the show is.
Speaker A:You can also send me an email.
Speaker A:Jim leadwithjim.com if you have any questions or you would like to ask questions for future shows, you can go to leadwithjim.com I do have a section called Ask.
Speaker A:You can leave them, leave me a voicemail and we can talk about things and have conversations.
Speaker A:And if you leave a voicemail, you may be shouted out on a future episode.
Speaker A:I want you to know that I will play the voice clip and we will answer the question on a future episode.
Speaker A:Thank you for making it out with with me here so far.
Speaker A:You know, it's an honor to have these conversations.
Speaker A:It's an honor to create these things in, in conjunction with the Holy Spirit for you.
Speaker A:With all of this being said, with all of this episode, I hope it landed correctly with you and I'm praying for you and I'm praying that God takes you, removes that idol so that you can create greater for greater impact to a greater audience.
Speaker A:And with that all being said, we'll see you on the next episode.
