You’ve just created this program you love and finished your launch plan.

You’re supposed to start writing and setting up the email campaign, but instead you find yourself on Facebook. Then Instagram. Then checking your website pageviews. You go out to the kitchen twice. Then you think maybe you need to listen to another marketing webinar…

Deep down you know you should be implementing your launch plan…

But in this moment, you’re just not feeling all that confident about your ability to help people…

Because you’re a coach, healer or creative, you know this is all about mindset.

You should be able to just get over it, right?

The truth is, it’s hard to manufacture confidence.

For newer coaches, healers and creatives, marketing can feel intimidating. They’re putting themselves out there, and when they look at others in their industry, sometimes it’s all too easy to fall into the trap of thinking they’re not yet good enough to be doing their work in the world.

Remember, everyone starts somewhere.

Of course, someone with 20 years of experience in their field has more confidence than someone just starting out. Confidence grows with experience. It comes with DOING.  

When my oldest daughter started driving on her own, she was kind of nervous. Me telling her “Be more confident when you step in the car!” or “You’ll be fine!” wasn’t going to help. Not really. She couldn’t manufacture confidence on the spot, but she did need to keep driving. As she navigated new situations, and repeated familiar ones, her confidence grew.

It’s the same for you as a newer coach, healer or creative. You need to get clients so you can keep growing your experience, and your confidence. And you need to market to get the clients. And, yet, sometimes that’s hard to do when you’re not feeling all that confident…

It can feel like spinning in a circle. It can feel difficult, but it’s not impossible, I promise.

Here are five steps to help you out:

1. Start small.

When you’re facing something intimidating, start with the smallest, easiest step possible. When my daughter first started driving, she drove around the empty parking lot at her high school. Night after night, she’d slip the car into drive, and slowly advance up the painted rows. After a while she took on driving through neighborhood streets, then a busy thoroughfare, and after that merging on the Interstate.

Don’t tell yourself sit down and plan to write your marketing email campaign in one afternoon. Start smaller.

Break it down into littler tasks.

Start with thinking of one or two friends you’d like to tell about the program and send them an email about it. That email can become fodder for the more formal campaign.  

Or make a list of adjectives you think describe the program. Then make a list of the program’s benefits. Then a list of questions you think your ideal client might have, so you can address those in the copy, and so on.

Soon you’ll have all the components you need to pull the campaign together.

2. Be yourself.

I’m a different kind of driver than my daughter. More impatient, less tolerant.

Even though she’s been driving for several years now, I sometimes can’t resist the urge to tell her to speed up, or to pass, for example.

She’ll just smile and nod. And keep driving exactly how she’s most comfortable doing so.  Good for her!  

If you try to imitate other’s copy, taking sales pages and changing up a few words here and there to use as your own, or if you unconsciously start using words or phrases trending with influencers in your industry, your marketing copy will sound like it belongs to someone else. Or will be feel disjointed. Or hollow.

It won’t be effective.

Put YOU into your marketing copy.

If you’re exclamation point kind of gal, use them!!! If you love poetic language, sprinkle your prose with it. If you have a sense of humor, bring that in too.

But don’t do any of these things because someone else does and it works for them.

Do it because it’s you and it feels natural.

3.Don’t compare.

If my daughter had gone around expecting to be able drive the way her dad, who’d grown up in a country where the roads are crowded with people, vendors, bicycles and animals, drives, she would have been constantly discouraged.

It’s important for you to recognize where you’re at in your business development and to be OK being where you are. Yes, it’s okay to have people in your business you look up to but remember to keep things in perspective.

They may have more experience than you do. But they don’t have your divine gifts and talents. Or your voice.

No one else has that but you. And the world needs to hear it.

4. Find a friend.

As a parent, I’m a natural cheerleader for my girls, and did it all the time while my oldest was learning to drive. Noticing her strengths as a driver, pointing them out to her, complimenting good decisions, etc. all came naturally.

We all need to hear how wonderful we are.

When you’re getting ready to market your program and you aren’t feeling as confident as you’d like, reach out to your favorite supporter. Maybe it’s your buddy who you went through coach training with, or the first person you did healing work on for your certification program. Maybe it’s your sister, or your best friend from college.

Let them tell you all the reasons why they like you, why they think you’re a fantastic person, a great coach, a natural healer, etc. and then ride that energy as you set up and send out your marketing campaign.

5. Remember your why.

It was easy for my daughter to understand why she wanted to keep driving. She wanted independence and freedom. But for creative entrepreneurs, it’s sometimes so easy to lose sight of the deeper meaning of the work you do.

Yes, you want to make money.

Yes, you want to succeed in your business.

And, you’re also doing your work to help others.

As you think about marketing your services, and worry about feeling confident enough, try shifting your focus to your potential clients. Those who need your help.

Remember you’re doing this work for them.

It takes you out of the spotlight. Marketing then becomes a way to help your ideal clients find you and get the help they need.

It’s OK, and perfectly understandable, if you’re newer in business and don’t confident as you like marketing your services. Confidence is something that grows over time, and with experience, marketing gets much smoother.

For now, though, start small and stay authentic. Avoid comparison, find support and remember the people that need your help in the world. All that makes marketing your services become a whole lot easier.

Before long, you’ll barely remember how difficult marketing used to feel.

You’ll be cruising down the road, on your way home in your business.

Photo by Anthony Rossbach on Unsplash