Last week I wrote about how marketing your business is usually what makes it feel real and how that often brings up a fear of being visible. That's important to understand that because it's easy to keep yourself busy with doing a lot of the little mundane marketing tasks and see them as really important, yet, you know if your heart that you're not taking the steps you need to take to be visible in showing up for your business.

There's something in that post though, that I want to explore a little more deeply.

It's the writing it down part of marketing that's one way it starts to feel real.  It could be writing down your Authentic Core Statement (who you help and what you help them with), your offer, your Home Page copy or a sales page.

Writing is what turns an idea, a thought, a way of doing or being or approaching things into something concrete. Something tangible that can be shared.

And, writing something down is a form of commitment.

Writing as a Commitment

When you're working on your marketing starting point , you decide who you help, and by extension, who you don't. For example, you help women on the verge of retirement, not young people starting their career. You help women in relationships making them unhappy, not singles looking for a partner. You help overworked mothers, not overworked millennials.

And, you decide what you help them with, and what you don't. For example, you help them with major life transitions, not choosing a career path. You help them with finding truth in their marriage, not dating strategies. You help them prioritize their own needs, not manage their time.

When you're working on creating your offer and turning it into a sales page, you choose what's included. And what's not. You choose this number of sessions, not that number. You select this topic for the course, not that one. You decide to offer this much email support, not that much. And so on.

Writing your marketing is a commitment.

Even in the age of being able to change your website in real-time and in front of anyone at any moment, writing feels like you are putting a stake in the ground.

And you are.

You're saying "I'm here. This is who I help. This is what I help them with. This is how I help them."

What If…

And any time you're making a commitment to one way of doing things, there on the horizon, looms the possibility of something not quite working out the way you want it to (or think it should) And this is sometimes where coaches, healers or creative entrepreneurs can get stuck writing their marketing. They worry:

• What if I talk about who the program helps, and no one identifies with that person?

• What if I make my program 12 weeks long because that's what people really need to start to see improvements, and no one buys it?

• What if I decide to offer a class on healing ancestral wounds and no one seems interested?

These can be conscious thoughts, but often they're unconscious, bubbling just below the surface. And what follows is often spending time with marketing busy-work, procrastination or some other form of resistance.

Writing  to Clarity and Empowerment 

Writing things down leads to clarity and empowerment. This is true in marketing as well in so many other areas of life. And, yet, doing so can also feel as if you're standing on the edge of a cliff. It's an odd combination of exhilaration and resistance, an excitement yet wanting to take a giant step back to safer ground.

So what the solution if you notice yourself slipping into resistance in writing your marketing?

As with most things, it's compassion.

You're not being lazy, noncommittal, or unproductive. You don't have some deep seated "fear of success" or unconscious desire to self-sabotage. Rather, it’s simply the writing things down that's making all this seem really real.

Bringing compassion, understanding and acceptance of what's really going on is often enough to clear a way forward.

Photo by Une fille en vadrouille on Unsplash