Making Marketing Easier: Move Beyond Your Blocks
Do any of these sound familiar?
I’m worried there's no market for my niche
My work isn't grand enough to change the world on the scale it needs to be
I don't have the right kind of training or technical skills in marketing
I'm just not disciplined enough to market my business the way I think I need to.
I've found that a lot of what lurks behind coaches, healers and other creatives struggling with their marketing sounds like what often holds artists back from pursuing their creative dreams. (Take out the marketing-related words in the list above and replace them with "writing" or "artwork," and you'll see what I mean.)
Building and marketing a business, especially one built on your soul's purpose, is one of the most creative acts anyone can undertake.
That's why it takes so much courage. And, that's why it's easy to feel blocked.
Marketing Your Business and Blocks
Elizabeth Gilbert writes extensively about fear in her book Big Magic. She also says "Your fear is boring."
I always wince a little when I read that. When I work with clients helping them find their unique voice, create messages and be braver in their marketing, fear is often a significant factor.
Mind you, it's usually not obvious.
They have tried to market their business, sometimes a lot. But the truth is they're holding back on some level. They're blocking themselves and they may not even realize it.
Beliefs like the ones listed above, combined with not wanting to be pushy, can cause them to stall out, which can look like this:
Getting paralyzed in overwhelm, or, its opposite - spreading themselves too thin, running ragged from marketing channel to marketing channel
Not showing up to market their business consistently.
Marketing their work but only in small, safe, comfortable environments where they don't have much opportunity to grow.
Hiding their true self, either in layers of marketing speak or in imitating someone else who's successful in their industry.
It can be pernicious.
And, the good news is, it can be overcome.
Shining a Light on Boring
This fall, I've been taking a fabulous short story writing course. Each week, in addition to the lectures, discussions, readings, practice exercises, and assignments, we are required to share our process. In other words, we share what came up for us that week as we did the work.
Although I've learned much about the craft of writing, what's been most valuable has been that weekly check-in process.
As the course started, the practice exercises felt free and fun. The assignments, however, (which we share), did not.
Week after week posting my check ins, I wrote about the same things coming up. Worries. Worry about not understanding the assignment, or getting it right, or being on point, or, or…
The list went on and on.
One week though, as I was typing up my check-in, I noticed it felt — tiresome. Ho hum, even. Monotonous.
I was actually starting get bored with myself. Exactly what Elizabeth Gilbert had been talking about.
As that realization sunk in, when resistance showed up in the weeks that followed, it was lessened. I was able to recognize and acknowledge it, and then move on quickly. I was picking up my pen and starting to write more freely. Something shifted.
How to Move Beyond Your Blocks
This is the same thing that can happen for you. Once you name your resistance, it will lessen and you can approach your marketing with greater ease.
The key is in having a place where you can safely name what's going on for you.
If you can find a program that will support you in and give you a forum for voicing your both your progress AND your process, like I did, that would be amazing.
And, I also want to give you three other options to replicate that type of support.
Account It
Find an accountability buddy. Only instead of only focusing on being accountable for consistently getting the marketing thing done, implement a step where you also share your process. When you were doing the marketing thing, share what came up for you. What was easy? Hard? Did you worry about anything?
You can send that across to each other via email, voice memo, text. Whatever's easiest. In this relationship, sharing the process is as important, if not more, than sending updates on your progress.
Share It
Find a trusted group or advisor like a coach or guide to share your process with. This could be with a group of colleagues from your training program, a mastermind you found, or a safe Facebook group. The key here, like the first one, is that you share your process as well as your progress.
You can share your updates verbally or in writing, but make sure they are consistent. If the group has (and if not, and if you can create) a safe container for sharing already as part of the structure is ideal.
Write It
Write it down. Keep a process journal or make a diary entry. Again, focus on the process more than progress. Write down what worked well that week, what didn't. What came up for you. What you were thinking, worrying about, etc.
Make sure to write your updates shortly after you do t work. If you don't, you'll forget about what came up. Trust me. You'll underestimate it. You'll think it's something else. You'll think it won't happen again. Until it does. Write it down so you don't forget.
A lot of marketing struggles are similar to creativity struggles, and fear can create a lot of blocks, some of which can be hard to spot. Consistently taking time to examine what comes up for you as you work on your marketing and business building is a powerful way to move past those blocks and begin to approach marketing with greater ease.