How to recognize & overcome what’s keeping you from sharing your work

Maybe you've noticed you spend a long time making memes to share on Instagram or looking for cute quotes to post. Or perhaps you’ve been endlessly researching how to do more and better Facebook Ads.

Maybe you've been working on and revising your latest blog post for hours. You really want to get it right before sending it out. Or perhaps, you check your Google analytics regularly, or, well, if you're honest, a lot.

Although all these activities look like marketing (and technically they are) I've seen many coaches, healers and creative entrepreneurs engaging in these as a way of unconsciously hiding instead of fully stepping into authentically marketing their businesses.

BUSY-NESS AS A COVER

It reminds me of the struggle I had making time for my creative writing.

For years, YEARS, I struggled to make progress on my creative writing. I didn’t (couldn’t, in my mind) make time to do the writing. And it was crazy because I loved writing, and knew I needed to be doing more of it.

I read all the advice there was on the subject. “Butt in chair.” “Get out of the house.” “Get up one hour earlier.” “Just write 15 minutes a day.”

Yet, even 15 minutes a day seemed elusive. It felt like a puzzle that I could never figure out how to fit together. If I get up 15 minutes earlier, then I really need to go to bed 15 minutes earlier, then that means the kids have to get to bed 15 minutes earlier, then that means baths and dinner earlier. Then that means leaving work earlier….

“Ok!” I’d declare, “This is it. I start today! TO-day!”

And I would. And then a day or two would go by, and something would throw me off. A school music concert that lasted too long, or a day when a conference call ran over and left me scrambling to get out the door before daycare closed, and I’d be back where I started, wondering why I couldn’t figure this out.

WHY DID I SEEM TO BE PUTTING OFF DOING SOMETHING THAT I KNEW WAS SO, SO IMPORTANT TO ME?

The thing is, it took me a long time to figure out my struggle didn’t have anything to do with time management, or procrastination. It’s the same thing I found out about marketing when I started my own business, and part of what I help clients with now.

IT HAS TO DO WITH FEAR

With my writing, I realized underneath all the back and forth about ‘finding time to write’ was a fear of committing to something and then not being able to be successful at it (in my own narrow definition of it, at the time.)

The tricky part was it didn’t look like that on the surface. I really did have a huge, more than full-time corporate job, two kids at home, a household to manage, and a few unexpected corporate relocations thrown in along the way.

And with marketing your business, things may be similarly deceptive. I see people doing the things they’re ‘supposed to.’ They’re posting on Instagram, writing a blog here and there. They’ve started a Facebook group. But those things, especially in isolation and not part of a larger marketing picture, are not the same as fully showing up for your business with care and consistency.

POWERFUL QUESTIONS TO ADDRESS IN YOUR MARKETING

• Do you have a clear statement that defines who you help and what you help them with?

• Have you crafted an offer with specifics and care that addresses a compelling problem your ideal clients are struggling with?

• In terms of channels, have you thought about how and where to reach your potential clients?

• What they might want to hear from you?

• Have you considered your own strengths and gifts in terms of the best channels to reach your ideal clients?

If you’re not actively considering these questions in your marketing, maybe there’s something else going on.

Like me with my creative writing, or with so many coaches, healers and creative entrepreneurs I meet, fear may be consciously or unconsciously holding you back. Fear of committing to marketing your business, really marketing it, and then of somehow not being accepted or it somehow not working.

Sometimes this is easy to spot and perhaps, if you ask yourself, a part of you may recognize that this is what's going on with you. Other times, though, it is much harder to spot. The energy here may be deep rooted, and part of unconscious belief systems or thought programming from childhood or even earlier.

WHAT CAN YOU DO IF YOU SUSPECT FEAR MAY BE HOLDING YOU BACK?

Working through this in detail is more than I can address in a single article, but here are a few starter steps to help.

GET QUIET

If you already have a stillness or spiritual practice, bring your business and your marketing into that space and ask to be shown what’s really going on. Ask “What’s keeping me from marketing my business?” Stay open to what you might receive.

BEFRIEND THE FEAR

If you realize that a particular fear of something might be holding you back, then invite the fear in. Be curious and get to know how and where it’s showing up for you. See who you are in your business when you’re being lead by fear. Imagine who you might be if you're not.

And finally, recognize it’s a normal part of doing new things and of growing. So offer yourself heaps of compassion. Of course, it feels a little uncomfortable stepping out in a new way.

REFRAME YOUR FOCUS

So many of the fears people have around marketing are around how they might be perceived: pushy, insensitive, money-hungry, tone-deaf, privileged, imposter-like. What would marketing feel like if you flipped the focus from yourself to your ideal clients instead? What if your post, your comment, your webinar helped someone who needs to hear your message? How would that feel? Focusing on our ideal clients and what they need can often free up our small-self focus and shake off some of your marketing fears.

GET SOME SUPPORT

Whenever you learn something new, it’s wonderful to get help. You can ask someone in your industry or someone you trained with whose business is just a touch farther along that yours is for some guidance. You can form a mastermind group. Get a guide or teacher. Any one of these things can be incredibly helpful in supporting you to move through fear and learn new ways of marketing your business

If you find yourself procrastinating without really committing to marketing your business, consider that fear may be at play. Having an awareness of what’s going on is the first step toward making a change and doing things differently. Then after getting still and checking in with your own inner wisdom, you can welcome in the fear, shift your focus and get some support for the journey – all things that will help keep you moving forward.

And that’s something I hope you’ll want to do without delay. <3

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash