Crying and marketing.
Sometimes those two things go hand in hand. I have been on many, a call with clients who are so overwhelmed with marketing they just break down and cry.
I also have cried because of marketing. I remember when I started my own business, I actually thought, " Oh, this is going to be easy for me because I do this for a living." And I was surprised at how overwhelming it was at times! I even found I have a place in my house where I cry. I have a crying spot in my house. I know that now thanks to marketing my own business.
So believe me, I have been there. I have been there. I know what it feels like.
Marketing that can just take you to the greatest heights of exhilaration, but then take us to the deepest depths of misery. And I think it's for a few reasons.
Starting your own business is tender, tender work, and here are a few reasons why marketing can cut so close to home.
There's a great little story I share about "being on the hook" and it's actually pretty cool when you apply it to your marketing.
So, wipe those tears. This moment will pass. Promise.
As always, I'm rooting for you!
xo, Heather
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DOES MARKETING MAKE YOU CRY?
Hey there. This is Heather Campbell with a little pro marketing advice, because when you know what the pros do, you can do what the pros do to build a beautiful brand with marketing that attracts the right people to your business.
And today I'm going to be talking to you about crying and marketing because sometimes those two things go hand in hand . I have been on many, a call with clients who are so overwhelmed with marketing they just break down and cry.
I also have cried because of marketing. I remember when I started my own business, I actually thought, " Oh, this is going to be easy for me because I do this for a living." And I was surprised at how overwhelming it was at times! I even found I have a place in my house where I cry. I have a crying spot in my house. I know that now thanks to marketing my own business.
So believe me, I have been there. I have been there. I know what it feels like. And I was just thinking I was on a call not too long ago where I was reviewing marketing recommendations with a client and they just broke down because it just seems so overwhelming.
And I'm like, what is it about marketing that can just give us the greatest heights of exhilaration, but then take us to the deepest depths of misery because I've been in an absolutely both of those places . And I think it's for a few reasons, number one, our work is really deeply personal.
And when we're in business for ourselves, we're not protected by a company or a team or a title. We are out there doing our work and it's extremely personal and we're exposing ourselves. When we do our own marketing, right? And oftentimes about I do marketing for a living, but most of my clients are not marketing people by trade.
They are leadership consultants and real estate developers and artists and faith healers. And it really runs the gamut and marketing is not something that they've done. So it's a whole new world to them. So of course, there's going to be a little bit of a learning curve and that is. That I think is where the crying comes in, because at the end of the day, there's no guarantee when it comes to marketing.
Even the best laid plans, think about new Coke. When that came out in the eighties, it was a massive flop. Think about people who spend millions of dollars on super bowl ads that end up flopping so even with money, even with a great ad agency behind you, even when I work with people, things can go right.
And they can also go wrong. There's no guarantee. And I hear it time and time again from my clients and my coaching students is. They seriously, they just, and I'm going to use a swear word. So just giving you a heads up, I hear this, that they're, "Seriously. Heather, when it comes to marketing, I just don't want to fuck it up ."
They just don't want to be out there and mess up. And I think it's because we live in such a success focused society, where we are all about the outcome. And we hear all about these crazy success stories and you don't care about the person who's working hard and contributing and being generous with their work and making good and steady progress.
We hear about these big crazy things that happen once in a blue moon. And the reason there are once in the blue moon is because it doesn't happen that often. There's usually a process around it. So we think we need to be so good at marketing. And we forget that it's like anything that we've learned, it's a process .
And I promise you when it comes to marketing, it is not rocket science, but there is a definite process and sequence to it. And when you get the process it makes everything so much easier. And when you get it wrong, that's when you get into that state of overwhelm. And that's when we have sort of those bigger ecosystem pressures of society saying, you got to slay, you got to knock it out of the park.
Like to the point that sometimes it's easier to not do something if the stakes are too high. And so I just think a really good way of looking at marketing is we forecast and we expect certain things, but we always hold ourselves in the state of suspension because we don't know what's going to happen.
So instead of focusing on the outcome, I'd like for you to maybe encourage you to detach yourself from the outcome. Now I'm going to give you a really different way of looking at this. Cause sometimes I think I just, I'm reading this fantastic book by Seth Godin called The Practice. And it's all about this idea of starting something and just getting better at it because that's just how we learn how to do everything.
Riding a bike, walking, making hollandaise sauce. Changing a tire? You do something once. The second time you do it, you're going to get better. The third time you do it, you're going to get better the fourth time you do it, you're going to get better. So, it's just a really beautiful, book. And in it, it's all about being generous with, your gift.
And there's this great story about the term being on the hook. And when we do marketing, a lot of times it feels like we're on the hook to deliver, to be something, to be right with our advertising, to have a huge success.
But really there's this whole other meaning to on the hook that I want to share with you today, because it's just so beautiful. In Turkey when you go in to buy a loaf of bread at the bakery, If you have enough money, you buy a second loaf and you put it on the hook and you, and then if someone is hungry, they can come into the bakery and say, Hey, do you have something on the hook?
And the, person can say yes, and you can take something off the hook. So it's a way of really being generous. I thought, oh my gosh, that is such a beautiful way to look at the way you build your business is being on the hook for being generous. And that we're giving something and that's when we put ourselves out there and actually promote what we're offering.
We don't know the outcome, but that's okay. Because it's more important that we're sharing what we know and bringing our good work to the world.
So I'm not just going to leave you hanging in here with just a little inspirational story about buying bread in Turkey. I'm going to give you some four questions to ask yourself that are, is going to help you dig into this notion of generosity and help you touch with that part of yourself that wants to give your good work and bring it to the world.
The four questions you want to ask is who do I want to serve? Number one, I'm building a business. Who is it for? Who do I envision? And who do I want to invite into my business?
Question number two is what problem do I solve? What problem am I uniquely suited to solve. What does my business do for my most valuable customers? How does it, transform them?
And that leads perfectly into the third question, which is what is the ultimate payoff of working with me? How is someone changed forever after having come in contact with your work? Are they a better parent? Maybe you're a productivity coach and they're better organized in the mornings. And now these like amazing mornings where they never did before. Maybe you are a faith healer and you do Romy remote holistic healings for people, and you transform their physical structure What is the ultimate payoff of working with you? What is their transformation? How are they going to be different? And how will that forever change their lives now that they've interacted with your work? That's a such a good question.
And then last but not least, why should people care? That's like a marketing question, but that's ultimately, we want to understand what is the, payoff of not having that transformation .
So remember marketing, it's just one of those things. There's no guarantee, but you know what. There's no guarantee in life, but think about all the things that you've done, where it turned out to be a really good thing. Saying yes to a date, to the person who became your husband saying yes to that meeting with someone who ended up introducing you to someone who ended up landing you at a spot on a podcast.
There are ways that we step out in our lives over and over again and show up and give. And that is exactly how we want to show up in our business. And when we show up like that in our business, you can't help, but show up that way in your marketing. And when you show up that way in your marketing and you get it right, you get the process and sequence, you open the door for the people you dream about working with, to come in and engage with your work.
So if marketing made you cry, I just want you to know I've been there. Just remember it is a process and it is a process and a practice that you can get better and better at think about maybe the first time you ever did a Facebook post versus the 20th.
So please be kind with yourself. Start with your basics, branding, my customers, my product and pricing line up. Make sure all those things align. Then get a really good conversion focused website in place. And then have a solid marketing plan to promote your business where your customers are, so you can bring your good work to the world.
And that is marketing. So please know that wherever you are in this beautiful, ever changing world of ours, that there's someone right here in Denver, Colorado. And that is me, who is 100000% rooting for you.
