View your marketing as one of your services

This reframe is something that I am thinking about a lot these days and I hope you might take this with you as you continuously put ourselves out there to get visible with your marketing.

Obviously marketing can feel like a burden to many. Those who are service providers, creatives, people who are more heart centered, many of whom just want to do their services and create. We just want to get on with it, right?

However, to create a sustainable, long-term business , we need consistent marketing otherwise new people won't know that we exist and people who have found us won’t understand what we do. We have to keep sharing our message, sharing what we're doing so that the people who really connect with our work get the opportunity to learn about us and see our integrity . And the more people that we can reach, we can find more people. Not everyone is gonna connect with us or our voice or need necessarily what we're offering in the moment.

I'm not talking about finding just like more, more, more. Not this capitalistic approach without regard for humanity and service, right?

Like this is more about multiple truths- the more people you meet, the more likely you will link up with your ideal clients AND you don’t need tons of people or to convince people to have a successful business .

Again, putting yourself out there so you can meet whatever it may be, a hundred of your right people, 500, a thousand, 5,000 right? This is more than enough most of the time within wise mind goals , for a solo practitioner, small group practice or even a larger business.

So the whole thing is we just need to keep doing this. The number of clients you have is directly related to the efforts you have put in. The other piece is that not only we're reaching people, but it's really, we're reaching people over time. So as we're putting our marketing out, you know, different content like articles or workshops or videos, podcasts, we're creating this bank of information that exists, right? It exists to be seen over time, over and over.

Most future clients you have still yet to meet and will be seeing your content at a time different from now, right? The pressure to instantly have a high success rate to fill your session and practice, comes with real fears like the discomfort of being vulnerable and putting yourself out there, finances, imposter syndrome, need to build skills and others.

Ofcourse, you know where I may be going with this. Corporate media and marketing, technology and social media give this illusion and have systemically taught that customers need to act on instant gratification marketing and prey on the ability to manipulate said customers in any way possible in order to get to the goal, profit.

Higher numbers, more and more people, going viral, nonstop selling of your offers, using aspirational marketing, always tying selling with emotional and personal stories….you know I had fallen into using some of these myself, tho not consistently as it never felt authentic to me and I would find myself never following through with business advice that I learned felt unethical and was not in line with my values.

The dopamine hits and the instant gratification and the intermittent reinforcement that you have grown up with if you live in America for sure (and many other countries as well) all these things lead to feeling more addictive to the dopamine or the excitement or then the fear, right?

The fear of rejection or not getting enough attention, the comparisons, the FOMO, all these things like lend to a nervous system that is, you know, geared towards short-term gratification.

The brain is thinking, oh, we can get what we need exactly from this moment. And the reality is that some of our needs have to be met today, like eating and sleeping and taking care of ourselves in the day, but other ones are built up over time.

And it's the accumulation and compounding of that.

This is something that was always so hard for to do in my business having such a fear of abandonment and rejection from an early age that really could play out for me online.

And it's taken me a lot of time to understand the evolution of marketing and content and that it's not about getting the response at the moment. It's about building your body of work so that it's there and that you have a lot of resources.

And this is a service, right? Even if you're producing a product, like you might think, oh, I'm an artist, I'm producing a product of art.

But to me, and you might think this too that art and art making is a service.

And then the sharing of your art, the sharing of your content is a service as well.

And then there’s your customer service, right?

Every business owner is really in the business of service because you have customer service, right?

And we forget this, and if we could start to think of our marketing as one branch of our service.

You want to have what your service is that you are getting paid for. And then marketing is essentially your free service that you’re giving away. And some people are just gonna get what they need from the free service and then other people are going to want to move further.

And we don't have to force or control that or need to. Because there is enough people. And if you are skilled and ethical at what you do you will connect with loyal people and build real relationships that work for everyone.

You just keep showing up and providing the best content you can come up with today.

And as I've mentioned recently, it is that you’re practicing showing up imperfectly and keeping it simple. You don’t need all of the expensive things.

I always have the habit, like I remember I did this ASMR video with one of my paintings bought these mics, thinking one video with a popular arms artist was going to bring in tons of people. Turns out the artist didn’t even link me in the episode description, which I think was short-sighted. Of course I wanted to do it right, this person had exceptional quality, but it was a $100 I spent and I have never used those mics again.

Now maybe they'll come out again, but I guess what I'm trying to say is sometimes you buy things and it just doesn't work out. But sometimes you’re buying things because you’re trying to make it seem more professional than it needs to be.

Now, if you love this stuff and you want to learn and have the funds, than great. This is really a message for people who are feeling overwhelmed by marketing, putting yourselves out there and are just stalling because doing it perfectly just feels more important (I get it.) .

And I'm just talking about how, you know, you can keep it simple. I'm coming on podcasts and often recording a voice memo or I'm recording myself on a video and I might be pulling this audio from the video so that people can listen. This article started as an audio and I have since edited it so there is new material in here and some of the same. Some of my audios have background noise. All of this stuff I would've not posted years ago.

But what I'm finding is people are still finding value, and that is what's important. And there'll be some people who probably bothered by the noises and stuff. I get it. You know, I have a lot of sensory stuff, but the message will ring true to, to those people.

And the idea is, you know, can we provide the service of marketing and not be so attached to the outcome, the client or the money?

I think it’s really hard when you are depending on the money and when it starts to put pressure on you business building. This is where I think having another job or having some way to feel supported will help you share and sell your services freely without needing that outcome immediately.

It doesn't mean you don't have that general outcome. Obviously we all have to make money, we're thinking about this, but it's, you know, in the moment, right?

Being able to come from that place of purpose and, you know, serving others and being that service provider, providing that customer service, providing that experience, and then those people who really feel connected or want more or need more or can at some point or later want that accountability, then it's just going to naturally move in that direction.

You don't have to force people, you don't have to use fomo, you don't have to use over excitement, These are all things you and I naturally pick up because it is ingrained into us. I would rather people make a decision about working with me from a wise mind place.

Like, if you feel like you connect with me or the work and you know, then cool. Great. You know what I'm saying? So these are my thoughts for today. I hope that you found this helpful. And I hope this helps you create a piece of marketing or content for yourself today. Your creation, your art, whatever it is, however long it is, if takes you a minute or if it takes you an hour or five hours, it's all good and it's okay. Your people want to see it.

Please leave your comments or questions below. I'll talk to you all soon. This is Jen Mele, LCSW, RYT. Have a great day.