After being self-employed for 5+ years and writing this blog for even longer, I am starting to realize more and more that success in business really boils down to one thing: your mindset.
Your products, photos, copy and marketing plan don't give a lick if your head isn't in the right space to believe in yourself and what you're putting out there.
I think most often the hurdles we face along our journeys into growing our business can be remedied simply by thinking of them differently.
So if you're feeling stuck either in doubt or in the details about getting yourself out there...
Or find that you just "don't have time" to really market yourself...
Or if you've tried and things didn't work and now you're over it...
I've been held back by all of those things before too, in the past, so I thought I'd share 3 ways I've been able to shift my own mindset to clear those obstacles, and make it a whole lot easier to get out there!
Remember that WHAT YOU HAVE TO OFFER IS WANTED & NEEDED
Your customers need what you make, what you do, who you are. Remember that.
So when you have something to offer that could be of benefit to your customers, your trying to tell them about it and get the word out about it is not about you- it's to help those customers.
No matter what business you're in, you're in service to your customers, clients and the people who are going to be paying you for what you offer. So don't think of it as slimy or salesy or like you're "selling yourself". When you try to put in front of them something they'd find of benefit or useful or just their style, that's you being of service to them.
When you think of it like that, it can shift how you approach people in general, it can shift how you speak about what you do, it can shift how you start to get the word out about what you do.
When you're coming from a place of service, of I have/create/do this thing that you, my ideal client, might really appreciate it, then it's coming not only from a more genuine place, but it doesn't feel like selling.
It feels like matchmaking, like placing what you have to offer in the hands of the people who want and need it.
You're actually doing a disservice to people who could be right now using your services to benefit their goals and lifestyle, by shirking away and not self-promoting or letting things get in the way of marketing yourself.
Stop worrying about judgement or criticism or "not doing it right", and just think about how to best get what you have to offer into the hands of the people who WANT it and NEED it, cause they're out there waiting!
You MUST MAKE TIME TO MARKET YOUR BIZ in big or small ways, each day
If you're looking for more time to market yourself? You ain't gonna find it.
You need to shift your schedule and your mindset to MAKE time for marketing yourself because you realize it's an absolute priority that directly affects the growth of your business.
You can spend all the time in the world perfecting your product or service and getting everything perfect with the website and copy and photos, or telling friends and family all about it, or chatting up about your cats on social media (or maybe that's just me :) but unless you're ACTIVELY putting yourself out there and actively telling people about your what you have to offer, there's no way for your business to grow.
You've planted the seeds, now it's time to MAKE IT RAIN (pun intended, because when you start creating time to get yourself out there, you are taking the steps that will lead to more money and more growth.)
It's time to MAKE TIME to market yourself.
And it doesn't have to be a chore or just another to-do you "have" to do- it can feel fun! And natural.
Remember, when you're sharing your message, your work, what you have to offer with the people who need it and are looking for it, then you're doing them a service. If you want to serve more people, then you need to make sure more people know about what you offer!
Where can you fit more marketing in? Here are some ideas for you:
- Create a marketing calendar, or add to your schedule or to-do list specific marketing activities to do each day, so that you can make it easy to go forward with them. example: Add "Write and send pitch to Daily Candy" to your todos- take 30 minutes to write a thoughtful, personalized pitch, and done. Marketing task accomplished for the day.
- Use tools like hootsuite to schedule out tweets and facebook posts so that you can write out some messages in a batch and schedule them to go out during the week and you don't even have to think about it.
- Take a break from pinning your fave recipes to hop on your fave blogger's boards and leave some comments on things that excite you and re-pin others- take time to like/say thank you to those who pin images from your own site.
- Just hanging out on social media is not necessarily marketing yourself- make an effort to connect, engage, share, for even 10 minutes a day, on whatever your fave platform- I don't even use them all each day, do what works for you- and you'll be putting yourself out there.
- Make a list of 3-5 marketing goals you want to accomplish each week- pepper them into the week, or do them all in a batch for your monday marketing afternoon or something- just get them done.
Write the emails. Place the ads. Reach out. Say thank you. Make connections. In order to serve better, you have to make it a priority to get yourself out there!
Know that WHAT YOU PUT OUT THERE WILL COME BACK TO YOU
It's the law of psychics, actually- "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction."
So, if a lot of your actions are 2nd guessing yourself, constantly comparing where you're at in your business to where other people are at, trying half-assedly to get out there and then giving up cause it didn't work, or spending all day on facebook wondering why you're not raking in the sales- no wonder marketing feels gross or awful or ineffective to you.
The actions and the energy that you're putting out there is coming right back to you.
If you're acting out of "why me", or "why not me", or "I can't" or "this won't work", then those are the results you're going to get out it.
If you instead act out of "I am enough", "I can", "I have a unique point of view", "I want to honestly connect and share what I do with others", then that energy is going to come right back at you.
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
When you get active about getting out there, by pitching, placing ads, reaching out to make some real connections on social media, even if it doesn't look like it immediately, you're going to get the energy you put into it, right back out of it.
- You may not hear back from 10 pitches and then on the 11th one, bam! The editor loves it and it goes up that day.
- You may get written up by a blog with a smaller audience that the editor of a larger blog or magazine reads and get discovered through there
- You could pitch a blogger 3 times and never hear back and then randomly connect with them over twitter about your favorite kind of pie one day and get retweeted and gain 100 new followers.
- You could pitch a blog or magazine that says no at first, but then the editor passes you along to another editor who loves your work, or you could end up being perfect for a story 3 months down the line.
- You could run an ad and get no sales, and 3 months later have a customer who says, oh yeah, I found you from this blog I read!
Don't judge your experience of "is this working??" by immediate responses/write-ups/etc, because when you're judging your success on immediate results, that's often when we give up, or start to 2nd guess ourselves- if it seems like it's not working, or like our efforts are not being met back.
But in reality, I think it's just not happening fast enough for us. A lot of success in business also depends on patience. And little bit of faith.
So, just know this is going to be a journey, and start walking- take it step by step.
Keep acting on the things that you know are going to get you closer to where you want to be, that are going to get your work out into the world more, and you will start to see results- I guarantee it!
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Which of these mindset shifts do you think could help you most in getting motivated to get yourself out there? I'd love to hear what you think in the comments!
