Over the last 2 years, I have been working hard on re-thinking my work and creating a whole new framework for how I help creative people make their dreams real.
This kind of re-imagining takes a LOT of energy. So, for the last 2 years, I have had to pull back on other parts of my business. Most notably: marketing.
Whatever your dream is, there are some parts of it that you LOVE to work on and some parts that you don't love. And, whatever your dream is, your dream NEEDS YOU to take care of it, all parts of it, even the parts you don't like.
AND you can always bring the magic + love you feel for your dreams and use that energy to fuel the more annoying tasks that just need to get done.
So that's what I am trying to do now as I'm taking some time to focus on marketing.
Marketing itself isn't the problem.
Marketing is how you shine your light. It's how you share the message behind your work with the people who want to hear it.
Marketing is actually pretty fun and interesting. I mean you have total freedom to do it however you want. You can make artwork or videos or a podcast... you can create challenges or throw a party.
There is no limit to HOW you can put the word out there and get people excited about your work.
The problem is all of my internal reactions to marketing.
A few months ago I got a long, angry, ranty email from someone who signed up for my free class and then didn't even take the class, unsubscribed from my emails, and then a week later decided to respond to one of the emails I had sent before she unsubscribed.
She was upset her friend who had just become a life coach who seemed to care only about the money as she was trying to get a business started. She said she understood that she doesn't know anything about me or my work but now her whole view of the industry was changed.
She said she couldn't believe in her own dreams anymore.
This week I want to focus on developing and refining my marketing systems.
I have all sorts of ideas I am really excited about.
But then I think about the sleazy side of online marketing and I think about all the people who are just FED UP with being "sold to" and I worry about not getting too close to the gross stuff and "what if someone thinks I'm sleazy?"
And I get all tangled up and working on marking starts to SEEM very sticky and complicated.
Another problem I have is how marketing in the personal growth/life transformation has become so homogeneous.
How we have somehow developed "Standard Ways Everyone Is Supposed To Do Things".
I mean, if I see one more "boss babe" who looks like every other "boss base" with that exact same shade of pink branding that they all have trying to sell me my best life I WILL scream!
BUT then there is this other part of my brain that picks up on this, believe that "this is The Way To Do Business Online" and expects ME to fit in and is quickly judging all of my ideas as being "too different".
And even though I know with 100% certainty that some of those boss babes are actually lying about their success and using "fake it till you make it" as a business strategy, this part of my brain believes that this is the way to run a successful business!
(This is actually deliberate - a lot of "persuasive marketing techniques" are downright manipulation)
The truth is, we have all the space in the world to do things our own way. Infinite creative possibilities.
So this is my mission right now:
Throw all this junk I am thinking/feeling about online marketing into one of those gold panning things and sift out the sleaze until I am left with little nuggets of goodness, the essence of marketing as the way that I shine the light and invite people into the world of the Creative Dream Incubator (which is a pretty amazing world to be a part of!).
And then use those nuggets IN MY UNIQUE WAY.
I don't have to melt them down to make the same ring everything else is making and then sell it in the same way everyone else is selling it.
I can make something else entirely.
We ALL have that freedom.
Wish me luck!