42. Marketing Strategies (For Moms Who Hate Marketing)
Marketing used to make me cringe. I told myself I wasn’t creative enough, I didn’t want to be salesy, and I just wasn’t built for it. But here’s the truth: if you want to build a successful business, marketing isn’t optional—it’s essential.
In this episode, I help you shift your mindset so marketing feels natural and even enjoyable. I break down three key mindset shifts that will change how you approach marketing, plus simple strategies to make it work for you. You don’t have to use every tactic or force yourself to do things that feel inauthentic. Instead, I’ll show you how to lean into your strengths, connect with your audience, and share your expertise in a way that feels good.
If you’ve been avoiding marketing or telling yourself you’re just not good at it, this episode will change that. Tune in and let’s start making marketing easy, aligned, and even fun!
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What You’ll Learn from this Episode:
Why learning to love marketing is non-negotiable for your success as a business owner.
How to reframe marketing from being sleazy or manipulative to an act of service.
The importance of finding marketing activities that align with your personality and strengths.
How to focus on the joy of connection rather than the pressure of conversion in your marketing.
3 beginner-friendly marketing activities that feel like natural extensions of who you are.
Listen to the Full Episode:
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Full Episode Transcript:
If the thought of having to market yourself makes you cringe, if your stomach tightens at the idea of promoting yourself, I see you and I can absolutely relate. When I was in corporate, I loved having an entire department whose sole focus was marketing. Their expertise was a safety net that I happily relied on. But when I started my own business, I felt completely lost in the marketing wilderness. I told myself, I'm not creative enough. I don't want to be salesy. I don't have that secret marketing formula that the real entrepreneurs have. It was a voice in my head saying I wasn't built for this marketing thing.
And here's what nobody tells you when you're dreaming about leaving your corporate job. Marketing isn't just another task on your to-do list, it's the secret language that will connect your brilliant solutions with the people who need them most. It's one of the most important elements of building your business. When you learn to embrace and even love marketing, you unlock not just business growth, but the true joy of building something meaningful. And this joy is what keeps you going when things get tough. It's what ensures you stick around long enough to see real success.
Yes, eventually you will hire experts to elevate your marketing game, but first you need to become your own chief marketing officer. So today I'm going to tell you exactly why this mindset shift isn't just important, it's non-negotiable for your success. And we're gonna talk about how to make it happen in a way that feels authentic to who you are.
Welcome to How to Quit Your Job: A Mom’s Guide to Creating a Life and Business You Love. It’s a podcast that helps working moms just like you, optimize your time, manage your mind, and start a business that helps you create more freedom, flexibility, and, yes, fun. I’m business and mindset coach Jenna Rykiel. And I offer practical tips to help you ditch the nine-to-five. I have been exactly where you are and I know what it takes to make the transition without trading one form of burnout for another. So, let’s get started.
Hello, mom friends. Today, we are tackling something that makes many aspiring mom entrepreneurs break out in a cold sweat, right? Marketing. In episode 36, I talked about how you can build a business, a successful business without social media, but you cannot build a successful business without marketing. Marketing is the heartbeat of your business.
Last week, we talked about the importance of niching down, finding your specific audience, and clarifying your offer and the solution to a problem. But I realized that before we dive into all the tactical marketing episodes I have planned, like growing your email list, creating lead magnets, all that fun stuff, we need to address the elephant in the room. Many of you are coming from corporate backgrounds where you excelled in your roles, but marketing wasn't necessarily your department. Okay?
The thought of becoming your own chief marketing officer might feel overwhelming or let's be honest completely unappealing. But today it's my goal to change that. By the end of this episode, you will understand why learning to love marketing isn't just nice to have, it's essential for building a business you are passionate about. You'll walk away with a completely new perspective on what marketing really is, plus actionable strategies that feel authentic to you as a mom and business owner.
And listen, even if you were the chief marketing officer in your corporate role, It's a completely different beast, marketing for your own business instead of someone else's. So if that's you, keep listening.
Let's start by getting really honest about something. If you hate marketing, this entire process of building a business will not be enjoyable. You can't own a business without wearing a marketing and sales hat a lot of the time. Yes, you can eventually hire people to help with these roles, which we'll get into later on in the episode, but you must learn to love marketing in order to be successful.
And success to me isn't just about revenue, although money is nice. Success is about you enjoying the process of building a business and you building something you are proud of and that you love. If you hate marketing, you're going to hate a significant part of building your business. But if you hate marketing, we are going to change that today. I did an episode on how to make selling easier, episode 14, where I shared how to think differently about selling. Selling and marketing are very much intertwined, so if you struggle with selling as well, definitely check that one out. But today we're focusing specifically on marketing because there's a lot of valuable marketing strategies and tactics that we'll discuss on this podcast but you'll find yourself resistant to all of those strategies if you don't first deal with the voice in your head saying I don't like marketing or the voice saying I'm not good at marketing.
So what really is marketing? Okay marketing is not about being manipulative or pushy. At its core, marketing is simply the process of connecting solutions with the people who need them. That's it. It's being a matchmaker between problems and answers.
Think about it. When you're at the playground and there's a mom that mentions she's struggling with getting her toddler to sleep and you share what worked for you, that's marketing. When you recommend your favorite restaurant to a friend, that's marketing. When you tell another mom about the amazing tutor or nanny who helped your child, that's marketing.
We all market naturally in our everyday lives, okay? We share solutions, we connect people with resources, we help others find what they need. The only difference now is that you're the one creating the solution. Okay? Your business is the solution.
One of the biggest misconceptions about marketing is that it requires being salesy or pushy or inauthentic. But the most effective marketing, especially for mom entrepreneurs, is actually the opposite. Okay? It's honest, helpful, and human.
Most of us don't start a business because we love marketing. So let's talk about why we don't love it. The reason you don't love marketing is because you have certain thoughts about it that are unproductive. And when I say you I'm also talking to my past self, right? Because I know that this topic is important because it's something I had to overcome myself.
These unproductive thoughts don't serve you because again, if you don't love marketing, you are not going to find ways to talk about what you do in a way that attracts your people. And if you don't love it, you're not going to enjoy the heartbeat of your business.
Okay, so there are common thought errors we have about marketing, and I want you to be honest with yourself around which ones ring true for you. And maybe you're sitting there and you're thinking, I actually don't know whether I love, hate, or somewhere in between marketing, right? But I want you to listen to these thoughts and challenge yourself and think to yourself whether or not these have been thoughts in your mind before.
Okay, the first I've mentioned a little bit right marketing feels sleazy or manipulative. This thought usually stems from experiences with bad marketing. Okay, the pushy salesperson, the misleading ad, the friend who only calls when they're selling something in a multi-level marketing scheme. We all have those in our lives, I'm sure. But remember, those are examples of marketing done poorly. When you're offering something you genuinely believe in something that can truly help others, marketing is more of an act of service. It's only sleazy if what you're offering doesn't deliver on its promises.
If your solution can genuinely help someone, not sharing it actually is doing them a disservice. And it's hard because when what we offer is the solution, it can feel selfish and like self-promotion. But if I'm on the playground and I hear a mom talking about their corporate role, complaining about their corporate job and how they've always wanted to start their own, let's say event space for kids parties, I am doing them a disservice by not talking about what I do and a potential solution for them, right?
The next thought error that I often hear from either in my own head or with clients, no one wants to hear what I have to say. Okay, this one can feel especially true when we're posting content with very little engagement. This is part of the danger with social media right because we can use the lack of engagement as validation for that thought. Well, I only got five likes on Instagram, so I guess no one wants to hear what I have to say. But this thought is often our inner critic at work, that voice that's been conditioned by years of being told to be modest, not to brag, to wait to be recognized.
The people who need your solution are actively looking for it. They're searching Google, they're asking friends, they're joining Facebook groups, all trying to find someone like you who can help them. It's your job to figure out where they are and speak their language so they recognize you have a solution for them. That's your new job now and that's marketing.
Your perspective, your approach, your unique combination of experiences, including your journey as a mom, all of those things provide value that someone out there needs. Your voice matters precisely because it's yours with all your specific experiences and insights.
Another big one, I'll be judged for putting myself out there. Yes, visibility invites opinions, but for every person who might judge you, there are many more who will be inspired by you. People who will see themselves in your story, who will find hope in your journey, right? The moms who need you are worth being a little bit uncomfortable for.
Remember too that most people are far too concerned with their own lives to spend much time judging yours, okay? And those who do judge harshly, they're not your people. They're not the clients you want to attract anyway.
And nine times out of 10, it's somebody who is not in the arena, if you know Brené Brown's work. This last one was a big one for me. And it is a little bit like the one I just shared, the no one wants to hear what I have to say, but slightly different. And it's, I don't have expertise worth sharing. This was a big one for me. It held me back from starting this podcast years ago, and it held me back from putting value in the world so many times because I didn't feel like an expert.
This is imposter syndrome talking, and it affects all of us, especially women, and especially women who've stepped away from their careers or are pivoting into something new. But expertise comes in so many forms, right? Sometimes it's formal education, sometimes it's years of experience, and sometimes it's simply being a few steps ahead of the person you're helping, okay?
If you've solved a problem that your ideal client is facing, you have expertise worth sharing. And sometimes it's just about being an example of what's possible when you're sharing an example of stepping into a scary life transition so that other moms know they can do it too.
The most important tool to help you love marketing is going to be your brain and your thoughts. I always say your brain is the problem and it's the solution. It's the problem because all of the unhelpful thoughts and all of the unintentional thoughts that I just went over, those are thoughts that are getting in the way. And it's the solution because there are so many new ways of thinking at your fingertips that will inspire action.
I'm gonna give you three strategies to shift your thinking from seeing marketing as a necessary evil and obligation to recognizing it as an opportunity and yes, even having a little bit of fun with it. The first mindset shift is moving from I have to market to I get to market right or I get to share or I get to connect right.
This subtle change has profound effects and I actually recommend it in all areas of life. Shifting language from this obligation I have to do something to I get to do something. When marketing feels like a chore, it becomes energy draining and inauthentic. But when you see it as a chance to share something valuable, it becomes energizing.
Think about the last time you found an amazing product that solved a problem for you? Maybe a time-saving kitchen gadget or an app, right? For me, the Ember mug that is a temperature regulated mug for your coffee, oh my gosh, changed my life. I got it in 2020 and it is something that I gift most often to clients and people in my life because there is nothing more wonderful and luxurious than having a perfectly temperatured sip of coffee every time.
Okay, and this is a bit of a tangent, but for moms, I know all of you out there who drink coffee are never drinking it at the proper temperature and maybe you're not even finishing your coffee in any given morning. And the Ember mug allows you to come back to the coffee and it still be that delicious, perfect temperature. That's a little bit of selling and marketing for you, right? And I have no affiliation to Ember as a company, but I just love the product.
So again, if you think about the last time you found an amazing product, remember how excited you were to tell friends and family about it, right? That's the energy we want to bring to marketing your business. Bring my Ember mug energy to marketing your own business.
The second mindset shift involves finding marketing activities that align with your personality and strengths. If you love writing, consider putting content out there in written form. If you love connecting with people, load your calendar up with networking events. Or if you love making videos, if it's easy for you and enjoyable for you to make videos, try posting them on social media, right? And making videos and content about your business.
And again, I'll just mention that episode 36 talks about how you do not need social media to build a successful business. So if social media is not your cup of tea, if you hate being on it, if you find that you're on it too much and you want to give it up, you can find other activities, marketing activities that work for you.
So I want you to take a moment, create a list of those marketing activities, even if you're just brainstorming, right? The ones that you might genuinely enjoy. Do you love deep conversations? Right? One-on-one coffee meetings might be your marketing method. Are you a natural teacher? Maybe if you are, then workshops or how-to content could be your strength. Do you enjoy writing like I talked about earlier?
Maybe email newsletters or blog posts might be your path. Or, you know, do you prefer behind-the-scenes work, right? Maybe SEO and Pinterest strategies might be your approach. The beauty of being your own boss is that you have permission to drop marketing tactics that don't bring you joy. You don't have to be on every platform or use every strategy. Choose the ones that feel good to you and you'll be more consistent and authentic in your efforts and you can always expand. So think about those marketing strategies that you can show up in authentically and truly enjoy.
The third mindset shift is focusing on the joy of connection rather than the pressure of conversion. Okay? Marketing creates meaningful relationships with your ideal clients. It's not just about making sales. It's about building a community of people who share similar values and challenges.
There's profound fulfillment in helping others through your marketing messages. When someone comments on your post saying, this is exactly what I needed to hear today. That's not just a marketing win, right? That's a human connection. When a potential client reaches out because something you shared resonated deeply with them. That's the beginning of a relationship that goes beyond transactions.
I've had countless marketing moments that led to profound client connections, right? Now that we know the thoughts getting in the way and now we know kind of the reframe strategies that we have, let's make this concrete with some action steps as always that you can take to start transforming your relationship with marketing so that everything I talk about marketing wise from here on out is exciting and not dreadful for you.
First, I want you to take a moment for reflection. What specifically makes you uncomfortable about marketing? Is it really marketing itself that you're resistant to or is it the visibility? Is it the fear of judgment? Is it imposter syndrome? This is a crucial first question because no marketing strategy is going to work if you don't tackle why you're hiding first. Even the most brilliant marketing plan will fail if you're too afraid to implement it consistently. Be honest with yourself, okay, about what's really holding you back.
Okay, next I want to offer three beginner-friendly marketing activities that feel less like marketing and more like natural extensions of who you are. The first is what I'll call conversation marketing, okay? Simply talking to real people about what you do, and I've talked about this on countless episodes, okay?
I've talked about networking in episodes 7 and 38, right? Where I give tools to help you market in a way that feels good. These connections are a powerful way of marketing your business. Think about your elevator pitch. Even saying that phrase can probably bring you on discomfort, but if you aren't clear about what you do or who you help, something we talked about in episode 41 on niching down, the people who need you aren't going to know that you're their person.
So next time someone asks you what you do, instead of saying your job title, tell them who you help and how. Okay? For example, instead of saying, I'm a health coach, try, I help busy moms who are exhausted all the time discover their energy again through simple nutrition changes, right? That's marketing. And that feels like connection and conversation.
The next simple strategy is content that serves before it sells. Next week we're going to be talking about creating a lead magnet, which is a really powerful tool for thinking about what your potential client needs. Something that aligns with your product or service and helps you build something where people can start getting free value before paying for the additional value you provide. When we have a mindset focused on giving before getting, marketing becomes a way to serve people, not just a way to grow revenue.
So think about what your ideal client is struggling with right now, and create content that addresses that specific pain point. Maybe a guide, a checklist, maybe a blog post, maybe an Instagram post, right? Create something. Start creating content.
The third is authentic sharing. Okay? The parts of your journey that connect. Marketing is storytelling. It's showing others what's possible from your own experience or the experiences of those you've helped. Okay, you want people to be able to see themselves in your marketing and in your story because it creates inspiration.
All right, so I want you to take time to think about that story. You don't need to share every detail of your life, but selectively sharing the challenges you've overcome, the mistakes you've made, and ultimately the transformations you've experienced creates powerful connection. So start thinking about how storytelling can be a tool for you.
Remember, you don't have to implement all three of these at once. Start with one that feels the most comfortable to you and expand from there as your confidence grows.
So today we've absolutely redefined what marketing really is, right? It's connecting solutions with the people who need them, not being pushy or manipulative. We've identified common unproductive thoughts that might be holding you back. The beliefs that marketing sleazy, no one wants to hear from me, I'll be judged, I don't have enough expertise, right? All of that mental drama. And we've reframed these with more empowering perspectives.
We've discussed how to shift your mindset from viewing marketing as an obligation to seeing it as an opportunity and really highlighting the importance of choosing marketing activities that align with your personality and strengths, which will ultimately bring you more joy as you build this business and life you love.
Finally, do carve out some time to try and start marketing in a way that feels authentic to you. Create content that serves before it sells, have those meaningful conversations, and start building connection through storytelling. Marketing your business does not have to feel uncomfortable or inauthentic when approached with the right mindset.
Have one conversation where you clearly articulate who you help and how, create one piece of content that provides genuine value without asking for anything in return, and/or share one authentic story that might help someone else feel less alone in their journey.
Remember, building a business you love means embracing all aspects of entrepreneurship, including marketing. When you learn to love marketing, you'll find that it brings more joy to the entire process of building your dream life and business.
Keep tuning in to this podcast for more practical strategies, a lot more practical marketing episodes coming up, which I know will help move you forward. Next week, like I said, we'll be diving into creating a lead magnet, a powerful tool for growing your audience and serving your clients even before they become paying customers.
And until then, remember, the world needs your unique gifts and marketing is simply how you ensure those gifts reach the people who need them most. You've got this, and I will see you next week.
Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of How to Quit Your Job: A Mom’s Guide to Creating a Life and Business You Love. If you want to learn more about how I can help you stop making excuses and start making moves, head on over to www.jenna.coach. I’ll see you next week.
And here's what nobody tells you when you're dreaming about leaving your corporate job. Marketing isn't just another task on your to-do list, it's the secret language that will connect your brilliant solutions with the people who need them most. It's one of the most important elements of building your business. When you learn to embrace and even love marketing, you unlock not just business growth, but the true joy of building something meaningful. And this joy is what keeps you going when things get tough. It's what ensures you stick around long enough to see real success.
Yes, eventually you will hire experts to elevate your marketing game, but first you need to become your own chief marketing officer. So today I'm going to tell you exactly why this mindset shift isn't just important, it's non-negotiable for your success. And we're gonna talk about how to make it happen in a way that feels authentic to who you are.
Welcome to How to Quit Your Job: A Mom’s Guide to Creating a Life and Business You Love. It’s a podcast that helps working moms just like you, optimize your time, manage your mind, and start a business that helps you create more freedom, flexibility, and, yes, fun. I’m business and mindset coach Jenna Rykiel. And I offer practical tips to help you ditch the nine-to-five. I have been exactly where you are and I know what it takes to make the transition without trading one form of burnout for another. So, let’s get started.
Hello, mom friends. Today, we are tackling something that makes many aspiring mom entrepreneurs break out in a cold sweat, right? Marketing. In episode 36, I talked about how you can build a business, a successful business without social media, but you cannot build a successful business without marketing. Marketing is the heartbeat of your business.
Last week, we talked about the importance of niching down, finding your specific audience, and clarifying your offer and the solution to a problem. But I realized that before we dive into all the tactical marketing episodes I have planned, like growing your email list, creating lead magnets, all that fun stuff, we need to address the elephant in the room. Many of you are coming from corporate backgrounds where you excelled in your roles, but marketing wasn't necessarily your department. Okay?
The thought of becoming your own chief marketing officer might feel overwhelming or let's be honest completely unappealing. But today it's my goal to change that. By the end of this episode, you will understand why learning to love marketing isn't just nice to have, it's essential for building a business you are passionate about. You'll walk away with a completely new perspective on what marketing really is, plus actionable strategies that feel authentic to you as a mom and business owner.
And listen, even if you were the chief marketing officer in your corporate role, It's a completely different beast, marketing for your own business instead of someone else's. So if that's you, keep listening.
Let's start by getting really honest about something. If you hate marketing, this entire process of building a business will not be enjoyable. You can't own a business without wearing a marketing and sales hat a lot of the time. Yes, you can eventually hire people to help with these roles, which we'll get into later on in the episode, but you must learn to love marketing in order to be successful.
And success to me isn't just about revenue, although money is nice. Success is about you enjoying the process of building a business and you building something you are proud of and that you love. If you hate marketing, you're going to hate a significant part of building your business. But if you hate marketing, we are going to change that today. I did an episode on how to make selling easier, episode 14, where I shared how to think differently about selling. Selling and marketing are very much intertwined, so if you struggle with selling as well, definitely check that one out. But today we're focusing specifically on marketing because there's a lot of valuable marketing strategies and tactics that we'll discuss on this podcast but you'll find yourself resistant to all of those strategies if you don't first deal with the voice in your head saying I don't like marketing or the voice saying I'm not good at marketing.
So what really is marketing? Okay marketing is not about being manipulative or pushy. At its core, marketing is simply the process of connecting solutions with the people who need them. That's it. It's being a matchmaker between problems and answers.
Think about it. When you're at the playground and there's a mom that mentions she's struggling with getting her toddler to sleep and you share what worked for you, that's marketing. When you recommend your favorite restaurant to a friend, that's marketing. When you tell another mom about the amazing tutor or nanny who helped your child, that's marketing.
We all market naturally in our everyday lives, okay? We share solutions, we connect people with resources, we help others find what they need. The only difference now is that you're the one creating the solution. Okay? Your business is the solution.
One of the biggest misconceptions about marketing is that it requires being salesy or pushy or inauthentic. But the most effective marketing, especially for mom entrepreneurs, is actually the opposite. Okay? It's honest, helpful, and human.
Most of us don't start a business because we love marketing. So let's talk about why we don't love it. The reason you don't love marketing is because you have certain thoughts about it that are unproductive. And when I say you I'm also talking to my past self, right? Because I know that this topic is important because it's something I had to overcome myself.
These unproductive thoughts don't serve you because again, if you don't love marketing, you are not going to find ways to talk about what you do in a way that attracts your people. And if you don't love it, you're not going to enjoy the heartbeat of your business.
Okay, so there are common thought errors we have about marketing, and I want you to be honest with yourself around which ones ring true for you. And maybe you're sitting there and you're thinking, I actually don't know whether I love, hate, or somewhere in between marketing, right? But I want you to listen to these thoughts and challenge yourself and think to yourself whether or not these have been thoughts in your mind before.
Okay, the first I've mentioned a little bit right marketing feels sleazy or manipulative. This thought usually stems from experiences with bad marketing. Okay, the pushy salesperson, the misleading ad, the friend who only calls when they're selling something in a multi-level marketing scheme. We all have those in our lives, I'm sure. But remember, those are examples of marketing done poorly. When you're offering something you genuinely believe in something that can truly help others, marketing is more of an act of service. It's only sleazy if what you're offering doesn't deliver on its promises.
If your solution can genuinely help someone, not sharing it actually is doing them a disservice. And it's hard because when what we offer is the solution, it can feel selfish and like self-promotion. But if I'm on the playground and I hear a mom talking about their corporate role, complaining about their corporate job and how they've always wanted to start their own, let's say event space for kids parties, I am doing them a disservice by not talking about what I do and a potential solution for them, right?
The next thought error that I often hear from either in my own head or with clients, no one wants to hear what I have to say. Okay, this one can feel especially true when we're posting content with very little engagement. This is part of the danger with social media right because we can use the lack of engagement as validation for that thought. Well, I only got five likes on Instagram, so I guess no one wants to hear what I have to say. But this thought is often our inner critic at work, that voice that's been conditioned by years of being told to be modest, not to brag, to wait to be recognized.
The people who need your solution are actively looking for it. They're searching Google, they're asking friends, they're joining Facebook groups, all trying to find someone like you who can help them. It's your job to figure out where they are and speak their language so they recognize you have a solution for them. That's your new job now and that's marketing.
Your perspective, your approach, your unique combination of experiences, including your journey as a mom, all of those things provide value that someone out there needs. Your voice matters precisely because it's yours with all your specific experiences and insights.
Another big one, I'll be judged for putting myself out there. Yes, visibility invites opinions, but for every person who might judge you, there are many more who will be inspired by you. People who will see themselves in your story, who will find hope in your journey, right? The moms who need you are worth being a little bit uncomfortable for.
Remember too that most people are far too concerned with their own lives to spend much time judging yours, okay? And those who do judge harshly, they're not your people. They're not the clients you want to attract anyway.
And nine times out of 10, it's somebody who is not in the arena, if you know Brené Brown's work. This last one was a big one for me. And it is a little bit like the one I just shared, the no one wants to hear what I have to say, but slightly different. And it's, I don't have expertise worth sharing. This was a big one for me. It held me back from starting this podcast years ago, and it held me back from putting value in the world so many times because I didn't feel like an expert.
This is imposter syndrome talking, and it affects all of us, especially women, and especially women who've stepped away from their careers or are pivoting into something new. But expertise comes in so many forms, right? Sometimes it's formal education, sometimes it's years of experience, and sometimes it's simply being a few steps ahead of the person you're helping, okay?
If you've solved a problem that your ideal client is facing, you have expertise worth sharing. And sometimes it's just about being an example of what's possible when you're sharing an example of stepping into a scary life transition so that other moms know they can do it too.
The most important tool to help you love marketing is going to be your brain and your thoughts. I always say your brain is the problem and it's the solution. It's the problem because all of the unhelpful thoughts and all of the unintentional thoughts that I just went over, those are thoughts that are getting in the way. And it's the solution because there are so many new ways of thinking at your fingertips that will inspire action.
I'm gonna give you three strategies to shift your thinking from seeing marketing as a necessary evil and obligation to recognizing it as an opportunity and yes, even having a little bit of fun with it. The first mindset shift is moving from I have to market to I get to market right or I get to share or I get to connect right.
This subtle change has profound effects and I actually recommend it in all areas of life. Shifting language from this obligation I have to do something to I get to do something. When marketing feels like a chore, it becomes energy draining and inauthentic. But when you see it as a chance to share something valuable, it becomes energizing.
Think about the last time you found an amazing product that solved a problem for you? Maybe a time-saving kitchen gadget or an app, right? For me, the Ember mug that is a temperature regulated mug for your coffee, oh my gosh, changed my life. I got it in 2020 and it is something that I gift most often to clients and people in my life because there is nothing more wonderful and luxurious than having a perfectly temperatured sip of coffee every time.
Okay, and this is a bit of a tangent, but for moms, I know all of you out there who drink coffee are never drinking it at the proper temperature and maybe you're not even finishing your coffee in any given morning. And the Ember mug allows you to come back to the coffee and it still be that delicious, perfect temperature. That's a little bit of selling and marketing for you, right? And I have no affiliation to Ember as a company, but I just love the product.
So again, if you think about the last time you found an amazing product, remember how excited you were to tell friends and family about it, right? That's the energy we want to bring to marketing your business. Bring my Ember mug energy to marketing your own business.
The second mindset shift involves finding marketing activities that align with your personality and strengths. If you love writing, consider putting content out there in written form. If you love connecting with people, load your calendar up with networking events. Or if you love making videos, if it's easy for you and enjoyable for you to make videos, try posting them on social media, right? And making videos and content about your business.
And again, I'll just mention that episode 36 talks about how you do not need social media to build a successful business. So if social media is not your cup of tea, if you hate being on it, if you find that you're on it too much and you want to give it up, you can find other activities, marketing activities that work for you.
So I want you to take a moment, create a list of those marketing activities, even if you're just brainstorming, right? The ones that you might genuinely enjoy. Do you love deep conversations? Right? One-on-one coffee meetings might be your marketing method. Are you a natural teacher? Maybe if you are, then workshops or how-to content could be your strength. Do you enjoy writing like I talked about earlier?
Maybe email newsletters or blog posts might be your path. Or, you know, do you prefer behind-the-scenes work, right? Maybe SEO and Pinterest strategies might be your approach. The beauty of being your own boss is that you have permission to drop marketing tactics that don't bring you joy. You don't have to be on every platform or use every strategy. Choose the ones that feel good to you and you'll be more consistent and authentic in your efforts and you can always expand. So think about those marketing strategies that you can show up in authentically and truly enjoy.
The third mindset shift is focusing on the joy of connection rather than the pressure of conversion. Okay? Marketing creates meaningful relationships with your ideal clients. It's not just about making sales. It's about building a community of people who share similar values and challenges.
There's profound fulfillment in helping others through your marketing messages. When someone comments on your post saying, this is exactly what I needed to hear today. That's not just a marketing win, right? That's a human connection. When a potential client reaches out because something you shared resonated deeply with them. That's the beginning of a relationship that goes beyond transactions.
I've had countless marketing moments that led to profound client connections, right? Now that we know the thoughts getting in the way and now we know kind of the reframe strategies that we have, let's make this concrete with some action steps as always that you can take to start transforming your relationship with marketing so that everything I talk about marketing wise from here on out is exciting and not dreadful for you.
First, I want you to take a moment for reflection. What specifically makes you uncomfortable about marketing? Is it really marketing itself that you're resistant to or is it the visibility? Is it the fear of judgment? Is it imposter syndrome? This is a crucial first question because no marketing strategy is going to work if you don't tackle why you're hiding first. Even the most brilliant marketing plan will fail if you're too afraid to implement it consistently. Be honest with yourself, okay, about what's really holding you back.
Okay, next I want to offer three beginner-friendly marketing activities that feel less like marketing and more like natural extensions of who you are. The first is what I'll call conversation marketing, okay? Simply talking to real people about what you do, and I've talked about this on countless episodes, okay?
I've talked about networking in episodes 7 and 38, right? Where I give tools to help you market in a way that feels good. These connections are a powerful way of marketing your business. Think about your elevator pitch. Even saying that phrase can probably bring you on discomfort, but if you aren't clear about what you do or who you help, something we talked about in episode 41 on niching down, the people who need you aren't going to know that you're their person.
So next time someone asks you what you do, instead of saying your job title, tell them who you help and how. Okay? For example, instead of saying, I'm a health coach, try, I help busy moms who are exhausted all the time discover their energy again through simple nutrition changes, right? That's marketing. And that feels like connection and conversation.
The next simple strategy is content that serves before it sells. Next week we're going to be talking about creating a lead magnet, which is a really powerful tool for thinking about what your potential client needs. Something that aligns with your product or service and helps you build something where people can start getting free value before paying for the additional value you provide. When we have a mindset focused on giving before getting, marketing becomes a way to serve people, not just a way to grow revenue.
So think about what your ideal client is struggling with right now, and create content that addresses that specific pain point. Maybe a guide, a checklist, maybe a blog post, maybe an Instagram post, right? Create something. Start creating content.
The third is authentic sharing. Okay? The parts of your journey that connect. Marketing is storytelling. It's showing others what's possible from your own experience or the experiences of those you've helped. Okay, you want people to be able to see themselves in your marketing and in your story because it creates inspiration.
All right, so I want you to take time to think about that story. You don't need to share every detail of your life, but selectively sharing the challenges you've overcome, the mistakes you've made, and ultimately the transformations you've experienced creates powerful connection. So start thinking about how storytelling can be a tool for you.
Remember, you don't have to implement all three of these at once. Start with one that feels the most comfortable to you and expand from there as your confidence grows.
So today we've absolutely redefined what marketing really is, right? It's connecting solutions with the people who need them, not being pushy or manipulative. We've identified common unproductive thoughts that might be holding you back. The beliefs that marketing sleazy, no one wants to hear from me, I'll be judged, I don't have enough expertise, right? All of that mental drama. And we've reframed these with more empowering perspectives.
We've discussed how to shift your mindset from viewing marketing as an obligation to seeing it as an opportunity and really highlighting the importance of choosing marketing activities that align with your personality and strengths, which will ultimately bring you more joy as you build this business and life you love.
Finally, do carve out some time to try and start marketing in a way that feels authentic to you. Create content that serves before it sells, have those meaningful conversations, and start building connection through storytelling. Marketing your business does not have to feel uncomfortable or inauthentic when approached with the right mindset.
Have one conversation where you clearly articulate who you help and how, create one piece of content that provides genuine value without asking for anything in return, and/or share one authentic story that might help someone else feel less alone in their journey.
Remember, building a business you love means embracing all aspects of entrepreneurship, including marketing. When you learn to love marketing, you'll find that it brings more joy to the entire process of building your dream life and business.
Keep tuning in to this podcast for more practical strategies, a lot more practical marketing episodes coming up, which I know will help move you forward. Next week, like I said, we'll be diving into creating a lead magnet, a powerful tool for growing your audience and serving your clients even before they become paying customers.
And until then, remember, the world needs your unique gifts and marketing is simply how you ensure those gifts reach the people who need them most. You've got this, and I will see you next week.
Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of How to Quit Your Job: A Mom’s Guide to Creating a Life and Business You Love. If you want to learn more about how I can help you stop making excuses and start making moves, head on over to www.jenna.coach. I’ll see you next week.
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