How to Reduce Marketing Stress3 min read
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Is marketing inherently stressful?
Given all the comments I’ve heard from clients over the years, you would think it was.
I regularly hear comments like:
Marketing is overwhelming
It takes too much time
It doesn’t work, I’ll just be rejected
I can’t fit it into my schedule
Asking for referrals is like begging
At a certain point the stress becomes too much and the solution seems obvious: Stop any marketing activity immediately, in fact, stop even thinking about marketing!
That works for about five minutes until you realize again that if you aren’t marketing, you won’t have any new clients.
This is the “marketing vicious circle” where you feel stressed about marketing no matter what you’re doing (or not doing).
Then how do you handle marketing stress? Is there a way you can reduce stress, actually do some effective marketing and make some progress?
Of course it’s possible…
It’s possible, but it does take some thinking. The question to ask is: “Am I ready to replace much of my stress by doing some thinking right now?”
Of course, you are, so let’s get started!
How would you be if you weren’t experiencing stress?
Wouldn’t you be resourceful? Resourcefulness is always there. It’s part of your natural state of being. It includes being creative, intelligent, inventive and enterprising.
Notice that children are amazingly resourceful. It’s not something they learned; it came with the package called “human being.”
Stress is simply the reaction you have to thoughts that tell you that whatever is happening is wrong or insufficient.
It’s often expressed as, “I should be able to do this,” and, “If I’m not able to do this it’s not OK, I’m not good enough.”
But why should you be able to do something you’ve had very little experience doing?
Think about that for a minute. You’re stressed out about doing something (marketing activities) that you know very little about and in which you’ve had virtually no training or experience.
The only problem is that you think it should be easy, that since you’re successful in other areas, you should be immediately successful with marketing.
Look, marketing is complex. It can be challenging. It takes time. That’s just the way it is.
Just get that you’re currently lousy at marketing. And that’s OK. Everyone is lousy at just about everything until they get a certain amount of education and experience.
Feeling a little less stressed yet?
Back to young kids. They are lousy at everything they first try, but they’re full of resourcefulness, creativity and inventiveness. This is why they learn at an astonishing rate.
But as kids get older and turn into adults, we judge every action we take. We become cautious, fearful and wary of being judged for not doing things well. And that’s stressful.
This is what stress-free marketing looks like: Doing a lousy job at marketing and being 100% OK with that. And then tapping into your natural resourcefulness and just taking the next step.
Here’s what people do when they tap into their resourcefulness (instead of identifying with their stress):
They do a lot of research to learn what works and what doesn’t. (Wish I’d had Google when I started my business!)
They mastermind with others to explore various marketing approaches, strategies and tactics, learning from the experience of others.
They seek out authors, coaches, consultants, workshops and videos that teach hands-on practices that work.
As they explore and test certain ideas, they discover principles and systems that do work, and then make them best practices.
To sum it all up:
You get stressed about not being good at marketing your business.
You realize it’s your thoughts of not being good enough that trigger the stress.
When you understand that it’s OK to be lousy at something, you can relax and just start to learn.
The more you realize that you are OK just the way you are, your resourcefulness kicks in and learning accelerates.
Actions taken without self-judgment and fear produce results at a more consistent and higher level than when stressed.
Get it?
OK, then get on with it!
Cheers, Robert
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