You think that you need marketing thing #1 or thing #2 for your business to work(because things are the answer to everything). But the next thing you know, you're flying widgets on your website, eating green eggs and hamming it up for the world to see.
The online world can get weird real quick – especially when you think you need marketing things to turn on your trust. But here's the real thing: Marketing doesn't work when you turn on more widgets. It works when you show your Truth.
And one of the best ways to show your Truth, and convey who you are, is through your great content. Content is the starting point that shapes the direction of your business. And content is how you can make marketing your thing.
Here are a few tips:
1. Focus on your core strengths
It's so easy to get side swept into another version of you. But when you debunk the stories that you tell yourself, you can cut to your core to showcase your strengths – the true thing that matters.
It took years for me to realize how much I loved to read and write. I didn't want to be labeled a book nerd so I took on other labels in life, pretending that I was ok with not being me – escaping what made me feel most alive. But the Truth is (and as nerdy as it sounds), I love to pop perfect sentences in my mouth, deconstruct language, recreate new realities. It allows me to exist in a place where time stands still, stretching reality, expanding what I think to be true. It allows for a never-ending evolution – one in which I'm leaning into the edge of uncertainty, doing deep inner-work (preferably on a hammock!) to discover more.
But what does focusing on your core strengths have to do with marketing today?
Old-school marketing is superficial on the surface. Shiny objects. Ego-metrics. SEO and advertising. These things can often make you feel icky.
But when you focus on the core of what makes you come alive, things starts to get sticky – not because you're forcing it. But because you believe in it.
And believing in things is deeply transformative. You're slowly blending the whole of who you are into your work, guiding yourself and your business to create marketing truths in an information dense world. This starts igniting content that stands out on the web.
Your content becomes a living, breathing thing that constantly evolves. And it's from this place where you can recognize what you can co-create, so that you can embrace your core strengths with sincerity and grace.
2. Make living itself an art.
Life may imitate art. But more often, life inspires art – if you're living right. {click to tweet!}
When you stop creating content for the sake of it, you start creating for the sanity of it. This creates: 1) more meaning for yourself 2) more context for your content. 3) more Truth for the world.
People share content because they feel an emotion when they read it. When your story saunters into the soul of someone, it makes your content easy to share.
This means that you'll need to use your eyes not just as viewers – but as the creative lens behind the shape of your story. You can then become a catalyst to create content with context to grow your business.
3. Reinforce common values
Common values allow you to put a stake in the ground – not with more marketing. But instead with more meaning. This sets the frame of reference. When you create content through the lens of your common values, you step onto a strong foundation…
And you step into your story so that more things can come alive from living your Truth.
Need a simple, effective marketing strategy? Learn more about how you can work with me by clicking here.
