Anxious People Are Creative People
If you’re anxious about marketing, it’s actually a good sign. When you have the tools to alchemize anxiety into creativity, your marketing will be unstoppably irresistible.
Anxious people are some of the most creative people in the entire world.
Just think of your last doom spiral! I bet it was terrifying and disastrous. I bet it was Grey’s Anatomy, telenovela levels of melodramatic. I bet you came up with some very creative ways to make the end of the world all your fault in the worst possible way.
See? Creative. And just imagine what it would do for your business if you had tools for redirecting that creative energy into your marketing.
When Your Mental Health Thwarts Your Marketing
I know that many people - myself included - struggle with shame when their mental health prevents them from doing what it takes for their businesses to succeed. Especially since being an entrepreneur means having to make friends with uncertainty.
Uncertainty is something that many of us fear. No wonder putting offers out into the world and not being able to control whether other people will be into it is triggering for many of us.
And with our culture’s bizarre conception of professionalism as a “check your feelings at the door” requirement, it’s not like tools for coping with our mental health as we navigate the risks and rewards of entrepreneurship is talked about enough.
And when something is too taboo to speak about openly, shame abounds. Often, to the detriment of us all.
As someone who has struggled with at times crippling diagnoses of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), I’ve spent my career trying to navigate my anxiety, get out from under the shame when it thwarted me professionally, and trying everything I could think of to just get rid of it. For a long time, the only way I could address my anxiety was through a heavy filter of shame.
But, slowly, a different theory started to form.
In my professional reviews, in my clients’ praise, even in professional skills & personality assessments, I kept getting the feedback that I was super creative. I didn’t think much of it at first. Doesn’t everyone have like 50 ideas a minute?
The thing is, my anxiety is a reflection of my deep, elaborate, powerful creativity. It’s a force of nature, an imagination that can’t help but build worlds. And when I’m not letting it loose to do its thing, it will show up as anxiety.
So, the anxiety that caused me so much shame, to see myself as so defective and broken for so long… was actually a superpower. And just like any superhero, I just needed to learn how to control it and wield my power wisely and responsibly.
And since I find that most of my clients’ marketing is being thwarted not by bad strategy or bad products or lack of a willing customer base- but, instead, by the way their anxiety is preventing them from showing up in their marketing, I’ve decided to share what I’ve learned about composting nervous energy into the ultimate marketing creativity.
Stop bullying your anxiety
Let it speak
Tell your body it is safe
Clear space to channel
Notice the brilliant now
It’s basically shadow work for your business. Don your superhero cape, because it’s time to let the skeletons out of your mental closet.
(Please do note that I am not a therapist and that I highly recommend you also work with a licensed mental health professional if you are struggling with anxiety.)
Alright, let's start composting.
Step 1: Stop Bullying Your Anxiety
Having a mean inner critic means you know how to wield words powerfully, in a way that has a profound emotional impact. What if instead of berating yourself, you learned to shape persuasive, inspiring, exciting messaging that gets your people to dream bigger and take action?
Worry over your clients’ results means you care deeply about your people. If you redirected the worry into passion, imagine the level of service and support you could give to your customers.
Picturing all the ways it could fall apart means you’re strategic and are keeping an eye on the bigger picture. What if you channeled this anxiety into creating brilliant systems for your business so that not a single detail gets overlooked or falls through the cracks?
See? With just a little redirection, your anxiety is hella useful. So the goal is redirection, not to just get rid of it.
Besides, if you could just throw your anxiety in the trash and walk away, wouldn’t you have done that by now?
It’s sticking around for a reason. Several reasons, actually:
Humans evolved in a way that includes the experience of anxiety to help ensure the survival of our species. If you were never anxious, you wouldn’t bother to take reasonable measures to avoid danger.
As an individual, you evolved as someone with anxiety as a strategy to help ensure your survival. Perhaps you grew up in an environment that required your hypervigilance.
Whenever your body tenses up, your heart starts to race, and your breathing gets quicker and shallower in case you have to run away from a lion… your body is showing you that it loves you. It’s trying to protect you. Your body is on your side.
Every time you’re anxious, you’re using your imagination about what’s around the corner. If you’re anxious a lot, your imagination is a muscle you flex a lot. So as powerful as it is when it’s fraying your nerves, it’s also powerful when you’re making art, building your business, solving problems, and creating the world you want to live in.
Do any of those things sound like bad things to you? Are these gifts you’d really want to chuck in the bin?
There is a major upside to your anxiety. So, I’m not going to tell you how to get rid of it, I’m going to tell you how to channel it.
Step 2: Let It Speak
I get anxiety is uncomfortable and inconvenient. But if we take the view that it is a part of us that loves us so much and wants to keep us safe- might we want to treat it a little differently?
When you start doom spiraling, has telling those anxious thoughts to shut up and go away ever actually worked? Or did it make the anxiety worse?
When I tell my anxiety to shut up and go away, it usually gets louder. Because it loves me. Because it’s afraid for me. Because it has a message it wants me to hear. There is something it wants to make me aware of.
When I take the time to allow myself to listen, I have the opportunity to decide whether or not I actually want to be afraid of what it wants me to notice.
So, if I’m worried about no one showing up to a workshop I offer and my body gets tight and I keep freezing up instead of promoting the workshop… I can get still and find where the anxiety is in my body. Where do I feel it? What does it feel like?
For me, it’s usually a tightness in my throat and chest.
What has it so worried it’s preventing me from promoting my workshop? I may ask it this question silently in my head while meditating, out loud while I’m driving, or write it in my journal and wait for the answer. I usually don’t have to wait very long.
It may respond with something along the lines of: “If no one buys a ticket, we’ll feel rejected, betrayed, and like we’re failing. And that will feel awful and when we feel awful we’re unsafe and when we’re unsafe we might DIE.”
Sounds kinda like a little kid, right? And, as my therapist tells me, anxiety is probably a way I learned to cope as a little kid. But I’m big and awesome now. And as a big awesome person, I’m not going to yell at the little kid part of me. Instead, I might say something like, “Well, even if no one buys a ticket- it is definitely not a life-threatening situation. We’ll still live here in this nice warm house. We’ll still have food, water, and our cat. We’ll still have our business and our intelligence and our friends. We will definitely not die from no one buying a ticket.”
Around now, my chest is probably releasing tension and my heart rate is going down. “And yeah, if no one buys a ticket, it will probably hurt our feelings. But we’re big and awesome and are 100% strong enough to handle hurt feelings without it so much as ruining our day or even our afternoon. No one has to buy a ticket for us to feel safe. No one has to buy a ticket for us to know we’re awesome.”
See? This is a much nicer tactic than just telling my anxiety to shut up and go away.
If your anxiety were another person… which tactic do you think would be more deescalating? Yelling at them to fuck off, or gently allowing them to express their fear and offering comfort?
Seriously, try it. Watch how letting your anxiety have its say and then responding with compassionate care calms the whole thing down.
Step 3: Tell Your Body It’s Safe
Did you know that emotions are your brain’s interpretations of sensations in your body? Thoughts can create your feelings. And often your body reacts strongly to scary or mean thoughts you’re having about yourself and whether or not you are safe, good, liked, or accepted.
So when it comes to anxiety, it’s really helpful to learn ways to come back into your body to soothe the sensations that your brain is interpreting as fear and anxiety.
Scent is one of my favorite ways to quickly come back into my body. I love to keep a vial of my favorite Camamu Nirvana perfume on my desk because it smells like an Oregon pine forest. When I roll some onto the heart tattoo on my wrist, I’m always inspired to breathe that forest in deeply. And that long, slow, deep breath tells my body that it’s OK, it doesn’t have to be breathing shallowly in case we need to sprint for our lives or wrestle an alligator. That long slow breath and the pleasure of a beloved fragrance quickly reassure my body that it's safe.
Here are some other things that I’ve learned help my body to understand that it is safe:
Moving in a way that feels joyful: like dancing or rollerskating.
Cuddling a pet.
Yummy smelling-hot tea.
Super soft textures of clothing or blankets.
A hot shower or bath.
Going outside somewhere beautiful- especially near a body of water.
Lighting a scented candle when I’m meditating.
Do you already know how to quickly reassure your body that it is safe? Great, make sure you have some good reminders and options near your desk for the next time marketing anxiety pops up.
If you’re not sure yet, start experimenting and tracking what helps you come back to your body.
Don’t skip this step, because your body will need to know it's safe for you to truly alchemize your nervous energy into marketing creativity.
Step 4: Clear Space to Channel Inspiration
Once we’ve soothed the shouts of the parts of ourselves that are anxious, it’s time to turn our attention to our marketing creativity.
But we’re using our creative power super intentionally here, so we’re going to start by grounding into our big Why. We start shaping irresistible marketing by reminding ourselves of:
Who we want to help
Why we want to help them
How our offer helps them
Then. all we need to do is figure out how to get this message to our people in a way that they can hear it.
Remember, marketing is communication. It’s not just shouting into the void or talking at people. No. Irresistible marketing is a conversation between:
What you want to bring into the world/what wants to be brought into the world through you. (In more typical business-speak: your vision, mission, and offer)
The people encountering your marketing, including people who want to buy, people who are a hard “no,” people who are a “not yet,” and people who are weighing their options
Your customers experiencing the offer
As a conversation, marketing is both the times when you speak and the times when you listen. One of the most important times to listen is before you start the conversation. That way, you are clear on your goals, intentions, message, who you want to hear it, and what you want them to do with it. This will keep the conversation from going off the rails.
Which means, before you create, you need the raw material you’re going to create with. Before you give, you need to receive. Before you speak, you need to listen. Before you have a conversation with other people, you need quiet time with yourself.
Otherwise, your marketing is basically just a shot in the dark, random reactions to internal and external stimuli.
Here’s how I like to clear mental space to channel inspiration for irresistible marketing:
Tarot
Journaling
Stretching
Meditation
I protect the time to do at least one of these activities every day because they are so helpful and effective for me. I have never not received a download of inspiration when I’ve cleared the mental space and asked for one.
Do you know how to clear mental space for you to receive inspiration downloads and channel marketing creativity? Do you need to make more time for these activities?
Step 5: Notice the Brilliant Now
Once you get your inspiration downloads, actually creating the marketing is the easy part.
With purpose and intention, doing the darn thing is fun and exhilarating.
But then, you have to release it out into the world and let other people react in ways you can’t predict or control. That fear of uncertainty then gets triggered for many of us. And our anxiety stirs up any number of catastrophic imaginary futures.
The alternative is to cultivate tools for staying pleasantly present. A) It’s a good time to remind your body that it’s safe. B) It’s also a good time to commit to noticing the signs that your marketing is working before you have the big dramatic result you’ve been dreaming of.
I’ve never climbed Mt. Everest, but I’m guessing that the climbers that make it to the top don’t berate themselves and tell themselves their progress doesn’t count and they’re failing and summiting is completely impossible until they’ve made it to the tippy top. How could they possibly keep going and overcoming challenges if that’s how they speak to themselves?
So, your post got 5 likes? Notice that you’re a little further up the mountain than when it got 2 likes or no likes. Mentally thank each one of those 5 people for taking the time to witness and appreciate your message. Notice that today, you had something to say when you couldn’t find your words yesterday.
So, you only sold 50% of the hoped-for seats in your course? What did you learn that will make your next launch even more successful? And again, pause and give gratitude for every single person who decided that out of all the things they could do, out of all the mentors they could look to, out of all the ways to spend their money and time- they chose to invest in your program.
You find what you look for. You notice what you’re keeping an eye out for. So, look for things to be grateful for and you’ll find signs that your marketing is working, you’re making progress, signs that you’re a success worthy of celebration- not a failure.
And do celebrate. Because most marketing takes months of consistent quality content before you start seeing big dramatic results. You’ve got to keep your spirits up and keep showing up on your way to the top of the mountain!
Anxiety Is Your Asset
When was the last time you found an Instagram filter “relatable” to your real life? Perfect mental health is also pretty much just an Instagram filter.
Your anxiety is part of your perfect humanity. Your anxiety is the flip side of your incredible creative power. You don’t have to hide, suppress, or ignore your anxiety in order to have irresistible marketing and a wildly successful business. You just need tools to channel it.
If you’d like some fun, specific tools for composting your anxiety into marketing creativity- come to the Marketing Witchery Workshop on Monday, Jan. 23. If you’d like to work with me 1:1 as your own, personal Marketing Confidence Cheerleader you can sign up for a Season of Support here.
