Look, entrepreneurship is hard. I saw someone on Reddit describing entrepreneurship feeling like you’re getting repeatedly punched in the face - especially in the early days - and, to be honest, yeah. It do be like that sometimes.

It’s like taking a nose dive into uncertainty, which is unsettling for most people as our lizard brains prefer the familiar to the unknown. (Technically, they do only have empirical evidence that we can survive what we already have.)

And if you, like me, struggle with anxiety- the uncertainty of where your next paycheck is coming from might trigger ye olde catastrophizing. I’ve heard it a thousand times. In my own head when I’m struggling, and from clients and colleagues when they’re locked in an existential business doom spiral:

😱 What if no one buys?

😱 What if they think I’m too expensive?

😱 What if they think I send too many emails and I’m spamming them?

😱 What if I’m laughed out of business?

😱 What if I’m trolled or canceled?

😱 What if my business fails and I go bankrupt and literally lose my shirt?

😱 What if they do buy and hate it?

Like I said, I’ve heard this type of thing a thousand times. Those self-doubt brain grooves are well-worn.

When that happens, my favorite thing to do is to shift the energy behind the What If? Game:

🥰 What if it all turns out OK?

🥰 What if it turns out BETTER than OK? 

🥰 Better than I ever could have imagined, beyond my wildest dreams?

Now that I’ve practiced a lot, the reminder to simply change the energy behind my “What If?” Game tends to be enough to redirect my thoughts and soothe my nerves.

But for folks on a downward spiral into What If? catastrophe, it can be too big a jump to go directly from What if I fail spectacularly & humiliate myself? To What if it turns out AMAZING? Because the body only feels the possibility of truth in the former, rather than the latter.

That’s why I like to give detailed, specific What Ifs to interrupt the negativity spiral when folks are struggling with their marketing. They’re often examples pulled from real things that have happened to myself or my other clients.

This helps my spiraling clients to accept that the positive What If? I’m proposing absolutely could happen, because it already has. And my belief in this What If? helps them to build familiarity and safety with the concept enough for them to believe in it too.

In case you could use some better “What Ifs”, here are 11 of my favorites for reversing a marketing doom spiral. I’d love to hear which ones feel most supportive to you, or what positive “What Ifs” you’d like to add to the arsenal. My email and DMs are open!

#1 What if every time you get inspired to share something in your marketing, it’s because someone, somewhere, at some time, present or future, needs to hear it exactly the way you say it?

This is a thought that has helped me show up in my marketing consistently- especially at the beginning of my business when it felt like it was taking forever to gain reach, engagement, and followers.

The gap between making the content and seeing results often triggered my tendency to assume everyone hates me and “What If”? myself straight to hell. But the fact is, the reality of not yet seeing results is just neutral data. There is so much context to weigh in before you could ever draw a meaningful conclusion as to why.

And in order to keep myself from quitting on my marketing before giving it a fair shot at working, I needed a better way to think about it.

I landed on this uplifting “What If”: “What if every time you get inspired to share something in your marketing, it’s because someone, somewhere, at some time, present or future, needs to hear it exactly the way you say it?”

Here’s why I LOVE this “what if”:

1. You can’t disprove it unless you have a crystal ball and a 0% error rate at foretelling the future!

2. I’ve had way too much proof that this is actually correct. For example:

🔮 The other day I woke up to a nice surprise: someone I’d never met and am not sure how they found me, where they’re following me, or for how long, had bought every single one of my Marketing Confidence Cheerleader workbooks from my website. Products I made more than a year ago, never officially launched, and have made maybe 1 post about in the last 12 months.

🔮 Sometimes someone will take themselves all the way through checkout on a mid- or high-ticket item in an email days after I sent it.

🔮 I’ll hear months after publishing a podcast episode how much it meant to someone stumbling across The Irresistible Marketing Pod for the first time.

🔮 Blog posts I wrote years ago still drive tons of traffic to my website to this day!

🔮 New folks follow me from TikToks I posted weeks ago.

I know we’re in the digital age and are obsessed with instant gratification and have a tendency to want to measure the results of our marketing immediately after posting, but it’s much more helpful to let things cook.

It’s also fun to imagine someone, somewhere in time reading my writing, listening to my podcast, or watching my videos feeling held, loved, seen, and inspired. I imagine their shame evaporating, their dreams expanding, their mood lifting, and their energy rising. It’s fun to believe I got the inkling to share what I did because this person I’m imagining needed this message, exactly how I delivered it.

In general, this What If? spiral has me smiling and motivated to keep on sharing, keep on marketing. Whereas the what if I’m just shouting into the void and no one cares? thought loop of yore has me shutting down, cowering from the shame, and robbing me of my motivation.

Who cares if this What If is “true.” Which makes more business sense for your ability to keep showing up and CEOing? 

#2 What if, right now, a client is finding and bingeing your content, converting themselves? And what if, very soon, they show up in your DMs - seemingly out of nowhere (from your perspective) - asking where to send the payment?

I’ve noticed a troubling tendency in myself and so many of my Type A, straight A, high-performer, recovering perfectionist clients: when the uncertainty grates on our nerves and we’re afraid of not knowing when the money will come in- we try to regain a sense of control by working as hard as possible. As though staying busy and grinding ourselves into the ground could force the outcome we want. Spoiler alert: it can’t.

The trouble is, we’re often tempted to grind right through our body’s pleas for rest. Consciously or unconsciously, we’re afraid that resting will force us to confront the uncertainty and our fears about it.

This results in a bad case of Not Knowing When To Stop. For the day, for the week, etc. And y’all know if you refuse to stop and rest, eventually, your body will force you to.

Getting out of this habit takes intentionally practicing more healthy thoughts. Like, this one: What if, right now, a client is finding and bingeing your content, converting themselves? And what if, very soon, they show up in your DMs - seemingly out of nowhere (from your perspective) - asking where to send the payment?

This “What If” makes it much easier to stop working for the day and enjoy a relaxing or rousing evening sans work pressure. It makes it easier to take the whole weekend off. Hell, even make 3-day weekends a regular thing. It makes it easier to take a week off once a quarter as I’m trying to do.

It also helps us to remember, acknowledge, and honor all the work we have already done. Taking credit is something that us recovering people-pleasers have been heavily conditioned not to do. However, intentionally honoring our accomplishments is essential to building a business that is sustainable longterm. Appreciation for our efforts replenishes our energy well. Never allowing ourselves to believe that our efforts are “enough” drains the well dry. And replicates toxic relationship patterns so many of us are trying to break. It’s the difference between being in a healthy, loving, emotionally available relationship with ourselves and an emotionally abusive one.

(This is why the Squad 🎉, my marketing mastermind for big-hearted, black sheep, rebel entrepreneurs, has a weekend check-in in our private Facebook Group where we are required to acknowledge the ways in which we showed up for our businesses and ourselves that week. This is so we can practice acknowledging our efforts until it becomes a habit for us to take credit where credit is due.) 

#3 What if, without your marketing, your aligned clients never find out about this modality/service/specialization that could drastically improve their lives? What if your marketing makes it so they can enjoy a drastically improved life far faster than they would otherwise?

Without Victoria Albina’s marketing, I’d still think boundaries were about controlling other people’s actions rather than something I was responsible for communicating and accountable for upholding through how much access and proximity I allow.

Without Monique The Money Coach’s marketing, I’d have no idea what a high-yield savings account was.

Without Dr. Andrea Grunberger-Moore’s marketing, I never would have connected my debilitating chronic migraines to my burnout and the unhealthy relationship dynamics in my life.

Without Rihanna’s marketing I’d never know how amazing I look in dark brown lipstick.

Without Alyssa Zander’s marketing, I wouldn’t have the insight to identify my impulse to sabotage my own joy due to joyfulness feeling so unfamiliar- thus interpreted by my lizard brain as dangerous.

I could go on and on and on. I already cut this list of examples in half for the sake of brevity.

The point is that powerful, ethical marketing genuinely has the power to transform people’s lives for the better, whether or not they ever buy anything.

And those I did buy from? I’m damn glad I did. Because they accelerated my growth, my insight, and my ability to navigate this crazy world with dignity, integrity, and grace far faster than I would have without their support. In other words, I am GLAD they sold to me. I’m glad their marketing reached me. I’m glad I became convinced. I’m glad I handed over my money, attention, and trust. Because my life is genuinely better for it.

I’m sure you’ve had many of these experiences as a customer too.

So why wouldn’t your marketing and your work be able to have a similar effect on others?

What if your marketing is a service to your community? What if it’s medicine?

#4 What if your marketing has the power to neutralize shame?

The marketing that gives most of us the ick is when it instills shame to sell you a cure. (I’ve bought more beauty aid products than I care to admit because of this.)

But if marketing can be powerful enough to install shame, doesn’t it stand to reason that it could also be powerful enough to remove shame that was already there?

This is my favorite kind of marketing. The good kind of shameless. A shedding of shame through marketing. Allowing others to witness the shedding of shame, showing them - perhaps for the first time - that that shame isn’t something they have to continue to carry if they don’t want to.

This is the embodiment of that beautiful quote: “Shame dies when stories are told in safe places" by Ann Voskamp.

So many of my people are healers: of individuals, of communities, of societies. I know it moves you to tears when you think of your people weighed down, shrunken, and burdened by unjust, coercive shame. What if your marketing could free them from it? Inspire them to release it?

Again, what if your marketing is a service to your community? What if it’s medicine?

#5 What if your current client is telling your next client all about you right now, and seemingly out of the blue for you, they show up ready to work with you?

What if your marketing reverberates long after you made it? It’s likely that many of your best clients today were wooed into your world by marketing you made long ago.

Now they’re telling their friends about you. Dropping your name while networking. Recommending you to anyone they come across who is looking for help with problems that you solve.

Now those people are poking around your website, bingeing your podcast, and scrolling through your social media feeds. Soon you’ll get an email, a call, a DM all because marketing you made weeks or months or years ago got the ball rolling. What if the marketing you’re making right now, today, is what will woo your next 100 customers

What if, in the future, you get messages all the time about how that thing you said - that you may not even remember saying because you’ve said so many profound things in your marketing since then - but that thing you said way back when changed someone’s life for the better? They were inspired to make an empowered decision, make a big move, use their voice… and then magic happened. What if soon you start receiving messages like that all the time?

#6 What if you’ve done enough today?

What if all the marketing you’ve already made is constantly working for you, even when you’re off duty? What if the same is true for all the good work you’ve already done for clients?

What if every time your body or your energy tells you “that’s enough for today” it’s correct? What if every time you listen to your body and your energy that it’s time to rest, it acts as an insurance policy that the marketing you produce next will be of top quality?

What if your marketing is 1000x more effective when you get enough rest?

What if when you take the rest you need the universe rewards you with notification after notification that payment has been sent?

#7 What if clarity, direction, and confidence is just on the other side of rest?

I always tell my Marketing Confidence Cheerleading clients, “If you don’t know what you want or what to do, rest.”

It’s always been the case for me that clarity and conviction appear once I’ve had adequate rest. And as I am recovering from my own toxic productivity tendencies (thanks, internalized Capitalism!) it takes a huge leap of faith whenever I actually permit myself to rest before it’s an emergency. 

So I arm myself with evidence: of all the times I lacked direction then found it after a day or two off. How I couldn’t tell what I wanted and then it came to me with crystal clarity after a long weekend. All the times I’ve proscribed rest to my clients and they found clarity on the other side.

What if success doesn’t come from working harder but, instead, taking better care of your genius? And since you’re the vessel of your genius, caring for your genius requires caring for YOU. And you need rest.

#8 What if all the shitty stuff you’re experiencing right now is part of your manifestation, because you need to go through it in order to alchemize the experience to gain the wisdom that will take you to your next level?

Before my first $10k profit month in my business, I had a couple really bad sales months. I had to ask for help. A kind uncle had to loan me money so I could make rent! Asking him for help was terrifying. I was so ashamed to need help.

But this was a block I had to get over. I had to learn how to be honest with myself and others about my situation. I had to learn that I wouldn’t die if I asked for help. I had to learn that normal people don’t meet requests for help with shaming and derision, and my unfortunate experiences with such reactions in the past were actually outliers that meant nothing about me or my worthiness as a person. I had to believe I was worthy of having my needs met, and worthy of receiving help when I couldn’t meet them on my own.

Without this experience, I wonder if I would have had the confidence to be assertive enough to have the conversations and do the pitches that led to my first $10K profit month. To be honest, I think I probably would have still held back- prioritizing not being a bother over taking the actions necessary to meet my financial goals.

So if you’re in a really tough spot right now… Maybe your business or personal life or both feel like they’re going to shit… What if it’s all part of what you’re calling in?

Not to get too woo woo on ya, but what if you’re being served the exact obstacles and challenges you need to propel the growth needed for you to be the person that runs a 7-figure business, or whatever your goal is?

When stuff gets really hard for me to deal with, I choose to believe it’s all part of what I’m asking for. Distractions and obstacles are being removed so my focus and energy are clear. I’m being redirected until I’m facing the right way. I’m getting stronger, more creative, more resilient, more wily because the person who has what I want is strong enough to hold it, creative enough to sustain it, resilient enough to handle the increased visibility & responsibility, and wily enough to maximize the fruits of my labor and enjoy the shit out of it all.

What if the challenge is part of your best manifestation ever? What if it means it’s working?

#9 What if your next win is right around the corner?

What if your goal is so much closer than you think it is? What if it happens tomorrow? Tonight? What if by next Monday your whole world has changed for the massively better?

What’s the opposite of catastrophe? Let’s What If? spiral to that!

#10 What if you could 10x the price and triple your sales?

What if raising your prices will make your audience take your offer more seriously? Because you pricing it appropriately is your vote of confidence in its value?

I’ve actually had this exact experience happen, and there are so many stories just like mine and even more impressive.

What if making a big investment gets your client even more excited to work with you because it represents an energetic investment of going all in?

What if hitting your next financial goal will be SUPER EASY for you because you’ll only have to sell a few to meet it once you raise your price?

#11 What if they’re growing faster than you because they have more support? What if investing in support astronomically accelerated your growth?

Your coaches have coaches. So many of the people whose businesses you admire, whose upward trajectory you’re envious of, have a lot of support. Maybe they’ve been extra blessed and already have a super supportive, entrepreneurially inclined inner circle. But even with such divine blessings, the folks who you look up to and whose businesses you most admire are heavily investing in their development as a leader. The coaches I most look up to regularly admit to dropping well over 6 figures on mentorship.

Why? Because we can’t see our own blind spots. Sometimes our frames of reference are too limited to spot brilliant solutions and amazing opportunities. Sometimes our mind drama clouds our brilliance. Sometimes the people close to us don’t get us and that hurts and it's lonely. Sometimes they can’t see or believe in our vision and that’s discouraging.

That’s why getting skilled support is so crucial to the success of your business. So there is someone there to help you see what you’re not seeing. Someone to help expand your realm of possibilities. Someone to validate and encourage your vision. Someone to help hold you accountable to your dreams. Someone to keep you on track to go get them.

What if investing in support is a brilliant business decision? What if allowing yourself to receive support unlocks your massive success?

Excited by that last “what if?” I’d love to be your Marketing Confidence Cheerleader. Work with me 1:1 or join the Squad 🎉, a marketing mastermind for big-hearted, black sheep, rebel entrepreneurs.