Triggered By Having to Market Your Business?
Photo of Isa courtesy of Ashley Arasaki.
When outrunning the discomfort isn’t working, it’s time to connect to your body and feel your feelings
Hey, I know marketing has a tendency to trigger big feels for most of us small business owners.
It’s easy to take it personally when our following grows slowly, when one post doesn’t automatically equal one or more sales, when we’re putting a lot of effort in and have to wait a while- sometimes quite a while- for the reward.
This can be uncomfortable.
But what really separates the entrepreneur who is leveling up from the entrepreneur who is bottoming out is the ability to handle discomfort and uncertainty in a healthy way.
And I need you to know that:
Ghosting on your marketing is also going to make you uncomfortable- because you won’t grow.
Busy work, doom scrolling, substances, shopping sprees, bad dating decisions, & other numbing tactics can only mute or distract from the discomfort for a short while… but they don’t make the discomfort go away.
Taking endless classes, masterminds, consultations, coaching sessions, and business containers can become its own form of numbing if you’re not giving yourself time to process and implement what you’re learning.
Stuck? Try Wiggling It
If you’re shutting down or your energy is getting frantic when you’re trying to do your marketing, it’s important to take a break to calm your body so that you can examine your discomfort from a place of curiosity rather than terror.
How do you soothe your body?
Movement is my favorite way to rattle the anxiety out of the forefront of my brain. Personally, I like to rollerskate, jump up and down, or foam roll when I need to get unstuck from feeling shut down, overwhelmed, or frantic. It’s like when you key is jammed, you wiggle it to free it.
But, since you probably don’t want to keep shutting down or going into hyperalert when you need to show up for your marketing, it’s not enough just to calm your body in the moment.
The first step is to get your body to understand that it is safe. Once your body knows it’s not in imminent danger, you can allow yourself to feel your feelings- even if they’re uncomfortable.
Get Comfortable With Uncomfortable Silence
Unfortunately, you can’t outrun uncomfortable feelings- but a lot of us try anyway. And if you don’t ever allow yourself to feel uncomfortable, you’ll have to do a lot of running.
Luckily, you have another option. You can allow yourself to feel the discomfort in order to release it.
If you’re going, “that sounds terrible!” I hear you, but I also want you to know that your discomfort is trying to tell you something about your wants, needs, and boundaries. And it’s not going to go away until you give it some attention. I like imagining my marketing discomfort as a yappy pomeranian: annoying, yeah, but also adorably trying to protect me in often misguided ways.
That means, if you want to stop being plagued by marketing terror, you’re going to have to make time to sit with that discomfort in order to hear its message so it can stop yapping at you and you can make an intentional decision about what you want to do with this information.
Is your pomeranian barking because there is a serial killer in the house or because there is a squirrel outside? The bark sounds similar- different reactions are called for. Often, our marketing terrors like a mean comment, low engagement on a few posts, showing up with bad hair, etc. are more squirrel than serial killer. No need to fight or play dead, just acknowledge the squirrel out there and keep doing your thing.
OK, that was a lot of metaphors. Let’s get practical. To recap: if marketing is sending you into a trauma response, move your body to get unstuck. Then make time to feel and release your marketing fear. That means you’ll need to make room in your schedule for:
Rest
Reflection
Silence
Stillness or very gentle movement
The fear, anxiety, and discomfort that come up for you when you need to market your business are messages from your body. Your life will be better and happier when you listen.
Connect To Your Body So You Can Read Your Own Signals
Here are some cool things that happen when you start paying attention to the signals your body is sending you.
You learn what “yes” and “no” feel like in your body and become much more decisive.
You become more aware of your knee jerk responses and can decide whether you’d like to change them.
You gain the confidence to trust your own judgment above all others- which makes not doing what you’re told or what everyone else is doing a lot easier.
Now, if you felt 100% decisive, intentional, and confident, don’t you think showing up for your marketing would be easier and more fun?
Trusting Yourself = Trusting Your Body
Bottom line: your marketing becomes much more magnetic and much more enjoyable when you want to show up and share. You’re not going to achieve that energy when you’re hiding from your own feelings and checking out from your own body.
People trust people who trust themselves. People are drawn to people who are in integrity with themselves. People feel welcome with people who are at home in their own bodies.
If fear and anxiety keep preventing you from marketing, your business needs you to prioritize feeling your feelings and healing.
Not sure how to start connecting with your body when you’re having marketing anxiety? We made the You Are Safe In Your Body Workbook just for you. It is a fun collection of journaling prompts, silly movement, and guided meditations to help you tune into the treasure trove of insight your body just can’t wait to share with you.
