Entrepreneurs are all creators of some sort – dreamers, inventors, innovators. Entrepreneurs have no shortage of ideas for their marketing. However, after the initial brainstorming session, they’re immobilized worrying about the finished product and all the work that needs to be done. This is the roadblock we are aiming to remove.

If we stop thinking about “marketing” (ie the blog, the podcast, the reels on social) and just get present about what we’re doing and why, then the real magic can happen.

Marketing by Design: How to shift for 2024

In the past, we discussed marketing words. While we still think it’s relevant and we still love our words, we’re taking a different approach now.

We want our clients to shift their frame of mind, and for just a minute let’s unmarket.

What do we mean by unmarketing and how the heck are we going to achieve our sales goals if we don’t have a marketing plan?

First off, let us be clear that we will end up with a marketing plan, it’s just the approach that we’re challenging you to change.

Our goal is to get you on a call and talk about your business, your brand, your competitive advantage, your passion, your story…. Sometimes when our clients try and put the marketing hat on, we can’t get past the planning stage. The client tries to envision the result, then they get overwhelmed thinking about the steps involved and don’t get back to us. All the big ideas in the world won’t amount to anything if we can’t even take one small step.

So back to unmarketing. Here are some words to keep in mind as you kick off a new year…

Unmarketing word #1: Freedom

Text, email, Messenger – we are getting content from our clients by any means that works for THEM. The reason is we don’t want the technology to get in the way. After years of everyone trying to use Google Drive, DropBox, iCloud and more we are making it EASY for the client. Send us your content however you want.

Removing the “send” barrier is a massive relief. We get it. As a creative team, we are constantly moving assets and we know what a pain in the arse it can be. Sometimes clients don’t send content simply because they don’t know how. We remove this barrier by accepting video via Facebook Messenger and high-resolution photos via text.

Free yourself from having to learn a new app and fight with endless failed login attempts. Work with someone who will meet you where you are.

Unmarketing word #2: Flow

The next problem we see is overthinking. We meet and they share all sorts of ideas and we say ok, just send us what you have – anything – and we’ll get started! Then they get stuck. It doesn’t feel right, it’s not fully resolved, how is it all going to come together?

Clients that get in their head tend to stay in their head, which means nothing for us to work with. Clients that are willing to let go learn that we will suggest, edit and rework on our side to get things just right.

Move with ease. Let it flow and trust in the process.

Unmarketing word #3: Forgiveness

Never before has the space of marketing been so forgiving! Back in the day, a simple typo could be a very costly mistake.

While we work incredibly hard to avoid issues and typos, the upside to technology is that everyone seems to forgive the endless glitches, and it provides marketers a lot of room to breathe.

Mistakes can be fixed in real-time. This is the one great advantage to today’s marketer. We have to start somewhere in order to get anywhere. Being too worried about mistakes at the onset can mean you don’t take a step in any direction. Approach it with the gift of forgiveness, these are the clients that are seeing results year over year.

Unmarketing word #4: Choice

This is a tricky one. As a person who is getting hundreds of notifications a day, I can quickly fall victim to distraction burnout and decision-making fatigue. I am working on it. As hard as it is to NOT be distracted, in some ways, it’s really quite simple.

Choose how you spend your time. Choose who you work with. Choose calm over chaos. Choose mindfulness over distraction.

Schedule time for focus, for mindfulness, for you – then turn off the devices or silence your notifications.

If you’re worried about kids or emergencies, perhaps take a moment to make sure their school or caretaker has up-to-date emergency contact info on file. And you don’t need to tune out for hours on end (though no judgments if you do!) but a blend of scheduled work time, dedicated time and a healthy dose of micro pauses can do wonders to your overall productivity and well-being.

It is all a choice so choose wisely.

Speaking of choice, we want to make it easy for you to choose us. Reach out and book a Discovery Call. It’s no charge, no obligation and usually pretty fun to just hop on a call and chat about where you are and where you want to go.