Y’all, I’m tired.
Over the past 8 weeks, I’ve launched the Define Your Foundations cohort (including re-filming the curriculum) and launched my new book, Leaving the Casino.
Over 100 packages have been already shipped! All personally signed and packed with love by my new shipping assistant aka also me.
I don't want to be marketing right now. I just want to take a nap.
When marketing = broadcast emails and social posts, it’s easy to put it on the shelf for a while. You run out of time, you run out of words, and you tell yourself you’ll get back to it when you have more willpower or “consistency”.
However, that’s only one kind of marketing…and isn’t even my most effective strategy.
So when I don’t want to “market,” I remind myself there are three ways I’m almost always marketing, even when I don’t feel like it.
(PS — want to break up with this version of marketing? Read Leaving the Casino Chapter 7 — The Followers and Funnels Fallacy).
Here’s 3 ways I’m always marketing, even if I don’t feel like “marketing”.
Partners
The first stage of marketing is getting in front of new people. And sure, I could fight the algorithm, email more, and hope someone stumbles across my work — or I can make it happen through partners.
Just this week, I’ve spoken to 50 entrepreneurs, been featured in three newsletters, and gained over 75 new subscribers (and a number of new book orders) all due to partnerships.
Partnerships work because other people are also in motion: running communities, sending emails, hosting events, expanding their networks. They often need content or guest voices. Some partnerships are paid, others are simply built over time, and both count.
What this means for you? Don’t try to market in isolation. Build relationships, share audiences, and let other people’s motion help carry your work forward.
Personal Touches
When I don’t wanna market, I look back at my calendar.
All those books I shipped were signed with personal notes. Those readers have posted about the book and invited me to speak to their communities.
That’s marketing.
I also led two free diagnostic calls for members of a one community I’m a part of, a practice sales call for a member of a different community, and three 30-minute welcome calls for new Deeper Foundations members.
That’s marketing.
Marketing doesn't have to be done en masse through email or social. In fact, the personal touches have always done more for my business than any broadcast-based strategy.
What this means for you? Do the things that don’t scale to build the momentum that does. Send cards and mail. Reach out for that personal conversation. Be active in the communities you are in.
Past Me
When these new connections join my email list, they also get a steady stream of content, thanks to past me.
Past me didn’t want future me to have to continually create new content or send new emails.
Past me built the welcome and education sequences (with the help of copywriter Rebeca Arango). Past me wrote articles, filmed videos, built resource pages, and, of course, wrote a book.
New members often join and say, “I learned so much from your YouTube content, so I had to join you here.”
When I’d rather be napping with my pup instead of writing, I can simply pull from my archives (including some YouTube videos that deserve another round).
I consider marketing not as a feed to fill, but a body of work to be built—one that can sustain me when I need a break.
What this means for you? Assemble your best assets and content into more “always on” sequences, or at minimum revisit your past content when the well of creativity is a bit drier.
When marketing starts to feel like a job you can’t keep up with, widen the definition.
Email is marketing. But so are relationships. So are personal touches. And so is your past work.
So what can you give yourself credit for, or engineer into your days and weeks, so that you're always doing marketing, even if you think it doesn't count?