When you think of marketing what immediately comes to mind?  Do you recoil in disgust at the thought of having to put yourself “out there”?  Do you immediately think cheesy, phony, pushy or inauthentic?  Well you are not alone.  Many business owners, particularly women feel uncomfortable with marketing. How do you get past these feelings so that marketing your business becomes fun, easy and authentic?

You’re in the Business of Marketing Your Business

Did you know you were in the business of marketing your business?  When you ask most people, “What business are you in?” they respond with what they do – I am a lawyer, a photographer, a graphic designer, etc.  But the truth is we are in the business of selling ourselves.

There are several ways you can market yourself; not all activities need to be done by you.  In fact I like to outsource many of my marketing activities to my Assistant; this frees me up to work on other aspects of my business.  However, no matter who actual engages in the marketing activities you must know enough to decide how and when to implement your marketing plan.  No matter how good of a coach, massage therapist, photographer or wellness expert you are, you will fail in your business if you don’t market yourself.  You must embrace marketing as another tool to help you spread the word about your knowledge and expertise so you can create the thriving business you dream of.

Your inner beliefs and thoughts influence everything about the who, what, when, where and why about marketing your business.  These thoughts and beliefs will either positively or negatively affect your business.  If you are one of the many women who feel uncomfortable about marketing you need to look at why that is.

Over the next several days I am going to review some common marketing mindset issues and give you some tips so you can love marketing!

Belief #1: I don’t know how to network effectively

I write, teach and train about effective networking strategies all the time.  I could be a millionaire ten times over if I had a dollar every time I heard someone say they don’t know how to network effectively.  And I hear it more from women than men.

Does this surprise you?  Well it did me.  Why? Because women by their very nature are relationship builders and effective marketing is about building relationships.

In order to build an effective business relationship, you need to build a strong network of trusted business professionals from a variety of industries so that you can give and receive quality referrals.  I have blogged extensively about effective networking and you can read my blog posts at by searching under “networking”.

The bottom line is this:  Networking is a great marketing tool, one of several in your business toolbox, but it won’t bring you immediate business.  I’m sure this is NOT what you want to hear, but it’s true.  The flip side of this is:  Through effective, targeted networking you can build a list of respected colleagues and business professionals with whom you can do the following:  engage in joint ventures, conduct business, share clients, build your list, and send quality referrals.

So how do you network effectively? Be genuine and authentic.  Listen for how you might be able to help the other person. Extending yourself goes a long way in building long lasting business relationships.  Did you notice something?  Nowhere in that description did I mention collecting business cards, being phony or trying to immediately pitch your product or service.   Which by the is a real turn off.  Instead the focus is on helping others solve their problems.  Do this and you will build your credibility very quickly and people will see you as the go to gal.  Next networking event go with the intention that you are going to help two people with their business and see what happens.

2 Responses to “Mastering Your Marketing Mindset”