Introduction
This is an excerpt from Delightful Sites — an email newsletter helping therapists, coaches, and entrepreneurs build sustainable, values-aligned businesses, through the power of website marketing. 💐
You know when you go to a yoga class, and the instructor tells you to “do what feels good” and “listen to your body”?
I always appreciate those reminders – especially if it keeps me from attempting a headstand on a day when my body is saying, absolutely not.
It can be helpful to apply these reminders to the marketing of our businesses, as well.
Follow what feels good. Listen to our bodies.
So much of the marketing that we’re exposed to every day – ugly billboards on the highway, pop-up ads that you can’t click away from fast enough, bro-y business tactics that rely on false urgency to make the sale – feels terrible to consume.
It’s no wonder why, when it comes to marketing our own businesses – as therapists, coaches, and healers – parts of us might cringe at the idea that we even have to market at all.
This is why I decided that my marketing plan, moving forward, is to follow what feels good & listen to my body.
In other words: I want to center JOY. I want my business decisions to come from a place of empowerment, clarity, & abundance - not from a place of fear, overwhelm, or “ugh, I hate this” energy.
💐 What does it mean to bring joy to marketing?
(1) Centering joy can look like: choosing a niche that lights you up, not the one that you think you’re supposed to work with.
Maybe you started out as a “trauma therapist” because that felt like the safe & obvious option. Later, you realized that you’re drawn to working with clients w/ a specific type of trauma - religious trauma, betrayal trauma, medical trauma, etc.
Niching down might feel risky (“what if I’m leaving too many people out?”). But imagine how you would feel if I told you: the next 5 people who reach out to you, fit this exact niche & are excited to work with you.
How does it feel to imagine that? What does that tell you about what your next marketing decision might be?
(2) Centering joy can also look like: choosing marketing methods that are actually FUN for you and play to your strengths/interests/skills.
🤳 If you enjoy social media, let yourself show up fully on IG / FB / TikTok / your platform of choice. If you hate social media, don’t force yourself to make it work - people can tell when we’re just “phoning it in” vs. when we actually want to be there.
📝 If you love writing & sharing psychoeducation, channel that skill into blog posts on your website.
🎤 If you love talking & info-dumping on your favorite topics, pitch yourself as a speaker / trainer in your community; or start a YouTube channel.
🫂 If you love meeting new people & nurturing relationships, lean into community networking.
We’re much more likely to stick to a marketing plan when we’re actually enjoying the process.
And that energy - of joy, abundance, & authenticity - is felt by clients when our marketing reaches them - on social media, in a blog post, through word of mouth in the community.
Of course, there will always be aspects of business/marketing that are genuinely boring & tedious. Maybe for you, it’s the bookkeeping, or the licensure paperwork, or answering emails. I don’t want to pretend that running a business is always a magical dopamine rush.
But it is worth noticing which activities are not fun for you at all & actively drain your energy. Then, ask yourself:
Can I stop doing this & try something else instead?
If not: what would make this more enjoyable for me? (Ex: outsource to a VA; find a business bestie to body-double with & co-work on boring tasks; play fun music while filling out paperwork)
🌺 I find that centering joy in the process is more sustainable than brute-forcing my way through a business plan that works for someone else’s brain, but not mine.
Talk again soon,
Liz
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