When you have a business built on your personal brand — as a coach, creative, consultant, web designer, copywriter, speaker or any other online business that features YOU — it’s really important that your marketing matches who you are.

I often hear people talking about all the things they think they “should” be doing, like webinars, blogging, events, speaking, video or any number of other things.

But when I ask WHY they’re not doing these things they so clearly want to do, they’ll say things like the timing just isn’t right, they don’t have the right equipment, they’re just so busy that they don’t have time or all kinds of other excuses.

Yes, these are excuses, but that doesn’t make them wrong or bad. In fact, it gives us a clue that something is OFF.

That’s why we need to talk about how to find the RIGHT kind of marketing for YOU.

There are actually three big reasons your marketing can feel off, so we’re going to dive into what they mean for you and your business growth. Because without understanding what the actual issues may be, you can truly set yourself up for pain, agony, and constant procrastination on actually following through on your marketing funnel.

Biggest Show Takeaways:

• Resistance Reason #1: You’re following someone else’s marketing style.
• • I once had a coach who thought her way was the ONLY way to build a business, and she wanted to turn all her clients into carbon copies of her business, her approach, and her marketing style.
  • The only problem? I was NOTHING like her. My talents, my skills, my personality, and my approach to selling was almost the exact opposite of her style.
  • When I tried to be like her it flopped BIG TIME. I wasn’t honoring who I am. I was basically saying I wasn’t good enough and that I had to become a completely different person. This was exhausting and overwhelming.
  • Trying to be exactly like someone else can bring up IMPOSTER SYNDROME something fierce. You’re behaving and approaching your business in a completely different way than your natural abilities.

• Resistance Reason #2: You don’t know HOW or WHY you’re doing this, which leads to total and complete overwhelm.
  • If you don’t have a clear reason and vision for your marketing, it will feel hard because there is no clear WHY.
  • That WHY needs to be bigger than just clients, sales, and revenue. My own personal “why” needs to include the impact and growth I help others create because that is super important to me. My why also needs to include my personal freedom, which is time off, vacation, connection time with my family and more.
  • If you don’t have a bigger why than just “Gotta make $x this month to pay the bills,” you’ll be super resistant to a lot of marketing. Your why will only be about you AND will come from a place of lack.
  • One of the best things you can do is to sit down and come up with a WHY that’s bigger than just money of why your business, your skills, your leadership, and your impact are important.

• Resistance Reason #3: The 3 P's – perfectionism, procrastination, and people-pleasing.
  • Perfectionism is something I struggle with and procrastination goes hand-and-hand with it.
  • People pleasing is also something I’ve seen a lot of people struggle with in building a business — specifically worrying about making people mad, having haters, letting clients break your boundaries and more.
  • These 3 P's are deadly to a business because they’ll steal all of our energy, our resources, and our creativity, as we’re basically fighting against really powerful thoughts and beliefs which keep us from taking action.

• Solution: Find YOUR style. You need to know who you are, why you do what you do, and what motivates you from the inside out.
• • My favorite tool for this is Sally Hogshead’s personality quiz at HowToFascinate.com. This quiz is so fantastic because it’ll tell you how YOU fascinate people best and knowing this is CRITICAL to developing your marketing style and your marketing voice.
  • Check out the classic Myers-Brigg test to find out your personality type. This test will help you learn more about how you work best and what recharges your batteries so you have energy and excitement to move forward.
  • Try out the DISC profile test, to find out more about your work style, what your top work strengths are, and the value you bring to projects.
  • Take a look at StrengthFinder 2.0. This is a great one to come up with your top strengths and figure out how you best engage.

• Want to know which marketing funnel is right for you and your business? Take this free and easy quiz, and in less than 5 minutes, you’ll know EXACTLY which funnel is right for you.

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Marketing Funnel Quiz: https://www.michellelevans.com/marketing-funnel-quiz/
• How To Fascinate: https://www.howtofascinate.com/
• Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp
• DISC Personality Test: https://discpersonalitytesting.com/%20
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• Twitter @michellelevans
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Email: michelle@michellelevans.com