Managing the pressure to have the perfect marketing & sales strategy // Pressurized Soulpreneur series: pt 4 of 6

In this episode, I'm going to be discussing what is typically the third major inflection point in the journey of a soulpreneur: creating the perfect sales and marketing strategy for your business and you personally, and how to navigate that pressure that you'll face at this point in your journey. This is the fourth episode of a six-episode series that I'm calling "The Pressurized Soulpreneur."

In this series, I'm going to be discussing and contemplating the impact that these pressure centers have at different stages in the soulpreneur journey, from the initial business idea or passion that you're ready to monetize to scaling your business. How can you recognize these pressures and how can you manage them with your intuition?

So if you haven't already, go back and listen to the first episode of the Pressurized Soulpreneur series, episode number 46, “How your human design pressure centers impact your business” And go forward from there. If you're all caught up, then let's dive in.

In 2019 and early 2020, I decided to go all-in on the marketing analytics niche of my online business manager consultancy. Working specifically in marketing metrics, reporting, and analytics was the way I knew I could stand out in a sea of online business managers.

I had over 10 years of experience in that specific area of marketing and knew it was something that a lot of online entrepreneurs either ignored, avoided, or knew they needed but didn’t know where to start. It felt like an opportunity ripe for the picking.

It was truly a way that I felt I could build a specific niche. I was doing something that I knew very well and, would add immense value to the work that I was doing for my clients, both existing ones and new potential clients, and it seemed like it was just a win-win and my ticket to entrepreneurial success.

So, once I made that decision, the next question became: How do I let people know this is what I do and how I’m different from the other online business managers they see on the internet?

I needed to promote myself as a data-driven OBM. I needed a marketing strategy. I was still trying to figure out my messaging and positioning, and I was still trying to hone in on what my offers were going to be, but I felt the pressure to start getting the word out about my business and my new niche as soon as possible. I didn’t want to miss out on potential opportunities for one moment longer!

I knew the sooner I started talking about what I wanted to do, the sooner I could start connecting with the entrepreneurs that needed me most. I knew I needed to get started, and I knew the rest, such as the messaging and the offer positioning and the offers themselves, would come after that.

So as a way to begin taking action to start putting the word out there, I decided to try the very trendy marketing tactic of the moment in that late 2019 or early 2020 timeframe. I created a Facebook group.

It makes me giggle now because, at this moment in the summer of 2022, Facebook groups are no longer a popular marketing tactic, but in 2019 and 2020 it was the new tactic that entrepreneurs were seeing incredible success with, similar to TikTok in today’s terms.

I created a Facebook group for data-driven entrepreneurs and started promoting it everywhere – on Instagram, YouTube, my email list, everywhere. I created a content plan for the group that followed all the best practices. I got that into motion and I was ready for massive growth and engagement and started to visualize new clients pouring in.

After a couple of weeks, only a few people joined the group. After a couple of months, I started feeling uninspired and resentful about the content I needed to create for the group, and I realized that I don’t even like most Facebook groups personally.

And in three months I still had less than 50 people in the group and my projector self felt bitterness that was off the charts, yet I was still forcing myself to create content because that Facebook group was supposed to work.

Once I finally got the understanding and awareness of what was happening, I immediately stopped everything I was doing for that group. And when I had a chance to reflect, and I allowed myself to get past the shame and regret of this marketing failure, I had seen what exactly went wrong and why.

I was able to see that instead of marketing myself and my business in an aligned way, I had caved in to the pressure I felt from my human design head center and root center instead of creating the space needed for my intuition to lead the way.

I was so desperate for my business to succeed that I just blindly followed and forced what was supposed to work instead of tuning in to what the right strategy and tactics were for me.

I let myself cave in to that pressure without really listening to what my intuition was telling me and giving it space to speak to me. So if you’ve been following this podcast series - The Pressurized Soulpreneur - you know that I’ve been taking you on an adventure through the journey of entrepreneurship and the inflection points, or pressure points, you’ll face along your journey.

We started with the decision to monetize your passion and creative expression. Then we covered the decision to go "all-in" on your business, and today we are discussing the pressure you face as you grow your business with an effective marketing and sales strategy.

The truth is that marketing itself is both an art and a science. Some concepts and principles are tried and true over decades, across all the different eras of marketing and trends and tactics that we see.

Applying these concepts and principles in different ways and finding ways to apply them in ways that are aligned for you can be daunting.

Sometimes it feels easier to simply copy and paste the strategies and tactics that appear to be working for everyone else… for example: creating a Facebook group instead of thinking about what marketing strategies and tactics felt aligned for me, and that's exactly what I did.

I caved into that pressure I was experiencing. When I decided to create that Facebook group, it felt easier to just copy someone else's strategy and the way that they use that trend and tactic in their own business. It was a marketing tactic that in general could have worked for people, but it was completely wrong for me and my business.

As I’ve mentioned in the previous episodes of the Pressurized Soulpreneur podcast series, we face two types of pressure at each major inflection point of our business (and in life in general, but that’s a different story for a different day).


I'm focusing, of course, specifically on this soulpreneur journey that we're all on, so these two pressures.

There’s the pressure to think and to figure everything out, which comes from your human design head center. And there’s also the pressure to act and to progress forward, which comes from your human design root center.

Depending on whether you have these centers defined, undefined, or open, you will experience these pressures in different ways—either consistently or in waves of intensity.

But ultimately, what you experience in the context of this pressure is the same. When it comes to marketing your business in the perfect way for you.

In today's episode, I'm talking about how it applies to this specific inflection point in your journey, which is that inflection point of growing your business by becoming more visible, expanding your sales and marketing strategy, and determining the best way for you to become more visible through your business.

Head Center- When we consider it from the center of the brain, again, that's the pressure to have it all figured out; the pressure for ideas and inspiration; the pressure to have it all planned out and thought out ahead.

It’s facing pressures like:

1. The pressure to have a comprehensive marketing strategy in place before you’ve figured out your more holistic business strategy.

2. The pressure of having an all-or-nothing approach.

As in my example, it's the pressure that made me go all in on this marketing tactic of creating a Facebook group where I had two different marketing plans.

The first marketing plan was to get people into the group and the second marketing plan was for the people in the group, to like the group and get them to engage, it was very all or nothing.

I decided to go all in and I created these marketing plans, and I did it quickly without thinking about if it was right for me or not, just because I felt that pressure that it was what was working for everyone else.

3. The pressure to have a “tried & true” plan to become visible or that your marketing's not going to work unless you have an entire funnel in place.

It's also the pressure to follow what works for other people or to copy the tactics of someone that you admire or follow, such as what I did with that Facebook group.

4. The pressure you put on your marketing ecosystem to be perfect, and flawless.

The marketing ecosystem means everything i.e. the funnel, how you get people into the funnel, how your funnel gets people from one stage to another, and ultimately how you sell someone and turn a potential client into an actual client.

Root center- All of these pressures are head center pressures, and when we look at this from the root center you face various pressures like:-

1. You're trying to become more visible and grow your visibility, grow your audience, and all of that to create more clients from potential clients as quickly as possible without thinking about the sustainability of your marketing strategy.

2. When it comes to visibility and expanding your visibility, your root center pressure is the pressure to do something or anything just to get started without having some sort of brand strategy or marketing strategy in place.

3. The pressure you put on each piece of content to perform for you and to be THE ONE that transforms your business.

4. The pressure you put on yourself to ultimately have the perfect marketing strategy instead of finding the perfect strategy for YOU—anything else leads to burnout, resentment, anger, frustration, & disappointment.

How to navigate and mitigate this pressure by finding your perfect marketing strategy

1. Awareness and recognition of pressure is the first step.

It might not go away, but at least you can manage it and maneuver around it. Learn how to proceed even when you are under pressure

2. What is the minimum you need to get started?

Who you serve (target audience), how you serve them (your values & approach), why you’re the best for them (what makes you unique), what you’re promoting (offer-free or paid), where they can learn more (landing page, email address).

3. A clear marketing strategy is how you create magnetism and connection with your soul mate clients (ROP).

What’s your favorite way to share your expertise, and how can you just get started? It can be writing, talking, or drawing.

4. Show up where your audience is and connect with the mindset of where they are at.

Start small, just show up somewhere consistently (SEO example).

Recognize, embrace, and accept that the right strategies for you and your people might not be the strategy or what is working right now for others.

5. How can you stay consistent (for you?)

Have faith in magic, lower your expectations, and maintain consistency. Marketing is ultimately a long game of consistency (If you haven’t already, you should check out podcast episode # 31-the magic in one piece of marketing content).

Getting in touch with your human design and your blue energetic blueprints is important to define what consistency is for you, but finding a level of consistency that works with your energy and doing that over the long game is the best thing that you can do.

Moreover, before you get too far caught in the weeds of your perfect copy and your funnel and your offers and your marketing tactics and how to sell to your audience, I want you to take a step back and see the big picture, which is:

1. Your audience doesn’t decide to invest in you and your business based on one post, video, article, or podcast.

2. The path to purchase is a series of small yeses over days, weeks, months, and even years.

3. What can you do and how can you be visible in a consistent way over time so that your audience can get to know you and what you stand for?

4. And the easiest way to do this is to be as authentically you on the outside as you are on the inside and to show up knowing that even if you aren’t getting the sales you’d hoped for today, the people you’re meant to connect with and work with are just starting to be introduced to you or are starting on the path of small yes's.

5. So keep showing up and keep doing it in the "easiest" way possible, even though it might take some trial and error to get there.

It's important for you to do this in a way where you show up for your audience where they are, connect to the mindset of where they are at using modalities that feel good to you (for example, blog writing or Instagram posts but in a way that feels good for you) because it's important to really start small just show up somewhere consistently.