With a degree in marketing and 10 years experience working with companies like Land Rover and Leadpages, I started my own business in 2014 as a social media and marketing speaker and trainer and thought marketing myself and my business would be a breeze. I soon discovered that wasn’t the case. What I soon learned was that marketing for other people is easy compared to marketing your own skills.

When you’re marketing other people and other people’s products or services you don’t have concerns like ‘what will people think?’  ‘who do I think am? ‘what if people don’t want me and my stuff?’ I quickly learnt that mindset is a key element to successfully marketing you and your business. 

Now after seven years in business and having helped thousands of entrepreneurs successfully market themselves, I have discovered three mindset shifts that will help elevate your marketing to attract more clients.

1. You are not the only expert

Often when we think about promoting ourselves and our businesses we get concerned about trying to show up as an expert. This then makes us hold back and maybe play small. 

You might be thinking ‘there are so many experts out there, what makes me different, why should they listen to me? I have nothing to add or what if I don’t really know what I’m talking about and I get found out?’ The good news is there is space for many experts in every industry! 

Let’s take the example of famous chefs. They are all working with the same ingredients, but their personality, style, training and influences mean that even given the same basic ingredients they could all create something very different.

It’s the same for you in your industry. Your education, experiences, training, influence, background and personality will have an impact on what you share and how you might be different to other experts out there. But it doesn’t mean that it is not valued or that it shouldn’t be shared. You are not saying you are the only expert or your way is right, you are simply adding your take on it.

“As marketers, we should be changing the mantra from always be closing to always be helping.” — Jonathan Lister

2. Not everyone will like you

On first reading, this may sound a little harsh.  Like lots of people, I like to be liked and in the past the fear that someone might not like me or what I have to say would often rear its ugly head just as I was about to stand on stage or go live on social media. But as time went on I realized how freeing this sentence was! 

Worrying what people might think of you or worrying that people might not like you is one of the big reasons that entrepreneurs decide not to show their face as often as they should. Or even holding back all together and not sharing their brilliance at all. But I would really encourage you to. In fact showing your face is a perfect way to ensure you are attracting your people. 

When someone sees me live on social media or speaking on stage I am being completely authentic, they get to see the real me, they get to see what I’m like and they get to decide if I’m for them or not. If I’m not for them, that’s fine. 

By showing up I am giving them the chance to discover that before deciding to work with me. If I am showing up authentically then they understand who I am and what I am like, when they do work with me and they don’t get any surprises. Therefore I only attract the right people.

3. What’s the worst that could happen 

I have a saying among my students ‘What’s the worst that could happen?’ I make them ask themselves this question every time they are too scared to do something – and being too scared to do something normally means they’re worried to put themselves out there and are concerned about being seen as an expert.

So let’s take speaking as an example. It’s a great way in which you can be seen as an expert, get yourself out there and grow your business. But  let’s say you are scared of speaking. I want you to think for a minute and write down what is the worst that could happen. And instead of ignoring this chimp part of our brain that likes to put us in a spiral of fear and self doubt, I want you to listen to it for a little bit and write down what it tells you. My fears might include ‘what if I fell over on stage, or what if I forget my words, or what if someone in the audience knows more than me.’ 

Then once you’ve made your big list of everything that could go wrong I then want you to think about what you would do if that thing happened? What would you do if you forgot your words? Well,  in reality no one would know and you could carry on or if you’re like me you could say “I lost my train of thought” and keep going.. No one is going to die, no thunderbolt is going to come from the ceiling and strike you down because you forgot your words. 

When I do this exercise with my students, once they have thought about things that could go wrong and what they would do about them, I then  ask them to write down ‘and what would you do if it went right?’ What would that mean to you and your business if it actually went the way you hoped it could go?

They soon come to realize that all the things that they fear that once stopped them from putting themselves out there from approaching a new client, to  offering to speak on stage or being interviewed for a podcast, actually is really not that bad. Often the worst that could happen is they say ‘no’ and that’s ok, you’ve lost nothing!

As you can see, most of the marketing we do for ourselves means putting ourselves out there in the world and that can be scary, but instead of letting that fear stop you, lean into it and show up – your perfect customer is waiting for you!