Marketing & What It Takes

I hate marketing.

There, I said it. I hate it.

I'm a '96 baby — apparently that means I should be naturally gifted at posting, sharing, creating content, all that jazz. Everyone assumes we love being online. That we care about our personal brands and engagement rates and whatever else.

But I don't.

I barely post on my personal profiles. So my argument, sat in my head, was simple: Why would I do it for my business?

The Reality Check

Then reality happened.

I need marketing. Not because it's trendy or because some business guru told me to. Because if I don't market, how does anyone know what I do? How do I get clients? How do I showcase anything... online?

I couldn't hide behind my main client forever.

What I Actually Did

Networking had been my lifeline. It's SO much easier talking about the business in person. You get to explain yourself. You get immediate feedback. You can read the room.

But you can't scale a business on face-to-face conversations alone.

So I tried.

One post per week on each platform. That felt safe. Manageable. Not too visible.

Except it wasn't working.

Then I upped it to two posts. Started to feel the momentum.

Then I bottled it completely and went back to avoiding posting altogether.

The Turn

But here's the thing I learnt from networking — the real lesson that kept coming back — people invest in people.

I'd written about it months before, and it was true then. It's true now.

And that's when I realised: I was posting like an AI bot named Nano. Content for content's sake. No personality. No me.

So I started somewhere different. LinkedIn.

Not because I suddenly loved social media. But because LinkedIn felt like the place where I could actually be myself. Where people could get to know me, not just TCA.

The Challenge

Then Chris, my business support advisor, challenged me.

He said: "Post twice a week on LinkedIn. Just LinkedIn."

I think he knew what he was doing. He said it like a challenge because I didn't think I could do it.

But I did it anyway.

And then I did it every single day.

And something shifted.

The engagement came. Real conversations happened. People actually started getting to know me — not the polished business version, but the actual human behind it.

It crept back in sometimes — the fear, the resistance, the voice telling me not to bother.

But I'd already proved I could do it.

The Lesson

Here's what marketing taught me in October 2025:

Feel the fear and do it anyway.

Not because it's motivational poster material. But because the alternative is staying invisible. And invisible doesn't get clients. Invisible doesn't grow businesses. Invisible keeps you small.

I still don't love marketing. Probably never will.

But I love having clients more. And I love the person I became when I stopped listening to the voice in my head telling me I couldn't do it.