9 things that make marketing yourself & your creations hard

😈 The impostor syndrome

The little voice in your head keeps telling you: Who am I to teach this? Why should anyone trust me? I don't know enough. If you hear this, it's a sign that you probably do know enough and are ready to take the next step.

🧠 The curse of knowledge

Once you know something, it's tough to remember what it was like not to know it. But to teach your audience, you need to step into a beginner's mind and guide them.

🔁 The repetition conundrum

To build an audience around a certain topic, you need to repeat the same messages and key points again and again.

People need to be exposed to a message multiple times before they take action. Many get bored by this and stop.

📣 The self-promotion cringe

There's no way around asking people to click/like/share/buy if you want to grow.

But if you won't promote yourself, who will?

Not everyone is comfortable with this at first.

🪤 The comparison trap

You're seeing others in your space (maybe they're already a few steps ahead of you) and think...

Everything has been said before. What could I possibly add?

Well, your unique experiences and viewpoints matter!

🔦 The perfectionism quagmire

"This isn't good enough!" is what you thought when you looked at your essay/tweet/sketch/page.

So, you don't even bother to hit publish.

Remember: You're your own worst critique. Publish away, and you'd be surprised by how little people care about the "imperfections" in your work.

🔗 The need for consistency

Out of sight, out of mind. That's true in marketing, too.

You've got to show up for your audience consistently to stay top of mind.

🧩 The niching puzzle

What if you're interested in a lot of different areas?

To start, you could talk about all of them to find out what your audience wants to read and hear from you.

Then, you can become known for one thing while still maintaining other interests.

🦗 The crickets of indifference

You've hit the publish button, and then...nothing. Nobody seems to care.

To keep posting even though you don't see any results yet might be the hardest part.

Keep going!

I've struggled with all of these. And still, starting to create online is one of the best and most rewarding things I've done.