why marketing is hard

Why is marketing hard?

Because we’ve been conditioned to believe that anything worthwhile must be difficult.

Because we’ve been told repeatedly that talking about ourselves and celebrating ourselves serves no one.

Because we are so terrified to be seen - truly seen - for who we are that we avoid every opportunity to be visible.

Marketing isn’t hard because you don’t have a plan in place.

Marketing isn’t hard because you don’t know what to post.

Marketing isn’t hard because you’re overwhelmed.

You don’t have a plan in place because then you never have to live up to your genius.
You don’t know what to post because your whole life people have told you what you have to say is less important than everyone else.

You’re overwhelmed because you live in a society and culture that values busyness over rest.

Marketing is hard because of capitalism and white supremacy.

So what do we do about it?

Well, a lot. And none of it is a quick fix but all of it helps to turn the dial.

Here are a few things that I’ve found super helpful:

• If you’re of settler descent, connect with your ancestry and own indigeneity if possible. It’ll provide you with context.

• Pay to learn from some of the thousands of amazing teachers, activists and leaders offering workshops, programs, courses, school that focus on decolonization, anti-racism, anti-capitalism, anti-ableism etc. 

• Pay to learn from people whose lived experience is vastly different from your own. Business, crafting, cooking, writing, yoga, gardening. Anything that interests you.

• Question what systems you’re using in your business and why.

• Get super curious about whether or not you are regularly honouring your core values. If you aren’t, deepend that curiosity. Reassess.

• Surround yourself with people who are actively engaged in ethical marketing, social justice work, anti-capitalist approaches, Queer-positive conversation and so forth.

• Pay to learn from Indigenous leaders and teachers, and learn about the place where you’re living.

• Notice how often you are only engaging with white people. Pay particular attention when those white people also hold any of these unearned priviledges: cisgendered, male, able-bodied, neurotypical, straight. See above on how to change that.

We are in many ways stuck with the system we have, and we also get to choose how we engage within that system. Listening and learning from others about their lived experience gives us a perspective vastly different from our own. 

It’s not perfect, that’s for sure, and making a commitment to do better and choose differently is how we compound change overtime - and that includes how we perceive and understand business.

Here are a few folks that I have and continue to learn from.