It’s Important to Listen to the Part of You That Doesn’t Want to Post

Photo by Nick Morrison on Unsplash

You need to market your business, and it's clear you need to make posts about something, somewhere, to some people.

You hear the echoes of marketing advice from the Internet or your friends and family:

• "just get yourself out there!"
• "just start writing, write about anything and don't stop, you'll get better and people will start following you"
• "content is king, so start making it, and a lot of it"
• "you need to rise above the noise, so write something good and unique"
• "quality over quantity, no wait, quantity will lead to quality"
• "sometimes you have to be vulnerable, be real"

You're motivated to do what's best for your business, but something doesn't feel right when you try to write your post. Maybe your stomach tenses up, maybe you feel disconnected and left out, maybe you feel incompetent and worthless. So...just ignore that and push through?

One of the worst things that can happen on the Internet is when you go against what you feel is best for you because of what other people are telling you to do. If you stop listening to yourself, you give power over to people who don't know what's truly best for you in your situation.

Those feelings and senses that come up when you sit down to write your post? They are coming from the most powerful and intelligent part of your cognition. They mean something. It's your brain trying to tell you something, and it's your job to listen and understand what's going on.

It could be that you're sensing real risks and threats to you and your business. Did you know that there ARE real risks to posting on the Internet?

You could post something that hurts your reputation or your business's reputation. You could post something that gives away too much detail to your competitors. You could post something that alienates your target market, or blows it with potential supporters. Or perhaps worst of all, you could post something that betrays your own values, that violates your own privacy, that presents yourself as a person you don't want to be.

So how do you get to the bottom of what's feeling bad, and promote your business in a way that feels good?

When I'm feeling bad about what or how I'm about to post something, I start asking questions. What if I posted this somewhere else? What if I changed the audience I'm writing for? Is there a specific paragraph or sentence that is the problem? Is the whole topic misguided? Would I feel differently posting about something else? Do I even need to post this? Are there other ways to get attention that feel better?

Imagine, run thought experiments, ask 'what if?', all the while paying close attention to how your feelings and senses change.

At some point, often faster than you expect, you'll get to the bottom of what is feeling bad and you'll reveal what needs to change so you feel good about what you're saying, how you're saying it, where you're saying it, and who you're saying it for.

In summary, I think it's important to listen to the part of you that doesn't want to post. There's a lot of pressure to put yourself or your business out there, but there really are risks to it. It's not always safe to post on the Internet. So explore and imagine ways to get yourself and your business out there that don't make your stomach drop, and don't settle until you feel like you've found a way forward that feels right.