69 | What to do when your marketing isn’t working

Camille (00:00)
Well, hi there. Welcome to In the Clinic with Camille. My name is Camille Freeman. I'm a licensed nutritionist and registered herbalist. In this podcast, I share little tips and tidbits that might be interesting or helpful for other practitioners. Well, hello again. It's so nice to be back podcasting. Happy spring to those of you who are listening in kind of real time. Today I want to talk to you about something that comes up pretty often in Monday Mentoring and also in the one-on-one work that I do with people who are trying to bring in more one-on-one clients. And that is the feeling of discouragement and frustration when you feel like you've tried so many things and nothing is happening in your business. You're stuck, you're not having new clients or not as many as you wanted, and you just start to go into that negative spiral of looking around, saying, Oh my gosh, everybody else has new clients. They're doing better work than I am. I've tried it all. This is terrible. I'm not good. You go into some of that type of language. For some people, some of us have a tendency to just go into inaction, where we're like, Oh, none of this is working.

Camille (01:18)
I give up. I throw my hands in the air and turn away from it. I get that because it is really discouraging. It's discouraging to try so many things and to feel like it's not working. I want to say a couple things about how you might want to handle it when you get into that situation. Notice I'm not saying if, I'm saying when, because most of us will have that happen sooner or later if we do this work long enough. It's very common in the beginning when you're just getting started and you're really trying to get that traction going. But even those of us who've been doing this work for a long time will have courses or programs or new offerings that we spend so much time thinking about and crafting and put out there to the world, and then it's crickets. It really can feel hard. It's a little bit embarrassing. Like I said before, it's discouraging. It just feels icky, feels yucky. What do we do? How can you handle that when it happens? Well, there's a few things that I want you to think about. One of them is to manage your mind, because sometimes the things that you are doing such as meeting with other practitioners.

Camille (02:33)
Maybe you've met with some therapists or some massage people, body workers or adjacent practitioners. Maybe you've met with all these people and nothing is coming of it. Or maybe you have tried some paid advertising and you got no results from it. Or maybe you did a class or you've been doing so many things to put yourself out there, health fairs, et cetera, and you're just not getting any bites. Okay, so what we need to think about is these things take time. They have what I call long legs. Sometimes you will do a health fair and somebody will take your card and they will sign up to work with you six months down the road, a year down the road, or even more than that. It takes time. Make sure that you don't have expectations that are unrealistic for how quickly some of these things are going to work. The other thing is to check your mind and your expectations on how many times you need to do something to see if it works not. Sometimes I will hear people saying, Oh, I've tried so many things. It's just so frustrating. I'll say, Okay, well, let's look in what did you do?

Camille (03:39)
What have you tried? What's happening? They've tried like, Okay, well, I gave this one herb walk, or I met with this one therapist or two therapists or whatever it is. A lot of times we need to repeat things multiple times before we get some traction with them. That is hard. It is frustrating. You can do things and feel like, Well, it didn't work, so why would I do it again? Sometimes we need to keep trying for a little bit before we know if it's going to work or not. There is some discretion because we don't want to keep banging your head against the wall if it's not providing any outcomes for us. But at the same time, especially when you're just getting started, sometimes you really do need to keep trying even when it's discouraging. How are you going to know if you've given something enough time, if you have tried something enough times, if you are reaching the right types of people, if you are talking about something in a way that doesn't resonate with your clients or whatever, well, what I recommend that you do is, first of all, get some outside eyes on what you're doing.

Camille (04:46)
That's not the point of this episode, but just as a little side note, if you are super frustrated, if you are super discouraged, that is when you don't just wallow in your disappointment. You talk to somebody else who is in this field. A colleague, somebody you went to school with, a mentor, come to Monday Mentoring, bring it to other people who, A, have been there, B, can look at this with outside eyes, and C, might be able to make some suggestions about how to change up what you're doing a little bit to get some better results. Do some of those things. But the main thing I wanted to tell you, the whole point of this little short episode, is a suggestion that I have that really helps with the stuckness, the energetic stuckness, the emotional stuckness that can come when you get into this place. And that is when you feel yourself circling and feeling that frustration and like, I give up, I throw up my hands. This doesn't work. Stop. It's time to stop. It's time to step away from that for a little bit and put aside your own marketing and promotion for a short period of time, maybe just 10 minutes or 15 minutes, and ask yourself, Okay, I'm not worrying about that right now.

Camille (05:58)
What can I do to support other people in the field in general? Instead of trying to promote your own work, ask yourself, How can I do something thoughtful, kind, or helpful for someone else who's doing really amazing work, who I think should be better known, or I'd love for people to know that this person is available to help them. Maybe that looks like responding to somebody's email that you get and saying, Hey, this made a difference for me. I really appreciate hearing from you every month or every week. You can truly make somebody's day and make a connection that way. Maybe it looks like getting on social media and instead of posting your own stuff all the time, go respond to other people's posts, engage with what they're saying, share what they've done, if they've done something really cool, congratulate them, say something meaningful, make connections that way. Or maybe it means sending a thank you card to somebody in the field, maybe a referral who's done some really good work for a client that you sent their way, or somebody who made a difference in your own life as a teacher. Do something to lift up the field in general.

Camille (07:07)
Why am I recommending that you do this when you are feeling stuck? First of all, because it changes things energetically. It feels really good to do something kind and helpful for someone else. You will find that your own discouragement and disappointment will shift. You'll think, Oh, okay, I'm really promoting the work in general, even if it's not my own work. Second of all, that is marketing work in an indirect way. So building community, building your rhizomatic network throughout the ecosystem of the type of work that you do, it matters in the long run. The work that we do is relational, and whatever you do to support that work ends up supporting the field and thus yourself eventually. So do that, see how you feel afterwards, and then take a little break. Step away. Maybe you take some time to go dig around in the garden for a little while. Maybe you go for a walk, take a nap, read a book, a novel, ideally, listen to some music, bounce on the trampoline, whatever is it you do for fun. Take some time away. Let yourself get out of that head space so you can process the things that you're thinking.

Camille (08:20)
I think if you go to bed, wake up the next day, you're going to have a better perspective on things. All right? So don't get discouraged. Things take time. There's help available. You're part of a bigger network, a bigger community of people who are doing this work. So tap into it. I know you can do this. All right? Hang in there. Have a wonderful rest of your day. Let me know if you have any questions about this. All right, take care. Thanks for listening to In the Clinic with Camille. Hey, did you know that I write a weekly practitioner note for herbalists and nutritionists? If you would like to get that in your inbox, you can sign up at camillefreeman.com/newsletter. Love to have you join us there.