Fear and loathing is how most of us feel about marketing ourselves online.
If you are an out-of-the-box type person who never really fit in and other people expressed that they didn’t understand you and thought you were strange, it can be challenging putting your authentic self out there. So vulnerable.
It can bring up all the low vibe feels that being in a human body can give rise to.
Even when you have done everything you could to awaken from that trance of separation, you’re still human, and you likely felt like you were in the 7th grade when you started trying to market your business the way they tell us to.
All the popular kids were making multiple 6 and 7 figures before you even came on the scene and you wondered, “how did they do that?” And you probably tried to follow their advice even when your Soul was saying, “no, please don’t go down that road.” And when you saw what they were really doing, you thought, “I really can’t do that. But what should I do instead?”
The thing is, growing a spiritually inspired business is like the path of awakening. It can be very painful, especially if you are trying to do ‘the right thing’ like niching your business down, or targeting an audience and trying to convince them to buy from you.
Your Soul wants you to take a more authentic path. That’s why it gave you that nudge to start a business instead of, say, getting a job at the post office.
But being authentic in an online sphere where nobody really knows you can feel too vulnerable, even unwise. After all, in those years of your life when you tried to tell people about your ability to read their energy, or heal them from afar, or create real change, you were met with a lot of resistance.
I promise I’ve been there. Luckily I had already gotten a lot of practice dealing with opposition as a student activist in college, being told to shut up and being publicly humiliated or threatened with arrest. I promise, the world of spiritual entrepreneurship is a lot less adversarial. You want to remember that you are not out to attract everyone, just the ones who are aligned with you on that deep Soul level.
There are key steps I recommend taking to grow a Soul Tribe of people who really understand you and love everything you do.
At first it’s not even about talking with others. I realize that many marketing experts will tell you to interview or survey people to find out what they want. And that’s definitely a fine activity down the line, but at first you want to tap into your Soul to find out what it wants for your business. Otherwise you can find yourself years down the entrepreneurial road with a business that doesn’t fulfill your Soul’s purpose at all.
To help you in this process, I’m providing several prompts designed to help you tap into your Soul. You can use a journal or computer to write down your answers, whatever feels most natural and easy for you.
(Most of these questions and a few more are in my way cool Soul Tribe Attraction Playbook which you can get here on my website.)
The first question is, “What is most important to my Soul with regards to my business?” I suggest you write stream-of-consciousness without judging your words or trying to write well. If you have not been asking your Soul questions like this recently, at first the thoughts that come to you might not make immediate sense. So just write whatever comes to you.
You can also follow up with questions like, “Why is that important to my Soul?” That will help you go deeper into what really matters.
Next you can ask, “What are the qualities, characteristics and attributes of my Soul Tribe?” This is where you can jot down anything that’s important to you about the people you were born to serve. It can be anything like personality qualities, or resources they have, or problems they want to solve. Whatever comes up for you.
Another question you can ask is, “What makes me and my Soul Tribe tick?” or “What aligns me with my Soul Tribe?” This will help you begin to identify topics you can address through your marketing.
I recommend returning to these questions at different times while you are in different states of consciousness or mood. It’s remarkable not only what comes out when your Soul feels listened to, but also what begins to happen in terms of the people you meet and the experiences you have following this kind of inquiry.
You might find that you get intuitive hits about what things you can write about in articles, social media posts or emails once you start this process. I suggest you go with the flow and do your best to express what wants to come forth. This is an important key to attracting people who are aligned with your Soul.
If you notice that you feel that fear creeping up as you go about writing your authentic article or email, be kind to yourself, take a breath, or a walk. But make sure to return to it. Fearlessly sharing your true Soul is the only way your Soul Tribe will recognize you when they find you. I promise it will be more fulfilling than any traditional marketing steps you’ve taken in the past.
I’d love to hear how it goes for you. Comment below if you like the process. I look forward to hearing from you.
