Be Yourself Marketing

What do you do when the exact skill clients pay you for... starts showing up for free? Didn't sleep. Didn't stop scrolling. Turns out the panic isn't what you'd expect. Let's look at: → A number that made a client's jaw drop... twice, once for them & once for me → The 1-line email that got someone ghosted after a year of trying → The Post-it note worth sticking to your monitor → What it means...

Ever notice the 1 thing you swear matters most… is the 1st thing you let go of when life gets hard? Everyone else gets your yes. The pets ... family ... Someone else's deadline. Your own thing? "Later." Every time. This 1's about what happens when the water rises… & you find out what was actually holding the whole place up. Inside this episode: → The soggy, death-by-1,000-inconveniences week t...

You ever get a stretch of time you didn't plan for ... & somehow hand it right back to the universe before you've done a thing with it? Didn't choose it. Didn't notice it leave. Just ... POOF ... gone. Turns out the time you swear you never have shows up more than you think ... it just never looks the way you pictured. Let's look at: → A stretch of time I didn't ask for ... & the reflex th...

Ever pour yourself into something ... felt genuinely proud of it ... & then watched it land in total silence? No replies. No clicks. Nothing. Turns out the problem might not be what you said. It's who you forgot to leave room for. Let's look at: → The thing I'm paying to build ... that almost forgot the 1 person who has to live in it → Why the most confident version of your story can quietly p...

Ever feel like you have to know everything … do all of it yourself … & have it perfect … before any of it counts? So you wait. & nothing moves. Including you. Turns out the part you can do today … even the part that looks like nothing … might be the only part that counts. Let's look at: → The 18km I walked without ever leaving home → Who to ask when you don't know something … & who to...

Ever had a bad feeling about a decision... & stayed quiet because you didn't want to be the difficult 1? The pause. The hmm . The hand your brain raised... then talked back down. That silence feels free in the moment... but it always invoices later. & not just in business. Let's look at: → The afternoon 3 people with zero bad intentions made 1 very expensive decision → Why going along can...

Ever been so deep in something that every decision starts to feel obviously correct? That's not clarity. That's proximity. The gap isn't in the work. It's in how long you've been the only 1 looking at it. Let's look at: → Why the thing that made complete sense on paper didn't survive contact with the platform → The a review process is scoped in proposal & why that matters → What 300 gallons of...

Ever look around at everything falling apart at once & think... how did it get this bad? You were handling it. Each thing ... as it came up. Until you weren't. Let's look at: → What leaking barrels, a stalled generator & a Christmas tree of truck warnings have in common with a Frankenstein'd tech stack → Why 2 months into a client contract with ZERO emails written is exactly the right plac...

Have you ever fixed something... only to realize you were fixing the wrong thing? The bill arrives. Right on time. Just not when you expected it. Inside this episode: → What 100mm of rain in 3 days revealed that normal conditions kept hidden → Why the contractor wasn't wrong & what he conveniently left out → The way most marketing gets built... & why it works until it doesn't → 3 questions...

You made a change you were proud of. & something got worse anyway. Not dramatically. Just quietly, unexpectedly worse ... in a way that makes you question whether good decisions are supposed to feel like this. Let's look at: → The unexpected tax that shows up after you finally start doing things right & what it has to do with the safety net you might still be carrying → The 2 fears nobody...

Ever had someone close to you ask for a "friends & family discount" on something you worked hard to build? That small ask hits a lot harder than any cold rejection ever could. This is part 2 of the advanced copy EG got of Jay Schwedelson's book, "Stupider People Have Done It" ... while reading it she kept finding herself in the pages in a "well, that explains a lot" kind of way. There's 3 more...

Ever started a project & realized somewhere in the middle that you've been working on the wrong thing entirely? Not wrong as in bad. Wrong as in … out of order. & now you're the one holding the bag. Let's look at: → What a window of dry weather & a pile of razor-sharp metal sheeting has to do with how you sequence your client work → The email engagement that's 3 weeks in … with no emai...

Ever feel like you've been staring at the same mess so long you've forgotten there's another direction to face? Still there. Still loud. Still on the list. But not in the kitchen window anymore. Inside this episode: → What 45 feet revealed about why repositioning beats fixing almost every time → The specific moments in your week where chaos gets more attention than it deserves → A deadline that wa...

Have you ever realized the thing you've been waiting on was never actually going to show up? While the problem kept getting worse. Let's look at: → The realization that finally breaks the waiting → A framework from 5 years of research & the uncomfortable thing it revealed about the last few months → Why the most dangerous beliefs are the ones that sound the most responsible → The 1 belief that...

Have you ever watched someone less qualified than you pull off the exact thing you've been convincing yourself you can't? Doesn't feel great, does it? That gap between them & you isn't talent or timing. Let's look at: → The contractor situation that finally pushed me to ask "why am I waiting for permission from people who clearly have no idea what they're doing" → Why the voice telling you tha...

Ever share everything that's on your plate... & have someone zero in on exactly the wrong thing to fix? They are't trying to get it wrong. They just didn't know enough. We'll look at: → The week that tried to fit a month of chaos into a few days... & what that revealed about the advice we give ... & get → A 6-word story & why the same instinct that makes it brilliant quietly costs...

What does 1 year of showing up as yourself actually look like? Not the highlight reel. The real numbers, the real stumbles, & the 2 things that actually made the difference. Inside this special anniversary episode: → Why the most-opened issue this year wasn't the most polished or what I expected → What $0 in ad spend says about how this can actually still work → The month with the most unsubsc...

Ever have 1 of those mornings where everything hurts, nothing makes sense & the last thing you want to do is show up? But you do anyway. Because some things don't care how you feel. Inside this episode: → The sciatica, the ice & the 80-pound dog who'd already made some decisions → Why "I'm my own boss" is both the best & worst excuse at the same time → What showing up actually looks li...

The storm showed up right on schedule. So did the excuses. Neither one was the real problem. Inside this episode: -> Why a foot of snow, a buried solar panel & cats with a power cord fetish aren't actually why my taxes aren't done -> What a LinkedIn banner, a free sponsorship & a gym with 140 sign-ups & 12 show-ups all have in common -> The difference between a reason & an...

Months of snow dumps & frigid temperatures. Then the heat hits. All at once. No slow thaw. Just... too much, too fast. & suddenly there's water where water isn't supposed to be. When everything comes at you faster than expected... the question isn't how to stop it. It's how to control the flow. Inside this episode: -> The aiming problem most freelancers mistake for a positioning problem...

Some weeks out here throw everything at you. & just when you think you've seen it all... something happens that stops you completely cold. Didn't move. Didn't breathe. Had absolutely no framework for what just happened. & the business parallel hit me harder than I expected. Inside this episode: The moment that caught me completely off guard... & why it matters for your business The 3 w...

Ever feel like your marketing should be working… but it’s just not landing? Let's look at a subtle gap that most businesses miss ... especially when everything looks like it’s being done “right.” Using real examples from two very different businesses, you’ll see why similar efforts can lead to completely different results. Inside this episode: Why some posts attract attention… but not action The s...

Everything feels like it’s moving… until the moment it actually matters. That’s where things change. Let's walk through a pattern that looks like progress on the surface but quietly stalls people out right before anything real happens. It’s subtle. Easy to justify. & incredibly common. Inside this episode: 2 real conversations that took an unexpected turn The exact moment where momentum starts...

It’s April… & I’m still dealing with snowstorms, frozen doors, & a property that refuses to cooperate. Strangely enough… it mirrors what I’m seeing in business right now. Things that look fine on the surface… but don’t hold up when it actually matters. Inside this episode: A real situation that didn’t add up at first Why more effort isn’t fixing what feels “off” Where things are quietly br...

You can read this issue of the newsletter here ... “AI is replacing copywriters.” That’s the story going around right now… & it’s #FakeNews. Let's look at what’s actually happening as AI floods the market & why the real divide isn’t AI vs humans… In this episode: Why AI-generated content often “sounds good” but fails to convert The difference between using AI & actually knowing what "g...