As a strategist, I see behind the curtain of a lot of businesses. And lemme tell ya - more often than not, the success projected on social media is often not the reality of the chaos and confusion happening in real time.

Almost every single business owner I've ever spoken to or had the privilege of working with has said some version of the same thing to me: "I honestly have no idea what I'm doing most of the time."

 

So if you're sitting there like "why the hell haven't I figured this out yet?!" let me be the one to remind you, most people are just doing their damn best to build something better day by day.

 

That being said, it kills me when I see so many business owners spending so much of their time studying what everyone else is doing online.... because you've convinced those around you have cracked some code you haven't discovered yet.

 

Please hear this part: you have no idea if those businesses are actually growing, or if they're just really good at performing the illusion that they are.

 

And more importantly... none of that is your real problem anyway (!!)

 

Because underneath it all, the reason your business doesn't feel like it's gaining momentum isn't because you haven't found the right formula yet. It's because you keep changing what you say about yourself so frequently that your audience never gets a consistent enough impression of you to actually remember you, trust you, or refer you.

 

And can you blame them? Because half the time, you don't even know what you stand for yet.

 

Maybe you do somewhere underneath it all, but it's clearly not been stated out loud or made clear enough, because if it had been, you wouldn't be looking in every direction except inward.

 

You're not "invisible" to your audience because you're not showing up or doing the work. You're invisible because every time you show up, you're showing up as someone slightly different.

 

If you keep rebranding, pivoting, rewriting your bio every week, etc. it's probably because you don't have a clear, settled sense of who you are as a brand yet, so you keep looking outward for direction instead of inward for answers.

 

And the internet is an absolutely terrible place to look for your identity, because it will always show you someone who seems to be doing it better.

 

The work that actually moves the needle isn't another investment in tactics. It's getting ruthlessly clear on your point of view, and then having the discipline to let that be the filter for everything.

I talk more about that 'filter' and knowing how to talk to your audience through your unique POV in this post.

 

Go check it out and then when you're done, I want you to finish this sentence without editing yourself or overthinking it:

 

"My brand exists because I genuinely believe that _____, and most people in my industry aren't saying it."

 

A strong answer is specific, a little uncomfortable to say out loud, and makes it immediately obvious who you are and who you're for. It's not "I believe in authentic marketing" or "I believe in work-life balance," those are placeholders, not positions.

A real answer has an edge to it, a conviction behind it, something that makes the right person lean in, and the wrong person about-face to the exit.

 

And that's exactly how it's supposed to feel.

 

Whatever comes out of that sentence is the beginning of a brand that people can actually hold onto and a presence that finally starts to build instead of spinning in circles.

Catch ya next week,

Marissa