Blogging Truths Be Told: Marketing is So Cringey – (Part 2)

Howdy! I’m so glad you’re here. However, if you came here first before going there to read part 1 of “Blogging Truths Be Told: Marketing is So Cringey”, then you’re doing yourself a great disservice. It’s okay if you did though. Just backtrack and head over to the linked article above, read, and relate. And then, please return back here for the continuation of the marketing discussion.

Onto Part 2:

Ultimately, I want to be a creative entrepreneur. I’m currently creating and having a great time doing it and have already had a couple of years now in gaining a comfortability level in distributing my content out into the world. Not only have I had my hand in creating written content for this blog and social media and search engine outlets, but I’ve had the opportunity to create unique educational products for my Etsy shop and a book that is currently available on Amazon. So, I definitely haven’t been sitting idly by and waiting for someone to take me by the hand to get me in the mode and mood to create.

But the entrepreneurial, the business side, of Degrees of Maternity needs a little finessing. And even though I graduated as a business major from college, MARKETING IS STILL SO CRINGEY to me. I must have missed the course that instructs you on how to manage the oh-so-uncomfortable aspects of business etiquette. But, no book is going to teach such a non-salesy person to become salesy (only in a non-sleazy way, of course). Such knowledge is actually acquired through a willingness to step out of one’s comfort zone and learn by life experience (really, trial by fire if I’m being honest about the whole thing).

And here’s how I might sum up my whole experience as a creative . . . and . . . aspiring entrepreneur. I’m not one of those individuals who’s experienced overnight success. (Guess I’m in great company there, because you can probably place about 99.5% of creatives/entrepreneurs/creative entrepreneurs in that category). My blossoming and blooming phases as a solopreneur are taking their sweet, precious time. That’s for sure. But, I’m actually okay with how my learning experience is unfolding.

My growing process has allowed me to actually tiptoe among the tulips and inhale all the aromatic sweetness that might pass me by if I was simply running through the meadow. (Nice way to market marketing “cringeyness”, don’t you think?) Well, I’ve definitely taken the scenic route by slowmobile instead of hopping on the fastest flight to my destination point. And I’m absorbing the learning experience in all its glory — the highs and lows, the “what works” and the “what doesn’t works”, the areas that are my jam and the undesirable stuff that I’m terrible at. Yes, it’s all making me into the fully-developed creative entrepreneur I shall become.

Now, if I can just prevent myself from rushing the process of time and let consistency and hard work in effort do its thing, I’ll be good to go. Easier said in writing, than done.

And speaking of time, one thing I know for sure is that there’s a time for everything. There’s a time to be silent and there’s a time for your voice to be heard. There’s a time to sit back and learn and a time to apply what you’ve learned. For me, the TIME FOR APPLICATION is NOW! I have enough knowledge in my self-instruction repository to make some notable moves. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that I’ve picked up some things through courses, videos, books, and experience to be a little dangerous even. Oh, but the learning process doesn’t stop there. It’s an ongoing undertaking. I’ll be forever learning and improving. That’s a given for the creative entrepreneur.

I don’t intend to hold myself back — not anymore. I’ve had two years to cool my jets, but stagnation doesn’t suit the go-getter very well. That soft miniscule voice calling in the wind has been my calling card in the past. But I’ve determined that 2021 has to be a time for the implementation (no, the execution) of constructive strategies that will propel me forward toward my ultimate goals. Fail and learn, succeed and grow. Embrace some of the cringey stuff and turn it into something sweet-smelling (like those tulips I mentioned earlier).

And just to give you an idea of some of the marketing strategies I’ll be focusing on, look for me to be feverishly working on:

1. Growing my email list – If you’d like to help me build on this effort, feel free to click on this link and sign up to get your goodies. You’ll start receiving your free issues of the DOMinators News newsletter as well as some other freebies and offers (exclusive to Degrees of Maternity email subscribers).
2. Utilizing Pinterest marketing to grow my blog and Etsy shop – If you’d prefer to check in with me at Degrees of Maternity on Pinterest, feel free to click on this link and follow me over there. I’m regularly pinning every Monday through Friday.
3. Increasing my knowledge of best practices in SEO – Well, you can’t really help me here. I’m just going to have to muddle through this subject matter, probably inwardly fighting it every step of the way.

Will this be the year YOU take your cringey stuff and work it for your good and for the good of those around you? Your ability to embrace uncomfortable processes may create the type of impact this wounded world needs right now.