How Vulnerable Should You Be in Your Marketing to Be Authentic?
You want to get the word out about your mindfulness services. You want to share your mindfulness wisdom in a way that helps people. And you want to get more clients so you can help transform their lives - but you also want to do it all without sacrificing authenticity.
Remaining true to who you are is just as important online as it is when you're out networking in the real world.
When it comes to marketing your mindfulness services online, there's a balance that can make your messages more effective.
A balance between:
1) sharing your wisdom, expertise, and authority and
2) sharing your common humanity - the more personal side that includes your past struggles or mistakes.
The first gives people the confidence that you'll be able to help them solve their problems. But the second is just as important. It helps them relate to you on a personal level.
They see that you too are just human and that you've been where they might be right now...that you understand their struggle. This connection can ultimately be what gets them to work with you.
ALWAYS KEEP YOUR AUDIENCE IN MIND AS YOU CREATE
So how much of YOU to infuse into your messages - whether in your social media posts or newsletters? And just vulnerable should you be to remain true to yourself without going oversharing?
There's no right or wrong here...but here's my take based on what I've seen works:
As long as you’re sharing from a place of service, joy, abundance, and wanting to provide valuable information, share as much YOU as feels comfortable! But be mindful to always keep your target audience in mind. Would your ideal client understand the struggles you're sharing? Would reading your story and examples be helpful to them since they may be going through something similar?
When you understand your target audience and share your message authentically, the right people will value it. They'll resonate with you...and your story might even transform their life.
And the people who won't get it? They're not your target audience or they're simply not at a place where they're ready to hear your message. No worries though sweet soul, because you're doing this for the people that you most want to help. And with 7 billion people in this world, the ones who resonate with your wisdom ARE out there!
SHARING FROM A SPACE OF ABUNDANCE AND SERVICE
The problem with old-fashioned, inauthentic marketing? It comes from a place of lack consciousness. When business owners only share from a space of wanting to GET rather than wanting to GIVE, most people can sense it in the message immediately.
So before you start writing or creating content, take a mindful pause. Notice what space you’re coming from.
If you’re coming from a space of service, express as much of yourself as you need to illustrate a point. Allow your audience the gift of getting to know you on another level.
“Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing we’ll ever do.” - Brené Brown
YOU’RE ALWAYS A STUDENT - EVEN IF YOU’RE THE TEACHER
Sometimes sharing insights and lessons means being vulnerable. It means recognizing that while you may be teaching something - like mindfulness - to others, you still have more to learn yourself. And this is completely normal!
And you know what?
It's also one of the best gifts you can give your audience - especially when teaching topics like self-compassion and authentic self-expression.
Perfectionism and fear of being our true selves is just one of the ways that our conditioning shows up when we’re not fully present.
Vulnerability opens us up to our common humanity. When we feel safe to express ourselves, to be seen, to be heard, we feel free. Free to be who we are without projecting a different image into the world.
OVERCOMING THE FEAR OF VULNERABILITY
If you’re afraid of being vulnerable when sharing your story, shift your perspective. Focus on how you can serve others. If that means sharing your weaknesses or mistakes, share the ones that will help the people you want to serve most.
That’s where you can feel that boundary between oversharing and being authentic from a space of love and service. Simply listen to your gut.
I’ll be the first to admit that as someone who practices, studies, and writes about mindfulness, I'm not always an example of mindful living. Of course everyone has a different definition of this. To me, living mindfully means bringing greater self-awareness and consciousness into every piece of life.
It means noticing my reactions to life's situations and having the presence to respond differently when I catch myself reacting in a way that doesn't align with my highest vision of myself.
The truth is that I still slip into autopilot way more than I’d like. I still get frustrated when things don’t go according to my mind's expectations. I notice myself judging other people even though I know I “shouldn’t.” I’m still impatient and wanting to get everything done now. I’m still learning how to stop being hard on myself.
But all of that is part of my delicious humanity...
All of it is part of my mindfulness practice as I recognize these patterns in myself.
I am the awareness that notices this dance unfolding even as I get caught up in my role as the dancer.
But either way - here I am.
Naked and raw, soaking up the way this moment shows up - even if that means that I show up as perfectly imperfect.
Mindfulness is the practice of a lifetime.
Each moment of our existence is a new opportunity to practice...again and again.
And with this, you get 86,400 chances each day to give your students a real life example of what it means to bring mindfulness into those precious seconds.
So give yourself the blessing of simply of being you. Feel the joy of authentic expression - even while you’re growing and unfolding into higher levels of awareness daily.
Don’t be afraid to share your full self with those who will most benefit from it.
I see you.
I honor you.
And I challenge you to be you in your online marketing just as much as you are in real life.
Let your amazing uniqueness radiate through the cosmos now and forever more!
Need help finding your voice when it comes to marketing yourself online? Get marketing guidance and copywriting that helps you get more clients authentically. Schedule a 15-min discovery call today.