Quick Summary
Promoting your business inherently forces you into vulnerability. Whether you are pitching a major corporate client or posting on social media, marketing puts both your work and yourself on the line for potential judgment and rejection. That anxiety is completely normal, even for seasoned agency founders. But real personal and professional growth lives on the other side of that discomfort. This post explores the emotional side of marketing, why feeling self-conscious is part of the process, and why the secret to building confidence is simply choosing to keep showing up.
→ Enjoyed reading this? Join the email newsletter.
I was sitting in the car beside my childhood friend. We’ve known each other since we were three, but we’ve taken pretty different paths.
She stayed close to home, married her high school sweetheart, bought a house in the suburbs of Toronto and now has two beautiful kids.
I left home at 19, lived in China, Spain and Portugal, started this company at 26 and kissed a few frogs before finding my prince charming.
She turned to me and said:
“Daniela, I really admire you. I admire the risks you take and the ways you’ve grown. But I think if I had your life, I’d feel anxious all the time.”
I laughed.
The first three years in business, I was anxious all the time. I had panic attacks regularly.
And it got me thinking about the emotional side of marketing.
Marketing Makes Us Vulnerable
When you’re responsible for selling and marketing your business, you put yourself in situations where you can be judged, rejected or ignored.
On sales calls, at networking events or on social media, you have to show up, tell your story and share your work.
You can embarrass yourself. Or spend the entire day worrying that you might embarrass yourself.
Even now, after six years of running this marketing agency, I sometimes sit across from a client 30 years older than me – a VP at a billion-dollar company or a renowned architect – and think, Please don’t mess this up.
Not because I don’t know what I’m doing. I do. But the stakes feel high.
Despite It All …
And yet, this is also why I love marketing.
Because the other side of all that discomfort is growth.
I’ve watched myself become a completely different person over the past six years. And I’ve seen the same thing happen with our clients.
One client recently told me that someone recognized him in public from his social media. He was so embarrassed telling me the story, but I could also tell he was proud. When we first met, he hated being on camera. Now, he’s putting himself out there and growing his firm because of it.
I don’t have “five easy tips” for feeling less cringe when you promote yourself. You just keep doing it and surround yourself with supportive people, until the fear fades away.
If marketing makes you uncomfortable, I get it.
Keep doing it anyway.
See you next next Thursday.
Tchau,
Daniela
