4 Marketing Fears That Hold You Back

“The greatest mistake you can make in life is to continually be afraid you will make one.” – Elbert Hubbard

If you were to ask most successful business owners or online entrepreneurs to sum up their best advice, most of them would tell you to stop questioning everything and start acting on something.

Jeremy Schoemaker, of Shoemoney.com, was recently asked on Twitter if he only had 140 characters to give someone online marketing advice, what would it be.

His reply was “Stop taking advice from gurus or reading forums and start doing stuff”.

Pretty simple.

So, what stops most people from taking action?  Let’s look at a few common marketing fears:

1.  Fear of Risk

Leaving our comfort zone is about stretching ourselves to become greater in our field.  When we start to feel that panic set in we want to crawl back into our comfortable little shell.  The only way to grow is to risk leaving that zone.  Imagine where your business will be if everything works out as planned, keep that image in your mind, and push through your fears.

“Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”— Robert F. Kennedy

2.  Fear of Failure

What is failure?  Is it trying and failing or is it failing to try?  When things don’t work out as we had hoped it is not failure…it is just a lesson.  Failure would be never getting up and trying again.  Thomas J. Watson is quoted as saying,

“Would you likeme to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, so go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember that’s where you will find success.”

3.  Fear of Success

Sounds odd, right? But, some people just can’t accept great success because it seems bigger than them somehow.  This is why there are lessons along the way and why we need short term goals to go along with the long term ones.  Self development is so important for success.  Success begins on the inside from the image you hold of yourself.  You will only grow as big as that image. 

“The person we believe ourselves to be will always act in a manner consistent with our self-image.” – Brian Tracy

4.  Fear of Rejection

Building a business (a blog is a business too, don’t be fooled) can be so exciting, but many people let this idea sink in that marketing is for people that are born with creativity oozing out of their pores, able to brand themselves with ease, and naturals with the catchy advertising slogans, headlines and phrases.  They think, well I don’t sound as good as they do.

When I was asked that same question on Twitter on what advice I would offer in online marketing my reply was

“Be true to who you are and in your marketing. People will see right through the BS even online. You will build trust = loyalty”.

You don’t have to be a flashy marketer and big guru to market successfully.  We have all been through different experiences in our lives to make us unique.  Use that uniqueness to your benefit and let your personality shine through. If you like your own personality others will too and you will be a refreshing break from all the hype.

“I discovered that rejections are not altogether a bad thing. They teach a writer to rely on his own judgment and to say in his heart of hearts, ‘To hell with you.’” -  Saul Bellow

Is your business at the level you want it to be at?    When you started your business something inside of you saw potential, even great potential.  Believing you can achieve great things demands taking action on that desire.  Remember who you are, where you are going, and why you want to be there…then start acting on something you have been putting off today!  Remember,

“Life is being on the wire, everything else is just waiting.”— Karl Wallenda

What marketing fears have you been holding on to?  How do you use your unique personality or marketing mojo to make yourself stand out?  Share your comments below.  I love hearing from you!

To Your Success,

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Tagged as:  Marketing · Marketing Mindset · Online Marketing