Be Yourself Marketing

What do you do when the exact skill clients pay you for... starts showing up for free?

Didn't sleep. Didn't stop scrolling.

Turns out the panic isn't what you'd expect.

Let's look at:

→ A number that made a client's jaw drop... twice, once for them & once for me

→ The 1-line email that got someone ghosted after a year of trying

→ The Post-it note worth sticking to your monitor

→ What it means to be confidently standing in the wrong room

By the end the concern stops being about the thing you thought it was about.

In a good way.

Links & Resources:

Read along with this issue of the newsletter

Why your proposals get ghosted

Why step 1 is ACTUALLY step 6

AI isn't the problem. You are!

Confidently going the WRONG way

Connect on LinkedIn

Ever notice the 1 thing you swear matters most… is the 1st thing you let go of when life gets hard?

Everyone else gets your yes.

The pets ... family ... Someone else's deadline.

Your own thing? "Later." Every time.

This 1's about what happens when the water rises… & you find out what was actually holding the whole place up.

Inside this episode:

→ The soggy, death-by-1,000-inconveniences week that had me reaching for the blinds

→ The 1 thing that always slides to the bottom of the list… & why that's never really an accident

→ What a flooded barn quietly taught me about what's actually load-bearing

→ The 5-word mantra I borrowed from a #1 best-seller to keep going when quitting sounded suspiciously reasonable

You might walk away from this 1 a little less rattled by the mess you're standing in…

& a lot more sure of the thing underneath it the water can't actually reach.

In a good way.

—

Links & Resources:

→ read along with the newsletter issue

→ Find me on LinkedIn

Behind on the saga? Catch up with:

→ tadpoles live ON my driveway...

→ I should be building an ARC...

You ever get a stretch of time you didn't plan for ... & somehow hand it right back to the universe before you've done a thing with it?

Didn't choose it.

Didn't notice it leave.

Just ... POOF ... gone.

Turns out the time you swear you never have shows up more than you think ... it just never looks the way you pictured.

Let's look at:

→ A stretch of time I didn't ask for ... & the reflex that nearly swallowed it whole

→ Why "I finally have time" can be the trickiest moment of all

→ The couch isn't the villain ... something quieter is

→ The 1 question that flips a free stretch from drained to banked

→ How to tell building from just ... keeping busy

You'll come away catching your own hands a little sooner ... noticing the reach before it becomes the hour. & the next quiet stretch that opens up won't slip by quite the same way.

In a good way.

Links & Resources

Read along with the newsletter

🎧 past issues referenced in the newsletter

→ Confidently going the WRONG way

→ Why step 1 is ACTUALLY step 6

→ 18km in 2 days never left my property

🔗 Connect on LinkedIn

Ever pour yourself into something ... felt genuinely proud of it ... & then watched it land in total silence?

No replies.

No clicks.

Nothing.

Turns out the problem might not be what you said.

It's who you forgot to leave room for.

Let's look at:

→ The thing I'm paying to build ... that almost forgot the 1 person who has to live in it

→ Why the most confident version of your story can quietly push people away

→ The single word a client of mine is terrified to add

→ How to sound completely like yourself & still talk straight to someone else

→ The 1 line that turns "look at me" into "this is for you"

You'll come away looking at your own words a little differently.

Not as a choice between bragging & disappearing.

As something that finally feels like a conversation ... instead of a monologue.

In a good way.

Links & Resources:

→ Read along with this newsletter issue

→ Confidently going the WRONG way

→ I should be building an arc

→ My most expensive 30 seconds

Let's connect on LinkedIn

Ever feel like you have to know everything … do all of it yourself … & have it perfect … before any of it counts?

So you wait. & nothing moves.

Including you.

Turns out the part you can do today … even the part that looks like nothing … might be the only part that counts.

Let's look at:

→ The 18km I walked without ever leaving home

→ Who to ask when you don't know something … & who to never ask

→ The 1 part of the job I flat-out refused to do alone … & why that wasn't quitting

→ Why $1.70 might be the most important number in this whole episode

You might finish this one feeling a little called out.

Like someone just described the exact thing you've been avoiding … & then quietly handed you permission to stop waiting on perfect.

In a good way.

Links & Resources:

→ Read along with this issue

→ my most expensive 30 seconds

→ Confidently going the WRONG way

→ Why step 1 is ACTUALLY step 6

→ Connect on LinkedIn

Ever had a bad feeling about a decision...

& stayed quiet because you didn't want to be the difficult 1?

The pause. The hmm. The hand your brain raised... then talked back down.

That silence feels free in the moment... but it always invoices later.

& not just in business.

Let's look at:

→ The afternoon 3 people with zero bad intentions made 1 very expensive decision

→ Why going along can feel responsible, respectful & professional... & still be wrong

→ The 10-minute fix that was sitting in plain sight... & why nobody reached for it

→ The "rookie" question that's actually the most professional thing anyone can say

→ What quick convenience quietly charges you later... & how to spot the price tag before things are already in motion

If there's a question you've been sitting on... the 1 you keep filing under "don't make it weird"... this episode is going to loosen its grip.

You might even ask it this week.

Links & Resources:

🎧 Prefer to read along with this week's newsletter?

Mentioned in this episode:

→ Confidently going the WRONG way ... [🐝U]

→ Nobody tells you the real cost upfront ... [🐝U]

→ the "fix" that makes things WORSE ... [🐝U]

→ [🐝U] a chainsaw, tow rope & snow plow STILL didn't ...

🔗 Connect with EG on LinkedIn

Ever been so deep in something that every decision starts to feel obviously correct?

That's not clarity.

That's proximity.

The gap isn't in the work.

It's in how long you've been the only 1 looking at it.

Let's look at:

→ Why the thing that made complete sense on paper didn't survive contact with the platform

→ The a review process is scoped in proposal & why that matters

→ What 300 gallons of water in the wrong place has to do with your next business decision

→ The difference between someone who approves your work & someone who actually challenges it

→ Why the person you need doesn't have to know more than you

You'll finish this one a little less certain that working solo on the hard stuff is fine.

In a good way.

Links & Resources

→ Read along with the newsletter

→ why step 1 is actually step 6

→ the fix that makes things worse

→ "I should be building arc"

→ Connect with EG on LinkedIn

Ever look around at everything falling apart at once & think... how did it get this bad?

You were handling it.

Each thing ... as it came up.

Until you weren't.

Let's look at:

→ What leaking barrels, a stalled generator & a Christmas tree of truck warnings have in common with a Frankenstein'd tech stack

→ Why 2 months into a client contract with ZERO emails written is exactly the right place to be → The nesting dolls that keep getting bigger instead of smaller — & what that reveals about every "fix" that came before

→ The proposal a mentee almost sent that would've buried the real problem under a brand new layer

→ Why the thing that's breaking is rarely the problem & what it's actually pointing at

You'll finish this one looking at every band-aid you've been living with differently.

In a good way.

Links & Resources

Read along with the newsletter

Past issues mentioned

→ Chainsaw, tow rope & snow plow

→ I kept waiting for someone else to fix it

Connect with me on LinkedIn

Have you ever fixed something... only to realize you were fixing the wrong thing?

The bill arrives.

Right on time.

Just not when you expected it.

Inside this episode:

→ What 100mm of rain in 3 days revealed that normal conditions kept hidden

→ Why the contractor wasn't wrong & what he conveniently left out

→ The way most marketing gets built... & why it works until it doesn't

→ 3 questions that work if you're building your own business or solving a client's problem

→ What "looking at the whole floor" actually means before the pressure arrives

You'll finish this one thinking about something you built fast that's been quietly waiting to show you what it's made of.

In a good way.

read along with the Newsletter

Connect with me on LinkedIn

You made a change you were proud of.

& something got worse anyway.

Not dramatically.

Just quietly, unexpectedly worse ... in a way that makes you question whether good decisions are supposed to feel like this.

Let's look at:

→ The unexpected tax that shows up after you finally start doing things right & what it has to do with the safety net you might still be carrying

→ The 2 fears nobody names & why they might be the ones actually keeping you half-in

→ What happens when the net disappears & you didn't choose the timing

→ The 1 question that tells you more about where you actually are than any strategy ever will

You'll finish this one sitting with something.

Something you already knew, maybe.

Just harder to look away from now ... In a good way.

Read along with the newsletter.

Let's connect on LinkedIn.

Email me about topics & guests you'd like to hear ... [email protected]