3 Questions to Ask When You Feel Stuck in Your Marketing

I had my forehead down on the desk.

Looking down at Jake, the cat sleeping by my feet, I asked, “Why is this so hard?” Jake looked up at me and meowed, like he had all the answers.

My marketing was feeling like a big, heavy weight, pressing down on me. I felt stuck under it, so I asked Jake, “What’s wrong with me today?”

Have you ever felt like that?

Like your marketing feels heavy and hard to move?

I want you to know that this is normal. It sucks… but it’s normal.

It would be nice if marketing just flowed and flowed, but sometimes it ebbs… hard.

In these moments, it’s easy to ask, “What’s wrong with me?”
It’s easy to point at ourselves and decide that we’re the problem.

But we’re not.

The problem is usually in our marketing.

One reason is because marketing is biased towards extroverts. So if you’re an introvert, an ambivert, or naturally quiet, you’re already fighting against the tide.

So when your marketing feels heavy like this…

Instead of blaming yourself like you’ve done something to cause this, look outside yourself to see what’s happening in your marketing.

Here are three questions to ask that can help you get unstuck right in the moment:

1. If you’re procrastinating, ask: “What am I avoiding?”

Is it something about the task in front of you? Is it too big, intimidating, or out of alignment with how you prefer to work?

Getting clear on that can help you get moving again much more quickly.

2. If you’re stuck in perfection, ask: “What if I put it out there right now?”

Notice what comes up when you ask that.

It’s easy to keep working on something long past when it’s ready, especially if you enjoy playing in the finer details.

And often, what feels “not ready” to you is already perfect for the person you’re creating it for.

3. If you’re not sure what to do next, ask: “What do I want to do?”

We tend to think there’s a perfect next step. But often, the order doesn’t matter as much as we think it does.

So if the question “What’s next?” has you feeling stuck, notice what shifts when you lean into what you actually want to do.

That day, when my forehead was on the desk? 

It was because the project was too big and I was trying to do many different things at once.

So first, I went for a short walk around the neighborhood. That helped me step back and get clarity.

While I was walking, I realized that I was avoiding the project because it felt too big and tangled. That’s question #1 right there.

So when I got back to my desk, I broke the project up into much smaller pieces. And then I started with the one that felt most doable.

Those are three of the more common places that I see introverts get stuck in their marketing. So if your marketing is feeling heavy right now, try one of these questions the next time you sit down to work on it.

You may find it helps get things flowing again.