I was out for a bike ride. I had a hilly ride planned. The hills aren’t always fun but I knew I needed to get it done. I’d spent the morning gearing myself up mentally for it. And so I was about five miles into the ride when I went to turn onto the street with the first hill... and came to an abrupt stop at the big “road closed” sign.

My very first thought was: “Should I go anyways?”

And then I was like: “Oh. No, that’s not right. I can’t go that way. I have no idea what they’re doing and I don’t want to get hurt.” I’ve ridden on broken up roads and that’s no fun.

Ok…. So what are my other options? I turned around and rode slowly back the way I came, trying to figure out what to do. 

Do I take this opportunity to skip the hills? That idea brought on feelings of elation and relief… but also concern. That would mean that I’d be missing out on some training that I really did need.

I knew at that moment exactly what I needed to do: Go find some different hills.

And while I climbed some different hills that morning, I got to thinking…

When we hit barriers in our marketing, how do we respond?

Do we push harder to make it work, even if all signs point to “no”?
Do we look for alternate routes that can get us what we need?
Or do we skip the whole thing because we can't go that one way? 

Let’s get specific…

One thing I’ve heard from many introverts is that they don’t like social media. Some find the whole process exhausting. Others don’t like how shallow they find people on social media to be. 

Those are barriers. So what do you do?

One option is to power through, showing up on social media just like you see others do. It might work… but it also might lead to the anticipated exhaustion, frustration, and a growing resentment towards social media as a whole. 

Another option is to not do social media at all. But if you choose to allow the barrier to stop you, you’re going to miss out on an opportunity to grow your audience, make important connections, and show your ideal prospects what you can do for them.

What does “another route” look like when it comes to social media?

How about doing it differently?

If you use automation tools, then you can create your social media content when you’re feeling energized, and then schedule it to publish at the times that are right for your audience.

If you want to do video - focus on pre-recorded video in the same way; record it when you’re feeling energized and then schedule it to publish at a time that’s convenient for your audience.

In the end, my point is this:

Barriers do not mean you can’t get there. They just mean you need to find another route. There’s more than one way to get where you’re going. 

No matter where you are, you can get there from here.