018 Marketing Burnout + Marketing Assumptions
In this episode, we’re diving into two things that might be sabotaging your marketing efforts: burnout and making wild assumptions that can lead you astray.
Quirky Quiz Time 🥳
What is a common cause of marketing burnout?
A) Posting too much on social media
B) Ignoring all marketing efforts completely
C) Setting unrealistic expectations for yourself
-
Answer: C – Setting unrealistic expectations for yourself
Marketing Burnout Signs + Assumptions Make A Marketing A** Out Of You
Ever feel like marketing your business is just another exhausting chore on your never-ending to-do list? We’re unpacking the sneaky signs of marketing burnout and how to spot them before they derail your business. Plus, we’re tackling the hilarious and sometimes awkward consequences of making assumptions—both in business and life.
Marketing burnout is real, and if you’re feeling drained at the mere thought of promoting your business, you’re not alone. Many small business owners push themselves too hard, trying to keep up with unrealistic expectations, comparison traps, and the never-ending pressure of social media. Recognising the signs of burnout—like procrastination, creative fatigue, and resentment towards your own marketing—can help you take action before it gets worse.
One of the biggest culprits behind unnecessary stress? Assumptions. Whether it’s assuming that everyone else has it all figured out, or making snap judgments about people (like mistaking Zoë for an escort because of her two phones—yes, that actually happened), these assumptions can hold us back. Instead, we need to pause, question our biases, and approach situations with curiosity rather than judgment.
If you’re struggling with marketing burnout, it’s time to reassess. Set realistic goals, focus on what actually moves the needle for your business, and give yourself permission to take breaks when needed. And if you need a helping hand? Zoë Wood, your Video Confidence Coach, is here to guide you through the madness with personalised strategies that work for you. Reach out at VCC.training to take back control of your marketing without losing your sanity.
-
📌 00:00 – Welcome & housekeeping updates, plus a special shoutout to the BNI Geelong Waterfront Professionals crew.
📌 06:00 – The power of personal branding and why assumptions can be dangerous.
📌 12:00 – Storytime: The wild assumption someone made about Zoë (it’s a doozy).
📌 18:00 – How unchecked assumptions can hurt your business, brand, and networking opportunities.
📌 24:00 – Signs of marketing burnout—do you have them and just not realise?
📌 30:00 – Why marketing suddenly feels like a chore and how to reignite your passion.
📌 36:00 – Common marketing mistakes that lead to exhaustion and frustration.
📌 42:00 – Why consistency matters more than perfection in your marketing efforts.
📌 48:00 – How to avoid burnout before it happens—realistic goal setting for busy business owners.
📌 54:00 – When to take a break, outsource, or automate your marketing.
📌 1:00:00 – Wrapping up: key takeaways and why you should never assume anything about someone with two phones.
-
Zoë Wood 3:40
zo woods,
Unknown Speaker 4:28
let's start off with the tagline that introduces so the video confidence coach, it's me, emboldens women and non binary superstars with killer video marketing strategies, empowering them to show up, stand out and smash their goals. Welcome to our video confidence. Connect our weekly live stream that I host here on either YouTube or LinkedIn, wherever you're finding. This every Friday on from 10am to 11am this is my opportunity as a chance to reach out chat with you. There's any chance that you want to talk about. this week's video, confidence, connect with your host, Zoe wood the video confidence. Coach, smashing your marketing mayhem with killer video marketing strategies. Thank you so much for your patience. ence. I'm just. Welcome everyone to this week's video, confidence, connect with your host, Zoe wood the video confidence. Coach, smashing your marketing mayhem. Welcome everyone to this week's video, confidence, connect with your host, Zoe wood the video confidence. Coach, smashing. Welcome everyone to this.
Zoë Wood 3:49
welcome everyone to this week's video confidence, connect with your host. Zoe wood, the video confidence coach, smashing your marketing mayhem with killer video marketing strategies. Thank you so much for your patience. I'm just going to turn this baby down just a smidge, just to make sure that we're not blowing out anyone's eardrums. Thank you. I will be referring to my elevator pitch to the right of you. If you see me looking over there, do not worry, that's just me trying to make sure that I've got my elevator pitch right. I'm still learning it, and don't worry, that's what I can work with other people too. So in that meantime, let's carry on with today's video confidence connect. So
Zoë Wood 5:00
Personal Branding, or if there's any questions people have asked me and I haven't had a chance to respond to you directly, this is the time to do it. I have a nice list in front of me and things to get through, and that is why we're here.
Zoë Wood 5:12
Make sure that if you are listening or watching on LinkedIn or YouTube, make sure that you put your personal branding or video marketing questions in the comments, any thoughts, any ideas that you have for future podcast episodes that I also do record on days like this, as well as the opportunity just to have a chat, I have had a couple of people reach out to me via Hello, if you are watching. Thank you so much. We're currently in the midst of figuring out if it is an appropriate time to say, have a live stream chat, or if it's a personalized chat, we'll see how that goes. And don't worry, I haven't forgotten about you. That's what this is about. For anyone who is not watching us live or watching us on their hashtag, replay squad, feel free to put your comments there as well, because I will make sure to get back to you.
Zoë Wood 6:00
You can find out more information about my live streams, podcasts and events that we run at the video, confidence coach at VCC, dot training, yes, that is the whole URL, Vcc video, confidence coach, dot training,
Zoë Wood 6:14
yes.
Zoë Wood 6:16
The reason I repeat that is just because I've had a couple of people ask, Where's the.com where's the.au No, the dot training is my.com
Zoë Wood 6:25
because part of what I do, obviously, is getting people to the stage that they need to be at to build their personal brand, and that involves an aspect of training.
Zoë Wood 6:35
But before we officially begin today, I would like to acknowledge and pay my respects to the watarung people of the Kulin nation, the traditional custodians on the land on which I conduct my business today. I pay my respects to their elders, past and present. I stand with the traditional custodians of these lands in working towards a more equal future. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to face discrimination and disadvantage due to our country's colonial past. I stand on them. Stand with them in their fight against injustice. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land. And I thank everyone, both mob and LA that I met or got a chance to meet on survival Day this past weekend. It was beautiful to me all at the rally and getting a chance to know more about my
Zoë Wood 7:21
like the place where I live, and the people who are the custodians of that land. It was an honor to meet you all, and I look forward to seeing you again at future events that we have on the indigenous calendar later this year.
Zoë Wood 7:35
Nothing springs to mind. I have a list that I could get, but I
Zoë Wood 7:39
don't worry. I will definitely see you there, and if not, I'm very close to the water on Co Op, so I can always keep on top of whatever they've got going on over there. So carrying on with today. I've got a nice list of front in front of me, of things to catch on. Thank you for everyone who has noticed my recently dyed hair. Yes, it is big, it is blue. It is a very, very intense today, and that's just because I only dyed it yesterday. So it's going to it's going to be very bright for a little bit, and then it's going to mellow down as I don't red diet because I'm too lazy.
Zoë Wood 8:10
But first of all, I want to let people know about my current focus or my current product that I'm offering small business owners and personal brand builders my glow and grow brand stranding,
Zoë Wood 8:24
my glow and grow branding session, which is $350 for one hour of your time and a large build up of essentially, we're going to break down your personal brand and give you actionable tips that you're able to achieve to help grow You in 2025 you can find more details in the show notes below, or you can check out my website, VCC, dot training, slash glow, plus grow. I do like my little pluses, mainly because me and the ampersand have beef. I'll let you know about that later. I want to thank everyone at the BNI water. Geelong waterfront.
Zoë Wood 9:01
BNI, what? Geelong waterfront professionals that I met yesterday. It was beautiful to finally meet you all. I've heard so much about you, and I give you all of the props for the rest of this year, because it's going to be an interesting year, and I hope that you all get a lot of good business out of it.
Zoë Wood 9:19
So I look forward to seeing you again, as I guessed, on probably someone else's ticket
Zoë Wood 9:25
for wherever we are
Zoë Wood 9:30
as it is the start of the year, so it is currently, as I'm recording this the 31st of January, 2025, so that means school is back, work is fully back, and everyone's getting back into it. So I'm definitely feeling that, and I'm sure you are feeling that too. So is your marketing plan to attract the right leads and attract the right customers? Is that working for you? Is it not working for you? We are still at the start of the year where it's you can always make a change at any point in the year, but if you feel at the start of the year is the year and the time to make the.
Zoë Wood 10:00
Change, feel free to reach out to me again. You can find me at G'day, so that's G, D, A, y, at V cc, dot training, which is my email address, or you can just find me again at my website, VCC, dot training, I'm plugging that a lot lately. Let's move
Zoë Wood 10:15
on, as we have a lot of things coming down the pipeline for video, confidence coach, there's nothing that I can speak about right now, because everything's all still up in the air, mainly because, and I'm sure anyone who deals with government or deals with larger corporations, everything is kind of slow and skeleton crude, until around this time of year, and then you've got the decision makers coming back on board as of February. So I'm here, let's work
Zoë Wood 10:40
and then, and that will be February and March as we lead on to the year. But if you are in the Glen Iris area, make sure to check out. Nadine Riley is one of my mentee clients who is an indigenous artist, and she's currently got a
Zoë Wood 10:57
an exhibition running through February in the Maribyrnong, marime, marigu art
Zoë Wood 11:04
gallery in Glen Iris, 100,
Zoë Wood 11:08
100 High Street, Glen Iris. So if you're there, make sure you check it out. You can check out all the details on the website. Just search, and
Zoë Wood 11:18
you'll be able to find all the details about that. You can definitely check it out at work, in the flesh, before it all gets sold
Zoë Wood 11:26
carrying on to the next thing again. Apologies if I'm kind of bouncing around a little bit. This is my intro, just to let you know everything that's happening in the past year. And then we go straight into podcast recordings, where things are going to be a little and when I say a little, I mean very, a lot more contained in what they do and how they do it. So the other things that we have coming down the pipeline, because everything is happening. As I said, It is February. It is February as of like tomorrow. So all of a sudden, everything's happening at once. So what we have is we have the first UN boring, your brand podcast episode going to be released this year. It's going to be released on Sunday, so That's February 2, 3pm that's going to be released. I don't expect you to download it straight away. You can watch it or listen to it on the Mondays and the weeks following on. You can find out all the details on your podcast. You can follow us on your podcast, podcast catcher of choice, or you can find out more in the show notes or at Vcc dot training slash podcast. So I'm thank you everyone for your patience during this rebrand. I've last year I was kind of like I was calling it the video confidence coach cast, because I didn't have a name for it. And then I've worked with my mentors, and I've worked with business partners, and I've worked with various people, and I thank you, everyone for helping me solidify a name the UN boring your brand podcast, because nothing about how I look or act is boring.
Zoë Wood 12:50
So that will be there for you. And as of Sunday as well, at 3pm because I like to keep everything in sync, we have the first of the Vic podcasters podcast being released on Sunday. So if you are interested in joining us on either LinkedIn, Facebook or our email newsletter, and to be honest, the email newsletter is kind of better. I'm saying that not just to get you on board, but because that's where I'm going to be holding a lot of the important information that the platforms are probably not going to let me share, because links you're letting you're making people leave the platform, yes, because I'm educating them.
Zoë Wood 13:27
And you can find all of those details there, you guessed it, on VCC, dot training, slash, Vic, dash podcasters. So if you are in,
Zoë Wood 13:39
oh, my apologies. Oh,
Zoë Wood 13:45
if you are in Victoria and you are interested in podcasting, or already a podcaster, and you're seeking some community of people who are like minded and who are on the same journey as you to grow their podcast, make sure you check us out at Vic podcasters on on on Facebook, LinkedIn, or you can find us out on VCC, dot training, slash, Vic, dash podcasters to find all the details out there
Zoë Wood 14:11
And
Zoë Wood 14:14
All right, I'm gonna zoo like them.
Unknown Speaker 14:21
Okay?
Zoë Wood 14:23
Apologies for that.
Zoë Wood 14:27
No, I'm not dead, not not dying, even though
Zoë Wood 14:32
I went for a walk and the pollen tried to get me. Yes, pollen is an all year round thing. Yes, it's just more and more intense during spring, but not as much now. So let me digress. Let me focus.
Zoë Wood 14:49
Are you? Hey, it's Zoie. Are you in need of a VA like, I mean, an absolute gun of a person who is good at marketing, at admin, at data entry, can run your life or your.
Zoë Wood 15:00
Business. I know someone perfect for you, so reach out to me here, or either email me at Zoe at Vcc dot training, and I will give you all the details to meet this lovely woman who will be the absolute gold mine to help you in your productivity goals.
Zoë Wood 15:16
Sometimes you need a VA to help you out.
Zoë Wood 15:21
See you soon.
Zoë Wood 15:24
Thank you for standing with me with that one. That was just a little ad that I wanted to quickly do that I'm going to run on my LinkedIn. When I say ad, I don't mean actual paid advertisement. Friend of mine is a virtual assistant, virtual assistant, and she's in needing of some more clients, so make sure that I promote and help her out on that. Since I'm put on the effort, not too much of it, but put on the effort, and we are here to help out. So what I'm going to do today is we are going to record some podcast episodes. So as the title suggests, we are going to be covering, uh, feeling burnt out from your marketing activities, and we're going to run a older episode of The funny thing about assumptions, which has been a surprising favorite, despite the fact that it's not strictly about like business mindset or marketing, it's just a very fun story that people enjoy reciting to their friends, and they like the opportunity to do that. So we're going to start off with. My feeling is that we want to start off with the assumptions, because since everyone liked it so much, and I will leave you to it in that moment, being confident in your product service skill and would definitely be a help, despite nerves and stage fright. I completely agree, because once say, for example, if you are new in your business, I completely understand you have both the nerves of, I'm new at this I can make, like, there's so many mistakes I'm going to make, as well as being nervous of getting yourself out there in front of the camera or behind the camera to show your business to the world, there is A different special type of fear involving that. But once you have a bit more confident in your own skills to be able to produce the product or service that you actually do in your business, then you can rest a little bit more on your laurels and give a little you give yourself a little bit more of a hug going, Okay, this will be okay. I can do this. I can do this
Zoë Wood 17:21
because you will have a bit more confidence in the work that you can produce and the clients that you can help. And hopefully, if those clients that you've worked with, or customers that you've sold to, are able to give you good feedback, It'll even give you even more robustness to be able to be like, Okay, I know what I'm doing. I'm okay with this, giving me that good feedback loop to be able to start producing videos or reaching out on social media to people like Your past clients.
Zoë Wood 18:00
Would you like some Goss, come, go, come, come, come closer. I have some gossip for you so you will not believe what happened to me. The other day. I was at a master class, and I got this death stare from this other woman. Do you
Zoë Wood 18:16
want to find out why
Zoë Wood 18:19
keep listening.
Zoë Wood 18:21
Welcome everyone to the podcast today, and thank you for that little whispering intro. And I apologies for everyone who enjoys ASMR. I am not an ASMR artist, and I probably wasn't giving you much of the tinkles, but today I wanted to talk and break down a little bit of a funny anecdote about assumptions, but then leading into an actual story and reasoning, which is what we do at the podcast, that this is why we have podcasts like this, to be able to lead you through a story and bring you along for the journey, to be able to realize your own assumptions that you might be having within your business.
Zoë Wood 18:59
So let's get started with today's story. Now, of course, we're already talking about assumptions, how they can how they're made, how things can go wildly wrong, and why it's worth rethinking your assumptions, not just about yourself, maybe assumptions about people that you work with, maybe your clients or maybe your collaborators, slash competition, depending on how you look on it,
Zoë Wood 19:23
and other other areas of your business that you have not really interrogated at all. So let's dive in today. So here is the story. So let me take you all the way back. So this is earlier this year. I went to a series of master classes about everything from, say, SEO to podcasting to brand reputation to pretty much a lot of the marketing classes. Because, as you can imagine, with someone who is marketing wise, I enjoy going to events where they're not exactly aimed at someone who maybe has my experience, but I want to see other people in the room of.
Zoë Wood 20:00
How they're reacting to the information that's being presented. Because I run regular speaking opportunities. So when I have the opportunity to actually sit in and watch other people do it, I take those notes when I can. But this is even before the master class. So I'm sitting outside. It's winter, it's cold, but I'm sitting there on this like little patio area outside of the masterclass, masterclass venue, and I'm sitting there before the event starts, and I'm doing a little bit of personal and business at the same time. So I've got my both my phones out, so I have both a personal phone and a business phone. The reason being is that I personally find it nice and very relaxing to be able to turn my business phone off at the end of the day. So I'm not running after client. I'm not doing all the things when I should be focusing on my family, where I should be focusing on my sleep, where I'm focusing on these things that are not supposed to be you know, me, I'm able to have the luxury of having another phone that essentially it's my old partner's phone, but it's a personal phone that I can pay for and use. So I digress. So I was using these three phones because I was doing a little bit of, like life admin as well as, like, Business Admin, and doesn't, kind of doing a bit between the two. And I was kind of bouncing between the two, and there was just sitting there in front of the class. The class wasn't starting for like another 15 minutes. So I'm like, I've got time.
Zoë Wood 21:21
And then this woman
Zoë Wood 21:23
comes past, and she catches my eye because she was she's looking directly at me. She's staring right at me. So I lift my head up, thinking, Do we know each other? Do I say hi? Like, oh, we're just fed into like, that's what's my assumption. And this woman, who I did not recognize and did not know, was just giving me the worst death stare. She was walking past with a scrunched up face, death stare, looking at me like down the eyes, down through her brows, and then storms into the session.
Zoë Wood 21:55
And of course, I'm left naturally wondering,
Zoë Wood 22:00
Do I know her?
Zoë Wood 22:02
Did I do something wrong? What's the deal? Did I cut her off in traffic? I did not drive here that day.
Zoë Wood 22:08
What?
Zoë Wood 22:12
And I'm sitting there and I'm like, Oh, crap. What have we done? And of course, you know the the session is about to begin, like, within that next, next couple minutes. So I'm like, okay, alright, so collect ourselves. Put all my put my phones on silent, put them in the bag, go inside, do the session. So it was a beautiful session. I was there also to learn, but also as to support the presenter, who's a good business friend of mine, and after the session. So we had the session, and then we had a bit of a break, and she was talking with other people. So I thought, no, don't worry. I won't give her, you know, too much, you know, I won't approach her just yet. And then after the session, I thought, Okay, at this point, we'd gone through the event. I had asked regular questions. It was a small enough event where people introduced who they were, so I did that like everyone else did. And then after the session had finished, I'd got up, and she was standing there at the back of the room. So I get up, and I approached her, and I just said hi, and her face immediately
Zoë Wood 23:12
was sunken, was sullen, and I'm like, Oh crap, it was a little bit like, internally I was a little bit crap. But on the outside, I'm like, hi, because I'm like, I'm not entirely sure what I'm walking into. But again, at this point, we've been sitting in the same room for an hour and a half. We've got some sort of camaraderie here. So approaching her and I asked her just like, Hi, I'm doing I noticed before that you looked very upset with me. Before I'm just one checking in
Zoë Wood 23:42
with how you're feeling. Coming across, to be honest, my initial thought was, I know you from somewhere because you're the way that you're looking at me is like, you know me, crap. I don't know who you are. I don't remember who you are. I'm gonna pretend I'm going in that middle ground of like we probably know each other because of the way you're looking at me. Um, okay, okay, okay. So, you know, I'm going in there with, of course, the mindset of giving, giving her space to talk, giving her space that if she doesn't want to talk, that leaving her alone, that's perfectly fine, because, you know, life happens. I get it sometimes, you know, it's not the best day. You know, stuff happens. I get it. So of course, I'm there just, you know, asking her, like, you know, checking in with how she's doing. At this point, I kind of got an idea of what business she was representing, so I thought, okay, you know, I asked her a couple of questions about that, and she wasn't really giving me much response. She was giving me one word answer. So I'm like, Okay, it's clear that, like, I'm either making you uncomfortable or like my presence is off putting for you. Okay, I'm just gonna walk over and, you know, chat to the presenter or some other people that I already know in the space. And as I was about to go and as about as I was about to say, thank you for your time, great to see you, turn around, I was about to walk away, she says, wait,
Zoë Wood 24:58
I know me at the.
Zoë Wood 25:00
Pivot back and go, yes.
Zoë Wood 25:05
And she sheepishly said, at a very low voice,
Zoë Wood 25:11
I thought you're one of those.
Zoë Wood 25:15
And I come in a little closer to her. Now, of course, in this time, I'm giving her as much like I'm giving her plenty of personal space again, keeping your mind that she'd not given me the best clues to begin with. So I'm like, okay, so I came in a little closer because she was speaking so softly, and I said, One of, one of what,
Zoë Wood 25:32
and a bit of toing and froing. She eventually said, I thought you were one of those escorts.
Zoë Wood 25:39
Now I want to stress starting off from this podcast that being an escort or a sex worker is real work. It is hard work. I have never done it myself, because personally, I do not have the work ethic for it, and for those people who are doing that work, hats off to you. You do a very good job for society, and it is a job that I could never see myself doing, just because of the amount of essentially ladder crap you have to put up with. I digress. So back to it. So she thought I was an escort, and at first I was taken aback, because I'm like,
Zoë Wood 26:17
what has and I remember, and I just remember breathing in and going, what gives you that impression? Not okay. I want to stress. I'm not, you know, poo, pooing it. I'm not denying it. I'm not like being like because that is not the right way to react around someone's profession. I was just went. What gave you that idea?
Zoë Wood 26:37
Am I giving off the wrong signals in the way that I network or present myself in my personal brand.
Zoë Wood 26:43
And her reasoning was that I had two phones,
Zoë Wood 26:49
and that was a telltale sign.
Zoë Wood 26:53
And again, I paused, and at this point, we're fairly close together physically. Other people are around, and they're kind of like, you know, going out, you know, leaving the building. They're kind of hovering around, and I'm kind of, I'm heading close to her, and I'm making sure not to speak too loudly. And I just said,
Zoë Wood 27:08
what can you explain that for me? Please, again, trying to give her the benefit of the doubt, and also, again, giving her enough space that if she needs to go, should go. And then, of course, she's, she's, she begins to tell me about her ex husband had some
Zoë Wood 27:26
interesting choices. And, you know, you can fill in the blanks from there, and the way that and she had finally, you know, come across the people that he was hiring, and the way that she was able to visually identify them. Was they, you know, had two phones. And I took a breath, and I paused, and I said,
Zoë Wood 27:50
Okay, well, and I just had to, like I and this, and at this point, she had raised her head, and I said, Well, as we've discussed today. I'm a business owner. I have a personal and a private phone because I want to be able to finish my business like, I want to be able to turn off my business life. I don't want to be on at 24/7
Zoë Wood 28:19
and then again, I'm there, like, pausing myself, I'm like, I'm not entirely sure what to say to this woman again, this stranger, keeping in mind that this stranger that I had barely met, and I just said to her that I'm
Zoë Wood 28:32
sorry to hear what you're going through,
Zoë Wood 28:34
and I hope that you're able to
Zoë Wood 28:39
move On from this part of your life, quickly and without issue, I was choosing my words very carefully. And she said, Okay,
Zoë Wood 28:50
and then proceeded to grab her bag and walk out fairly briskly. And at that point, I just breathed in a couple of times and went,
Zoë Wood 28:58
Okay, then turned around and carried on my business talking with is with people that I know. So of course, with the story that I've just told you, I want to reiterate that sometimes people assumptions have nothing to do with you and everything to do with their own package.
Zoë Wood 29:17
Now with moving on from the story part of today's podcast to the the actual learnings from today's podcast. So, as you can imagine, thank you everyone for enjoying me, for indulging me in that gossip. And, of course, this stranger, you know, it's a story that I want to tell, and I'm going to do my best to, you know, not give away any identifying information, because it's it's understandable. Things happen. Our lives happen, and ultimately, we all do it.
Zoë Wood 29:46
We all have assumptions alike. So we all have assumptions in our brains that are like shortcuts, and they help us make sense of things quickly to be able to help us survive. But often they miss the mark because we don't have.
Zoë Wood 30:00
Of the context of what's going on, or maybe we have some of the context, but in all of the context. Or in most cases, we feel like we know the context,
Zoë Wood 30:09
but then we're quickly proven wrong
Zoë Wood 30:12
by the context that surrounds us.
Zoë Wood 30:16
In my case, just because someone has two phones does not mean they're leaving a double life. And it does not mean that they're not contributing to society.
Zoë Wood 30:25
It just means that I value my work life balance, that I love the ability to be able to switch off my business phone when I want to focus on my family and my rest time
Zoë Wood 30:38
and in those moments, for example, it may not have been easy for her to overcome what she was currently dealing with and ask me,
Zoë Wood 30:47
but to react in such, I would say, a very dramatic way. And that's coming from me, by the way, a very dramatic way. It was not a case of me wanting to people please, but it was more of a case of
Zoë Wood 31:00
the disgust, the anger, the sullenness that she was showcasing was like, are you okay as a human being? Are you okay?
Zoë Wood 31:09
And if something doesn't make sense, or if something is so confronting to you, just asking
Zoë Wood 31:18
is a reasonable thing to do now, of course, with context, and especially when I'm speaking to adults, because if you're a kid watching or listening to me, best of luck to you. But usually, most of the time I'm talking to adults, you have context, you have understanding of what's going on. And if you're not feeling safe enough to ask, then sure, don't ask, but then don't act erratically in exchange,
Zoë Wood 31:42
yes, it's less awkward, and it means that you don't get the wrong idea at the end of the day.
Zoë Wood 31:49
But some but assumptions can ultimately hurt you and ultimately hurt your business. And this is where we wrap it into the personal brand, folks, when your personal brand is very linked to the work that you do or the actions that you take. Now, of course, sometimes some of these actions don't exactly, aren't exactly your, you know, entirely your prerogative, but when it comes to building and growing your personal brand, assumptions can lead to hurt. They can lead to unnecessary tension with,
Zoë Wood 32:22
you know, with other clients, with other suppliers, with other referrals, with other like people in your network or even people outside of your network, that unresolved, unnecessary tension can turn things like a business networking session or a master class into a soap opera,
Zoë Wood 32:42
and I don't really have any interest in pursuing that, frankly, in the work that I do
Zoë Wood 32:49
and in the way that I network, yes, gossip is fun, and I'm going to do a I'm going to do a podcast episode in the Future about gossiping and
Zoë Wood 33:01
and how it's actually useful in the world of business.
Zoë Wood 33:06
But when it comes to the assumptions that you do, they can also skew how people ultimately perceive you before you They truly get to know you and the work that you do. I've meant I've mentioned, just in previous live streams and other podcasts that I've done, I've also mentioned how people make assumptions of me. They think that I'm silly, that I'm frivolous because I dress brightly colored, and then I have crazy makeup and crazy hair.
Zoë Wood 33:36
It's because it's fun, because it's enjoyable, because it's unborn the podcast you're listening to.
Zoë Wood 33:43
It's fun,
Zoë Wood 33:47
and as an adult, we lose a lot of that fun. And when it comes to assumptions, thinking negatively of someone
Zoë Wood 33:59
can only lead to tension and upset with the other relationships that you have with people, but also just with the wider world that you have around you. If everything is out to get you, everything looks like a knife.
Zoë Wood 34:12
So what can we do instead?
Zoë Wood 34:15
So before jumping to conclusions, we can pause and reflect and take a moment to check the facts, the facts that we have already now, of course, you can definitely draw assumptions and conclusions from that, but taking a moment not to just react or act aggressively or act like something that could possibly put you in danger, like if I was someone who would, you know, the type of person who would see the actions of that woman walking in and then go in at cost her. Now I want to stress. I would not do that, but some people come with their own baggage, and if they see the absolute disgust on their face,
Zoë Wood 34:54
they might take action.
Zoë Wood 34:57
And again, that is assumption of my own. But.
Zoë Wood 35:00
I want to stress like being able to take that time to pause and reflect is also useful just in your daily life, and also is a good meditative practice,
Zoë Wood 35:09
making sure that you've stayed in a stay in a state of being curious, but not judgy, if you're unsure of something, if you don't know what it's like to live in this person's life, day to day, approach the situation with curiosity, not criticism.
Zoë Wood 35:27
If, going back to the example, if the woman saw my two phones and, you know, immediately made the assumptions and conclusions in her head, she could have easily just went okay and then just moved on, did not immediately go down the criticism spiral and become very upset, not just for her sake, but possibly for mine and for other people in the room.
Zoë Wood 35:52
And the last thing that I want to stress for a way that you can deal with these assumptions is to let it go.
Zoë Wood 35:59
Not everything needs your immediate reaction, and if it is not directly impacting impacting you, you can let it slide. And as you build your personal brand, you have your missions and your values of what you stand by.
Zoë Wood 36:13
And then there is stuff outside of that. Yes, you're allowed to have an opinion on it. And if it affects you, sure Speak Your Peace, but it doesn't affect you. I want to hear stories. I want to hear the lived experience from the people that do
Zoë Wood 36:31
have that experience on a day to day level,
Zoë Wood 36:37
when talking about the bigger picture and coming back to marketing, because that's what we do here the video confidence coach on boring your brand going back to marketing, assumptions are everywhere. And of course, because we don't always have all the information at hand, life would be very boring if we did. People assume ads are trying to manipulate them, while brands assume customers are blindly trusting them.
Zoë Wood 37:04
Why? Because there are so many examples of that happening in the past. There are so many bad actors out there,
Zoë Wood 37:11
but at the end of the day, people are just wanting to live their lives. They want enough money to feed themselves and their family. They want to support their community.
Zoë Wood 37:22
And I guess that might be an assumption on my end, but at the end of the day, we're all human. I think that's a pretty decent assumption to
Zoë Wood 37:29
make. So let's aim for clarity and connection, whether in business and everyday life, always think of the bigger picture, not just in the work that you're doing to grow your personal brand, but to build yourself as a human being, we've got one life, and it seems a bit silly to spend that time of spending your energy on thoughts and things that don't exist,
Zoë Wood 37:52
especially things that you can't confirm.
Zoë Wood 37:56
My closing thoughts for today is that assumptions, yes, they're unavoidable, but they don't have to define us or our actions, be it when we show up on our personal brand, when we show up in our business, or when we show up in our personal lives.
Zoë Wood 38:08
The next time you catch yourself making a assumption or a grand assumption about someone's actions, thoughts, feelings, what have you, give yourself a pause. Ask yourself,
Zoë Wood 38:21
why am I thinking this
Zoë Wood 38:23
and then let it go? If
Zoë Wood 38:25
it is putting you in danger, of course, do not let it go. Take action accordingly to not put yourself in danger.
Zoë Wood 38:31
But I digress,
Zoë Wood 38:34
and if you ever see someone with two phones, maybe just assume they're just working really hard
Zoë Wood 38:41
and not living a secret life or utilizing it
Zoë Wood 38:46
for nefarious means, because, again, sex work is real work.
Zoë Wood 38:51
Thank you everyone for tuning in to unborn your brand and joining me on this lovely gossip story, assumption filled train where you can remember to choose curiosity over judgment, both in your personal and your business life. Next time we're going to check on, I'm sure, some other useful things regarding your personal brand, we're going to be talking more marketing things definitely next week, and hopefully you can use this time to keep learning, keep growing, and maybe leave your assumptions at the door too. You've heard that the algorithm on many socials favors faces, and yes, that is definitely true, because humans like to connect with faces. We like to see other faces, and we like to see what they look like, what they're about, and on social media that and especially the algorithm, is based on our actions and the actions, or whatever the social media or the Lord wants us to do. But I digress. So if you are able to get your face onto camera and you're confident
Zoë Wood 39:50
about having your face out there, then do it practice a couple of times, maybe even film a different couple of videos before you put anything out there. And then once.
Zoë Wood 40:00
You put that video out there, make sure that you share it with the community like us here, or you share the video to other groups that you're a part of, maybe just to get some feedback on what you can improve on in a nice way. Of course, because people are willing to support other people, and the algorithm favors a lot of things at any different time. I highly recommend that you don't dictate your actions of creating content or videos based entirely on what the algorithm is going to do, because, unfortunately, it's a beast all in itself, and nobody knows what it's doing at any given time. You
Zoë Wood 40:47
feeling burnt out, and it's already the start of the year, I completely empathize with you, and we're going to talk about how to understand those signs, see those signs, and be able to avoid them entirely, or at least get them to a manageable level for yourself and your business.
Zoë Wood 41:08
Yes, welcome to the unborn, your brand podcast with me, your host, Zoe the video, confidence coach,
Zoë Wood 41:15
burnout is a serious thing, and I, myself experienced a cycle of it for a very long time growing up, it was my coping mechanism, to be perfectly honest. I would push myself to absolute burnout, push myself to ridiculous burnout, and then sleep for one or two days and then get back up and do it all over again. As you can imagine, that's not great for your mental your physical and your emotional health, but it's also not great for just maintaining relationships and having that energy and priority all completely out of whack at any given point, and with the current world changes news and events, changes in politics and honestly, the rise of hostility that I'm Sure some of us have witnessed in the past, and it's coming. It feels like history is repeating itself, and with the addition of platforms, social media, platforms leaving and coming back. And I'm not totally talking purely about like the Tiktok American thing, even though that was all that was discussed about online, there is a lot of those factors that now it is coming into play where it's becoming more on the broader stage, where a lot of these governments do have the power to, you know, ban and get rid of these tools that we use to communicate and market our business and market our personal brands. So with everyone wanting peace, and with everything feeling very much in turmoil. You can understand why you're feeling burnt out, and if you have not understood that feeling, let me break it down for you. So specifically, let's talk about marketing. Because, of course, the video competence coach, we talk about marketing. Here it is my stick. I mainly talk about video marketing and personal branding, because that is my area of expertise, but marketing as a whole. Let's just think about it that way. For us, marketing burnout is that dreaded point, so that you can see yourself getting to that point, or maybe you're already there, where the marketing your personal brand or your business feels like a chore instead of something that fuels your business. Now some of you may be listening or watching and saying, Zo, I already feel like that. I hate marketing.
Zoë Wood 43:25
I get it,
Zoë Wood 43:26
but there's usually a point where it kind of becomes that little bit extra for you. A lot of people who I work with find that they've gotten to that point of burnout before they come and seek guidance or my services. They usually feel overwhelmed that their alliances, their processes and everything that they've done to kind of get through this point has all failed them. They dread doing their to do list, especially when it comes to marketing, and they just don't, honestly don't give an F anymore. I've been told not to swear. They honestly just don't care anymore about what their marketing says, what it does. Let's just slap a quote post up on Instagram and call it a day. Now, I'm not, if you do that, I'm not, don't, don't. I'm not accusing you of anything. I do that to it. Sometimes,
Zoë Wood 44:16
marketing your business is a creative outlet for a lot of small business owners and a lot of personal brand builders, it is a hobby that is like an addition to your business. It allows you to be creative with your brand. That allows you to take out of the mundane tea of working in your business, to working on your business and helping you generate leads, generate interest, and also build your authority in this space, no matter what space you're in, you need to build authority in it for people to come to you, recognize you and trust you, and lastly, promote you to everyone else they know.
Zoë Wood 44:53
And if you want those people that they're like giving you good word of mouth from, especially if you've worked with them or given them products or given them service.
Unknown Speaker 45:00
Is
Zoë Wood 45:01
they're going to research you. We're no longer in the day of just, oh, my uncle told me this. I'm going to take it wholeheartedly and go down to the shops and do this. No, we're no longer in that point. We need proof that what they saying and what they're doing is true. We need to make sure that the story lines up with what we can actually find and research about said
Zoë Wood 45:19
company, said business, said personal brand,
Zoë Wood 45:23
but coming back to us why we feel burnt out? Now, there's a plenty of reasons, and I'm sure you've rattled off a few in your head, but let's start off with a couple of the obvious ones. There is too much pressure, either with yourself putting it on yourself to do marketing that may or may not be your strong suit, or pressure outside, either like either staff or people that you work with, or maybe even your clients, there's just a lot of pressure to be posting daily, to respond to every comment and to make viral worthy content on a regular basis. If that is not your stick, if that is something that you feel like you need to succeed in your personal brand or your business, I'm gonna tell you now that it's not also trying to seek virality is not sustainable.
Zoë Wood 46:10
And to be honest, with a lot of the people that I work with, I completely push that that idea out, not just because it is something that you can't obtain easily or consistently. And there are plenty of people who have gone viral and then immediately crashed, because virality is not something that people should aim for,
Zoë Wood 46:28
like getting a lot of numbers or getting a lot of follows or likes, unless those people are turning into leads for you and your brand. Forget about it
Zoë Wood 46:37
coming back to the list, comparing yourself against others. Now, of course, I have a lot of people that I work with, and I'm sure you come across yourself is they're very good at scrolling their feeds, looking at what other people are doing, specifically on social media, but also in their email inboxes, in billboards and flyers, in on other people's websites. They're very good at scrolling and looking and thinking of these things,
Zoë Wood 47:01
but then they don't have any sort of time or creativity to think about how they can apply that to their own brand. They just think, why can't it look like that? I'm really shit at this.
Zoë Wood 47:17
They ultimately feel worse constantly comparing themselves
Zoë Wood 47:21
the last and that one, the second last thing I want to mention is having no boundaries.
Zoë Wood 47:27
So what I mean by this is you can feel burnt out when you've run out of energy. That's just in a day to day burnout. But specifically with marketing, burnout is because you're putting it on such a low priority on your list, and you've not invested any sort of thinking time, doing time or actioning time to be able to get that thing to be done.
Zoë Wood 47:49
Just the last thing that you do at the end of the day, time that you should be spending with your family or by yourself or with your pets, any opportunity to just or even friends, those exist, though, your chance to relax is being pushed out by having to do this marketing or maybe setting yourself goals that you at the first when you set them made sense, you can definitely reach those goals. And then things have started to fall apart as the year has progressed.
Zoë Wood 48:19
And the last thing that can contribute to marketing burnout. Specifically is doing it all yourself.
Zoë Wood 48:27
When solo marketing is your stuff,
Zoë Wood 48:31
it is a grind, and it can be brutal, and especially if you are throwing everything out into the ether with not really a plan, but kind of a general guide, and nothing's coming back to you, nothing positive, nothing negative, nothing in between. It can feel so disheartening.
Zoë Wood 48:50
You get told to be consistent,
Zoë Wood 48:55
but it feels like no one's listening, because honestly, they're probably not, and unless you do something incredibly controversial or sickening. I don't recommend that you do that.
Zoë Wood 49:05
It can feel like you're becoming a content creator or a YouTuber over, or being a video editor over, actually putting your message out there in a sustainable way for you, something that, honestly, for a lot of brands should be a fun activity. When it comes to marketing yourself, can just be completely burnt out, and for those of us who have never found it fun, I'm going to question what you do to make things creative within your how. What creative aspects do you do in your business on a day to day business? I would love to know. Feel free to comment or send me an email. I'd love to have a chat
Zoë Wood 49:43
now that we've talked about what those
Zoë Wood 49:48
what burnout can eventually look like. What does it look like before it actually happens? How do you spot the burnout? Spot the burnout again, specifically the marketing burnout, before it actually takes over your business and.
Zoë Wood 50:00
And takes over your life. Because for a lot of us who are working on building a personal brand, on building our businesses, this is our life. It may be like maybe a part time or a casual in regards to hours, but it's the thing we're focusing on. It's a thing that we're putting effort into. So you can definitely understand why. If this part is being you're feeling burnt out by you find yourself procrastinating over every single marketing task because it just falls into that bucket for you. You're just like, you're completely over it, and everything falls into the drum drawer, and you never see it again. You
Zoë Wood 50:34
say things that you're going to do, and then you never do them. You mentioned people. Oh, I'll post about that, or I'll share that, or I'll mention that, and then nothing happens. And
Zoë Wood 50:43
then, of course, you don't look good because you don't fulfill your promises. But then you also don't look good because you're not, yeah,
Zoë Wood 50:53
you're just looking tired and feeling tired too your creativity for not just marketing activities, but Mark creativity within your business tanks your fresh ideas
Zoë Wood 51:08
poof out of your head and become tumbleweeds in the night sky.
Zoë Wood 51:13
You also end up feeling resentful towards your own marketing and maybe efforts that you've done or maybe efforts that you've hired other people to do in the past.
Zoë Wood 51:23
You keep thinking
Zoë Wood 51:25
and hating what you did in the past because it means that you've set the buy a bit too high for yourself. Or maybe it's just that consistency is no longer working for you, and you become resentful for past you, for putting you into this position in the first place. So I'm going to say, Now, past you had plans, past you had motivations, and do not worry.
Zoë Wood 51:46
It is okay to feel this way. This happens. This happens to businesses like myself, marketing coaches like myself. There's plenty of times where we've fallen off the bag and wagon for our own marketing. Why? Because we're focusing on our clients, which is what we like to do. I'm a good example of that. I do have a tendency with social media in particular, I kind of just put it on the lowest priority, and then everything kind of falls.
Zoë Wood 52:10
Don't worry, I'll do it again when I care.
Zoë Wood 52:15
But this episode is not just for you, but it's also for me as well. I want to go into now ways to beat that marketing burnout so we've already established what it is and how it feels, and we already know what it looks like before we get there. Now let's figure out ways and tactics and actions we can take proactively to make sure that we don't reach that point of burnout.
Zoë Wood 52:39
Now I do say this with all my heart and all my love, you are going to experience marketing burnout with any and all of these tips, because it's just going to happen within your brand. You are going to come across periods of time within your life where you're just gonna hit that point of breaking
Zoë Wood 52:57
these actions, these following tools, can help you not reach that as often, but it's still going to happen regardless, because your life is your life, your life is busy and your life has things that need to ebb and flow and be flexible. That is why we build our personal brands to keep our lives flexible.
Zoë Wood 53:16
First thing that you start off with is setting realistic goals. Now again, back into the realm of marketing, we are talking about realistic goals, not like, Hey, I'm gonna post three times a day. What does that even mean? You start thinking not just too hard, but you just overdoing it yourself for, honestly, not a whole lot of or a little bit of return.
Zoë Wood 53:41
So focusing on the platforms that are going to guarantee you the leads that are going to generate the snowball effect for your business, to help you expand your systems and your reliability later on,
Zoë Wood 53:54
set yourself realistic goals on platforms that you've either gotten leads from in the past or you've got a lot of engagement from. It's not I'm not saying that you need to crash and burn all the other platforms. I'm just saying in those realistic goals. And for anyone who has followed my work in the past, what is your BFM? What is your bare effing minimum when it comes to your marketing goals? And set them nice and low so you can jump over them. You can make them really easy for yourself.
Zoë Wood 54:25
And focusing on the quantity over the quality of your content is detrimental. So when it comes to setting realistic goals, goals not really thinking about the numbers per se, but thinking about, okay, realistically, what is my bare FM inner that would be more in the realm of, okay, I could do two posts a week, one of them being a repost of previous content that I've done, because I invested all that money into, you know that social media producer from a year ago, for example. I'm not saying that's what happened. I'm just giving you an example. So in that case, okay, well.
Zoë Wood 55:00
Realistically. Instead of doing, you know, five posts a week, I can do two. I can do one of repurposing all the content with a new description and maybe a little bit of editing if I feel like it, and then have another post, be it an image, be it a carousel, be it a video or nice short video that, again, reminds people that you exist, give them the answers to the questions that they're seeking, and if something is related to the news that's about and about because, you know, trending people like stuff
Zoë Wood 55:28
that will give you a lot more boost to engagement, rather than just constantly recycling all the stuff that may not be as relevant to your industry and your niche. Because, again, setting those realistic goals you are trying to think about what is going to make me the authority in the space,
Zoë Wood 55:47
and making the authority in the space includes That's right, actually being like, like, responding back to important news and events around your industry, and maybe Something that doesn't even directly affect your industry, maybe, in your opinion and your expertise, you say, Oh, this is definitely going to affect us. I should let people know. There you go. You've done two posts a week, and that is more sustainable to be able to work within your business, because when it comes to marketing, it is a engine in your car that you can push or let go when it comes to the accelerator. So do you need to get more money in fast okay, leading into not when you're desperate for money, when you're leading into needing more money, you can run maybe some more posts, run some ads, run some lead magnets, run some events, run some tools, when you're leading into that time when you're not going to have as much income or money to cash flow run the business, and in those moments where you are so flat off your feet, that you are busy, that you don't have time, take your foot off the accelerator. Go back to that bare effing minimum. Okay, let that go. Let that do its thing. And then we can start re we can start pushing down that accelerator when the time comes and again, leading into it is more important than trying to be like, Oh crap, we're we're almost out of clients. Ah, slamming the accelerator, it's gonna jerk everyone forward and give everyone neck pain for the next 10 years. Back to the thing I'm digressing. Zo,
Zoë Wood 57:14
make sure, as a way to beat your burnout is to check your priorities, focusing on what is important for you now, I'm not talking just about platforms. I'm talking about your priorities for your business. What is your values? What is your mission? What is your vision for your business and your marketing is supposed to be a tool that is going to help you achieve that, values and mission and vision,
Zoë Wood 57:37
I should actually remember the order of that. Zo, so in those moments, what are your priorities? And say, for example, if posting on
Zoë Wood 57:48
Instagram is not a priority for you, but you enjoy it, make it a priority for yourself, so to keep you engaged and out there.
Zoë Wood 57:57
But again, coming back to those priorities that are going to work for your business. And if you're feeling overwhelmed, breaking it down into those smaller chunks that you can do effectively and consistently over time is going to make it easier.
Zoë Wood 58:11
And to make it easier, I do recommend for my clients to start writing down your creative ideas when you have them, your brain is not a computer. There's been a couple of people that you know relate to your brain to your computer. What I mean by that is a computer is a set of hard drives that can recall information when you go out and reach for it and bring it back. Your brain is very good at coming up with our days on the fly. It is very dynamic. It is something that moves very fast, but
Zoë Wood 58:43
when it comes to storing information,
Zoë Wood 58:46
it's okay sometimes, but it's not as great as simply writing the idea down, as recording either a voice note or putting that information into a Google Doc or, you know, a Word document that you back up somewhere. Please back this up
Zoë Wood 59:04
again, putting it down so it's no longer sitting in your brain like burning a hole. It's sitting in whatever document you need. And when it comes time to thinking about this content or thinking about the things that you want to say to your customers,
Zoë Wood 59:20
you don't have to think of the flight. You've got a list of relevant things, of stories that you've come across from your clients, or maybe someone's you know, purchased a product off you, and they gave a really sweet review, and you want to talk about it and highlight that review, and highlight that story of someone buying from you, about your client, success stories, just to name a few.
Zoë Wood 59:44
Do not rely on your brain to be the computer so you don't have to be No, I thought this was very smart when I wrote this. I'm going to read it
Zoë Wood 59:53
out. You don't have your brain to recall your computer brain like it's a Windows XP computer trying to look when.
Zoë Wood 1:00:00
So Windows XP computer trying to book flights at Christmas.
Zoë Wood 1:00:04
I'm very proud of that. One. For those who are in the know, a lot of airlines still run on Windows XP, which is,
Zoë Wood 1:00:13
I think, about four to five versions of Windows back. So we're talking like 2002 was when this was in its heyday, and it is quite scary that a lot of these very major companies who have very intricate processes are relying on such older computers.
Zoë Wood 1:00:34
Let's keep going for ourselves. Can we so as a way to help you check your priorities and set realistic goals and making sure that when you're writing down your ideas, you can patch your content ahead of time, working smarter, not harder, you can set aside a day, or in some cases, set aside an hour or two, getting that list of ideas and create content in bulk. So you can either record a couple of videos in bulk or put that, put ideas into words and put it into blogs, or, again, whatever system. Now, of course, if you are unclear of what, even where to even go in the direction when it comes to marketing, feel free to reach out to me. I offer a 15 minute free session of just a chat of like, hey, let's get your priorities straight. I'm here for you, so make sure you reach out to me on my website. But when it comes to, yeah, thinking of creating things in bulk, think so you don't have to scramble every day for the content that you need. You can go creating the content in bulk, scheduling a month in advance, so that you've got that bare minimum going on in the background. And if something comes up in your industry, yes, put a post out. Don't worry. Don't worry. Don't worry. And then in those moments when there's no whole lot going on, you've got that consistency going on in the background, not just for social media posts, but for email lists too, for website updates, for blogs, for whatever you're doing to help promote your brand that you enjoy doing
Zoë Wood 1:02:03
is the thing that you're going to do, because that probably works better for solo creators
Zoë Wood 1:02:08
if those things do not work. So if you're still finding yourself grinding your teeth going, I hate marketing. Zo This is an absolute tool of a thing to do.
Zoë Wood 1:02:20
May I recommend Dr zo here
Zoë Wood 1:02:23
I'm going to recommend you take a break.
Zoë Wood 1:02:27
Just just take a break from your marketing, give yourself two weeks
Zoë Wood 1:02:34
and making sure that you schedule in time to actually revisit this so you're not just kicking the can down the road for the next millennium, but taking a break from your marketing. If it is burning you out so heavily, to take a break not just from the act of actually creating content and marketing your business, but to actually take that time to not doom scroll, to think about why you do what you do. If you're so off your feet, you shouldn't be Doom scrolling.
Zoë Wood 1:03:03
That is a message for both you and me.
Zoë Wood 1:03:07
So come back stronger
Zoë Wood 1:03:10
in a week, in two weeks, whatever time that you need,
Zoë Wood 1:03:14
but make sure that you schedule in that time in your calendar to come back. Give yourself an hour or two to understand the lay of the land, where things have been coming and where things have been going in your brand to then make that decision,
Zoë Wood 1:03:28
also in that moment, for example, let's just say you're grinding your teeth. Absolutely hate marketing. You come back and you think, Zo, I hate this. I don't want to do this. You have two options. You can outsource. So instead of you doing the work,
Zoë Wood 1:03:43
get someone else to do it, if it's in your budget and in your energy and in your time, you can get higher help, either an in person or a virtual assistant to be able to help you with both editing, writing and generating content, even brainstorming in the background, to help you with the hardest parts of that marketing journey, I highly recommend not, not handing everything over regarding your personal brand or your business, just to someone else and say, have at it. Go at it. I'm going to focus on this because marketing, your brand. Marketing your brand isn't is the public face your business. Marketing is your public face your business. So if you do not have control of it, if you do not set up the the guides, if you do not set out the parameters that people need to understand, this is what we want to achieve. This is why we want to achieve it, and this is who we want to target with our marketing. You are absolutely wasting your money when it comes to marketing. So outsourcing is a completely different ballgame that I can discuss at a later podcast episode. But in those moments, if you feel like you need to outsource it, you are going to have to invest that time to find someone or a team to do it for you. You're going to have to educate them on what you do and making sure that they actually reflect very clearly what you do.
Zoë Wood 1:04:58
And then you're going to have to.
Zoë Wood 1:05:00
On at least two or three months, if you're including ads as well, at least six months worth of making sure that that actually is working out, that the team that you're working with is, is doing what it needs to do, and is actually you're actually happy with it? Yes, that is more time and more energy.
Zoë Wood 1:05:15
But
Zoë Wood 1:05:17
is that what you need? Awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome. Do it. If that is not what you need, and you don't need that headache of trying to manage other people while you're also managing your clients, your your staff, and whoever else you already have on board, then what can you automate?
Zoë Wood 1:05:33
What tools are going to help you achieve those goals, those realistic goals that we already set, and going to help you focus on those priorities. What tools can you use to automate things? Now, of course, I can go through a list, but I do realize that I have talked and yet a long time on this episode. So you can go back to previous episodes and check the show notes for those
Zoë Wood 1:05:53
you know, previous podcasts where I talk about automated tools that can help you with your marketing. And don't worry, we're on the home stretch here. So if you're sick of my yapping, don't worry, we're almost there the things to prevent burnout and the future. So of course, we've already talked about things leading up to it, and now to wholeheartedly protect yourself in your branding and business endeavors, you can do these following things, planning ahead, giving yourself, giving your future self a little bit of a Don't worry. I gotcha, because past self has been doing a lot of nasty things to you. So making sure that you have a calendar in front of you and give yourself enough time to plan and prepare things. Give yourself some grace. Give yourself some space. If you are finding marketing a very much a chore, and you're getting to that burnout stage, taking that break, even, if it is a small break, doing that and giving yourself that time, celebrating small wins, you will have no idea how much I celebrated when I got my first lead through my social marketing end of it is like I got a lead. She this woman said, I love your vibe. I love everything that you do. I want to know more about this. I sent her to the website. She filled in the form straight away, Bada, bing bada, boom, and
Zoë Wood 1:07:09
everything that I was doing worked out really well. And that only happened after consistency, after showing my face, after doing what I needed to do. Now, again, I'm not saying that you need to show your face, but I was there consistently for a good two three months, while I was still setting up my business and still setting up things before I was able to get that lead.
Zoë Wood 1:07:29
And it worked. So celebrate those small wins for yourself, even if it is just one service, one product, ad hoc thing, celebrate
Zoë Wood 1:07:40
and always remember why you're marketing. It's not about those vanity metrics. Vanity metrics are just the numbers. Like, how many people saw this post? How many people are following me? How many people are like clicking the Share Like buttons? Are they generating you money? Are they generating you leads? Are they not Are they growing that like and no factor
Zoë Wood 1:08:03
connecting you to your audience and helping you grow your brand is why you're marketing.
Zoë Wood 1:08:10
And if you're finding that that's hard to swallow at the moment, take a break. Come back to it and feel at peace when you do
Zoë Wood 1:08:19
marketing. Burnout is real for
Zoë Wood 1:08:21
those who haven't experienced marketing burnout, res at your hand. I doubt
Zoë Wood 1:08:26
you would have gotten through this entire podcast episode if you had not.
Zoë Wood 1:08:31
But it doesn't have to be your burden to bear forever by setting boundaries, simplifying your processes and being kind to yourself in those moments where it's not going the way that you planned, you can keep your own marketing strong without losing your mind. So taking a breath
Zoë Wood 1:08:52
and maybe grabbing a snack remind yourself that you've got this you are running or you are building a brand, and that's going to take time, energy, and if it was easy, everyone would be doing it.
Zoë Wood 1:09:04
But you are special because you are taking that initiative to do it.
Zoë Wood 1:09:09
So thank you so much for joining us in the podcast. Today. I look forward to hearing and seeing all of your emails regarding this,
Zoë Wood 1:09:18
regarding this episode, and if you have anything that you want to reach out to, all my details are at Vcc dot training, or you can email me at zo at Vcc dot training. Hear from you soon. When, when I work with clients, my goal is to get them to their desired outcome. Yes, if I need to be a little bit harsh and a little bit mean, which is probably me just messaging them and just being like, hi, you said we were going to do this. Let's do this like that's my main face. But when it comes to helping people achieve what they need to achieve, that's what I'm here for. That's what you've hired me for, to get to where you need to go, to use the expertise, and hopefully to use the knowledge that you have.
Zoë Wood 1:10:00
As an expert in your field is ultimately, if you are running a small business, if you are working with clients and helping them achieve what they want to achieve, you are an expert. You
Zoë Wood 1:10:10
don't need a degree for that. You don't need some fancy sorry to cut myself off there, as I've got a nice big red light saying, Zo, you are over time. You are over time by like five minutes. Shut the fuck up. So here I am. I want us to thank everyone for joining us for this week's video confidence. Connect. If you have any questions, comments or concerns, make sure you comment them out down below, or you can check out our hashtag replay for everything that we've discussed today. You will definitely see me in your feeds with this particular look, because I'm going to be posting about that. VA again. And if you are interested in watching any of our live streams or any of the hot gos, you can check it all out on our website, VCC, dot training, slash video, confidence, connect.
Zoë Wood 1:10:53
And I've done all of that making sure you I
Zoë Wood 1:10:58
should probably finish this off. You. The
Zoë Wood 1:11:03
video confidence coach emboldens women and non binary superstars with killer video marketing strategies, empowering them to show up, stand out and smash their goals. Eventually, I will get that elevated pitch together. But today is not that day. See you next week.
The above livestream episode description and transcript were generated together human knowledge + ai.
Listen to the edited livestream in a podcast episode
Who is your host?
Zoë Wood, your Video Confidence Coach connects the dots between personal branding and video marketing. Helping women and non-binary folk in small business, find their way in the world of marketing their passion without the energy drain.
Find out more about how to grow your personal brand with the power of video right here on vcc.training
Related weekly livestreams
