So, here's the thing. I hate marketing.

I love writing, and I love connecting with new people. What I don't love is the aggressively continuous act of selling what I create...it rings as flat and false to me.

I tried to sell Avon once. I wasn't very good at it: people either wanted to buy, or they didn't. I wasn't going to pressure them about it, and I certainly wasn't going to make them feel as if they would miss out if they didn't buy from me. Can you guess how long I lasted as a salesperson? About a month. I made exactly $12.

And now, as a writer and business owner,  an awful lot of people have ideas about how an author is supposed to market themselves to their audience.

I'm going to be 100% honest with you: I'm not going to do most of it.

I'm probably not going to do any webinars because I rarely watch them. I can't in good conscience create something I wouldn't consume.

I will most likely never offer you a clarity or discovery call, mainly because I'm not exactly sure what those are....but I've heard they're very popular.

I have no desire to sell ad space on the blog. On the blogs I read, I either ignore ads or find them distracting, so you probably won't see ads here.

You won't see affiliate ads for various programs or courses on this site. I once received an email from an affiliate of a program, and within the body of the email I was told the affiliate would feel sorry for me if I failed to enroll in said program. I felt so sticky with secondhand 'ick', I immediately unsubscribed from the sender's list. And said a little 'not for me' prayer. 

 I'm not going to have sales or discounts on my 'stuff'. Mostly because I value you and I value myself. You're smart...you've seen people raise and lower prices, both on- and offline. I'm weary of riding the discount roller as a consumer, so I have no desire to subject you to my own  pricing carnival ride.

I'm not going to constantly tap you on the shoulder via email. Perhaps you'd like to get a heads up when I'm releasing something new? I'm thrilled, delighted and honored to oblige, but you don't need unrelenting reminders from me.  I have zero plans to pester you about new releases. I'll tell you, then maybe remind you once. And that's itt. After all, you know where to find me.

I'm absolutely not judging or singling out any one particular person who does any of the above-listed things. Do what works for you, babe. Variety is the spice of life and all that.

But what I'll say is this: over the next few weeks you'll see some changes around the site. Some will be behind the scenes, others will be more noticeable. I'm doing a bit of a website cleanse. Mainly because I didn't listen to my intuition when building this site, Instead, I listened to people who didn't know me or the way I do business. People talked a lot about conversions and sales funnels and opt-in pages. And pixels. Apparently there's a thing about pixels. Did you know about pixels? Because I sure didn't.

I want to talk to you directly - no guile, no subtle tricks or slight of hand.

I want to talk about things that matter to all of us. I want to respect you so you, in turn, will hopefully respect me.

I'm not saying no-never-ever-will-I-ever to the above stuff. But I am saying yes-certainly-for sure-of course-yep yep-most definitely to building something that matters. Something different.

I can't make something different if I'm trying so hard to be like someone else.

And neither can you.

What can you do differently? Something which hasn't quite sit right with you...so you have made your own way?