How can you distinguish between mood swings and actual marketing strategy misalignments? Let’s see how to recognize the two and how to approach them, with a little surprise that can help you.
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You know those days when you’re this 🤏 close to rage-quitting your business and applying for a quiet job at a bookstore instead? (With a staff discount, obviously.)
I bet we’ve all been there at least once.
Well, not every “I hate all this” moment means your business is broken. Sometimes it’s just a bad day. Other times, it’s a sign that something in your strategy is fundamentally out of sync with who you are, and the two couldn’t be more different, especially in the results you get.
The biggest problem when you confuse them is that you either waste energy and brain power trying to fix what isn’t broken (hello Don Quixote, fighting imaginary problems at midnight and pivoting your plan multiple times per week) or worse, you keep dragging yourself through strategies that feel like sandpaper on your soul while you keep smiling in the mirror pretending you’re fine.
Needless to say neither option is great, so let’s tackle both:
When it’s just a mood
A mood is temporary, period.
Like bad weather when you had a plan, like stepping on Legos when you’re in a hurry or when your coffee machine breaks 2 mornings in a row.
Maybe you didn’t sleep enough, maybe you lost a client you really wanted to close or maybe someone just drained you with a 2 hour Zoom rant that could’ve been an email (been there, done them all).
But the solution here is rather easy: a mood passes, you just need a good, measured counterattack.
Take a power nap, reach out to some older leads to see if you can close with someone else and next time pretend you’re extremely busy when that person asks for a call (sorry not sorry!).
Point is that you don’t need to burn your entire business plan because Tuesday was a bad day. Sometimes you just need to practice a little more self care (and maybe work on you boundaries settings, I never get tired of saying this).
When it’s misalignment instead
Now, misalignment is a different beast.
It builds up slowly, it feels like you’re squeezing yourself into a slightly smaller dress that seems just good but actually you can’t wait to unzip it. And no matter how many pep talks you give yourself, the discomfort it’s there.
And by the time you realize that the itch is not going anywhere, you’ve been pouring so much time and energy in it, that the cost of giving it up seems huge compared to trying to hold on to it for just one more day.
Because maybe today is the day, but today turns always into yesterday and never into results.
And admitting that… hurts, we’ve all been there and it’s not easy.
Marketing and entrepreneurship have this dark shiny side that nobody talks about, and we dig it because our biases naturally drag us there. But if we see someone succeeding while doing something that feels so dangerously similar to our thing, we are 100% willing to take the bet and see if it works for us too.
And sometimes it can work, but trust me when I say that it’s just the 1% that everyone yells about, and the other 99 is still wishing to unzip the dress while still waiting for it to work.
Unlike a mood, misalignment doesn’t leave after a day off.
You can meditate, stretch, and drink the greenest smoothie on earth, but if the system doesn’t fit you, it will always feel wrong.
How to tell the difference
Simply ask yourself:
- Am I still frustrated after resting?
- Do I feel energized anywhere in my work, or is everything draining me?
- Does this strategy actually feel like mine, or like a patchwork of random pieces of advice I copied from someone else’s template?
If the heaviness lifts after sleep or a walk ➜ mood.
If it stay after dozen of days and keeps coming back ➜ misalignment.
So what do you do about it?
This is where I get practical (you know I think of you guys 💜):
Step 1: Take my new free Declutter Your Marketing Masterclass
It’s a 50 minutes workshop I created to help you reflect on your strategy and find what’s to keep and what to trash, in order to move towards a more aligned strategy.
As I usually say, to do less but better.
Step 2: Do the free workbook the next day
Sleep on it, and give yourself one quiet hour to reflect on it the next day. Notice what felt like relief, and what gives you the ick.
Step 3: take your new plan and start implementing it
Because nothing changes if you keep doing the same things that make you miserable.
Change is hard but a better future is exciting
Forcing yourself into a marketing strategy that doesn’t fit is your fast track towards hating your marketing and possibly your beloved business too, so why would you do that to yourself?
If you’re tired of guessing whether it’s you or your strategy, my masterclass will help you draw the line. Think of it as business therapy without the couch (or with, because never let anyone tell you you can’t get comfortable while working).
And if you feel stuck while doing it, you know that my free clarity calls are always open and I’d be happy to help you take the leap your marketing needs.
Love,
Chiara
