I Know I Should Be Better at Marketing. I'm Just Not Sure I Want to Be.

There's a version of a successful business owner that gets talked about a lot.

She goes to networking events and works the room. She posts on LinkedIn every day with confident opinions. She has a personal brand, a content strategy, and a newsletter with a catchy name.

She loves it. It energises her.

I am not her.

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How I Actually Got My Clients

I have two long term clients I've worked with for years. Both came from my serviced office days, in different ways. One signed up to a remote service I was offering at the time. The other came through a recommendation from my old boss at the serviced office when they were looking for support. Neither of them came from a cold pitch, a networking event, or a viral post.

Luck played a part. So did timing. So did showing up consistently and doing good work once I was in the door.

For a long time that felt like enough. And honestly, it was.

But now I'm trying to grow. And the advice everywhere is the same: show up online, build your audience, network, be visible, tell your story. All the things that make me want to quietly close my laptop and take the dog for a walk.

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What Stops Me

Networking events make me want to hide. Not because I'm not good with people, I am, but because the performance of it exhausts me. The small talk, the elevator pitch, the handing over of business cards to people who will never contact you.

Self promotion feels uncomfortable in a way I find hard to articulate. There's something about saying "look at me, I'm brilliant, hire me" that feels at odds with who I am, even when I know logically that's not really what marketing is.

And social media. I never quite know what to post, when to post it, or whether any of it is actually working.

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The Bit I Can't Ignore

Here's the thing though. I know it matters. I know that word of mouth and luck are not a growth strategy. I know that the business owners who are visible are the ones who get found.

And I'm doing some of it. The blogs. The Meta ads. The slow, slightly painful process of putting myself out there in ways that don't come naturally.

But I'd be lying if I said it felt authentic yet. It still feels a bit like wearing someone else's clothes. Technically fine. Not quite me.

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Where I've Landed (For Now)

I don't think I need to become a different person to market my business well. But I do think I need to find a version of visibility that fits who I actually am.

Honest writing rather than polished personal branding. Showing up in ways that feel real rather than performing confidence I don't always have. Building slowly rather than blasting loudly.

Maybe that's enough. Maybe it isn't. I'm still figuring it out.

But if you're a small business owner who also finds this stuff harder than the business itself, I just wanted you to know you're not the only one.

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Get in touch with Alexandria.Works — built quietly, run honestly, still figuring it out.