Busting Marketing Implementation Blocks as a Compassionate Entrepreneur
If you left corporate to follow your heart, and finally decided enough was enough - it was time to do things your way and dive into your own business, you’ll know the challenges around communicating what you do to get clients … challenges that you didn’t see coming. You have the expertise, the passion, the deep desire to help people. But something keeps getting in the way of getting your message out there in a way that inspires people to warm to you and become clients.
You know what good marketing looks like - you can spot it when you see it, feel when something resonates. Yet when it comes to your own business, it's like facing a tangled ball of wool where you can't find the thread. Your brain gets flooded with too many details, or not enough of the helpful ones, your body refuses to show up, or or networks like a demon and then crashes from over-performing.
Despite understanding what's supposed to work, you can't find the clarity or direct energy to actually create it with flow.
You may have told yourself you're being too perfectionist, or you should be able to figure this out...
But what if this isn't a character flaw? What if there's actually a specific reason this happens - and a different approach that works for the compassionate, creative, sensitive, No Plan B woman who thinks and processes differently?
I was watching Severance on Apple TV when I felt this tug of knowing … of knowing that feeling of not being able to access your true self.
Severence is a psychological thriller about employees who undergo a procedure to completely separate their work memories from their personal ones - their "innie" work self has no connection to their "outie" personal life, and vice versa.
There's one character, Helly R, whose "innie" desperately resists the meaningless corporate tasks, calls bullshit on the jargon, and seriously wants out. But her "outie" (who goes by Helena in the outside world) keeps refusing her resignation requests and forces her back in to work - because she's on the board of the company. What Helly doesn't know is who her "outie" really is. It doesn’t get more chalk and cheese than that.
It’s one thing to feel that when you’re working for someone else, but when you’re in business for yourself its at a whole different level. Watching that complete disconnection from her actual authority was exactly how I used to feel about my own business development. Brilliant at helping clients, paralysed by my own marketing.
I've seen this exact dynamic play out for my clients too.
Because this is what I do naturally - I connect dots for clients. Find the depth and nuance that brings their truth to light, develop stories that switch on lightbulbs and help them take leaps of imagination and confidence so they can clarify, embody and share their identity, purpose and message with ease and resonance.
That's what my brain does naturally - sees patterns, creates bridges between ideas, finds the thing that makes everything click - for my clients … and for their potential ones.
My challenge was to figure out how to do for myself what I did so naturally for others … connect with my true self, my deeper identity that was looking to emerge more fully … and communicate my brand stories in a way that integrated who I was becoming with how I showed up and spoke directly to the heart of those who needed my specific type of wisdom.
This article is to help you do the same.
A new wonderful client who finally asked for help
She'd been coming to my Barefoot Businesswomen's Network gatherings for months. I'd watched her contribute insights that made other women stop and think, offer perspectives that shifted entire conversations. The same kind of compassionate dot-connecting I recognised in myself.
When she finally booked a call, what she admitted was simple: she couldn't implement for herself what she knew worked. Website updates, proper offers, showing up consistently - she understood the strategy but couldn't make herself do it.
I knew why before she did. Not because I could read her mind, but because I recognise the pattern from my own early days in business. That specific disconnect where the part of you that confidently guides others goes completely offline when you try to apply that same capability to yourself.
The productivity theatre I remember too well
Prior to COVID showing up, this disconnect showed up as elaborate avoidance disguised as preparation. I'd run my own marketing agency yet didn't trust my own instincts when it came to my own business development.
I used to produce and direct corporate videos without hesitation, but I'd freeze at the idea of doing my own Facebook Live.
The disconnect made no logical sense, but the resistance was real and physical.
It felt productive but kept me stuck in this loop where I was always preparing to do the work instead of actually doing it. I was frustrated by these patterns but didn't understand why they kept happening.
The expertise was right there. The business acumen existed. But something severed the connection when it came to self-application.
When the architect can't access the blueprint
What makes the Severence show so unsettling is this exact dynamic. Helena literally creates the business her "innie" is trapped within. She designs the very systems that keep her severed self powerless, then follows those protocols with no awareness of her actual authority.
I see this pattern constantly now. - service providers who confidently price complex projects for clients freeze when setting rates for their own work … creative and compassionate women entrepreneurs who instinctively know when brand stories connect with them, who understand what it feels like when messaging resonates, but can't figure out how to describe their own services. Women who know what lights them up and what they love to do, but find that whatever they do put out doesn’t seem to inspire clients to want it or “get” it. Something’s not flowing!
They want to explain what they do but don't know how to find the words, let alone show up to articulate them. Yet when I help them with that abstract thinking - coming up with ideas that help them embody a new version of themselves, a title or tagline that cracks open this idea of who they are and what their work could be - suddenly they can step into that feeling like they've come home and more alive than ever.
It's not imposter syndrome or lack of confidence. It's a specific kind of severance where accessing that simple big idea of yourself and what you do becomes impossible when you need it most.
The neurodivergent factor nobody talks about
What I didn't understand back then was that it was the way my brain works that had me stuck. I guess I always knew I was different, but I didn't realise this was what was keeping me paralysed.
My brain needs deep purpose connection to generate sustainable energy for tasks. Without that clear "why" that resonates at a cellular level, even simple business tasks feel impossible. It's not about being difficult or perfectionist - it's about how my nervous system processes meaning and motivation.
Many women I work with share similar patterns without realising it.
They believe they're procrastinators or perfectionists or not cut out for business, when actually their brains just work differently.
They need different entry points, different energy management, and different ways of connecting with their work.
Before I had names for these differences, I thought I was broken. The frustration was real but so was the confusion about why standard approaches never seemed to stick.
What changed everything
The integration happened when I finally came to understand myself and connect with my deeper purpose and who I was really here to serve. Not the concept I thought I should have, but the one that actually energised me. Once I found the clarity and courage to step into the truth I had previously been skirting around, implementation became possible.
Not easy - I still have to work with my brain rather than against it. But the paralysis lifted because I was no longer trying to follow someone else's blueprint for success.
I create content when my brain wants to process ideas, not according to arbitrary schedules. I design offers around my natural energy patterns rather than forcing myself into standard business models. I show up in ways that feel authentic rather than optimal.
The severance ended when I stopped trying to override my processing patterns and started designing business approaches that worked with them.
The authority you already demonstrate
My client wasn't lacking business expertise any more than Helena Eagan lacks corporate leadership capabilities. She demonstrates the same kind of strategic thinking and insightfulness I recognise in my own work. The problem isn't capability - it's the disconnect between that expertise and self-application.
Your "outie" already runs a successful practice. Makes decisions clients trust, facilitates transformations that matter, consistently delivers value. The expertise exists - it's just been severed from the part that needs to describe it to the world.
Sometimes the most radical act is designing your business approach around how you actually function rather than how you think you should function.
Breaking your own severance
If you recognise this pattern - the gap between expertise and implementation, between helping others and helping yourself - you're not broken. You might just need different approaches than the standard business advice assumes.
The integration doesn't come from forcing yourself to follow systems designed for different brains. It comes from understanding your own patterns well enough to work with them rather than against them.
What integration actually looks like:
Connect deeply with your authentic purpose before diving into business tactics - without clear "why," tasks feel meaningless
Work with your natural energy patterns rather than forcing yourself into standard schedules and approaches
Recognise that implementation struggles often aren't personal failures but mismatched approaches for your particular brain
Design your business development around how you actually function, not how you think you should function
Stay connected to evidence of your expertise while working on business foundations - keep client testimonials visible, recent wins nearby
Find people who understand your lived experience rather than trying to fit into traditional business networking
Finding your people
I knew I needed to connect more meaningfully with the people I resonated with, so I reached out to find them.
The Barefoot Businesswomen's Network started in Northcote and continues there, but we're now opening up around Melbourne in the homes of women like you.
At My Place events happen when you host by simply opening your doors and sharing your table - I gently facilitate the conversation, bring the catering and tablecloth, plus provide everything you need to invite your local network of creative and compassionate women entrepreneurs.
When we meet each other in our most authentic space - someone's actual home - there's no severance between who we are and how we show up. No performance or pretence of a professional space or anonymity of a local (and noisy) cafe. Just natural connection and trust and easy real conversation around your kitchen table or in your lounge room.
That's where integration happens naturally.
You can create that deep easy connection without the hustle. Your home doesn't need to be perfect - it just needs to be yours, and you just need to long for connection with your people.
Find out more about hosting a Barefoot Businesswomen's Network At "My" Place event
If you're elsewhere in Australia or around the world, I work with women online to break through these marketing implementation blocks and find approaches that actually work with their brains and energy patterns.
Your "outie" already has the expertise.
Sometimes what you need most is connection with others who get it.
