“But I’m selling this to moms specifically… and I’m not a mom.”

It was one of my strategy call clients this year told me this who told me this as one of the questions she couldn’t forget. As we chatted and plotted about the direction she was heading with her rebrand, I could tell it was one of the biggest things making her feel stuck. She felt almost like she didn’t have the right to be selling her offer because she couldn’t totally relate to it… but at the same time she KNEW that it was something a mom would love. She had, obviously, been around moms before! She was close enough to them to know how her offer fit needs they had. But that lack of directly personal experience made her feel like an imposter.

So I guess I’m here to set the record straight on something:

the perception that we need a perfectly personal transformation story in order to be effective in our businesses just isn’t accurate.

You know the lines—

We need to have been in a really rough spot in our workflow and then stumbled upon a magical framework that saved us that we now happen to sell! For only 59.99!

We need to have hated coffee and then stumbled on a roast that we LOVE and now we can’t help but share it with the world from our fancy little coffee shop.

We need to have had a terrible website and then came across this amazing design software and things have never been the same since and let me tell you how you simply must ALSO try out this amazing design software, it will change your life.

These are all relatable stories, of course, and there isn’t really anything wrong with sharing them as you market your offers (as long as they aren’t too dishonestly simplistic, of course 🙄), but the perception that we need to have the exact same story that we want our future clients to have is an unrealistic pressure that our businesses don’t need.

We don’t need to be in the exact same season of life in order to sell things to people in that particular season of life. We DON’T need to be in the exact same spot as our clients in order to help them. Realistically, all we need is to have something that we know will be effective for them. We need to have seen our solution actually solve problems for our clients. We want them to know they are seen and that what we are offering will help solve a piece of the puzzle that they are struggling with.

So, if you feel like your messaging is ineffective because it’s not a magical personal story— I’m here to take that pressure off you. Don’t worry so much about sharing the same plot line as your audience, and instead focus on connection and service. You can still connect with them even if your seasons are different and your stories aren’t the same! Tell smaller stories that DO connect and that you do share. Demonstrate that you see where they are and you’ve seen how your offer can impact where they are in a way that you think could change things for them.

We probably won’t ever be totally free from the “shoulds” around our marketing. But let this be your permission slip—if you don’t completely relate to your clients, you don’t have to pretend! Instead, be honest about where you are and where they are, and watch as you build trust with your straightforward, welcoming, genuine marketing.

(And if you need help writing words for that marketing, you can get in touch here—I’d love to support you if I can. 🙂)