Hey! I hope you’re doing fantastic this week and that you are enjoying yourself as you listen to this episode – whether you’re out driving, out walking, on the subway or having a hot bath while you listen to this episode. 

I don’t know about you, but I loooove hot baths – I’ve actually made it a regular thing. I call it self-care Sunday and I set aside time in the evening to really pamper myself. Adding in essential oils and bath salts, lighting some candles and listening to music or a podcast. Highly recommended if you have the chance! 

Tangible and Intangible Results in Marketing

I wanted to talk to you about the power of mindset in marketing and business because a few of my clients – you know, they’re even coaches, are more focused on actions rather than mindset. We’ve all read a million quotes on motivational feeds on Instagram, stating that “mindset is everything”. Yet, it seems to just be empty words in a world of hustle. It takes quite a bit of training to really realize that our thoughts create our results in a literal sense – because we’re all so convinced that it is our actions that creates our results. Don’t get me wrong – action is certainly a part of the recipe. But I suppose you could compare it to giving ingredients to a person and not tell them that it’s for a cake. They’ll just be shooting in the dark – and you won’t get the cake you wanted. Because the intention of the person taking the actions wasn’t in alignment with the results you wanted. We obviously have no control over what other people think or do, but you know, just to give you a visual. 

Many Types of Coaching

So there are many roads to Rome, as the saying goes. Many coaches focus on strategies and execution plans. They are very action oriented. I was very much in the belief that our ACTIONS create our results for the longest time as well. But the more I worked with my own mind and also with my clients the more I realized that it wasn’t the action that was the problem, it was the beliefs, or lack there of, fueling the actions that was the problem. That’s why I developed the concept of Holistic Marketing. Because, you can do all the marketing actions you want. You can have all the most beautiful templates in the world for you IG feed. You can post at perfect time o’clock and have a nicely scheduled content plan that puts out 7,5 reels a week etc. However, we all have bullshit-meters as Peta Kelly calls it. And we don’t give people enough credit for that ability to sniff out our insecurities. What we feel, our people feel when they consume our content. If we’re convicted, they feel the conviction and they trust what we say. It’s like one of my mentors says; you’ll have “emotional BO” that people pick up on if you’re not sold on you’re selling. If you’re not sold on yourself – why you’re the best person for your people, or have the best offer for them, they will sense that. Similarly, if you don’t have belief in your people wanting what you offer, they will sense that too. To give you an extreme example, why is it that con men can bullshit their way to what they want in life? Because they lie so well that they actually believe it themselves. As in the movie, Catch Me if You Can; it wasn’t the actions the main character took to get the job as a pilot, it was his belief in himself, his confidence that he could do it. Based on those convictions, he took the right actions with energy that fueled them in order to get that result. 

Now, I DO NOT indicate that you should lie until you believe it yourself. Absolutely not! This, as I said, is just an example for you to really see what I mean.  

So, coming back to mindset in marketing and business; I came across Brooke Castillo’s work, which explains how, in fact, it is our thoughts that create our results. When I was first introduced to this concept it felt like a complete mind fuck, to be honest. It did not sit well with me that something as easy as just changing our thoughts would change our reality. And, may I add, I am ALL about that spiritual jazz, but I am not a fan of the spiritual bypassing aspect. You know, at first I just regarded this as complete BS – and total spiritual bypassing. I thought, huh, just another fluffy where people think they can just sit on their but and think their way to amazing results. Don’t get me wrong. For the past 15 years, I have been a big advocate for visualization work, meditation, mindset and lots of spiritual practices. But, I know that we need to also take action – if not, we are in avoidance and resistance – and we would need to investigate why we don’t want to be taking action; what we’re actually trying to avoid. So, it took a while for it to really sink in for me, this whole concept of a direct correlation between every thought we have creating a specific result. And, the more I studied The Model, which is what she calls this framework, the more I understood how it’s all connected. 

The Model – Coaching to Succeed at Anything 

So, to quickly run you through The Model, the simple framework is that we always have a neutral circumstance. This is a factual circumstance that can be proven in the court of law. Then, we have thoughts about that circumstance. And based on those thoughts we get a feeling relative to that circumstance. Based on our thoughts and feelings about that circumstance we take actions, which creates our results. The Model can be applied to ANYTHING and the more you get this, the easier it will be to create great marketing and reach your goals in business as well as life. This is how I coach my clients and help them improve their results week after week. 

What Brooke so brilliantly explains, is that if we use all our will power to change our actions without changing our thinking, we will eventually revert back to our old ways. I like to compare things to our bodys and training as it’s relatable and often creates a clearer picture. Let’s say you want to lose weight and get fit. Your default thinking, though, is that “I hate working out”, which makes you feel resistant. Once you’re there you push through, but you’re constantly looking at the watch to see how close you are to the hour. You don’t do as many exercises or push yourself. You work out 4 times that week, but the next week, you start making up excuses and only go once. The week after that, you continue to come up with excuses and you don’t go at all. The result is that you still hate working out and you’re not even getting much of an effect from it. Looking at willpower, you could just force yourself to go, and make it a habit, in which it’s easier to go because it’s now a part of your routines. BUT, you’re more than likely to skip sessions because your default thought is that you hate working out – and therefore come up with all sorts of excuses for not exercising. Just look at yourself around this – or someone you know and you’ll get what I mean. However, if you first change your mindset – your thoughts about exercising, you would set yourself up for success. If you, instead of thinking that you hate going to the gym, practiced thoughts like “I want to get more energy and working out makes me feel good about myself”, you might feel motivated, which leads to you going to the gym more often. You might put on some great music and focus on your training program rather than how much time has passed. The result is that you get more energy and that you feel better about yourself. Do you see how much more enjoyable and sustainable that is than just white-knuckeling your way through? And do you see how your thoughts reflect the action or inaction that takes place?

Because starting by changing our thoughts is fundamentally different to how we’ve approached our life up until this point… you know, it literally changes how we approach life… It does take practice. I suppose, the way that made it click for me was to focus on the thought being the first piece to fall in the domino sequence. If we just focus on the thought, the rest will follow as an effect of that – because we need  to acknowledge the feeling and action piece that comes in between the thought and the result as well. The more you are onto yourself or the more self aware you are, the more you will see what results each single thought of yours creates. Because there is ALWAYS this domino effect; this cause and effect stemming from your thoughts. 

You need an intention in order to do something, so in the gym example; you need to have an intention to go. And an intention is a thought. It can be as simple as “I’ll just go to the gym”. We think thoughts all day every day. And according to science, 95% of those are on autopilot. They are simply default thoughts that come as a consequence of your past conditioning, trauma, experiences etc. These thoughts are the reason you keep getting the same result over and over again. You think the same thoughts, you feel the same feelings, you therefore take the same actions and consequently get the same results. As Einstein said: Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. 

I cannot stress this enough: every single thought – whether you’re aware of the thought or not, ultimately creates a result – big or small. There is no way around it. Therefore, if you don’t have your desired results, it is because you’re not focusing on, and thinking the thoughts that will have you take the action in alignment with creating those results. 

I know it sounds trippy at first, and you might want to argue with this, thinking that it lacks substance. But the more you run your thoughts through the model, the more you realise that every thought creates a direct result – just like cause and effect. 

Even the thought “I don’t have any clients” is a thought. You might report it as a fact coming out of a science journal. But it’s just a thought that you’re choosing to focus on. 

Using our mind to get clients 

The funny thing about the brain is that we can hold multiple truths – and often even opposing truths. That’s where *what thoughts to focus on* come in. You can choose to focus on “I should’ve signed more clients by now” which might make you feel frustrated. When you’re frustrated, you might try to find courses to take, you might compare yourself to others, you might procrastinate by spending time on social media or binge listening to podcasts by people you think might have the answer. The result you get from taking these actions is that you’re not attracting or creating any more clients. 

On the other hand, we can think thoughts like “By getting in front of as many people as possible, helping people reach their goals and creating offers, I attract more clients”. From that mindset, we are likely to feel motivated. We get resourceful on how we can get in front of as many people as possible. We get to work by figuring out how we best can help people, provide value and solve their problems. We experiment with all the different ways we can tell people that we can help them. The result of that is that we get in front of more people, create more value and help more people, which ultimately results in us attracting more clients. 

How to Take Action on Marketing

I am a huge fan of Seth Godin’s work. If you’re not familiar with him, I highly recommend looking him up. He’s one of the best marketers of our time – in my opinion. I’m currently reading his book, “The Practice”. Well, I’m having his book read to me via Audible, I’m one of those who hardly finds time to sit down with a book but love listening to them on a run. So, in this particular book, because he’s written many, he talks about the practice of creativity. His message is to first get into the action of writing and then feel the inspiration and flow arise from taking that action. But if we take a step back, we see that the mindset precedes the action. His mindset or thought is something to the effect of “just do it” and that sparks the action of just getting about the task. Just sit down and write or whatever art you’re creating. I’ll say that again, it is his mindset, of just getting started that gets him into gear. We don’t always have to get our mindset squeaky clean, feel like we’re on creative cloud 9 with harp music surrounding us, thinking that “I am the world’s best copywriter” to create content that converts. Sometimes, the thought that gets us going is sometimes good old fashioned tough love; telling ourselves to just have a go. Just freakin write something. Now, as I’ve mentioned in several of my posts on Instagram, I am a moving meditator that gets most of my inspiration when I’m out walking or running. We don’t have to sit down on a chair with our back and legs at a 90 degree angle and push out words on a blank document. If you’ve found that there are ways to get yourself more into the zone, by all means, do it that way. I just want to point out that it all starts with our thoughts. If you’re out on a walk and experience a wave of inspiration coming over you, you have to have a mindset that is something along the lines of:  “I’ll write down whatever comes to me”. And again, thoughts are largely on autopilot and you might not even register that you think certain thoughts. But that is our work. To really be onto ourselves. What thoughts serves us? What thoughts move us into action? What do we feel when we think those thoughts?

The Best Marketing Strategy Requires Mindset Work

You can have the best marketing strategies in the world. You can have the best thought out marketing calendar with the most well crafted headlines… But if your mindset is off, you won’t follow through on all of our amazing plans and strategies. Again, just look at all of the evidence for this in your own life. I bet you have tried lots of different strategies, subscribed to scheduling software, created lists and calendars for your content – and even written the content, but you’ve kept it on your phone or computer. You’ve saved it for later. But “later” becomes “never”, unless we change our thoughts. You start and stop – and get frustrated that you can never seem to stay consistent. This is why I always come back to the holistic approach to marketing. If you want to get your stuff out there and learn to manage your mind so that you get the most out of your marketing – hit me up! I’m only ever a DM away on Instagram!

I invite you to start noticing your thoughts around your marketing and your business. Write them down and be very specific. The smallest subtleties in your thoughts will create a different feeling and different actions that leads to different results. Also, notice what you focus the most on – is your focus mostly on what you should have achieved by now? Is it on all the things you don’t know about how to get clients or how to do your marketing? Is your focus on not having enough time? Or is your focus on how you can create value and help your people solve their problems – and getting in front of as many people as possible?

I’ll round off this episode with this reminder: If you’re thinking about the problems, you’re not thinking about the solutions that will lead you to your desired results. 

Let me know your biggest take-away from this episode by tagging me in an Instagram story @martinethomassencoaching