The Digital High Five
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Why Messy Marketing is Perfection
Why Messy Marketing is Perfection
Life is messy. Marketing is messy.
Embrace all the messiness and have fun with it. No one has it figured out, so it's okay to give yourself permission to play with your marketing and see what happens. You never know, something perfect may come from something super messy.
Midlife or Just Life?
Lately, I've heard the phrase "messy middle" in many of my community circles. It seems as though everyone is trying to balance life between the ever-changing tech world, politics, world happenings, U.S. news, kids, and doing all the adulting things we have to do daily.
Many of my friends are in life-stage moments—changing jobs, leaving businesses they started during the COVID-19 pandemic, moving to new places, and trying to find themselves. Perhaps it's because I'm turning 45 in a few days and realizing this is what they mean by a midlife crisis: looking for yourself. Looking for more. Looking for your own happiness.
The truth is, none of us knows what midlife is. Anne Hathaway once said:
"Forty feels like a gift. The fact of the matter is I hesitate at calling things 'middle age' simply because I can be a semantic stickler and I could get hit by a car later today—we don't know if this is middle age. We don't know anything".
That stuck with me. Because it’s true: we don’t know what our "middle" looks like in this lifetime.
The more I started thinking about it, the more I realized, everything is just messy - beginning, middle, end and everything in between. There is no "messy middle" ... life is just messy.
Messy Beginnings
As someone who has restarted new career paths multiple times over the last five years, I am familiar with the messy beginnings. I've become rather good at them, actually.
Beginnings are hard. They test your motivation and your goals. Every day can feel like a new challenge. You question yourself: “Am I good enough to do this?” You move forward even when you doubt everything about what you’re doing.
Beginnings are about learning—but not letting yourself get so overwhelmed with information that you freeze. It’s about asking: Where do I belong? Where do I go next?
The beginnings are messy.
Messy Middles
The middles are messy too. Nothing stays consistent.
To grow, you have to push yourself to the next level. Learn something new when all you want to do is curl up with your cat on the couch, watch that new chick flick on Netflix, and snuggle.
As women, our bodies are changing. Things happen that no one ever told us about. As business owners, we live in ever-changing times. Our heads are spinning faster than the Gravatron ride at the County Fair.
Messy Endings (and New Lessons)
While I don't know about the ending of life, I'm assuming it's all messy too.
I recently had the honor of walking alongside a gentleman named Dave, as he left this three-dimensional world behind. I only knew Dave for about six months, but he had an impact on my life.
His favorite quote was from the great master, Yoda:
"Do or do not do. There is no try."
He said it to me every week I saw him for four months. Dave shared about his life, the complications with alcohol, and with his son. He was trying to mend things, knowing he didn't have much time left. He wasn’t afraid, but you could feel the heaviness with him during this transition.
I never asked, but I’m assuming that all felt pretty messy too.
Lessons from Dave
I keep a Post-it note on my desk to remind myself that life is weird and it’s okay to lean into the messiness … by having fun and being silly!
After all, we’re just living on a rock floating in space, ya know?!
Marketing is Messy Too
Because your marketing is going to be messy. At the beginning. In the middle. And probably at the end.
It’s never going to be perfect. No one—absolutely NO ONE—has marketing 100% figured out. (They may pretend like they do, but they don't.)
And no one knows the 'perfect' strategy for you ... it's up to you to figure that out.
Marketing is a game. It’s testing and playing. It’s trial and error. It’s finding what people like best. It’s finding what works best for you and your customers.
Of course, when you figure it out? The algorithm changes, new platforms emerge, new tools, AI, and the game changes. You grow, and so do your customers.
Are there some tricks? Yes, of course. There are proven tactics that have worked for years.
But the real power comes from your own strategy and systems as a Solopreneur. Finding what works best for YOU. Not chasing trends. Choosing the path that lets you lean into the messy, be playful, and enjoy telling people about your work
ARC: Your Map Through the Mess
If life is messy, the customer journey is too:
Awareness = Messy Beginnings. Trying, testing, putting yourself out there.
Relationship = Messy Middles. Building trust, adjusting, deepening connections.
Conversion = Messy Perfection. Even if the path wasn’t neat, this is where the magic happens—mess turns into momentum (and money).
ARC reminds us that marketing isn’t about perfection—it’s about guiding people through their own messy journey with you. Walking alongside them on their journey and showing them there's more to this life.
Finding Your Path in the Chaos
That’s what I’m trying to do—be more playful with marketing. Teaching marketing in a playful way. Have more fun. As I enter my 45th year around the sun, I’m choosing to show up more and lean into the messiness this world offers us on this life journey. I’m done pretending I can “get out of the mess” — because maybe that doesn’t even exist. Life is one big ball of jumbled-up Christmas lights that sat in the attic for a year. You spend three hours trying to untangle them before finally laughing and hanging them up anyway...even if they are a mess.
I encourage you to do the same. You never know, you may just find your perfect marketing campaign in all of the mess.
Marketing perfection was never the point—permission was. Give yourself permission to play in the mess, because sometimes the most perfect thing is what rises out of it.
How are you embracing the messy in your life?
Please note that this post and all posts are written by a real human and lightly edited with assistance from ChatGPT.