#67 Simplify Your Marketing: How to Show Up Without the Overwhelm
Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube
Let’s be real: the pressure to “do it all” in marketing can feel like running on a hamster wheel that never stops. You’re told to post on every platform, engage constantly, send newsletters, and show up everywhere. But what if I told you there’s a way to show up, serve your audience, and get results without feeling exhausted? Today, we’re diving into a low-stress plan to help you simplify your marketing so you can connect, engage, and grow without burning out.
Why Marketing Overwhelm Is a Thing and Why It Doesn’t Have to Be
Marketing overwhelm isn’t just real – it’s something I see so many entrepreneurs struggling with, including myself once upon a time! There’s this idea that more is always better, that if you aren’t posting every single day or across every platform, you’re falling behind. But here’s the truth: trying to be everywhere all the time doesn’t actually mean you’re connecting with your audience. In fact, it can mean spreading yourself so thin that you aren’t really engaging anywhere. Less can truly be more, especially when you’re intentional and focused on what works for you and your audience.
Myth Busting: More Isn’t Always Better
Imagine planting seeds all over a garden but barely watering any of them. You might get a few sprouting plants, but you won’t see anything really thriving. Marketing is the same! When you focus on too many platforms, you lose the ability to create meaningful engagement on any single one. Instead, focus on one or two platforms where your audience is most active. For example, if your audience lives on Instagram, double down there instead of splitting your time with Twitter, Facebook, TikTok, and LinkedIn. When you simplify, you give yourself space to create deeper connections, and it becomes manageable, meaningful, and effective.
The Power of Consistency Over Quantity
Consistency builds trust. If you show up regularly – not necessarily constantly – people start to see you as a reliable source. The keyword here is “manageable.” The goal isn’t to flood your followers with content but to create quality posts and share your voice in ways that your audience can engage with. Find a rhythm you can commit to. Maybe that’s posting three times a week or posting once and sharing a few stories on Instagram – whatever feels sustainable for you.
3 Common Marketing Overwhelm Triggers and How to Beat Them
- Feeling Like You Have to Be Everywhere
Instead of being everywhere, be strategic. Start by identifying where your audience is most active. I recently spoke to a business owner who was posting on four platforms every day, feeling exhausted with minimal engagement. When we checked her metrics, we saw 90% of her engagement came from Instagram. She paused the other platforms, focused on Instagram, and saw her engagement and connections grow within a month. So, here’s your permission slip: choose one or two platforms and go all in! - Creating Content That Doesn’t Convert
Nothing is more exhausting than pouring hours into content that doesn’t resonate. The key to engaging content is value. If you’re stuck, ask yourself: “What questions do my clients always ask?” Turn each question into a piece of content. This approach not only helps you address your audience’s needs but also saves you time because you’re working with what you already know they’re interested in. Remember, the goal is not perfection; it’s connection. - Not Having a Clear Plan
The “what should I post today?” panic is real, but it doesn’t have to be. Create a simple content calendar to organize your ideas and get ahead. Choose three content pillars that resonate with you and your brand, such as “educational,” “inspirational,” and “personal.” Then, plan one or two posts for each pillar weekly. This structure takes away the daily guesswork, lets you focus on connecting with your audience, and gives you peace of mind. Imagine spending a few hours planning your month instead of scrambling every day – it’s a game-changer.
The Mindset Shift You Need for Simplifying Your Marketing
We often equate “busy” with success. But busy doesn’t necessarily mean productive or effective. Many of us started our businesses for the freedom to work on our terms. When you simplify your marketing, you make space for what matters and allow yourself to grow sustainably. You’re not missing out by focusing – you’re creating room for what truly matters.
Challenge for the Week: Take a Small Step to Simplify Your Marketing
Here’s my challenge for you: pick one way to simplify your marketing. Maybe it’s focusing on one platform, maybe it’s creating a basic content calendar, or maybe it’s committing to a new, more manageable posting schedule. Choose one thing, and see how it feels. You might just find that simplifying creates the exact space you need to grow.
And Here’s Your Next Step…
If this topic resonates with you, I invite you to join me for my upcoming workshop, The Simple Show Up System, happening November 13. It’s a low-stress plan designed to help you stay visible every week without feeling like you’re on that hamster wheel. Let’s make marketing simple, manageable, and something you actually look forward to.
Remember, sometimes the most powerful step is simplifying. When you do less, you make space for the things that truly move the needle in your business. So, what are you waiting for? Let’s take that step together and get you off that marketing hamster wheel once and for all.
Ready to start showing up as the go-to expert? Get my Free Visibility Checklist to get started
Want to dive deeper into positioning yourself as an expert? Check out this episode from She is Unstoppable:
Episode 57: Building a Thriving Business Through Confidence and Visibility with Holly Brunelle
Companies Referenced:
Show Notes
[00:00:01.320] – Deanna Hinsz
Have you ever found yourself caught in the endless cycle of social media posts, engagements, newsletters and wondering, is all this really worth it? I get it. The overwhelm is real. Today I’m pulling back the curtain on a strategy that could be your game changer. Imagine if showing up consistently for your business didn’t feel like a full time job. Imagine if you could cut through the noise and focus on just the right places that actually make a difference. Sounds pretty amazing, right? Well, that’s exactly what we’re diving into today. I’m sharing a simple, sustainable way to keep your marketing effective. Enjoyable and yes, totally manageable. Let’s get into it. Hey there. I’m Deanna Hinsz, entrepreneur, digital marketing strategist and your guide to building the business and life you’ve always dreamed of. Years ago, as a newly single mom with two little boys and a big dream, I made the leap into entrepreneurship. I needed more than a career. I wanted freedom, the chance to be present for my family, and a way to make a difference. It wasn’t always easy, but each challenge brought me closer to creating a life that I love and a business that fuels my purpose.
[00:01:22.130] – Deanna Hinsz
On She Is Unstoppable. I bring you weekly episodes filled with inspiring stories, honest advice, and practical, actionable steps that can take you right away to build a business that aligns with your vision and values. Some weeks I’ll be sharing my insights directly with you, and other times I’ll be sitting down with brilliant guests who have their own incredible journeys and strategies to share. My mission to help you grow your business, find your freedom, and build a life that is unapologetically yours. So if you’re ready to turn your vision into reality and become truly unstoppable, let’s dive in.
[00:02:01.550] – Deanna Hinsz
Hey there. Welcome back to the show. I’m thrilled to have you here because today we’re diving into a topic that I know so many of you have struggled with. Marketing overwhelm. Yeah, that feeling of juggling social media posts, newsletters, engagement, and on and on. It could feel like a hamster wheel. Can it? So today I’m here to remind you it doesn’t have to be this hard. You really can keep your marketing simple, effective, and yes, fun. Again, we’re going to talk about what a streamlined marketing strategy looks like, why simplicity is key, and I’ll give you some practical ways to start simplifying today. Plus, if this resonates with you, keep listening because at the end, I’ve got something special for you coming up that could be exactly what you need now let’s start by asking, why does marketing feel so overwhelming? A lot of us think that we have to be everywhere to stay relevant, right? We scroll and we see others posting five times a day, sometimes seven times a day. They’re popping up on every platform and we feel like we’re behind if we’re not doing the same. But here’s the truth. More isn’t always better.
[00:03:18.530] – Deanna Hinsz
When you try to be everywhere at once. It’s like taking on three full time jobs, your spread so thin that you can’t give your best to anything. So let me share a quick story here. I recently talked to a business owner who was posting on four platforms every single day. She was exhausted and didn’t feel like she was getting that much engagement. And she started questioning if her content was even valuable. Well, we looked at her metrics, guess what we found? 90% of her audience was on Instagram. And that’s where she was getting the most engagement. So I suggested she pause everything else and just focus on Instagram. Within a month, she was getting better results and she was able to show up more genuinely and consistently where her audience actually was. So if you’ve ever felt that sense of overwhelm, that just like you can’t get everything done, you’re not alone and you’re not doing anything wrong. You just need a strategy. You need a strategy that aligns with your strengths, your audience and your goals. So today, I want to help you take a deep breath, let go of that noise, and create a strategy that actually feels manageable and is impactful.
[00:04:45.580] – Deanna Hinsz
Now let’s talk about the power of simplicity. You’ve probably heard the saying, less is more, right? This concept is especially true in marketing. When you simplify your strategy. You’re giving yourself the space to focus on doing a few things really, really well. And that’s where the magic happens. Think about it this way. Imagine you’re planting a garden. If you plant seeds all over the yard, but barely water or tend to any of them, you’ll get a lot of half grown plants. And I’m not. I don’t even have a green thumb, right? But we know this. We know this. But if you chose a few, few key spots and you care for them, you’re going to see them flourish and grow. And that’s the same for your marketing. Simplifying doesn’t mean you’re doing less just for the sake of doing it. It’s about being intentional. When you’re intentional, you can double down on what works and you’ll start to See a real difference in how people respond to you. Plus, with fewer things on your plate, you can build a routine that feels sustainable and is energizing. Now, here’s a fun fact. Studies show that consistency builds trust with your audience.
[00:06:04.460] – Deanna Hinsz
We’ve talked about this. So if you’ve listened to this podcast or if you follow me on Instagram or Facebook, you’ve heard me share that before. Consistency builds trust with your audience. By showing up in a manageable way, you’re building a stronger connection over time. People are going to feel more inclined to engage with you when they see you on a regular basis. And consistency doesn’t mean that you need to be posting constantly. It’s about quality over quantity. And I get people who get that messed up. Right. They think, consistency, I need to do it all the time. No, you just need to be consistent. Whatever you can manage. If it’s posting five times a week, great. If it’s posting three times a week and two days a week, you share a story, great. Whatever that looks like for you, whatever you can handle, that’s what you want to do. Because it’s quality over quantity. All right, so let’s get into three common pain points that lead to marketing overwhelm, and of course, some practical ways that we can simplify them. Pain point number one is we’ve talked about this already. Feeling pressure to be everywhere.
[00:07:16.560] – Deanna Hinsz
I know that feeling. You see everyone on every platform and you think you need to be there, too. But here’s my challenge for you. Focus on one or two platforms where your audience is most active. I know you might be thinking, oh, my gosh, Deanna. But what about the audience that’s over here that I’ve been doing sending posts to? If they’re not engaging with you, you’re wasting your time anyhow. It’s okay. Figure out whether where your ICA is, your ideal client avatar, where you’re getting the most engagement, and pick one or two. For me, it’s Facebook and Instagram. For you, it might be LinkedIn and Pinterest. It’s really yours. It. Don’t listen to everybody else who’s telling you you need to be here. You need to be on TikTok, you.
[00:08:06.920] – Deanna Hinsz
Need to be on Facebook, you need.
[00:08:08.160] – Deanna Hinsz
To be on Instagram, you need to be where your ideal client is. That’s it. Now imagine the relief of putting all that energy that you have into mastering just those two spaces or one space instead of trying to spread yourself thin across five different platforms. When you get comfortable on a platform, that’s when you’re able to show up consistently, you interact with your audience and that makes an impact. I’ll even share a quick exercise at the end to help you identify where your audience is most active. But let’s get to pain point two first. That’s creating content that just doesn’t convert. Creating content that seems to go nowhere is exhausting, right? I mean, you put so much time in creating this content and if nothing happens, if nobody engages, it’s so frustrating. I want to encourage you to focus on value driven content. Now, a simple way to approach this is to think about the top questions your clients ask. Pick three or four of those and create posts around them. Maybe you share a tip, maybe you tell a story. You can even highlight a client’s success related to each question. Content that speaks directly to what your audience is curious about has a much better chance of resonating and driving engagement.
[00:09:31.580] – Deanna Hinsz
Plus, it simplifies things because you’re no longer starting from scratch. You’re working with what you already know and what they want to hear. Don’t feel like you have to recreate the wheel every single time. You don’t. You have that content actually already. You just don’t realize it. It’s the questions that people ask you. It’s the conversations that you see happening in a Facebook group or somewhere online where your ideal client avatar is asking questions, which is revealing their pain points. And you have the solution. Write it down, jot it down, put it in a calendar, a spreadsheet somewhere, a notebook, so that you can go back and reference that and create content around it. Now let’s get over to pain point three and that’s. This is a big one. I see this all the time, guys. It’s not having a clear plan. Not having a plan can lead to that daily panic of what should I post today? I totally get it. And listen, I’ve been there. But creating a content calendar, it doesn’t have to be complicated. Here’s a simple framework, right? Pick three main pillars. Sometimes they’re called themes. I usually call them pillars.
[00:10:49.500] – Deanna Hinsz
And these pillars can be something like educational, inspirational, or personal. In fact, those are three that I use on my content calendar. You can pick whatever you want. Of course, one of them. You want to make sure that you are bringing value. Some people do want to show personal. I like showing personal so that people can get to know me and what I’m about. But you may not want to, and that is 100% okay. You don’t have to. When you find out what those pillars are Rotate those throughout the week. For example, on Mondays, you can present a tip or some sort of a lesson. On Wednesday, maybe you share something personal or behind the scenes. And that could be boxing up or unboxing. It can be, you know, preparing for your client or for a project that you’re working on. And maybe Fridays can be something inspiring. Right? They get people into the weekend and just have a lot of fun. That kind of schedule takes away the guesswork, and it lets you focus on actually connecting with your audience. It simplifies things so much. Guys, I can’t even stress it because let’s face it, if you don’t have that plan in place a lot of times, what happens?
[00:12:05.070] – Deanna Hinsz
Come on, be honest with me. You grab your phone because you know you need to post something and you’re scrolling, looking for an image that might work with an idea that you have. And maybe you find an image and the idea still works, or maybe the image, you really want to use it, but now you have a whole new idea, but you’re doing it on the fly. It takes so much more time. If you have those pillars mapped out, just create six people, pieces of education, six pieces of inspiration, six pieces of personal or whatever your pillars are, and fill in your whole month. Now I want to take a minute to talk about a mindset shift that comes with simplifying, because mindset shift is so important. Many of us feel that if we’re not constantly hustling, we’re not doing enough. But here’s what I’ve learned. Simplifying your marketing isn’t about doing less or slacking off. It’s about working smarter. Think about this. When you run into somebody, maybe at a networking event, maybe somebody you haven’t seen, you’re at the grocery store, you run into them and you ask each other, like, how have you been?
[00:13:16.690] – Deanna Hinsz
What’s the most common response? Oh, I’m so busy. I’ve been so busy. Am I right? Think back. Am I right? Because I hear it all the time, and I’m guilty of saying it. I’m so busy. And for whatever reason we think being busy, we wear that like a gold badge, right? Oh, I’m busy. That means I’m. I’m working, I’m hustling, I’m doing all this stuff. It’s really not that great. Because we got into business to have that freedom, right? Whatever reason we got in, we wanted something. We wanted freedom of something. Freedom of time, freedom of finances, freedom of whatever. Fill in the blanks. But some sort of freedom. We were looking for. And when we say we’re busy, it actually is kind of like, well, then, you know, you don’t really. You don’t have what you signed up to get. Listen, give yourself permission to slow down. When you give yourself permission to focus, to slow down, and to say no to the things that don’t align with what you’re doing, you’re actually making space for the things that matter. Now, here’s a bonus. Your audience can tell when you are genuinely invested in the content you’re creating.
[00:14:37.480] – Deanna Hinsz
They’re more likely to engage with you and build that trust. So I want you to remember this. There’s nothing wrong with saying, I’m only focusing on Instagram or I’m going to email my list once a week. You are not doing less. You’re doing what matters more. That’s so important. Remember that. So I have a challenge for all of you. Here’s my challenge, and I would love to hear your answers to this challenge. Right? I want you guys to really do it. Feel free to email me or respond to me on Facebook. Tell you. Tell me that you listened to this episode and this is what you decided. Okay? I would love to hear from all of you. So here’s my challenge for the week. I want you to pick one way to simplify your marketing. Maybe it’s focusing on just one platform. Maybe it’s. I’m going to set up that basic content calendar that we talked about. In fact, I want to share something real quick with you. I use Metrical. I love metrical. I think it’s a great platform. But what I’ve recently done, too, and it’s working kind of good because I’m a visual person.
[00:15:45.040] – Deanna Hinsz
I like to see everything in one spot, is I’m using Google Calendars. And I know it sounds so basic, and it is basic, but I’ve created a different calendar in my Google Calendars, and I’ve added one called Content Calendar. And in that, I’ve color coded whether it is social media posts, whether it’s my podcast, whether it’s a newsletter I’m sending out, whether it’s a theme or a holiday or a launch, whatever I’m working on, it’s all color coded so I could see it visually in one spot. Now, that’s how simple it can be. But back to the challenge, right? Whether it’s focusing on a platform or setting up that basic content calendar, I want you to choose one thing and take a small step, see how it feels, and just do it. Let me know what you chose. I would love to hear from you. Now listen, if this conversation is hitting home, I have something you’re going to love. On November 13, I’m hosting a workshop called the Simple Show Up System. It’s a low stress plan to stay visible. Every week in this workshop I’m going to walk you through the steps to create create a clear, manageable plan so that showing up doesn’t feel like it’s a full time job.
[00:17:00.750] – Deanna Hinsz
Because who wants that? This is all about helping you stay consistent without burning out and I would love for you to join me. I’m going to link the details in the show notes so you can make sure to check it out and save your spot. But you can also Visit me at deannahins.com forward/ Let me see here. Simple show up system. One word, no dashes in between. That’s it. It’ll take you right to the page with all the information. Thank you so much for tuning in today. Remember, you don’t need to be everywhere and you don’t need to do all things to make an impact. Sometimes simplifying is the most powerful step you can take. Until next time, keep showing up for yourself and your business and keep being unstoppable. See you guys.
[00:17:53.200] – Deanna Hinsz
Thank you so much for joining us Today on She Is Unstoppable. I hope you’re walking away feeling inspired and ready to elevate your visibility in your business. If you’re looking for more ways to be seen and stand out online, don’t forget to grab my free visibility ch*******@********ns.com getvisible.
[00:18:14.400] – Deanna Hinsz
It’s packed with actionable tips to help.
[00:18:16.710] – Deanna Hinsz
You get noticed by the right people and grow your brand. As always, I truly appreciate you tuning in and spending time with me. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with a fellow entrepreneur who’s ready to become unstoppable. I’ll see you next week. And remember, you’ve got this.
[00:33:52.210] – Deanna Hinsz
Thank you so much for joining us today on She Is Unstoppable. I hope you’re walking away feeling inspired and ready to elevate your visibility in your business. If you’re looking for more ways to be seen and stand out online, don’t forget to grab my free visibility ch*******@********ns.com.
[00:34:11.830] – Deanna Hinsz
Getvisible it’s packed with actionable tips to.
[00:34:15.600] – Deanna Hinsz
Help you get noticed by the right people and grow your brand. As always, I truly appreciate you tuning in and spending time with me. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe, leave a review and and share it with a fellow entrepreneur who’s ready to become unstoppable. I’ll see you next week. And remember, you’ve got this.
