Conscious marketing
In this series, I’ll share how to start building your authentic brand—whether personal or business— in a way that turns complicated puzzles into strategic roadmaps, lack of direction into intentional moves, and scattered data into meaningful insights.
Reflecting on the journey of this series dedicated to building authentic brands, I wanted to devote this final part to the mindset necessary for intentional growth. I recognize that this marketing philosophy may not resonate with everyone, but as we've emphasized authenticity in the previous parts, I’m committed to walking the talk here. And for those who seek meaning beyond algorithms and conversions, I believe this perspective holds real value.
But let’s take a deep breath and get real for a moment. The world of branding is noisy. We’re constantly told to grow, scale, optimize, and convert faster. It’s all about higher numbers and pushing people through funnels as quickly as possible. But here’s the truth: that mindset is draining the life out of brands. It’s turning what should feel personal and meaningful into a soulless numbers game. And founders end up with brands that blend into the noise, losing the very humanity that makes them unique.
As a brand strategist, I’ve witnessed firsthand how the landscape of marketing is evolving, and it's clear that success requires more than just mastering social media algorithms. I would like to empower brands to look beyond conventional avenues and explore diverse growth opportunities that resonate with their unique vision rooted in clarity, calmness, and steadiness. I want to build brands that speak to real people rather than trying to hack an algorithm and people’s attention spans.
Social platforms have conditioned us to chase vanity growth metrics (such as a number of followers that might never convert to our clients or customers) and expect quick and cheap access to millions, which can be a powerful tool for top-of-funnel efforts. However, relying on mass reach and viral moments isn’t the key to sustainable, long-term business growth. With social media feeling increasingly flat, brand growth stagnating, and acquisition costs rising, I’ve found myself wondering whether there’s another way where you don’t need to feel beholden to social platforms to grow and nurture a successful business.
In short, intentional growth for me means integrating both short-term tactics with a long-term, sustainable plan. Focusing on just one leaves the picture incomplete and misaligned. We need to regularly revisit both and intentionally choose what to prioritize depending on where we are in our business cycle. That’s why I’m kicking things off with some gentle questions to hold space for you to reflect and tap into both areas.
Long-term plan ✨
First and foremost, your marketing plan is YOUR marketing plan—it needs to work for you. It’s going to look different for each and every one of us depending on our vision and goals. But one thing is sure - intentional growth should support our full humanness, not leave us feeling overwhelmed or spiraling. We need to be intentional from the start and prioritize where we want the majority of our marketing energy to go. I’ve worked with clients who had deeply impactful missions and loved the people they served. They genuinely felt fulfilled by their work, but every time we discussed their marketing plan, they felt drained, anxious, and boxed in. The excitement faded, and they suddenly felt burnt out. Now I see that as a symptom when there’s a lack of clarity in the marketing plan—unsure of what to prioritize, which channels to focus on, and what will have the biggest impact on business growth. But the deeper issue here is that if we can’t hold ourselves and be rooted in calmness and steadiness in our work, we can’t be in the business arena for too long.
That’s where anchoring ourselves in our long-term growth plan comes in. Take a moment to pause and reflect on these key questions:
How do you want to grow? Get clear on what growth means to you and your business in this season.
How can you grow differently today? For example, are there growth opportunities outside of social media? (more on this in the next section)
Which channels are you currently using and how are they performing? Basically, what’s no longer worth your time, and where can you find growth beyond social media?
What are you putting out there? What’s your content strategy, and what are you communicating to your audience?
For pre-launch and early-stage businesses, I always advise clients to obsessively focus on delivering value—earning trust—for at least a month. The same applies to more established brands: consistent value creation fuels brand awareness, loyalty, reputation, and connection. Especially in service-based businesses, building a bank of evergreen content (blogs, podcasts, videos, etc.) is foundational. When we shift from pushy, sales-oriented marketing to focusing on being naturally discoverable by those genuinely seeking what we offer, the real magic happens.
It's not just about being seen, it's about being seen in the right context.
Giving free value is about offering something so good that people can’t help but share it with others. And then something interesting happens: while I’ll be the first one to tell you to stick to targeted marketing, I’ve often seen that, as we lay the groundwork with the right branding, our audience chooses us. We don’t choose or chase them. When you’re easily discoverable, they gravitate towards you, and those quality leads tend to be warmer and easier to convert.
Short-term tactics 📈
If you want to carve out your own lane in marketing—creating your playbook rather than relying solely on standard strategies or fighting with social media algorithms—this is where innovation comes in. There are many tangible tactics to explore, each representing a different season of your business journey. Consider paths you may have overlooked:
Maybe after years of focusing on acquiring new customers, it’s time to retain them through community building—whether in private online groups or in-person events.
Maybe there are untapped segments of your audience that could be engaged in different ways or through different channels. Maybe boosting your awareness and website traffic through Pinterest pins hasn’t fully been explored.
Maybe you haven’t discovered the magic of long-form content yet (for example: blogs and podcasts).
Maybe you’re sleeping on the potential of your website.
Maybe your email library hasn’t fully been utilized.
Maybe you haven’t considered advertising on some niche digital platforms.
These short-term tactics, when integrated with your long-term plan, allow you to explore alternative avenues for intentional growth that feel more aligned and sustainable.
As a final note, I want to remind you that there are countless areas in our business that we can develop without feeling the pressure to constantly create content or follow what everyone else is doing. I hope to inspire and hold space for those who want to cut through the noise, rather than add to it. We can't create authentic brands or innovate across different areas of our business if our marketing strategies remain stagnant—or worse, if they're just replicas of someone else's plan.
This post is part four of a four-part deep dive into brand development series:
