Why Honesty Is the Most Magnetic Marketing Strategy You’ll Ever Use

When a client recently said to me, “I don’t know how you have the courage to share what you share in your emails,” it stopped me in my tracks.

Because, truthfully? For a long time, I didn’t have that courage.

It took years of therapy, mirror work, and a lot of shaky first steps before I felt safe enough to be seen, not just physically, but emotionally, too. And it’s funny because now, people assume that my honesty comes naturally. That I just am this open, vulnerable person who can effortlessly show up online and tell the truth.

But that couldn’t be further from the truth.

The truth behind “showing up authentically”

When I first started my business, the idea of filming a video made my stomach turn. I’d freeze at the thought of people seeing my face, hearing my voice, or worse, disagreeing with me.

Through therapy, I eventually uncovered the root of it: I’d been bullied as a child, mostly about my appearance. So visibility didn’t feel safe.

My therapist once asked me what I saw when I looked in the mirror and I realised I didn’t. I avoided mirrors altogether. Standing in front of one felt unbearable.

So we worked through it. Mirror therapy. Somatic therapy. Learning to self-soothe when criticism came my way. Slowly, I started to find safety in being seen again.

Courage isn’t about confidence, it’s about truth

Even when I did eventually post my first talk-to-camera video, it wasn’t the big triumphant “I’ve made it!” moment. It was terrifying. I remember spiralling over a single three-star review on one of my meditations because someone said it ended too abruptly.

Hundreds of five-star reviews praising how the meditations had changed their lives and yet I zoomed straight in on the one piece of criticism.

That was my turning point.

I realised I’d been filtering my voice through this invisible lens of “please everyone.” I’d water down my message to make it palatable. Construct my marketing so it could be understood, but not necessarily felt.

And the irony? The more I tried to be understood, the less connected I felt.

The courage to tell the truth (even when it’s messy)

These days, I share openly about the times my business hasn’t been doing well. About the launches that flopped. About the moments I’ve questioned everything.

Because that’s the reality of being a conscious business owner.

When I asked that same client if reading about my struggles made her think less of me as a marketer, she laughed and said, “No, it made me want to work with you.”

And that’s the shift so many of us need to realise:
People don’t want polished perfection. They want to sit opposite a human.

Your courage to tell the truth doesn’t diminish your credibility, it deepens your resonance.

Courage to create: what it really looks like

For me, courage isn’t loud anymore. It’s not the nervous energy before hitting “post” on something vulnerable. It’s quieter now.

It’s a deep knowing that what I have to say matters, even if not everyone agrees.

That kind of courage can’t be faked. It’s built through years of self-inquiry, therapy, and the ongoing practice of showing up anyway.

And it’s what makes your marketing magnetic.

When you write from that place of truth, not performance, people feel it. They resonate not because you’re perfect, but because you’re real.

Why courage and marketing are inseparable

When I work with clients now, most of them aren’t struggling with marketing tactics. They’re struggling with permission.

Permission to say what they really want to say.
To show the parts of their work that feel too deep, too emotional, too “different.”

But that’s exactly where your magic lies.

When you find the courage to create from your truth, your marketing stops feeling like a performance and starts feeling like a reflection of the brilliance of your work.

It’s not about curating. It’s about claiming.

Claiming your voice, your truth, your space.

Because courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes it’s a quiet whisper that says, this is me and I’m ready to be seen.

A note from me

As I shared in the latest episode of Marketing Musings, this courage doesn’t come from strategy, it comes from self-trust.

If your marketing feels like a performance, not a reflection, maybe it’s time to pause and ask yourself what truth wants to be shared through you.

Because the more courage you have to tell that truth, the more magnetic your work becomes.

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If you’d like to explore this more deeply, I offer free 30-minute calls to help you uncover what your marketing is really trying to say.
[Book your free call here →]