Breathe in / Breathe out
How to stop choking on the two most common marketing freak-outs that wreck brands.
Hi,
There are two main marketing freak-outs I hear from business owners
“I don’t have enough customers.”
“I’m not making enough money.”
There are others, but they almost all funnel up to one or both of the above issues. They’re both real, valid, and urgent, but they cannot be solved at the same time.
It’s like breathing. You can’t breath out at the same time you breath in. Try it. Go ahead. Try it right now. You can’t. Your body locks up. You sputter. Your brain screams for air.
And then you panic.
Just like marketing.
Most founders try to solve both problems at the same time, and they end up gasping, choking, and collapsing on the ground.
Breathing in is all about growth actions and bringing more people into your orbit. It’s like taking in all that oxygen to fill your lungs
Breathing out is all about monetization actions that breathes out all the CO2 that doesn’t serve you. You can’t breath out very long if you don’t breath in, and you can’t take a full breath out without taking a full breath in.
You also can’t do them both at the same time, and yet this is exactly what every business tries to do.
These are discrete actions that need intention.
You have to breathe in. Then breathe out. Then breathe in again in a simple, natural, and life-sustaining pace.
Breathing in is the gathering phase. You’re pulling in attention, pulling in trust, and pulling in people.
You are not asking for anything in return yet.
You are not trying to convert.
You are not trying to monetize.
You are offering. Freely. Generously. Strategically. You are making the case that you are worth paying attention to. That your work has weight. That your world is one they want to step into.
This is where most entrepreneurs get bored, or impatient, or twitchy. They breathe in for a week and get antsy that money isn’t showing up yet. So they exhale too soon. And it all falls apart.
Because the breath wasn’t full yet. They didn’t take in enough oxygen to sustain an exhale.
Breathing in looks like:
Growing your list.
Swapping with other creators.
Showing up. Over and over.
Offering content that helps, entertains, teaches, builds curiosity.
Giving, giving, giving.
And not just for a week. Not just when you feel like it. Not just when you want to line people up for a launch.
You breathe in until your chest feels full. Until the list is active. Until people are replying to your emails and sharing your work without being asked.
That’s pressure. That’s air in the lungs.
Then you’re ready to breathe out.
Breathing out is what you do after the lungs are full. You take all that stored pressure and you convert it. You don’t trick people. You don’t twist arms. You just offer a clean, clear path to buy.
This is when you launch. This is when you make the offer. This is when you stop pretending you don’t have something to sell and give people the opportunity to pay you.
But you have to do it clean. With focus. With purpose. With energy. This isn’t a slow leak. This is a purposeful breath. One offer. One window. One ask.
You build it. You announce it. You repeat it. You close it.
Then, you stop.
You don’t keep pushing.
You don’t keep hawking.
You don’t stay in exhale mode forever.
Because if you do, you run out of air. You burn out your list. You collapse your lungs. Exhale ends when the offer closes. Then you rest. Then you inhale again.
The worst place to be is in between. Half a breath in. Half a breath out. Gasping.
This is where most brands live. Not fully committed to growth and not fully committed to selling. Just this constant, shallow panic.
They don’t know what they’re doing, so they do everything. They tweak their sales page while trying to build a lead magnet. They run an ad to a cold list while writing a launch email. They dabble. They dart. They gasp.
And nothing sticks.
Because the lungs never fill.
And the lungs never empty.
They’re stuck in the in-between, wondering why nothing works.
Here’s What You Do Instead
If you don’t have enough potential customers, breathe in. Pick one magnet. One list-builder. One path for people to find you and get something amazing in return.
Run that magnet like a campaign. Every week. For a full month.
Push traffic. Swap with peers. Go on podcasts. Do live readings. Send people to that one offer and welcome them warmly when they say yes.
This is where most people make a mistake. They think because they performed ONE inhale action it means it’s time for an exhale, but that’s almost never the case. We have to breath in for 10-100x more time than we breath out.
We breath in until the lungs feel full. Then, and only then, do you exhale.
That might take a week, a month, or a year, but you’ll know when it’s time when pressure builds up and you have no choice but to breath out.
One offer. One deadline. One clear path.
And when that’s done, you stop. You don’t try to hold your breath and squeeze out another dollar. You don’t panic and relaunch the next day. You let the system reset. You rest. Then you breathe in again.
That’s it. That’s the rhythm.
Breathe in. Breathe out. Rest. Repeat. Over time it will take less time between breathing in and breathing out, but at the beginning you need to learn how to breath properly.
You want to stop panicking about customers? Breathe in longer.
You want to stop panicking about money? Breathe out with purpose.
You want to stop spinning your wheels? Stop trying to do both at once.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Build pressure. Then release it.
And for the love of everything, stop gasping.
