It Started With Scribbles, Not a Plan
“Write a book, it will be easy.”
What seemed like random marketing thoughts, words, and phrases has sprinkled my brain and notebooks for years.
Stories I remember.
People that changed my perspective.
Scribbles arranging the same tangled marketing ideas and observations over and over until they created something different that made more sense.
At first, I didn’t set out to compile and share it with anybody. After all, who would care, and what did I know?
But the more conversations I had with other marketers, entrepreneurs, authors, and small business owners, the more I recognized that maybe, just maybe, all that thinking and overthinking could turn into doing something to help.
None of us has all the answers to what works in marketing. The questions are logical: How do you actually market yourself or your company well? How do you grow—without the big budget, the big plan, or the big machine?
So, I started writing a book by admitting that.
Then came the conversations with other authors. I had no idea what I was doing trying to write book (outside of the writing part). But others have done it, so I leaned in to learn from them. Turns out, there’s a whole lot more to it than writing.
Publishing choices.
Distribution choices.
Defining your audience.
Getting excited about all the ideas and realizing you have too many.
Then, figuring out what to do when the writing doesn’t come.
Resorting to pen and paper.
Worrying people will think your em dashes (that you’ve been using for decades) are AI.
Stressing out over shades of blue.
Changing the concept 142 times.
Texts with your design friend.
Resorting to sticky notes. Lots of sticky notes.
Writing what you’d want to read.
Figuring out what to cut because nobody cares.
Wondering if any of it is any good.
Remembering you’ll have to market that book about marketing.
Loving Amazon.
Hating Amazon.
Loving the idea of quitting.
Texts with your mentor.
Being patient, but secretly being impatient.
Then, in the end, realizing that the process was actually part of the whole point.
A mentor and coach told me there would be days when I wanted to quit. She wasn’t wrong. In the final weeks before finishing the book, I asked myself, “Do I really want to do this?”
But, I kept going. One word and one day at a time. Action became the antidote and every tiny bit of progress showed me a small win was exactly what I needed. Not a big revelation or breakthrough. Simple, meaningful wins that felt authentic, and eventually tied back to the premise of the book: that marketing that stays SMALL still wins.
A lot of times we’re looking for the “big thing” to tell us what to do. In life, in marketing, in leadership, in business. I’m convinced now more than ever, big isn’t the answer.
There will always be things you can’t control. Someone will always be bigger than you. The real journey isn’t glamorous. But what you can control is staying human and having the mindset that learning (even when it’s hard) is progress.
The only reason I finished this book is because I stopped waiting for the big idea and started writing the small ones down instead.
If this message resonates, or any of my newsletter articles have helped you in some way, I hope you’ll consider checking out my book, Go SMALL and Grow.
If you’re tired of being told to “go big or go home,” this book is your permission to try something else.
It’s for marketers, entrepreneurs, authors, and small business owners who want to grow, like to win, and aren’t chasing size for its own sake. The Go SMALL Framework you’re guided through in the book resembles an infinity loop, because going SMALL, redefined, creates an infinity loop for sustainable growth.
Go SMALL and Grow is available now on Amazon in paperback and Kindle.
Buy the book.
Grow.
Go SMALL and make it matter.
