Is There A Place For Hustle In Slow Marketing?
For me, when I think of hustle I see pink, marble and #girlboss; I think of aggressive sales techniques, webinars with no value, numbers with the letter ‘k’ after them. I think of the glossy, successful women who have absolutely everything together and are constantly striving for more, all whilst having the perfect morning routine. And it makes me feel nervous, unworthy and like I want to hide under the duvet.But here’s the thing I realised while writing this – when I hear the word hustle I think of the marketing it’s been used in, and I think about how that makes me feel. It’s not actually about the word itself.If we look at what it really means to hustle, perhaps there’s a way for those of us not auditioning for The Apprentice to use it. According to Dictionary.com, the definition of hustle is:
to proceed or work rapidly or energetically
to push or force one’s way
to be aggressive, especially in business
Ok, so on first read this isn’t particularly inspiring. It’s still sounding like everything we as soulful business owners are trying our damnedest to get away from. But perhaps this definition from UrbanDictionary.com might help: “to have the courage, confidence, self belief and self-determination to go out there and work it out until you find the opportunities you want in life”. Now that I can get on board with.
Putting these two definitions together, I think we need to shift and think of ‘hustle’ as less of an overall outlook on business, and more about our own behaviour. No one wants to approach business and marketing with aggression, but we should be wanting to push ourselves, to work smart and in so doing, grow the confidence we need to follow our dreams. Once you detach ‘hustle’ from it’s hype and give it a new context, it suddenly becomes a concept you can use. For me, I use it to give me confidence in areas of my business I want to push, and where I feel the least boss. In practical terms, this is essentially pitching – writing and sending emails to pitch for magazine coverage, to be on a podcast or speak at an event. These are the things I know are going to move my business forwards, but blimey they’re the scariest things to do. This is when I use ‘hustle’ to shift my mindset. When I’m planning out my week and know that it’s been a while since I pitched anything, then I will plan in a block of ‘hustle time’. During this time I will write, plan and send my pitches with gusto, because marking out this to time to hustle helps me to put on a more confident persona and push for these things that fills everyday me with dread.
Hustle time gives me a cloak of confidence where I can step outside of myself and occupy a different role in my business, a courageous, confident worker who gets shit done. Essentially, it’s a tool to help me get the stuff I’m scared of done – and what’s more hustler than that? So what does this look like for you? Perhaps if you’re holding back from appearing on Stories or doing live broadcasts you can use a hustle mindset to mask that fear. Maybe if making time for marketing full stop is your issue, then planning in hustle time to be the confident you working towards opportunities might be a good way to get over the hump.
As with so many things in marketing and online business, we need to give ourselves permission to take things back for ourselves. There are no rules or rights and wrongs, and you can pick and choose what works for you. You don’t have to buy into all the funnels and figures of the hustle rhetoric to be able to get value from the concept - maybe an hour of hustle time on a Friday afternoon is enough to get you what you want, on your terms.
