A couple weeks ago I cruised through a book I got for Christmas – Your Music and People: Creative and Considerate Fame by Derek Sivers.

While he’s a musician writing about how to become successful as a musician, I was inspired by much of what he wrote and felt it was applicable to both myself and my side-hustle. One of the chapters I was first struck by is titled “‘Marketing’ Just Means Being Considerate.” He wrote:

Don’t confuse the word “marketing” with advertising, announcing, spamming or giving away branded crap.

Really, “marketing” just means being considerate.

Marketing means making it easy for people to notice you, relate to you, remember you, and tell their friends about you.

Marketing means listening for what people need, and creating something surprisingly tailored for them.

Marketing means getting to know people, making a deeper connection, and keeping in touch.

All of these are just considerate – looking at things from the other person’s point of view, and doing what’s best for them.

A lot of [musicians] say, “I hate marketing!” So, yah, if you thought marketing meant turning off your creativity, spending lots of money, and being annoying, then it’s a good thing you don’t like that. Nobody likes that.

Just find creative ways to be considerate. That’s the best marketing.

WOW.

I’ve been in the marketing industry for about a decade, and this perfectly sums up what my teams and I try to do every day, but in a way I’ve never thought of before. Because as marketers, we often make things more complicated than they need to be. Having the perfect creative, perfect copy, perfect landing page and calls to action, perfect audience, perfect platforms with perfect geofencing… the list goes on and on.

There is definitely a difference between ‘marketing’ and ‘advertising.’ But boiling ‘marketing’ down into those three “marketing means…” statements above hits the nail on the head.

How often, as with many aspects of life, do we make things more complicated than they need to be? Probably several times per day. Let’s take a moment to take a step back. What really matters? Why are we doing what we are doing? Who are we trying to help? What story are we trying to tell? Can it all boil down simply to being considerate? To being creative?

When applying this to your side-hustle or freelance career, think about what your ‘marketing’ and brand means. Are you making it easy for people to notice and relate to you? Will they remember you? Tell others about you? Are you listening to what people need? Getting to know them? Making connections? Doing what’s best for your clients? Until you answer yes to all of those questions, keep working. Keep striving to answer yes. Because once you do, I think you’ll find a whole new meaning to what you do.

I’m not there yet. But this year, you bet I’ll be working hard to make it.