This is about the single most powerful way a creative business grows. And it’s not the thing you’ll hear almost anywhere else, which is rather the point.
It isn’t posting more. It isn’t being everywhere, all the time. It isn’t finally cracking the algorithm. It’s something much quieter, and something, I think, you’re already rather good at, even if you’d never once have thought to call it a strength.
It’s reaching out. Directly, and thoughtfully, to the right people.
I know that might not be what you were hoping I’d say. Because there’s an enormous amount out there, whole courses and programmes, very cleverly telling you how easy and effortless some particular kind of marketing is. And I understand the appeal completely, because it’s exactly what we all secretly want, isn’t it. We want the marketing to just work, quietly, in the background, without much effort, so that we can get back to the creative work we actually love. That’s the dream. But so often, those lovely, effortless-sounding promises really only serve the person selling them.
Because the honest truth, as I’ve come to see it, is that reaching out directly is the thing that moves a creative business more than anything else. And it’s also, funnily enough, the thing almost all of us quietly avoid.
It can feel like the most unglamorous thing in the world. So it becomes the job we put off, week after week. And it’s so easy to put off, especially when you tell yourself, right, I just need to focus on Instagram this week, or I just need to get my head around this new bit of marketing everyone’s talking about. You feel busy. You feel like you’re doing something. And all the while, you’re not quite getting to the one thing that would actually make the difference.
There’s a distinction here that changed everything for me, and I’d love to pass it on. When you make a beautiful post for Instagram, and put it out, and wait to see how it does, you are, in a way, working for Instagram. You’re handing the platform your content, and hoping. And yes, there’s a place for that, and some exposure can come of it. But reaching out directly is a different thing altogether. It’s not content for a platform. It’s growth that belongs entirely to you. It’s the proactive thing, the thing no algorithm sits in the middle of.
And here is what I most want you to know, if you’re the sort of person who’s just read all this with a slight sinking feeling, thinking that surely this is for the bold, loud, naturally salesy types, and not for you.
It’s the opposite. It really is.
Because this isn’t the pushy, cold, salesy thing you might be picturing. It’s relationship building. It’s noticing someone whose work you admire, understanding what they care about, and offering something that genuinely helps them. It’s the most human thing there is. And the very qualities that might make you doubt yourself here, your thoughtfulness, your care, your genuine interest in other people, are exactly the qualities that make you wonderful at it. The gentle, quietly spoken creative is so often the one who does this best of all.
It doesn’t have to be complicated, either. You go to one person, rather than a faceless company inbox. You take the time to understand them. You’re clear about why you’re writing, and how it might help them, and you make the next step easy. And then, and this is the part almost everyone forgets, you follow up, gently, because silence is so rarely a no. People are simply busy. A quiet inbox is not a closed door.
I see this again and again with the creatives I work with. The ones moving forward fastest aren’t the loudest, or the most naturally confident, or the ones with the biggest followings. They’re the ones quietly, consistently reaching out, in their own way, and building real relationships one by one. Some do it through careful, researched emails. Some simply turn up and offer to help, expecting nothing. Some are just steadily, bravely persistent, long after most people would have stopped. There’s no single right way. There’s only your way.
And perhaps that’s the real thing to sit with. So much of the growth you might be waiting for, hoping it will arrive through the next post, or the next tactic, or the next clever thing, is very often just one thoughtful message away. To one real person. And you already have everything you need to write it.
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