🫂Managing Your Mind When You Mess Up Your Marketing

And you will. I'm sorry but you will

Hi hello, Wil here! HAPPY HALLOWEEEEEEEN!!! 🎃👻🧙🏻🕷️🍬🦇🔮🍫🍁

We are midway into our Marketing Scares Series for spooky month. And I must talk to you about the scariest thing of all: whales. Oh sorry what? Sorry, hold on, Shreya’s telling me that’s not actually related to marketing. Not even with how big they are? It’s too big — no? Okay. Then I guess I’ll talk about failure, messing up, and embarrassing yourself.

I have been told I come across as confident, tuned in, and comfortable in what I’m saying. This, reader, is hogwash. My levels of anxiety are, in the real words of my real psychiatrist, “through the roof.” And what makes me more anxious than just about anything else is making an embarrassing mistake at another person I respect.

You know what’s cool about being phenomenally anxious? Your brain is doing so much that it can lead to making some small, silly mistakes. I have messed up royally when marketing a show many a time and lived to tell the tale. And if you make a mistake, I promise you can survive too.

❌DO NOT SAY MORE WORDS IMMEDIATELY

Unless your mistake is very small (think a typo in someone’s name, forgetting to add an attachment), do not immediately try to fix your mistake. Get your hands off your keyboard, off your phone, and go walk around for five minutes. Anxiety will tell you that urgency is the most important thing in the world, and it is a liar. It is trying to get you to make more mistakes.

Take an actual real for real breath. Take an actual real for real walk if you can. Just please, do not immediately start trying to fix the problem and make yourself even more problems.

🤔Make sure it was a mistake, and make sure it was yours

I once got a reply from someone telling me that it was illegal for me to have found their email address and that they were reporting my workplace. Because I am so anxious, I immediately assumed they were right and that I was an awful person. But because I followed the last tip, the little break helped me move back away from the anxiety and ask myself: “Hold up, is that nothing?”

Reader, it was nothing. It was a public email address. It was like, right there.

Just because someone tells you that you’ve messed up doesn’t mean you actually have. You do not have to apologize and take accountability for something you didn’t really do wrong. Did this guy want to be emailed? No, obviously. Is there any way I could have known that without emailing him? No, obviously. Make sure you’re not beating yourself up for no reason.

❤️‍🩹NOW say more words

Now that you’ve identified the mistake, or it had been identified for you, apologize. You can give a little context for what happened (“Sorry, I’m so sick right now!” or even “Sorry, total rookie mistake on my move!”) but don’t deflect or try to shirk responsibility. Don’t make the apology about the explanation. Be honest, and feel free to goof on yourself a little bit if it’s appropriate. Remember that literally everyone makes mistakes.

The thing about podcasting is that everyone here is really nice and really normal. I’ve talked to some of my favorite podcasters about how being “podcast famous” isn’t as real as it might seem to many folks with smaller shows (keep an eye out on Good Tape for more on that). I’ve had meetings where some of the biggest names in podcasting say that they’ll happily guest on any podcast that asks, because they don’t think of themselves as famous or important.

Most people in podcasting will be happy to forgive a mistake in marketing, especially if the mistake isn’t accidentally cruel. It happens. People are typically more willing to see others in good faith than you might expect.

🤡Get sillay

Your mileage may vary here, especially depending on the situation. But as long as your mistake was small enough, or unserious enough, go embrace the jester spirit with a closed, private group chat. I do this even when I’m still feeling genuinely bad about whatever mistake I made; it helps me remember to take myself less seriously. Do not do this if you’re someone who gets defensive — but mistakes are a great opportunity to work on becoming less defensive, too.

🌟 More Magic: 

• I am SO EXCITED For Black Girl Gamers’ new podcast, Ani-Mutuals. As someone who only recently got back into anime hard after growing up on Sailor Moon and Tenchi Muyo, I cannot wait for these fun conversations about anime and cosplay with Black Whimsy and SuperNamu. You can find it on podcatchers and YouTube!

• Speaking of YouTube: Obsessed with Tom Webster’s series about video and podcast discovery over at Sounds Profitable. This is a huge conversation in the industry that you need to be following.

• Evo Terra’s absolutely incredible directory of finished audio fiction, The End, has hit over 1000 entries! Looking for your next fiction to marathon? Look no further. Congrats, Evo! 💖🌵💖

• Brazen (Fur & Loathing, The Sound: Mystery Of Havana Syndrome), one of the networks I’m always watching for new releases, has announced their new advisory board, including Former BFI Chair and Warner Bros. U.K.’s Josh Berger! Congrats, all! I was also very excited to get a little preview of Brazen’s upcoming The Illuminator, and you’re not going to want to miss it.

🎥 From the Desk of Tink

You know what I have other than anxiety? Mystery chronic illnesses! [One million airhorn noises!] Heal Your Gut, Save Your Brain is a weekly podcast that dives into the fascinating connections between gut health and brain health from a deeply scientific perspective. Walk away with actionable steps and a much greater understanding of your body. Let’s go eat some kimchi and yogurt.

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Next week, Shreya returns with an exciting interview!

Stay spooky!

—Wil🦇