The Sensitive CEO Show

Marketing to Your Strengths as a Sensitive with Christina Frei

February 20, 2023 Rose Cox / Christina Frei Episode 26
The Sensitive CEO Show
Marketing to Your Strengths as a Sensitive with Christina Frei
Show Notes Transcript

Christina Frei is a marketing consultant and author who helps solo business owners find their voice, market to their strengths, and get the right clients consistently. A recent TEDx speaker, Christina is the creator of the Generosity Practice mindset work and the Innate Marketing Genius tools and method. In between, she chases her dog around with a stuffed animal snake, meditates on a pink couch, cold plunges like Wim Hof in the ocean, and obsesses over the perfect cup of green tea, all in a seaside town north of Boston.

đź’ť Key Takeaways

  • What the five marketing archetypes are and the strengths of each one.
  • Where this model of the marketing archetypes originated.
  • How to tell a great story based on your marketing archetype.
  • How knowing your marketing archetype can help you as a sensitive to get more clients by telling your story.
  • Christina shares the Generosity Practice that her TEDx talk is based around and how this can help you as an HSP to feel both grounded and expansive at the same time.

đź“š Resources Mentioned

What is your Innate Marketing Genius assessment

The Generosity Practice Book: 40 Days to Unstoppable

đź”— Where You Can Find Christina

Website: https://www.innatemarketinggenius.com/

Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/christina.frei/

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/innatemarketinggenius

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christina-frei/

Podcast: Marketing for Humans

 đźŚą Rose's Resources

The HSP Business School

Work With Me

[FREE] UpLevel Your Business Mindset Hypnosis

[FREE] HSP Archetype Quiz

[FREE] Facebook Community for HSP Entrepreneurs

Ep#26 - Marketing to Your Strengths as a Sensitive with Christina Frei

Rose: Hey, it's Rose and welcome to another episode of the Sensitive CEO Show. And in this week's episode, it's my pleasure to introduce you to Christina Frei. Christina is a marketing consultant and author who helps solo business owners find their voice, market their strengths and get the right clients consistently.

So welcome, Christina. It's lovely to talk with you today. 

Christina:. Yeah, thank you, Rose. Thanks for having me. 

Rose: You're most welcome. And I did a concise intro, but I would love for you to introduce yourself more in-depth and let everyone who's listening today learn a little bit more about you. 

Christina: Yeah, and as a marketer, this is the Perennial Marketing Challenge.

How to introduce oneself. Okay, here we go. So I focus on this innate quality in every business owner where they come alive in service to other humans. So like, it's your lane of joyful contribution. Call it that. I also call it your marketing archetype. So my marketing starts with that. And, it, what that does is it becomes this beautiful engine of, wow, I can't wait to get out there and make a difference in people's lives and, you know, help them make good decisions.

And hopefully, that includes working with me. You know, so it starts with that beautiful lane of service, which then translates to a great brand story. Like how do you differ from others? And then that also helps. It is choosing a strategy of the 10,000 ways to get out there. So like, it's all about starting with your heart of service.

It will make things much more streamlined and straightforward, and there will be momentum, which everybody can use these days. 

Rose: Oh, I love that. And I love that you talk about marketing archetypes. Can you share how you discovered the marketing archetypes Christina? 

Christina: I was doing a field study.

I've done a few of these in my career, and I was working with 40 different business owners to create their marketing plan, and I was trying something different. I wanted to use a spiritual practice that I've been using forever. We might talk about it later, but anyway, this sort of, I call it, the generosity practice was an deep version of it.

This is where I go into the lingo and confuse people, but let me keep it short and sweet by saying it reveals just. Again, the most incredible way that you come alive in service to others. I would take people on a guided journey to discover that in themselves. And I have this sneaky, beautiful way of helping people get there.

But what happened was with every business owner they all had this archetype like I would take them on a journey, and they would learn all this stuff about their messaging, but I also identified, Hey, you seem like a natural, what I would call an adventure guide, right? Someone who sees what's possible for people way before they do, and you're so bold in your own life that you inspire us all to go for it.

Like, who are you? This is awesome. We need to put that in your messaging. And I kept going with that and realised there are five extreme categories. I can get more detailed, but like you could be a nurturer. And I said, you know, I said, adventure guide, door opener, steady presence, or celebrator. And each one of these has its magic voodoo sauce of really being compelling and making a difference in other people's lives.

So I could geek out about that, but it just started with a field study, like looking at 40 people’s ways of getting out there and loving to help others. Translating that into messaging and realising, there are some archetypes here. People, let's, you know, let's do something with this. 

Rose: Oh, it sounds amazing.

And that's a perfect way to find out to do the field study and dive into that. But I would love to dive into each of the archetypes if you are willing to share what the qualities and everything of each one is please.

Christina:. Yes, all day long. I swear certain things are just never boring.

No matter how much you talk about them, this is one of them, and maybe you will agree once you hear what they are; so, if you're a nurturer, here's a dead giveaway. You are the one who quickly makes it warm and fuzzy like you love to make it safe with the purpose of other people thriving out of that sanctuary and safety that brings you to life.

Many people are exhausted by that, but you're not; that enlivens you as a nurturer. So that's the giveaway there. Okay. If you're an adventure guide, the dead giveaway is that you tend to be a little impatient that other people go for it. That’s a little bit of the edge of an adventure guide because, You and I said this before, but I'll repeat it.

You see what's possible. You see these bold goals on the horizon for people that they have yet to consider, and since you tend to go for big things yourself, you then inspire people to go big or go home. Then the third category is a door opener, which is about something other than networking. It's more about.

Seeing things from many different perspectives, being a natural educator. And, the challenge for a door opener is that you have so many ideas and ways to solve problems and, you know, different ways of looking at things that you're the one who needs to take a yoga class just to focus and embody and land on one idea at a time that you would like to present to the world.

Okay. And then the fourth category is a steady presence, and that's, out of all the types, the one that most resists marketing because, if you're a steady presence, you love to be the calm in the storm for the people you serve. So you tend to be this deep treasure trove of, of course, expertise but also resources and network.

You know so many people, but you lean back and let people come to you. You don't want to go out there chasing. I have many clients that are steady presences because there's a particular way to get out there. You don't have to chase people, I promise. So, if you're a celebrator, this is opposed to a steady presence where you want to bring the good life to people and do it on your own flair. 

So you could be like the life of the party, the funniest person around you could be the one that has all the, like, oh, you should do that colour and that colour, like this sort of design sense or artistic sense. So there’s a unique flair that you bring to the table many times without even realising it.

So that is what drives you. You love bringing the good life, and I tell you, during the last two and a half, bonkers years, celebrator energy is what I noticed was most missing in our lives. So I'm so glad that things start opening up or are opened up in a big way because I've missed that energy.

Like, come on, let's like raise the roof and have a good time again. 

Rose: Absolutely.And I would love for you to share which one you are, which archetype you are, Christina. 

Christina: Oh yeah. Let's get a little personal. So, the nurturer is prominent. And then I have a secondary, which is a door opener. So my, if you go real, my particular archetype is that I'm a nurturer of great ideas in other people.

If I’m doing that for anyone, I’m on a mission. That makes me so fulfilled. 

Rose: So you answered another of my questions. I wanted to ask if you can be more than one. 

Christina: Yes, yes, you can. Although there are 200 talks on this topic, every time people ask me that question.

So with much forethought, some people are very tempted to be all five. And let me say, I completely understand that they're all awesome, they're all wonderful, and frankly, we all have every facet of this in us. So where I'm humbly offering this model for when you feel. I am doing everything and feel completely scattered and so pressured to do everything to get my name out there.

How can I focus? And you can focus by finding your deepest why. What's your most resounding why when you get out there and help people? That's all I'm trying to do here. People, it just helped with that. You have every one of those categories in you. I am not going to argue that. 

Rose: So, finding your marketing archetype helps you to find your why?

Christina: Yeah. I would even say, I mean, I could go all, all through, the five and just tell you, like them, the deepest why in nurture is they want to make it safe for others to thrive. The deepest reason for an adventure guide is that everyone reaches for their—biggest goals. The door opener is that people see all possibilities in how you perceive things. For a steady presence is you've got what you need to get from here to there, like, I've got your back.

And then celebrators is, I'm, you know, that you live the good life. Those are the whys that drive it. Sorry if I wasn't clear about that before. 

Rose: No, that's fine. I love this whole framework, and it's such a lovely, succinct way to understand yourself and your clients.

Christina: Yes. We could talk about that all day long. Absolutely. 

Rose: So how do you, or how do people discover their archetype, their main one? 

Christina: Yeah, so I spent a good year with an wonderful market researcher and cooked up an assessment. So there's a 35-question assessment. So yeah, get out a cup of tea because it's going to take a little while, like seven minutes of your life.

And it's at innatemarketinggenius.com/assessment. I'll say that. innatemarketinggenius.com/assessment. It's a free assessment, and after you take it, you'll find out which one or ones that you are, and then you'll get a bunch of love letters from me telling you things like, If you were a sock, like if, if you're a celebrator, this is what you would look like if you were a sock.

And it has this rainbow sock. I had much fun with those emails because I want people to be entirely over the moon with being whatever they are. Yeah. 

Rose: Wonderful. I will pop that link to your assessment in the show notes because that's, I'm sure, that's something, seven minutes is a little short, and I'm sure that's something many people would love to do, so Awesome. Now I have to ask the steady presence one. You said there are ways to market that, I am trying to remember your actual word, but I made a note to ask you.

So what are some beautiful ways to market for a steady presence archetype?

Christina: So I always start with the right questions to ask if you are and how to tell your story. So I'll start with how to tell your story. So when you get out there and talk about what you do, what is critical is giving yourself a big old permission slip to geek out in public.

So I’m asking you to consider, okay? Let's say you're an attorney or a coach of any variety. There’s a conference where you're going to learn something and deep dive into your profession, and you say to yourself, well, I'm going to learn all that stuff, but it is way over everyone's head.

I'm not going to share that with my community. So when I come back, I say, Hey, wait for a second; please go and geek out about that. Even if you confuse us a little bit by going over our heads with the depth of your knowledge, what's compelling about your story is not that we get it; it’s that you get it, and we need you.

You’re just showing this deep passion for what you do, and your job is not necessarily to educate us as a door opener would. It's more to intrigue us, and like, Ooh, this person knows so much that I didn't even know to ask that question, and that's what gets them to reach out to you, right? So that's one thing.

And that can be with a conference you go to, a book you read, or a course you take. I don't care what it is. Just deep dive on something and then go ahead and share it however you see fit. Also, as a steady presence, you are a pillar. I'm calling you a pillar because that's what we want for you: steadiness.

And one way to act that way is to be a leader in your community for the greater good. So you could be involved in something like a nonprofit or something in the town that you live in, and you're just helping out outside of your profession. So if you talk about that, that will also have us sit up, listen, support you, and see you as, wow, this person's not going anywhere.

We can rely on them. We want to do business with them. So that is compelling for all types. But, still, there is something incredible about a steady presence leaning in with that in their marketing. I don't always recommend that to everybody, but I do with study presences; I see it all the time.

I don’t know; sometimes, when I started doing this, I couldn't even explain why it was compelling. I was always like this radar, like, why is it I find that person fascinating? That's what I was studying all the time, so I would sit there watching someone talk about Auto insurance and I was riveted, and I'm like, I don't care anything.

Like, I don't care about auto insurance. Why am I so intrigued by this, man? And it turns out he was a steady presence, and we had a good laugh about that, that that's happened many times. 

Rose: Wow, that's so powerful. I love that each one has its own story. So now that you've shared that one, I would love for you to share the other four if you're up for it.

Christina: Oh yeah, we're going deep. Okay. You're getting my entire course here. So if you're willing to listen, listener, here we go. All right. And one fun thing to do that I encourage people to do when I give talks is, You know, take a wild guess. Like which one do you lean into the most? And, when I share with you how to tell your story as this type, that's perfect to feel that out.

Like, okay, so if you're a nurturer, for example, one thing that nurtures worries about is freaking everyone out. And I'm here to tell you that as a card-carrying nurturer, people trust us so much that you can actually be real about the suffering people are in because they want to be seen by you.

They want to be acknowledged by you. They feel safe enough to get honest about the pain points, so you don't need to swoop in with the good news and solutions right out the gate. We want you to just. Pause and slow down and honour people's path and where they are. Nurtures are good at that.

And then you tell stories about getting from that tough place to, you know, through and, and to the other side, wherever that is. And then what you do is offer relief at the end. And that can come in many forms. Often it's just meeting with you or talking with you or something you’re offering as the evident relief.

So that's a nurturer. An adventure guide is very different. Adventure guide is about how my life will change if I work with you. And what's interesting about sharing that vision, because that's what I ask adventure guides to do, is share the idea of what's possible. So if we work with you, we can hear how we get there.

No one cares that. It's like the opposite of the steady presence. We don't need to hear any geeky details, even though we know you know them. We need to see, okay, if you're. But, again, since we're in the coach-coachee territory, I'm a coach. You know, you're, you're a coach. So, if you, you're going to, if I'm going to coach with you, Rose, I want you to tell me, like, paint the picture of what my life is going to look like if I were to coach with you.

And it can be general. It doesn't have to be, you know, a specific moment because I know everyone's lives are different. But, or like a financial advisor, you know what, what could open up if I got things together by working with you, and I don't need to hear about 401k. Or I, you guys don't have this, but we don't need to hear about retirement plan opportunities.

We don't care about an adventure guide. So, talk about what you're up to. What are you reaching for that's really bold, adventurous, and big life thing? Because when we see you do it, we want to do it too. 

Rose: So it's a way of inspiring others. 

Christina: Yeah. Modelling the behaviour.

Like, yeah. Yeah. And then door openers are, again, the natural educators. I call door openers like a diamond mind, right? With many, many facets. So the way to tell your story is to look around at the people you're working with. Determine what one of the biggest challenges is common.

What’s a common challenge that people wrestle with? That’s why, when they come to you to work with you, they ask yourself, okay, full door opener mode. What are the 50 ways you could help them with that challenge? And, like, go for it. Just put all that spaghetti on the wall, then take a walk with your dog, or take a breath and figure out a way to just land on the one thing you're going to focus on and help with them. 

And then, when you offer that, ensure you have a low-risk way to try it out. Like, you know, if you were a software company, it'd be a 14-day trial. Like everyone has their version of dipping their toe in the water.

Door openers are asking people to innovate. So they need to make it a little easier to do that because it's confronting. I've already talked about steady presence, so I will skip to a celebrator. Celebrators are the ones that believe me the least when I say this to them.

So Celebrators have a much easier time having enjoyment and liveliness in their life and then in their work. Everyone else can't get enough of that. So all we need you to do is look around your work, your clients, and whoever likes you and share that stuff as much as humanly possible. You don't have to work too hard.

That's number one. Number two is, whom are the people around you acting like incredible leaders? Your job as a celebrator is to appreciate that openly and one, tried and true and the actual example I love is during, I'll use American instance for a second, but the Nasa Space program was a substantial darn deal back in the day, and it was likely they were not going to get the billions of dollars.

You know, that's just a massive effort. But because President Kennedy and many science fiction writers at the time recognised, oh my gosh, this is the best. Like they appreciated this organisation’s leadership, I will say that's a huge reason the American public got behind it.

And then the money went. So that's the power of a celebrator appreciating leadership. It can move mountains. So two things for celebrators. Enjoy the heck out of your work and share it and, like, bring your party to the masses. I don't care how you do it. And then appreciate leadership..


Rose: Thank you for diving into all of that. That's amazing. I love all of that. I'm going to have to re-listen to this myself; how can all of this information help a sensitive person to get their story out there and to help them to get more clients? 

Christina: Well, I am sensitive myself, and here is what I want to point out.

One thing that might be a helpful distinction so many times, I have training at the Berkeley Psychic Institute in Berkeley, California. Like the last place I ever thought I would end up in. But what I learned when I was there was how to look at energy, look at the point instead of being at the effect.

It was like a game changer for me because I was always walking around with blobs of emotions that I was like, why am I even feeling all this stuff? It was so confusing, and the first time I finally found language, tools, perspective, and excellent communication. And one thing that I came to, I'm going deep here, but bear with me, is that when we’re sensitive, we often think we need to be protected and on some level that is true. So there is something to be said about honouring that we are exposed, like yes, 100%. However, it's straightforward to step into a place of defence if we constantly focus on, well, I need to be protected.

You know, if I've been exploring as a sensitive, my relationship with. Feeling safe and doing that without shutting down to the world is like a journey of a lifetime right there. Like how the heck do you feel grounded and stable and safe, but also open and ready to, right, like interact with, I mean, I can sit in a room like in a, frankly, in a closet with a dog for the next ten years and be perfectly fine, but like I got a business to run, so, one of the things that I'm very aware of is like I used to do a ton of meditation.

I still do, but it was very much focused on. Like my space, like what do I need? And then, I would go out into my daily life and feel like someone energetically punched me in the face. And I would always want to go back to either taking your yoga class or doing meditation and feeling safe again.

And when I started doing what I'm going to describe to you right now is the generosity practice. It was the first time I finally stopped needing that protection. And here's what it entailed. And by the way, I talk about this in my TEDx talk, so stay tuned, But anyway, it's you.

I mean, for me, it's like you close your eyes. You contemplate that you have access to all the riches of whatever, whatever abundance means to you and that you get to decide what the gift, like the gift in this hot minute that would bring you to life, to offer to somebody else and be fulfilling and benefit them.

And the question of the practice is what feels good to offer to live. So, that's like the foundation of the whole thing. And I’m condensing, you know, weeks of studying this practice into a two-minute description of what this is. But like what I found, when you focus that way, and it gets creative, and it's like, oh, I'd like to give puppies, I'd like to provide world peace.

I'd like, right? This is a fun contemplation but. but also if you let yourself sink into that possibility. What I find, and this is, I've studied this also in some field studies with people in five different countries where people also like in Australia, someone was in Perth at the time.

But anyway, one of the feedback that I got was that while they felt expansive and open doing the practice, they also felt incredibly grounded. And when I heard that feedback, I almost, like, I just cried, and I should have just dropped to my knees and thankfulness because that's what I'd been looking for forever.

Like how to be stable, steady and also loving, and open so that I felt safe offering whatever I was going to offer, and then I could be much more generous, which is why I call it the generosity practice. I mean, that's just a name I gave. I don't care what it's called. But yeah, I've just been watching that too.

I've studied the archetypes but also learned the impact of this way of being. It utterly fascinates me for obvious reasons. So I want to speak to that as a sensitive because I think we can get easily preoccupied with protection. This has been one of the most powerful ways to move through that.

Rose: That's just amazing. It's like music to my ears. You share, you share that. It just feels so unwelcoming; I can't think of the word, but permission-giving maybe that. Yeah. We are sensitive. We are; many of us are empathic as well, which I know, you are—but being able to act shares that.

Yeah, that's beautiful, and I'm excited to watch your TED Talk. I will pop the link to that in the show notes as well. Thank you. And, also, I know you've written a book, Christina. So I'll be popping that in. Is that around the generosity practice or the marketing archetypes? 

Christina: It is. For a few years, a few people had been saying; you’ve been teaching this thing for like seven years, eight years by now; it’s time to put it in writing.

And I really, I didn't think I could do it. But, you know, I worked with a great team, and it's now; I call it a beautiful workbook because it's a 40-day program in a book. And I wanted to put as much life and beauty into that book, and I think I nailed it, if I do say so myself, with much help from great designers.

Rose: Wonderful. I look forward to checking that out as well. Well, thank you so much for everything you've shared today. Before I let you go, I wanted to ask you one question I asked all of my guests. When you feel overwhelmed or unfocused, what do you do? 

Christina: I love this question. I was thinking about this today in the car, with all the spiritual tools I have; if I'm overwhelmed, journalling.

That's it. I love sitting down with a journal because it lets my brain breathe. It allows my body to slow down. Like everything just gently slows down. It's like, for me, that's what I need. I need help to gear shift out of go, go, go even though I need to.

So yeah, journaling. I could talk your ear about it, but I’ll leave it. 

Rose: I love that. Thank you so much, and thank you again for everything you’ve shared today, and I encourage listeners to go and check out all the links in the show notes. 

Christina: Thanks so much, Rose. Great to be here.