Intuition, Marketing and “The Pull”

I’ve been thinking about intuition. Specifically, I’ve been thinking about intuition while reading Firefly Magic: Heart Powered Marketing for Highly Sensitive Writers by Lauren Sapala (BTW, there is a countdown deal going for this for another day and a half as of this writing. It’s currently 99 cents). This is not your average marketing book. It delves into the challenges that highly sensitive writers face while trying to market their work. It goes into a lot of “mindset” type stuff, which I love, because it always gets me thinking about beliefs I might be carrying that are blocking me from something.

Anyways, one of the latest chapters I read, spoke to the idea of simply following your intuition while coming up with marketing ideas, as opposed to obeying all the best practices out there that the experts write about (not that you shouldn’t read about and research all those things though, you probably should). I loved this, because in my better moments, it’s exactly what I do. But what about in those other moments, the ones where I’m doubting myself?

And that’s the thing. Intuition is based on feelings and sensations, not on data or numbers or an analysis of something. If you’re an intuitive person, you know what I mean when I talk about “pull.” As in, you just feel pulled toward something. There’s no reason why, you just get the feeling that you want to go in a certain direction. And that’s really difficult in certain areas of life.

Like marketing, which is business-related and affects sales. For some reason, I’ll sometimes act like my intuition doesn’t apply in that area, when it’s helped me in all areas of my life. It’s my preference for making decisions.

But that can feel overly risky. And especially if you start telling other people that that is what you’re doing. The feedback you’ll get when you start telling people that you’re basing decisions on a “feeling.” Oh my.

The truth is that it’s probably much less risky for me to base decisions on intuition than on analysis, because, honestly, I have no real feel for analysis in terms of decision making. Or if I do, it’s always secondary to my initial gut feeling.

Intuition can lead you off to some really interesting places. Much more interesting than anything you could have come up with in your rational mind. That’s the fun of it. There’s a reason you’re getting the pull. You just don’t know why until you get there. But you have to get used to walking forward blindly. Although, really, you’re not blind. You’re just not using your eyes.

I can’t say I’ve come up with any really original marketing ideas, but I’m always keeping my eyes open for opportunities and when I see an opportunity and feel the pull I go for it. Say, for instance, I’m looking to advertise in a bargain ebook newsletter or website. I could look around the web for data on how well other authors have done with that newsletter or site, but mostly, I just pay attention to what kind of feeling I’m getting and if I feel the pull, I know it’s right.

On the flip side of this, sometimes there is a perfectly viable opportunity where I’m not feeling the pull, and if that’s the case, I let it go (most of the time, sometimes I do go for it and it never works out). That seems really weird, even to me, sometimes, but I have to believe that my intuition knows something that I don’t and I’ll just let that opportunity pass me by.

I find it difficult, however, when I really want to do some marketing (or more likely, my sales reports are a little dry and I’m starting to panic), and I’m not feeling the pull to anything. It’s hard to find that patience to wait and it also seems not that smart. But I don’t like to base decisions on fear or anxiety anyway so it’s probably a good thing. Still, it can be hard to trust.

Any intuitive people, writers or marketers out there? Any intuition stories to share? Leave them in the comments.

Amanda Linehan is the author of North, about a young woman on the run from her past, the law and an old adversary out to get her. Her newest release is Bored To Death: A Vampire Thriller, about a 300-year-old vampire trying to restore the balance between life and death. She has published five novels.