How you can have confident marketing
Your confidence, marketing and being human!
It’s a challenge when you run a business to always be confident in your marketing. How do you show what you’re selling, how you work, get new clients all while being human too.
In a recent episode of the Confidence Conversations podcast, I sat down with fractional Marketing Director and AI Marketing Consultant, Patrick Brownlee‑Smith, for a lively and honest discussion about confidence, in life, in business, and especially in marketing.
Patrick has over 25 years’ experience in marketing, yet what struck me most wasn’t the technical stuff… it was how human his approach is. Here are the key themes and takeaways from our conversation.
Confidence vs Arrogance & Why Preparation Matters
Patrick made a brilliant distinction between confidence and arrogance. For him, confidence is grounded in reality, in preparation, and in knowing you’ve put the work in. Arrogance, however, is “unproven confidence”, confidence without substance.
He shared that he feels confident when he’s prepared, when he’s thought things through, and when he trusts his own experience. And yet, he also spoke about the importance of not caring too much, not in a dismissive way, but in recognising that if you fluff a sentence or lose your train of thought, nothing catastrophic will happen.
The perfect mix of preparation and perspective.
“Nobody is Thinking About You.” A welcome reframe.
One of my favourite moments was when Patrick said: “Most people are too busy thinking about themselves to be judging you.”
It’s so true.
We build stories in our heads about how everyone is analysing our every move, particularly in meetings and networking, but really, everyone else is just trying to get through their own internal thoughts or manage their inner critic.
This reframing changed the way one of my clients showed up at work, in meetings, and it comes up in so many coaching sessions. We care, of course we do, but we often care about the wrong things. What matters is how you want to show up, not what you imagine others might be thinking.
Gender Dynamics: Why Confidence looks Different for Men & Women
Patrick spoke openly about how society treats confidence differently depending on gender. The example of job ads came up: the classic story where a man applies if he meets two out of twelve criteria, while a woman won’t apply if she can’t tick them all.
As he put it, men are often culturally taught to assume they’ll be fine, whereas women are taught, implicitly or explicitly, to wait until they’re certain. And that plays out in meetings, leadership, and of course, in marketing our businesses.
This resonated deeply. Women often feel they need to “work twice as hard” or hold back to avoid being labelled as “too much.” Whereas men are expected to “hold the room,” which brings its own assumptions and pressures.
Marketing Made Simple: Know your Audience and Talk to Them
If you’ve ever felt overwhelmed by marketing, Patrick wants you to breathe.
His core message? Marketing is simple:
Know your audience. Understand the problem you solve. Then talk to them — clearly, consistently, confidently.
People often overcomplicate it, especially small businesses. We feel we need to be creative all the time, produce something new every day, or speak to “everyone.” But speaking to everyone usually means speaking to no one.
Specificity builds connection. Vagueness builds nothing.
And the reminder I absolutely loved: You will get bored of your marketing long before your audience does. Repetition isn’t boring; it’s actually brilliant!
Content, AI and Authenticity
AI came up (of course it did). And Patrick’s view is refreshingly realistic: AI is brilliant for speed, scale and data, but humans must remain responsible for strategy, creativity and insight.
He also shared one of my favourite AI truths: AI sounds confident even when it’s completely wrong. Which links back to our conversation about real human confidence vs. artificial confidence.
I loved this bit, too: we both agreed that AI should spark ideas, not replace your voice. I never copy and paste AI outputs; I add my own take, my own tone, my own experience. That human element matters more now than ever.
Vulnerability in Marketing, The Real Kind
We talked about how “vulnerability” has become a marketing buzzword. But authentic vulnerability, not the overly curated kind, can deepen connection and brings the human element to it. Patrick shared that as someone running his own business, he’s selling him, not just his skills. People want the full picture: your strengths, your lessons, your humanity. But vulnerability shouldn’t become your whole personality either.
It’s a balance. Share enough to be relatable, not so much that it becomes your entire brand.
Movement, Mental Health & Confidence
In the quick fire questions at the end of the episode, we transitioned somehow to movement. This really resonated with me.
When asked about daily habits for confidence, Patrick didn’t talk about strategy, planning or productivity. He talked about movement.
- Walking
- Swimming
- Getting outside
- Letting your mind settle so your thoughts become clearer
I couldn’t agree more. For me, “calm and stillness” often show up in the form of a walk with a coffee and an empty field or by the sea, not sitting in silence at home alone at my desk.
Clarity builds confidence. Movement can often build clarity.
Experiment, Make Mistakes, and Keep iterating
A key lesson from Patrick’s marketing career is that creativity comes from testing, tweaking and sometimes failing.
You don’t learn by playing it safe. You learn by trying something new, evaluating what worked, and improving it.
And remember this phrase from the Confidence Conversations Podcast episode with Vanda Varga, “You either succeed, or you learn.”
If we could approach both marketing and confidence with that view, wouldn’t it be great!
And finally..
My conversation with Patrick was insightful, honest and refreshingly real. We covered everything from gender dynamics and inner critics to AI, repetition, vulnerability and movement, all through the lens of confidence.
In summary, if you want to feel more confident in your marketing:
- Know your audience intimately.
- Repeat messages that matter.
- Keep it human.
- Move your body.
- Test and learn.
- And remember nobody is thinking about you as much as you think they are.
Watch the full episode below:
Check out my other blogs including my Top Ten Tips for Self Trust, which can help with trusting yourself in your marketing!
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