Why Your Marketing Isn't a Discipline Problem, It's a Capacity Problem

If you've ever told yourself your marketing would finally click if you could just be more disciplined, this episode is going to challenge that. I'm joined by Mary Martinez, founder of Mary Diana Designs, an interior design firm creating sensory-informed spaces for neurodivergent families in Portland.

Mary came to design after years as a biomedical engineer and software engineer, and she walked in convinced that consistency was her biggest weakness. By the end of our conversation, we found out she'd already solved the exact thing she'd been beating herself up about. She just hadn't given herself credit for it.

We talk through her actual marketing capacity as a mom of two young kids, why LinkedIn and Instagram have been pulling her in different directions, and how to figure out which platform should carry which job in your funnel. We get into the mental load of marketing, the difference between a discipline problem and a capacity problem, and why referrals, networking, and even ads might matter more than another hour on Instagram.

If you've been spiraling around whether your problem is volume, messaging, or both, this conversation will help you get honest about your real capacity and build a plan around it instead of around guilt.

Connect with Mary at maridianadesigns.com or on Instagram.

Join the next Marketing Mixer, a virtual networking event for mom founders. 

Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast so you never miss an episode, and follow along over on Instagram!
@ruthie.sterrett
@theconsistencycorner

Transcript

Ruthie (00:00.632)

Did it tell me it's recording? I think so. Okay. All right. So we can edit that part out. all right. Hi, everybody. Welcome back. as we jump into today's Consistency Corner podcast episode, I want to frame this around a conversation that I have with a lot of founders. That the reason your marketing might feel inconsistent is because of a discipline problem. And if we could just try a little harder, if we could just post a little more, if we could just finally just get on top of it and get

Mary Martinez (00:02.313)

It's recording. Yeah.

Ruthie (00:30.114)

things get our life together, it would all click into place. And my guest today, we were just chatting before we hit record about parenting. And I think the thing about parenting is that it is very similar to the business journey, is that it doesn't get easier. It gets different. And so when we think about your marketing and whether or not your marketing is feeling inconsistent or if it's feeling hard.

s somebody else has been there and we're gonna talk through some of those challenges today. But you know, Mary was really convinced that consistency has been her single biggest weakness. And I think by the end of this conversation, we're gonna find out that she's already cracked the exact same thing that she's been beating herself up about. She just gave credit to the wrong place. So we're gonna talk through that together. But the reason that I like to have these guest episodes on what once a month if you haven't listened to them in the past is I think female founders need to have real

transparent conversations about what it's like to run a business while you're also like running a family and your life. Because we all know that the highlight real isn't real. So these conversations are about highlighting the real and having these honest conversations. And so we're gonna get real, we're gonna get honest. And I think you'll see yourself in some of the, you know, same issues that Mary has struggled with and

I think you learn a lot, so stick with us. And Mary, welcome. I'm so glad to have you here.

Mary Martinez (01:58.294)

Thanks for having me, I'm so excited.

Ruthie (01:59.916)

Yeah, so Mary Diana Martinez is the founder and lead designer of Mary Diana Designs, which is a Portland-based interior design firm that creates sensory-informed spaces for neurodivergent families. And here's the part I love about her story is that she came to design after years as a biomedical engineer and software engineer. So she brings this analytical, how does this actually function thinking to work that most people think of as purely aesthetic.

And she's also an author and illustrator of a children's book called My Pet Rock. And she is by her own account usually covered in paint. So Mary, we know that that is the elevator pitch, you know, official website bio. But tell me a little bit more. Tell me how you got to where you are today. I know we chat we chatted before we hit record that you're like, I have a degree in biomedical engineering and I've been a software designer and like how did you get here?

Mary Martinez (02:58.033)

so when I was little, I decided I wanted to be a med a biomedical engineer because I knew I wanted to help people and I didn't want to be a doctor. that's and stuff not for me. I would not have made it through med school. so I became a biomedical engineer and I studied breast cancer research and I got my master's in that and I enjoyed it, but the I'm very big on problem solving and I want to make

impact in real people's lives like quickly, right? And that is huge. That the work the biomedical engineers do is huge. It is making impacts daily. I'm not dismissing that in any way. But in order to see any any significant measure of success, it takes ten or more years. And I have skills that make it so that I actually do better if I can rapidly innovate. And so I left

When I got my masters, I went and I worked for a med device company for several years as a regulatory specialist. So I was talking to everyone in the company. cross-functionally, it was a global organization. I, you know, went to Germany to work with colleagues there and I managed our submissions to FDA for my products. And I enjoyed that and I was great at it, but it was very routine.

Right, everything that you were doing. If you were being creative, you're moving the wrong direction, which was the same thing in biomedical engineering. If you're like being creative after your first round of experiments, like that's the wrong choice. You have to do it a hundred times before you can be creative again. And I have so much creativity within me that I used to just like find other outlets for it. So I would like I built an entire kitchen, bathroom, bedroom in my basement in grad school because I just needed an outlet for all of these other

ideas. And so I moved into software engineering after my biomedical work because you can rapidly iterate, you can problem solve. I was like, this is gonna be it. And I love software engineering, but again, there's a lot of like day to day you should just be writing the code, testing the code. All of that's great and necessary. I got I was like set up to just keep doing that because I changed careers once already, right?

Mary Martinez (05:26.501)

And then I got laid off. I was like, I think the company went through four it got it went private and it went through four rounds of layoffs in two years and I finally got caught in the last one after my entire team got caught in the previous one. And so I was like, okay, well I guess this is at least a a chance to figure out like, is this really what I want to do or was I just committed because I had committed. And I took last year to kind of figure it out. I wrote and illustrated a kid's book.

I wrote some music specifically around like family stuff. That's not the right word, but that resonates with families. Like people have cried when I played my song, but like pot happy tears. and then I finally realized I've had my I've had my design business for eight years. And it started off as doing I was doing florals for weddings and events. I've done 15 weddings, one of them was in an Oregon Bride magazine.

And I my business was really like speeding up, like we were getting more clients. and then 2020 hit. And so I just kind of like dropped it. And then we had a kid, and then we had a second kid. So I was just, it was really a backburner situation. and then I realized like I still want to help people, right? Like that's why I went into biomedical engineering in the first place. I want make a difference in people's lives, ideally their daily lives. And I have spent so much time learning about myself and

I have ADHD and I'm super transparent about it. I think it is so a strength. If you use it in the right situation, in the wrong situation, it is not. It is a deficit. But I have built all of these systems in my own home to help myself and my family. And everyone who comes over is like, my gosh, how did you do this? And I realize I have unintentionally created this like universe.

that I live in that is all accommodated for the people who live in the house, right? My house will not work for everyone because it is not meant to. It is meant to work for the people who live here and the people who visit. And I think everyone's houses should be like that. I think your home should serve you and your family and not the other way around. Like if you are spending all of your time cleaning and stressing over, no, don't eat that there. Don't get

Ruthie (07:21.293)

Mm-hmm.

Mary Martinez (07:50.366)

yogurt on the couch again. These are real examples from my own real life. my kids are two and five. So we have a lot of messes. But I, you know, if you look at houses from, you know, the 1950s, they're roughly the same as they are now. You have a couch and you have a maybe a TV and you have a dining room and you have individual bedrooms. And all of that's great and it has a purpose, but

That purpose doesn't serve everyone the same way. And so what I want to do is I I what I do is I create joy and function in people's homes. And I come to the interior design side of it with a strong background in engineering and human-centered design and working directly with clients to assess their needs for the space. And then I build them whatever it is that's going to

improve their daily workflow, their you know, limit kid dysregulation, adult dysregulation. Like we have a swing inside of our house for my kids to play on. And also we use it, friends who come over, they all use it. They're like, wow, this is amazing. I'm like, yeah, you can just put one in your house. Did you know that? You can just do it. And so you know, I think that's what I bring. That's that's how I got here and that's what I bring. That's why I'm passionate about it, is because it really does change

Ruthie (09:08.0)

Yeah.

Mary Martinez (09:17.801)

how your life feels. When you're at home, that should be the most comfortable place in the world for you. And

Ruthie (09:22.497)

You know, it's interesting, it kinda strikes me that instead of asking the family to adapt to the ecosystem, you're getting the ecosystem to adapt to the family.

Mary Martinez (09:32.414)

Yeah, absolutely. There's no you know, my two year old is never gonna not put yogurt hands on the couch. So you know what I have? I have a leather couch. You know why? 'Cause it wipes off. It doesn't matter. So I built my whole house around this concept of not trying to not wanting to stress around what my kids are doing a hundred percent of the time, right? My kids color on the walls in their room. I do not care. They don't color on their walls in our in the rest of our house, but

Ruthie (09:38.285)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Right.

Mary Martinez (10:00.403)

They know that that space is theirs and it's safe for them to express themselves. And I think that that is something that we've kind of lost along the way. And like this, everything needs to have this perfect perfect aesthetic and it needs to be clean and organized and tidy. And like all of those things are nice to have, and they do definitely impact how you feel in your environment. But how much stress are you trading off to keep it exactly that way?

versus making it so that when the chaos comes through, because it always does, I'm not a magician. I can't un chaos your life, right? But I can make it so that when the chaos happens, the recovery from the chaos is fast and it's simple. And that just makes such a difference. So you don't have to spend five hours cleaning your house before your mother in law comes over or whoever. You can just sit sit take twenty minutes, put everything back in their homes, because they all have homes now, and be ready.

Ruthie (10:54.987)

Yeah. So inst I mean I love that idea that the chaos, you we we're not gonna prevent it, but we can recover from it quickly if we have the right systems. And I think the same thing, whether it's in your home, with your children, your marketing strategy, or in your business, like we so desperately want to plan everything perfectly so that everything will go according to plan. But it won't. And I remember something that a business mentor of mine shared several years ago that was so eye-opening. We were writing an annual plan, and I was like,

But what if I can't follow the plan? And she's like, that's not the point. The point is not to follow the plan. The point is to write the plan, get your brain thinking, and then take the next right step, even if it's not what you wrote in the plan. And acknowledging that of like, okay, it doesn't have to be planned out perfectly. It doesn't even have to go perfectly, but I have to be able to adapt and recover quickly.

Mary Martinez (11:51.712)

Right. I need to just get that sound bite and just send it directly to my husband. Flexibility is like my number one skill. Like I'll we'll be like getting into the car and the plans will change and I'll just be like, cool, we pivot. No big deal. And but that is what like I'm able to create for other families is like, okay, this is the chaos now. it didn't go according to plan. How do we make it so it's easy to recover and get back on something that feels calm-ish?

Ruthie (11:56.556)

Ha ha ha.

Ruthie (12:11.959)

Yeah.

Mary Martinez (12:20.309)

Calm adjacent.

Ruthie (12:22.123)

Yeah, I love that. All right. Well, let's pivot a little bit and we're gonna talk about your business and your marketing. So, first thing I would love to know, and this is something that we do with all of our clients when we do our cornerstone strategy, which is the framework and the foundation of everything that we do for clients, but that is to really understand your business goals. So, and the reason that we do this is because the internet, Instagram, is gonna tell you do this, do this, do this, do this, do this. And ultimately,

They're talking to different business owners with different business models with different goals. And so you cannot compare your goals and to someone else's goals. So it's important to really get clear on that. So right now in your business, in this season, what are your goals? Is it visibility? Is it more clients? Is it a specific kind of project? Is it the book? What does winning look like for you maybe in the second half of 2026?

Mary Martinez (13:17.001)

Yeah. I my goal is to have more clients, so that I can consistently understand how my time is going to be spent, where our income is coming from, because I do have a couple of places that I I have like multiple sources of income, but I would really like to focus on just having my design firm be the primary source of my income so that my husband and I can actually share the

you know, the family cost, and have enough left over to not not be stressed, or not be working like two or three additional sources of income.

Ruthie (13:58.21)

Yeah. And that's interesting that you say that because I think a lot of business owners are in that seat where their business either their business has multiple offers or they're maybe multi-passionate like you are, where they have different projects or offers or things that they can do. So there are multiple streams of income. And I know sometimes it feels like when we narrow in and try to focus on one, well, we're ignoring all of the others. And like, that doesn't feel good. But when we can get down into the nitty-gritty and say, well, what is the

primary goal. Okay, now we need to make sure at least 80% of our effort goes to the primary goal. And the secondary goal we can kind of plan accordingly, right?

Mary Martinez (14:39.593)

Yeah, that's definitely a feeling that resonates with me. I feel I've always been this way, but I feel like saying, Okay, this is exactly the path I'm gonna take, like cuts out all of the other opportunities. And I'm like, but what if something amazing was there? I'm this sounds this is gonna sound conceited, but I'm in pretty good at a lot of things. And so then I don't know, you know, like I wrote and illustrated the book and it took me less than a year. And is it perfect? No, but

Ruthie (14:43.094)

Yeah.

Mary Martinez (15:09.225)

I've sold quite a few copies and everyone has loved it. I got a text from my mom the other day that was like, my kid made me read it eight times and loves it so much. but like that's not going to be the primary source of my income, no matter how much I enjoy doing that part right now, right? And maybe eventually if I keep working on it in the background and that's the 20% I'm on. But but I definitely I do feel that and I feel constantly pulled in so many directions that it's hard for me to understand how to really hone in and grow.

my clients grow the right type of clients too because I offer like right now I offer packages. I have a two hour, a 10 hour, and a 20 hour. And I would really love to get a couple of 20 hour clients. Like the hourly rate is less. So like it would be better for them. And I want some big projects where I can really see something through from start to finish and you know, help set these people up.

I like all of the packages, that's why I have them. I offer the two hour ones because sometimes families only have the budget and or time and or need for a quick two hour like get my get my am I allowed to curse? Get my shit together. so that it's more functional, right? But I would really love some I would love some 20 hour clients who want me to come in and and really change their life. And I don't know how to get in front of the people that have that need and budget.

Ruthie (16:17.697)

Yes. Wow.

Ruthie (16:30.444)

Yeah.

Ruthie (16:36.193)

Yeah. Yeah. So let's talk about those people. Tell me a little bit more about your IDO client and thinking about whether this is like pure hypothesis or this is evidence from the past. But where how are they finding you and why are they hiring you?

Mary Martinez (16:36.391)

simultaneously.

Mary Martinez (16:54.439)

It's often word of mouth, like friend of a friend. Occasionally they find me through Instagram. but mo mostly it's like person to person, either me telling them about what I do or someone else telling like someone mentions, I need some help with design and organization. Someone's like, I know a person. And those are great love referrals. But I would really like to have something that's a more consistent stream of those.

whether it's referrals or just people finding me through Instagram and being like, I need this, when can you come?

Ruthie (17:30.027)

Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's something that a lot of business owners really struggle with. And when we go through our cornerstone strategy with our clients, one of the early phases of it is to figure out what are all the places people could discover you from. Because there's a lot, right? There's a million platforms out there. There's I don't know, seven social media platforms, plus there's like SEO and then now there's AEO and AI. And then there's of course word of mouth and referrals and, you know.

It can be hard to think about where to focus, right? And then you're like, well, if I'm not focused, then I'm never gonna get consistent and I'm never gonna get results and like, what do I even do here? And so one of the things that I like to do is I like to take a look at all of those platforms and channels. Think about what you're currently doing before we layer anything new in, because that can be very easy of like sh chasing this the shiny new object. And we look at it in a couple of different ways. Number one, we look at how much time does this take? Ha and but not just how much time does it take.

In one instance, but upfront and to sys to sustain. Because like a website rebuild, which could help support SEO search engine optimization is a big upfront lift, but then over time it's not a huge lift. Where social media, it's not a big upfront lift, but over time, like you're gonna stay on that content hamster wheel if you're hanging out over there. And then secondly, the like, okay, how fast does this work? And how much does this compound?

over time. So like referrals and word of mouth, it doesn't move fast and it's unpredictable. But the longer you're in your business, the more people you meet, the more people you serve, the more it compounds and starts to work. So we've got to weigh all of those different things. So I want to talk a little bit about social media specifically because I know that that's where so many business owners think like, well if I could just

Be successful in social media, or if I could just post more, if I could just get consistent with my social media and they make it work for me. And here's the number one thing that I want business owners to understand. You are sitting in an attention economy and you are competing for attention with creators whose full-time job is to create content. And for the service-based businesses that I serve, what you are, your full-time job is not to create content.

Ruthie (19:49.326)

Your full-time job is to serve your clients, to help the families that you actually help. And so we have to have a different, we have to give social media a different job description. And that's what I always like to say is like, what is its job in your business? Right. So, so thinking about, you know, Instagram, you know, that might be a place where it's connection, it's her getting to know me. It's that word of mouth has sent somebody.

Mary Martinez (20:00.011)

Yeah.

Ruthie (20:18.269)

over to Instagram and now they've connected with me and they're learning about me, but it's maybe not the right tool for discovery because discovery on Instagram takes high volume and high consistency, right? So let's let's talk about social media a little bit more because I know you've you've used LinkedIn and you've used Instagram. And I I see a lot of founders like kind of straddle this line of like, well, where do I focus? So talk to me.

Mary Martinez (20:47.253)

Where do I be?

Ruthie (20:49.226)

So talk to me about th those two channels and kind of your experience with those two channels.

Mary Martinez (20:54.463)

Yeah, so LinkedIn, I haven't spent as much time on it, but I do have I have a ton of connections because my background is in like engineering. So, you know, I've spent twenty years making connections on LinkedIn. And so I have a huge network. A lot of them are local. so I do think there is some potential value in sharing there. And, you know, depending on how I know them, like there's a chance that they need my services and or can afford them.

and then for Instagram, I, you know, I've been really slowly like I guess a similar situation. It's been my long term, I've had this Instagram for eight years since I started my business. And it is not a super clear. I don't specifically use it for marketing. Like for a while when I when I like I said, my business was on the back burner. I was just like, this is just my regular Instagram. and then

when I decided to restart, I was like, I should probably post more actual content. So I've been posting more and it's been, I guess, going sort of well. I don't I don't know. I don't even know what to mark as like going well or not. Is it getting clients? Is it having 10 people like it? Is it getting a thousand views? I don't know. And so I think part of it is just there's so much and there's I feel like

starting a business or getting back into my business, there are so many pieces I'm trying to keep balanced and juggled in the air and and like learning, you know, what content creators know about how to actually leverage these platforms seems incredibly daunting in addition to all of the other work.

Ruthie (22:40.235)

Yeah.

Mary Martinez (22:45.299)

I think I might have lost the thread of the com of the question, but

Ruthie (22:46.829)

Yeah, I know. I mean we're and I think you're you're spiraling around something that everybody spirals around of like, well, what does success even mean on these platforms? My definition for a service-based business would be clients, whether that means the client directly found you initially on Instagram or LinkedIn, or was influenced by content you posted and made the decision to

connect to reach out or potentially to even refer because a lot of the times there are people who might find your content who don't hire you, but they refer you to somebody else. And those are things that are impossible to measure. And that's where it becomes really challenging of saying like, well, how do I even know if this is working or not? And whether or not I should keep doing it. And because I don't really know, I'm going to go dabble over here and I'm going to go dabble over here. And now I'm like, did was did any of this even work?

And so and also because the platforms change so often. It can be there.

Mary Martinez (23:49.344)

They changed so fast. I just learned what the trending meant and now it's different. It's not direct, but it's some that that has happened.

Ruthie (23:54.797)

Yeah, so

It's very challenging to stay on top of it. And most business owners, I mean, I would bet 90% of them did not start their business to be full-time marketers. They started their business to help people, like you did. You to use their skills, their zone of genius to make an impact for someone else. And it's like, my God, now I have to like be a content creator and be a full-time marketer. And like this is a lot. And and it is a lot. So I want to normalize that first of all, that it is a lot. And that leads to that whole thing of like consistency.

Becomes a challenge. And so then a lot of business owners they kind of sit in this like on on the fence of like, well, is my problem consistency and volume, or is my problem messaging and content, or is my problem both? And it's like a chicken egg kind of thing, you know? And it's like, well, if we don't create, from an engineering perspective, like a hypothesis and then

A plan to test and give it time and give it metrics and things that we want to look at. We are just throwing spaghetti at the wall. And sometimes you can throw spaghetti at the wall and it sticks. And that's great. And it's it's one of those things with reels. Like I always tell people, reels, if you don't make reels, you're never gonna have a real pop-off. But just because you make reels, it doesn't mean you're gonna be successful with reels. It's like playing the lottery. You can't win if you don't play.

But just because you play doesn't mean you're gonna win. So it's like in terms of capacity, where the heck do I focus? So that's my next question. What does your capacity look like for marketing? If you were gonna look at an average week, an average month, however you wanna break it down, like how many hours can you devote to marketing?

Mary Martinez (25:27.859)

Right.

Mary Martinez (25:47.976)

I can do I could probably do two to four. I probably do two to four hours every one to two weeks. I don't I don't know. It depends. I've been trying to post more and more consistently. so it's definitely increased recently. and I don't know, do we count like filming the content or do we just count editing the content? If it was stuff I was already going to be doing, like I do a lot of time lapses, which

Ruthie (25:56.918)

Okay.

Yeah. Yeah.

Mary Martinez (26:15.861)

I was sorry, side note, I was so excited. Yesterday I showed a time lapse to someone of a project I'm working on. I posted it this morning, so feel free to go check it out. and they were like, I love your time lapses. You always do such cool time lapses. And they were the third person to tell me that yesterday, which was out of nowhere. So, but like time-lapses, right? It's like setting it up, and like I probably spend a few extra minutes during it to try and like make sure all the angles are right. Where is my tripod?

Ruthie (26:31.405)

That's awesome. Yeah.

Mary Martinez (26:43.993)

I need to tape it to this thing because there's no other way to attach it, whatever it is. and then most of my time then is spent on compiling the videos, editing them, coming up with a caption, which I definitely do use, like Claude to help me generate it. and same with hashtags, but then it generates hashtags and I'm like, this is useless. Like there's like 10 people who've ever used this hashtag. so I don't know.

Ruthie (26:57.911)

Mm.

Ruthie (27:07.841)

Yeah. Well, one of the one of the things that you said that I I wanna I want to come back to because this is kind of a silent weight that I think we don't account for in our capacity. Remembering to set up your tripod, thinking about the angles. That is immeasurable capacity that is real. And that's something that like we need to give credit to ourselves for because instead of

Mary Martinez (27:30.899)

Okay.

Ruthie (27:35.104)

w thinking walking into that project and you're only thinking about the project, you're carrying this other little weight. And I always I talk about this as the mental load of marketing. And it's just like the mental load of motherhood. It's this invisible thing that we always have to carry, like who likes what snacks and who's, you know, overtired and who has sensory needs and who has this and who has that like you're just always carrying it and it makes you tired because it is happy, right?

Mary Martinez (28:01.929)

Yeah. That's actually really helpful to hear because I like s I feel like so many people that I see who either are influencers or have j maybe just been doing it a long time, like it looks so they make all the pieces look so effortless. And I'm out here being like, Where is my tripod? Where did the kids move it? I don't have it anymore. I will have to set up some sort of tape monstrosity to you know, wrap my phone to this pole so that I can actually capture the image. Like

Ruthie (28:15.948)

Hmm.

Ruthie (28:20.246)

Ha ha.

Mary Martinez (28:31.582)

yeah, that's that's really helpful to hear. It's validating.

Ruthie (28:35.893)

Yeah, for sure. So based upon everything that we've talked about, you know, if we were working together one-on-one and I'll I'll tell you guys all this process that I'm taking Mary through over the course of like 10 minutes, it's like a four to six week process when we do it for like we're not gonna touch every single detail here. But basically the next thing we would do is we would say, okay, from a where are people finding me perspective, how are people deciding to actually reach out and work with me?

Mary Martinez (28:48.585)

Amazing.

Ruthie (29:03.585)

And where am I talking to the people who aren't ready yet? Like those are kind of our three buckets: top of funnel, middle of funnel, bottom of funnel. What one platform do I want to focus on for each three, for those three buckets? And if it's social media, because social media can do all three of those things, okay, how much content do I need to give social media?

To be able to do all three of those jobs. Because one piece of content can usually do two jobs. It can never do all three. And so if we're asking a specific platform like social media to do all three of those jobs, it's got to have the content to be able to do them. And so that's when our capacity becomes like the reality check of do I have the capacity to create that much content? And so maybe.

Instagram is not the tool that we're using for Top of Funnel. Maybe we are relying on referrals and word of mouth. And instead of spending an extra hour, you know, filming a video and editing a video and writing a caption, maybe we spend 15 minutes doing a reach out to somebody who we've been connected with in the past and just checking in. Or maybe we spend 30 minutes going to an online networking event and meeting 10 new people, you know, and and it's

It's deciding, and I typically want people to decide for at least a quarter which platforms we want to prioritize for those three kind of phases. And then to be really honest with ourselves about how much can I actually pour into those with my existing capacity. Because let me tell you, this person sitting right here in the marketing director's chair thinks she can do all the things. And I know as well as you guys do that you can't. You're only one person. It's so funny you

by talking to Claude, Claude tells me all the time, you're trying to do three people's jobs. That's why you're tired. And I'm like, but I can do it. And Claude's like, no, you can't. Yeah. So that that's when it becomes, okay, do I need to A increase my capacity by delegating something on my own to-do list, whether that's in my business, in my personal life, something to open up more capacity for marketing. Or B, do I need help? Do I invest in support?

Mary Martinez (31:03.101)

I can do it. Yeah.

Ruthie (31:24.843)

To increase my capacity for marketing, or C, am I okay with going slower? Because that's an option too. But it's an option that we have to get real about and not beat ourselves up over, because that's what happens a lot of the times is we beat ourselves up and be like, I should have done more. And we start shooting all over ourselves. But it's like, okay, you you could have done more, but it would have taken this lever and this lever and this lever, and you didn't pull those lever levers.

Mary Martinez (31:54.548)

Yeah.

Ruthie (31:54.764)

So no, you shouldn't have done more in the capacity and the the constraints that you're in today, right? And so then once we figure out that those channels, the volume, that's when we start to think about content. And, you know, like you said, time-lapse reels. Okay, you got great feedback on that. That's a data point. You know that that's something that you can build into your rhythm to do consistently. You know, you've talked about maybe, I think this was in your kind of the kind of pre-work you did for the episode, but like,

Mary Martinez (32:00.298)

Yeah.

Ruthie (32:23.789)

personal content resonating on LinkedIn and thinking like, okay, well, that's data that I have. So maybe that's something that I'm gonna double down on. And I'm gonna continue to see if I do it for a while, what kind of data do I actually get? Right. So we talked about a lot. And like I said, this is a four to six week process I go through with my clients, but what questions do you have for me? Or is there anything that kind of we've hit on today that you're like, hmm, say more about that.

Mary Martinez (32:52.309)

I guess

Right now, knowing that my capacity is probably pretty fixed because my kids are young and I basically I'm busy from 5 a.m. to eleven PM and I don't really take breaks. so how can I make that two to four hours a week that I have available for marketing time? Really I think my current my current need is to get clients into the top of the funnel, right? Like

I think generally like I'm great with people. I really because I really enjoy them and I like working with people and I'm good I'm really excellent at what I do. And so I'm not as worried about converting them from the top of the funnel, but how do I get them there? and how can I leverage the platforms that I have or do I have to make another platform?

Ruthie (33:37.461)

Hmm.

Yeah.

Ruthie (33:45.836)

Yeah. I don't think you have to make another platform. In fact, I wouldn't. what I know about your capacity, I absolutely would not. I would pick one and go all in on that one. And you know, if that happens to be Instagram, maybe one post a week. You share it to LinkedIn as is. You don't worry about editing it. You just and that way you keep a presence over there. If you decide to go all in on LinkedIn, same thing. You pick one.

Mary Martinez (33:50.494)

Okay, great.

Ruthie (34:13.047)

posts that you made for LinkedIn and you share it to Instagram a week just to kind of keep a presence over there. But you you pick one all in. And then the other thing that I was thinking about is ads. And the thing about ads, they're not for everybody. I I want people to know that like they're not a magic bullet. But at the end of the day when it comes to marketing, every single strategy works. Every single strategy takes time andor money. And so when we spend money on ads, it can shorten the amount of time that it takes. And so

Obviously, we have not dug into all of the details of your business and your financials and your, you know, all of those types of things, but considering investing in ads could be a way to get new people to discover you quickly without a ton of effort or without a ton of your time and effort. I think my second kind of gut instinct on that would have was like networking events. And you and I met in entrepreneista. So groups like.

Mary Martinez (35:10.909)

I do a lot of networking events.

Ruthie (35:12.469)

Yeah. So groups like that. But when you think about that, like think about the fact that that's marketing capacity. Going to a networking event, also preparing for it, looking for it, making notes about who you met, following up with people, like all of that is part of that two to four hours a week that you might have for marketing. that would be I think a slower build, but I think a more guaranteed build than a relying on social media for top of funnel and then you let social media be your middle of funnel tool.

Mary Martinez (35:42.707)

Okay. Okay. That's great. Yeah, I can definitely do that.

Ruthie (35:44.653)

Yeah. And then it takes the pressure, it takes the pressure off to to pump out content, right? Yeah. So obviously, like I said, we talked about a lot of stuff today. I think these types of conversations are so incredibly important. So if you're listening and you're like, yeah, we these conversations are important. I want to have more real life conversations. I invite you to attend our quarterly marketing mixer, which is a networking group for mom founders.

Mary Martinez (35:50.271)

Right. Yeah.

Ruthie (36:11.635)

And we have real life conversations about capacity, about marketing, about what's realistic, about what we're struggling with. And I promise it's fun. I promise it's not a pitch slap. I'm really good at organizing networking events if I do say myself. They're online. So check it out in the show notes. I would love to see you at our next one. And if you would like to connect more with Mary and learn more about her design services, her children's book, I mean, definitely design services. Like if you're a neurodivergent, you need to talk to her.

So where can people connect with you? Where's the best place to for people to reach out?

Mary Martinez (36:44.585)

Yeah, my website is a great way to reach me, maridiana designs dot com. And Instagram also works. And I wanna also say that I do offer remote design services. So if you're interested in working with me but you live afar and you don't feel like paying for my flights, then there is the option to work with me remotely. You're also welcome to pay for my flights. I will travel with all my tools. So

Ruthie (36:58.741)

Yeah.

Ruthie (37:07.489)

Yeah.

Yes, all that.

Mary Martinez (37:13.954)

yeah, reach out. I would love to connect with people, moms, especially.

Ruthie (37:17.441)

All right. Yeah. Well, Mary, thank you so much for being here. This was a really great conversation and we'll see y'all in the next episode.

Mary Martinez (37:24.32)

Thank you so much, Ruthie.