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“Ethical marketing isn't marketing without selling. It's marketing without removing the other person's agency."

Dear Karen,

Lately I've been paying closer attention to the business advice I consume.

Not just asking: Does this work?

But something else: Do I want to build my business this way?

Because when you're a nurse trying to grow a business, you suddenly have a whole new vocabulary to learn.

Leads. Funnels. Conversions. Nurturing. Closing. Upselling.

And then there are all the things we're told we should be doing: make an offer every day, follow up more, create urgency, reactivate old leads, overcome objections, close the sale.

To be clear — I want clients. I want my business to make money. And I want the nurse coaches and nurse entrepreneurs I work with to make money too.

Being conscious doesn't mean hiding your offer and hoping someone eventually figures out they can hire you.

We need to sell.

But I've been wondering what happens when we learn the language of business so well that it begins changing the way we see people.

The nurse you met at a conference becomes a potential lead. The person who commented on your LinkedIn post becomes a warm lead. Your former colleague who asks about your coaching becomes a prospect to convert.

I can use a pipeline to understand what's happening in my business.

I just don't want to relate to people as a pipeline.

There's a difference.

Maybe our discomfort with selling deserves more curiosity

Nurses are familiar with informed choice. We assess. We listen. We educate. We recognize that another competent adult gets to make her own decisions — even when we have expertise.

Then we enter entrepreneurship and hear: overcome the objection, create urgency, close the sale, follow up again and again.

And if you already feel uncomfortable selling, it's easy to conclude: I'm just not good at business.

Maybe. But I think there's another possibility.

Sometimes discomfort is simply growth. Making your first offer can be uncomfortable. Naming your price can be uncomfortable. Being visible can be uncomfortable. Hearing no can definitely be uncomfortable.

If we treat every uncomfortable feeling as a signal to stop, we can accidentally use ethics as a very sophisticated way of avoiding visibility and selling.

But discomfort can also contain information.

So instead of immediately trying to eliminate it, I've started asking: What exactly am I uncomfortable with?

Am I afraid of being seen — or am I being asked to manufacture urgency that isn't real? Am I avoiding making an offer — or does this particular way of selling ask me to relate to another person in a way that doesn't sit right with me?

Those are very different things.

Ethical doesn't mean passive

This is the distinction I keep coming back to:

Ethical marketing isn't marketing without selling. It's marketing without removing the other person's agency.

You can make an offer. You can follow up. You can say, I think I could help you with this. You can have a deadline when there's an actual deadline. You can ask for the sale.

None of that requires manipulation.

There's a difference between helping someone make a decision and trying to engineer the decision for her.

And if you're a coach who believes your clients are capable of accessing their own wisdom — why would you stop believing that while someone is deciding whether to hire you?

I wrote a full piece on this for the blog this week. It goes deeper into the six principles I'm returning to as I grow my own business: Visibility, Relationship, Contribution, Invitation, Choice, and Sustainability — and what each one asks of us.

If you've ever felt like you were doing business wrong because selling felt uncomfortable, I think you'll find something useful in it.

Read the full article here →

If you're a nurse coach or nurse entrepreneur and you're thinking:

I know I'm good at what I do. I just wish I could get clients more consistently without feeling like I have to become someone I'm not...

That's exactly the kind of tension I love exploring in my 1:1 coaching. We look at what's actually happening in your business and figure out what makes sense for you — not someone else's blueprint.

The goal isn't to turn you into a better version of someone else's idea of an entrepreneur. It's to help you become more confident in creating and growing a business that fits who you are, your life, and your capacity — and that can actually support you financially.

Explore 1:1 coaching with me →

With love,

Karen

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