George KaoBusiness coach for soulpreneurs since 2009. Author of 4 books & 20 courses re: Authentic Marketing & Joyful Productivity

Authentic marketing = public journaling in service to others :)

4 May 2026 · 2 min

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Episode

4 May 2026 · 2 min

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In this solo podcast episode, George Kao challenges the common solopreneur mindset of marketing as self‑promotion and the need to appear as an all‑knowing guru. He proposes a shift to "public journaling," where entrepreneurs openly share their recent observations, struggles, and client insights. Kao introduces a two‑circle framework: inner exploration (what you’re noticing and wrestling with) and outer service (how those lessons help others). The intersection of these circles creates authentic marketing, turning the marketer into a quiet leader who invites clients to walk alongside them rather than shouting from a mountaintop. He concludes with a concrete call to action: open your journal, extract a lesson, and share it generously instead of crafting a traditional advertisement.

Chapters

Should you try to appear like an expert? Many solopreneurs hate marketing because we think we have to stand on a mountaintop and shout, "I have all the answers, look at me!" But that can feel fake to some of us because honestly, we're still trying to figure things out. Here's the shift that changed everything for me. Stop marketing yourself and start public journaling. You often reflect on the work that you love to do, right? You wrestle with questions in your industry. You notice patterns in what helps your clients. What if instead of keeping that private, you just brought some of that out into the open? Here's what I'm noticing recently. Here's what my clients are struggling with, and here's what seems to be helping. Authentic marketing isn't about promoting yourself. I think of it very simply as two circles. The first circle is inner exploration. What are you noticing recently? What are you wrestling with? The second circle is outer service. How can that lesson help somebody else? And authentic marketing is the intersection of those two circles. You don't have to be the guru. Your ideal clients are usually just a few steps behind you on that path, and it's just that you've had more of a chance to think through it, reflect deeply, get some training on it perhaps. So when you say, "Here's what I've struggled with," or, "Here's what my clients have struggled with, and this is what has helped," it's very valuable to people. It turns your marketing from, "Look at me, I'm perfect," into, "I invite you to walk with me on this journey." It becomes quiet leadership. So try that today. Don't write an advertisement. Just open your journal, find a lesson, and share it generously.