As a digital strategy specialist for nearly 15 years, I never thought I'd hit a roadblock... when it came to building my own company's marketing strategy. Here's what it taught me.
I've been doing digital marketing for almost 15 years. I've helped dozens of companies create their digital strategy. I've set up campaigns, scrutinized data, positioned brands, helped executives make the right decisions... always with a fair amount of clarity and method.
But when it came time to create the strategy for my own company, GALAPA, I froze.
Not for lack of ideas. In fact, I had too many. And that's where the irony comes in: the more you know, the more you see all the angles, all the risks, all the scenarios that could go wrong... and the more the fear of failing sets in. It wasn't a blank page. It was a mess of ideas that kept me from moving forward.
Creating GALAPA wasn't just about launching a new project. It also meant getting back on my feet after a major slump at INFINI, my other company. A difficult post-pandemic context, an empty pipeline for the first time in five years, and a question that haunted me: how could we adapt our offer to a clientele with a smaller budget, but just as many needs?
GALAPA was conceived as an answer to this. A more efficient, faster, more accessible solution - but without compromising on quality. And inevitably, when you're building something with so much emotional charge... you want it to be perfect.
So when the time came to put the marketing strategy in place, I froze.
I was afraid of getting it wrong. Afraid of positioning the project wrong. Afraid of ruining a good idea with a bad first impression.
And this fear made me doubt my own reflexes. My own skills.
What I experienced, I now recognize in other entrepreneurs I've coached. We often think that stumbling blocks come from a lack of know-how. In reality, it's much more likely to come from a conflict in our heads: between the desire to move forward... and the fear of failing.
In my case, it was even more vicious. It wasn't a doubt about GALAPA. It was a doubt about my ability to represent it well, to be the right spokesperson.
When what you're selling looks like you, it's your credibility, your vision, your way of thinking that you're bringing to the table. And that's when it becomes paralyzing.
So I questioned everything: the tone. The timing. The visuals. The angle. And by trying to avoid doing anything wrong... I didn't do anything at all.
But I finally admitted it to myself: what I was selling for others, I couldn't offer to myself.
In retrospect, that moment helped me better understand something I've been saying for a long time:
There is no perfect strategy. There's trial and error. Testing. Movement.
By trying to reach a completely unrealistic level of expectation, I had trapped myself. And it's precisely action that makes a brand evolve, not thinking that gets stuck in a strategy document.
I've also realized the extent to which emotional attachment can play tricks on us. When you work with a customer, you have the necessary distance. You see things clearly. But when you look at yourself, everything becomes blurred. More sensitive. More complicated.
And that's why even the most experienced, even the most seasoned... can experience this kind of invisible obstacle.
What I've learned is that even when you're experienced, even when you know the right answer... you can still hold yourself back. Not for lack of knowledge. But because emotional attachment clouds your judgment.
As an entrepreneur, you have to learn to manage yourself, not just projects or teams. And that's probably the biggest challenge of all.
So yeah, I'm not supposed to blog about it... but I did. And it helped me move forward in a different way.