Why I'm a Marketing Agency for Solopreneurs
You might say being a solopreneur is in my blood.
When I was a kid, my dad started business after business. He owned a sod farm for summer income and a ski hill for winter income. Eventually, he transitioned to growing cabbage and strawberries. For a while, he owned buses and ran a charter business, whisking college students to spring break destinations. Even now, in his 80s, he still runs a brisk sweet corn business at the summer farmers market in the little Upper Midwest town I grew up in.
My parents were not rich. I didn't feel poor as a child, though by economic standards we absolutely were. I was too busy being a kid to think about raging 1970s inflation or the Great Recession of the 80s. My dad, with no formal education or training, was just figuring things out as he went.
But I never felt anything other than safe and cared for. And I still think of "figuring things out" as my family crest. If I had to give myself a title that encompasses everything I am or have been—writer, designer, musician, editorial leader—it would be Professional Figurer-Outer.
That's one of the reasons I love working with people who are also figuring things out. I've gravitated toward that energy my whole life.
The Unique Joys & Challenges of Solopreneur Life
I decided to launch Chanterelle Marketing Studio after meeting with Ellie, a friend running her own solo coaching business specializing in EFT and Positive Intelligence. She'd retired after years of public service working for the State, with practically no budget.
"I've seen this help people," she told me. "It's helped me, which is why I got certified. But I just don't know how to do my marketing."
“The irony is sharp: the people who most need support are often the ones least likely to ask for it, and least likely to have the budget to pay for it.”
Ellie’s story is one I've heard a hundred times with minor variations: a wellness practitioner afraid to talk about their rates, a coach brilliant with clients but with a website that reads like a résumé, a creative who's poured everything into their craft and nothing into letting people know it exists. An expert who feels like an imposter when trying to sell.
The joys of solopreneur life are real. You set your own schedule, choose your clients, and build something that reflects your values. There's no committee watering down your vision, no corporate hierarchy deciding who gets credit. That autonomy is intoxicating.
But that same autonomy comes with a shadow side. You're wearing every hat—product creator, customer service, bookkeeper, marketer, therapist to your own doubts. You're making decisions with incomplete information, perpetually resource-constrained. Your budget is tight. Your time is tighter. You're exhausted from pivoting and problem-solving.
And then there's the marketing piece, which feels like a whole different skill set than the one that got you here. You might be a brilliant therapist, coach, or artist, but that doesn't automatically make you a copywriter or social media strategist. The solopreneur most skilled at their craft is often the one least equipped to talk about it.
There's also a loneliness people don't always name. You don't have colleagues to brainstorm with or a marketing department to lean on. You have you. And when you're struggling with how to articulate what you do or whether you're even worth listening to, that loneliness can feel paralyzing.
The irony is sharp: the people who most need support are often the ones least likely to ask for it, and least likely to have the budget to pay for it.
The Problems I See (And Why They Exist)
After two decades of marketing work, I've noticed something consistent: the solopreneurs most skilled at their craft are often the most paralyzed when it comes to talking about it. It's not laziness or lack of smarts. It's a specific tangle of beliefs and fears that the mainstream marketing world has reinforced so long that it feels like truth.
Imposter syndrome disguised as humility. You've built something real that helps people. But you absorbed the message that talking about your own work is bragging. That naming your value is ego. That if you were truly good, people would just know. This keeps you small and silent, losing clients to people with half your skill but twice your visibility.
The confusion between authenticity and invisibility. You've rejected the hustle and performative social media—wisely. But that rejection became permission to not communicate at all. You tell yourself you're being authentic by staying quiet, when what's actually happening is you're being absent. Authenticity isn't the same as invisibility.
Guilt around self-promotion. You were raised to be humble, to let your work speak for itself, to not be "that person" always talking about themselves. So when you try to write a bio or talk about your offerings, you feel icky—like you're being manipulative or salesy, like you're asking for too much. This guilt keeps you undercharging, over-delivering, and burning out while invisible.
The paralysis of DIY overwhelm. You've tried LinkedIn, dabbled with Instagram, bought courses on content calendars and funnels. It's all contradictory, all time-consuming, and none of it feels like you. So you freeze. You do nothing. Then you feel like you're failing.
Here's what I know: these problems didn't arise because you're broken or lazy. They arose because the mainstream marketing world was built for a different kind of person—someone comfortable with extraction, with pressure, with volume over depth. Someone who doesn't mind being a little salesy.
That's not you. And you shouldn't have to become that person to succeed.
What Makes My Approach Different
Most marketing consultants assume you need to become a marketer. They assume the problem is that you don't know enough tactics, strategies, or platforms. So they load you up with more things to do, more systems to manage, more pressure to perform.
I assume something different: that you're not broken, and you don't need to become someone else. Marketing should support your strengths, not shame you into someone else's blueprint.
I'm not going to tell you to be on every platform. I'm not going to pressure you into daily content creation or a seven-email welcome sequence. I'm not going to gaslight you into thinking that if you're not hustling, you're not serious.
What I will do is help you get clear on what you actually do, why it matters, and how to talk about it in a way that feels true to you. I'll help you build a marketing strategy that works with your brain, values, and life—not against them.
🛑 The hustle culture says: do more, be everywhere, always be selling.
✅ I say: do the right things, be somewhere, and trust that clarity attracts the people who need you.
🛑 The manipulative funnel approach says: hook them, nurture them, close them.
✅ I say: tell them the truth about what you offer, show them how you work, and let them decide if it's a fit.
🛑 The personal-brand-at-all-costs approach says: share everything, perform constantly, build an audience.
✅ I say: share what matters, show up consistently where it makes sense, and build relationships with the people who get it.
This isn't because I'm noble. I've seen what the other way does to people like you. I've seen coaches burning out from the pressure to be perpetually "on," wellness practitioners cheapening their offerings to chase volume, creatives abandoning their work because marketing felt so misaligned with their values they couldn't do it anymore. That breaks my heart. And it's preventable.
Why Solopreneurs, Why Now
When I started Chanterelle, colleagues urged me to work with bigger clients. "You led multi-million-dollar marketing projects for huge corporations," one said. "Why aren't you going after bigger clients?"
Because I'm so over that.
In my last corporate role, I watched my company invest $15,000 on hiring an agency to name the blog I helped build. They got 15 names we kind of hated and went with one pitched by a coworker instead. That $15K was a drop in the bucket for a corporation valued in the billions.
“Big corporations serve their investors, not their customers. Governments increasingly serve corporate interests over human interests. Community—little people figuring things out—is how we serve each other.”
When my whole team was laid off after getting that blog to 1.6 million views in just one year, I knew I didn't want to feed the corporate machine anymore. Yet I still sent out over 1,000 job applications in a year. The rejections, the ghosting, the few interviews—it all felt incredibly fake. I was exhausted from playing a game I didn't seem to stand a chance to win.
I was a woman in my late 50s with a successful career, but I'd become allergic to bullshit.
Then I talked to Ellie, and it struck me: there are people in the world figuring it out. And those are the people I want to help.
Because I realized something important: big corporations serve their investors, not their customers. Governments increasingly serve corporate interests over human interests. Community—little people figuring things out—is how we serve each other.
The Work Ahead
When you work with me, you're not getting a tactics list. You're getting a partner who believes that your business doesn't have to look like someone else's to be successful. That your constraints—your budget, your time, your introversion, your neurodivergence—aren't obstacles to work around. They're information about how to build something sustainable.
You're getting someone who thinks clarity is more powerful than volume. Someone who believes the right people will show up when they understand what you're actually offering. Someone who's allergic to BS.
Your solopreneur business exists because something in you needs to be expressed or offered into the world. That thing—your craft, your expertise, your care—deserves to be known. Not in a salesy way. Not in a way that exhausts you or compromises your values. But genuinely, clearly, in a way that invites the people who need what you have.
That's what I do. That's what I'm here for.
Ready to stop figuring things out alone? Book a free consultation.
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