I’ve studied online marketing for 10 years now. Read the books. Watched the videos. Took the courses. Joined the memberships.

A recurring thread through all of it: Fear. Judgment. What will my friends and family think? People know the real me… what if my online persona doesn’t match their expectations?

Until recently, I’ve dabbled. Been reserved. Tried not to be annoying.

But something shifted.

I looked at my inbox. Really looked at it. Hundreds of emails from people I opted in to hear from. Some of them email me every single day. And I don’t think they’re annoying — I subscribed because I wanted what they had to say.

That’s when it clicked: this is just… normal.

If you’re building a business on the Internet, you get customers by showing up consistently. Sending emails. Posting content. Probably every day. That’s table stakes. Not something to stress over. If you don’t do it, you’re the weird one.

There’s an old saying: “Timid salesmen have skinny kids.”

The point isn’t to make noise for its own sake. It’s to truly show up for people with a problem you can solve. Doesn’t matter if you’re selling websites, courses, landscape services, or power tools — they’re all in my inbox. Yours too, probably.

Most of the fear, I’ve found, is like getting a shot. The worry is worse than the actual pain. You hit send, hold your breath… and nothing bad happens. Maybe someone unsubscribes. Maybe your uncle thinks you’ve become “one of those people.” But mostly? Crickets. Or better — people who needed exactly what you said.

Here’s what I’ve learned: fear doesn’t just block a single action. It blocks the rhythm.

You don’t just skip one email — you never start the habit of showing up daily. You don’t just avoid one post — you never build the muscle of consistent visibility. The thing you’re scared to do once is usually the thing that needs to become routine.

Once you have momentum, the river flows. And when something blocks you, at least you know there’s an obstacle to remove instead of a river that never started flowing at all.

Everything you want is on the other side of something you’re too scared to do.

What’s your version of hitting send?