How Pinterest Helps Creatives Overcome Imposter Syndrome & Build Confidence in Marketing | EP 18

You know that jittery moment when you’ve crafted the perfect post, you love what you’ve written, you're ready to hit “publish.” But then your heart sinks: what if everyone sees this? What if they judge me? So you don’t. You archive it. Drafts sit untouched. It’s a familiar freeze many creatives know too well: when marketing yourself feels less like sharing your work and more like putting your soul under a spotlight. We’re about that exact fear, why self-promotion freaks us out, and how you can gently break through that barrier without losing yourself in the process.

We walk you through why marketing feels so personal, especially for creatives who invest so much of themselves into their everything. This isn’t about lacking skill; it’s about vulnerability, identity, and the invisible weight of being seen. 

We share how the discovery of a softer, less intimidating path to visibility using Pinterest. Rather than forcing constant appearances or chasing social media trends, Pinterest offered a steady way to share without pressure. We break down a four-step gentle strategy, from repurposing existing work to letting data guide you that helps rebuild confidence and eventually makes showing up on higher-pressure platforms (like video or Instagram) feel natural and powerful.

What to listen for in this episode

Why marketing triggers “impostor syndrome” for creatives and how realizing it’s not about your lack of skill but about identity exposure can reframe the whole experience.

How Pinterest can serve as a low-stakes “training ground” for visibility, a place to post without pressure, where your content can quietly work for you over time.

A four-step repeatable process to rebuild confidence, repurpose existing content, track what resonates, lean into analytics instead of self-judgment, and eventually use that momentum to show up authentically elsewhere.

What if every time you hesitated to share your work, it wasn’t because your art wasn’t “good enough,” but because you were trying to show up in a way that didn’t feel like you? Maybe confidence isn’t built by pushing harder, maybe it's built by giving yourself permission to show up in a way that feels kind.

Transcript

You're listening to Entrepreneur Encounter, the podcast where soft skills meet real talk for creative business owners who are building with purpose. I'm Dana, a Pinterest marketing strategist and agency owner helping wedding pros and creative entrepreneurs get seen without burning out. And I'm Sarah, a business and team strategist who helps small teams and podcasters communicate clearly, lead with empathy and grow sustainably. Together, we're unpacking the messy, side of entrepreneurship.

from boundaries to burnout, leadership to listening, so you can build a business that actually fits your life.


You know that moment when you're designing a post, no matter the platform, feeling really good about the message, ready to hit publish, and all of a sudden your entire nervous system goes, wait, everyone is going to know, no, we'll see this. Abort mission and you don't schedule it. You don't send it. You just don't share it with anyone. It's crazy how that happens, right?

You can be confident in your craft. You know what you're doing. You're passionate about it. You think about it all the time and all the best ways. You're confident with your current clients. You're confident in delivering amazing work. But the second it's time to market yourself and really open your mouth, every ounce of confidence evaporates. And suddenly that caption just isn't good enough. That graphic isn't quite what you thought it should be. You're not good enough.

If this sounds familiar, you're in the right place and you're listening to the right episode because today I want to talk to you about why marketing yourself feels so personal and scary and why a platform like Pinterest or any other social platform can help you rebuild confidence at a pace that feels more human. So if you're new here, hi, my name is Dana Barr. I am the one half of the duo of the entrepreneur encounter.

And we are living life right now and going to be doing some single solo episodes just to keep the content flowing because we love connecting with our audience. And so today, that's what we're talking about is the hard truth that we've all had to learn, myself included, is that marketing yourself is not hard because you're bad at it. It's hard or scary because it feels like you're putting a spotlight directly on you, your ideas, your creativity, your voice.

And us creatives, we feel things so deep. We care about our work, we care about our clients work, and we definitely care about how it's perceived. So of course it feels personal. And of course you're going to hesitate and of course you freeze before you hit post. This isn't a skills problem. This is a confidence exposure problem. It's like imposter syndrome is what it is. So meaning your visibility is tied to your identity.

And when those two things get tangled up, even the smallest Instagram post feels like a performance review. Pinterest, however, which is why I love it, removes that performance and that pressure. You get to show up through your content and not your face, not your voice, not your personality on demand like on other social media platforms. It's visibility without having to go into vulnerability overload. So let me tell you a story. And it's quite humbling. Actually, years ago,

Before I started specializing in Pinterest strategy, I really tried to be perfectly visible. And I mean, not a hair out of place. I pushed myself to post daily. I showed up on video as often as I could. And I literally tried to be omnipresent. I was everywhere all the time. And at first it was fine because I was like, I can handle this until it wasn't. The more I pushed, the more exhausted I got and the more I really wanted to fight it.

I'd make a post, I'd stare at it, I'd probably rewrite it 15, 16, 17,000 times and then delete it completely or let it sit in drafts forever until it was no longer relevant. Because it didn't feel like me, it was me trying to be someone else. It was me trying to fit an algorithmic mold that just wasn't who I was. Meanwhile, I was low key learning about Pinterest and I started pinning my content with zero pressure and just kind of

testing the waters. wasn't worried about likes. I wasn't worried about getting comments. I really wasn't trying to worry about the algorithm and face my energy level all day. And Pinterest quietly became the biggest source of traffic I had through paid digital products that weren't anywhere else. And I was starting to make sales on them. That was my biggest wake up call is that I was making sales without having to show my face.

on social media where I was trying to do a voiceover, which is super awkward, or learn a new dance, which we don't want me to do that anyway. So confidence grew for me because I wasn't feeling the pressure to perform and I wasn't trying to be everywhere at one time. I was just simply creating off of things that I already created. So if marketing feels personal and intimidating, here's a gentle way to rebuild that confidence.

Start where the pressure is low. So use Pinterest as a practice space. Don't worry about comments or likes, just people searching for solutions that you already provide. It's the least emotionally loaded platform on the internet right now. Step two is gonna be repurposing instead of performing. So take a few moments and look at the content you've already created. Do you have a long list of blog content or client work examples, Instagram captions?

Translate those into pins. Break it down into bite-sized pieces with a pin title and description. There's no vulnerability required. There's no feeling like you have to create something new. We are going to breathe new life into something that has already worked for us in the past. Step three, which is kind of my favorite, is let the data speak for you. Pinterest Analytics, if you have a business account and I highly recommend you get one, shows you what people are clicking on, what they're saving.

and what they want more of. And so that is a confidence booster just by looking at the data because it's not subjective. It's not, my post flops, so I must be terrible. It's, ooh, they loved this topic. Let's make more of that. Which leads me into step four, which is bringing that confidence back to high pressure platforms. So once you see the proof that the click saves traffic,

month after month, you naturally are going to feel braver showing up somewhere else. Pinterest becomes the training ground. Instagram becomes the extension. Or maybe you want to do podcasting or maybe you want to do public speaking. These no longer feel like a source of stress because you tested these topics. You know that people are going to enjoy them, are going to be interested in them. So you can approach it from a much more confident standpoint. So this episode

hopefully by now, is not all about dispensers marketing. Although I can talk about that forever and ever and ever, and it never gets old, but ultimately the skill that we're talking about in today's episode is confidence. Confidence is not built by forcing yourself to show up everywhere. Confidence is built by showing up consistently in a way that supports you and not a way that drains you. It's all about alignment.

Pinterest is a platform that gives you the space to practice visibility without the emotional intensity. And that's why I love it when I'm working on things and want to build my confidence because showing up for yourself in sustainable ways is really the healthiest way to do that. So a little reflection time at the almost end of this episode. Take a moment and ask yourself this week, where does visibility feel the most personal for me? And where could I give myself more ease?

This time of year is the perfect time to take that moment. Maybe it's video, maybe it's social pressure, maybe it's comparison. Whatever the tension is, you don't have to force confidence there. You can build it slowly. Here's your permission slip to do that. So thank you guys for hanging out with me today. If bargaining yourself has ever made your stomach flip, I promise you're not alone. I also feel like that sometimes, and this is what I love to do.

and there is a softer path. If you're wanting support using Pinterest in a way that feels sustainable and confidence building, come hang out with me on Instagram. share simple, doable tips that won't overwhelm your creative brain. And as always, you've got this. Confidence grows in motion, even slow motion.