Beyond Resolutions: Build a Marketing Practice That Sticks

January is when solopreneurs make the same promise in a fresh notebook: This year, I’m going to market consistently. Then client work surges, life happens, and the marketing plan quietly turns into a “when I have time” plan.

Most companies get this wrong, and solopreneurs pay the price. They treat marketing like a sprint fueled by motivation—New Year’s energy, a new tool, a new template—when what actually creates leads is a practice: small actions done on purpose, on a schedule, long after the mood is gone.

Seth Godin recently wrote about going “beyond a resolution” by joining (or building) a circle of support: a community that makes it easier to keep promises through respect, accountability, and encouragement. That idea is gold for one-person businesses in the U.S., because consistent marketing is less about willpower and more about structure + people + reps.

Resolutions fail because motivation is a terrible strategy

A resolution is an outcome you want. A practice is the system that gets you there.

Solopreneurs often set marketing goals like:

• “Post on LinkedIn every day”
• “Launch a newsletter”
• “Get 10 new clients a month”

Those are fine ambitions. The problem is the hidden assumption: I’ll feel like doing the work. You won’t. Not reliably.

Here’s the stance I’ll take: your marketing doesn’t need more inspiration—it needs fewer decisions. The fewer times you have to decide whether you’ll market today, the more likely you’ll actually do it.

A practice keeps a promise because it answers three questions in advance:

1. What do I do? (a specific action)
2. When do I do it? (a specific time)
3. Who expects it? (a human or group that notices)

That third point is the quiet accelerator. A community—whether it’s a paid group, a peer pod, or a simple accountability partnership—turns “I should” into “I said I would.”

What a “marketing practice” looks like for a solopreneur

A marketing practice is a set of repeatable behaviors that create demand over time. It’s not loud. It’s not trendy. It’s steady.

The minimum effective practice (MEP)

If you’re running a one-person business, your practice needs to be small enough to survive your busiest weeks.

A solid Minimum Effective Practice might look like:

• 2× per week: publish one short piece of audience-building content (LinkedIn post, IG carousel, short email, blog snippet)
• 1× per week: send one relationship message (a genuine note to a prospect, referral partner, past client)
• 1× per week: improve one marketing asset (homepage headline, one case study, one sales email)

That’s it. Not 17 channels. Not daily everything.

If you can keep this for 12 weeks, you’ll be ahead of most businesses that “go hard” for 10 days and then vanish.

A practice has inputs you control

“Get 10 leads” is an output. “Publish two posts and send five thoughtful DMs” is an input.

Solopreneur marketing strategies work best when they’re input-based, because:

• client work will always compete for attention
• algorithms change
• your audience doesn’t reward bursts; it rewards reliability

A practice protects you from the emotional rollercoaster of marketing.

Community isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s your consistency engine.

Seth’s point is simple: a community of people who support, respect, and encourage each other makes it far more likely we’ll find our way forward.

For solopreneurs, community does three practical things that directly impact lead generation:

1) It reduces the friction of shipping

When you know you’ll share what you made with a group on Friday, you stop endlessly polishing. You ship.

Perfectionism is often just isolation in a nicer outfit.

2) It gives you faster feedback than the market

Waiting for “the market” to respond can take weeks. A good peer circle gives you feedback in hours:

• “Your offer is vague.”
• “Your headline is strong, but the CTA is weak.”
• “This story is interesting—use it as your opening next time.”

That loop is how you improve your marketing without burning months.

3) It creates accountability without shame

The best accountability is calm and matter-of-fact. Not “hustle harder.” More like:

“You said you’d send the email on Tuesday. Did it go out?”

That tone matters. Shame makes people hide. Respect makes people show up.

If you don’t want to join an existing community, build a micro-version: two other solopreneurs, one weekly call, one shared doc where you post what you shipped.

A 30-day “beyond resolution” plan for solopreneur marketing

If you want leads in Q1 2026, you don’t need a reinvention. You need 30 days of clean execution.

Week 1: Choose one channel and one promise

Pick one primary channel for demand generation (LinkedIn, newsletter, YouTube, local networking, podcast guesting—one).

Then write a promise you can keep even during a chaotic week:

• “Two helpful posts per week for the next 30 days.”
• “One email every Thursday for the next 30 days.”

Keep it simple enough that you can’t negotiate with it.

Week 2: Create a repeatable content format

Consistency gets easier when your content has a recognizable structure.

Here are formats that work especially well for one-person businesses:

• The before/after story: what changed, what you learned, who it’s for
• The teardown: critique a common mistake in your niche (with respect)
• The playbook: steps, checklist, script, template
• The client lesson: anonymized insight from real work

A format turns “What should I post?” into “Which idea fits my format?”

Week 3: Add the relationship layer (the lead layer)

Content creates attention. Relationships convert it.

Add a weekly relationship action that feels human, not spammy:

• Reach out to 3 past clients and ask what they’re focused on this quarter
• Message 2 referral partners with a specific collaboration idea
• Comment thoughtfully on 10 posts from ideal clients (not “Great post!”)

A simple rule: If you’d feel weird sending it to a friend, don’t send it to a prospect.

Week 4: Tighten your offer so your marketing has somewhere to land

A surprising reason solopreneurs struggle with consistent marketing: the offer is fuzzy, so posting feels pointless.

Use this quick clarity template:

• I help [specific person]
• who wants [specific outcome]
• by [your method]
• in [timeframe]
• without [common pain]

Then update just one asset: your LinkedIn headline, your site hero section, or your email welcome message.

People also ask: “Do I really need a community to market consistently?”

You can do it alone, but it’s slower and more fragile.

Here’s the reality: solopreneur marketing is a long game played on short attention spans. A community helps you stay in the game when the novelty wears off. If you’ve tried to be consistent and keep falling off, it’s not a character flaw. It’s usually a missing structure.

The simplest community options are:

• a paid private group with active moderation
• a peer pod of 3–5 solopreneurs in complementary niches
• a co-working/accountability session once a week

The key is not the platform. It’s the practice of showing up, being seen, and being expected.

The metric that matters: streaks, not spikes

If you’re building your business in the U.S. this year, you’re competing with two things:

1. big brands with big budgets
2. creators who post constantly

You don’t beat either by trying to match volume. You win by being consistently useful to a narrow audience.

Track these for the next 90 days:

• Weeks you published (streak)
• Weeks you reached out (streak)
• Conversations started (count)
• Offers made (count)

Notice what’s missing: likes, impressions, follower count. Those can be nice, but they’re not a strategy.

A practice is a strategy.

What to do next (and what to stop doing)

Stop relying on January motivation to carry your marketing through March. It won’t.

Start building a marketing practice that’s small enough to keep and social enough to sustain. Whether you join a group like Seth’s Purple Space-style community or build a simple circle of support, the point is the same: make it easier to keep your promise.

This post is part of the Solopreneur Marketing Strategies USA series for a reason. One-person businesses don’t need louder tactics—they need repeatable habits that generate leads while you’re also doing the client work.

If your marketing plan disappeared last year, what would change if you weren’t doing it alone this year?