If You Build It, They Will… Come?

Recently, I sat down with my fiancé so he could watch the magical movie Field of Dreams for the very first time. (Trust me, I’m just as confused as you are how a 38-year-old man who loves sports had somehow never seen this film, lol)
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As a repeat viewer myself, it absolutely stood the test of time. I cried in all the same places, young Kevin Costner still deserved every one of those five stars, and somehow the movie hit me in an entirely different way than it ever had before.
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Not because the movie had changed, but because I had.
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One of the most iconic lines in the film is, of course, “If you build it, they will come.”
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​And while that unwavering faith pays off beautifully for Costner’s character… I found myself thinking, “Man… that’s actually terrible business advice.”😂
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Three years into this little entrepreneurship experiment, I’ve realized that one of the biggest misconceptions we carry as business owners is believing that building the thing is the hard part. We pour ourselves into creating something meaningful. We dream about the impact we want to make, the freedom we hope to create, the people we want to serve.
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So we take the leap. We quit the job. We launch the business. We build the website. We perfect the offer …and then we wait.
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Because surely they’ll come.
​Except…
they often don’t.
Or at least not at the pace we’d hoped.
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And that’s such a confusing place to find yourself.
You did the brave thing. You took the risk. You built the damn thing.
​So where is everybody?
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​It’s a feeling I’ve experienced myself, and one I’ve watched so many other founders wrestle with. No one really tells you that building the business is only half the job… the other half is inviting people into it.
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​And over the last three years, I’ve started to wonder if the thing keeping most of us from doing that isn’t actually a lack of marketing knowledge. I think it’s something much more human.
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I think we’re afraid of being seen.
Not just seen in the literal sense, but really seen.
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Because the moment you start talking about your business, you open yourself up to opinions. To comparison. To someone scrolling right past the thing you’ve spent months, maybe even years, carefully building.
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It’s vulnerable. And if you’ve ever found yourself saying, “I’ll really start marketing once my website is finished,” or “Once my branding is a little better,” or “Once I feel more confident…” I get it. I’ve said versions of those things, too.
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But recently I’ve started to wonder how often “later” is really just fear wearing a productivity costume.​
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It’s easier to tweak the wording on your website than it is to email someone and ask for the opportunity.

It’s easier to spend three hours brainstorming a new offer than it is to publish the post you’ve been overthinking for a week.

It’s easier to convince yourself you need one more course, one more certification, one more thing before you’re ready.
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Because if you never really put yourself out there… you never really have to risk rejection.
And I don’t say any of this with judgment. I say it because I’ve caught myself doing it more times than I’d like to admit.
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That’s also why I think marketing gets such a bad reputation. We’ve somehow convinced ourselves that marketing only looks like dancing on Instagram Reels, chasing algorithms, or trying to become the loudest person in the room. But when I really stop and think about it, marketing is simply letting people know you exist.

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Sometimes that looks like sending an email.

Sometimes it’s handing someone a business card.

Sometimes it’s writing a thoughtful blog post, hosting a workshop, asking for a referral, or finally investing in a website that helps people find you while you sleep.
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There isn’t one right way.
There are just a hundred little invitations you can extend into the world.

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And I guess that’s what I’ve learned these past few years.
The businesses I admire most aren’t necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets or the flashiest marketing.

They’re the ones that keep showing up.
Again. And again. And again.
Not perfectly. Just consistently.​
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So if this little reflection is gently calling either of us out today, maybe the goal isn’t to completely reinvent your marketing strategy overnight.

Maybe the goal is simply to ask yourself:

“How am I inviting people into my business this week?”
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​Not next month. Not when everything feels polished.
This week.
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Maybe that’s one thoughtful Instagram post.

Maybe it’s finally sending the newsletter that’s been sitting in your drafts.

Maybe it’s reaching out to someone you’ve wanted to collaborate with.

Or maybe it’s joining the networking opportunity you keep saying ‘next time’ to.
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Whatever it is, make it small enough that you can’t really talk yourself out of it.
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Because I’ve come to believe that the magic isn’t found in one grand marketing campaign. It’s found in hundreds of small invitations, extended consistently over time.
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So maybe Field of Dreams wasn’t entirely wrong after all.

Maybe the lesson was never simply, “If you build it, they will come.”

Maybe it was this:

Build it. Then have the courage to invite people in.

🤎

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