From Workshop to Playbook: How to Stretch Your Marketing Strategy IRL

What began as a consulting project turned into something much more: a partnership built on a shared language of capacity.

Elizabeth O'Brien and I first connected when I supported her as a client. She’s a remarkable feminist business consultant, a licensed psychotherapist, and a champion for women who want to align their businesses with the lives they actually want to live. Despite her background in mental health and mine in hospitality and tech, we quickly realized we were speaking the same language.

For Elizabeth, capacity comes up when she helps clients shift into alignment and maintain personal balance. For me, capacity comes up as I help clients get clearer on the real potential of their marketing decisions —knowing what they can sustain, where to focus, and what to set aside. Different lenses, same conclusion: understanding our capacity holistically empowers us to make smarter, healthier business decisions.

Our synergy was undeniable: too many entrepreneurs are burning out trying to grow, and we have complementary tools to help

So it was only natural to bring that shared language into a room with others. That’s how I found myself joining her as a guest co-host for the Shift Shop workshop series. Fourteen Atlanta-based entrepreneurs showed up ready to listen, reflect, and share. What unfolded was a conversation that blended Elizabeth’s wellness-first perspective with my marketing methodology —giving attendees a new way to think about their own capacity within their businesses.

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The Capacity Workshop in Action

Every business owner is a marketer. You have to be. So let’s just get that out of the way.

Marketing touches every part of a business —from its inception to sales and new client onboarding to customer service policies and employee training. Every decision reinforces your brand’s value in some way.

To simplify things, I introduced an approach with two clear categories:

1. Foundational marketing - the essentials they need to keep their business running.

2. Growth marketing - the ways you stretch and scale.

It’s often hard to spot the waste. Big ideas naturally inspire and spark fast action. But without a clear understanding of how all the activity will impact your business, new projects can quickly devolve into expensive distractions.

Elizabeth reminded the group that this truth can feel overwhelming. From her wellness-first perspective, capacity starts with giving yourself permission not to do it all. 

So when I introduced my Capacity Matrix —an assessment exercise I created to help clients identify work that takes low effort but brings high reward —participants had the space to step back and quietly reflect on their businesses. Together, we uncovered how marketing impacts the whole operation—driving revenue when done right and creating a drain on resources, budget, and morale when it's not.

Making informed, confident marketing decisions comes from clarity.

Capacity Matrix, an exercise I use to help companies find their ‘Sweet Spot’ in marketing strategies.

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A Shared Perspective

Elizabeth summed it up beautifully during the session:

“Capacity is embedded in every decision you make—it’s not just about how much work you can take on. It’s about your nervous system, your energy, your emotional bandwidth, and even your relationships. Every ‘yes’ and every ‘no’ is a capacity decision.”

Elizabeth's words always seem to have a way of grounding a room. Capacity is as much about personal sustainability as it is about business growth.

🎥 Here's a quick look at the workshop in action.

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Capacity in Practice: Stretching Your Strategy

A mentor once told me that “You will get sick of new content long before the audience will.”

That one little nugget has guided me so well over the years. Marketing isn't always about the next big idea —it’s about stickiness, ROI, and scalability. It doesn't have to be complicated, but you need a reliable system to help you stretch your strategy and your marketing investments as far as they’ll go.

I live this in my own business. My marketing ecosystem is small. My growth levers are limited. That means every piece of work has to count. When Elizabeth and I developed this workshop, we weren’t thinking about one event. We were thinking long-term, because we can’t afford not to.

Content creation IRL:

From this single workshop, Elizabeth and I walked away with a playbook — strategy, budget, action plan, and templates — that will make scaling easier. It also became the seed for content we can both build on again and again.

Here’s a snapshot for right now:

• This blog (the anchor)

• Three social posts (concepts and takeaways with images/video)

• Testimonials (social proof)

• A teaser for what’s next (a new program)
  

I’ll fit all these assets into a simple editorial calendar that keeps me organized. Workshops are an investment of time and energy to be sure. But when you stretch the content, refine the systems, and build a playbook from the experience, the value multiplies.

And here’s a note for every business owner working in B2B partnerships: stretching capacity isn’t just about your own channels. It’s about how you and your partner carry the message forward together. Starting with an article like this, we’ve extended the workshop’s impact across both of our audiences. Even if you don’t plan it in advance, inviting a partner to guest quote or co-author a blog is a strategic hack.

Inviting Elizabeth to guest quote on my blog strengthens our relationship, creates natural backlinks (supporting SEO), and doubles the reach of our efforts.

That’s sustainable marketing in action.

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Here’s What Attendees Told Us:

“It gave me a new perspective and many practical tips for growing my business sustainably, that no one else is teaching. The teachers were phenomenal!”

“This workshop was so helpful. Elizabeth and Ellen seamlessly intertwined somatic wisdom and marketing wisdom.”

“This is a positive reframing that is so needed for women in business. We have a lot of rewiring to do.”

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What’s Next:

The strongest feedback we received? “We want to go deeper.”

So we’re exploring a 6-week immersive community-based program to do just that.

In the meantime, if you’re curious about how capacity could reshape your own business, here’s how you can connect with us:

With Ellen (Circle 4 Marketing):

Whether you’re launching a large-scale project or need focused, one-on-one support, I offer strategic marketing guidance to help you move from scattered efforts to sustainable growth. Schedule a 30-minute discovery call

With Elizabeth (The Shift Shop):

To learn more about The Shift Shop and Elizabeth’s psychotherapy practice and coaching work with women business owners, visit theshiftshop.com.

Elizabeth and I, taking a quick selfie, before we started ...as you do!