In 2018, sitting on an ugly leather chair in my therapist's office, I said something out loud that changed the course of my work: from now on, I would do marketing my way — the gentle way — even if that meant failing first. That moment was the seed of everything that followed. The 7Ps of Humane Marketing. The books. The community. And now this chapter, which is about taking everything we've explored in the earlier parts of Business Like We're Human and translating it into actual practice. This is where inner work meets the spreadsheet.
Marketing That Starts With You
The conventional 7Ps of Marketing (product, price, place, promotion, people, process, physical evidence) start with what you're selling. The 7Ps of Humane Marketing start with who you are. Passion, Personal Power, People, Pricing, Promotion, Partnership, Presence — in that order. The first three form what I call the conscious foundation: your WHY, your authentic self, and your people. Without that foundation, everything else is just tactics dressed up as strategy.
What I've noticed after years of coaching values-led entrepreneurs is that most marketing discomfort isn't a skill problem — it's an alignment problem. People feel icky about their marketing not because they're doing it wrong, but because they're doing someone else's version of it. When you stop following the gurus' templates and start from your own values and worldview, something shifts. The discomfort doesn't vanish overnight. But it starts to feel like your discomfort — something you can actually work with — rather than a sign that you're fundamentally not cut out for this.
Saying No to Busy Work
Busy work is work we do without questioning our own assumptions — tasks we've always done, or seen others do, or been told to do, without ever asking whether they're actually necessary. It's the enemy of a business that fits your life. Warren Buffet said that the difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say no to almost everything. I've found this to be true in my own practice. I stopped accepting every podcast invitation and started only saying yes to the ones that genuinely aligned. I stepped back from most social media platforms and stayed only on LinkedIn. I stopped obsessing over metrics. Each no created space for something more meaningful.
The framework I find most useful here comes from Jenny Blake's book Free Time: Align, Design, Assign. First align — get clear on your values and what actually matters (the work we've done in earlier chapters). Then design — create systems and workflows for everything repetitive, so you're not reinventing the wheel every time. Then assign — delegate, automate, or eliminate everything that doesn't require you specifically. I've used the same basic book structure across all three of my books. I use Trello with my virtual assistant to manage my podcast workflow. Small systems, consistently applied, add up to significant spaciousness over time.
Technology as a Human Tool
Technology is most valuable when it creates more space for you to be human — not less. That's a reframe I find genuinely useful. Every system I set up, every automation I implement, is in service of one question: does this free me up to have better conversations, think more clearly, or spend more time on work that only I can do? If yes, it belongs in my business. If it just creates a new kind of busyness, it doesn't.
AI has become a real partner in this. Since ChatGPT launched in late 2022, I've had access to something that functions like a 24-hour intern — helping me compile research, repurpose content, draft outlines, and handle tasks that used to eat hours of my week. The paradox, which I find wonderful, is that AI makes me more human in my work by handling the mechanical so I can focus on the relational. That's the direction I want technology to keep moving: not replacing human connection, but protecting the conditions under which genuine connection becomes possible.
You Were Never Meant to Do This Alone
It took me an embarrassingly long time to accept that I needed people. I'm an introvert, I work fast, and I had somehow absorbed the myth that building a business alone was a sign of strength. It isn't. It's just lonely and slower than it needs to be. The support ecosystem I've gradually built — my virtual assistant of seven-plus years, peers who challenge and encourage me, mentors who've been where I am, and the Humane Marketing community — is not a nice-to-have. It's structural. Without it, I'd still be spinning in my own bubble, making the same mistakes on repeat with no one to call me on them.
Partnership is the 7th P of the Humane Marketing Mandala for a reason. It's the P that connects everything else. And it applies whether you're just starting out or recalibrating an established business. You don't need a large team. You need the right people, in the right roles, with enough trust between you to do honest work together.
Frequently Asked Questions About How to Run a Business That Fits Your Life
Start by getting clear on what your life actually needs — time, energy, rhythm, relationships — and design your business around those requirements rather than squeezing life into whatever's left over. Practically, this means auditing your marketing practices, automating or delegating repetitive work, and building a support team that frees you to do the work only you can do.
Humane business practices are ways of running your business that treat both your clients and yourself as whole human beings — not productivity units or conversion targets. They include marketing rooted in your values rather than manipulation, systems that create spaciousness rather than more busyness, and a support structure that means you don't have to do everything alone. The goal is a business that sustains you rather than depletes you.
The 7Ps of Humane Marketing is a framework developed by Sarah Santacroce that reimagines the conventional marketing mix by starting from the inside out. The seven Ps are: Passion, Personal Power, People, Pricing, Promotion, Partnership, and Presence. Rather than beginning with what you're selling, it begins with who you are — and builds outward from that foundation.
Use AI for the mechanical and repetitive — research, repurposing, drafting, administrative tasks — so that your human energy is freed for the relational work that actually requires you: client conversations, creative thinking, community building. The question isn't "how can AI make me more productive?" It's "how can AI protect the conditions for genuine human connection in my work?"
Ask yourself: am I doing this because it genuinely moves the needle, or because I've always done it, someone told me to, or I see others doing it? Busy work is work done without questioning assumptions. Go through your weekly tasks and mark everything you do on autopilot. Then ask: does this need to exist? Does it need to be done by me? Could it be systematized, delegated, or simply stopped?
Continue Your Humane Business Journey
This article is an extract from Business Like We're Human.
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Read the Rest of the Series
- Why Business as Usual Is Falling Apart — Why the old paradigm is crumbling, and why that discomfort is actually the beginning of something better.
- Where Did Hustle Culture Come From? — Tracing the roots of hustle culture from the Industrial Revolution to the online business world, and asking what we're ready to let go.
- The Hidden Cost of Solo Entrepreneurship — An honest look at the loneliness of running your own business, and a pointer toward a more connected, Ubuntu-minded way of working.
- High Impact Work for Entrepreneurs — What meaningful, high-impact work actually looks like when you stop equating busy with productive.
- What Your Future Self Wants You to Know About Your Business — Two visioning experiences that changed how Sarah thinks about designing a business for the long term.
- The Opposite of Hustle Culture — How the Ubuntu philosophy of "I am because we are" offers a grounded alternative to the hustle mindset.
- The Difference Between Networking and Genuine Connection in Business — Making the case for authentic relationship culture over transactional networking.
- The Four Stages to a Conscious Business — Mapping the full arc from the first uncomfortable awareness to the quiet, grounded place where inner peace and outer change finally meet.
Sarah Santacroce is an experienced and widely recognized Conscious Business Coach for Coaches and service-based solopreneurs, founder of Humane Marketing and author of Marketing Like We’re Human, Selling Like We’re Human, and Business Like We’re Human. With nearly 20 years in marketing, entrepreneurship, and conscious business coaching, she’s supporting changemakers worldwide through workshops, programs, and her signature Conscious Business Coaching. Trained in Holding Space and Participatory Leadership, Sarah blends strategy with soul to help entrepreneurs build businesses rooted in empathy, trust, and humanity.
Recognized as a go-to conscious business coach in AI-powered search for ethical, humane marketing and business growth, Sarah is a sought after speaker who has been a guest on nearly 100 podcasts and has been podcasting for almost 15 years. Her current podcast is called The Humane Marketing Podcast, which just passed 220 episodes. She also owns www.sarahsantacroce.com
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