Channel Confusion Is a Consolidation Problem
Why keeping options open keeps your visibility stuck
Note from Denise
This article is the second in a series I’ll return to throughout 2026: consolidation.
Not as a trend. Not as a tactic. As a way of reducing the mental load that comes from keeping too many things open at once.
I’m seeing the same pattern across conversations with solo business owners. It’s not that visibility isn’t working. Its effort is spread thin across too much surface area, so nothing ever quite settles.
This piece starts with one common pressure point. Over the coming weeks, I’ll keep applying the same lens to other parts of visibility that tend to stay open longer than they need to.
If your marketing has been feeling heavier than it should, you’re in the right place.
You can do all the “right” visibility things and still feel unsettled about your marketing.
That feeling usually isn’t about skill or effort. It’s a signal that too much is still in motion at the same time, with nothing fully settled.
For most solo business owners, that shows up as channel confusion.
Not because you don’t know what to do. But because too many things are still open, pulling at your attention in small, constant ways.
It’s a lot like working with too many browser tabs open.
You may only be using one or two, but the rest stay loaded in the background. Each one is small on its own. Together, they slow everything down.
One platform is working, but another might work better. You’re posting here, but wondering if you should also be there. You tell yourself you’ll decide later, once you have more data or a clearer signal.
Later rarely comes.
What stays instead is a low-level habit of second-guessing, where your marketing never quite feels finished.
Why consolidation matters here
Consolidation isn’t about picking the “right” channel. It’s about reducing surface area so your effort has somewhere to land and stay for a while.
When nothing is consolidated, attention stays split. Progress feels temporary. Decisions get revisited instead of resolved, even when you’re showing up consistently.
The issue usually isn’t that you chose the wrong one. It’s that you never fully chose at all.
Open decisions behave like open tabs. Even when you’re not actively using them, they stay present, asking for attention.
Why this keeps repeating
This pattern sticks around because it’s rewarded in subtle ways.
There’s always a new platform, a new format, a new success story, or a new voice suggesting you should add something else. Keeping options open can feel responsible, like you’re staying flexible and informed.
Over time, that flexibility turns into friction.
Instead of closing tabs, you keep adding more.
What this article is here to do
This article isn’t meant to help you choose a channel yet. It’s here to help you notice why that choice keeps staying open.
Ranking platforms or debating trends works best when you’re skimming. This particular problem doesn’t resolve at skim speed.
It settles when a decision is given a clear container and allowed to hold for a while.
The real question underneath channel choice isn’t “Where should I be showing up?”
It’s “What am I unwilling to stop doing?”
Until that’s addressed, every channel stays partially alive. Consolidation never quite happens.
Decide Your Primary Visibility Channel (For the Next 90 Days)
This week’s paid issue (includes a worksheet) helps you decide which visibility channel you’re committing to for the next 90 days.
If your marketing has been feeling open-ended, that’s where it gets contained.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Your Visibility Edge to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.