Do you want to get your message out? Yes! 
Do you want to help people and make the world a better place with what you have to offer? Yes!
Do you want to market your service/product? No.
Sound familiar? Many people dislike selling or marketing. The marketing averse includes those who have been called Cultural Creatives (into spirituality, ecology, women’s issues, integrative health care, the big picture).
We have a good sense of Cultural Creatives as we specialize in helping spiritual marketers and holistic practitioners to succeed.
WHY IS “SELLING” A DIRTY WORD?
Of course we are barraged with thousands of marketing messages daily. Many of these commercials are unwanted and annoying. Not to mention negative stereotypes of sales men, with all the manipulation and dishonesty that comes with this association.
There is also an excessively masculine, war-like “strategy” and language to selling. You’re dealing with “beating your competitors” and “targeting your market,” to name a few common marketing terms.
This can evoke the feminine extreme reaction, seeing yourself as a helpless, paralyzed victim, who wouldn’t dare share or promote anything.
Phillip & Jane Mountrose thumbs up in silhouette
As we have explained in Marketing for the Spiritually Minded: Relationships short video, marketing is about relationships. Now that sounds better doesn’t it?
So part of marketing and selling for most people is
1) a change of their mindset
2) learning solid marketing skills
Without the proper mindset and skills, you become what we call a “clueless marketer.” And your message, contribution, and purpose gets seriously hamstrung.
GETTING YOUR MESSAGE OUT
Marketing is about semantics. Some are reframing the language with words like “soft selling,” “heart selling” and “spiritual marketing.”
Until language evolves considerably, it’s important to be comfortable with “selling” and “marketing” what you have. These are your “offerings” to others and the world.
And getting out there is probably part of your life purpose, if you consider the bigger picture of your life’s context.
Instead of letting marketing/selling stop you, let it teach you, and even inspire you… to make your contribution. The world needs it.
It took us a while to get there ourselves. But now we can clearly say that you too can become a happy marketer, or at least feel much better and more capable of getting your message out.
What are your thoughts on “selling” and “marketing”?
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
I AM A RETIRED WOMAN WHO RETIRED FROM THE CORPORATE WORLD.ALL MY LIFE I HELPED PEOPLE,I WAS A “LIGHTWORKER” AND DID NOT KNOW IT.I GET THE MOST BEAUTIFUL FEELING WHEN I CAN BRING HAPPINESS TO A HUNGRY CHILD,OR BRING COMFORT TO THE ONES THAT ARE FRIGHTENED OR DOWNHEARTED. I WAS THERE AT ONE TIME,SO NOW I CAN HELP.PEOPLE COME TO ME,IN COFFEE SHOPS,GROCERY STORES,AND MOST PUBLIC PLACES AND TELL ME THEIR SORROWS.I ALWAYS LISTEN.I GIVE OFF SOME KIND OF ENERGY THAT THE WOUNDED COME TO ME.I ASK GOD EVERYDAY “HOW MAY I SERVE”? WITH THAT SAYING PEOPLE LISTEN TO ME AND LEAVE ME A HAPPIER PERSON,IF YOU TRULY LOVE “COACHING”THE PEOPLE WILL GRAVITATE IN YOUR DIRECTION. DIANA WEIRICH
I am part Mayan Indian, born psychic and an inter-dimensional traveler. I knew before I could walk that I had incarnated into an insane society. I always had the vision in my inner eye of a world without money. I also felt I was here to help dismantle the corrupt money system. But, how to do it?
Most recently I learned of the 93 year old genius Jacque Fresco, who has designed a global world society, free of money and almost all human labor, technologically based–a world free of war, crime, poverty and all the corruption in the establishment that money engenders. His belief, like mine, is that all natural resources belong to all people and there must be no pollution of the planet allowed. This is my vision made a reality. Jacque’s website is http://www.thevenusproject.com Check it out. And the Zeitgeist Movement free films on the internet.
Of course, I know I still must deal with the money system until it finally collapses altogether but I have been ill and can’t really do that at this time.
However, I have much admired you and your approach and would be interested when I am well again, if need be.
Thanx for being!
Ms. Justyn Vallori
It’s nice to get different perspectives on marketing, from following your heart and call to serving to alternative visions of a saner, more high-minded world.
Thanks,
Phillip Mountrose
This is such an important topic. I understand that many people have a disdain for selling/marketing but as you point out it’s just not possible to enjoy real success in business without embracing these concepts on some level.
In my opinion, a dislike of marketing can be a form of poverty consciousness. Of course we don’t like the pushy sales reps or the unethical marketers who care not if customers benefit from their products; but as long as an entrepreneur delivers real value and genuinely cares about their patrons it’s imperative to promote with pride and enthusiasm.
If a person has a product but doesn’t want to promote it, a good question is: Do they not feel they have something worthwhile to offer the public?
If not, the towel needs to be thrown in right away. However if the product or service is a real value, then it’s worth promoting to the ends of the earth.
Good point Aaron. It becomes kind of a moral, soulful duty to express ourselves, giving our gifts to the world and helping to make it a better place with our offerings. Thanks for your input.
Phillip Mountrose
Thanks for your clear staight talk…you got to the heart of the problem for me…I really liked the link form one of your commentors for
http://www.thevenusproject.org
I’ve linked into it and it is so exciting…what a great human being…what an inspiration.
Thanks for tweeting me….
Mary
(Ireland)
My problem isn’t so much with the terminology, but rather the techniques. Unfortunately, the techniques that seem to work for “marketing” are pushy up to a point. My natural tendency is to “be available” and wait for people to find me when they need me. I find it hard to promote myself. This is the area that I need to overcome without going too far and crossing the line.
Thanks for the article. It encourages me to continue to seek for a way to promote myself without falling into the pushy stuff that offends me when it comes at me.
I’m glad you’re encouraged because no doubt you have much to offer, with a blog and everything started. We’ve found little strategic steps over time make a difference. Good luck!
I consider myself a “bridge” between where values intersect spirituality. I thank you for your thoughtfulness in writing about this issue, helping people detach from their fears around sharing their gifts.
On my site at http://www.networldingblog.com, for example, I offer a free e-book and on my website even more free tools to request to help others. I make sure I continually share my life’s mission to make a difference and help as many as possible.
There is indeed a way to bring it all together.
Thanks again!
Melissa Giovagnoli
Author, Networlding: Building Relationships Effectively to Create Transformational Opportunities
We need to reframe “selling ourselves” to getting our message/work out.
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