by MarkAt 1:10 p.m. I’m standing in line at the post office. I know it’s 1:10 p.m. because my iPhone prayer app lets loose with a resounding call announcing the time for the midday prayer. The three other people in the post office avoid looking at me. Or maybe it doesn’t bother them.
I carry the awareness of the waiting prayer for two hours, until I make it back home to my office. I do the ritual washing of my hands, face, and feet, take out my prayer rug, and face northeast.
Then I breathe.
My prayer carries me through various positions, my forehead approaching, then touching, the floor, then rising up again.
Because the midday prayer is done silently, the silence of the devotion carries me.
I’m grateful for this, because my heart is trembling with grief.
Struggling to Express Grief
The gushing bleeding of oil in the Gulf of Mexico is not anything I can contain. I alternate between numbness, denial and grief. It’s simple: the lifestyle that we’re living, that I’m living, is unsustainable, and it’s killing many things in this world.
We know this. It’s not a surprise, but it’s hard to keep that much pain present.
I believe that our unexpressed grief is a significant fuel on the fire of our unsustainable lifestyle. Grief for the loss of life, the loss of the hope, the loss of beauty and connection.
Have you heard of Farmville? It’s a virtual game within Facebook where you can run a virtual farm. Millions of people are playing this game on a daily basis. Even though it’s a free game, you can spend real money on it if you choose to. And people choose to. More than US$1 billion annually is spent on this game alone.
What are we doing? Where are we putting our resources?
This is not about blame. I don’t blame anyone for numbing out to what’s going on.
Marketing Has Gotten Very Sophisticated
Over the years, more and more psychological tricks have been implemented in marketing and product development. Add extra nicotine to cigarettes, put cheap, high-alcohol beer in convenience stores, make porn and video games and violent movies easily accessible.
Put marketing messages everywhere so that they are nearly inescapable. And make those marketing messages full of the promise of a wealthy, sexy lifestyle that the vast majority of the world’s population can’t reach.
The result? A loss of hope. A disconnection from the true source of our happiness and nourishment. An ever-increasing consumption of material goods.
Resources, money and time, end up being funneled to the very things that continue to hurt us all so much.
Our economy, our marketplace is deeply dysfunctional. Billions spent on war, chemicals and oil, a small fraction of that spent on things that really make a positive difference in our lives. And the rest spent on numbing out to the powerlessness that we all feel when facing it.
Hey, Let Go of That Despair
It’s important to face things as they are. Expressing grief is something I highly recommend.
But don’t indulge in despair. Despair is just another way of avoiding grief. Despair is a decision that things will never work out, that there is no hope.
Instead, think about marketing. Well, first indulge your heart in love, then think about marketing.
Yes, I Said Marketing
There are so many good people doing good things. Sauvie Island Organics here in Portland has a community-supported agriculture program, which means that up to 400 families buy a share in the farm, and then share in the harvest. Delicious, local, organic food delivered directly from the farm.
They have openings. Huh? There are over 1.5 million people in the Portland area, and this farm hasn’t filled all 400 openings?
So much of our attention is taken up in distraction by our dysfunctional economy. Fast food instead of fresh, organic vegetables, for instance.
The healing work that amazing people are doing in sustainable food, in holistic health, in alternative energy, needs to take up a lot more of the attention and resources.
Our local Hollywood Video store is being shuttered because the parent corporation, Movie Gallery, Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. I’m guessing that’s because the entertainment dollars have shifted to online downloads and Farmville, among other things.
But wouldn’t it be amazing if they went bankrupt because all of those millions of dollars went to healers, coaches and practitioners of all stripes who were supporting people in regaining wholeness and connecting with each other in meaningful ways instead of zoning out in front of screens?
Marketing Is a Piece of the Answer
We find ourselves in urgent times. There is a desperate need for love, acceptance, and healing. The grief I feel at the distance between where we are and where my heart so longs to live is profound.
If we are going to heal the world, we are going to do it one imperfect step at a time. We need political activism. We need internal healing. We need love and community.
And we need the people doing the good work locally, sustainably, beautifully to be visible. To take up space. To be the recipient of the over-abundance of resources flowing through our culture.
There is a way to do marketing with integrity. There is a way to do it with love and heart and be very effective.
If you struggle with marketing or business even a little bit because of how you’ve seen marketing used, I’m with you. I share that pain.But please don’t abandon the airwaves to those hocking greed and dissatisfaction.
Instead, open your heart to marketing. Open your heart to business. Business is in pain, it’s sick. Don’t abandon it.
Bring your heart, engage with love and integrity, and let’s see if we can come together to claim the space and bring the healing we are all so desperate for.
By the time my forehead has touched the ground for the final time at the end of my prayer, my heart has returned to love. It has found hope and inspiration once more. I remember that the weight of the world is not on my shoulders alone.
You and I are in this together. Let’s take up the space the Divine has given us, and bring your good work out into air, where everyone can see it.
Form your marketing in love, bring it out in inspired action, and connect with the people who need what you do so much more than the alternatives they’re faced with.
p.s. Need Love-Centered, Integrity-Centered Help?
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63 Comments... Care To Join Us?
Oh brother of mine, thank you for speaking to my heart. I so often (like 20 times a day) fall into the camp of giving up on business and marketing. So nourished and even excited by what you shared here. And okay, I’ll say it, I DON’T GET FARMVILLE. But then you knew that.
Jennifer Louden’s lastest post: You Do Not Have to Earn your Weirdness
Oh sister of mine, I so hear you- I cling to this, too.
That was exactly what I needed today. Lately I brood a lot, worrying I won’t be able to do business and develop my services online unless I adopt the kind of mentality that makes me shrink in my place. I want to remain loyal to my values and be successful. Thank you Mark. I’ll visit your site often.
Cigdem A: Kobu’s lastest post: What I learned from Mary Poppins
Sweet- I’m so glad to hear that. Please don’t shrink!
Hey, Mark!
You’ve no idea how much your article has touched my Spirit, and the sense of hopelessness and helplessness that sometimes overwhelms me when I think about things like the oil spill in the Gulf or the ongoing wars in the Middle East. It has gotten to the point where I no longer watch the TV news because it overwhelms me.
I’ll have to admit, I never thought of marketing as a solution, but rather part of the problem, pointing out the gap between the “haves” and “have-nots,” ever widening here in the USA.
You reminded me, though, that I am not powerless, and why I am working so hard on developing my website. It might serve as a platform for my writing, or it might grow into a community where people support each other with their issues (like abuse), or it might connect only a few people that are ready to meet their next Teachers on their journey of healing.
Regardless of its popularity or business success, it speaks my heart and reminds me I am not powerless.
Thank you,
Annie
I’m so glad- it can be so hard to keep going facing the hopelessness and helplessness- we so need each other to draw forth strength and inspiration.
Mark, thank you for this post. Especially the way you draw a distinction between grief and despair, which is often a tough one for me. I can easily get caught up in cynicism and despair about the state of the world, even though I know that’s not a pleasant or effective place to operate from.
Another thing I struggle with along these same lines is my tendency to judge others. For instance, one of my best friends (yes, a grown woman) is into Farmville. I roll my eyes at it, and in general share your disgust with the crass, slickly marketed uselessness of it all.
But then I look at my friend, who is using it for some harmless escapism from an often stressful life, and I’ve got to concede that *for her,* there’s nothing particularly wrong with it. It’s an innocent source of pleasure. If I got on my social activism or spiritual high horse about how she’d be better off spending her time on things *I* consider to be worthy, that would be very wrong of *me.*
I try to remember that each person is doing the best they know how to do at any given moment in time. But it’s often SO hard to refrain from arrogance and judgement and try to maintain a more empathetic attitude, when there’s so much happening in our culture that I vehemently disagree with.
Hard, hard, hard. But I would really like to be one of the people making a difference by replacing at least a teeny, tiny bit of the greed-based commercialism out there with some heart-centered marketing.
Thanks for the encouraging words.
)
I so get that tendency to judge… we all have our ways of tuning out. I have to confess to watching old reruns of Adam-12 on Hulu when I need to tune out.
I judge myself sometimes. And sometimes I can just enjoy the show, and then get back to life.
Well, now you’re making me cry via email. I give up.
Such a beautiful, beautiful way of turning what feels charred and brittle into something that feels soft and resilient. This part, especially:
“Form your marketing in love, bring it out in inspired action, and connect with the people who need what you do so much more than the alternatives they’re faced with.”
thank you
P.S. Note to self: Waterproof the keyboard.
Hey, I had to get someone to cry with me. Thanks for joining me in making the world soggier.
Oh–and I meant to add that the mental image of you standing in the post office with the muezzin’s call resonating through the room via iPhone made me laugh. When they say that whatever it is, “there’s an app for that,” I guess they really mean it!
Michelle Russell’s lastest post: The Knight and the Monk: A Tale of Two Furies
I know… I’m still getting used to it myself. I find myself sometimes scrambling to turn it off in mid-call, especially if the volume is turned way up…
And yes, there’s an app for that.
I actually struggled for awhile with buying the app, because I didn’t want a record in the Apple iTunes app store that I bought such a Muslim app, but heck, anyone who reads the blog knows, so Just realized I needed it.
Mark,
Your article reminded me of this David Whyte poem.
[b]Loaves and Fishes[/b]
This is not
the age of information.
This is not
the age of information.
Forget the news
and the radio
and the blurred screen.
This is the time
of loves
and fishes.
People are hungry
and one good word is bread
for a thousand.
Thanks for another nourishing article.
Warmly,
Sam
Whoops — that was supposed to be “LOAVES and fishes,” not “loves and fishes,” though interesting typo!
Sam’s lastest post: Response cached until Thu 17 @ 6:50 GMT (Refreshes in 23.89 Hours)
I love the poem- and I think I prefer the “loves and fishes” version. Thanks for that!
That’s amazing – I just heard a recording of David Whyte reading that poem two days ago.
Someone is definitely trying to tell me something.
Mike Reeves-McMillan’s lastest post: Why cake is never just cake
This article echoed my thoughts. I don’t about elsewhere but where I live, if you want to be accepted by the well-heeled set, you should have the right brands of handbags, shoes and clothes. What you can talk about, what are your values doesn’t figure! The rest of society is in a never-ending hamster wheel act to be able to fit into that set, even if they have to shed all values along the way. No one seems to realise what we get to own will belong to someone else the moment we die: we take with us only who we have become!
The second sentence should read I don’t know about elsewhere…
Aamer- it’s so true… such a challenge to remain connected to deepest nourishing values in a culture of materialism.
Hey Mark
This article felt like you’d got inside my mind, feeling the same pain I do when I look at the human-created world we live in.
Pain seems to be unavoidable when we see those we love suffering, when we see this beautiful planet dying from the actions of ignorance and greed. Sometimes it can feel that the odds are stacked against the more conscious ones among us.
And yet I take hope and inspiration from the fact that there are people like you willing to stand up and speak the truth. And this gives me renewed strength to continue with my own work, to believe that there are people willing to hear the truth, willing to respond to an authentic message delivered with integrity and sincere devotion.
That marketing can be part of the solution is something I am learning slowly. So much that is being taught is pure manipulation, and I have found it painful to study that material so as to promote my business. My Heart kept telling me that there must be another way.
A few days ago I found myself eating lunch on the table next to an extremely famous film star. It was middle of the day and he was out with his family, obviously enjoying some personal time.
It came to me that it would be great if he could read my book – but I knew he must be inundated with people wanting something from him. And I did not want to use – and abuse – him for my personal gain.
What to do? When I felt into my Heart – using the Remembrance process I learned from you on the Heart of Money course so many years ago, and that is still so dear to me – the solution became clear: Simply give him my book as a gift, a service without strings, and without a request for anything in return.
I had no idea what to say but trusted that the words would come if I spoke from my Heart. I told him how much joy his films had given me, which is true, that I respected his privacy, and would he simply accept my book as a gift?
Few words were exchanged but the conversation we had was profound. Our eyes met with a level of Heart-connection usually reserved for my spiritual teachers, a level of intimacy where no words are needed.
Whether anything comes back to me in worldly terms from my gift really does not concern me. What I could not have foreseen, but my Heart knew well, was that our meeting was sufficient in and of itself.
This “marketing without manipulation” goes against so much of what many marketing gurus teach us. But I feel it is the only way forward for those of us building businesses with integrity. For if we try to build our businesses the old way, surely our Hearts will retreat and we will be no better than those who are currently raping and pillaging our planet.
Can “marketing as a service” save our world? Maybe not by itself, but I do feel it is part of the solution. What tells me this is true is nothing tangible that I can show anyone or prove by argument. It is a feeling.
When I parted company from this famous man who probably has millions of people adoring and envying him, I felt something that no conventional approaches to marketing have ever brought me: peace.
It is a deeply profound, joyful peace and a feeling of connectedness with the essence of that man that feels more valuable than any financial return could ever be.
So I will continue sowing seeds, trusting my in my Heart that some will land on fertile soil – and that through this spirit of service, sufficient money will come for all my needs to be met.
I hope this is not too long but these words sprang from my Heart in response to your article with a yearning to be shared.
Blessings to you and your loved ones,
Leo
Leo! I’m so grateful you shared that story- beautiful! Can’t wait to see your book making it out there more widely- it’s part of the answer, too.
Thank you Mark for this inspiring and timely message
~ Patrick
Patrick Dominguez’s lastest post: A Short Note to Express Appreciation to You
You’re welcome!
Wow. Just… wow.
This hit an amazing chord with me. This resonates so deeply.
I’ve been debating about a few things in my marketing… actually, stressing over how to get the word out in a bigger way.
All I have to do is open my heart and the answer will be there… silly me – I had forgotten
Thanks for the reminder… but also, thanks for the beautiful words.
You are right on so many levels and I thank you for putting it out in the world.
Jenn Givler’s lastest post: Are you eating real food?
Isn’t it surprisingly easy to forget the heart? I do, too. Thank goodness I’ve got this job that keeps reminding me…
Beautiful. beautiful truth. Farmville? Another distraction. I don’t even get the time-wasting Facebook or Twitter and everyone tells me it is the “marketing path” of the enlightened. I refuse to “chat” face to face, on the phone, or online. I can only BE and DO in the world as I wish the rest of the world to BE and DO. I can’t be bothered with marketing until I find my own magnetic path to sharing that sustains and doesn’t drain me. I’ll let you know when I find it! Of all the chatting I have stopped reading, you still touch my heart. You share your deepest struggles, discoveries and passions. Thank you. I can’t bear anymore chatting, platitudes, non-action, and push.
I’m so glad this resonated with you. We have a very painful culture, indeed.
Thank you again Mark, for sharing your heart and your wisdom. When I feel drained about doing my marketing work I will remember this line from the post:
You and I are in this together. Let’s take up the space the Divine has given us, and bring your good work out into air, where everyone can see it.
Your writing is such an inspiration.
Yes, please! We’re in it together- if we’re together, it’s so much easier to paddle against the tide. I can’t do it on my own…
Thank you, Mark.
I have deliberately avoided all but headlines of the oil spill because I know what an ache it will cause in me. And to avoid that helpless feeling in the face of it.
Thank you for the strong reminder that those of us who are on a healing path have an implicit obligation to bring it out to those who need it through marketing formed on love.
What a concept. Let’s pray it goes viral.
Marsha Stopa’s lastest post: Fighting the Warm Weather Blues
You are so welcome. It’s painful, but the grief and healing is such a critical part of the path.
Thank you Mark. This is the first time your words have brought tears to me. They are so passionate, so right, so inspiring. I have working on my webcopy this afternoon (my Heart Centred Websites well to hand, full of notes and post-its), and hearing the voice saying, “Can I really offer this?” “Isn’t this too big?” And then I read your article and I have finally got it- my work is not about me, its about us and its more than OK, its vital. Yes!
Blessings.
Ah, good- someone else crying along with me. I’m grateful you’re joining Kathy Mallary and I in making the world soggier.
Glad that you decided to share the aspect of grief that is so real for many of us The Gulf Oil Spill is just one totally tragic manifestation of what is so wrong and so unsustainable about the values of this country; capitolism, exploitation, greed, competition, individualism, etc.
However, it is a also a profound wake-up call, and again I appreciate you speaking to that place of pain, anger and grief that many of us are holding. As healers, visionaries and conscious entrepreneurs, our marketing messages and the GOOD work that many of us and our colleagues are doing must be made visible in alternative and mainstream media…..we must learn to befriend those in powerful places…tap into their humanity and help transform their messages to those of justice, peace, forgiveness, compassion and love.
From your lips to God’s ears.
Mark,
Thank you for saying what was in my mind regarding the state of todays marketplace. It can be a daunting task to “keep up with the Jones’s” when it comes to the latest greatest marketing craze. At the same time, I agree that it’s very dysfunctional. I also agree that there are better ways to market your business and it starts with love, heart, and sharing the amazing gifts and talents that can change the world.
I just want you to know that I’m totally with you and I want to see change in the marketing community as well.
Create a great day!
Kristen
Kristen Beireis’s lastest post: Why Templates Lower Your Trust Factor
Yes! We’re together in this! I’m so grateful.
Mark,
This is the most powerful and lovely and important post you have ever written (for me and my heart). Thank you. Thank you for telling the truth and saying it all.
I really needed the reminder about the distinction of despair and grief and the reminder to stay in touch with my heart – the oil spill has been making me sick, or rather, my despair and denial are making me sick. I’m feeling different already.
You are a gift from God and I for one am so, so grateful.
Regina
xo
It took weeks for this to work its way out- I didn’t know how to get at what I wanted to say until it was there. Thank you for being here.
Amen. G-d bless you, Mark. It’s all about the Love.
Bazrat HaShem. Omayn!
amen and amen –
you and the others who have taken time to comment eloquently express so much of what I feel. And yet, when I try to bring this to the attention of my adult children and grandchildren, they look at me like I’ve lost my mind. It’s discouraging, but none of us can give up, there’s simply too much at stake.
Mark, I am consistently impressed with your spiritual courage in this age of increasing prejudice – take care
bows,
sue
Is it courage if you can’t hold it back? I trust we’re all moving forward in amazing ways. Without you, I couldn’t do this.
Back in 2001 when I was already living in Illinois, a friend who lived in New Jersey (near NYC) was surprised that I, and by extension, others beyond the City metro, cared about the WTC disaster.
I, in turn, was surprised that she was surprised. And I was saddened.
Now the oil spill is personally devastating to me (as was Katrina too).
It’s comforting to read about others who care beyond what this means for the next elections.
Diana
I’m surprised she was surprised, too. I think it is hard for someone who is personally affected by a tragic event to sometimes get how it can impact someone who wasn’t on the scene.
And yet, we are all so deeply affected by an uncountable number of these disasters.
Feeling so connected to the ocean (Yemaya!) and living here in Florida…the oil spill just breaks me. Makes me feel like nothing is worth doing, that life is not worth living on such an embattled planet. What has been especially difficult is feeling alone in the heartbreak…and helpless. Thank you, Mark, for reminding me I am neither.
We have to stick together, because it’s so much larger than each of us.
So much grief- we all need to time to feel just limp, to feel helpless in the face of tragedy. Eventually the tide of our heart comes back in, and we can be moved to help in the repair.
So painful. I feel for you so much being right there.
Thank you for providing the opportunity to join in your devotion for that which encompasses us all, in service of peace of mind, body and heart.
Amen.
Thanks Mark, this so needed to be said. It’s why I’ve had the courage to start my blog The Accidental Seeker and why everyone with their own passion for healing, growth and community can’t be afraid to come out of the closet and tell people about it! Let’s raise our voices above the din of Farmville and reality TV (don’t get it, don’t want to be numb enough to!).
Just because those who scream loudest are most heard doesn’t mean marketing is bad and the rest of us shouldn’t speak up. As you so eloquently reminded us, it’s all in where we come from with our message.
Thank you. I’m glad we’re in this together. And yes, we should not be silent, nor let ourselves be silenced, by the immensity of pain that surrounds us.
Dear Mark:
You are a poet. You put into words what is difficult to express with words.
I know I was kind of rambling during the interview we did together: about my experiences living in Alaska and my epiphany that led me to wonder how my advertising/marketing talents could be used for good. Which led to the opening of a green and social marketing firm back in 2003.
Our conversation ties right in to what you are saying here.
I think we need another word for marketing. I don’t know what that is, but we need to redefine what marketing means—for conscious consumers and conscious biz people—altogether.
Maybe this would help honest people be able to communicate their offer to their right people.
Maybe this would help artists and other creatives not feel like “sell outs” when they have a real need to put food on the table.
Maybe this would help the shy, the introverted, (which are what I call the silent minority in this culture — only about 20% of people or so are true introverts) find a way of being uniquely themselves so that “marketing” doesn’t feel so icky and inauthentic. I know extroverts struggle with that, too. Introverts *suffer* in a different way when it comes to marketing.
Maybe it would help us discern real value and facts when presented (now) with so much green washing. British Petroleum: their “Beyond Petroleum” campaigns, for example.
The purpose of marketing is to sell. Not just stuff like products or services. But ideas.
What we have is a design challenge. How to sell without selling out? Or feel like you are selling out. How to sell when we are (especially on the Internet channel) exposed to so much noise and so many offers from so many people?
How to even purchase in that situation?
By noise I mean: so much incoming information. Lots of it is really good stuff. Stuff that could help us redefine marketing and business, for example. But how do we choose?
Because we are all so overwhelmed with the business of life, it’s hard to take in the deep suffering that goes on in the name of our lifestyle here in the US. (Back to your point about the oil spill and our oil dependence.)
If we look at issues of sustainability, the eco-warrior, or even the eco-curious, can see that it’s a gigantic question beyond our ability to personally solve.
Does my small action really make a difference? Recycling my trash or changing the light bulb, when so many other crimes against nature and people are happening in the name of cheap and abundant goods? And ultimately, what’s the use if the corporations are just going to spew a bunch more toxic crap into the atmosphere, the ocean, the planet?
What I hear you saying, Mark is to not let apathy interfere with our best intentions. And to always return to the heart. The very place we feel the pain of the world, ironically.
In order to “save” the Alaskan wilderness, for example, I had to leave it and learn to apply the arts of business to apply to the problem.
Not that I personally can save it. It’s a metaphor. There are many paths to activism. Mine was to learn the language of business so that I could use those tools for the little activist movements and the do-good services and really green products.
Some people will sit in trees or chain themselves to a nuclear reactor. But I’m sort of wimpy that way, so I took up the marketing angle.
Everyone who is in business (or trying to be in business) needs to learn the skills, tools, game of marketing. Your community, Mark, Heart of Business, is really in an ideal position to redefine the practice of marketing so that it is something that can be used for good, for beauty, for truth.
Sorry this turned into a rant. I was sure your comment form would have cut me off by now.
Now that my undies (probably made in a sweatshop in Jamaica) are in a bunch, I think applying for a job digging in the dirt at Sauvie Island Organics is a fine idea. Or perhaps they need a marketing director?
From the heart,
Lisa
Lisa Sonora Beam’s lastest post: Friendly Friday: Leonie Wise + Manifesto
I love the rant, Lisa- please don’t stop ranting when it’s flowing out.
For me “marketing” is the action of presenting ourselves, presencing ourselves into the marketplace.
Perhaps the phrase, “Going to market” would be better, in the sense of, “Just harvest that row of pumpkins. Now, I’m going to market. Be back for dinner.”
If you come up with a good alternative word, I’d love to hear it.
You rock.
Hi Mark -
I generally really enjoy your emails, but dude, you gotta lay off Farmville: the parent company, Zynga, has donated millions and millions of dollars to Haiti as well as the San Francisco SPCA.
Check them out – http://www.zynga.org/
I went to high school with the creator of Zynga, Marc Pincus, and while he might be a bit of a twerp, he has a good, kind heart.
Thanks again for your good work.
Best,
Sam
Samantha Bennett
The Organized Artist Company
And let me hasten to add: Marc Pincus is decidedly NOT a twerp.
I was trying to be funny in that 9th-grade-kind-of-way, but I realize that may not quite read.
Marc is very funny and quite brilliant and a true philanthropist.
My real point is just that we must all be cautious not to get sanctimonious about how others choose to spend their time on this earth.
Hi Samantha-
Thanks for your comments. I definitely did not know that about Marc Pincus or Zynga- it’s helpful to know that they are attempting to do good in the world.
There is still a point to be made here. As I wrote in the original article, I don’t judge anyone for playing Farmville, although I sometimes judge myself for getting lost in Hulu, although I come to my senses and remember that it’s okay to tune out sometimes.
Farmville is a symptom of a deeper problem. While it’s wonderful that many large companies give millions of dollars to charities and do good in the world, it doesn’t repair the fact that it’s a fraction of the money they are earning, money and time that perhaps isn’t being channeled into what the planet is needing.
As Woody Tasch writes about in Slow Money, and others have said before him, the model of becoming a big, powerful, money-making corporation and then donating a portion of what you make to charity does not appear to be taking us towards the solutions we need. In most instances, the corporations are making their money in ways that directly and indirectly exacerbate the very problems that they then donate charitable funds to.
Farmville unfortunately is a particularly strong metaphor- at a time when our farmland is losing topsoil at a tremendous rate, where food and water infrastructures are threatening to fall apart entirely, it’s ironic that so many of our human and financial resources are being spent on a digital version of what we really need to be doing.
I’m no saint, I don’t have the answers. And, I think it’s helpful to help us awaken to what’s going on.
I have no personal judgment towards the creators of Farmville, or the people who play it. But, I do have big concerns about the priorities of our culture, the choices we make collectively about where to put our resources. And I wonder aloud at how we’re going to wake up before we overwhelm the life-giving abilities of the planet with our own unconscious excesses.
Thank you so much, Mark.
I needed to hear this when you wrote it.
And I needed to hear it again today, but because I’m in a different place.
I get it now.
Marketing ISN’T about me.
It’s not about tooting my own horn or celebrating my wonderfulness for the sake of my ego.
It’s about my clients finding and getting what THEY need.
It’s about them.
They don’t know that I have what they need until I tell them.
I love it when I GET it. And I finally get it.
It may seem small, but this way of looking at marketing changes everything for me.
Thanks for being a part of my ongoing journey!
Rachel Whalley’s lastest post: Changing How You Feel
It’s huge- I’m so glad this understanding landed! Woo-hoo!
Thank you, Mark.
I have followed you for years and always find your comments grounding and clarifying. Like you, I own a business that reminds an industry (veterinary medicine) to emphasize values and consciousness, as well as expertise and services. The daily life of work and business has become so stressful and busy that we all just want short-cuts and relief (hence Farmville and comsumerism!) But, what we need is to feel the joy and satisfaction of connecting with Spirit and the greater good that is present in the human world.
Thank you for everything you do to keep us aware!
Yeah! Glad you click with this, too. Thank you for your kind words.
Marketing has gotten very sophisticated today, especially with internet and facebook, etc.
It’s more about bringing the people to you than you going out to find people now.
Mmm… I would still say that you need to go to your people, even with social media.
True, but with so many people actively searching for things on the internet now a days, you must position yourself to be found.
If you position yourself very very well to be found, it’s almost easier to inbound than to actively go out and find people.
For example, person looking for fishing equipment. First thing they do most times? Search the internet to research or maybe even buy or find reviews.
If you can be that site to give info, or reviews, or even sell, you will already have a very very targeted person right there within a click away to purchase.
I think it has to do more so with generating content people will look for with your products/services, then creating it and funneling in that traffic to your site or what you offer. People will read your stuff and somewhat trust you more. Trust is everything in business.
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