Groundswell Marketing Principles

The voter/consumer doesn’t trust you or your “policy”. And you waiting until election season to tell me your policy is obsolete.

I DON’T CARE ABOUT WHAT YOU KNOW... I CARE ABOUT WHAT YOU HAVE SEEN. Knowledge is boring and generic. It doesn’t help me the way your life experience helps me. It also doesn’t create connection with me like your life experience connects with me. And here’s the problem with knowledge for you... Because there’s so much to know, you never feel like you know enough. And that stops you from marketing your important work. Marketing is about connection not information. Information is everywhere. But someone who gets me is rare. When you share what life has taught you, I feel like you get me. I feel seen and not alone. I don’t want to do business with those who know it all. That feels risky and confirms my insecurities that I’m not good enough and you’re better than me. I’m more likely to do business with someone who gets me because that feels safe. I feel known. This is where you need to come from in marketing. Just share your story. Share what life has taught you. Share what you have seen. Share what you have learned. Tell me why you’re so passionate about what you do. Tell me the problem you ran into and how you got to the other side. Your problems are my problems. Your fears are my fears. Your insecurities are my insecurities. When you’re real and human, it gives me permission to be real and human. And people that are real and human make the best clients. So be what you want to attract. Share what life has taught you. Share what you have seen. And watch your tribe grow.

When passion and ideas and life lessons come, don’t hoard them. And don’t wait for them to be perfect to think that’s what makes you valid. Share what you see so we can benefit from your life’s lessons.

We often want answers BEFORE we take action. We don’t want to invest time and money if it’s not going to work. But that’s not how life and certainty work. You have to take action first AND THEN answers show up

I DON’T CARE HOW BIG YOU ARE, OLD YOU ARE, WHAT GENDER YOU ARE, OR WHAT COLOR YOU ARE... ...when you show up in your certainty it’s sexy. It’s captivating. It’s clear. But absent of your certainty we’re left with all the other stuff you’re afraid for us to see. Some people are kind about that “stuff” and others are judgy about it. And you know this. You’ve experienced this. Which is why we feel shy, bashful, or scared to step out and show up in the areas we feel stuck. This is the challenge of certainty. In order to grow and step into the next expansion for yourself, you have to step into uncertain territory. Let’s use marketing as an example. You can feel your certainty in the important work you’re doing as you do it. It feels clear. You feel strong doing it. But when you put your marketing hat on, things get fuzzy. You don’t know how marketing works. You get self-conscious about doing videos. When you sit down to write you have a hard time finding the words. Which is so weird because when you’re simply talking to somebody about your work you feel inspired and aren’t short for words. So how do we find certainty in uncertain territory? If we find it, people will connect to the powerful people we are. Money comes and our impact grows. So a lot is riding on you finding it. You could take a lot of roads to finding your certainty. But here’s a back door to certainty in uncertain territory I’ve found... Without concern for marketing tools, algorithms, or “how things work” (you don’t need to understand how things work in the beginning of this expansion)... You simply share your truth in new settings and with new people. You share what life has already taught you and you do it from a real place. This requires that you slay the dragons of shame attached to your story so that they no longer have any power over you... And in fact that you see these previously shameful things as part of what makes you strong. When your shame is redeemed for strength certainty shows up. And with that certainty, you share your story in new ways with new people. The story doesn’t change. That’s your wheelhouse of power. But you expand where you share it and who you share it with. THIS IS WHAT CREATES CERTAINTY IN UNCERTAIN TERRITORY. Marketing, then, is just a platform to share the parts of your story that your certain about in new places with new people. And as you do that, we will see your certainty no matter how big you are, old you are, what gender you are or what color you are. **** PS - If you want to learn how to bring more certainty into your marketing... I’m launching a 6 week course in July. I’ll have more details up this week. But if you’re interested, PM me and I’ll send you a link later this week so you can if this program is a fit for you.

It is critical to get clear on who your audience is. But the typical exercises can put us in our head instead of our heart and we get confused about who our audience is. But you can feel into your audience to get access to how to describe it. (Listen now)

LEARNING MARKETING DOESN’T MAKE YOU GOOD AT MARKETING. I don’t even know how much I’ve spent over the years trying to “learn” marketing. Or the hours I’ve spent messing around with the tools of marketing (like Facebook ads, landing pages, email automations, and the long list goes on). We’re so easily wrapped up in the tools of it. And I get it. Tools are easy to see and play with. But marketing has to start in a much deeper place. Mastery of marketing tools absent of substance in your message results in nothing. And this is the rub. Because the hard work isn’t learning the technology, even if you’re tech challenged. The hard work is digging deep enough in your shadow to pull out the message that will actually set others free. Modern marketing is about connection. And in order for you to connect with others you first have to connect with yourself. I had an amazing person tell me today that they were confused about marketing. But when I asked about what they do they were very clear. Which brings me to a truth... We, at some level, are clear about what we do or want to do; the difference we want to make. We can feel this in our soul. But the minute we put our marketing hats on we completely lose touch with that clarity. Why do you suppose that is? I think it’s because we think of marketing as this game of tools and tactics with rules we don’t understand, so we get in our head about it all and away from our heart for it all. “Marketing” as a word confuses us. But the act of creating connection when we speak from our heart is natural. And that’s all marketing is. The tools of marketing are just tools. And those tools will come and go. But your message will stand the test of time. Your message is already brewing inside you. If you know what it is, it’s time to level up your marketing by sharing that message in bolder ways. If you don’t know what your message is but feel the brewing, then you will find it in your passions and your shadow. Often our own story has the root of our marketing message in it. But if you’re not at peace with your story, it’s hard to find your message. Here’s the point... Marketing starts with your truth, not the tools. Get in touch with your truth and you’ll get in touch with your marketing. Once you have that, then you can begin to find tools to mobilize your message.

THE WORLD IS READY FOR WOMEN TO RISE... ...because we want to be heard and understood. For thousands of years the world has expanded through masculine “building” energy. Which is great. We need masculine energy. But harmony lives in the balance of yin and yang. I believe we have been more masculine yin, than feminine yang. One of the things I’ve observed in marketing is that people feel connection through empathy. That’s feminine energy. They feel connection when they feel understood and not alone. Feminine energy. They feel empowered when someone listens to them and they come alive when someone holds space for them to speak their truth. Again, feminine energy. This is why Brené Brown’s work on Vulnerability is resonating so deeply with people. We have choked off the feminine energy for so long in order to survive in the masculine. So when someone speaks of the power of vulnerability it rings true from a very deep, often repressed, place. If you are a woman reading this, the world wants to be heard. It wants to be understood. It wants space to not have to have all the answers and to feel safe asking all the questions. In some ways I think the energy of “answers” comes from the masculine. And I think the energy of “certainty” comes from the feminine. (See my post on certainty). If you’re in business, I believe people aren’t looking for answers from you as much as they’re looking for certainty. You don’t have to have all the answers for others to take you seriously. You have lived life and life has taught you many things. You have watched and listened and learned. Which has resulted in certainties for you. We want to know what those are and we need you to share those. To me, this is showing up. You show up with all that life has taught you and provide wisdom, perspective and counsel from that place, letting us then draw our own conclusions on our own journeys. Yes, the world is ready for women to rise. This is why we’re so hungry for empathy and connection. It’s time for you to show up. We’re ready. **** PS - If you’re a man, this doesn’t exclude you. You can tap into your feminine energy by listening more than talking. You can hold space for people to show up in their light without their light threatening your own. You can explore your own shadows and darkness to find the feelings we as men often push way down, in order to understand others in their pain. The world is ready for feminine energy. I believe it‘s counter-balancing thousands of years of masculine modus operandi.

Information doesn’t earn attention, conviction does. So you have to find the topics in life you have conviction for. That is what becomes the heart and soul of your marketing.

I DIDN’T KNOW THERE WERE SO MANY KINDS OF PEE-ERS... There must have been 20 different signs of types of pee-ers in the men’s bathroom at Jimmy John’s. Of course I had to read them all. Part of what I love about Jimmy John’s is the humor they put in their brand. I came out of the bathroom and immediately told my son he needed to go check out the bathroom. He did. And came back laughing as well. We proceeded to have a funny conversation about what type of pee-er we each were with my daughter watching this conversation unfold. (proper parenting in my opinion). This bathroom humor brought two lessons to mind... First, when we infuse our brand with personality it stands out. It doesn’t have to be humor. But it should be worth remarking about. Seth Godin calls this being “remarkable”. Second, just like I didn’t think there were different kinds of pee-ers... We often don’t think there are different kinds of marketers. We tend to lump what we think marketing should look like into one general category. But marketing is art. And that art needs to create a CONNECTION not just deliver information. Jimmy John’s uses humor to create that connection. I use deep thoughts on marketing and life to create that connection. You have your own way you already create connection. What is it? Is it meaningful conversations? Is it being the class clown? Whatever it is, it is your art and you have to find a way to work it into your marketing. Who would have thought you could take something as gross as a bathroom and turn it into a point of connection?! What will be your point of connection?

Most struggle for consistent leads and income because they’re not consistent in their marketing. In this episode I share the mindset needed to break free from your inconsistency to secure your financial future through your marketing.

We face a ton of uncertainty in marketing because we want to know if it will work before we try it or invest in it and waste our time and money. But you’ll never find certainty in that approach. In this episode I share how to turn uncertain into certainty.

Marketing can be such a serious topic. But what if we could open up a new way to connect with our audience that makes us even more human? Listen now to hear how.

YOU’RE ONE PARADIGM AWAY FROM CHANGING YOUR LIFE... As much as I’ve harped on training and books and podcasts as “not the answer”... ...because I believe the answer is inside you and classes are incomplete if you don’t bring your self-awareness to the information given... One of things I’ve done right all my years in business is... INVEST IN PARADIGMS. In the game of expansion, you can’t get to where you want to go without a new paradigm to pave the way. Classes, courses, books and podcasts are great in that they provide new paradigms. As I’ve gotten older I value the paradigm more than the information. And so I invest A LOT in new paradigms. What separates a paradigm from information? You can collect information in your current paradigm, and nothing changes because in your current paradigm you don’t know what to do with that information. But in a new paradigm, Information has room to breathe and you find congruent ways to use that information to get where you want to go. So... As you invest in your education, make sure your investing in paradigms and not just information. **** PS - If you’re in Portland in June 19th, I will be teaching a 2 hour class called “Marketing for the Rest of Us”, and it will be a paradigm shifter. Get your free tickets here: https://www.facebook.com/events/944018119324812/?ti=ia (First 40 to sign up get a free gift at the class)

EVERYONE AGREES THAT CONSISTENT MARKETING CREATES MORE RESULTS THAN INCONSISTENT MARKETING... ...That’s obvious. Yet rarely are we consistent. Maybe it’s because we get bored doing the same thing all the time. Maybe it’s because we’re afraid to do the work we think we’re supposed to do. Or maybe we don’t even know what work we’re suppose to be consistent in. Our inconsistency causes our income to be unpredictable and so we struggle financially. When things are tight financially we get even more impatient and what was at least inconsistent effort turns into either frantic hustle or hiding out. And this snowballs into other areas of life. How does it feel at home when the topic of money comes up? How is your peace of mind and contentment when things are tight and you don’t know how to fix it. If you’re inconsistent, then you can feel what I’m describing right now. SO WHY ARE WE INCONSISTENT? Why don’t we just fix it? Because we don’t know what to do. It’s not that you haven’t read a ton of books or taken amazing classes that inspired you. You have tons of information and ideas. And herein is the problem. In your information overload you can’t see how to make these ideas fit who you are. You’re not consistent because the things you’ve tried haven’t felt authentic. And since you’re not willing to sell out on your values (good for you!) you opt to simply try something else. And the inconsistent pattern continues. If we can agree that consistency beats inconsistency in creating predictable income and growth... Then we need to solve for how YOU specifically can be consistent. This has to start with you and your self-awareness. And from there we can pair it with a marketing model that fits who you are. If you don’t feel congruent in your marketing, you won’t sustain it. Period. When you see the answer, you’ll see how simple it is. But you can’t see it from where you sit even though it’s right in front of you. I’ve helped countless people find the answer in a way that frees them to see marketing as not only something they can consistently do but something they love (weird, I know).

I HAD UNDERESTIMATED, IN EVERY WAY, WHAT IT WOULD TAKE TO GET TO THE LIFE I ENVISIONED. Which comes as quite a shock given that the inspiration comes so easily and feels so good. There’s so much I didn’t know that I didn’t know. So much I hadn’t anticipated in details and work under the surface of the idea. This led to a pattern of dreaming because it was the dreaming that felt good. It led to patterns of dabbling because that was as far as I was willing to go. It led to patterns of quitting and indecision because it seemed too hard or too long of a climb. You can look at a majestic mountain far off and be inspired by the beauty. But when you’re at the foot of the mountain, unprepared, and you have to climb, it feels overwhelming. Faced with the mountain of details and work required to climb that goal, we think “Maybe this isn’t for me. I didn’t realize I would have to do all of that.” So we find a different mountain that inspires us only to realize that when we get to the base the work is the same. How much of life do we spend resisting “the work”? You can keep looking for shortcuts or you can start climbing. What you’ll find is that there’s something in your soul that wants to climb. You will keep finding yourself at the feet of mountains until you surrender to the climb. “But which mountain am I suppose to climb?” All mountains that inspire us come from the soul. If it doesn’t inspire you, it’s not a mountain but a maze. So whatever mountain you find yourself at the foot of is a good place to start. As you climb, it will be hard at parts. And it will be beautiful in others. But all of it is in service of getting you to where you want to go in your heart of hearts. So trust the process. Do the work. And climb.

YOU’RE STUCK IN A LAND OF EITHER/OR... And it’s making it hard for your brain to reconcile what your heart is experiencing. Example: Many in marketing feel “lost” and uncertain. But they’ve also seen things that make sense to them and inspires them. In these moments they feel “found”. But then they get lost again. Only to be found again. This cycle repeats over and over and it shakes our confidence. It can cause the best of us to be neurotic. “Am I lost or am I found? Do I know what I’m doing or do I have no clue? Am I clear or am I confused. I thought I understood this, now I’m not sure..” In this place you’re either one thing or something else but you can’t be both when you live in the land of either/or. Take a moment and remember what it’s like to question yourself, wondering if you’re on the right path or wrong path. Feel the uncertainty and doubt. This is a confusing existence and a gateway to the Dark Night of the Soul. BUT THERE’S RELIEF IN THE LAND OF BOTH/AND. It’s possible that you can be both lost AND found. Right AND wrong. You can be on the right track in your marketing even when things don’t feel like they’re working. You are both on the right track AND things aren’t working. That doesn’t mean you need to stop what you’re doing and go a completely different direction. I see this all the time when entrepreneurs get stuck, question themselves and then change direction. They spend so much time changing direction they never get traction towards their goals. To live in Both/And, you have to expand your mind to the bigger picture and resist any temptation to judge where you are. From an elevated perspective, simply look down on all of “it” and notice what’s true and serving you and what’s not in alignment. Then make some adjustments to bring your life (or marketing) into alignment. You’ll keep doing this realignment over and over. But when you do it from a place of Either/Or you cut off too much of what’s working. In the land of Both/And you can realign yourself, keeping what works and adjusting the rest. And when you do, you’ll find you make more progress towards your targets and have more peace in your heart.

I CAN SEE YOU. Like in the Sixth Sense where the boy sees dead people, only I SEE THE REAL YOU. I get you. Under all the posturing or the insecurity, I see you. I also see the behaviors and mindsets that hold you back. BUT... Most of the time I’m too afraid to tell you what I see. We’re stuck in this pattern of surface interactions and cultural politeness. To pierce this politeness feels risky. So I keep my observations to myself. I’m afraid I’ll offend you or hurt your feelings. I’m afraid you’ll misunderstand what I see as judgement rather than the deepest desire to help you. I’m afraid you won’t understand and so my observation won’t serve you. I’m afraid you’ll call me “holier than thou” or find me unapproachable. It feels dangerous to say what I see. I’ve spent my life mastering how to make people feel at ease so that I wouldn’t be rejected. I know how to hold space and hang with most anyone. My defensive superpower is that I’m a chameleon. I’m a powerful observer. I see people for who they are quickly. My perceived survival required it. But this superpower has also been a lid on the Important Work I’m here to do. Because I can see people, I have an ability to translate the world of business and marketing in a way they uniquely can hear. So many people get stuck in business feeling like a fish out of water. Many produce great results but still feel out of alignment. It’s confusing for them... what to say in marketing, how to make the advice and ideas they’ve collected fit their unique situation or values. So they rely on hustle and discipline. They produce results from sheer work ethic, often at the expense of their joy and satisfaction. What started as a vision for a better life turns into a heavy cross to carry. I can also see how their old patterns and mindsets limit their growth. These patterns become very much a part of who they are. So when I say what I see, it’s easy to think I’m criticizing THEM. But you are not your limitations. You are powerful beyond measure. You have been trapped in old patterns, patterns you can’t see because they’re too close to home. I see them. This is why I always say the answers aren’t found in books, even though I love books. Books have the ability to inspire perspective. But if you simply put new perspective on top of old patterns, you’re destined to repeat those patterns. You will feel stuck and not know why. After all, you had this great epiphany, shouldn’t that catapult you to new realms? Sadly, the process of growth and transformation is not an overnight catapulting. Process, not information, creates transformation. And having someone by your side that can keep pointing out the patterns that keep you stuck is vital to finding alignment with your Self and the work you’re here to do. As you move through this process, it’s not only I that can see you, but... YOU BEGIN TO SEE YOURSELF.

IN MY ENTIRE ADULT LIFE I’VE HAD MAYBE 5 OR 6 REALLY GOOD IDEAS... Divine inspirations actually. Ideas that not just moved me, but that I could feel through my body. The kind of ideas that make you nervous and excited, scared and manic... Because they carried the seed of change at a massive level. When they come they feel like a gift. They feel like the grandest version of yourself. You wonder how it is that you could have had this idea. It’s too beautiful and extraordinary to have landed in your lap. And yet it did. It is yours and it has the power to change the world. Each time I received these inspirations I would capture it through journaling. Mold it in planning. For weeks, sometimes months we would be inseparable. It would be all I could think about. And then, when I shared it with others... Nothing. It’s as if they couldn’t see this gift. They couldn’t see it’s possibility. Some even went as far as saying it wouldn’t work or that it was a bad idea. What?! How can that be true? Is that true? I didn’t know how to give it wings. Squeezed by responsibility to provide for my family, I couldn’t see how to keep nurturing this gift that wasn’t taking root. Each time I mourned the loss of the idea. I had poured my heart into. It had captured my imagination and felt impossibly important. More than that I felt like I failed. It died because of me. This thing that could have changed so many lives. This thing that felt like an extension of my greatest Self. There is a season where you will become numb and jaded. You’ll doubt yourself and others. You’ll wonder if you have what it takes to ever create change at the level of these inspired ideas. You have see a Promised Land and have been denied entry over and over. It’s easy in this space to feel resigned to the desert, wandering in less-than-inspired businesses and business plans. But it’s here, in this dark and resigned place that you will find your spark once more. It’s here, in these shadows that you develop gumption and resolve. And it’s here that you will receive your next seed of change. And just like before you will feel again, the excitement and impossible importance of the divine idea. But different than before, you will have grown the wiser. And you will stand in the face of your fears and naysayers and say... THIS CAN’T BE WRONG! And from that moment on, you realize that this is your Life’s Work and no one will sway you from the impact you’re here to make. It doesn’t matter how long it takes because this can’t be wrong. As you see the difference it makes for others, you will be reminded that... This can’t be wrong. With your heart full of purpose, and lives that resonate with your work, you live out the rest of your life in the quiet confidence of knowing who you are and what you’re here to do.

I SHOULD HAVE ASKED FOR HELP SOONER... ...but I’m a prideful person. In my 20’s I didn’t ask for help because I loved the adventure of finding out. I loved learning and you could tell me something, which I liked, but I wanted to play with the implementation and so I’d do it myself. In my early 30’s I didn’t ask for help because I was afraid to look like I didn’t have the answer. I had become book smart by this point and could hold my own in a conversation, which made me sound smart, but I felt like I had a lot to lose if people discovered I didn’t know how to do something. In my late 30’s I didn’t ask for help because I was too overwhelmed by all the ideas I had collected and not only didn’t know what help to even ask for... I also didn’t trust people who said they could help me. I had bought a lot of courses and programs over the years and distrusted the all to common Facebook ad that said it could 10x my business overnight. Early into my 40’s I didn’t ask for help because I was a grown-ass man and how could I not have figured “this” out by now. Embarrassed, I chose to just stay in my maverick pattern, putting on a good face with a smart answer but stuck in progress towards the life I envisioned so many years ago. Now at 43, I learning to ask for help. The turning point for me was getting honest about where I was stuck. AND... Seeing that we’re all stuck in some way. That made me feel a part of the whole. I was no longer an outsider, but actually on par for the course. Sharing on social in vulnerable ways helped because I saw that others felt the same way. My vulnerable posts got the most engagement which suggested to me that I wasn’t alone. I think that’s when we start to feel open to asking for help... when we’re not alone. If this is you... If you have felt stuck for years... Consider that what you need, what will get you unstuck is... Asking for help. In the words of Ram Dass, “We’re all just walking each other home”.

Over time we collect a ton of marketing ideas, tools, software, books and notes that we don’t know what to do with so we just throw it in our proverbial junk drawer. Then new trinkets and tools come along that sound important or look cool and so we buy them, hoping they’ll make a difference or help us get where we want to go. But alas, they don’t work and are added to the junk drawer. We stay in the this pattern for years. Some of us for decades. We see our potential and wonder why we aren’t further down the road. And if you actually look at all you’ve spent on the items in your junk drawer, you’d be shocked at the number. THE PROBLEM ISN’T YOU AND IT’S NOT THE TRINKET OR THE TOOL. We have put impossible expectations on the trinkets and tools we buy. They seem like an easy fix (at least that’s how the ad or webinar made it sound). But the only things that produce transformation, which is what we’re really after when we buy these tools and trinkets, is... PARADIGMS & PROCESS. In order for you to get where you want to go, which is beyond where you are now... You have to have a new paradigm and then you have to submit to the process that the new paradigm instructs you to. That’s not sexy. Trinkets and tools are sexy. It’s fun to spend money on trinkets and tools. It’s not as fun to spend money on paradigms and process. In fact paradigms and process are often hard to accept because they require you to change and most of us don’t want to change, we just want the result. And so it goes. This is why so many people feel lost and broke in business. If you want to produce a result, reach your goals, Live the life that’s in your heart to live... Then you need to change what you spend your money on, namely, PARADIGMS & PROCESS.

Feeling stuck in a weird season of business or life can cause you to question everything and sabotage your progress so you don’t have to feel the discomfort of that season. But it doesn’t have to be that way. In this episode of Groundswell Marketing Principles we share how to end up in a place where you feel peace and wisdom no matter what season you’re in, leaving you empowered to live the life you’ve been working so hard to create.

As much as we crave answers that make our life and business easier, we want to know you get us BEFORE we trust buying FROM YOU. . Solidarity, not solutions, is what creates the bond for buying. Your value is as much in the connection you create as it is through the solution you sell. If you don’t want to chase algorithms in marketing, you have to get masterful at solidarity. It is your competitive advantage and it sets up everything else. Solidarity is tribal. It’s human. And that’s why it works.

The 4 principles that will help you close your integrity gaps so you can reach your goals faster.

How to move from self doubt and stagnation to trusting yourself again and playing to win.