We both had to learn how this spiritual, sacred approach could make us feel good about marketing.

As a culture we are overly saturated with marketing. We just returned home from Tucson and saw a piece of advertising on the back of the the airline boarding pass — and it wasn’t for the airline we were flying.

And think about the separator bar on the checkout counter at your supremarket.

Is it any wonder that people are jaundiced even hostile toward marketing/advertising.

But if you do have a product or a process that can truly help someone, we believe you have an ethical, even moral obligation tro let them know about it. So that sets up a double-bind.

Let them know and become just another message. Don’t let them know and cheat them, yourself, and the source of your gift (whatever you consider that to be — God, The Universe — Higher Spirit).

Selling as spiritual service dissolves that double bind because of the respect and care inherent in understanding the emotional consequences of your marketing promise.

Promises are serious. Promises fulfilled are a joy.

I’m new to your blog. Your post made me realize why I feel so good about what I do for my clients, and really helps me see my marketing as a contribution to others.

Thanks!

Tom Robinson

Thank you for your comment. In re-reading my post to see from whence your comment was arising, I realized that I may have given the impression of sense of responsibility overly-weighted-toward-the-product-purveyor, in your case as a therapist. So I want to make an adjustment to correct that.

Your phrase . . . “only if the client takes it and applies the it to their own situation” . . . is key. Not in an evasive sense — like caveat emptor, but truly grounded in the reality of this world.

No one can make anyone do anything. Period! Successful therpay largely happens when the client does the work. As you know, many clients labor under the misapprehension that you will provide them with “the” answer, a a magic moment, a variation on the prince charming fantasy. Someday someone will come along and make everything all right.

No such luck.

So your fundamental responsibility is to be true t your own perosnal code of ethics (which you apparently are). Given that, you deliver the best assitance you can. Then it’s up to the client to take it, ingest it, implement it, and change.

And your own personal code is even more important online because you cannot see you buyers.

However, as you know, you cannot prevent someone from interpreting what you say in a way you do not at all mean. That’s true face-to-face in your office.

From my perspective the best protection against misuse of your authority and the authority people place in you is to be sensitive to the interdependence we all share and the tough-fragility we all posses in order to remain alive.

I said “tough-fragility.” It’s important to acknowledge and respect both.

Because It’s Literally All in the Connection,
Jim

http://www.bridgingheartandmarketing.com/blog

I’ve been a practising psychologist for way too much longer than I want to admit!… and I know the thing I had a huge problem with was responsibility… I knew, like millions of other professionals, that many of my clients hang on every word with the expectation that whatever we talk about in the session will resolve their issue. I know that much of what we talk about has the potential to be life changing… only if the client takes it and applies the it to their own situation.

And now with marketing… the responsibility is more pronounced because you cannot guarantee who is buying your product, and how they will use it. It’s imperative for me to make doubly sure that nothing is can be misconstrued as a quick fix solve everything! Like you, I do care about the people who read my work or buy my products.
I feel that they have trusted me enough to read my stuff and that is an incredibly humbling and enriching spiritual experience!

Jeanne
http://aspirationsplus.typepad.com/uydayg