Top Ten Tips To Inspire and Anchor The Marketing Of You…

Marketing is to the realm of business what honesty is to the realm of spirituality; they both trigger much resistance, and both have a bad rap! As farfetched as the connection may appear, it takes honesty to market self successfully in today’s economy, just as it takes the market place (community) to practice one’s honesty. The Greek philosopher Diogenes was known to walk the streets of Athens with a lantern looking for an honest man. Those ten tips are offered to you as a lantern to turn on the light on your marketing strategies. In doing so, they will soon transform into an enjoyable and meaningful process, and see your commerce to unavoidable prosperity …

1. WHAT part of you?

Most people resists marketing as they associate it to selling, which they dislike… Yet did you know that etymologically, the word “marketing” comes from a Latin word merc r meaning “to buy!” Become honest about your fighting marketing, and ask yourself: WHAT part of you are you not buying that you cannot imagine yourself selling? (Oops, told you those were two delicate subjects!)

2. WHAT’s in a name?

Did you know that Coca Cola is the only brand that can “afford” to have their name written in script? The scripted font engenders feelings of casualness, and relaxation. Similarly, have you noticed how reassuring is the golden “M” arch of McDonald’s? As soon as you see it, you know where you are, even if you were to be traveling in a country whose alphabet you cannot read, e.g. Greece. WHAT a relief! Ask yourself: what feeling is in my brand name? (I have no answer to why one would eat a Big Mac in Greece…)

3. WHEN is it time to market?

Know thyself first! From knowing yourself you will have the clarity to know what your name means, and WHEN to speak it. Furthermore, WHEN you know your unique strengths, passions, and talents, you live fully in your heART, you sing your own melody with an authenticity that is remarkably attractive and thoroughly irresistible… Ask yourself: what makes me be me that I truly like about myself? (Yes, I noticed too: after Diogenes came Socrates!)

4. WHEN did you say?

Self-acceptance is your life work, until your life becomes your work! Look at what you have not forgiven or what you cannot love yet; there lays the missing piece of your own puzzle! Possibly it is having insomnia, or maybe it is being a married to a maffioso… WHEN you learn the lessons of your resisted experiences, your weaknesses turn into strengths, and you become like an invincible sun! Now you consistently and coherently offer quality and meaning to your clients. Ask yourself: What did I learn that can be of value to my clients? (Sing with me: “Amazing Greece, how sweet it is…”)

5. WHERE do I go to find it?

Should your self-inquiry reach a plateau, tests and assessments are a great place to learn about yourself… To sort your temperament, you may take the Myers-Briggs evaluation, www.myersbriggs.org or give the Keirsey test a chance (www.keirsey.com). Another very simple way to see yourself is simply to ask your friends and your clients questions on how they see you, why they would choose to come to you, what they see as your main asset, etc… Do not forget to interview your family (siblings can be especially merciless on that subject, and so helpful!) When decoding their feedback, rather than thinking that this sounds like Greek to you, ask yourself: WHERE are the words to best describe me?

6. WHERE is your niche?

Your niche is like a home sweet home; it is WHERE your favorite people hang out, where the clients are exactly whom you want to support, and where there is a need that you can easily fulfill by being precisely who you are… Very exciting concept here; hot stuff, truly, as hot as the iron that brands the cow! The more specific your offering is, the more in demand you will be to your niche: it is where the offering (the brand) and the niche (your target market) belong together. It is cozy, and easy, and friendly. Between the people, the cows and the goats, it may even feel like a Big Fat Greek Wedding… Ask yourself: Which scene, neighborhood or environment am I regularly returning to?

7. HOW do I do it?

Impeccably, excellently, and radically! Go to your heart, and give everything you have, consistently and without even the shadow of a compromise! Art IS a work of generosity! Connect to your inner artist, to your secret god/dess, and will to express yourself with colorful enthusiasm… Fully, passionately, unabashedly! Let it be a Hellenistic Olympiad, a pantheon, a concert and a concerto, a firework; let it be ecstasy! Ask yourself: HOW can I be a true original? What masterpiece can I create that would be uniquely my style?

8. HOW can I do it?

Let me say it again; go to your heart! It is HOW you find courage, a French word (I didn’t say “Greek” this time!) formed with the word “Cœur” for heart… Dive into fearlessness, and dare being visible… Talk, write, sing, show up, and turn on the light! As Marianne Williamson proposes; “It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves: Who am I to be, brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?” Yes, it is risky business! Ask yourself: isn’t it even riskier to not shine of your own brilliance, and to never be the star you were born to be?

9. WHY me, God?

Wrong question! Never ask “why me, God?” again! WHY? Because there will always be a “because,” and another “because” beyond the first one! What matters is to be CAUSE rather than effect! Follow your bliss, and you will be a blissing to others for eternity! Play with life, play at life, enjoy discovering who you really are… Do your dharma, (I promise, dharma is a Sanskrit word not Greek!) Do the work you were meant to do… Contribute your own fragrance to life; blossom and bloom into your own being! Ask yourself: what can I do to share my own passion, my own vision?

10. WHY not?

Be cause it is all about me! Be cause it is all about you! BE CAUSE it is all about we! Simultaneously… That is the bigger game, a game that starts when you are genuinely interested in being of service to others, so much so that any denial of responsibility, any level of dishonesty is unimaginable! The more you devote yourself to humanity, and thus choose to provide value for your clients, the more your business knows success and sustainability. The more you communicate your light, the more people you serve and benefit! I call that love; I call that art! Why not also call it “marketing”, as it is the place of intense beauty where the buyer and the seller are one.

This piece was originally submitted by Mahalene Louis, Inspiration Anchor, Artist, Author, and Speaker, who can be reached at Mahalene@soulvision.com, via phone at 512.632.8952 or visited on the web at www.soulvision.com. Mahalene Louis wants you to know: As an Inspiration Anchor, I offer an enchanting e-zine, free teleclasses and Turn on the Light!, a yearly program to assist the creative genius in you to express and market your Magic. The benefit of which is an extraordinarily inspired life, as you take the steps towards your own unbridled creative power and embrace your life as a work of heART.