Marketing Sucks

mar·ket·ing  [mahr-ki-ting] 
noun1.the act of buying or selling in a market.
2. the total of activities involved in the transfer of goods from the producer or seller to the consumer buyer, including advertising, shipping, storing, and selling.

Snore... 

Here's the conversation I have with most of my new clients.
Them: I'm doing all the Facebook posts and my website is up and blah-blah-blah but I'm just not getting any clients.
Me: Okay -so how many relationships have you built and how many conversations are you having?
Them: Well I have x-many followers and x-many on my list and I post....
Me: That's great. And how are you serving your people? And again, how many real conversations are you having?
Them: Well... but how do I find people to have conversations with? Where do I find them?
Me: It only takes one conversation and one relationship to create a client. Only one. Not thousands. Not going after all of the people you ever want to find you. Just one and then you find the next one.

See marketing to find masses of people sucks.  It's like being Veruca Salt... going around being terribly interesting while internally you're only doing it because you want sales NOW. Being so sure that your message if heard above the din is the most important message ever.  Perhaps your message is life changing but expecting to stand in the middle of the room shouting 'I Want It NOW!' doesn't work. 

Listen, I'm not going to teach you to get thousands of followers overnight or to send magical unicorn emails that give you a $50,000 hour when you've never broken $100. 

Those are marketing promises.  And those promises are why marketing sucks. They're empty examples of other people's systems.

You don't need marketing systems. You need clients. Real live clients.

And those clients - well they are real live people. Stop marketing to them and start getting to know them. As PEOPLE, not numbers. As people just like you who also think that being marketed to sucks. I don't want to be Veruca's friend... do you? Even when she's being sweet and charming you just know she's all about herself.  

Marketing sucks. Relationships rule. Do that instead... find friends, forge alliances, give support and love, change lives just by being you, and have real conversations with people and those people will become your client naturally and not because your marketing was awesome. 

If Veruca really wanted a goose that laid golden eggs, she should have been more like Charlie. He got the geese and the whole flipping factory.  See? Marketing sucks...

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