Upon reading The Kingdom Is Asleep: Stories and Spells by Tad Hargrave of Marketing for Hippies, I had a few “aha” moments around my business marketing that may articulate more of what I offer for you.
Tad’s article isn’t even really about marketing, but many things came up for me within it, given who he is. There’s a reason I have a marketing mentor that loves fairy tales, folklore and all of the symbolism within it. 😉
Tad states that, “Spells tell you what you want to hear. Stories tell you what you need to hear.”
I’ve been told countless times in business-building trainings, “Tell them what they want to hear to market your work, and then give them what they need.”
I’ve always struggled with this, feeling like it’s a bait and switch of sorts. Yet I also understand the importance of meeting people where they are with love and compassion. Often people don’t yet know what they need, or the story they need to hear, so how can we effectively market to their needs as entrepreneurs?
It never occurred to me that perhaps I subconsciously felt I was “casting a spell” in telling potential clients what they want to hear, and that’s what made me uncomfortable.
I’m so deeply longing for the real, authentic, wisdom-filled stories, of me and of you and of life, to be told and come to the surface for more telling.
I don’t want to be a part of casting more spells, and I often struggle with knowing which spells “must be cast” for the greater good. And indeed sometimes spells need to be cast in order to bring a greater awakening to the true stories in the long run.
Tad also says, “Spells are a drug offering a quick hit of satisfaction. Stories are more often a kind of slow release medicine where the medicine might appear in stages over years.”
Yes!
Everything I offer is intended to be “slow release medicine” that emerges again and again as we cycle through the stages of our Soul’s journey through life.
I often feel like the “results” entrepreneurs are so often asked to focus on promoting are the “quick hit” that people are looking for, when in reality (at least for the work I offer) what’s needed is that “slow release medicine” that comes over time with careful attention, a sort of gardening of the Soul requiring ongoing tending in a variety of ways depending on the season, circumstance, energy, person, etc.
I find that the results/benefits/outcomes are different for each of my clients, and each of the reasons my clients come to me is unique to them. At the same time, they’re all moving toward the same ultimate goal of aligning with their Soul and feeling empowered as a woman in today’s world.
Perhaps it’s “Soul alignment and empowerment” that I can articulate as the outcome of my work.
I’ve heard so many different “results” that women have experienced upon engaging in my work:
- Reduced anxiety and a greater sense of joy with life
- Better communication and confidence in their voice
- Kinder and gentler to themselves
- Greater compassion and understanding for themselves and others
- More confident to align with their true path and move toward their dreams
- Trusting themselves and their inner wisdom
- Improved relationships with themselves and others
- More balanced in life, work, family, self-care, and spirit
- Connected to a sense of meaning and purpose
- Able to make effective decisions and achieve their goals
- …and so much more!
In recently speaking to someone to help me optimize my website SEO (Search Engine Optimization) so that more women can find my work and benefit from it, she was asking about the “promise” I make, the “proof” I have that my programs deliver the promise, and the most important “benefits/transformations” of my work.
I seized up, feeling it next to impossible to name the journeys and their benefits so concisely, as the journey of the Soul is indeed like a story that offers a slow release of medicine, and more specifically, it’s whatever medicine that Soul needs at that time in their life.
I create space for that medicine, whatever it may be for you in your unique moment, to be seen, heard, experienced, or simply acknowledged.
The “promise” of my work is to immerse you in this experience of slow medicine release so that you can find the inner wisdom within you that is the “proof” of your inherent empowerment to align with your Soul.
I often say that the work I offer is “living” in such a way that each time one works with the same material, they experience something new. This is the way of a great fairy tale…the tale meets the Soul where it is, always offering medicine in new ways each time it’s heard.
The work we do in my programs is a kind of seed sowing, bringing to the surface the seeds already existing within you.
My programs are opportunities, for those women who are willing, to tend the garden for a long while to see what medicine grows from those seeds or simply from the gardening itself.
Women who stay with my Solace program for multiple years feel this “slow release medicine,” and yet it’s been so hard to name it. It’s like beauty in its most breathtaking form, so ineffable, yet we know it and even feel it deep in our bones….and we know there’s “benefit” in it even without being able to name what specifically that benefit is.
Our Soul knows!
Stories speak to us much like the Soul, in a quiet voice that can be heard only when one pauses to listen, and shuts out the barrage of spell-casting noise that we’re constantly inundated with. They speak to us slowly, methodically, one step of the journey at a time.
My work is “for those with the eyes to see and who are willing to engage in the prolonged courtship they, and we, deserve,” as Tad says in his article.
It is a journey of the Soul, and learning to listen to it.
I’ve found myself under many spells in my own biography, discovering the false stories I’ve told myself that have held me back. I’ve also found that in the effort to break those spells, the Spirit can be broken as well if we’re not careful.
I long to break the spells without breaking the Spirit with this women’s empowerment work.
Story making/listening/telling and spell breaking are a never ending journey, and this is what I long for every woman to embrace…the journey, the process, the story…more so than the “results, benefits or outcomes.”
Perhaps I need to find the spells that are the “temporary shelters that give back to the Earth when we must move on and not leave too big a scar when we go” as those that must be cast.
Maybe it is in the weaving of the spells that “must be cast” back into the bigger tapestry of our work together that we can express the “results” or “benefits” or “outcomes” that come from it. Perhaps in that weaving, we can all see both the wants and the needs, and feel good about engaging in the work and its marketing.
What results/benefits/outcomes do you as a woman look for in your own empowerment work? In other words, what are you struggling with, and what would you prefer to be experiencing?
If you’ve followed my work and participated in my programs, whether via my articles, short courses, Sacred Nights of Winter journey, Solace, or coaching/mentoring, what are you able to now articulate as the results/benefits/outcomes that you’ve received?
I sincerely want to hear your answers to these questions.
Will you share in the comments below, or send me an email to let me know?
Thank you for engaging in “slow release medicine” with me, and may you experience every result, benefit, or outcome you’re searching for and dreaming of.
If you’d like to engage more deeply, let’s have a conversation.
