by Arjuna Ardagh: We just completed a one-week Radical Brilliance Laboratory near Freiburg in Germany…
It was an astoundingly beautiful location on the grounds of a monastery
built in 1150. It is now one of the world centers for Rudolf Steiner Education.
We went through all of the phases of the brilliant cycle (find out more at
www.radicalbrilliance.com) and we finished on the last day in the quadrant we call
3 to 6, which is the journey from intention to accomplishment. This is the domain of
the cycle where we get things done. We meet deadlines, we honor budgets, we are
constrained by contracts and agreements.
The people attending this one-week laboratory were all in the helping professions:
psychiatrist, nurse, coaches, teachers. For people dedicated to uplifting the spirit
and fostering brilliance, 3 to 6 is mostly about letting people know that you are
there. This is a domain of activity, commonly referred to as “marketing.” We
discovered together that more than any other phase of activity, this one needs a
thoroughly fresh look. It needs rebuilding from the ground up, because so many
people who want to make a difference feel confused and disempowered about how
to effectively connect with the people they can help.
They frequently turn to online marketing courses to bridge the gap. There are many
courses like this available online, which follow more or less the same format. First of
all, they are all very expensive and promote the “lifestyle” of a seven-figure income
and the very best of everything that luxury can offer. The formula to success is very
much the same. Identify your target market, and then identify their “pain point.”
What is it that is causing those people frustration, anxiety, and unfulfilled desire?
Then try to talk with them in a way which empathizes with their pain and makes it
unambiguously clear that you have the answer to their problems. For some people,
this can work quite well in terms of creating revenue. For many, it does not. As we
sat together in Germany, the difficulty that the participants in this laboratory spoke
of was that it does not feel right. It leaves people with a sense of compromise and
being manipulative.
There is a completely different approach to connecting with the people to whom you
can make a difference. We decided to scrap the word “marketing” from our
vocabulary completely and instead use the terms “showing up.”
I asked everyone in the laboratory to think back to clients with whom they have
made a huge difference. Who are the top ten people to whom you have made a huge
contribution? How did those people find you? When I think back to how people tell
me they have made the connection, it was rarely, and perhaps never, because I
anticipated their “pain point” and wrote convincing ad copy to persuade them that I
could make it all better. Almost always, it was just because I showed up. The people
who I have been able to serve the most saw a video on YouTube or Facebook, or
read a blog post like this one, or heard me speak somewhere and just felt a “click,” a
resonance. It is much the same way that you make new friendships and connections
with anybody. You resonate. There is something about that person’s values, the way
they speak, even their “energy” that feels like a fit for you. Then you feel that you
want to connect more deeply. Often people tell me, “I did not even know why I
wanted to connect with you, or the scope of the work we would do together. I just
felt the resonance and I knew I had to connect.”
When you look at things in this way, they become incredibly simple, direct, and
honest. It is very easy to click the button on your phone to go live on Facebook or
Linkedin for a few minutes, and to talk about the things you are excited about. This
blog took me less than 10 minutes to write. It is not difficult to talk about and write
about the things that create passion in you, the ways you want to make a difference.
All that is necessary to connect with the people whom you can help is to show up
with energy, with enthusiasm, with optimism, with generosity, and let yourself be
seen. You do not need expensive “online marketing courses” for this. You just need
the courage to hit the “record now” button, day, after day, after day.
