Someone posted this well-known Seth Godin quote on LinkedIn: “Marketing is no longer about the stuff you make, it’s about the story you tell.” I added a comment to emphasise the essence: “And the authenticity behind that.”
Marketing is now about the authenticity behind the story you tell, and the wholesomeness that then reaches people through that story. It’s the story you live, and then the story you tell. In that, it’s the dignity that conveys itself through your sincerity. That’s the inspiration that sells.
It’s also the value you add. An agency can cleverly conjure any narrative, but people can see through that, while it takes a spirited business to inhabit authenticity and feed that into its branding. People are in search of soul and so sincerity speaks to them, sets you apart and spells sustainability in an awakened world. It spells leadership.
Soul and sincerity equate to intelligence, which keeps giving and revealing itself. What you sell should be infused with it, as should how you serve and lead. Marketing is a form of service and leadership and it needs to follow from a culture rooted in realness. Goodness keeps flowing in an intelligent environment.
Everything you do is infused with your essence, so get that right as a priority on the move. Your work ethic, your internal communications, your sales and service, your influence on all stakeholders, your global impact and your legacy all extend from it. Are you being conscious and wise? This is your living brand.
Marketing must also be congruent, otherwise you are spreading discord inwardly and outwardly. Think of the employee who knows that his or her work is deleterious to the customer or out of keeping with the company’s advertising. Or the shareholder who wants strong returns but is also an end-user who gets a weak experience.
Big business used to say one thing and do another, and people bought it, but today we are awakening and aware
Big business used to say one thing and do another, and people bought it, but today we are awakening and aware, and corporations need to be harmonious and human. We are living in a defining time in which we choose sincerity and congruence in our working lives and consumer relationships.
Begin with building authenticity into your strategy, then introduce it into your internal and external communications and invite people onto a hero’s journey together. Coach staff to reconcile who they are with what they do and facilitate their personal actualisation into alignment with the achievement of organisational strategy. This drives the business on a new level.
Then tell the story of your growing authenticity in your systems and your social media, thus galvanising your team and connecting with customers, who are normally bombarded with distractions, many of them nefarious. Show people how to be true to themselves in the chaos and keep them on the journey with you.
Get your staff and stakeholders to express themselves through your brand and branding. Give each a voice and bring those together into your new culture. Make people stars and spread your collective intelligence as you create the new world.
The best way is by writing a book together. In the same way as an individual consultant, like me when I started my business, transforms him or herself by producing and releasing a book, an organisation emerges on a whole new level by doing the same, with the added power of the collective. There’s nothing quite like it.
Is your business reflecting the real needs of the people you serve in both directions, staff and customers, and is it genuinely serving the planet? Are you chasing the short-term gain or investing in the holistic vision? Sooner or later you will align with the latter. It’s simply good business.
And good marketing. People pine to be seen, heard and met, with soul, especially as the emptiness continues to intensify on the previous plane and leave us fried on overstimulation. It’s a case of sink or get real, and authenticity is always here for us.
It takes you deeper the more you inhabit it, systematically strips you back, and keeps lifting you higher. So get into alignment, write a book, tell your story, and make that your marketing. You’ll personify a whole new prosperity on the other side.
• Wheeler brings authenticity to industry through talks, projects and books.
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