As God was calling me to shut down that business and start something new, I knew I had to notify my customers & issue a public apology for the manipulative way I was running my business.
I remember finally coming clean & telling my story of how I drifted into chasing money & found myself using people in the process. I had compromised on my values and was tired of running from the conviction.
In the most ironic turn of events, the story exploded. Hundreds of people reached out to me to tell me they felt like I was telling their story. That they too had grown tired of the manipulative marketing standards of running a business & the consequences thereof. I developed friendships for reasons I still do not understand, as they were confiding in a man who had just admitted his own untrustworthiness. I had a line of people who were ready to buy whatever I was selling, even though I had nothing to sell.
Honestly, part of me wished I had something to sell, as I was finally doing what I had been trying to do for years -> engage my audience in a powerful way.
I learned that the key to great marketing is fundamentally different than every other agenda-driven marketing guru tactics out there because it asks a fundamentally different question.
That is, instead of asking “how can I attract my audience” or “how can I get more followers” or “how can I get more sales”… to simply ask “how can I serve?”
There is nothing more attractive to a human being than being served.
We don’t need to trick them. We don’t need to hack the algorithm. We need to become someone that loves them.
The biggest problems of our time can not be solved by changing the external world, but by changing who we become.
And to truly love someone, it means laying aside your agenda to pick up someone else’s. It means taking a moment to disadvantage yourself for the advantage of someone else.
It’s the opposite of competition. It’s the opposite of fear.
It’s love.
Ironically, when you do that, it delivers what pursuing your own agenda never could.