Day 12: Why You Fail at Marketing

Before we get to that, let us just point out that you will encounter lots of very professional, confident people who will tell you how their marketing system is the answer for your business, but realize they are just trying to take your money. They will not tell you the truth about marketing like we have above. I have seen many people go down that road because of promises that did not pan out, and no matter what we told them, once they had it in their head that there was an easier way than what we will describe below, nothing could help them. It's like the apple in the garden. You have this snake who speaks in fancy words and tricks your mind into thinking there is an easier way of doing something, and makes promises, and so you eat from the tree of knowledge, but it gets you nowhere except disconnected from the very source of power that you have within you. YOU! Your own power to speak and walk and build relationships. Marketing costs money. Bottom line. Now if you don't have the millions up front, then what is the direct approach that will work?


If you will recall our post from Day 1 about structure vs energy, you will remember that one of the points explained in that post was that for something to be sustainable, it must be based within a sound structure, not energy, because only a structure stands stable as itself, whereas energy is based on the mechanics of polarity, up and down, positive and negative. Therefore, for us to make progress on our Journey as Entrepreneurs for life, we must understand some key concepts, and these concepts are not obvious due to our education system, which we have discussed previously and this is deliberate to keep the majority of people in a position of disempowerment. So, if we are interested in empowering ourselves and others (which we are) then we will take heed of this important key concept.

That concept is the difference between selling vs marketing.

When we say marketing, we mean something very specific. Many people lump all kinds of various things into the category of ‘marketing’ so we will clarify this point firstly.

Marketing is when one spends money up front in an attempt to get other people to come TO you to buy your product or service. Advertising is the most obvious form of marketing. Advertising is a very specific form of mass manipulation where one place images and words together in specific ways designed to trigger associations and feelings that are embedded within the subconscious minds of those who would be exposed to the advertising. These ads, as they are called, require a great deal of research up front, and to be effective, must be tested on ‘test markets’ or ‘focus groups’ where one can assess the response of the consumer to the ad before investing tons of money to launch a wide scale campaign. Now, if one do not have the resources to do these test groups AS WELL AS the in depth knowledge of what people are responding to and how to craft images and words to elicit a specific behavioral response AS WELL AS lots of money to then launch the full advertising campaign, then if one attempts to enter the world of advertising, one will CERTAINLY fail. This would also apply to any other form of marketing where one stand back and wait for people to come to you. This is easy to do if one has lots of capital up front (i.e. millions of dollars) just to invest in the marketing, but I’m guessing that’s not you. We are not saying marketing doesn’t work, but we are saying it’s a form of business that eliminates the average person due to the up front costs and expertise required. The key within marketing is repetition (as it is in business of any form) however here it means that one must expose the SAME customer to your message at least 6 times before they act on it. And this is assuming you have spent the money necessary to create an effective ad. Because you also have to make sure the images and words elicit emotions such as fear, inadequacy, sexual attraction, etc. This is why it costs so much to advertise during major sporting events, because so much energy is being generated and then when one show the ad, the energy is directed towards the product within the person watching. You have to really know what you are doing and have lots of resources at your disposal. We have seen many people fail because they tried to compete in the marketing arena. Why do we say compete? Because within marketing, one is competing for another person’s attention. Look at all the hundreds of billions of dollars spent by MEGA companies (not to mention the subtle marketing done in movies and media generally) to capture the attention and imaginations of the masses. Another point within this is that advertising in itself has its limits. Meaning there is a limit to what a person will purchase just based on advertising. You typically don’t find people buying high value, high price items based on advertising only. In fact, the reason why you see advertisements for automobiles, with the exception of ads about ‘price reductions’ or ‘special limited time pricing’ (which are really just advertising the dealership itself, not the product per se), is to deal with ‘buyer’s remorse’ where a person will have the tendency to have some fear after the sale about the money spent. But the car commercials are always showing a pretty picture of a person driving through a mountain, having a great time, images of fun and freedom, which have been shown to reduce people wanting to return the car AFTER THEY BOUGHT. So even here, you probably did not know that, which shows why you are not going to be able to compete with the BIG BOYS so to speak when it comes to marketing. The areas where marketing typically works very well is with a LOW PRICED item, where there are going to be very few objections coming from the customer, so they will just buy the product without much fear of loss, because the price is low. Thus, you must have a cheap product where you get a small margin, which means you must sell HIGH VOLUME to make any money. And here really only a few can benefit, because the money is just not there to be spread to everyone in the chain. So the one doing the most work, the cashier in the store, for example, makes next to nothing, because they really represent little value to the business owner, except to collect the money, because the owner, through their marketing, is the one getting the customer to act. And as soon as the technology is there, they will replace the cashier with a robot, because no communication skills are really required to do the job. This is why you always have a salesperson for things like watches and diamond rings. People are not going to just walk into a store and buy these things from advertising. They need a person to close that sale. Just go to the mall and look at expensive watches and see how the salesperson interacts with you versus going to McDonalds. YOU cannot compete in that game, you don’t have the resources necessary. The only way for you to WIN is to not compete at all. If you are in COMPETITION then you will always lose. So how do we avoid competing but still create a business that will succeed in helping lots of people and in return bring in lots of income for you? This is where we must understand the real role of SELLING.

Direct Sales.

Direct sales is where you direct your self and another person as yourself. It is about selling, where YOU GO TO the other person, not placing any hope or wishful thinking that they will COME TO YOU. Let's look more closely at what sales and selling is really all about.

Selling, as we have looked at in various ways in previous posts, is really just about COMMUNICATION. A salesperson is someone who is effective at communicating the value of what they are offering to another person. Sales is in fact the most honorable profession, when one represents a product of real value. Marketing is deliberate manipulation of a person’s subconscious desires and feelings of inadequacy and deliberate misrepresentation of a product to convince the person’s subconscious/unconscious mind, that which actually directs their behavior, that the product is necessary for the person’s survival in the system (Check out how Big Pharma advertises to see the masters in action.) Sales is about speaking to another human being, understanding where they are at in their life and communicating with them in a way that is best in order for them to take action that will improve their life. If you have a product that is best, then sales is actually a responsibility that you have to reach as many people as you can. We are here to serve each other as equals, not just to make a buck. Anyone who has the opportunity to develop their communication ability (and there are tools that will accelerate this, email me at entrepreneursjourneytolife@gmail.com if you want more info on those), has the opportunity to create vast wealth for themselves, help other people, and thus improve the world in a real, measureable way. But a few things must be understood so that one does not fall back into the pre-programming that is designed to limit you. In other words, if you approach business like a marketer, you will fail. If you want to sell your soul to a big company that will have the resources to market and pay you and the other employees a slave wage (anything that does not reward you in direct proportion to your performance, and places a limit on what you can earn is a slave wage, in my opinion), then you can embrace marketing. If you want to achieve financial freedom though and open and willing to learn and change your beliefs, you may want to read further.

So, let’s assume one has the determination to learn from feedback, in order to improve their communication skills (or perhaps plugs into tools to support one with that), then what else is required?

One requires a product that will be high enough in value that one can ask for a price that allows one to sell a reasonable volume at an individual level. So instead of selling 1000 products a month, where one receives very little margin, and implies that the product is cheap and cannot offer much value to the customer, one sells maybe 5 or 10 per month and makes an income where one can have the luxuries that one prefers, has the time to enjoy life, and where the product is therefore worth a great deal to the customer. So the price is not ARBITRARILY high. It is reflective of the value that one gives to the customer and is thus reflective of the value that one places on oneself. Imagine the person working for 10 dollars per hour. What must they feel about themselves to be willing to sit and do something for that kind of money? What are you worth? Self-esteem is a huge limiting factor in this world and it is generally based on one’s ability (or lack thereof) to communicate with words, because if one can communicate then one can SELL and thus one can earn a living reflective of a high self-esteem. This is why charities and welfare programs are abusive - it actually embeds a low self-esteem program in the recipient (because they need someone to help them, thus are not capable themselves) and does not empower them to take MORE responsibility for their life.

So, your product must represent and provide a lot of value to a person, more than you ask in return, and yet what you ask must be able to give you a life that anyone would be happy with. Do not settle for less than what you are worth. And when you receive, because you have given more, you will be satisfied and your happiness will grow and so too will your effectiveness in this Life. You will use SALES to become a person of VALUE to yourself and others. Sales requires effort on your part. Marketing looks easier and is therefore more tempting to the mind. But you will find, if you follow that rabbit, that you will soon be complaining about the price of your product, the appearance, and other things that are of no substance, because you are trying to compete and find the lowest possible price so that you will get no objection, which means you are afraid of communicating the value, or at the very least, not confident (but there are tools and support systems for this!!! Email me: entrepreneursjourneytolife@gmail.com ). If you are focused on the appearances primarily then you are not focused in a way that will support you to succeed. Because you cannot compete based on appearance. The world 'appears' to have all the answers, but we know it only directs people into a life of slavery and misery. When you start a business, work with what you have, focus on the value, and improve the appearance over time, but don't let that deter you! One of my mentors, who was a multi-millionaire, gave me a valuable lesson early on in my process. He told me of an artist he knew who was unable to sell his paintings. He told the artist to double the asking price, and the paintings flew off the shelf, so to speak. I took that to heart. I was at the time selling a service and charging only 30 dollars per hour for my time. I doubled my price and found that I immediately attracted not only more people but people who were more serious about working with me and actually respected me and my professional opinions MORE! I took that to the point of eventually charging $350 per hour for the SAME service. Of course at that point my clientele was a bit different, but then I was meeting with millionaires and learning all sorts of things that I would never before have been exposed to, so I earned more than just money, which was great. All that I changed was my price, and I found that my self-esteem went up and I actually got better at what I was doing! So by charging MORE, I supported myself to give MORE service to my clients, so it was a win/win. Plus I could take on less clients at a time and really devote myself to the few that I worked with.

So the points must be clear by now: you must have a high value item, a high price, so that you can work less, and actually give more in the process, but you will have to develop your communication skills. You will have to conquer your fears of rejection and your fears of ‘selling’ that have been programmed into you to prevent you from accessing the highest paid profession in the world. If you work for a company, then at the top, or at the beginning of the company, is a salesperson. Someone who started with a vision and took a risk, and that is why they are getting the greater reward. But you are accepting it. ACCEPT NOTHING LESS THAN WHAT YOU ARE WORTH AND GIVE NOTHING LESS THAN YOUR BEST TO ANOTHER.

Just to add a side note here. Remember that we are working within the context of the system AS IT IS. We are not talking about how we would live IDEALLY. Ideally, the world would not require us to work in order to survive, and then giving value and being of service to others could be more like a self-expression rather than a necessity point, which would really be interesting to see as people become more and more creative in how they express love and appreciation for life and others. But, as it stands the system is a survival system and so we must work within that while also placing ourselves in a position to change the system to one that is best. If one read back through the previous posts and continue on this journey, we will explore these points further, but for now one can being investigating the Living Income Guaranteed and the Equal Money System proposals to see what is on our 'To Get' list. But for us entrepreneurs we must also focus on our 'To Do' list, and in order to become people of real influence in the system and to support others to do the same we must make a lot of money within as much integrity as possible, realizing in self-honesty that by simply using money at all, in the current system, we are participating in abuse. But if we run off into the woods and reject money we will be in a position of disempowerment and be at the mercy of the system and that would be deliberate self-abuse. So, let's walk and change the system as we go.

Now, there are a few other important concepts to consider, for example, if you are not marketing, then how will you get people to come to you? How will you get customers? Well, let's take it one step at a time. This is a journey. Let this information sink in. Read it again. Find the points where you react. Apply self-forgiveness. Find your point of self-honesty within all of this. Leave me a comment or send me an email if you have questions. We will cover the next few foundational concepts that will hold the keys to success in selling as we move forward on this journey, so stay tuned.

If you find this blog to be of value and support, share it with others. Leave us a comment. Follow this blog and check back often to walk with me on this journey. Feel free to reach out! Let’s move together as one until all are equal! Until next time, “All the Best!”