What Does it Mean to Market with Consciousness?

I love Seth Godin. Even more importantly, I think he embodies and promotes the kind of values that we want to aspire to as marketers - conscious application fo skillful action. Kind of yogic, don't you think?

Seth originally coined the phrase 'permission marketing'. He brings an awareness to marketing that is always refreshing. So many of the teachers and business people that I talk to day by day struggle with the necessity to market. I often talk about how important it is that we (who care to add consciousness to the marketplace 'equation') learn to participate powerfully, so that we can compete with other businesses and succeed.

Here's a post he titles "Who Gets to Decide What You Want". He gives a useful 'sense' to marketers how powerful we can be, and he makes it so very clear that as a marketer we are influencing the experience of individuals....its our choice in what way we choose to use our power!

And so, once again it seems to come down to a personal decision. If you decide what you want (instead of letting someone else decide for you) perhaps you could choose the things that would actually bring you and your loved ones the satisfaction you can live with.

In so few words, he makes it clear that we have choice, both as consumers/citizens/people and also as marketers. We MUST choose how we engage the market, and we must use a balanced set of values and goals, in order to both be happy personally, and in order to be of service as we engage.

Rich (Raghurai)

Life, Work and Balance.

At the heart of the experience of my life, I struggle, as many of us do, with bringing balance to my life and my work. It seems like this sort of struggle is not personal on one level, but it is terribly personal from another perspective.

These last few months I've spent attending to many concerns: the challenges of some very specific business issues against the existing backdrop of the overall struggle to maintain and sustain.  Real change at home...kids leaving for college, the challenges as family members grow and change, my mom's passing, the changes and concerns of family at several levels.  My health, my vitality, and where to put my attention, how to stay passionate about life at each moment - especially when so many of those moments are working moments around which my personal choices are often secondary to the needs of the 'enterprise' or the family, but the demand to find balance is never far away.

All this personal experience is present for me against the very stark background of 2 great realities we face as a nation....the disgrace of our national approach to health care, made even more shameful by the lack of political will to engage the issues genuinely, and the havoc wreaked on our economy by a greater interest in greed than in balance, superimposed on a distain for service at so many levels. 

Its against all of this that I write or don't write each day, that I work productively or minimally, or that I am available to serve with strength or not.  I know that my personal practice has served me well in sustaining at so many levels.

It's no wonder that so many of us are struggling with our health, challenged in ways that have long since passed through the healthy challenge of life into the fatigue of chronic stress. Making a life against this backdrop can be daunting. I am grateful each day for the community of good people I share this jouney with, and the opportunity to do good work, work that is worthy of my time and effort in the multi-dimensional rewards it provides.

With Gratitude....

Rich