What Wouldn’t You Do, To Really Live?
In marketing, business owners are told to niche.
Seth Godin, marketing god and very cool guy, recommends finding the smallest viable audience to offer a minimum viable product to grow our clients and nurture fans.
I like Seth, as you can see by the joy on my face from the first time I met him and had a conversation, and think about his advice when I’m offering a new service or deviating from my regularly scheduled offers.
All of my clients, whether they come to me for mindset and life help or for brand storytelling and strategy, have these major things in common: they are creating a new aspect of their identities and need the clarity to understand it; the words to voice it; and the courage, confidence, and system to live it.
Today’s post isn’t about marketing, however.
It’s about how life is similar when done well.
A year ago, we closed on a little river farmhouse in a town I’d never heard of before (see it below). It rapidly became an external representation of my inner peace.
Most of my life has been spent rushing through, packed full of activities, work, and just…STUFF. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I kept bringing in all that stuff to avoid the inner things that were really going on.
Keeping a to-do list of stuff was the way to avoid having the time to just be human.
My mom died with a to-do list. So did my aunt. So did my dad.
The things that are on my to-do list are important to making meaningful progress in my life, but they are not my life. Until I slowed way down, I couldn’t see that.
I was always “behind,” trying to get “ahead.”
Life isn’t lived in those places. If I’m always putting off living so I can one day live, I’m going to miss the whole thing.
I evangelize peace now, to my clients and those around me…and for myself, too.
I no longer want to be filled to the brim. The spaces inside me are there intentionally. They are what makes my life whole.
So what does this have to do with marketing and my pal Seth Godin? (tl;dr)
Marketing advice, when it’s not BS, is applicable to life.
If you’re a visionary entrepreneur who wants to improve your marketing, or just a human looking to live better - or both - I invite you to ponder, reflect and apply as you see fit:
“If you run everything through a spreadsheet you might end up with a rational plan, but the rational plan isn’t what creates synergy, or magic, or memories.” Seth Godin, This is Marketing
and
“More isn’t better. The things you have to do will outlive you. Put the people you prioritize first, and remember that you are people, too.” Michelle Mercurio, Be The Plan (book coming soon)
xox,
Michelle
P.S. Yep. I quoted myself.
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