• You have the ability to change time.

    You can change it, because you can think about it, and change the frame. No other creature we know about can do this.

    Our ability to think in time is one of the super-powers we are given as human beings. A lizard is perpetually stuck in the now. A complex adult can project their imagination billions of years in either direction.

    I’ve been thinking a lot about time-frames recently. I think they have significant implications for our work in the world and the way we go about realizing it.

    Let me explain.

    The entire expanse of history in a single map

    I remember when I first got interested (actually somewhat obsessed) with the work of integral philosopher Ken Wilber. His huge maps of reality saved me during a time of existential soul searching.

    One of the huge gifts that I got from his work, was that I started to think about human history in terms of epochs.

    Modern humans have been around for about 180,000 years, which is a stupendous amount of time, and hard to grasp. But when it was broken down into a handful of major paradigms, I could start to see the broad strokes of the evolution of human consciousness.

    It meant I could now look at the existential conundrums that had been plaguing me inside a huge context. It was not that I now had the answers, but rather that my frustration was dissolved inside a container big enough to hold the questions.

    Here’s another example of the power of time-frame manipulation.

    The earth has been around a while. It’s hard to grasp just how long. So let’s switch the time-frame.

    If the entire 4.5 billion year history of the earth were condensed into a single year, here’s what we see.

    Life arrives as single celled bacteria around the beginning of March. And things move pretty slowly for quite some time!

    In the middle of November we get the oceans filling up with multi-cell organisms.

    At the beginning of December, amphibians venture onto dry land.

    On December 13th Dinosaurs arrive on the scene, and stick around until 26th when they’re wiped out. Mammals come along the following day.

    It’s not until December 31st that the first hominids (apes on 2 legs) appear.

    Modern humans rock up at about 11:35 pm.

    And the industrial revolution happens in the last 2 seconds before midnight.

    Why are time-frames powerful?

    When you change the context of something, you simultaneously change the content.

    In other words, change the frame, and you can look at things in a completely different way.

    This is definitely true with time-frames.

    For example, let’s look at slavery. It can look like a very different issue if I change the time-frame.

    If I look at slavery through a 500 year time frame, I will see it as a horrific, barbaric thing that powerful white people did to defenseless black people.

    If I look at it through a 180,000 year time frame, I’ll see it as something that is common to every single human culture we know about, regardless of race, until the industrial revolution, when it was outlawed on a mass scale in a relatively short period of time.

    When I expand the time frame around a particular topic – when I stretch the edges to increase the canvas – I see a different picture.

    What time frame are you thinking about your work in?

    The next few hours of urgent to-dos you have to get through?

    The remaining few weeks until your next vacation?

    The 2 months until your big launch?

    The next 10 years as you build your legacy?

    The next 10 lifetimes as you unwind your evolutionary destiny?

    When I look at my business in the time-frame of the next product launch I’m performing, then success looks like nailing that launch. It looks like hitting the financial targets I have in mind, converting the right number of people into customers, persuading enough people of the value of my offer.

    When I look at my business in the time-frame of the next 30 years, it doesn’t matter if the next launch fails. In fact, I’ll learn much more from an abject failure than I will from a success.

    When I look at my business in the time-frame of the next 30 years, then I don’t want to persuade as many people as possible to buy my thing, I want to build relationships of intimacy and trust that will have people become customers and partners for decades to come.

    Stretch your frame

    You’re here for some particular work. It’s your work. It’s your life’s work. What happens if you examine that work in the context of the rest of your life?

    When you take things out of the context of financial success during this calendar year, and place them in the context of a lifetime of discovery and growth, what picture can be painted?

    Your dreams are big. Too big to hold sometimes. So put them in bigger hands. Put them in a time-frame of the rest of your life. What is possible now?

    Or go really creatively out there. Stretch the time frame beyond this life-time.

    What would happen to your work, if you knew that the mission would be taken up again, after you die, by a version of you that forgot all your memories, but retains all your implicit learning and ability? How would that change things?

    In other words, your work is so important, that you don’t have to rush to nail it all today, or this week, or this year.

    You have at least the rest of your life to work on it.

    Expand your frame. Give your dreams a big enough field to play in, and your stress a long enough journey to be belittled by.

    Now the frame is different.

    What picture do you see?

     

    Ewan Townhead

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  • Business isn’t about you and your weird tastes. It’s about your customers. And if you want to be successful, you can’t talk about the far-out stuff that you happen to like. That just won’t fly.

    No, you must talk about handsome return on investment, the tangible benefits to their short-term goals, the problem your product will solve for them. You must talk about effectiveness and results.

    This is the language of business. More. Better. Faster.

    You must not talk about God, or destiny, or anal sex, or consciousness, or intimacy. These things are woo-woo, inappropriate, or irrelevant.

    This is how it has been for some time. This is business as we have known it.

    If you wanted to bring your weird stuff into this paradigm – spirituality, relationships, consciousness, art, sex – you couldn’t advertise it at the front door. You had to smuggle it in the back door.

    You had to ‘Trojan Horse’ it.

    The Trojan Horse marketer is the one who pretends he’s normal, professional, conventional, but is secretly doing something he fears you wouldn’t understand.

    She tells you she’ll teach you effective leadership strategy, when actually she’s doing deep transformational work with you. He tells you his course will help you pick up women, while he’s actually teaching you the art of authentic relating.

    It was the only way you could make a business out of consciousness.

    And many of us still believe that’s the way we’ve got to play it.

    The days of the Trojan Horse marketer are numbered

    People are dying for meaning, depth, originality, vulnerability. Authenticity.

    They don’t want to be sold to, by some faceless corporation. They don’t want dry perfunctory newsletters that advertise a bunch of discount offers. They don’t want business to feel like business.

    We want real connection. We want to feel someone’s heart, what they stand for, what they care about, where they’re afraid of, how they want to change things, why they give a shit about this weird and wonderful world of ours.

    The language of old business was effectiveness.

    The language of new business is connection and authenticity.

    The Trojan Horse strategy while necessary for so long, is fast becoming a liability. Because it’s based on a façade.

    You think you’re getting a gift from the Greeks. You’re actually getting an invasion force. You think you’re getting a normal business product. You’re actually getting something that you didn’t even know you needed.

    It’s the opposite of transparent authenticity. And the people who want your weird woo-woo consciousness products are far too wise to fall for your façade.

    The market wants the real you

    You don’t have to smuggle the weird stuff in any more.

    In fact, if you’re in the business of consciousness, and you’re still playing the Trojan Horse strategy, it’s probably hurting your business.

    The old strategies are dying. Fast. Their effectiveness is waning, on a monthly basis.

    You’ve got to switch it up.

    I know you’re hiding behind conventions because you’re afraid to get real. I get it. It’s totally understandable. But it’s not going to work. It’s probably already not working.

    Show yourself. Your real self.

    Into tantric monkey spanking? Come out. Despite the possibility of ostracism, you don’t get to choose your authentic fetishes.

    You’re a closet libertarian, you thinks the occupy Wall Street stuff was a crock of shit? Yes, your left wing liberal friends may accuse you of having sold your soul, but you may also discover that your true views aren’t as fringe as you thought.

    Inexplicably drawn to psychedelic rune reading? Yes, your more straight laced customers may beat a hasty retreat, but they’ll leave a space for a bunch of new folks who love themselves some rune action.

    Your Trojan Horse strategy may seem like it’s keeping your business afloat. More likely though, it’s actually protecting your ego from the discomfort of revealing something true and vulnerable.

    Time to get real

    I know you’re holding back. I know it.

    I know there are what seem like a whole bunch of good reasons to stay held back. I get it.

    And I know there’s something slowly twisting inside you. You’re not where you want to be. You’re not who you want to be. And you know it.

    And yet, you still hold back.

    I get it. There’s a lot at stake.

    It’s your identity. It’s the image you’ve been cultivating. It’s the story you’ve woven of who you are, and what you’re capable of. It’s fear of the consequences.

    And, you know it’s time.

    Time to tell it how it really is.

    That used to get you fired. Old business likes the predictable, secure stuff. They want the conveyer belt to keep chucking out the same safe thing day after day.

    Throw a spanner in the works. Break the rules.

    Show yourself.

    Your real customers will thank you for it. Profusely.

     

    Ewan Townhead

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  • You’re a brilliant practitioner. You have a gift. You have so much to give. But you’re compromised.

    You’re over-giving and under-funded.

    When you don’t create money in alignment with your practice, when you don’t fuel your business effectively, you suffer, and I suffer, because I’m deprived of the fullness of your offer.

    There have been times when I’ve been so short on money, that I really felt like I needed people to come along and pay me for stuff. I would over reach, over stretch. I’d come across as needy, despite my best efforts. And I came across needy because I felt needy.

    Working from that place did not help. I scared people away, who could have been served by me. It toxified my creativity, drawing my attention to need rather than desire. It sucked in my being, so that the world looked like a survival course, rather than a playground.

    As I wrote about in this previous piece (along with an examination of the nature of money) I realized something last year. I realized that the anxiety around money disappeared, not when I had ‘enough’ in the bank, or ‘enough’ clients lined up; but when I trusted in my capacity to create money when I wanted it.

    And so it is to the nature of that capacity that I’m going to speak. So you too can unlock your own innate capacity to create money.

    There are 4 keys that I’ve found fundamental in opening up the capacity.

    1. Serve the shit out of people
    2. Charge more than you’re comfortable with
    3. Learn how to sell (and receive) enjoyably
    4. Don’t chase the money

    There are also many more, but I want to really drill down into these four for you. Think of them as the minimum you need to start unlocking your own capacity to create money.

    1. Serve the shit out of people

    It all starts here. This is the heart of the matter. Without serving, for the sake of serving, you can’t unlock this capacity. Not truly.

    Money is an idea. It’s a measurement device that allows us to swap things more easily. What does it measure? Value. And how do we create value? We serve.

    So, at its root, money is an indicator of service.

    Go forth and serve. Serve because you want to serve. Give someone a gift, no strings attached. Help someone out, because you care about what they do. Offer someone your undivided presence for an hour.

    In whatever way you feel called to; serve.

    Service is what happens when we offer our devotion to another human being.

    “How can I help? I’m here for you.”

    Touch their heart. Open your heart. Serving others feels good. Enjoy the selfish gratification of doing something generous. Enjoy the selfless sacrifice of giving yourself unconditionally.

    Don’t serve them because you want something as a result. Don’t serve them so that…

    So that…they might hire me for a project.
    So that…they’ll like me.
    So that…I’m less stressed.
    So that…I’ll feel less unworthy.

    Service is an offer of the heart. I lay down my own agenda, to open you, to help you, to challenge you, to support you. I care about you.

    I was coaching someone a few days ago. She was having some frustration with her business. I’d said to her “you must let me help you.” So she did. I helped her because I wanted to help. I love her work. I love her. There was no other agenda.

    There are a whole host of people I like to help. I serve them when I can, because I can. Because I care about them. And then some of these people become my clients. They want to go really deep. They feel called to really invest in themselves. So we work together professionally. They give me money, I give them as much service as I can.

    Business is based on fundamental principles. One of them is service. Start there.

    Serve the shit out of folks.

    2. Charge more than you’re comfortable with

    Offering your services without charging money is called charity. Charity is awesome. And it’s also not business, or sustainable (usually). I see a lot of folks afraid to charge higher fees for their service. I see myself do it too sometimes.

    “Oh but, that’s an awful lot of money! I’m not worth that yet, and they definitely wouldn’t pay it. I’d rather play it safe, and over-deliver, then maybe I’ll put up my prices when I feel more confident. Anyway, I don’t want to be greedy.”

    When I design a new coaching package, I’ll write down a bunch of increasing price points for it on a big piece of paper. Then I’ll centre myself, and look at each price in turn for 20-30 seconds, really feeling what happens in my body when I imagine charging it.

    What I’ve discovered (and I’ve done this with clients too) is that the ‘low’ numbers don’t feel good in my body. I’m too relaxed, to the point of actually feeling flat. I can’t feel much vibrancy in my body. It doesn’t feel alive or animated.

    And the really high numbers? There’s a LOT of sensation – contraction in my belly, tightness in my throat. There’s so much vibrancy, I struggle to remain grounded and present.

    And then there’s this point in the upper middle. It’s the number just before the discomfort starts closing me down.

    It’s an uncomfortable number. It stretches me. It will stretch my client. But it feels right, fair, in alignment. It fills me with energy. It fills the imaginary relationship with energy.

    That’s my number. The one that brings it alive, and sets the space for creation.

    3. Learn to sell (and receive) enjoyably

    To create money, you have to ask for money. This means selling. And receiving.

    Selling has a shifty reputation. Snake-oil, life insurance, vacuum cleaners door to door. It has me think about pushiness, manipulation, things I don’t actually want.

    True selling is simply helping someone to make a decision.

    When I started The Realized Entrepreneur, I decided to offer coaching. And that meant I had to do sales. I had to talk, in real time, with a real human being, and tell them what it would cost to work with me, and have them say yes or no. And if they said yes, it meant I’d be in really close relationship to them for months.

    At first I felt scared to tell them numbers, so I’d say “I’ll send you a proposal”. Then I’d spent days writing and re-writing these things.

    Then I started working with my own coach. He helped me understand the nature of selling when it’s based on service.

    Here’s how I sell.

    I drop in deep with someone, and I serve them. If I feel intuitively, actually in my body, that I could serve this person further, I’ll offer.

    “Would you like to hear what working with me looks like?”

    I can serve someone far more deeply, who signs on to work with me for 6 months, than I can someone who spends an hour on the phone with me. But not everyone is ready, or appropriate.

    Selling is not about making money. It’s about finding the truth. Would this person be served by working with me? I consider it my job to be to help them make that decision.

    “Will I be served by working with Ewan? Am I ready to invest in myself?”

    Maybe I’m scared they’ll say no, because I really want to work with them. Maybe I’m scared they’ll say yes, because it’s going to challenge me.

    I put my fear aside, and I seek to uncover the truth.

    “Yes. Fuck yes.”

    “No. I don’t feel called.”

    It’s about truth. What’s the true decision? Uncover it.

    4. Don’t chase the money

    Money, like happiness, is hard to get if you go straight for it.

    Happiness opens to you when you live your life according to your own deep principles, when you follow your heart, when you do what fulfills you.

    Money’s like that too.

    I remember the times when I was really short, and I felt like I really needed money. I’d go hunting for it. Can I make money over here with this person? Can I weasel my way in over there?

    It felt tight. It felt desperate. I felt tight and desperate.

    It turned into a money grabbing crusade. It wasn’t greed, it was need. And the more I chased it, the harder it was to find.

    Remember, money isn’t a thing, it’s a measurement of service. So, when you want to create money, ask not “where can I find money?” but “where can I deeply serve?”

    Money is like a lover. Respect her. Caress her. Love her. Invite her. Don’t chase her, and she will come to you, more than willingly.

    What would be unleashed if you could create money?

    I create money, not because I want to buy shiny things (although I confess, I am excited about buying a new Macbook), but because I want to increase my capacity to create and to serve.

    I invested money into a trip across the US last month, visiting friends and clients, spending time with my mentor, writing in new and unusual places. It changed me.

    I just invested in a writing coach, and a 5-day silent meditation retreat with my new teacher, and two holidays for my darling woman who really needed some time and space away from the expectations of normality.

    I invested in three group coaching programs in the last 8 months.

    All these things were investments in the most important asset my business has: my own consciousness.

    As I grow, my service grows. As my service grows, the people I work with grow. As the people I work with grow, I grow. Ad infinitum.

    I know you have a lot to give. I know you have a lot to create. I know you have a lot of service to offer.

    Money empowers the powerful. Money enlightens the light bearers. Money teaches the wise. Money serve the servers.

    What would be unleashed, if you unlocked your capacity to create money?

     

    Ewan Townhead

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  • There is a disease at work in our marketing. It’s afflicting everything we do. It is chronic short-termism.

    The desperation to succeed at my new launch, so that my ego doesn’t get kicked in the teeth, and my bank balance doesn’t dip into the stress zone. The eagerness to get as many people to sign up on my list as I can, so that I don’t have to deal with my loneliness and insecurity.

    The disease of short-termism narrows our eyes onto the immediate need in front of us. And it can come with a whole host of side effects…

    • egoic manipulation
    • failing integrity
    • cringing inauthenticity
    • slimy sales
    • clichéd copy-writing
    • uninspired offers.

    The antidote is realizing the bigger game you’re playing.

    The game where you create a thriving tribe. One that endures. One that will ultimately go way beyond you and your work. One that is here for decades to come.

    There’s an African proverb that says: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

    A tribe will go far, reach far, and make an impact we can’t even conceptualize from where we are.

    When you cultivate a thriving tribe, you create a thriving ecosystem. When you devote yourself to the service of your tribe’s growth, they will grow. When your tribe grows, they will serve you in return, and support your leadership of them.

    A thriving tribe is not only the basis of a truly successful business, it is the basis of a truly successful movement. One where your business can spawn business for others. One where collaboration and cross-pollination feed something entirely new.

    So, here are 4 principles that you want to cultivate, as you cultivate your tribe. 4 principles that when cultivated, will create a thriving tribe.

    1. Intimacy

    I feel you. I feel connected to you. I feel close to you.

    Intimacy is making the inmost known. It’s the closeness that is created when we show ourselves to one another.

    When we are intimate with one another, we are weaving a pattern of interconnectedness. When we are intimate, we create community.

    You create intimacy with your tribe when you show yourself. You start the dance of intimacy when you take the first step.

    When you are truly vulnerable, your tribe will be truly vulnerable in return.

    My most uncomfortably revealing articles have been the ones that people have emailed me about the most, sharing their own tender stories. Intimately showing your inner world creates a space for others to intimately show theirs.

    Intimacy is about the space between us. Intimacy is the sensation of deep connection. People no longer want adequate. People no longer want useful. People want deep meaning.

    Create deep intimacy with your tribe, and you create something meaningful to which people can belong. Create intimacy, and you create belongingness.

    2. Authority

    I’ve witnessed your expertise. I’ve felt your power. I’ve followed your advice, and it worked.

    Authority is what you must practice, if you are to lead your tribe.

    Authority is what is created when you speak your wisdom and serve those who have gathered. Authority is what is revealed when you tap into your natural power.

    Authority is authoring new wisdom.

    As you continually discover more of what you have to say, and your tribe are continually helped by your teaching, your authority will be established.

    Authority is not power over someone. Authority is not assumed or abused.

    Authority is what people recognize in you, when you consistently step into your own genius, and create wisdom and insight that helps them.

    Your tribe give you authority only when you demonstrate your competence to lead them. You step into that authority, when you trust in your ability to create life.

    Authority is what enables people to follow you. A leader leads through wisdom and power. Disseminate your wisdom. Channel your power. Lead your tribe.

    3. Trust

    I know you. I believe you. I can rely on you. I trust you.

    Trust is what all marketing should be designed to create. Trust is what very little marketing actually does create. Most marketing erodes trust, fast.

    If I’m focused solely on maximizing sales for my new thing, then all I need to do is create enough trust that I get you to click buy. After that, I don’t care.

    Trust takes time to create. Because trust is what I feel when I’ve related with you over time, and believe I can rely on your integrity.

    If your actions are in alignment with your espousal, if you walk what you talk, and you do it consistently, you’re enabling me to create trust for you.

    When your tribe trusts you, you don’t need to use marketing psychology to persuade them to buy your new thing. You can just tell them about it, and they’ll buy it if serves them.

    When your tribe trusts you, you don’t need to shout loudly about how amazing your latest offering is, and why it’s going to change their life. You can simply share your heart, and they’ll listen.

    Trust is the antidote to a loud and crowded marketplace. When you have a tribe that deeply trusts you, you can whisper rather than shout. You can offer rather than push. You can create rather than take.

    4. Permission

    Change me. I give you full permission.

    Permission is the agreement to let things through.

    Permission is what your tribe gifts to you when they believe in your authority. Permission is what they activate when they trust you, when they know you, when they choose to follow you.

    Permission is the agreement to be permeable. When something is permeable, it lets things through it.

    A permeable membrane is one that lets water through. A permeable tribe is one that lets you impact them deeply.

    They give you permission to change them.

    They give you permission to love them so fully that they cannot remain the same. They give you permission to challenge their assumed smallness. They give you permission to beckon to their wholeness.

    Permission is what opens up a giant space. One in which we can all change one another. One in which the tribe can establish a whole new way. One in which we can transform things. Forever.

    You Can’t Fail

    Your work is your Work. Your work is to create what you’re here to create. That’s not a short term game, that’s a life-time game, at least.

    You can’t fail at it. You can only turn away from it.

    Go and feed your gathering tribe. They’re hungry for your wisdom. They’re aching for your power. They want to trust you. They’re eager to know you, get intimate with you.

    Go and serve them today, so that they give you even deeper permission to change them tomorrow.

     

    Ewan Townhead

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  • You’re creating something new. Or thinking about it.

    How do you launch it? How do you create a powerful promotion strategy for it? How do you get the word out? How do you make sure your new thing is a success?

    Marketing. It’s unavoidable. It’s necessary. It’s changing.

    The rules are changing. The game is changing. The old ways aren’t working any more. Have you noticed?

    There’s a new way. It’s not easier, but it’s so much more powerful.

    The tried and tested marketing model

    Here’s how the old way goes…

    1. Define your ideal customer
    2. Make something you believe that customer would pay for
    3. Wrap that something in marketing that will hit that customer target
    4. Sit back and watch your sales grow

    It’s been around a while. It seems entirely logical. And it’s what most people teach (and profess to use).

    And it works really well…

    …if (and this is a big fat hairy if), you already know who your customer is.

    And I don’t mean theoretically (like you sketched it out on some funky worksheet), I mean you actually, literally, really, experientially know who they are. Because you’ve sold stuff to them already.

    I once created a brand new 3-month coaching program in two weeks, concept to launch. We sold it out with 2 emails, in 3 days. Nailed. We were stoked.

    But. We already knew our customer really well. We’d run an online conference 18 months previously, with the exact same customer, so we knew who they were. Precisely.

    What happens if you don’t know your customer?

    Indeed.

    And further, what happens if you don’t know what the product is either?

    The old method works really well because it’s operating within small margins of error. Existing companies use it to great effect when they research a new product, because they have years of experience with their customers.

    The assumptions aren’t too hairy. It’s not a leap into unknown abyss, it’s a calculated step down a well mapped corridor.

    But when you’re creating something radically new, when you’re birthing something that’s on the edge of your own comprehension, when you’re working out what-in-the-hell-it-actually-is as you go, the old marketing method doesn’t work.

    In fact, it’s spectacularly ineffective.

    Because making something genuinely new is inherently unpredictable and risky. And despite your best efforts to map it all out using marketing blueprints, you can’t predict the unpredictable. You can’t make the risky safe.

    The claim that you can use old predictive marketing for genuinely new entrepreneurial creations is one of the most widely spread myths I see in business. It doesn’t work.

    Here’s what to do instead

    It’s really simple (but not easy).

    1. Reveal yourself – who you really are – and what you really care about, radically
    2. Create your work, say what you have to say, and share it, continually
    3. Allow your natural, organic, authentic tribe to show up
    4. Make things that serve them, and grow the tribe

    Your natural tribe is just that. Natural. It already exists. They’re already out there. You don’t get to choose them. Just like you don’t get to pick your family. You get to discover them, as you discover yourself.

    When you reveal your own essential shape, then you create space for the reciprocal shapes to find you.

    The more you reveal yourself, the more your tribe will reveal itself to you. The more you discover yourself, the more your tribe will discover you.

    And then you just make stuff that supports the tribe to grow, and your business grow.

    There’s nothing standing in your way

    The powerful thing about this new way? There isn’t a whole lot of preparation necessary.

    You don’t need a plan (there is no plan).

    You don’t need a website (just share your stuff on facebook).

    You don’t need a product (you’re the product).

    So, when there’s not much in the way, it tends to illuminate the inevitable excuses that we’re making to ourselves. The excuses that obscure the fact that we’re afraid.

    It’s scary to disclose yourself.

    But that’s the game. It’s powerful, it’s new, it’s real.

    How can you start playing?

    Ewan Townhead

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  • Marketing isn’t about advertising anymore. You can’t build a product and then hope to ‘find an audience’ for it. Mad Men is truly over.

    The new marketing is being who you are, attracting your natural tribe, and then creating products that deeply serve them.

    As Seth Godin says, “You don’t find customers for your products, you find products for your customers.”

    So how do you gather a tribe? How do you find more of the people you’re here to serve? Well, I’ve drawn out 5 ways for you.

    I was resistant to writing this piece

    I confess, I’ve avoided more practical articles like this so far. I’m not totally sure why. Part of me has assumed that this blog had a more philosophical identity. But I also know that’s my comfort zone.

    So, this is me walking my talk, and choosing to create new stuff despite feeling resistance.

    I’ve done a lot of marketing the last few years. I know the conventions really well. I know that a small business that doesn’t focus strongly on marketing is going to struggle. I also know that non-vomit-inducing marketing is hard to come by.

    And yet, I think the new marketing really does transcend (and exclude) vomit.

    So, let’s get stuck in. How do you grown your tribe? Here are 5 ways…

    1.     Share your wisdom (consistently)

    This really is the bed rock. That’s why everyone’s dog has written about it. You want to grow your tribe? You need to show up and share what you’ve got, so they can find you. No sharing, no gathering.

    Share your wisdom. Whatever it is that you think can help folks, give it. Don’t hold back the good stuff for some vague future product. Lay it all out.

    It’s a process of self-revealing. When you disclose who you naturally are, your natural tribe will naturally find you.

    And if you want to do this effectively, you’re going to want to be consistent.

    Whatever it is you’re putting out, put it out regularly. As you get better at saying what you have to say, and people get more trusting that you’re going to keep saying it, your tribe will increasingly grow.

    2.  Say the things you don’t want to say

    Show yourself. Radically. Share the thing that you don’t want to share. If you’re not quivering as you click ‘publish’ you probably played it too safe.

    No-one changed things without making a ruckus. No-one followed a leader that wasn’t radical. You can’t create a new tribe without dividing opinion.

    What are the things you don’t want to share? What are the things that seem inappropriate? What do you fear will piss people off? What do you worry might ruin your reputation?

    If it’s deeply important to you, you feel it in your heart, and you know it needs to be said; say it.

    Losing 10% of your community because of a controversial share is a good thing if the other 90% love you even more deeply for it.

    3.  Say the things you do want to say

    Share what you care about. Yes, you’re here to help and serve. But if you don’t fundamentally feel excited about what you’re sharing, people will feel it, and they’ll turn off.

    Forget your ‘target market’. Ignore the strategic leverage. Share what you know you’re here to share. Say what you want to say.

    What would you talk about if you could talk about anything? What would you talk about if you didn’t have to do anything except drink strawberry smoothies through a straw for the rest of your life?

    Talk about that, and see who shows up. That’s your tribe.

    4.   Signpost the route

    “Build it, and they will come.” Except they don’t.

    You need to show people how to find you. You need to signpost the route. Maybe you prefer an understated little sign with a personal message. Maybe you prefer a big flashing neon monster.

    But you do have to sign post it.

    “Tribe this way. We’re into preserving the endangered Tualamanian nose flute. If you want to join come this way.”

    Facebook. Workshops. Email. LinkedIn. Meetups. Parties. Wherever you think your people hang out, mark a trail back to your tribal home. And welcome them when they arrive.

    5.  Interrupt people

    When I’m designing marketing strategies for my business or clients, the end goal is always creating trust and intimacy. It’s about getting into genuine relationship with them, for the long term.

    That’s the most effective long term strategy I know. And it’s what feels good in my heart, and my bones.

    But to get into relationship, you’ve got to make contact.

    Today’s market place is like a packed room at a party. It’s loud, fast and fickle. If you stand alone in the corner (like I prefer to do at parties) and hope people wander over and strike up a conversation with you, it’s going to be a slow and lonely process.

    You need to interrupt people.

    Which is why, for the first time ever in four years in this game, I decided to use a (hopefully tasteful) popup. Scroll a little further down and you’ll find it.

    Interrupt them. Make contact. Touch them. Then you can build a relationship, which grows your tribe.

    Ewan Townhead

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  • There is a new kind of product on the market. The demand is immense. The competition non-existent.

    It is not a product that can be held in your hands. It is not manufactured in factory, or assembled from components.

    It is not a product that gives you the answer, or instructs you how to. It is not based on scientific proof, or the secret that makes a million dollars.

    It is a product that is irreplaceable. It is a product that has untold power.

    It is the product of your own wisdom.

    When the Merchant meets the Artist

    This new product is the child of very different parents – the merchant and the artist.

    The merchant is concerned with offering something that solves a problem.

    She is concerned with the needs of her customers and clients, and she works hard to satisfy them so she can profit from their mutual exchange. She is concerned ultimately with improvement, and by providing something that her customers want.

    She could be selling incense, software, smart phones, tarot readings or business coaching, the economics are the same. She can produce her product for less than she receives from her buyer.

    Her and her customers both profit from the trade. She makes an honest living. They receive things they need at a fair price.

    The artist has a completely different concern. He is not concerned with improvement, he is concerned with expression.

    He seeks to express an aspect of his experience, of the human experience, of the mystical experience, through some kind of medium. He creates.

    The artifact he creates could be a painting, a song, a book, a play or a show. While the form varies, the intent is the same – to express the inexpressible without conclusion.

    He creates beauty through ambiguity and imperfection. And his audience is able to deepen their own appreciation of life through his representations.

    Historically, these two vocations were separate. Merchants were concerned with meeting existing needs. Artists were concerned with creating new realities.

    Merchants were about consolidating society. Artists were about changing society.

    These two things are no longer separate.

    When the merchant and the artist are combined, and create something, it is a new thing.

    It is a wisdom product.

    A wisdom product is an artifact that contains the service of the merchant, and the expression of the artist.

    It is a business product, something designed to be of service to another human being in a particular circumstance, with a particular type of suffering. It meets the needs of both beings, in an enhance of mutual value.

    And it is a piece of art – a provocation of the audience’s experience, not an answer to a problem. It is a story, not a manual. A painting of ideas and experiences, not a blueprint of correct and incorrect.

    A Revolution in Product Development

    A business that creates wisdom products is a different kind of business.

    The supply chain for this business does not involve the shipping of goods. The research and development for this business does not involve scientists in laboratories, or marketers with clipboards.

    The greatest asset of this business is consciousness.

    It’s you, living life, failing, succeeding, and telling your story to other brave souls suffering at the hands of the same challenges that you yourself have faced.

    It asks you to be you, to discover who you are, not as a hobby, but as the product development of your business.

    When you offer your wisdom, as product, it calls forth a deeper relationship between you and your client. A wisdom product does not tell your customer how they should do something, or the correct way to achieve an outcome. It is art.

    It transmits your consciousness and your experience, and helps them walk their own unique path, inspired by your footsteps.

    The wisdom product enables your clients to transform in your light. It enables you to make a business from consciousness. It enables the world to create an economy from awakening.

    Take your Wisdom and Create

    Make it.

    A wisdom product is always imperfect. It is not meant to be perfected. It cannot be perfected.

    If a braking system for a new car is imperfect it creates damage. It damages life, people die.

    If a wisdom product is imperfect it cannot create damage. It can create change.

    A wisdom product is simply a single step on a longer and undefined journey.

    A wisdom product is the step you take along the path to becoming a more awake human being, and a more powerful servant to your clients.

    A wisdom product is the intermediate step before you create the next wisdom product. Because in this sense it is art. And art is never finished.

    And yet, a wisdom product is created to serve, to improve lives. And so it’s ultimate success is not judged by the artist, but by the results it achieves for its purchasers.

    In this sense, it is business.

    The creation cycle of a wisdom product is much faster than the cycle of a physical product. Because it’s not about perfection, it’s about iteration.

    Apple brings out a new phone once a year.

    Seth Godin writes a new blog post every day.

    That’s the difference.

    Here’s the production protocol for a wisdom product…

    1. Make it.
    2. Give it.
    3. Receive the feedback.
    4. Let it go.
    5. Repeat.

    You do not need to awaken your wisdom before creating your product. Your wisdom is awakened as you make your product. Give it. People need you.

    Ewan Townhead

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  • We can think of marketing as having two different ways.

    The first way of marketing is presenting ourselves, skillfully, strategically, deliberately.

    It’s writing our persuasive website copy, designing a logo that gives just the right feel to the brand, it’s concocting our taglines that inspire and inform people.

    This is the common form of marketing. It’s important.

    The second way of marketing is revealing ourselves, transparently, vulnerably, passionately.

    It’s sharing the blog that we don’t want to share because it’s too personal, or feels inappropriate. It’s offering our naked heart, without agenda.

    This is the less common form. It’s essential.

    You could think about the first kind of marketing as being about surfaces. How do I appear to the world? What will people’s first impressions be? Will I be attractive to my ideal clients?

    Surfaces are not less important. It’s like wearing clothes, or getting a haircut.

    The second way of marketing is about the heart. It’s revealing who you really are, even though you may doubt the strategy of it. It is removing the curtains, beautiful though they may be.

    The realized entrepreneur understands both these ways of marketing. For he understands that he is both depth, and surface. She wants to be seen for her true heart, and for her true skin.

    He works hard to create surfaces that reflect his depth in powerful ways – marketing that can attract people magically.

    And she also remembers that the heart of meeting is in revealing herself, and relating to the world from chosen nakedness.

    This First Way of Marketing Is Like Makeup

    I love it when my partner wears mascara and eye-liner. It brings out her big beautiful blue eyes in such an evocatively delicate way. It draws out her natural beauty. It helps me see more of her. I love seeing her.

    And then there’s the woman whose make-up is so thick and loud, that I cannot see her true face. Her natural beauty is smeared over like a mask that she hides behind.

    Salt, I find, is a wonderful ingredient for bringing out the flavors in a dish. I taste them more. But too much and it tastes like something fake and unpleasant. Sometimes, food can be so salty, I don’t know what the natural flavors actually are, or even if there are any.

    So many people are marketing themselves with mountains of makeup and salt, while our hungry marketplace is crying out for something real, something heart-full, something truly beautiful.

    Marketing Is Simply Relating

    Marketing is a practice of relating with the world around you, not persuading the world of your worth.

    Marketing is about seeing your community, clients and customers. And being seen in return. It’s a practice of speaking and being spoken to.

    Makeup is good, and fine. Use it to bring out your attractiveness, and have those with roving eyes notice you amongst the crowd.

    But don’t hide behind it.

    The first way of marketing is an invitation, not a mask.

    What’s in your heart? What do you care about so much that you feel ashamed to shout it to the entire world?

    I want to meet you, feel you, see you.

    Know you.

    Will You Show Yourself?

    You are beautiful.

    It’s not a beauty that can be assessed according to a universal scale, or compared to the beauty of another. It’s yours. Truly and completely.

    And the more you are able to push the voice of your anxiety away, and disclose that beauty, the more the natural world will rise up to meet that beauty.

    When you reveal yourself, your true self, your true community will discover you.

    If you fake it, and manufacture your image from the form of another, you will attract people who are meant to be served by another.

    If you craft your marketing with thick makeup, trying to persuade the world that you are someone you are not, you will attract customers who relate with you as that someone you are not. And they will expect of you, the promises of that someone you are not.

    And they will not be served.

    And you will not be seen.

    Let your marketing be a full expression of who you truly are, and not a mask to divert people’s powerful gaze.

    Let them see you.

    Let those who turn away, turn away.

    Let those who come closer, come closer.

    Ewan Townhead

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