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.
