The Desert of Arizona
Full Moon Coming 38 Degrees
Back in the old days, when I was still drinking the marketing and cash sucking Kool-Aid, the idea of “monetizing” a list was something I thought about. How do you do it? How do you do it effectively?
These days, I realize that a perspective like that actually builds a wall between me and the people I am trying to help. It’s the same kind of wall that is built if you think that working with clients is an “Us VS Them” type of game.
I had that wall up for a LONG time.
When you realize we’re all the same… that we’re all individuals first on this big ball flying through space… things change. When you get to that view, then you’re able to develop a good understanding of what life might be like in the other person’s shoes.
The word for this ability is empathy.
But I don’t mean the empathy they teach in the marketing or copywriting books. That’s the version they tell you to “turn on” so you can sell something to someone.
I’m talking about the real empathy. You can’t fake this one. You’ve either done the work to have it or you don’t have it. People can feel the difference.
Doing the work to have it is worth it. Because once that work is done, you wake up and realize that you’ve outgrown words like “monetize.”
Do YOU want to be “monetized?” Of course you don’t.
Well, neither do Joe or Jack or Susan. Don’t agree? Just go ask them and see what they say…
I think the best kind of marketing, and the most effective kind of marketing (long term), is the kind where when you actually explain everything you’re doing out loud, right to your prospective clients, no one runs away.