Okay, kids. I’m diving into deep water here.
JUDGIING
Self improvement people do deceptive and phony marketing.
I want them to stop hyping their products. I want them to stop the hard sell that causes people who shouldn’t be buying the products to buy them.
They shouldn’t sell anything that they can’t be sure will deliver value to the customer. They shouldn’t manipulate people with bonuses and special reports. They ought to consider the customer for a change. They ought to be responsible for seducing people into buying overpriced products. They shouldn’t sell hope to the desperate. They shouldn’t play on people’s wishes to get ahead.
I need them to tone it down.
They are cynical, selfish, jaded, manipulative, and greedy.
I don’t ever want to feel embarrassed about marketing or selling someone else’s products or to have them market or sell mine.
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Self improvement people do deceptive and phony marketing.
IIT?
Yes.
CIAK?
No. I suspect I am envious. I love the way they market; I just wish I could do it as well and sleep at night.
HDIR?
I get paralyzed. I tell me there’s no way I can market and sell my work or the products of others without making someone mad or disappointed. I feel trapped between effective marketing and being a good person. I see pictures of buyers in my mind who are unsatisfied and resentful. I think of all the things I’ve ever bought out of greed or need or fear. I indict myself for selling things to people who may buy out of greed, need, and fear. I feel responsible for the buyer’s experience.
WWIB?
Free to notice the difference between methods and content. Free to study skillful means and use them to communicate honestly. Happy to create new products because I can afford to put the time into creating, refining, revising, and selling. Excited.
TA1
Self improvement people use sincere and direct marketing.
Yes. It is pretty clear when I read the sales letters and materials I am complaining about that these people want to sell me something and that they are appealing directly to my emotions to get me to buy.
TA2
I do deceptive and phony marketing.
Yes. Sometimes I use language and techniques that feel phony and deceptive to me. I also deceive myself about my motives. I do want to sell my products. I do want to encourage people to buy. I am phony when I imagine that I shouldn’t want this. I am deceptive when I send out a marketing message that is not okay with me.
TA3
I am phony and deceptive when I read self improvement and business marketing materials.
Yes. I hide my interest and admiration from me. I imagine that I am better than “they” are. I look for promises and hooks that appeal to my emotions; and I often find myself convinced to buy. Then I pretend I was taken advantage of and that the marketers are getting rich because people (me) hesitate to return things. I want something for nothing.
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I want them to stop hyping their products. I want them to stop the hard sell that causes people who shouldn’t be buying the products to buy them.
IIT?
No.
HDIR? I tell myself that hype is the only possible way to sell. I spend $ and hours studying marketing techniques while hating them and myself. I am at war with my desire to create and sell. When I believe this thought there is no safe and kind place I can go to make a living creating and selling products. I make myself wrong. I make anyone who is succeeding at this smarter than me and very likely less moral. (!) I make anyone who is not succeeding at this wrong and stupid.
WWIBWTT?
I dunno. None of this is my business. Not how other people market and not whether or not their customers buy, ;let alone what those customers think after they buy.
TA1
I don’t want them to stop hyping their products. I don’t want them to stop the hard sell that causes people who shouldn’t be buying the products to buy them.
True. I want to lear how to market and sell. Sometimes I imagine that I want to sell even to people who “shouldn’t” be buying my products. I love hype (and I mean that in the nicest way). I love the excitement, the positivity, the energy.
TA2
I want me to stop hyping my products. I want me to stop the hard sell that causes people who shouldn’t be buying the products to buy them.
True. And the way to stop this is to open my eyes and check with me before I market. I can question my thoughts on paper and find out what is true for me instead of racing to the turnarounds, which only prove that I am wrong. I want me to stop the hard sell that makes me buy the notion that I should not want to market and sell effectively. I want me to stop the hard sell that judges people harshly. I want me to stop the hype that exaggerates the wrongs of other people’s marketing methods. I want me to stop exaggerating in my mind the possible reactions of hypothetical buyers.
TA3
I want my thinking to stop hyping marketing and sales. I want my thinking to stop the hard sell that causes people who shouldn’t be buying the products to buy them.
Yes. I want to question my thoughts so that I can find out for me what is hype and what is enthusiasm. I want to question my thoughts so that I can tell the difference between my business and buyers’ business.
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They shouldn’t sell anything that they can’t be sure will deliver value to the customer.
TA: They should sell things that they can’t be sure will deliver value to the customer.
It’s the customer’s business. It’s certainly not mine.
TA2: I shouldn’t sell things in my mind that I can’t be sure will deliver value to the customer.
I make me crazy, I’m entirely out of my business, and I cut myself off from people who can teach me to be a better communicator. (People who can teach me how to serve.)
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They shouldn’t manipulate people with bonuses and special reports.
IIT?
No.
HDIR?
I chase my tail. I get so confused with my judgments about marketing that I put together incoherent, partial, and insincere-feeling programs. I keep myself from “landing” and it’s hard to do business. I am irresponsible; I dodge the responsibility for checking with me. I deny my buyers the opportunity to discover new writers and tools because I am too good to run a bonus. When I do run one, I keep one eye shut and the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing — and the bonus is either too costly (not kind to me and my biz; not responsible; too good to be true) or it is sleazy (at least in my thoughts). When I do create bonuses and special reports I rush through them because I believe that such things are ALWAYS low quality. I hurt myself when I rush and put my work into forms that make it harder for people to get it.
WWIB?
Jeez. I’d be in hog heaven. I have content out the ears. Without this thought I would have a ball planning and then crafting really wonderful products and bonuses. I’d have fun working out arrangements with other people. I’d be so grateful that I can make a living this way. I would find it easy to write sales copy (or have someone else write it) because I would know that there is a “there there,” that what I have to sell is solid.
TA1
They should manipulate people with bonuses and special reports.
Yes, if that’s what it takes for me to wake up to how my heart wants to do business. Also, if that’s what it takes to show me that I am out of my business.
TA2
I shouldn’t manipulate people with bonuses and special reports.
True. I should have fun creating real value with these kinds of offers or not.
TA3
I shouldn’t manipulate me with bonuses and special reports.
True. I manipulate me when I read offers with bonuses. I have more information that I can use in a lifetime, but I’m greed for more. I also manipulate me when I believe the thought that there is no way to use bonuses and special offers without being manipulative.
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They ought to consider the customer for a change. They ought to be responsible for seducing people into buying overpriced products. They shouldn’t sell hope to the desperate. They shouldn’t play on people’s wishes to get ahead.
IIT?
No. How can I know who or what they are considering or if they are seducing or if their products are overprice or if the buyers are desperate and wishing to get ahead. It is none of my business!
HDIR?
I see pictures of unhappy customers. I project any disappointment I have ever felt after buying onto unknown hypothetical customers. I assume customers are greedy, blind, and unable to make up their own minds. I imagine that they are easily seduced and fooled into believing what they want to believe, and I believe that I’m the one who should change all that.
WWIBWTT?
Free to do my job.
TAs
I ought to consider the customer for a change.
Yes. I ought to consider the customer and get out of their business.
I ought to be responsible for seducing people into buying overpriced products.
Funny the way I worded that. Anyway. I want to be responsible for being seductive. Sometimes seductive is my job (when I am doing it). If it feels icky, I can check with me and not do it.
I shouldn’t sell hope to the desperate. I shouldn’t play on people’s wishes to get ahead.
Yes. I shouldn’t put myself into other people’s business and declare that they are desperate and so wishful that they can be fooled. I shouldn’t treat me like a person who would sell hope to the desperate or play on people’s wishes to get ahead. That is manipulative — as if I can manipulate myself into being good.
OOOH, ooh, ohh! I found this one as I was previewing the post:
I shouldn’t sell hope to myself when I am desperate. I shouldn’t play on my wishes to get ahead.
True. It’s not kind to me to scare myself with thoughts about marketing being bad and wrong. It’s not kind to think of myself as so desperate as to be phony and manipulative.
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I need them to tone it down.
TA
I don’t need them to tone it down.
True. I need me to tone it down by questioning my thoughts instead of having a screaming match with other marketers or with myself.
TA
I need them to turn it up.
True, when they do. I need what I need to notice how I project marketing and sales so that I can question and find out what’s true for me.
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They are cynical, selfish, jaded, manipulative, and greedy.
TA: [This is too easy.} I am cynical, selfish, jaded, manipulative, and greedy, but only when I am confused, and then only until I am not.
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I don’t ever want to feel embarrassed about marketing or selling someone else’s products or to have them market or sell mine.
TA: I look forward to feeling embarrassed about marketing or selling someone else’s products or to have them market or sell mine.
YES. This is my fail safe way of knowing that there is something to question so that I can be free.
The Work on Phony Marketing
