Hi Everyone,

In my work as an international life coach and former lawyer, I’m often approached for business and executive coaching. When I do that type of coaching, I see it as my purpose to raise my client’s consciousness holistically, and, at the same time, support them to be successful in business, career and finance. So it’s my role to provide guidance on growing their business and improving their financial abundance without compromising their values, their personal growth, their contribution to their families, communities and the planet – essentially, their path to self – actualization.

Based on this experience, I thought it would be helpful to explore an important aspect of business – the field of marketing- and see how it can be done in an ethical or conscious way.I chose marketing because marketing is messaging- and your messaging is a huge influencer on your outcomes in life generally and business, specifically.

So, tell me, you business owners out there, small or large, retail, industrial or corporate, do you think it would be helpful for you to get some ideas and strategies on growing your business through a conscious approach to marketing?

As for those of you who don’t own your own business, but are in roles within your workplace where it might be your responsibility to grow the business, generate profits, improve the bottom line – wouldn’t it be more rewarding , if you could achieve this whilst being of service in an ethical and conscious way?

In fact, even if you’re not in business, understanding conscious versus unconscious marketing applies to us all because who of us, as we go about our day to day lives, isn’t been subjected to a mass of marketing, urging us towards what we should think, wear, eat, drive, buy ?

Marketing is an all pervasive fact of life- it’s an influencer, it’s a force, it’s an environmental condition. Raising our awareness around this, both as business people and as consumers, helps shape the future of marketing- because , marketing can only work if it gets the message right and, if we are conscious, then the marketing message must also evolve in consciousness in order to grab our attention. Get it? The more conscious we are, the more we only listen to conscious messages then the more we contribute to the evolution of consciousness and that is a vital mission for us on the planet today.

So what is marketing?

Marketing is the designing of a message (the word, the look, the feel) and the process by which that message is communicated with the intention of influencing the receiver of that message to take action. Traditionally, it was all about the 4 Ps: your Product, your Price, your Placement and your Promotion. Marketers, work tirelessly at packaging these 4 things in such a way that they can be promoted to the general community as attractive and worthy and beneficial .

Is there anything wrong with that, NO? It’s actually a form of self esteem, in a way. I‘ll create a great product, at a price that reflects the appropriate value for this product, I’ll position it appropriately in the market place and I’ll make it attractive and visible so that people desire it. That’s awesome, nothing wrong with that. We should all do that for ourselves, whether it be our personalities, our bodies, our homes, our views on life. Know our self, recognise our true value, position ourself and be as attractive and visible as we desire to be. So why do so many of us cringe at the thought of marketing? Why do so many of us shake our heads and run the other way? Because marketing has lost its soul, because marketing has been corrupted by greed, because marketing has been hijacked by self serving forces . Marketing has ignored ethical rules and pursued capitalism to its darkest recesses.

So what do conscious, aware people do when they run a business? Unfortunately, many of them stay away from marketing, they see it as unspiritual or pushy or lacking in dignity. As a result, the message of these people is less visible, hidden, crowded out by those clamouring for financial gain and power.

This can’t be the answer, where the most aggressive or greedy, gain the greatest piece of the pie. Instead, there needs to be a revolution, a revolution towards conscious marketing, ethical practices, and conscious capitalism. A revolution where the focus is on how the business of business is no longer only the bottom line but the business of business is making the world a better place. This means that every product or service is designed with a soul, with an intent, with a commitment to enhancing the lives of others. Every offering into the market place comes after answering the question – what problem am I solving here? and am I really solving the problem or distracting from it, creating another problem or just creating a different problem?

Well guess what, all this already exists, the revolution has already begun.Conscious Marketing and Conscious Capitalism are a “ thing”. A very very good “thing”; and I’m so pleased to have conducted an interview with a leading light in this field- Carolyn Tate . Carolyn, is the author of Conscious Marketing, and four other books including The Purpose Project. She’s the director of Carolyn Tate & Co. and the founder of The Slow School of Business. Carolyn has been on her own purpose adventure for the last seven years which has included becoming a Founding Member of Conscious Capitalism Australia and B Corp Certification. In interviewing Carolyn, I was able to get some great advice on how to market consciously. Here is some of the content from that interview but please do click on the link below to listen to the full interview yourself.

What is Conscious Marketing?

Conscious marketing is all about building something so compelling and so good right into the heart of your business and services that people tell others about you and share your business with others – they become advocates for you which means you require little advertising and mass marketing. Also it starts with having products and services that fill a human need rather than creating a superficial want.

What’s the difference between conscious and unconscious marketing?

There’s a tendency for many of us to do unconscious binge marketing – we have a very ’salesy’ message and then try every medium that is available to us at the lowest cost and do none of them that well – there are thousands of ways to market and promote a business. We try something once such as going to a networking event and we don’t like it or get the results we desire so we give it up and try something new. The goal is to do few things well and do them again – rinse and repeat.

We’ve mentioned the traditional 4 Ps of marketing, you have your 5Ps of Conscious Marketing can you explain them to us?

There are five core areas of conscious marketing; personal (you and what you stand for believe in and how you show up in service to others), purpose (why you do what you do), product (what it is you are offering), people (who you serve and impact) and the last part is promotion which is only done once all the other ingredients are right. Most people focus on promotion first which is the wrong way round. Its about building community and creating a movement of sorts around your business.

Can you expand on the role of purpose in conscious marketing?

We need to exist for a reason beyond profit. Why you do what you do is more important than what you do or how you do it? People get that and they buy that first.

What is Conscious Capitalism? Can you tell us about the Conscious Capitalism movement?

Conscious Capitalism, is a global movement started by John Mackey of Wholefood markets and Raj Sisodia an academic author of Firms of Endearment and Consious Capitalism…it’s based on the four key principles of Higher Purpose, Conscious Culture, Conscious Leadership and Stakeholder Orientation – this means that everybody wins in the game of bringing goods and services to the market – it means that all suppliers are looked after, its about regenerative capitalism instead of extractive capitalism.

Brand Awareness is key to the success of a business – what is that and how do you build brand awareness consciously?

You build brand awareness by:

• Firstly by knowing what you stand for and believe in and being uncompromising in that. You can’t appeal to everyone, if you try to, you will appeal to no one. People buy what you stand for not what you sell;
• By genuinely caring about others and giving them an experience of you that goes beyond their expectations;
• By having a brand that is warm, friendly, inviting, unique and compelling;
• By building relationships – know who is in your community, what they need and want, listen to them, serve them, care about them;
• By telling stories – your own and others and by being vulnerable, authentic and real; and
• By having a product/service that is unique and compelling.

You have worked in huge corporates and also been a great advocate for small business. If someone was interested in marketing their business and had never done any official marketing, how would you recommend they go about it?

I would start by understanding why you do what you do, your purpose.
Understand how purpose, values, vision, mission fit with each other – that’s the foundation on which to build a compelling product and company.
Centre your messages on that instead of what you do or how you do it.
Work out the best stories to tell and then learn how to tell them really well – not just on a website, but in conversation, in presentation, speaking publicly, get really good at these messages. Make sure your brand reflects your core values.Work out who the people are that you need to engage, do that well, a core group of advocates and people that care and will share.
Under-promise and over-deliver – add real value to your clients and go beyond.

If a corporation wanted to review its current marketing strategy and ensure it was conscious, where would they start and what would they have to do?

I think corporations have to start with why they exist, what is there purpose and then bring that to life as the core element, then engage and activate purpose in people.
Millions of people are unhappy and disengaged at work, they have no reason to turn up to work beyond a paycheck…the key is to work on purpose, not as a marketing tactic, that’s where purpose-washing comes in but as a way to reinvent the company. Focus on people and product and you then you need less of the mass marketing/advertising approach.

I trust you found that advice from Carolyn helpful. My question to you…

Do you want to become a Conscious Marketer ? If so,

1. Start by asking yourself why you do what you do. What is the purpose of your business, product, service?
2. Does this purpose align with your values, your vision and your mission ?
3. What problem does your product or service solve for others? What good does it do for others? Assess whether it adds value to others ( or whether it brings harm to others) and write all that down. Be honest, if it brings harm, evaluate how you can solve the problem without harming others in a different way.
4. Create a message centred on communicating the WHY first and then on what you do and how you do it.
5. Work out the best stories to tell and then learn how to tell them really well. Make your message conscious and engaging. Skill up on messaging so you become an effective ambassador for the great service/ product you provide.
6. Trust the process, if you have created something wholesome, trust the Universe to support you.
7. Do a budget for marketing and write down your realistic expected return on investment. However, ensure your mindset is one where you pursue Purpose and welcome Profit- don’t pursue Profit at the expense of Purpose.

I hope you enjoy listening to my interview with Carolyn on Conscious Marketing and that this will enhance your ability to operate ethically and prosperously in business.

To Listen to my interview with Carolyn on Conscious Marketing, please click the radio show icon.