Growing Your Business

Archive for the ‘Marketing Methods’ Category

Organic leadership calls for a state of continual growth.

In this changing climate it is in our best interests to hold fast to some basic common ground.  In a way, to be rooted in the real world. Observing nature and listening to ancient stories are not the child’s play you might imagine. Socrates, Greek philosopher, learned and taught with fables, for example.

Sometimes the lessons we learn by observing nature are quite simple.  Do not be mistaken. Simple is not necessarily easy.  The hard part may be to begin to apply what we learned to our own lives and our businesses. Yet, when we learn this skill it will serve us well.

Our words and our actions become congruent, or begin to walk the same path together. Our reputation for integrity improves immensely and our work online begins to prosper.

Is that not how attraction marketing works too? It is an organic process that operates whether or not we intend it to. That is why it makes such good sense to learn from the ancient ones and to observe nature and learn from what we see in the world around us.  Then remember to distill that information from our senses and hold onto that kernel of wisdom and put it into practice at home and in our work.  A short tale from Aesop’s Fables* illustrates this:

The FARMER AND The STORK

A  Stork of a very simple and trusting nature had been asked by a

rowdy party of Crows to visit a field that had been newly planted.
But the party ended dismally with all the birds entangled in the meshes of the Farmer’s net.

The Stork begged the Farmer to spare him. “Please let me go,” he pleaded. “I belong to the Stork family who you know are honest and birds of good character. Besides, I did not know the crows were going to steal.”

“You may be a very good bird,” answered the Farmer, “but I caught you with the thieving Crows and you will have to share the same punishment with them.”

Moral:

You are judged by the company you keep. Aesop

21st Century Application:

Associate yourself with people who you are known for behaviors and qualities you wish to see in yourself and your family and among your workers.  Choose your playmates and coworkers with care. DonnaB

Are you with the crows or the stork most of the time? Who does your behavior attract? What consequences do your choices yield? How can you change what you do not like about that?
* Aesop’s Fables have been told for centuries. Allegedly they were contrived by a Greek slave whose name was Aesop, in the 5th century.  Scholars dispute his identity and the age of the fables but not the genre. Storytelling has long been a way of educating about morals and ethics. When told with fictional characters in animal forms it is much easier to relate matters of truth without offending the listeners.  This version is in the public domain and adapted from the  downloadable Ebook  sections of Project Gutenberg.

Please share your thoughts on this post and let me know if you would like more of them. Thank you. DonnaB

I find it fascinating that so many people are just now discovering the importance of RELATIONSHIPS.

You see, I am now understanding that relationships are the essence of the universe. We exist in relationship to others. Basic science tells us that everything is connected to something else. Quantum physics tells us everything is connected to everything else.

You have heard of the Butterfly theories and manuscript. Illustrating by example that when a butterfly flaps its wings in Galapagos there is a related and responsive action in the northern hemisphere, may it be so simple as a bee in a breeze.  It does take a leap of faith or consciousness to connect such disparate events.  Nonetheless at a molecular and sub-molecular level even more astonishing things happen among us and within us every day.

If atoms require protons and electrons and neutrons to function and interact,  as basic science teaches us,  so too is it reasonable for us to expect at the level of our physical world that humans and inanimate objects are in continuing and essential  relationships.

Recognizing relationships on the farm are essential to having a productive season or crop. What are the relationships among the soil and water and minerals and seeds?Those things which produce growth are awkward to describe beyond the mere basics.

In like manner, I listen to Internet Marketers telling each other that “the money is in the list”. And I smile. Inherent in that phrase are the unstated relationships between the people who open their mail in those lists and the marketer who sent the message.  Without those relationships there is no “money in the list”.

Nurturing the people we work with and coach is a vital part of our being effective marketers. This is the process of relating to each other. The interactions which we have with each other that build trust are critical to our future relationships.

It is incredibly easy to erode that trust– Simply by not participating in those relationships.  By choosing to isolate or insulate ourselves from excessive or unwanted interactions we reduce the opportunites we have to build those relationships on which trust is based.

Did you ever buy a car from an invisible sales representative? Nope. Visibility and transparency are important as you work with people who are jaded by hype and a super phony world view.

Integrity and honesty go hand in hand. It is part of that relationship thing. Like it is hard to have a peanut butter  and jelly sandwich without the jelly.  So I am celebrating the relationships with positive team members and kindred spirits.  In so doing, we create an atmosphere of trust and encourage others to work with us in like manner.

When we learn from the essential fabric of the universe – nature- it is much easier to “go with the flow” or to “nurture growth”. That is the kind of leadership that Margaret Wheatley discusses in her books. It is leadership in a state of relationship. Like the water flowing over the rocks or the seeds growing out of the soil.

And yes, you need to do specific things in response to others.  There are steps to take along the path of learning to create relationships that are harmonious.  In addition, there are tools we all use online which make it incredibly easy to communicate, whether it is good news or not.  Be selective and stay focused on your tasks. Choose to build harmonious and productive relationships with your team whether it is your upline or your downline or your prospects.

In days of olde, the GOLDEN RULE was

“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Today we speak of mentoring and modeling the behaviors which we wish to see in others.

Is it a waste of our time? I think not.

But Time is Money.

No.

Time is Life.

And I shall “spend” that time in the most positive and productive way I can each day.

“Cast thy bread upon the waters,

and thou shalt find it again after many days.”

Ecclesiastes 11:1