“I hate marketing,” she said, “And I’m not any good at it.”

I was at a conference in Miami with over 300 entrepreneurs. The woman sitting next to me, a beautiful, dark-skinned woman with deep brown eyes and a wide smile, was sharing with me one of the beliefs that keeps her from expanding her business. She hates marketing. And, she believes she’s not good at it.

I wasn’t all that surprised by her declaration. I’d heard it before. Mostly from entrepreneurs in some kind of service business, like healers, coaches and therapists, and from artists and musicians as well.

So, I asked her, “What is it about marketing that you hate?” And she, like so many others, responded by looking away, hunching her shoulders and saying, “Oh, I don’t know. It’s just…” and then she shuddered, as if to shake off some kind of evil demon.

I looked her in the eye and said, “I don’t think you hate marketing. Nor do I think you’re not any good at it. I think you simply don’t know what marketing really is.”

Often, when entrepreneurs have an aversion to marketing, it’s almost always because their perception and definition of marketing is completely wacked. They equate it with being pushy, arrogant and manipulative. And entirely self-serving. They’ve formed a prejudice built on a lie, the lie being that marketing is the work of slimy con-men, deceptive snake-oil salesmen and evangelistic swindlers. They hate it because they can’t relate to it. It has nothing to do with who they are, what they love, value or consider honorable.

Now, I’m not saying ALL entrepreneurs feel that way. But either way, I feel compelled to set the record straight so entrepreneurs can stop resisting and resenting marketing (and stop shuddering when they speak of it) and start enjoying it instead!

Marketing is the means by which we, as entrepreneurs, can communicate the value we offer to those who can benefit from our offering. What is there to hate?

Marketing is how we communicate and share our gifts, talents and services to those who can benefit from those gifts, talents and services. Whether we write an email, make a video, submit an article or put up a billboard, all we are doing is communicating our message with the intention that someone will receive that message… and respond. Marketing can be a call to “come ‘n get it” but it can also be an invitation to consider what’s possible.

Let me take this one step further and say that marketing, when done well and with integrity, offers us, as entrepreneurs, the means by which to make a heart-to-heart, gut-to-gut connection with someone (or many someones) we’ve never even met before.

It’s happened to me. Has it happened to you? A commercial that made you cry. A blog post that made you laugh out loud? A YouTube video that inspired you to do more, be more, have more?

Continue reading Why You Don’t Hate Marketing… Even If You Think You Do