Aging Gracefully

Meditations for Marketers

The goal of marketing, when it’s all said and done, is to sell stuff. This means selling products, services, your organization, your point of view, or even yourself. Selling, of course, is the antithesis of meditation. Mediation is about being serene, sincere, mindful and present in the moment. If you exhibit any of these states of mind while marketing, especially being serene, you will be out of marketing, faster than you can say “Om”

This is why this article may be so helpful. Or not.

As an experienced brand marketer who has done everything from selling toilet products to cat litter to “1^st Party Data” to quarterly earnings reports to motor oil to tampons (a low point, admittedly), I’ve realized that we as marketers will essentially do anything to break through the clutter to sell our stuff.

But what if the principles of meditation, essentially the inverse of the principles of marketing, could be used to help us become better marketers? What if you could rewire your brain to go from market share to mind share in service of gaining market share? Ingenious, and slightly twisted, no? Wouldn’t this be the ultimate win-win? (Aside: Win-win is a marketing cliché that makes you so ill when you say it, that it can lead you straight to the meditation couch).

With that in mind, I will share simple tips to accomplish one of three goals:

- Help you become a better marketer

or

- Help you feel okay about yourself as a marketer knowing you can have more to your life

or

- Help you not have a nervous breakdown because marketing is really stressful and hard

Caveat: One of the goals of meditation is: “To not be without thoughts; but to be without goals.” (Headspace.) So just having goals of meditation for marketers goes against everything meditation stands for. This may be why I’m a marketing professional and not a meditation professional.

So without further ado, (how many cliches is that now?) I present to you six easy to learn marketing meditation thoughts/mantras for daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly practice, (particularly JFM).

A Six-Pack of Meditations for Marketers

1. Recognize that your mind wanders. It’s okay. Let it go by focusing on the bottom line.

2. Understand that we are not our “thoughts.” But unfortunately, we are other people’s thoughts. So manage up well.

3. Pick a word or mantra that you can repeat over and over to focus your mind while breathing in a natural way. I recommend “Growth.”

4. Take time during the day to breathe. Imagine your breath is an ocean wave. The in-breath is the wave gently forming; the louder out-breath is the wave softly breaking on the shore. Don’t do this during meetings, though. People will think you are sleeping or have a sinus problem.

5. If you’re in a meeting and you don’t have anything to contribute, remember that in silence we are one with the world.

6. Imagine your mind is an open blue sky and the clouds in the sky are thoughts. Let them drift by. (This one is so authentic that I have nothing sarcastic to add.)

That’s it. If this didn’t help, you can try my other story: Yoga Positions for Lawyers. Tip, the best negotiations are done in the Cobra position.