Episode 86: For The Heartful Souls Who Stay Gold

*some links included in the show notes may be affiliate links (see disclaimer below)*

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DISCLAIMER

Some links included in this description may be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission, however there is no additional charge to you. Thank you for supporting Mountain Practice Journeys so I can continue to provide you with free content!

Links to other websites, products, and services do not endorse or guarantee the services, products, or information contained at the other sites. The information, products, resources, materials, services, and documents found here are not intended to be a substitute for legal, financial, or other professional advice, nor does their use establish a professional relationship between you and Cindy Norton or Mountain Practice Journeys.

INTRO

This is the Mountain Practice Journeys podcast and I’m your host, Cindy. I gladly welcome you to this comfy, cozy space for introverts, highly sensitive people, and solopreneurs who help and heal. This is the place for practical, nature-based, magickal support for your business and life. Gather around the hearth, get comfortable, and settle in. I’m glad you’re here.

MAIN

Hello there, and welcome back to the Mountain Practice Journeys podcast! I’m your host, Cindy. Here in Episode 86 I’m going to talk about the heartfelt souls who stay gold despite the slimy marketing techniques that permeate the solopreneur space.

Be sure to stay tuned until the end of this episode and I’ll share more about the free community I’m creating called The Forest. But for now, back to the episode.

I’ve reached my limit of slimy marketing techniques showing up in my realm.

What got me to this limit and caused me to immediately start in on this podcast episode was an experience on Instagram. Don’t worry. It’s nothing dramatic. It’s probably the mildest thing that can happen on the platform. And it can also be interpreted as a positive thing.

But I think that my cup of tolerance for gross marketing behavior was just about to runneth over, then this thing happened, and my cup proceeded to runneth over.

Here goes the story. For about the millionth time (there may be a little exaggeration here) I’ve had another entrepreneur come by my profile and like 37 posts in 2 seconds flat (maybe another small exaggeration) and then blaze off into the sunset, never to be seen or heard from again.

This act is so very innocent, yet I can’t describe (and I don’t really understand) why it disgusts me so much. And, to quote Peter Griffin from Family Guy, it really grinds my gears.

When this first started happening when I was new to Instagram, I was really pleased to have some likes on my posts. But times have changed and I don’t like this anymore. It feels gross and very inauthentic. In some way it feels capitalistic and patriarchal, although I can’t explain why exactly.

Have you ever experienced this? How did it feel to you?

The motivation behind this act feels very self-serving and belittling. I imagine the person on the other end – you know the fly-by-night speed-post-liker that I described earlier – I imagine them thinking, let me go like a lot of posts from this poor soul so they will get a little boost and then decide to follow me and buy my stuff. And I’m definitely not gonna follow them.

Ok, this interpretation may also be a little exaggerated but that is honestly what it feels like being on the receiving end of this marketing strategy – if you can call it that.

And this is just one tiny little example from a sea of gross, inauthentic, and slimy marketing techniques that I’m sure you have to endure every day. It comes at you from every direction and it’s hard to escape.

And I also want to take responsibility here by saying that I can’t guarantee that I have never participated in any techniques that may have felt inauthentic to those on the receiving end. When I began my business I was easily sucked into the traditional marketing advice of the day because I was new to entrepreneurship and I wanted to grow my business.

So if you have ever felt uncomfortable being on the other end of what I was putting out there, I do sincerely apologize.

And I’m hoping that this is the scenario that is happening here as well. I hope that it is just some well-intentioned folks who have been lured in by traditional, inauthentic marketing advice and they just don’t realize how gross it is – yet.

I have one other example of a really gross marketing technique that I have been on the receiving end of too many times to count. And that’s the person that uses their personal facebook page to friend you, then start up a conversation with you in messenger, pretending to be interested in you, only to pitch themselves and their products after you have spent an inordinate amount of time answering their silly little questions where they pretend to care about you.

You’ve probably had this happen to you too. Years ago when this first started happening to me, I thought it was extremely annoying, but I didn’t want to be rude, so I would answer their questions. It would start off with something like “I noticed you are a business coach. Who do you love working with?” Then it would inevitably lead to them pitching me their services. And after wasting so much time answering the same questions over and over again from so many different people, I began ignoring them.

Now if someone friends me and immediately messages me and I get a whiff of any slime, I unfriend them and block them. I’m so over it. I just want to say, go read my fucking website if you just want to ask me a million questions where I am just reiterating my entire website to you, all for you to just try to turn around and sell me something. And stop wasting my precious time. A little harsh, I know, but we all have our limits, and I have reached mine with this behavior.

And this sentiment isn’t directed toward people who are genuinely interested in what I do and truly have questions coming from a place of curiosity. I absolutely love those inquiries and am overjoyed to receive them. This is specifically for those who use sneaky techniques, play on insecurities, put on a mask pretending to be interested in who you are as a person, all with the sole purpose of making a sales pitch.

I have hopes that the marketing world will shift in a major way. The constant bombardment of ads everywhere you go is very overwhelming to me. And I’m sure it is to you too. There’s just so much noise.

As an introverted and highly sensitive business owner, I understand the conundrum that we’re up against. We need to bring in income in order to stay in business. And that means we need to market ourselves and show up in a way that people can see what we have to offer.

But I believe that we can do this in a different way. And I’m not here to say that I have it all figured out. Far from it. But I do believe that we can share what we do without taking advantage of other people.

This episode is dedicated to the heartful souls who stay gold. Let me explain what I mean by this.

The heartful souls who stay gold are true to who they are.

They act in integrity.

They understand that by refusing to follow traditional, inauthentic marketing advice that they may lose out on income in the short term, but they still choose to stay true to themselves in the meantime.

They don’t play on potential client’s pain points for the sake of making a sale.

They treat their potential clients with respect as evidenced by the way they choose to market themselves and their services.

And I could go on and on, but you get the point.

So, stay golden y’all.

ACORN (Tarot Card Pull)

Welcome to the acorn segment. With each solo episode I’ll be drawing a tarot card to help provide some magickal inspiration and insight.

The card for this episode is The Moon.

I’ll describe the card for those of you who may not be familiar. This card shows a night landscape with two pillars on either side of the card, framing a large full moon in the sky between them. On the bottom of the card there is a small pool of water with a crayfish crawling out of it, and there’s a dog and a wolf standing on the grass howling at the moon.

In the tarot, The Moon is associated with intuition, subconscious, illusion, instincts, fear, and anxiety.

If you haven’t been listening to your intuition, this card serves as a reminder to start. Your intuition grows with practice. So the sooner you start noticing and honoring your instincts, the stronger they will become.

On the card there is a path that is illuminated by the moon. This is a visual representation of what can happen when you begin to trust, honor, and listen to your own intuitive knowing. The path meant for you will be illuminated.

Become less dependent on your thinking mind, and start to cultivate your body’s knowing.

I’ll post a picture of the card along with the message today on my instagram @mountainpracticejourneys so head on over and let me know if this message resonates with you at this time.

THANKS

And, a special note. If you follow me on Instagram, you probably know that I’m launching a free community called The Forest. I’ll share a little bit more about The Forest here so you can see if it’s right for you.

The Forest is a comfy, cozy place for introverts, highly sensitive people, solopreneurs, mystics, nature lovers, and witches. The Forest is here to support the experience of women+. Please join in if you identify as a woman or femme in any way that is important to you.

Imagine journeying into a beautiful, serene forest with other kindred souls who are kind, supportive, and really get you. There’s a large hearth in the middle of the forest that boasts a warm fire and comfy seating.

Gather around the hearth as we support one another to trust ourselves more, tune into our intuition, break away from harmful societal conditioning, make time for more rest and joy in our lives, connect with nature, and truly know that everything we need is already inside of us.

I’ll be your host and forest guide and I enjoy journeying into the depths of astrology, human design, tarot, the enneagram, feng shui, divination, ritual, mysticism, nature, the moon, witchcraft, and seasonal wisdom.

Let’s learn, experiment, and play together as we navigate our way through this thing called life.

I’ll be launching The Forest during the podcast break on the Spring Equinox, which is March 20th. But you can go ahead and join in.

We’re using the next few weeks to settle in, get to know one another, and get comfortable with the platform and the community. So, please, go ahead and join us.

The Forest is a private community hosted on Mighty Networks, and you can join by visiting mountainpracticejourneys.com/forest

Although I work primarily with solopreneurs in Forestmind, The Forest isn’t just about business or just for business owners. It’s for all of us women+ who desire to understand more about ourselves and dive into the mysteries of the universe.

So if you know of someone who would enjoy this community, feel free to invite them to gather around the hearth.

Thank you so much for joining me today. This episode concludes Season 9 of the Mountain Practice Journeys podcast. I’ll be taking a seasonal break and will be back before you know it with a wonderful Season 10 filled with helpful topics and inspiring guests.

OUTRO

I’m truly grateful that you choose to join me here for practical, nature-based, magickal support for your business and life. For more inspiration and to see what I’m up to, join me over on instagram @mountainpracticejourneys If you’re enjoying yourself here, please head over to Apple Podcasts and hit those 5 stars and I’ll be over the moon. If you’d like to work with me, join me in Forestmind, my cozy, supportive, small-group mastermind for introverted, highly sensitive solopreneurs who help and heal. And I’d love to see you at a Tiny Retreat sometime. May the forest be with you.