I’m noticing a marketing trend that looks and sounds like Mean Girls.
Do you know the movie?
If not, it’s a good one, and without ruining the whole plot, there are a group of popular girls who become more popular by trash talking other people and being mean.
I’m sure many of you have witnessed the real-life version of this somewhere in your life…it’s a wild thing us humans seem to do to connect. I imagine shit talking comes from fear, scarcity, and taps into some of those survival mechanisms of wanting to be a part of the tribe and not the one who’s kicked out.
So, I get that marketing that bashes other businesses probably does work.
But, come on, we can do better than that can’t we?
I don’t want to add to the noise that talks down, but I DO want to be a stand for marketing that comes from a place of service, integrity, inclusion, and lifting others up instead of a place of scarcity and fear that the only way to sell is by “knocking out the competition”.
You can be “popular” AND nice.
You can lift yourself up, own your work WITHOUT throwing shade on someone else.
You can have opinions, disagree with something in your industry, speak up and share your voice, ‘call out’ the truth you see, and be ‘disruptive’ WITHOUT trashing other people and their work (that’s what innovation and healthy debate is all about!).
There’s enough to go around. And, you can successfully market, sell, and make boatloads of money doing the work you love without being a ‘Mean Girl’. Promise.
In fact, I’d argue marketing from an abundant mindset focused on what *you* believe only attracts more of your people and the kind of clients who want to work with *you* - instead of clients who are running away from or don’t like another offer.
Adam Grant talks about this in Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success and shares the studies to back up this nice-sounding theory. It turns out nice business owners finish FIRST and last, and in the long-run, nice people come out ahead.
And, really, doesn’t this make practical sense when you think about what drives sales and money-generating results in your business? -> You know, the depth of your relationships, the quality and care of your work, and the service you deliver?
What do you think? Hit ‘reply’ and let me know if you’re with me that you can sell and make great money without knocking other entrepreneurs down and that there's plenty of client fish in the business sea for all of us.
Wishing you your version of success.
