Let the Flowers Sell Themselves: The Best Marketing Advice I Ever Received

Making sales has been a part of my job responsibilities since my first job at seventeen. I’ve taken sales training courses, and I’ve sold everything from telephone service to tarot cards to tie-dyes to social change.

I’ve hawked beaded jewelry at Grateful Dead shows and negotiated complex deals with difficult clients. I’ve knocked on doors for political candidates and sold tarot readings at street festivals.

Like everyone of a certain age, I had to make the leap to online marketing. I’ve been selling stuff since before we all had computers and mobile phones. While the technologies are vastly different, I think sales is sales, and marketing is marketing.  Whether we’re doing it with an email list, a Facebook page, on a door step or a street corner, or in a café, sales and marketing are about making introductions, sharing information and creating relationships – nothing more, nothing less.

What is the difference between sales and marketing? Whether you are a one-person shop or a huge corporation, the concepts remain the same.

Marketing is the overall strategy to produce sales. Marketing is your message, and your plan to get people to hear and recognize that message.

A sale is the actual transaction.

Typically, marketing is required in order to make a sale. People need to recognize you, and have a comfort level with you, before they will spend their money.

In today’s internet world, so much of our marketing, and even our actual sales, can be conducted online, with no voice or face contact. This makes our online marketing strategy even more critical.

In the field of metaphysical practitioners, mystics and healers, there are an inordinate number of marketing gurus trying to convince us that a six figure income from life coaching is months away, if only we buy their sales course.

Many times these teachers have no sales or marketing training at all – they simply want to teach us to do what they claim they are doing.

These sorts of marketing classes are very appealing to we mystics and healers. That’s because marketing is often the scariest aspect of setting up a metaphysical business. Between shyness, lack of experience and fear of stigma, many fledgling healers feel they don't know how to market themselves, and turn to these gurus for help. Sadly, some end up disappointed and discouraged.

Often, these sales programs are really just cheer-leading sessions. “If you can believe in yourself, you can do anything”, and that sort of thing.  To me, this seems dangerous and counter-productive. If healers are ready to work with the public, they should possess some inherent confidence in themselves and their work.

Sure, we all need encouragement, but to expect that a sales training program will replace the confidence that comes from years of practice and study is optimistic, to say the least.

Even worse, I have seen many metaphysical business trainers encourage talented students to hang their shingle long before they are ready. This is a problem for three reasons.

First, it discourages those who could have been successful if they hadn’t launched prematurely.

Second, it unleashes a passel of unqualified practitioners who don’t know what they are doing, and therefore reflect poorly on all of us.

Third, there is little or no vetting process to be accepted to these training programs. These trainers preach that anyone who wants to, can – regardless of actual talent.

Other marketing gurus try a one-size-fits-all solution, thinking that what made them successful will make anyone successful, rather than empowering each seeker to find what works best for them.

Sometimes, the daily onslaught of advertising for these marketing programs that we see in our social media feed can be quite disempowering.

In order to sell their questionable products, many of these sales gurus try to make us believe that we can never be successful because we are unaware of their special secret. It makes us wonder what we are doing wrong, and scares us away from seeking our own success. Sometimes it causes us to spend money we don’t have for something we don’t need.

In all my years, and in the variety of jobs I’ve worked, the very best sales and marketing lesson I ever learned came in one sentence, and from an unlikely source.

In the mid-late 1980s, I sold flowers on the streets of New Haven. Think of young me as a patchouli-infused Eliza Doolittle, if you will. I worked for Wallie Weisser, with whom I shared many adventures.

When I reported to the flower stand on the corner of Elm and Broadway for my first evening of work, Wallie’s father, Louie, was there to train me.

Louie was a retired bus driver. He told me some jokes to make me feel at ease. He showed me the prices, and how to wrap the flowers. I asked if I should hawk the flowers, or try to speak with passers-by.

Louie looked at me with a smile, and gestured broadly to the flower cart.

“The flowers are beautiful” he said.  “Make a lovely display, and the flowers will sell themselves.”

He was right. Then I found I could increase the sale during my interaction with the client. They would stop to admire the flowers, decide to buy a small bouquet, and I had an opportunity to up-sell them, simply by engaging in conversation.

Truly, everything I’ve ever needed to know about sales and marketing is inherent in what I learned from Louie at the flower cart.

The way we present ourselves – our websites, our social media presence, our advertising – is just like the lovely display of flowers on the cart. It has to be eye-catching, attractive, and engaging. It has to inform people of what we are doing, and what we can do for them.

That moment when I would chat with the client and make the sale, is the moment we make our appointment and create a connection with our clients.

While there are some amazing metaphysical business mentors available to us, there are also many marketing gurus who work to create within us a sense of fear; fear that we don’t know what we are doing, or that we can’t be successful.

Before you sign up with someone who dazzles you with promises of easy money, consider that you might, perhaps, be better off to take a lesson from Louie, and simply let the flowers sell themselves.

I am your Grandmother's Tarot Reader

There are some talented professional tarot readers who use slogans to set themselves apart from the fortune-tellers of yesteryear, slogans like “not your grandmother’s tarot reader,” or “not your mother’s tarot reader.” These readers are gamely rising to the challenge of presenting tarot readings to a new generation; a generation raised on anime and video games where fantastic things happen on a screen and not so much in real life.

These readers are working to draw a line in the sand between fortune-telling and proactively manifesting a positive future, between readings that scare and readings that empower.

I’m a modern reader, too. I believe in proactivity as much as I believe in predictions. I believe in hard work much more than I believe in curses. But after more than twenty years in business, the fact is this.

I am your grandmother’s tarot reader. I also read for your mother. I predicted your birth before your mother had even met your father. And now I am reading for you at your Sweet Sixteen party.

Being a part of many families’ traditions and a guest in their homes was one of the things I loved about being a respected local psychic. It was something I worried I would lose as my business became more global.

What has really happened is I am truly available to every family member when they need me.  I read for your kids when they are in crisis at college. I read for your parents back home. Where ever in the world you are, we can have a reading at your convenience.

Reading for many generations in a family is enlightening and valuable. I can see the traits, both helpful and hurtful, that are inherited. I can facilitate communication between the generations. I can normalize something about the younger generation that the older generation just doesn’t understand.

When there is a loss in your family I grieve with you, but I can also help you stay in touch with your loved ones in Spirit.

I know the names of your dogs. I remember when you graduated college. I predicted the date of your birth.

I am your family’s tarot reader. I guess that makes me a bit older than I was when I started out. I’ve seen many changes in societal trends over the years. I’ve also seen what happens to older tarot readers who don’t keep current. I think these are some of the people younger readers try to distinguish themselves from when they claim to not be your grandmother’s reader.

Older readers are often entrenched in a less fluid reading style than are younger readers. Older readers often see the card interpretations as cast in stone rather than changed by context or intuition. Older readers may be somewhat dogmatic in terms of belief systems and tarot traditions. Older readers may not take the time to see how the world has changed and may not feel relatable to younger clients.

That’s probably why “not your grandmother’s tarot reader” is a thinkable slogan for younger readers. There is an inherent quality of ageism in this marketing message that makes me cringe a little. I hope most people appreciate the wisdom that experience brings. That I read for your grandmother makes me more capable to read for you, not less.

Some older readers are disconnected from modern reality, and some younger readers are unseasoned. I remember how hard I had to work, prior to having some wrinkles and graying hair, to gain the confidence of my clientele.

There is value to a youthful perspective. There is value to the wisdom that comes from age. A person who knows your family has a wise perspective for you, just as a person who is a complete stranger might have a helpful fresh perspective.

Basically, neither youth nor age really matter in the world of professional tarot. Both have their advantages and drawbacks. What matters is skill, talent and perspective. None of these are age-related.

I wonder what the “not your grandmother’s readers” plan to do when they, themselves, are grandmothers.  Rebranding and new slogans are sure to become priorities for them.

I am proud to be a multi-generational reader. I’m proud to read for your grandmother. I’m proud to read for your mother. And I’m proud to read for you. I’m here for the duration, so perhaps I’ll get a chance to read for your kids, too!

Be a Business Evangelist!

So often in my readings I find I am speaking with talented entrepreneurs and would-be entrepreneurs. Many times the reading focuses on what they need to do to create and build their business. Many times these talented people are artists or healers; often, people who are very much like me.

I find a similarity in what comes up in the cards for many of these people. They are talented, trained and motivated. They are great at what they do. But they are afraid to market their business.

Truly, if we had wanted to become professional marketers, we would have majored in marketing and would now be working in a marketing firm. But the truth is this. Every entrepreneur must be great at marketing; there is no choice.

What are the problems people tend to have with marketing?

Often, they don't want to sound like they are tooting their own horn, or coming from a place of ego. Sometimes they are afraid that they just aren't good enough.

The similarity in these people's stories, and the cards that tend to show up in their reading, is mind-blowing.

One of the cards that comes up often is Judgment, Major Arcana 20. In the traditional Judgment image, we see an angel blowing a horn. For the shy marketer, this is the wake up call to get the word out! Go ahead and blow your horn!

Other cards I often see are the World and the Wheel of Fortune. In the Waite images, these two cards share a set of four characters in their four corners. These four characters are representative of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the writes of the Gospel who are known as the "four evangelists."

Of course the World, Major Arcana 21, and the Wheel of Fortune, Major Arcana 10, have different interpretations and different applications when it comes to business.

I see the World as saying "tell the world and take over the world," or "the world is yours!" I see the Wheel of Fortune as saying "You'll never know unless you try. Give it a go and see what happens! Now is the time to create your own fortune!"

In either case I take note of those evangelists.  In the Wheel of Fortune image they are busily writing in their respective corners. In them, I see two strong pieces of advice for business people.

The first is the need for quality written material. You need a strong website, a good brochure, a relevant blog. The second is to be an evangelist for your own business.

As annoying as they can sometimes be, evangelical Christians have a lesson to teach us. When they arrive at our doorstep to witness, they are not there because they believe in their own greatness. They are there because they believe in the greatness of their message. They may be shy. They may be afraid. They may have other things they would rather be doing. But they feel a mission to share their message because they believe in their message. It's not about them, as people. It's about the message.

When we own a one-person business, it is easy to confuse the business with the self. No one wants to go around bragging about themselves. But that's not what solopreneurs need to do. If it feels like bragging, or comes off as bragging, we are doing it wrong.

The lesson of the evangelists is this. Develop the message of your business, and recognize its greatness. When you communicate that lesson, you are doing a favor for the people who receive it. You are offering them the opportunity to avail themselves of your skills - the skills you graciously make available to them. You are not bragging on yourself, you are sharing an important message, and offering a helpful opportunity.

No matter how shy you are, or how much you hate marketing, you probably really do believe in your skills and the product or service you offer. Share that belief with others. Don't make it personal. Don't make it be about you. Make it be about the business, and what you can do for others. Be an evangelist about the good news of your business!