Algorithms? Strategies? Courting artificial intelligence. Deliberate content marketing. Playing into old-standard perceptions, rules, models? And feels essentially like role playing, creating a persona, a distinctive brand, style, look, voice to attract a particular audience.
There’s nothing wrong with doing things that way, as long as it feels authentic and or interesting to you. If you’re drawn to this strategic, conscious, step-by-step approach to business marketing and content creating, here’s a guide from another blogger, Hannah at Proofed, to learn more about How to Create an Airtight Content Marketing Strategy in 2024. She notes the impact and implications of new Artificial Intelligence (AI) content creation tools, quality content, and a lot more technical-speak business words of that school. A lot of people like having a list of steps to start out, and learning as they go. For some of us (like me), it’s unnatural and information overload.
Natural Intelligence
I’ll preface this by saying I’m in a wise-woman life and business stage. The consciousness-raising revolutions of the 60s, 70s, and 80s were my training ground spiritually, as a woman, and professionally, culturally, socially. My careers were all ‘law centered’ in a way: law office (ten years with a pragmatic attorney boss who trained and empowered us to do anything and everything that didn’t required his law degree to do, and encouraged us to continue growing our authentic interests and abilities), catholic church (canon law, served as parish director of youth ministry), and corporate human resources (sixteen years in employment and business law and entrepreneurial inklings). I’m a feminine-spirit-centered, intuitive, creative, led to find and create a something new, because I didn’t fit traditional models. A part of me (my soul) got stronger as I got older and wouldn’t go away. Creating a path of one’s own, a small independent business in my case, is an intuitive process and also a guided one. It was a vehicle to express what I was passionate about, what I knew deep down, that I hadn’t been taught anywhere else. Important, life-freeing, healthy soul and body stuff, and real becoming ME stuff.
Left-Brain, Right-Brain
Traditional, old-standard business modeling is left-brain logical, masculine-power centered. Hierarchical. Proper channels. Know your place. Secrecy. Judgmental. Control.
Not necessarily problematic, as long as one fits in and feels valued, respected, recognized for their contributions, and given full credit and rewarded for their knowledge, skills, and abilities. When that doesn’t happen, there’s where it shifts to problematic and becomes a golden opportunity to create something new–or awaken what’s been waiting for its time.
In 1980, a movie called 9 to 5 with Dolly Parton, Jane Fonda, and Lily Tomlin brought all of that to delightful, classic, memorable visibility. We laughed and learned, and there was a lot of truth (and inspiration) there. Once awakened, there’s no going back.
When you can’t go forward and you can’t go backward and you can’t stay where you are without killing off what is deep and vital in yourself, you are on the edge of creation.
Sue Monk Kidd
Artistic, creative, more-feminine-friendly right-brain business elements and approaches came into play in the 90s and early 2000s. They weren’t all women-led, as creativity and art and spirit and imagination are not gender-based. Dan Pink with his Free-Agent Nation (2001) and A Whole New Mind (2005) books and Tom Peters’ Re-Imagine!: Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age (1989) got it that the old models of business needed to–and were–changing. The entrepreneurial mindset was vibrantly alive inside businesses everywhere. It shifted everything for a lot of us creative inspired awakened souls.
New, pragmatic and empowering business models emerged. The image of being a lighthouse and attracting customers and collaborators by being you (instead of chasing after them) was one of them. (Lighthouses don’t have to move so a ship will find them. They stand solid and shine their own bright light to guide ships.) Around that time, I learned about coaching (2003) and Thomas Leonard’s 28 Laws of Attraction (2007).
A lot more people started side gigs for themselves or with business partners. Their sense of self expanded, as they supported, empowered, and collaborated with one another and others. Their business models were more organic, relational, collaborative, based on sharing information and being innovative. With their entrepreneurial mindset within organizations, they saw themselves as both internal consultants and employees in their corporate roles. Corporate playgrounds could be viewed as hands-on experience and a vehicle to learning, growing, continuing education, benefiting both the employees and company.
Other pivotal business books and emerging concepts of this time included Marcus Buckingham’s First Break All The Rules, Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton’s Now Discover Your Strengths (2001), and Jim Collins’ Good to Great (2001). Their focus was on naming strengths, natural gifts, and tapping into and building on these talents and abilities that a person has. Wouldn’t you love knowing your top five signature strengths?! And getting to use them where they’re an asset, being appreciated for them, fitting in, feeling good. Getting the appropriate people in places and roles where they get to shine and where their uniqueness is seen as brilliance and sweet perfection. Game changer!
Stop trying to be someone you’re not. It takes a lot of energy out of you.
Consider revisiting what ‘success’ feels like for you. Someone else’s definition, society’s measures, may not be yours. (Hint: If it doesn’t feel good, truly interest you, or causes stress, it’s not yours. Let it go…for your health and happiness’ sake.)
As I moved forward in my own evolving, I needed more feminine voices of experience and perspective and spirit woven in. Goal Sisters (2004) by Ann Leach and Michelle Beaulieu Pillen (because none of us does this life thing alone), Fire Starter Sessions (2012) by Danielle LaPorte, and for the really vibrantly creative business goddesses, Leoni Dawson is a treasure trove of inspiration (and maybe a little overwhelming) beautiful soul.
Best of happiness, wholeness, uplifting soul-enriching success and blessings! – Anne
PS: A ‘NO AI TRAINING’ notice on Author Copyright Page
On a Kait Nolan novel, I noticed a Copyright page addition I haven’t seen before and it speaks to the importance of authors retaining copyright ownership and rights to license use of their work and words and content:
NO AI TRAINING: Without in any way limiting the author’s exclusive rights under copyright, any use of this publication to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.
Copyright (c) 2023 by Kait Nolan
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