Authentic Marketing: Where Inner Exploration Meets Outer Service
Given that you’re here reading my post, I’m going to guess that you’re in business primarily to express your soul and to serve others’ transformation. And for that, I’m grateful and I honor your intentions! 🙏
However, most marketing experts assume otherwise: they think we’re in it mainly for the money. Their advertisements often show cash, cars, vacations…
“Get more traffic and profits!”
“Build a 7-figure income!”
Essentially: they’ve made money to be the god of their business. They’re doing marketing for the sales… not for the joy. This means-to-an-end mode can become manipulation. It also produces cycles of short-term highs when campaigns are profitable, and frustration when results fall short.
Do we really want to learn marketing in that way… marketing as a necessary evil? It becomes a compromise we make now, hoping for a future when we can finally do little to no marketing.
But we both know this: compromising our values isn’t going to create a business we deeply enjoy.
The Problem with Results-Fixation
The more attached we are to results, the more inauthentic our actions become.
If we “must” get a specific outcome to feel successful — in other words, results-driven marketing — we start to justify our manipulations of our audience.
When I need a certain number of views, subscribers, or sales… my mind automatically asks: “What do I need to do to make that happen?”
That’s where the manipulation begins.
It might be subtle. Pretending to be more certain than I actually am. Exaggerating a promise. Using inauthentic scarcity.
But inside, I can feel the gap between what’s true for me and what I’m doing.
That gap is what drains the joy out of marketing…
So… What Is Authentic Marketing?
Here’s a simple idea:
Authentic marketing is the intersection of your inner exploration and your outer service.
Think of it like a Venn diagram…
One circle: your self-exploration. What you’re learning. What you’re wrestling with. The ideas and experiences that feel deeply important to you. Public journaling of your experimental thoughts about your work.
Other circle: your service to others. You imagine that what you put out there could genuinely help or uplift someone, and you take joy in that possibility.
Where those two intersect — that’s authentic marketing.
It’s not “so that I can get more traffic and make more sales”… although that is sometimes the result.
When you share your soulful expression in service to the world, others sense your authenticity. Real trust starts to be earned.
And real trust is where sustainable sales are made. Yet if you focus on the sale, you’ll lose their trust.
Marketing as Public Journaling
Authentic Marketing can also be thought of as public journaling.
You’re already thinking about your work. Wrestling with questions. Noticing patterns.
Rather than keeping that private, you bring part of it into the open.
“Here’s what I’m noticing lately.”
“Here’s what I’ve struggled with.”
“Here’s what seems to help my clients.”
You don’t have to present yourself as the all-knowing expert.
Your ideal clients are usually a few steps behind you on the path you’ve walked. They haven’t thought it through as much as you have. So your honest explorations are already valuable to them.
Your public journaling becomes quiet leadership. Not “Watch me, I know best.” But “I invite you to walk with me… here’s what I’m seeing.”
Bless and Let Go
Instead of “do X so that you can get Y,” let’s practice making X itself worth doing… regardless of whether we get Y.
If we learn to enjoy the activity no matter the result, our marketing itself becomes deeply fulfilling. This makes us more likely to be consistent. And being more consistent, we’re likely to get better results.
Ironic, isn’t it?
Whenever I am marketing — whether writing articles, making videos, updating my website, sending newsletters, running ads, conducting webinars, talking with prospective clients — this is my inner mantra:
Bless and let go.
Create from your heart. Share it as an offering. Release your grasp on the outcome.
Be in service to your audience, knowing that even your marketing itself is an offering… a ministry. By being exposed to your authentic presence, your audience will respond and grow in due time.
Distance Creates Perspective
While you’re creating, stay in the energy of inner exploration and outer service.
After the marketing is done, with some distance of time, look at the results. How did the audience respond? What resonated?
Looking at the data helps you fine-tune your marketing intuition, so you can serve people better next time.
Data becomes simply feedback… suggestions to you for what to explore next, and how to serve your audience better.
The Rhythm That Emerges
When you practice this consistently, something shifts.
You develop a rhythm:
Create. Share.
Bless. Let go.
Learn.
Create again.
You build a body of work — each piece an authentic snapshot of your journey.
You become more creative, because you’re not designing every sentence around “what will make them click.”
You attract kindred spirits who resonate with how you think and who you are.
And talent emerges naturally. Not from copying someone else’s style, but from consistent practice being yourself in public.
May we do our marketing from a deep place of trust… gratitude… and play!
May we practice sensing into the deep fulfillment that is possible for any activity, even while “marketing.” By doing the activity in this heartspace, we naturally wish to keep doing it. And our consistency will eventually grow positive results too!
When your marketing is an exploration of your authenticity, and an offering of service to others, then no matter the results, you experience joy along the way.
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Originally written in 2020, updated in 2025.
