Marketing people depend on you. That’s one of the reasons, more than ever, why you do not need to do marketing about yourself or your work. I am not someone who collects numbers (or business cards) and then try to make the sale. And I know that many of you are not doing it, but in the world, we are building, it is difficult to distinguish between what is real and what is false. The most shocking thing is that the people who fall into this bag are competent professionals and very hard workers, in no case are those lazy people who sell smoke. Building human relationships is to care about a person and be on the same frequency.
You do not need to do business to sell
If you have to do marketing, create real relationships. Do not accumulate numbers. That is something that I realized after warping up an experience like Caledonian Castle Burn ends Stirling (Scotland). More than a hundred bright people with brilliant jobs gathered in an old castle, mostly strangers for each other, sharing three days. All gathered around creating an experience that transcends numbers, marketing, companies and the possible opportunity that lays behind. Nobody talked about marketing, no one to work together, money or professional pretensions, and even then ties were created that will inevitably impact many future businesses developed and to formed. And most importantly, a seed of positive impact was built, a movement started. That’s gold.
When I left Edinburgh on my way to Copenhagen, I remembered one of many conversations I had with David Champion. Being able to show vulnerability in front of other men takes real courage, and then, understand, celebrate and share this vulnerability takes bravery too. That is something that has made me connect with David in a day more than with friends of mine in a lifetime. We all have been there. I want to create projects with people like him. Where is the trap here? Nowhere. It was real; there were two people exchanging feelings, worries, satisfaction, fears, and ignorance. Among bagpipes, drums, costumes, and excursions in the mountains. Ans some “shrooms” and LSD (why not?). That is what building human relationships are all about.
Building human relationships matters
I think there’s something to be said about the authentic relationships that allow me to connect with people like you. People without ego, without anxiety, without haste, without tension, because they are people who have built themselves, self-made persons. Perhaps unknown people on Instagram or Facebook, people who have hardly any followers. Yes, people who live awake and help awaken others. Without a doubt, this type of event is the best way I know to meet with a bunch of people who see life as you see it, however “weird” you may be.
The secret, in this case, is in the common denominator among all of them, Douglas Wood (the connector) in this case. A person I met at Afrika Burn 2018, who has been responsible for bringing people from all over the world with whom I have felt that spark. Which leaves a message more than evident, we are not alone; there are people out there with whom to tune in and build human relationships.
We do not need more numbers in our social networks. We do not need to sell, and we do not need more “friends.” We need more humanity, more principles and more people like us. Life is not a game to earn more money. It is a game for creating the most influential change wherever it is needed.
You can go against the current
I like this kind of reality, and what is creating from here. That is the reason why I do not feel the need to have a social life barely. I have developed an ecosystem of real people that nurture each other.
Increasingly, I choose each friendship most wisely and accurately possible, because I want to know more about them, as well as having them closer. I want to dedicate words, conversations or gestures to those real people that I have the fortune to meet for life.
Think about your friendships, about your contacts, about your way of acting when you have the opportunity.
Are you growing numbers or building human relationships that matter?
Photo credit: Alison Abbey.