How your own experience is your gift and your niche
This week’s show is with Tad Hargrave. Tad is a hippy who developed a knack for marketing (and then learned how to be a hippy again).
Despite years in the non-profit and activist world, he finally had to admit he was a marketing nerd and, in the end, he became a marketing coach for hippies. Maybe it was because he couldn’t stand seeing his hippy friends struggle to promote their amazing, green and holistic projects. Maybe it was because he couldn’t keep a 9-5 job to save his life.
Whatever the reason, for almost a decade, he has been touring his marketing workshops around Canada, bringing refreshing and unorthodox ideas to conscious entrepreneurs and green businesses that help them grow their organizations and businesses (without selling their souls). He has also offered most of his workshops on a modified pay what you can basis (a small deposit to attend and then people choose the amount they want to pay at the very end).
This all feels like a minor miracle as Tad spent his early marketing days learning and applying some very inauthentic, high pressure, extremely gross and pushy marketing approaches. This has made him suuuuper allergic to these kinds of approaches because he discovered they made him feel slimy (even in personal friendships), he didn’t sleep well and he’s very sorry to all those people he spoke with back in the day. After a decade of unlearning and unpacking that whole scene – he now feels ready and able to help other people find ways to market that feel wonderful.
In this show, we spoke about marketing in difficult times like these when you might be worrying you’ll come across as tone deaf. What a niche really is and how instead of being an unwelcome limitation, it can be the most fulfilling, soul-aligned thing possible.
If you’re in any kind of business, I believe you’ll find this episode an incredibly good use of your time.
I’d love to know what YOU think about this week’s show. Let’s carry on the conversation… please leave a comment below.
What you’ll learn from this episode:
If you believe you can eat and have shelter even when others don’t, then marketing your business, in a way that takes the current territory into account, is a life-serving action
Creating a niche is unnatural, in the village, elders would have seen your gifts and would have guided you into what you’re here for. In this modern world, we need to find ways to get that guidance without the elders.
What, where, when, how, who? answer those questions and you have your niche
Resources and stuff that we spoke about:
Thank you for listening!
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Thank you!
Lian & Jonathan