Back in 2019, just before the pandemic hit the scene, I was just discovering my voice and message.
I tested out offers and shared content on Facebook, where I was most active then, to see what landed.
One day, I posted a simple idea:
STOP MARKETING. (Un)Market your business instead.
People went nuts!
“I hate marketing. Teach me how to (Un)Market,” they said.
I knew I was onto something. I started calling myself an (Un)Marketer and wrote more pieces about what it meant.
(Un)Marketing def. – throwing out your made up idea of “marketing” so that what you love is how you create clients and make money
It was an early version of “getting paid to be you.”
And then I discovered something shocking:
Someone had copied me.
In fact, Scott and Alison Stratten had written a book called UnMarketing: Stop Marketing & Start Engaging, which was a finalist for Porchlight Books’ Marketing Book of the Year.
Since the book was written in 2010, they hadn’t actually copied me, but still.
They stole my idea. Dammit.
So I did the only thing a self-respecting lover of ethical business could do:
I wept into my dandelion tea, built a voodoo doll and poked it with pins until I felt better.
Just kidding.
I emailed them to ask permission to use the word. (FYI – the cool parentheses version of (Un)Marketing, that’s a Steph original.)
Here’s the message I sent:
Subject: Unmarketing and the untrademark
Message: Hey there, amazing ones!
Love your message and mission.
Some months back, I started using the term “unmarketing” to describe throwing out the concepts we’ve made up about “marketing” and simply letting what we are and do become how we create clients and make money.
The phrase connects powerfully with the people I serve, mainly coaches, healers and change-making entrepreneurs, who loathe marketing and “just want to help people.”
I’m reaching out to say:
#1 – I see you and love what you’ve got going on.
#2 – Is it okay that I’m using this term? I have no plans for branded products or courses. (I’m guessing it is since I found a podcast on The Jackass Whisperer explaining that you deliberately didn’t trademark it.)
I’d love to connect and learn more about what you’re creating now, if that’s something you do.
In any case, thanks for being a bold voice for an aligned and authentic approach in the marketing world.
Steph
And I got this very UnDisappointing response:
Hi, Steph!
It’s rare we get a message like this and is appreciated!
1. Thank-you for your kind words, they mean a lot to us. For almost 20 years we’ve been stressing about community and connection and sometimes it feels like shouting into the void with all the other stuff out there saying the opposite. We have a sign hanging in our front hallway that reads “You don’t need a reason to help someone.”
2. You can use any Un word you like! As you mentioned, we didn’t trademark it and have no plans to. We especially love when the term is used to describe what you are saying. The more people out there talking about authentic marketing, the better.
3. Let us know if you’d like a copy of the book! Happy to send one over to you from Alison and I. I’m actually at the computer right now working on building out the UnMarketing Academy, happy to give you access to that as well.
And just like that, my faith in (Un)Marketing was restored.
Here’s the point of this email (I think) –
Scott and Alison’s meaning for UnMarketing is different from mine, but the spirit is aligned.
We’re all seeing a need to do business differently, to root it in relationships, authenticity, and being human.
My contribution to this movement has evolved into something a little more heretical, formerly fantastical and très (Un)Business…
…getting paid to be yourself.
Literally. Designing your business around the life you desire, instead of trying to squeeze yourself into a business model.
If you, too, would like to join the movement and do your part to (Un)Market the world – insert evil laugh here – you belong in the IMPACT Creators’ membership.
Changing the world, one (Un)Business at a time.
https://www.theawakenedbusiness.com/impactinvite/
Yours in love and play,
Steph
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