Microlight Journal

Soul Marketing - A New Paradigm of Success

By Darren Starwynn, O.M.D.

Are you inspired and lit up by helping others heal, but consider having to market your practice about as enjoyable as an IRS audit? Or a sharp stick in the eye?

If so you are not alone! I have been in communication with many hundreds of colleagues over the last 20 years and I know, at least to some extent, what you're going through. We live in a society that most highly rewards large corporations, drug companies and those who can successfully play the financial system. Yet most dedicated holistic practitioners struggle to even pay their basic bills each month.

We all know that effective marketing is a major basis for having a more successful business. Maybe you've taken some marketing courses or hired people to help you build a good website or get out some PR. Hopefully these efforts have paid off for you. Yet the grim statistic remains that the majority of students graduating from acupuncture schools do not make it in full time practice and often have to supplement their income from their "old" profession, or even give up acupuncture practice entirely. The same applies to many other healing professions.

Take heart! This article is about a very powerful marketing method that costs no money, is ideally suited to the consciousness of many natural health practitioners and can help you move past previous limits and barriers to success. In other words, a great way to make more money and have a lot more fun doing it. This method is Soul Marketing.

What the heck is that? Soul marketing is based on offering true service from the heart and soul, and receiving the bounty that flows back to you through Universal Law. It is also a procedure by which you communicate soul to soul with the people you wish to do business with prior to making physical or virtual contact with them. Kind of like a business-oriented spin on Jesus' suggestion "seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven and then all things will be added unto you". Now let me make one thing clear. You don't have to be Christian or even religious to practice soul marketing. It is as much science as spirituality.

Before describing the procedures of soul marketing, I’ll list some of the reasons you might use it:

To attract more new patients or clients to your business

To invite previous patients to come back to your practice to receive further beneficial services

To raise your own vibration and clarify your own energy fields

To more successfully launch a new practice, new business, new business relationship or new service offered within your practice

Practicing soul marketing requires you to operate on a high level of integrity and dedication to service. It definitely should not be used in any manipulative manner. Doing that either will not work or may bring negative consequences.

The qualifications for successfully practicing soul marketing include:

Sincerely wanting the greatest good for those you are soul marketing to

Wanting to engage only in win-win business dealings in which all parties are benefited. For example a large part of my business is selling Acutron units and training people to use them effectively. This is really win-win. The people buying them tend to be more successful, their patients receive more effective treatments, my company profits, my manufacturing people benefit, and so it goes. How do you know when you're engaged in win-win business? Simple. All those involved tend to smile more and have more fun, and there are no losers in the transaction.

Being willing to succeed! If that sound like a no-brainer, its not. An absurdly high % of people attracted to the natural healing arts have inner blocks to financial success. These include feeling unworthy, having negative judgments about money and wealthy people, poor organization and sloppy business practices and avoidance of marketing (you know, like the IRS audit). Practicing soul marketing may be able to help shift these limiting issues.

Finally, it is necessary to believe that we all have souls and that souls do freely communicate with each other.

So what is a soul anyway? We need to know that before trying to market to them! The soul is the spiritual essence of a person that lives inside their body (we hope), and is the deeper basis for our personalities, preferences and life experiences. Unlike our conscious minds which only remember parts of our current experience, our souls are tapped into the knowledge and experiences of multiple lifetimes and realms of existence.

Each of us has deep drives and desires that come from our souls. These may or may not be in alignment with the desires of our conscious minds and personalities. Part of the process of selfactualization and maturity is getting more in touch with the desires of our souls and shedding the more superficial desires that have been programmed into us from the outside. In other words, getting real.

So a major difference between conventional advertising and marketing and soul marketing is this: Conventional advertising tries to sell by appealing to the more superficial programmed desires of mass consciousness (for prestige, comfort, vanity, protection from scary things) while soul marketing offers real value and solutions for the needs and desires of the soul. Like for true healing, help in resolving blocks and issues, support for personal growth and evolution and fuller self-expression.

yet? Talk about a GROWTH MARKET!!! Servicing growing trends is a major success factor. Soul marketing can help you tap into one of the most massive rising trends in society.

Now let’s discuss how to do soul marketing. It’s actually quite simple. It’s all about sincerely communicating with the souls of the people you wish to serve and market to as a first priority. Then do the conventional marketing and you’ll see it work much better. Here is a basic step-by-step procedure for practicing soul conferencing, the basis for soul marketing:

Sit down in a quiet place where you can relax and concentrate.

It can help to have a representation of the people you want to market to in front of you, but this is not necessary. This could take the form of a map or picture of the city you want to attract more business in, a list of people you want to connect with, or a webpage open on your computer for a profession or organization you want to reach. If you don't have these available that's fine, you can do it in your mind.

Get yourself as clear and present as possible. A moment of deep breathing or meditation helps. Then make your declaration of intent. An example could be "I now call for a soul conference with all the souls in the Phoenix area who can benefit from my acupuncture services. I invite you to come in front of me for a soul conference". If you are about to launch a marketing program such as an email blast, newsletter mailing or open house invitation: "I now call for a soul conference with all the people on my email list I am about to send this newsletter to. I invite you to come in front of me and be blessed right now from the valuable services I can offer you".

Once you have called the souls thank them for attending your conference. Offer them the love, light and healing energy of your soul (kind of like offering refreshments at an open house, they love it). In other words, Pay it Forward. Offer them a blessing before you ask them for anything. Yes, you can do this!

Then go ahead and speak to them silently or aloud. (Do it silently if you are in a public place for obvious reasons). Talk to them straight. Tell them what you have to offer and why it is valuable for them. Give them the specifics of what you can do for them to help them. Try to put as much of your heart and soul into what you are saying, but don't be afraid to just tell it like it is. You don't have to talk in any artificially flowery or "spiritual" way, just talk like you would to your patients, best friends or family. Remember, we are all connected already. No human soul is truly a stranger. Have fun with it.

When you have said what you have to say, invite the souls to communicate with you back. In some cases you may hear or see them. If you don't yet have this ability that's fine. They will find a way to get through to you if they really want to. Then formally end the soul conference by saying something like "I now end this soul conference. I thank you for attending and listening to my message. Goodbye." Starting and ending the soul conference with a sacred mantra of your choosing is helpful.

Pretty simple, eh?

The greatest benefit and success of soul marketing is that souls are not nearly as closed and shut down with suspicion and fear as most people’s personalities are when it comes to receiving marketing messages. The soul can tell when you are sincere and really care. The soul has the ultimate B.S. meter. It is not worried about money or much of anything like its human personality counterpart. If what you are offering is really valuable the soul is likely to pass that message onto the personality and that is likely to mean more receptivity to you and your products or services when your email or message is received.

There are great resources you can read to support the brief introduction to soul marketing offered in this article. I especially direct you to the works of Dr. Zhi Gung Sha, especially his book Soul Power1. There is also valuable information in Joe Vitale’s book Spiritual Marketing2.

Knowledge is power. I can assure you that if you use the information in this article with sincerity and persistence it will greatly benefit your business and help move you forward.

Darren Starwynn can be reached for question or comment at dstarwynn@eastwestmed.com
A body of his writings are available at www.east-westseminars.com

Edition October 14, 2009 of Microlight Journal