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Rhetoric on Marketing and Greek Philosophy

2769553173Last night I picked up a copy of Aristotle’s Ethics that was on our dining table and flicked through to Book 4 on “Other Moral Virtues” in particularly, the section in 1127b4-24 titled “The boaster or exaggerator”.     (I don’t want to give you the idea that I have philosophy books casually discarded around the house.  What had actually happened was that I cleared some book shelf space over the weekend and saw that I hadn’t returned this book to my brother since I last borrowed it from him in….2006…and left it on the dining table as a reminder to myself to return it to him).

In it Aristotle writes,

“As for the man who pretends that his qualifications are higher than they are, if he has no ulterior purposes, he gives a bad impression (because a good man would not enjoy telling a lie); but he seems to be more irresponsible than vicious.  If he has a purpose, then if it is to win fame or honour, he is not to be censured too much, as a boaster; but the man whose object is money or what money will buy is more disreputable; just as a liar may be either one who enjoys lying for its own sake or one who is striving to gain glory or profit”.

So what’s this got to do with this post?

Lately I’ve been thinking of using the services of a business coach.  Someone who is outside my own current network, has their own business and who has a wide network in the local area.  (I have mentioned before that one of my goals is to work locally with business and industries in my area which drive a substantial part of the Victorian economy). I need someone to ask me some hard questions to make me think strategically about what I want to achieve as an independent consultant.

After spending 24 years of my working life working for someone else, there are things that simply don’t come naturally to me.  This is because as an employee working in the centralised corporate functions of HR and Learning and Development, you think differently than someone who has their own business. For example, for the first time in my life, I’m starting to think about business development, financial management, business strategy and planning and negotiations.

So not one to shy away from development (besides, you know how much I love the opportunity to learn), I’m searching for business coaches who can get me to start thinking with an end goal in mind and enable me to focus and channel my ideas into something that is distinctly “Activate Learning Solutions”  for my clients.

The problem is that in my head, I have a stigma which I need to overcome and that is being seen as a “pushy salesperson”.

A Fine Line…

Recently, I read Euan Semple’s latest post called Social Media Purist  where he wrote, “Call me old fashioned but I’d rather maintain my genuine intent to connect with others through ideas and conversations than start chasing work by trying too hard – even if it costs me work.”  He was talking about content marketing.

This sentence made an impact with me because I’ve been having discussions with people for some years now about the perception of bragging, promoting and selling yourself and your work through the channel of public social networks and media.  Sometimes I have a gnawing feeling in the pit of my stomach because I’m balancing the perception that some people have about social media – that it’s another forum to push  my products and services versus those who use the medium to have conversations, network, learn and share their work and that of others – and from it, find work.

As an independent consultant, these thoughts are more prevalent now because the boundaries are shifting.

  • If you’re an independent consultant are you expected to be the expert?
  • Can you still “work out loud” when it comes to client work?
  • How do identify the fine line between self or work promotion vs genuine and authentic knowledge sharing, community building and trusted relationships?
  • How do you continue to work with your clients more like friends, business partners and cohorts and not as business transactions?

It’s a bit of a conundrum actually.

Of course, posts such as David Kelly’s How to Recognize Snake Oil In Your PLN Part 1 and Part 2, along with Mark Sheppard Dear Dave: A Letter to a Colleague on Metaphors, PLN and Perceptions and all conversations these generated in the comments added fuel to the fire in my mind. I had to read and re-read these posts to glean that really, we’re all selling but it’s your intent and your purpose (like Aristotle mentioned) that’s stands you apart.

I know that once I start this business coaching, there will be elements of the coaching program that will not sit well with me simply because of the uncertainty between what is considered as  “inbound marketing” versus what is based and formed out of  “relationships” and “conversations”.  It will be up to me to change what is being prescribed to me and to make it work for my particular situation.

If they even dare mention my “click rate of my website”  I will implode because that’s not important to me.

See my problem?

Seek The Truth…

I went back to Greek philosophy again because I recalled a conversation with my father some years ago while watching him paint an artwork in his studio.  While he was dabbing some Cobalt Blue oil on the canvas, he described me, the consultant, as a new age “sophist”.

A what?!

Sophists were the philosopher teachers of ancient Greece.  They travelled around Greece teaching philosophies and rhetoric (persuasive argument) – for a hefty fee.   Over time, they became unpopular because they started to challenge convention and the only people who could afford them were the rich citizens.  Plato particularly hated them because  “...the art of contradiction making, descended from an insincere kind of conceited mimicry, of the semblance-making breed, derived from image making, distinguished as portion, not divine but human, of production, that presents, a shadow play of words—such are the blood and the lineage which can, with perfect truth, be assigned to the authentic Sophist”.  Plato believed that sophists were more interested in winning arguments than seeking truth.

Luckily, Aristotle wasn’t as scathing. He saw that sophists focused on the process of creating a persuasive argument rather than winning at all costs. To him, the process of getting to the outcome (in their case, the truth) was also important as logic (in their case, to find the truth) – the channel just happened to be…communication.

So this got me thinking about the part I play in my new role as an independent consultant and who I use public social networks.  Much of what I have learned and applied to my work have come directly from my own personal learning network. They have given me the confidence to try, test, experiment, play and apply their new “philosophies” into my work and in so doing, I have communicated and taught others how – the process –  to do the same and to customise these for their own contexts.  The communication channel happens to be social networking platforms and tools and of course, now… I get paid for it.

Maybe dad was right.

So here is my challenge now – and for any independent consultant who finds themselves at the nexus of what may be seen as “traditional marketing” approaches versus “conversations and relationships”.  How do you move into your new role without losing your own authenticity and identity that got you there in the first place?  What do you think?

I’ve got some ideas but that’s for another blog post.  That’s enough Greek philosophy for today.

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Comments

  6. This is a great and sincere post Helen. Thanks for being open. I’ve know you a while as part of my PLN and feel I know you are authentic through your sharing and questions and questioning…seeking. A couple of thoughts. First, I didn’t see you and your activities as someone Dave Kelly was speaking to in his post. I think by snake oil he is speaking of those who do little, spout much. In Texas I believe, they say “All hat and no cattle”. These folks are full of self-promotion and attention seeking more than bringing value. However, regardless of what YOU do and the success you have, some will still see you as marketing. When we share an idea, a thought, an activity, a success or even a struggle, people will receive that message in a way THEY are wired and never know (or possibly care) about your intent. You can never control the receiver and their viewpoints. For example. You tweeted your post. In doing so you invite me to it, it makes me think. I go a step further and articulate my thoughts in a comment and hopefully we both benefit. Others will see your tweet and say she’s looking for attention, for business. Also, I follow you on Twitter. I see that you directed a tweet to Euan Semple with an @ mention. He’s mentioned in your post and some will see this as name dropping and grabbing some coat tails. Others will see you as showing appreciation publically for inviting a respected peer to help you think through these ideas.

    For me, I write to clarify my thoughts. I’m a lousy writer but then again a blog is not necessarily a formal piece of literature. I know some will judge me on my poor grammar, weak sentence structure, and my painful run on sentences. Others will hopefully be able to cut through my mess and see some ideas. I write to invite those people to call me crazy or to validate them. Either way it helps me grow and I hope it helps those who read as well. If it leads to a paid speaking gig (which it has 🙂 ) or other opportunities so be it. But I feel that if THAT becomes my goal and not my own growth, then I will ultimately lose… if others see it or not.

    Reply

    • Thanks for the comment Mark, appreciated as always as you know. I like the “All hat and no cattle” metaphor and it’s true that I cannot control the receiver viewpoint – it’s wasted effort. Like you, I write to clarify my thoughts on what people have wrote in their posts, what discussions I’ve had, things I’ve seen and then use the medium to “connect the dots”. My blog is my space to make sense of things and it has supported me to connect with people like yourself, find work and grow. I truly believe that blogging has made me grow personally and professionally. I guess people will always have their own perceptions of what others are doing. At the end of the day, I think it’s keeping true to yourself.

      Reply

  8. Helen, I don’t know why but I like to comment on this blog. maybe because you raise interesting issues.

    I don’t share much on the L&D side but have quite a lot of experience on the business and entrepreneur side.

    Some guy says “selling is human” and I think it is a simple truth. If you just accumulate expertise and share it with a group of peers already convinced it’s great but if you depend on it to live it’s not enough. You need to reach and be audible to those who don’t know you and don’t even know they could use your competencies. Once your reach them you still have one more step is to convince them to buy it from you.

    So yes as you said there is really two levels the contents and the intent on top of the content. As an independant entrepreneur you need to sell and your intent is eventually to sell.

    For me the requirement of an ethic behaviour boils down to:
    – You have to make it clear that you want to establish relations in view of selling your services. As mentionned there is nothing wrong with that.
    – You have to bring some real value with your service. This is something we sometimes have difficulty to judge by ourself because we never know if we are objectives. Collecting feedback, appreciations is essential even if it stays private.
    – You have to keep your promotion genuine. I mean show off what you really have, no lies, not too much exagered.
    – You have to deliver a great service. A side effect being having repeated customers and gaining good worth of mouth.

    Theses two levels of discourses are what marketing is about. Take the raw product or service and turn it into a sellable item.

    What I would recommend is that you follow some tweeps in the Social Selling area. IMHO you will have difficulties to find a business coach considering how advanced you are. I found myself that participating to chats like #SSHour on monday or #OrganikChat was both informative and motivating.

    I think authenticity and transparency in marketing are going to become an important trend in 2015. You could read some about it on bufferapp.com blog and some of the recent chats. In the huge flow of tweets and posts being produce humans looks for other humans and ultimately humans sell to humans not to organizations. It seems to me you were just a little bit in advance but with the right questions.

    NB: After reading the Greeks you should take a look to Indian Philosophy Vedanta. It brings some lights also before logic became predominent.

    Reply

    • Thanks for the detailed response Bruno, as always appreciated and you have many great point to consider. I wasn’t aware of the social selling so now I’ve started looking into that. You’re right about it being sustainable so that’s going to be my plan for next year, how to keep the momentum going and how I can help other organisations, business, teams and individuals use social networking for learning, working and connecting with others. I’ll check out the other chats you mentioned as I’ve not heard of #SShour or #Organikchat. Thanks so much for your advice once again, it’s always appreciated – and yes, I am of Greek background hence the philosophy reference and in all honesty, I’ve not read any Indian Philosophy but now you have piqued my curiosity!

      Reply

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