I've been reading some great books lately, and the most recent one by Genpo Roshi, "Big Mind, Big Heart" is groundbreaking.
I'd like to share the essence of this book in today's 25th anniversary eZine and demonstrate how you can use the Big Mind process to take your business and marketing to the next level of success and fulfillment.
Yes, marketing and enlightenment. You knew I'd get to this sooner or later!
First of all, Genpo Roshi is a real live American born Zen Master and had been for many years before he discovered this process. He says that it's the biggest breakthrough in Zen thinking in 2,500 years. Quite a claim.
But like all brilliant things, it's stunningly simple.
Roshi asserts that we all are essentially a collection of personalities or voices, if you will. We tend to become identified or attached to many of these voices without really being aware of them. They speak us more than we speak them.
For instance, some marketing voices you may be familiar with: Controlling, Procrastinating, Fearful, Confused, Struggling, Don’t Know How, Don’t Have Time, Must Do it Right, I’m Not Worthy, I Can’t be Rich, I’m Not Marketing Type, This Won’t Work, I Can’t Succeed.
Roshi doesn't recommend you try to get rid of these voices, but to accept them and get to know them by dialoging with them.
But perhaps more importantly, you can get to know and dialogue with your more expansive voices as well: Allowing, Proactive, Fearless, Clear, Ease, Know How, Have Time, OK to Do it Wrong, I Am Worthy, I Can be Rich, I Am the Marketing Type, This Will Work, I Can Succeed.
This is not about affirmations. Far from it.
It's an exploration where you discover new worlds that were already there but inaccessible to you. The key is for a facilitator to simply ask to speak to that voice and for the voice to answer. >
Let me give you an example. Let us take a voice that may not be in your everyday experience, but that is right there for everyone, ready to express its truth. We'll call it Big Mind Marketing.
Facilitator: May I please speak to Big Mind Marketing?
Big Mind Marketing. Speaking, I'm here. How can I help you?
Facilitator: What is your purpose, your job as Big Mind Marketing?
Big Mind Marketing: My job is to communicate true value to the world in a clear and authentic voice. My job is to get the attention of those who could benefit from my services and demonstrate the difference my service will make to them.
Facilitator: Aren't you concerned that most marketing is seen as hype, as dishonest, or at least as stretching the truth?
Big Mind Marketing: Some people see marketing that way. But that's not the way I see it. And if I worry about that I'll just get distracted from my true purpose. And that's to make a lasting contribution.
Facilitator: Isn't marketing self-serving, though? Isn't it to enrich yourself, more that others?
Big Mind Marketing: It's an honest exchange. Yes, you trade your expertise and time for money but ultimately it's about forming mutually rewarding relationships. A service that is high quality and provides something that is needed by people is worthy of communicating about. Hype isn't needed, but clear and honest communication about the value is.
Facilitator: What about word-of-mouth marketing? Isn't that the best?
Big Mind Marketing: It's very important. But to get word-of- mouth business you also need to communicate about your services with clarity, and demonstrate to your clients why it's a benefit if they direct their friends and associates your way.
It becomes what someone dubbed a "virtuous circle" where value is given and received and those who receive naturally share. Then you facilitate the sharing to make it easy for your clients.
Big Mind Marketing: If you're committed to the value of your service, you'll find the time to communicate about it. Ever notice how someone who is authentically excited about what they are doing is naturally magnetic? Marketing isn't about pushing something down someone's throat. When you are speaking from Big Mind Marketing, it's less effort and takes less time.
Facilitator: How can your subscribers use the Big Mind Process to help them with their marketing?
Big Mind Marketing: Just like I've done here. Interview Big Mind Marketing. Ask him/her how to make it work. Don't think it out, just answer naturally. This interview only took a few minutes. It didn't come from the small manipulative mind or the scare mind or the fearful mind.
Facilitator: And everyone has access to Big Mind Marketing?
Big Mind Marketing: Absolutely everyone. It's natural. It's an internal knowingness that everyone has.
Facilitator: And how will this really help one's marketing?
Big Mind Marketing: When you are in touch with your more authentic voice, your attitude shifts, your tone shifts. You see possibilities. You see opportunities where there once were obstacles. You are open to learning and risking. You step out of fear and into fearlessness.
You will actually experience marketing yourself differently. Your marketing will be transformed.
Facilitator: Thank you Big Mind Marketing.
Big Mind Marketing: You're most welcome!
P.S. "Big Mind, Big Heart" is available at Amazon. Highly recommended if you really want to understand and use this powerful process to expand your life and business.
The More Clients Bottom Line: Big Mind Marketing is a place you can come from about your marketing. It's your choice. All you need to do is give it voice. From a big, expansive place, tell the truth about marketing and it will become real for you. Your fears, hesitation and doubts will tend to dissolve.
Tell us about your Big Mind Marketing. Please share on the More Clients Blog. Just click on the Comments like below.
This is so interesting. It is right on track for all of us who struggle with the discomfort of marketing our valuable services. I just heard of another book along the same lines called The Diamond Cutter. It is also about a Zen master who is told to move to NYC and become a businessman. He must apply his principles from the monastary to succeed in business. I wonder if it about the same guy. Regardless, I definitely plan to find both books.
Posted by: Monica Gfrorer | September 10, 2009 at 03:47 AM
Really nice extension of his ideas; I appreciated you actually "speaking" from Big Mind, as opposed to just telling us about it. Great way of teaching, and you make some key points. Your answer to the question about marketing being self-serving is, well, on the money... I do training about communications, and get asked a lot, "If I am adjusting my style to match the person, aren't I manipulating them (being self-serving.)
So, what would Big Mind Communicator say?
:-) Probably - Meeting people where they are at, in the style they are accustomed to, is an enormous gift to them and to you, as you increase your flexibility and capacity for "stepping into another's shoes."
I wax on - but thanks for a great article!
Posted by: Genevieve Taylor | September 02, 2009 at 03:11 PM
While Bob's got valid information on the history and I can understand his skepticism, I think it's easy to overlook the synergy factor.
We often ignore the interconnectedness of things and compartmentalize things which could often be far more effective if we adopted a more interdisciplinary approach. The phrase "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts" comes to mind.
Most of the psychological processes also tend to focus on the past and healing wounds, and not so much on raising consciousness and accessing potentials, so applying the techniques toward a different outcome or in a different way can certainly have some surprising effects at times.
While there may be "nothing new under the sun," there certainly are plenty of things that we've just never noticed, paid attention to, considered important or thought about.
Posted by: Jeff Meyer | August 06, 2009 at 03:44 PM
I agree with Gary regarding the connection to Voice Dialogue. Since I haven't read the new book it's hard to see what it adds or how it improves the VD work, which was influenced by a process called The Empty Chair created by Fritz Perls and Gestalt Therapy.I'm certainly skeptical that a psychological process is the biggest Zen innovation in 2500 years.
Posted by: Bob Spatz | August 04, 2009 at 07:33 PM
Hi Robert,
Good call on Big Mind - You gave me some good things to think about. I had come across Genpo Roshi earlier this year and do his Big Mind meditation, which is really great. I had not thought to put the names you choose to those voices. It will be interesting to see how it works.
Also of value is reading Hal & Sidra Stone's Voice Dialogue work, where Roshi found a portion of his technique.
My thought is that we can always find a perspective that is from a higher potential of ourselves, as long as we are willing to keep looking. Life is about that process of looking (observing) and actively operating in the present moment, with a big mind and a big heart.
And the more we seek, the harder it is to find. We just have to know inside, that it is.
Thanks again,
Gary Jesch
Posted by: Gary Jesch | August 04, 2009 at 11:06 AM
Thanks for the great summary Robert. Like the "virtuous circle" concept hadn't come across that one before. Will take your recommendation and go out and buy the book - a book by a Zen master will be a refreshing change from all the Internet Marketing material that I am presently feeding my brain on.
Posted by: Online Sales Manager | August 03, 2009 at 11:43 PM
You're dead right here, again. It took me a long time to realize it, but my work CAN make a difference for the client, and I AM entitled to talk about it.
The whole point, however, as is now becoming evident to an ever larger circle of people due to the rise of social media, is GIVING, providing a genuine contribution that grows out of a willingness to look at things from the target audience's viewpoint.
This is something many organizations still need to learn. There is way too much "we" oriented marketing content out there. A simple first step is to change all "we's" into "you's" and modify the content accordingly. Talk about results for the client, not the features or processes of your own product or service.
Posted by: Kimmo Linkama | August 03, 2009 at 11:40 PM