#135: Post-Pandemic Marketing
According to the National Council for Behavioral Health, over 70% of adults in the United States have experienced some kind of traumatic event at least once in their lives.
A very severe reaction to traumatic events can stem from childhood abuse or neglect, war and other forms of violence, physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, accidents, natural disasters, grief and loss, witnessing violence, cultural, intergenerational and historical trauma and medical interventions.
I think about this often in my marketing, as funny as that may sound - because there is very much a connection between the two.
Many people experienced extreme trauma during the pandemic. They lost people that they loved, or at least knew of somebody who lost somebody that they love. So when we're marketing, and we're selling to the general public, it's important for us to know and realize that we are selling to people who’ve experienced trauma. And as a marketer, I try to stay as trauma informed as possible.
So how do we operate as marketers with integrity in this post traumatic world that we are living in? How do we approach things so that we are not only helping and creating a new possibility for people who might not even know what's on the other side of their healing, but that we're calling them forward in a way that is relevant, that has a high level of integrity and is helpful?
I want to share with you some of my thoughts around this topic in this episode.
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Laura 00:00
According to the National Council for Behavioral Health, over 70% of adults in the United States have experienced some kind of traumatic event at least once in their lives. That's 223.4 million people. In any type of personal development program or public behavioral health, over 90% of clients who have experienced trauma, and more than 33% of youths exposed to community violence will experience Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a very severe reaction to traumatic events. Trauma can stem from childhood abuse or neglect, war and other forms of violence, physical, emotional, or sexual abuse, accidents, natural disasters, grief and loss, witnessing violence, cultural, intergenerational and historical trauma and medical interventions. I think about this often in my marketing, as funny as that may sound, there is very much a connection between the two, as marketers as people who are participating in conversion events and sales events and we are calling people into action, and selling the transformation. I think very often about the fact that most of the people that we're selling to are in a post-traumatic stage in their lives. Many people experienced extreme trauma during the pandemic, they lost people that they loved, or at least knew of somebody who lost somebody that they love. So when we're marketing, and we're selling to the general public, it's important for us to know and realize that we are selling to people and trauma. And as a marketer, I try to stay as trauma informed as possible. So how do we operate as marketers and integrity in this post traumatic world that we are living in? How do we operate? How do we approach things so that we are not only helping and creating a new possibility for people who might not even know what's on the other side of their healing, so that we're calling them forward in a way that is relevant, that has a high level of integrity, and is helpful. So I want to share with you some of my thoughts around this topic up next in the Next Level Leap podcast.
Laura 02:31
Welcome to the Next Level Leap podcast. I'm your host, Laura Meyer, top growth strategist to some of the country's fastest growing brands, and mentor to consultants. My signature leap methodology has changed the way 1000s of companies look at growth strategy, and this podcast shares, best practices, and inspirational interviews to help you make that next level leap in your business. Stick around and join me as I share the journey of how we as founders can multiply our income impact and influence by landing on the other side of our next big leap. Let's go!
Laura 03:13
As entrepreneurs, as marketers, as people who are fueled by passion, and purpose and impact, we are the movement of people that helps shift others into gear. We are the group of leaders of positive change in the world. That is like nothing else that can be pursued from a career perspective. The work that we are doing is important. We are often building something incredibly meaningful. And as leaders and entrepreneurs, many of us are incredibly heart centered. And the truth is, we all want growth. We all want something new. And when we're
marketing to the general public, it's important to be able to communicate that with our help, we can help other people grow and it's important that they hear it from us directly. What has made me form an even stronger opinion around this topic is that within the last year or so I started to receive many inquiries from nonprofits who wanted to increase their enrollment, which has challenged me an even deeper way, because I am now responsible for marketing and selling solutions to populations of people that have historically been vulnerable to socio economic challenges that many of us have not personally encountered. So I feel an even greater responsibility to understand the dynamics of post traumatic marketing. Because the thing is, is that trauma creates suffering. And nobody wants that for somebody else, right. But at the same time that suffering gives so many of our programs, so many of our solutions, a way in which we can offer transformation. And this isn't to replace the quality of help, that is required in order to be able to address the acute trauma of being a survivor of being in a terrible accident. In dealing with unspeakable harm. It's very important that those types of issues are addressed immediately and professionally with people who are trained in those areas.
Laura 05:50
But once that trauma has come and gone, once we've lost a parent to COVID, once we have gone through war, we've observed the horrors of getting a phone call from our child from their classroom when there's a lockdown. And even if everything turned out to be just fine, there is an increased amount of awareness that requires compassion, empathy, that is even to a greater degree than we would have had before those events happened. And when I'm thinking about those who have experienced post-traumatic stress, and thinking about the degrees to which we are now marketing, a solution that allows individuals to move forward, whether it is growing a business, which many of us know who are experienced entrepreneurs, that when you are starting a new business, it brings up all sorts of old stuff that we need to be addressing within ourselves, because our businesses tend to plateau, at the growth level of the leader. And what if even our programs, whether they're in wealth, or health or relationships, or business growth, or just making somebody's life easier, what if our programs gives others the gift of moving forward with new possibilities with personal development, with the improvement of the relationships that we have with the people around us and even ourselves, in changing the world view we can we can be that gift to somebody else, we can be the leaders of positive change within our own entrepreneurial journey, but we have to go about it in the right way.
Laura 07:34
You hear a lot of marketers say problem solution, highlight the problem, twist the knife, then present the solution. If somebody is already in pain, make them feel even greater pain, before you present to them your solution to try to convince them to buy it even more, remind them of how bad it is that they have this terrible problem. And then present a juicy solution, a no brainer offer to that individual so that they can't help but say yes. And that even if they're feeling like maybe this isn't the right time for me, they get out of their own way, as we often
hear marketers say, and they make that decision to join the program, purchase the service, get the thing that they think is going to help them feel even better. And I think this is totally fine when we're living in a world of pre traumatic marketing. But we're living in a world of post traumatic marketing, I am strongly opposed to this approach. Thing is, is that the problem solution is not only an outdated concept, but these are the clients that you get to work with for a very long time. And if they were convinced, controlled or kind of forced in a lot of ways to do something that wasn't the right fit for them, or wasn't the right solution, or even was they were too impulsive about it. It can be effective, and getting cash in the door. But rarely does it build a brand in the long term. And this is more of a gut feel that something is off or that something is the right solution.
Laura 08:06
And when people are making decisions from that positive expectancy, when they're making solutions, from a feeling of gut reaction, like, this is awesome and I've been looking for this and I'm happy to spend the money on it. Because I've been kind of watching and observing this individual. I trust them as a leader or as a provider or educator. I don't feel pressured to make the decision. I feel internally motivated to make the decision and as post traumatic marketers, this is how we want the people that we're selling to feel we want to be selling from that place of positivity and new ideas and problem solving attitude, and seeking meaning from the struggles that we've been through in order to create a new future a new kind of inner fulfillment, fulfillment that comes from overcoming. And in change and uncertainty, we are providing other people with the leadership, the mentorship, the coaching, and eventually the confidence to break through and create new change in their lives.
Laura 10:35
And I've recently listened to a stage talk from Brandon Bouchard, who was an amazing speaker. And he was talking about this idea of performance edge. And that when the pandemic hit, many people went into sort of the security and protection mode. And no matter what type of trauma anybody has experienced, it's probably a first reaction, like, I need to lock down my life, I need to protect myself, I need to put up walls around me. And I am going to go into self-preservation mode. And that is what a majority of people did. And then from there, once the walls were up, and they realized, okay, I'm okay, my kids are okay, everything's kind of okay. The entire world moved into a positive adaptation phase where we focused on stress relief, and we made adjustments to our lives, we learned how to work from home as an entire human population, we learned how to homeschool our kids, cat bless them. And we learned that we at least I learned I'm not a very good homeschooling teacher. But we tried to figure out how to adapt how to adjust. And in the midst of it experienced a lot of civil and political unrest. And so we're, we're sort of looking at the world around us. And we're thinking, okay, all right, we can we can do this, we can adapt, we can adjust, we can become better, we can become more evolved, we can do the deep work, we can make the hard decisions, but at the same
time for anybody who's experienced stress or trauma, prior to that moment, their window of tolerance is just getting smaller and smaller, in terms of what they can handle.
Laura 12:28
And then all of a sudden, the world opened back up, but almost seemed to happen within a 30 day period. And now we are moving into a new stage of performance and productivity and progress. For those of us who tend to be the mavens, we tend to be the change makers, we tend to be the difference seekers, many of us who are entrepreneurs want to lead that change, we feel that drive and that desire to create a new world around us from the hard lessons learned and be a force of positivity. And in order to do that, we need to let go of some of the old marketing paradigms and stop selling to the pain stop agitating people's pain when they're already in trauma, start inviting them into something new, even if it takes them longer to go there with us. Even if it's a further path for that person to go on. Even if we need to meet them where they are with their free content for a little while and take them down the path with us. To me, that is totally okay. Because I know that I am operating what I sell in market that way from a trauma informed approach. I understand as a marketer, who has no therapeutic background, so I am not saying that I am qualified to diagnose anybody. But what I'm saying is, is that when we are marketing to a general population, where the majority of people have experienced trauma, much of which is in last five years, I think we have a responsibility to calm people forward in the right way for our programs. And if that means our enrollment is half of what it could be, that's okay. Because we are building a stronger, more reputable, more positive brand moving forward.
Laura 14:30
The second thing we need to do as marketers is be really honest with ourselves and with the people that we're selling to, on what the programs and services that we offer can and can't do. And even more importantly, specificity around who it's for. And I think there was a time particularly in the coaching industry where if you had a pulse, you were a good fit for the program, particularly if there were sales people involved. We're motivated by commission. This is a big reason why I tend to like group bonuses and team bonuses instead of individual commissions, particularly, particularly, when we are selling personal transformation products, whether it be a business opportunity, whether it be a relationship program, whether it be a personal development program, whether it be a mindset program, no matter what, when we're selling transformation, we have a responsibility around doing it with integrity. And so when it comes to the types of trauma and stress that people experience, much of it is around money. And there's a lot of marketing and sales gurus that will easily and happily sell the dream of freedom through online entrepreneurship or through personal development, or through money attraction, right?
Laura 15:53
Yet, their most successful clients are still being held hostage by their business for money. Or they're caught in the cycle of making more so they can spend more because that's what the coaches are telling them to do. And finance and money is an area where a lot of people experience shame. So when I'm selling, even though I know, high level sales strategy, I've been trained by the best of the best. I've been an entrepreneur for 20 years, I've gone through all of the sales programs, all of the sales trickery, I will still go into every enrollment conversation, whether it's for my own programs, for my one on one consulting programs, or encourage my clients to go into every conversation with the mindset of can I help this person be better off within the first 90 days then they are paying me? Can I help them do that? When I'm enrolling people into my consulting certification my mindset is, is this somebody who can easily package up their consulting services and sell it to somebody they know within the first 90 days are they going to have to go out and start from scratch generating new traffic, if they are new to entrepreneurship, if they'd have to start from scratch, I won't take them in my program. Because I know that they won't see an ROI as fast as I think they should be seeing an ROI from the investments that they're making into programs at this stage in their career.
Laura 17:26
The second is when I am selling my consulting services, I'm always looking at what is this person's definition of success? What is it that they are going to see as a high return on investment? And can I realistically given the team the assets? What's in place in this company? Can I ask estimate within an educated hypothesis, not a promise or guarantee? But can I go into this with confidence knowing that I'm going to be able to multiply their investment within a relatively short period of time or if I can't, for any reason, I will float it by them and say most companies I work with have XY and Z in place you don't I think the ROI is going to take longer. Are you okay with that? And I want to make sure and I want to hear it from them. And I want to have it in writing via email back and forth just to solidify it not to cover my own behind because truthfully, I don't run into that that much within my company. I don't want people coming back to me and saying you said this would happen. It doesn't happen. But I think this is why I think it is because I'm so clear, I'm so crystal clear on what they can expect that we can stay in a really good state within our working relationship, whether it's group coaching, whether it's memberships, whether it is consulting, I can honestly say that the people who are making an investment in our services, whether it is a consulting training program, whether it is one on one consulting services, or they're in our mastermind, that they are able to be better off, there's a there's a very good chance that they are going to be better off than they were before as a result of the investment that they're making in our services.
Laura 19:12
And if I ever see that going sideways, it is an immediate conversation. Now it's interesting, I've had conversations with other entrepreneurs saying that, that limits the growth of our organization. And that makes us a little bit smaller revenue wise than we could be. I've even
been accused of playing small in my business. But I'll tell you, I want to be one of the leaders that creates positive change for others. And not in a way of I told you what to do and you didn't do it. You have to get out of your own way. Not from that perspective, because I think when we start getting defensive with our clients and with our audiences, and this can happen even when we're serving people who are listening to our podcast or part of our Instagram following when they come to us for help or assistance. And we approach it from a defensive perspective. Instead of a trauma informed perspective, we are contributing to the pain in the world instead of helping it. And I think as marketers, it is our responsibility as people who know how to change behavior, as individuals who are educated and talented at creating messages that people love to hear, that we are using that talent, that knowledge, that experience that we have gained in building those skills, to contribute to positive change in the world, that we are helping others with the transformation that we are selling, and that we can stand behind, but that we're doing it from a place of awareness and thoughtfulness, and not from a place of negativity or defensiveness.
Laura 20:53
And I'm not saying this is easy. Trust me, I probably much like you have had clients coming at me, unhappy, frustrated, there's a miscommunication, there's a disconnect, maybe there's something I needed to apologize for, maybe there's something they needed to apologize for, but ultimately having that constant measure in my mind, which is our people better off as a result of investing in this program, and challenging my clients to think the same as one of the reasons why our businesses are so successful. So profitable, has a high level of integrity, and a strong reputation. And while selling to the pain and selling to people who aren't maybe fully aware of the truths of a program or an offer, well, that will give you temporary success. Yes, you can stand up on stages and get awards and call yourself a seven or eight figure business owner, when you're chasing people into collections. And you are getting into screaming arguments with your clients.
Laura 21:56
And I've seen it and what I want to invite anybody who's listening, who has experienced this in their business, into this idea of just a brief pause, and curiosity, around the idea of are we creating an emotionally closed environment for our clients to thrive? Or are we opening up possibility for them to be able to grow from a post traumatic situation? Are we creating an environment where they are making those decisions from a place of optimism from a place of empowerment? Or did they make the initial decision to work with your company from a place of fear? Did they make that initial decision from fear based messaging? Or did we give them the opportunity to make a decision from a place of positivity from a place of being ready to be the hero of their own story, and from the place of being able to take the experiences that people are going through and have gone through in the last few years, and use it as strength and use it as the basis for something new. And the people that you were working with have to be ready
for that they have to be in a place where they are up for that kind of change. They've worked with a professional to move past the acute trauma. And they are ready to be present to listen to have intimacy with their own mind so that they can be able to benefit from the programs that you're offering.
Laura 23:44
And finally, I want to invite anybody who's listening to consider something that I only really thought about until recently, which is to include mindset coaching, in your service based programs. So if you're listening and you have a coaching program, you have a membership, you have any type of information product as many of my clients do, I want to invite you into the idea of hiring a mindset coach to work within that program. And that is something that I'm thinking about doing more and more with my own clients, even my high level consulting clients, and that I know many of my clients have started doing in the last few years. And even if it's a lower ticket membership, for example, but people are just really struggling to get a result or we're struggling to get their attention or they are not implementing they're sort of in this fight flight or freeze state. within your program. One of the best things you can probably do is hire a mindset coach and this is really interesting advice considering that I am far from it. I'm a lover of personal development. I'm a studier of personal development, but I am by no means an expert, I am very much an expert in growth, business growth and growth, marketing.
Laura 25:06
And what I've found is that the reason why people's businesses don't grow is because the way in which they're thinking about their business, or the reason why they might not be getting a result from a consumer program, is because the way that they're thinking about the problem, so we can give them curriculum, we can give them resources, we can give them training, we can give them books, we can give them all things. But the truth is, is that life is the reason why people don't get a result from a program, not because of tactics, it's because of mindset. And it's because of the way in which they're thinking about the work that they're being assigned to do in order to be able to benefit from the transformation that's being sold. The way in which I think about mindset, and the way I think about personal development is let's say that you've gone through something traumatic, you're one of the 70% of the population who has, and then let's say that you receive therapy for it, or you have other therapeutic methods in which you have dealt with the acuteness of that trauma. Maybe it was a long time ago, maybe it was recent, and you have gotten yourself to a place where you are thriving every day, there is no longer in a state of just trying to like get through the day or survive the trauma. And then let's say for years, you don't do anything else.
Laura 26:31
Let's say for several years, you don't see a mindset coach, you don't see a therapist. Well, I liken it very much to daily working out, it's like working out daily is the kind of thing that we do
in order to maintain in order to keep ourselves healthy. We can't just say, well, we worked out, you know, two years ago, so we don't need to work out anymore. We need to be working our brains every single day, in order to be able to live a dynamic fulfilled life. And for some of us, many are fine, right? Like we might have experienced something very traumatic, and then our life kind of plateaus, and it's stable, and, and nothing new takes place that expands beyond our window of tolerance, and really challenges us to be able to think differently about the world that we live in.
Laura 27:21
But then all of a sudden, we have a baby, we get married, get divorced, we start a business. And it stretches us in ways that we've never experienced before. And for any of us who are selling information products. Essentially, that's what we're doing. When we put people into our programs, we're asking them to think different act different, relate to themselves with the people around them in a totally new way. And what's going to happen is their minds are going to resist that change. Their minds are going to struggle with the new thoughts that they need to have in order to be able to move into a future state versus making decisions about where they've been coming from. And the truth is, the story doesn't need to get retold, the hard situation that we've gone through. And we've received help for, may have already received therapy, or they've already received assistance with it, I don't think it's useful to rehash it. But what is useful is making sure that we understand that just subconsciously without even realizing it, it's very natural and normal to go back to a fear based place. And even if our circumstances are all changeable and optional, it's an paradigm shift that people need to make when they are undergoing any type of transformation and probably reprocessing some of the pain and releasing it again, it's something that people really need to do, and that they've probably learned how to do previously, when they've gone through their trauma and hopefully gotten help for it. But in order to be able to truly experience the new transformation, the movement forward, then chances are that they are going to need support. And a great mindset coach can have a therapy background.
Laura 29:13
So I have a colleague who has a PhD in psychology and psychotherapy background as a mindset coach and her program. And I've seen life coaches in different programs. I've seen certified somatic coaches and various programs. But no matter what type of program that you have, I think that they're all very effective. And different types of experts might be useful in different types of programs. But what's most important is that your students have access to that kind of help. That's outside of the person that's delivering the tactics that's outside the person that's delivering strategy, because I know for sure having been somebody who delivers strategy and tactics to my clients all day ever today for many years now, when I realized that there's something deeper going on, and I start to kind of uncover it, and unpack it and ask questions around it, it's always the mindset that gets in the way of success, not the fact that the
tactic is, you know, valid or invalid. And for many people, when they are changing within themselves, it's a matter of just putting their lives together in a new way. Because again, maybe they maybe they put it back together after trauma in a way that felt safe and secure. But when we're changing, and we're stretching ourselves, it feels anything, but safe and secure.
Laura 30:39
And if you notice that something's coming up for a student that is triggering for them, if you notice that something's coming up for a student or a member or somebody in your programs, where they are shutting down, where they are going quiet, wherever they are experiencing, clearly a high level of emotional pain, then it's probably best to get them those resources, and be informed about what those signs look like. Because for many of the people that we help, we may be the only one in their lives, who truly understands the journey that they're on. In a lot of ways, that's why people join personal development programs, or join business opportunity programs because they want to be around others in their mastermind or their coaching programs who get it who understand the drive and the passion that is behind the change that they're looking to make in their lives. But we also need to be hyper aware about when that change that desire for change can trigger somebody to the point in which they need professional help. And we need to know how to guide them to professional services, in order to make sure that they are getting the right thing for them based on the timing of their healing journey.
Laura 31:57
The idea for this podcast came from a concept that I've heard about quite a bit. I originally heard about it on the Life Coach School podcast with Brooke Castillo called Post Traumatic Growth. There are several books that Brooke recommended that I personally read, just to say, as trauma informed as possible as a marketer. The first is what Doesn't Kill Us the new psychology of post traumatic growth. It's by Stephen Joseph PhD. The next book is called Upside the new science of post traumatic growth, which is interesting because they have the same tagline. And the third is a book that I personally really loved is Super Survivors the surprising link between suffering and success and that one is Dave Feldman, PhD, and Lee Daniel Kravitz, and it is so interesting to look at these different books, by the way, the book upside is by Jim Rendon and to read some of these books and to understand the state of the world.
Laura 33:02
Because the truth is, is that again, as great marketers, we can look at problems solution marketing, we can look at, you know, agitate and then you know sell and a lot of sort of these old school bro marketing approaches, bro marketing approaches, if you haven't heard that word before, that just means like very masculine approaches to marketing, we can deploy
them, and they can work. But for many of us, we get to a certain level of sophistication in our career where we're not just looking to try to get the next buck or help our clients get the next dollar, what we're looking to do is to leave the world better off than we found it because of our gifts, skills and talents. And when we stay informed around the idea of trauma in the world, given that most people have experienced it. And I would imagine that 70% is actually low if you take into consideration the trauma that was experienced during the pandemic. This is something that I think we have a responsibility around as marketers and that we need to be in constant conversation about and I hope for you, this helps you not only become more of an effective marketer in your business or as a consultant, but it helps you create a sense of affirmation that if you care about the way in which you're marketing as much as you care about the result, that you're in good company and that you're doing it the right way. And I think that the more marketers that can hear this message and be able to, to incorporate it into their strategies, the better.
Laura 34:40
So if you know somebody who would really benefit from hearing this podcast, I'm just going to ask that you pass it along, text it to them right now maybe some other marketers that you're friends with and share the this idea of post traumatic marketing and be able to be one of the marketers that contribute It's a positive growth that contributes to post traumatic growth that contributes to a new way in being that I think we are all seeing around us. And then we know that we're part of a heart centered group of people that is helping others create the life that they're dreaming of by going about marketing the right way. Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next week.
Laura 35:29
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