What if ... you took a positive view?

One of the coolest things I’ve learned recently is the art of turning a negative into a positive.

Sometimes this can be accomplished just by looking for the good in whatever situation you face. Often, however, you can turn a whole issue completely around just by changing the way you approach it.

One of the best examples of this I’ve seen I discovered through a blog by Joe Vitale. It’s called “What If Up.”

What If Up encourages you to turn “what if …” questions into an examination of positive possibilities. Often we ask such questions in a negative tone. Some dreaded circumstance usually follows the “what if.”

Instead, the What If Up movement promotes considering all the great things that might happen. It involves three steps: identify a challenge; notice how you’re mentally approaching it; then What If Up it.

What If Up even has its own online community called the What If Up Club with more than 160 members.

Next time you face a challenge, “what if up” it and turn it into a positive.

Steve DeVane

Marketing with no agenda

Is it possible to be a marketer and have no agenda?

That question has been on my mind lately.

At first it seems the answer is no. After all, isn't a marketer's agenda always to market his product or service Doesn't marketing something mean you're trying to sell it? And if you're trying to sell something, that's an agenda, right?

Dictionary.com defines marketing as "the act of buying or selling in a market" or as "the total of activities involved in the transfer of goods from the producer or seller to the consumer or buyer, including advertising, shipping, storing, and selling."

How can someone involved in that have no agenda? Is it possible? If it is possible, wouldn't it be futile. How could someone with no agenda market anything.

In the midst of my contemplation, I read a definition of marketing by Joe Vitale. "Marketing is sharing your love for what you do with the people who will most celebrate hearing about it," he said on his blog.

That's a great perspective on marketing. Let's take a closer look at it in light of whether or not it's possible to market with no agenda.

First, Vitale says marketing is sharing your love for what you do. Is it possible to do that with no agenda? Absolutely.

Sharing is not selling. When you share something, you don't need an agenda. The focus is on helping another person.

Furthermore, you're sharing the love you have for what you do. You share because of your love, not because of greed or other negative motivations.

Vitale further says that you share with "the people who will most celebrate hearing about it." That's the key. You're not sharing with anyone and everyone. You're not hitting people over the head with your products or trying to cram your services down someone's throat.

If you're sharing what you love with people who want to hear about it, there's no need for an agenda.

So find what you love and share it with people who will love you for sharing it with them. No agenda needed.

Steve DeVane
This marketing system taught me the value of having no agenda.