The topic of ‘selling God’ comes up for me in looking at many service businesses that are into selling a process.
Things like coaching or healing. An internal process that supports an inner sense of well-being. Perhaps it even results in action, but in many cases is just about feeling better. I don’t mean to make that a perjorative. ‘Feeling better’ is actually very important. My good buddy Jennifer Louden, aka the Comfort Queen has a very profound sense of what comfort is, and I think it’s a critical part of the world.
But, why do so many of these healers, coaches, and other kinds of processors struggle? There are a lot of variables, but I believe that one big reason is that they may be trying to sell God.
Here’s what I’m talking about: Internal process is often in the realm of the heart. it has to do with our relationship with Truth, God, the Divine. This heart development is critical for our well-being as human beings. I support it whole-heartedly as a spiritual healer myself.
However, here’s the problem. It feels wonderful to do this inner process work- your heart flies, and things feel amazing internally. But, how do you charge for it?
My position: you can’t. You can’t charge for internal process alone.
Why not? Well, the internal process of healing is fundamentally a spiritual process. It happens in the unseen realms. And just where does money exist?
Money exists in the physical world. Sure, you can talk about the ‘energy of money’ and whatnot, but everything has energy and spirit behind it- of course. But the thing itself. The cashola, the greenbacks, the hot stuff that you can actually take down to the grocery store to put food on your table? Physical, physical, physical.
If you want the moola, you’ve got to ground your business into the physical world. This means finding a doorway, or context for the healing.
What do I mean by context? Some aspect of the physical world that needs practical help. Business. Relationships. Health. Construction. Family. Career. Money. Home. Garden. Teamwork. Productivity. etc, etc.
If you do spiritual healing, or some kind of internal process, and you are having trouble finding paying clients, then come back to earth. Pick a context, increase your knowledge of it so you have something useful to teach or help with it. And use your healership to bring the awareness of the Divine and/or larger truth to this worldly subject.
And stop trying to sell God.
Pushback? Questions? Challenges? What’s your perspective?
6 Responses
There’s Rick Warren who does sell God and has a huge following… and greenbacks I would guess as well.
But in my daily experience- yes!
Once when I tried an ad that talked about getting space and serenity (it had a lovely crescent moon for a graphic) no one called.
When I talk about the overwhelm and stress of clutter and chaos, people call. So maybe this issue is even more closely aligned Mark, with all that you teach in your Heart of Marketing. That it is the struggles that people have – the problems they want to fix, that make them buy. Let them know you “grok” the struggle. And, have in the fix, a concrete realm.
Folks feel healthier and more serene and yes- closer to the Divine when their surrounding environment feeds their soul but that is not where the conversation begins.
Thank you for the reminder! Joanna
Breathing Space:Home & Office Organizing
Hi Joanna- It’s so true, isn’t it? And, actually, Rick Warren isn’t selling God- and he talks very clearly about this point, although in different words, in the beginning of his Purpose Driven Church.
Actually, it’s a very good book, even if you don’t subscribe to his particular religious beliefs. He’s got some great insights into building an organization and a business that are helpful to anyone. I’ve read his book twice.
Hi, Mark
I loved the title “Can you sell God?” Liked your reflexions on it also.
For over 20 years, as a Catholic priest, I used to joke that I was selling God. Doing it, I spent most of the time listening to, and talking about, people and our world.
Speaking proudly, I can say it worked, and I used to get packed churches. Speaking with regret, I can say that my religious superiors found it unorthodox…
Speaking of Jesus, whatever one’s belief or none, doesn’t it strike you in the Gospel stories how little he actually speaks of God and how very often he speaks of so many other things, like food and drink – he did a lot of partying – priests and prostitutes, losing animals and valuable objects, relationships, gardening, fishing etc and etc.
And it did work, well, in a way. I mean, he pulled in the clients, but then they did crucify him.
Thanks for your mailings
Thomas
Hi Thomas,
How interesting- I really appreciate you taking the time to respond to this. It is true- the stories in the Gospels are talking in metaphors about more down-to-earth and immediate things.
The great Islamic Sufi sheikh, Ibn al’Arabi, wrote (somewhat paraphrased): “Since God is both everywhere and unknowable, the seeker is not seeking God. The seeker is seeking his[sic] own felicity.”
I think of God as the process, the way, the path. Of course, the further you travel down the spiritual path, the more the path and the goal seem to merge.
Thanks for your thoughts- I really appreciate it.
How has the transition from Catholic priest to consultant/trainer been? I’m curious.
Hi Mark, are you saying that the purity of compassionate presence that leads people to Divine transformation shouldn’t be sold because it’s hard to market and no one will pay for it? Or that its intrinsic nature makes it unethical to sell? (I think the former.)
Because what’s most valuable to people about their spiritually-oriented therapists, clergyfolk, shamans, dakas/dakinis, healers, and so on, is the quality of the connection, the in-person presence that creates a relationship of trust between two humans, that facilitates the Divine connection. I also want providers of these more “direct to G-d” services to be able to sustain themselves to offer their unique gifts to the world.
Jill- I so want these people to support themselves. And I’m not say “shouldn’t be.” I’m saying that people aren’t very often willing to pay for it, and it’s a disconnect between spiritual/ethereal and the physical plane. In observing thousands of entrepreneurs, many of whom had a spiritual piece to their work, the ones who most consistently do well have both a spiritual and a physical component. The purely spiritual offers on the whole, with very rare exceptions, tend to just sit there and not ever really get off the ground.
And yes, there are exceptions. But they seem to prove the rule- and often there are other factors, such as someone having a unique and strong public personality, so that people are attracted to them from a personality/leader place, rather than strictly “oh, I want what you’re offering.”