Aha! I nearly missed the third Monday Heart Stuff! This morning I went to an Eid celebration, and we flip the switch on The Business Oasis (note: the community ended November 2010)—a big WordPress facelift is coming to it, and we’re preparing like mad for the upcoming course.
So, this nearly slipped through the cracks. But, here it is:
The Big Challenge of Marketing Porn
Sexuality is such a funny thing in Western culture- omnipresent, yet completely unconscious. And pornography is one of unnamed struggles in our culture of sexuality.
John Reisinger is bravely taking this topic on on his site, Make Peace With Porn. He’s doing some really great work. And… as powerful a topic as sexuality is, it can be quite challenging to get something like this to be passed along.
(Note- bummer. I just tried to bring his site up and it has disappeared. I don’t know if it’s been attacked or what. I’ll try to get hold of John- meanwhile, it’s a good lesson to learn.)
I mean, if you recommend something like this, does that mean you have to admit to dealing with porn? It’s a rough one.
One of my contentions is that marketing is not about attraction, it’s about safety. Strangely, that’s one of John’s ideas about porn- not that men are merely run by their gonads, but that pornography actually promises men a deep acceptance and safety that we have trouble finding in our every day relationships, and not just for our sexuality.
For the Heart: with your own business, where could it be challenging for someone to admit working with you? How can you make it safer for them to pass it along to someone else? And, if you could be brave and pass John’s information, let’s help make it a little more visible.
Tim Ferriss’ Missing Link
Many people slaver at the thought of having a 4-hour Work Week, a la Tim Ferriss’ best-selling book. But, there is a missing link. Actually, there’s a couple of missing links, but Marissa Bracke has one of them.
It has to do with project management. She has a fantastic article on the topic, and I suggest you take a read.
Project management is one of those fantastically useful skills that hasn’t really translated that well into the world of self-employment. Well, it sorta-kinda-has, but there hasn’t been a whole-hearted acceptance of project management among the “I’m-just-going-to-hang-out-a-shingle” set. Sometimes it seems too logical and dry. Sometimes it seems to represent all that is evil in the corporate world that often the shingle-hanger is just trying to escape from.
But, the truth is, project management- how to be in healthy relationship with what you need to do–is as necessary as breathing. And without it, the whole 4-Hour Work Week is even more elusive than it already seems.
For the Heart: What is your relationship to your projects? How could you open your heart to them? Who can you get help from to manage those projects?
Adventures in Free Time
One of the benefits of having a 4-Hour Work Week is “free time.” What, that’s impossible? Free time? Well, one of my favorite people in the world, Lisa Hunter, has teamed up her bud Kerri Yates to form Adventures in Free Time, a silly concept for a blog that feels really great, actually.
It’s about play. It’s about adventure. It’s about unlocking creativity. Without being earnest. They don’t talk about play and why it’s important. They don’t talk about unlocking creativity. They just go do it. And you get to join them.
For the Heart: how can you bring more play into your life? Into your business? Even if it’s beside the point?
Okay, there you go. Another Monday Heart Stuff. It might just become a habit.
2 Responses
One of the interesting things about (straight male) pornography is that it often involves satisfaction satisfying the woman. Not only about acceptance but competence and performance.
It says much about gender roles and expectations I think.
@Evan- It sure does. I wish I could track down John for his point of view on all of this. His last tweet on his twitter account was back in July. It’s like he disappeared. I hope he’s okay…