Today I have the great pleasure of being the host on Day 17 of the Virtual Blog Tour of author Lynn Serafinn whose book The 7 Graces of Marketing: how to heal humanity and the planet by changing the way we sell launched on Amazon yesterday Tuesday December 13, 2011.

Lynn Serafinn, MAED, CPCC is a certified, award-winning coach and teacher, marketer, social media expert, radio host, speaker and bestselling author. Her eclectic approach to marketing incorporates her vast professional experience in the music industry and the educational sector along with more than two decades of study and practice of the spirituality of India. In her work as a promotional manager she has produced a long list of bestselling mind-body-spirit authors. Passionate about re-establishing our connection with the Earth, she supports the work of the Transition Town network in her hometown of Bedford, England.

Yesterday, Lynn visited Suzie Cheel at http://suziecheel.com/the-7-graces-of-marketing-interview-with-lynn-serafin/, where she shared her recent video interview with Lynn about The 7 Graces of Marketing.

Today, I’d like to share with you a recent interview I had with Lynn when I got to ask her some questions on the subject of our relationships with source, 3 furies and vision in marketing.  I hope you enjoy it.

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Glenn M Smith: In your book, you talk about the 7 Key Relationships. The first one is “The Relationship with Self”. What process did you follow to develop a relationship with yourself?

Lynn Serafinn: Well, Glenn, I don’t think I had a planned process in mind at all when I started the journey back to Self. Over the decades, I went through many breakdowns and burnouts, and never really understood that the reason for them was that I was not connected with my true Self. It wasn’t until I was 52 (five years ago) that I had a major realisation (and a major burnout), where I was able to see clearly that all my troubles in life were due to this lack of connection, which was leading me to run my life according to other people’s standards and value systems instead of my own. At that time, I read the book Finding Your Own North Star by Martha Beck, which really got me thinking about how much I was really in tune with what I really felt and believed.

Since then, my relationship with Self has gone from strength to strength. My life is rich, exciting and rewarding, and I am learning more and more about Self, others and the Universe every single day. What I’ve found is that we go through different stages during our reconnection. First is awareness, then comes healing, and then comes expansion and unity. My “breakdown” was the awareness stage. Some of the “processes” I suppose I used during the healing stage were writing, coaching and reconnecting with Nature. In fact, I call my first book The Garden of the Soul, which came out in 2009, was my “catharsis” book. These days, I’m no longer going through the healing process. The process of writing my new book The 7 Graces of Marketing was what I would call my “expansion stage”, where I began to see how Self fit into the greater picture of things, and how I could bring value into the world. Now, I believe, I am entering the “unity” stage (a word used by M. Scott Peck in his book The Different Drum), wherein I no longer feel the need to push against anything that happens, but rather I see the opportunity in every single thing that crosses my path—even things that at first seem to be misfortunes. My life and outlook are completely different from what they were 10 years ago.

Glenn M Smith: How did your relationship with Self help with your business?

Lynn Serafinn: It helped (and is still helping) tremendously. I don’t even think I can count all the ways. My business has grown in leaps and bounds. My reputation has expanded beyond my expectations to such a degree I receive more requests for consultations than I can even keep up with. So, of course this has helped my business financially.

But here’s an important thing I want to point out: the better my relationship with Self has become, the better my relationship with my business and with money has become. The impact of this on my finances is that I feel less of a need to spend on things I used to spend on years ago, when I was “seeking” some sort of comfort through external things. Our need to find ourselves through external things does not always refer to material possessions; it can also include personal development courses, degrees, etc. I’m not saying there is no need for personal development courses or education; but sometimes we can turn into personal development “junkies”, thinking another course will finally “fix” whatever it is from which we are suffering. We take course after course because we inwardly believe we are “not enough”. But when we have a good relationship with Self, and know the true splendour of who we are, our spending becomes more choice-driven and less impulsive, and this has a positive impact upon our economic situation. We become calmer and more serene about money, and learn how to utilise money as a wonderful creative tool, rather than seeing it as a continual “problem” or challenge in life.

Glenn M Smith: How can one overcome the hurt from the deceptive marketing practices out there, so we can learn to enjoy marketing?

Lynn Serafinn: Well, Glenn, that all depends whether you are asking this from the perspective of a business owner or as a consumer (which we all are).

“Deception” is one of what I call the “7 Deadly Sins” of marketing in my book, and you rightly point that it is hurtful. The hurt that Deception causes is multi-faceted, and appears in many different forms. I give many examples in the book of how marketers use deceptive language that is technically and legally “true”, but that actually creates an unconscious thought in our minds that is often untrue. An example is when marketers use “false negatives” in their marketing. For example, they might say, “Nothing works faster.” Well that doesn’t mean it’s the fastest working, nor does it mean that it works at all. But the brain takes in the meaning “this is the fastest”. Of course, there are many examples in the book I give on much more blatant kinds of Deception, including the use of what is known as “Greenwash” where companies try to portray themselves as being environmentally committed so as to gain public favour, but they are anything but. I also talk about “Deception via Association” whereby companies use public figures (or children’s cartoon characters) to make a false association between the product and some quality of the public figure.

Now the hurt that comes from such Deception is multifarious. In the case of deceptive wording, we might buy products that don’t actually live up to what we had hoped they would. This impacts our finances, because we’ve wasted our money. We start to become mistrustful and cynical in general, which certainly isn’t good for society. If we lose trust and confidence in the world of commerce, it threatens the very fabric of society. In the case of companies that use greenwash strategies, we falsely assume we are helping the planet by supporting them, which means we are ignoring the real issues that need attention. This can have a devastating impact upon our natural environment, because we become complacent, thinking things are being addressed.

Now to your question: How do we overcome this hurt? It can only be done through the antidote, which is what I call “The Grace of Transparency.”

If you are a business owner, I would hope you read the chapters on “The Deadly Sin of Deception” and “The Grace of Transparency” in The 7 Graces of Marketing to see what kinds of things might be considered “deceptive marketing” in general. Then, take some time to do a reflective, personal examination on how you are conducting your own business and marketing. When you have identified their weak areas, create some new ways of marketing that foster Transparency. Then, watch the changes that happen! Over time, as you rebuild trust with your audience, the relationship between you and your customers will transform completely.

If you are a consumer, I also suggest you read these same chapters, and see which kinds of marketing strategies have caused you to lose trust in certain businesses. Then, don’t be SHY about pointing this out to business owners—but with love and compassion. Remember, if businesses are being deceptive, it’s not necessarily because their “evil” or malicious. Usually, it’s because they are disconnected from Self and Source, and are thusly afraid. They might not admit it, but it’s true. And this goes for even the biggest multi-national company on the planet. You, as a consumer, are tremendously powerful. Start feeding back to these companies with love and compassion, and watch the face of marketing begin to transform.

Thanks so much for asking these questions, Glenn. They were deep and meaningful, and I hope your readers can glean from this short interview just how important the topics I cover in The 7 Graces of Marketing are. I also hope they see this book is not just for business owners, but for every one of us, as consumers. I’m grateful for the opportunity to share.

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I hope you enjoyed this interview with Lynn Serafinn and that you’ll check out her book The 7 Graces of Marketing: how to heal humanity and the planet by changing the way we sell at http://the7gracesofmarketing.com/book-launch/pages/launch.html

Here’s why:

FREE GIFTS

When you purchase the book this week, you will also receive 7 free MP3s (over 10 hours of audio) from The 7 Graces of Marketing Telesummit, a dynamic online event with 24 bestselling authors and world-renowned speakers and media experts, including Dr. Joe Vitale (from The Secret) and Dr. Eric Pearl (author of The Reconnection) on society, business and marketing who came together to discuss how we can bring ethics and values back our business and marketing practices, and restore balance to our health, our economy and our natural environment.

AND

When you buy Lynn’s book this week, you can ALSO receive a complete library of beautiful personal development gifts from authors, speakers, coaches and other enlightened professionals from around the globe including one from me:

Customized Numerology Profile Report

To claim your FREE pass to the 7 Graces of Marketing Telesummit

and read about the free gifts, go to:

http://the7gracesofmarketing.com/book-launch/pages/pre-launch.html

Thanks for reading! As usual, please feel free to share your comments and thoughts below. I love reading your feedback.

AND… be sure to follow Lynn tomorrow when the next stop on the Virtual Blog Tour is Paula Tarrant, who will be sharing her recent interview with Lynn about do we have a “relationship” with marketing? To visit that “stop” on the tour, go to http://inspiredwomenwork.com/7-graces-marketing-changing-the-way-we-promote-and-sell/