Aimless Wandering

Recently my colleague Barbara Nussbaum, who lives in Franschhoek, South Africa, coauthored a book on uBuntu, an African based spiritual philosophy of life which recognizes that we are not independent beings so much as the co-creations of our relationships, especially those in which there is love and caring.

She asked my thoughts on strategies for marketing the new book:

"How do you create opportunities for visibility? What strategies work for you? With thanks, always.

And this is what I wrote her:

"--------------- To create visibility, I walk around aimlessly and staple pictures of myself on vacant lots.

Recently, I've been reconsidering the strategy.

--- In some cases, I've given out copies of our book as door prizes for non profit organizations or provided them to radio shows like New Dimensions Radio as part of membership drives. We've given books to selected people like yourself who we believe will "find" the right people.

Personally, I've done numerous radio shows and given talks at churches, universities, non profits and other gatherings.

More personally, I carry a few books with me to events and when I meet someone I think would feel gifted by it, I make a personal gift of it. Visibility is not about the naked marketing of a product or service but a way of joining with others, creating community, making visible common values and aspirations. It's showing up in the full sense and hopefully without the baggage of feeling self conscious about it.

----------- But walking around aimlessly, for me, is still the most natural."

And Barbara wrote back:

"Thanks for making me laugh out loud! And for your wisdom,! I walked around aimlessly in the local pub and ran into Ugly Betty’s boss, Daniel Meade, played by actor Eric Mabius who is here in Franschhoek, doing a movie shoot."

You see, it’s not that hard.