Author: Bobbye

Bobbye Middendorf, MA, partners with evolutionaries as mystic-catalyst, healer, and poet -- evoking experiences of hope, self-grounding, self-trust, resilience, and joy. Spoken Word Alchemy opens portals for Yin Arising via mentoring; she offers inner wisdom guidance and word altars. With WayMakers, this award-winning wordsmith regenerates their clarity and expansive expression to live life as a work of art.

Do You Know Your Internal Marketing Platform?

Why do I ask? Well…..

My friends/ colleagues/ mentors Judith & Jim
(Judith Sherven, PhD and Jim Sniechowski, PhD)
spent years struggling to understand what a real business is
and what all is involved to build one on solid ground…

They realized that it MUST start with a clear Internal
Understanding of what it is you are doing –
first and foremost for your
own sake — and also for your customers.

Most people struggle with this issue big time, but
never talk about it. I know I have.
Most people just hide their desperation
and misery  –  but Judith & Jim are doing something
completely different.

They’ve realized that clear understanding needs
to start with a clear Internal Marketing Platform!

That’s why I am inviting you to attend their FREE
Virtual Workshop this Thursday —

Register by clicking here

So You Can Get Clear About YOUR Internal Marketing Platform

There always seemed to be something missing with all
the well-meaning marketing and promo advice.
It’s this internal focus that needs to come FIRST is what
I’ve realized is key.  My coaches and mentors are sharing —
for the first time in a live no-cost workshop  — a true
self-discovery experience (It’s much much more than
Judith & Jim just teaching or training, as great as that is!)

It’s really all about  YOU . . .

*** How to discover, in yourself, what you need
in order to build and stand firmly on your own
successful Internal Soft Sell Marketing Platform ***

http://budurl.com/JJInternalPlatfm

They’re calling it

“Discovering Your Internal Marketing Platform”
It’s The Foundation of Your External Marketing Success

It’s FREE  –  So give yourself this gift — and
get registered now:

http://budurl.com/JJInternalPlatfm

It’s Thursday, July 8th, at 5:30 pm Pacific/8:30 pm ET

Judith & Jim will start by clarifying what a Marketing
Platform IS,  what it is NOT, and why it’s SO important to you —

And then you’ll experience a Marketing Workshop that’s
truly different from what you’ve ever experienced before.

Because Judith & Jim will guide you, taking you deep
inside yourself to help you discover and integrate
the important values and other qualities that will
serve as the basis for your out-in-the-world
marketing platform.

Remember, if your marketing platform does not begin
within, you can only stumble and fall, losing faith
and energy as you continually jump around trying to
make things work.

So make sure you are registered for this
FREE, life-changing event –

http://budurl.com/JJInternalPlatfm

AND you can certainly invite your friends and colleagues
to get registered too! That way you can share your
discoveries and support each other in moving forward
into greater success through your Internal marketing platforms!

“See” you on the call. I’m certainly going to be there.
As I like to say, “the inner journey IS the journey.”
Hope you will join me and my mentors in Soft Sell Marketing.

Heart and the Art of Marketing

Marketing is a way of getting the word out and building relationships.  To take it to a grander scale, marketing is all about building community.  If you feel challenged in expressing your gifts, if marketing is a dirty word, or at least it doesn’t come naturally, then here’s help.

Express your gifts’ value to others authentically, align your marketing messages with who you really are, and you will be creating the connections that resonate with your perfect readers (audience/clients/customers). That authentic connection is what your perfect people are seeking.

Think about it: What if they can only hear it from you? Now is the time to hone and refine your message and your voice to make the connections that your audience needs to hear–as only you can do it — from YOUR heart.

Authentic artful and heart-full communications that resonate with your perfect clients, customers, readers, and listeners are like the “magic wand” that can magnetically attract your perfect audience.

The art of marketing communication (copywriting, strategy, relationship-building) success hinges on you excavating and honing your authentic voice with a message that is aligned with who you are, expresses the heart of your project, and then can connect with your perfect audience.

It starts with a simple realization: All things being equal, people generally choose to do business with people they know, like, and trust.  In fact, they are often most attracted to people most like themselves.  What this means is that the more clearly you express YOU, the heart and soul of your venture or project, then the more likely you’ll connect with your perfect people.

If you are a visionary conscious creator, writer, soul-preneur, author, speaker, artist, or healer, then getting clear on who you are and what makes you tick can be the single greatest and most profound piece of marketing you can do to ensure your success and the long-term success of your project.

Book Marketing Menu

For many years, I worked in the book publishing business doing marketing and publicity. The following Book Marketing Menu gives authors and would-be authors the master list from which they can draw inspiration and their to-do list. It’s big and hairy. There’s a lot to do. BUT, start with what’s easy and comes naturally for you.

Your book is your legacy. Are you ready? Ready to live your legacy? To own the greatness of your vision, message, or project? To express your gifts? To connect with your tribe, so that the people who need to hear your message can hear you?

The following Book Marketing Menu outlines for you an array of ways to add power, presence, and platform to your vision, book or project.

Continue reading “Book Marketing Menu”

If you hate marketing

For the many soul-preneurs, writers, authors, artists, therapists, healing professionals, coaches, and consultants who hate marketing, I pose one question: Why?

Share with this community what bothers you about marketing. I really want to understand. If I understand better, maybe I can help you.

From my own perspective (as writer, marketing strategist, copywriter), it seems more like the shoemaker’s children getting their shoes last.

Maybe it’s not exactly that for you. We’re curious. I’m curious. I’ve talked about building bridges from your creation or business or venture out to meet the tribe or community you are here to serve.

That bridge is marketing. That bridge encompasses the two-way path of the relationships that you develop with your perfect-just-right clients and customers. It opens the way for them to get to you and you to connect with them.

What is it about marketing your services or your creations or creative projects that simply stops you cold? You have gifts to give to the world in a balanced energy exchange. Don’t you think that it’s beneficial for people to know about who you are, what you do, and the gifts you have to offer?

Really. Curious minds want to know. Why do you hate marketing — really?

50 Million Cultural Creatives Can Change the World

The following article first appeared in March 2001, published by Chicago’s Conscious Choice magazine. In sharing this perspective about Cultural Creatives, (a name bestowed on us by sociologist/researcher Paul Ray)  I am reminded how very important this cohort of world-changers really is. We’ve lost a decade to the forces of the status quo, to those determined to move the clock backwards.  So now — more than ever — it is our time.

It is so crucial that everyone WAKE UP!  The awakening and mindful action for the good of all and the healing of planet Gaia, Mother Earth, is long overdue. This is a clarion call to of those in the Cultural Creative Cohort.   It is more important than ever, and well past time, to get out of our own way.

[I’ve made some minor edits in the following piece so that it makes sense for 2010.]

How 50 Million Cultural Creatives Can Change the World: A Review and Consideration of The Cultural Creatives by Paul Ray and Sherry Ruth Anderson

Do you ever feel like you just don’t fit in? Do you feel that people around you have a whole different set of values and beliefs? Do you find things important that aren’t on their radar screens, and vice versa? Are “getting ahead” and “looking out for number one” nowhere on your list, despite the best efforts of the media and consumer culture to persuade you otherwise?

When you speak of your dream — what you hope to accomplish — do you include relationships, concern for the planet and the next generations, social justice, sustainability, and your spiritual development? Do your dreams not look like what “everybody else” wants? Perhaps the mirror that will reflect you and your values back to you just isn’t in place — Yet.

It certainly isn’t available in the established big media companies, most corporate, education, and government institutions, or politics, where there is little or no support for people who dare to express such values. Surprisingly, despite your feelings of isolation, you are far from alone.

In fact, you may be part of a just-now-becoming-visible groundswell of cultural change. You may be a Cultural Creative. With the book, The Cultural Creatives: How 50 Million People Are Changing the World, Paul Ray and his wife and co-author Sherry Ruth Anderson are trying to hold up a mirror big enough to reflect this population back on itself.

Continue reading “50 Million Cultural Creatives Can Change the World”

Write Synergies, Sacred Synergies

Intent — pure, heart-based intent, when it’s for the highest good of all — is the royal road, the holy, the divine, the seat of power and energy. Seeing intent in action is to experience the miracles of synchronicities and synergies.

Intent, when it’s put in writing as is my wont, can be the engine that drives momentum and action in the world. Yet with words from the heart, such intent remains connected with the higher source, the sacred. In this way, with the power of intent, the creation and the connection to the audience together embrace the greater character of the sacred. Words on the page can create sacred space if placed with intent. That, at least, is my intention.

Write synergies, powered with intent for the highest good, for the healing of Gaia, Mother Earth, becomes sacred intent for bridging the gulf between our creation-from-the-heart  and the people the creation is here to serve, those for whom it is our contribution. Such writing with intent becomes the bridge of light between creation and community. As such, it build synergies.

When I came into the Dreams Alive circle years ago, I didn’t have any inkling that I would be so transformed so many years later. These sacred synergies and the realization of their deeper implications will likely be a theme for a good long time.

Sometimes it’s a gem of truth

Molly Gordon wrote in her ezine today about how we don’t have to be superheroes and how to address our tendency to think we need to be.  Using the power of daily ritual is one way to keep the stress of superheroine roles out of our bodies.  Molly is expressing from her own deep truth of experience a great wisdom here — with a wink of fun tossed in for good measure. (Keep the crown, Molly. You deserve it!)

Seth Godin‘s post today on “winning” ended with this sentence: “What if the win is the ability to give a true gift?” It was one of those phrases that raised goosebumps, often for me an indicator of a powerful truth.

The gifts and creations (books, businesses, ventures, artworks, practices, creative projects) that you are bringing out to the world are created from the deepest heart of you. Coming from this fiery heart of creation, fueled by your passion for expressing your gift, you have a sacred trust to this, your creation and brainchild.

How can you maintain the purity of your intent as your creative project makes its way in the world? How can you preserve authenticity and integrity? How do you prevent it from becoming corrupted by the eddies and currents of the everyday and the toxic approaches that seem the common currencies?

This was one of the most powerful lessons from my recent retreat with the Dreams Alive and Relax-Online partners, Paul Bauer and Susan Castle. This powerful circle embodied the sacred and gave each of us the impetus to embrace our own sacred truth and creation while bringing it to life.

Your creations come from the heart and carry a sacred message. To speak that message in a way that connects with your perfect people (tribe, community, readers, clients, customers) requires a similarly sacred approach.  Isn’t it time for sharing the sacred stories in a way that your people can really get it?

Missive from Shangri-La

Lake Geneva, WI — Just across the Wisconsin border from the greater Chicago area’s suburbs, the spring-fed Lake Geneva beckons summer vacationers into a delicious playground amid idyllic small towns and groves of 100-year-old trees. Dotted along its 26-mile circumference, resorts, summer homes, conference centers and camps abound. A public path circles the lake, so that all can enjoy its pleasures close-up.

On June 22, I was heading into the third night of my retreat with the Dreams Alive and Relax-Online partners, Paul Bauer and Susan Castle, along with their Hawaiian friend and co-leader, Keahi. We convened a sacred circle of like-hearted fellow-travelers on a path of growing ourselves, our consciousness, and our ability to flow from the heart with whatever life tosses in our direction. (Think curve balls.)

On Solstice Monday morning, three of our heart-full friends departed, making our intimate group even more so. During the week-long retreat, I entered deeply into the magic of the moment, a serene setting and powerful teachers moving internal energies that have been stuck seemingly for lifetimes.

I’ve gotten  myself off schedule for the blog challenge. I realize that I didn’t even finish editing the post that I automatically posted on Father’s Day. I cringed when I saw that it had published. “Oops,” I thought.

Lesson: Make sure you’ve completely cleared /cleaned the post before you schedule it!

Trying to put this retreat experience into words is a challenge and beyond. The transformations are so profound that to write about them somehow diminishes the power in the moment. Words that embody the essence of the experience simply can’t do it justice.

For pragmatic business people, doing personal growth and development work at deep levels like this is both crucial and yet seemingly impossible. It appears to be the opposite of practical.

Yet I suggest that this process of finding the essence of your life purpose and clearing the obstacles that have kept you from living fully into that purpose is among the most practical and foundational work imaginable. It opens the door for the right business relationships to grow from the rooted heart of who you are and why you are here.

The retreat was all-consuming for seven delicious days. The internet connection was something that, if used at all, had to be mindfully approached. Although it was available, it was not convenient and ever-present.

So, I got off track.  I didn’t manage to pre-write the posts either. This is coming to you a week after I wrote it. I want to express my appreciation to each of you for your love and support.

From my heart,
Bobbye Middendorf
The Write Synergies Guru

Fathers: Live Your Legacy

Writing has been my lifetime path, vocation, avocation, and the way I’ve processed everything that happens. While not everyone is on this same path, I love the idea of living a legacy, and in this case, leaving a legacy with your words. Sure, actions speak louder than. But you can create things with words that will live in a different way.

[Side note #1: What I talk about here is writing. I save a draft of the post and see that my daughter has left me a mother’s day video link. So, yes.  You can use this same process if you record audio or video, if those are your chosen forms. Or do all of it. The technology is here to serve you, not vice versa!]

For mothers, fathers, and others who want to begin to write a legacy, I suggest following five simple steps. Don’t make it hard for yourself. Give yourself credit for every little bit. Be kind to yourself in this, and it will show up in all sorts of unexpected ways and places.

Your regular practice will enhance your results.  It will show you things  from a different perspective as well as creating your legacy in writing. If you can do five minutes daily, great. If longer, great. If not daily, great. This is an open-handed, open-hearted, and flexible companion. It’s not one more thing to do, then beat yourself up for not doing.

[Side note #2: OK, if you have been with us in the #blog30 challenge, you KNOW the power of the daily practice. Need I say more? And maybe your blog IS part of your written legacy. That is fine. You don’t have to have something extra. Well, maybe you do, but don’t beat yourself up about it. Just write that little something extra to give the kids the context.]

1 Love the process.
You’re doing this for love. Start with that. Always start with that, no matter what you write (or film or record or dance or cook). Center yourself in the love you have for who you are writing to. Love yourself as you write, and love the loved ones who are the intended recipients of your legacy. Even if they are people you have never met.

2 Wake up.
It helps to be fully present  in your body and with yourself. Make a commitment to follow through. Set your intention to record some small bit of your life — times, work, emotions, thoughts, questions, answers — in this way. Give it your full attention when you are doing it. Bring your body with you into the process.

3 Observe.
Start wherever you are. It often helps to get grounded in the physical world as part of your practice. Like the incomparable Geoff Hoff advised recently, bring in details from all your senses to make the surrounding environment come alive.  Experience my kitchen and the Minneola, above. That’s just one small example.

4 Record.
Just write. Write with your mind on what you are doing. Write with love. Write with exquisite detail. Write your questions. Write the answers to questions not even asked yet. Write your dreams –  daydreams, night dreams, siesta dreams. Even if you don’t know where you are going with the words or exactly what you want to say, if you approach it with love in your heart, awareness in your mind, full senses attuned to your environment, and gratitude for the process, no matter what specific words you say, your intentions will shine through with clarity.

5 Cherish with gratitude.
Bring a full heart to the process and express gratitude for every step, every nuance. Make it gratitude a constant companion on your journey.

How Attractive — Marketing from the Inside Out

Some time ago, my colleagues in an entrepreneur support group asked me about Attraction Marketing. It really comes down to marketing from the inside-out.

I’m convinced that that the inside-out way is the most powerful way to do anything!! (Start with BE-ing first, then the DO-ing)

The writing projects, workshops, coaching conversations, Vision Quests, and mapping I do are all about taking  that Inner Journey first.

I wanted to share the following questions with you so that you can start making your own Strategic Attraction Plans. Who are your perfect just-right people (tribe)? Who do you envision inviting,  joining you in your circle?  Who are the people you want to cross the bridge of your words?

This Strategic Attraction process will help you clarify and specify so that your light will be attractive to the people who are most perfect for your services and products.

Start by identifying WHO is the first relationship you are focusing on attracting with your 4-part Strategic Attraction Plan.

Do a separate Attraction plan for each of the different relationships you want to attract. Write each of the following four questions on a separate sheet of paper to give yourself plenty of room to expand your plan and NOTICE what comes up.

This plan is to attract MY perfect ________.
Select whom you want to attract:
MY perfect __________
[Sweetheart, employer, employee, customer, coaching client, reader, business partner, vendor, Virtual Assistant, investor, relationship partner, mastermind, teacher, coach, agent, publisher, donor, student, neighbor, etc.]
The process can work for whomever you want to attract, any and every kind of relationship — both business and personal.

LIST #1       DESCRIBE     The QUALITIES of your perfect _____________.
What are the attributes, qualities, characteristics, values, beliefs, and visions of your perfect __________ ?      [fill in whatever relationship you are attracting]
This one can literally fill a notebook. Or two. This is not the place to be stingy! EVERYTHING that you notice that is a perfect quality goes on your plan.

List #2     IDENTIFY        “The TICK”
What makes my perfect  [fill-in-the-blank] __________  tick?
(By the law of attraction — that like attracts like –  answer this by answering for yourself, “What makes me tick?”)
This may eventually be honed down to a very brief and powerful statement that gets at the core of who you are and why you are here.

List #3       SPECIFY         What YOU WANT them to EXPECT of you?
What do I WANT my perfect [fill-in-the-blank]  __________   to expect of me?
This is where you decide what it is you really want to experience in the relationship. What YOU WANT … to do or experience in the relationship.

List #4      DECLARE        Your BE-ing
Who do I need to BE for me to receive what I say I want?
(Another way to ask this: Who do you have to BE in order to be able to provide what you want your clients to expect of you in #3?)

Process: Notice what comes into your field in relation to the perfect relationship you are now attracting. NOTICE. OBSERVE. Make additional notes to your plan. (Even people you don’t like can be fodder for the plan. Turn it around to write down what you DO want based on experiencing what you DON’T want.)

Secret question to shift your energy of BE-ing when things don’t look/feel great:
What Would Be More Perfect?

The above attraction plan is adapted from: Jan Stringer and Alan Hickman’s BEE-ing Attraction: What Love Has To Do With Business and Marketing
Plus you can click here to  Learn more about Attracting Perfect Customers!

I am so excited to report that I am  getting certified as an Attraction Strategist (Also known as a BEEing Attraction Wizard), and going more deeply into learning this 4-question Strategic Attraction process so that I can  share it.

I invite you to play in this field of attractive magic! As one of my colleagues reported, you too will be shedding your invisibility cloak!