Recommended: Divine Purpose Unveiled

Well, I wouldn’t go by someone’s hair colour or earrings in judging whether they can help me. But that’s one reason why people use video – to make it easier for you to tell before purchase whether there’s a good match.

Well John how very gentlemen like. Much can be told from a single comment too. Have you been on any videos that show more than the hand you use to *cough* draw cards and such?

🙂

PS.
Having worked with these ladies I know they stepped in front of a camera and out of their comfort zone to make a positive impact. They don’t play small and they live and breathe living life to its fullest expression and helping others do it too. And they are damned good at it.

The above course is for people who are ready to explore what they are really about and take it to another level. CK and Michelle took me to another level in the past 6 months – they walk their talk.

Dear John,
re: April

I was presuming you were talking to Hilary about things being clearer after April – in response to a reading or something for her….? You really started a discussion here!

Michelle Vandepas’s last blog post..Unveil Your Life Purpose Today!

I’m new to Clarity and have really valued reading the discussions about Yi, but receiving this kind of advertising link in my e-mail was a not very welcome surprise.
I become very skeptical when anyone ( even Hilary ) urges me to
” hurry and sign up before you miss out on this great offer “. That in itself rings huge warning bells in my mind.
Maybe this is a great course —but I’m here at Clarity because of my interest in the I Ching.
Yi is uniquely qualified to dialog with me about my ” Divine Purpose.”

I agree with chu_sel. I have wanted to say this before but was aware of becoming the voice of negativity…but surely if there is such a thing as ‘divine purpose’ then it really isn’t something one must hurry to buy ‘while stocks last’. The phrase in bold above “there is a real time limit here” is surely incongruous with a project such as ‘unveiling divine purpose’. I think if one has a divine purpose one has all the time of eternity to find it…

I’m not even saying the ‘product’ is worthless, I wouldn’t know but the marketing is really more appropriate to buying sofas from DFS…’hurry hurry offer ends tomorrow type thing….’ I’ve noticed the ‘2 for price of 1’ strategy too but i think that works better for soap powder..not unveiling divine purpose.

As for the whole concept, that there is a purpose of why we are here…seems somewhat prosaic to me, as if one had to be useful and purposeful to justify living at all. Why can we not just be ? Seems a very human concept this divine purpose thing..kind of travelling in the opposite direction of spiritual unfolding…a bit like a protestant work ethic approach to spiritual development.

Anyway if there were a divine purpose and it were possible that it could be ‘unveiled’ for a price, and I really really wanted it unveiled, I’d still be turned off by the ‘hurry up and buy’ aspect. There isn’t really any hurry is there..it wouldn’t feel right to be hurried over something like this.

thats my thoughts but i suppose if you find these strategies work really well commercially then we’ll see more of them

I’ve noticed that as humans we tend to miss out on things because of the way they show up in our lives. When we are truly ‘on purpose’ we are living from our deep connection with source and are willing to say, “yes” to experiences and people (and even courses) that open us up to our next highest expression. And, that may be saying no to certain things… like a hurry and buy now request. Just check in with your heart first and look through the lens of “Does this support my next highest expression?” Your heart is more likely to get you there than your head.

Hilary, Thank you so much for your two bonus gifts. They were snapped up right away. It was obvious how in demand your time is by the number of responses we got from people requesting time with you. We really appreciate your generosity of your time in offering not one, but two readings. Thank you.

CK Reyes’s last blog post..Do You Have The Tools To Unveil Your Life Purpose?

Sales page IS updated now.. And we thank you again.

Michelle Vandepas’s last blog post..More Tools To Unveil Your Life Purpose

I’m a little late to the discussion but still wanted to voice my opinion since I was heavily involved in this launch.

I think Hilary’s and the I Ching audience in general is going to be very intelligent and thoughtful in nature. What I always find a little disappointing is how often we use stereotypes to process information especially when we’re so involved in the practice of being conscious. From John’s superficial offhand remarks to comments about the ‘limitedness’ of the offer, if one had read and digested the full page you might have seen a lot of value and even noticed that a very nice group of people offered their personal time for free, indicating that this was a genuine offer.

A thoughtful audience might spend more time looking beneath the surface…or not?

To chime in with Franis, marketing is done because it facilitates people making decisions. Most people stay stuck in indecision. This course came with a 356 day guarantee, it’s not like they were looking for a quick buck.

Interestingly, we’ve run a couple of free giveaways in other places, offering free coaching. Nobody responds. Can you imagine giving away your professional time for free and nobody caring? You don’t get people’s attention unless you let them know what they’re missing.

That’s why marketers steer on basic human psychology and yes that means setting a price and making something unique and limited. That is what helps people come to decisions. If you’re not interested in an offer, it doesn’t matter what salestactics are applied. In which case there’s no point in even commenting about it. I don’t complain about products in the supermarket I have no appetite for.

On the other hand if you go around feeling somebody is trying to make money off of you, not only does it identify at least a modicum of belief that your money supply is limited and people want to exploit you, you will at the same time cause yourself to filter and find that perception to be true over and over again. That is how your brain will process information.

But remember its very similar psychology that leads us to come to conclusions about a sales offer (for instance looking at a limited offer and using that as a heuristic (read: shortcut) to conclude that is must be because someone is trying to make money off of me), as it does to buy a product (having an incentive to buy, by wanting to take advantage of a limited offer). They both lean on superficial ways of processing information to come to decisions. It’s not the full picture, but it does bring things in a more balanced perspective.

If you left the salespage feeling disappointed than you no doubt processed the sales page using heuristics and preprogrammed beliefs/past experience altogether shaping your feelings/thoughts. If one looks at the page from a neutral conscious perspective you might not experience the more extreme polarising thoughts. Certainly not as below the belt as John’s who felt the need to make superficial comments about two people he has absolutely no knowledge of.

If you came and actually bought, you either will have used heuristics as part of your decision or you would have been interested and fully read what was on the table (deep processing). In any case you would have had a year to decide whether it was a good investment. That’s because they were only interested in delivering real value.

If you looked at the page and felt appalled, well that can be great to because now you have at least the opportunity to be conscious about exactly why that is. I know it has nothing to do with hair color. I do know its shaped by your beliefs and habitised responses to a very commonplace phenomenon.

And hey, that’s what the ecourse was about: exploring and uncovering things in order to be conscious and make conscious positive choices that are based on your free will, spirit and identity, rather than to operate from assumed beliefs that limit us from seeing beyond the surface.
And that is what I Ching is largely about to, I would imagine. Re-evaluating the things that we assume and looking at things from different (higher) perspectives.

So even if you hated the sales page it was a win-win.

Side note: the sales copy was more oriented for a US audience and Brits tend to approach things from a more skeptical perspective. Funnily the brits also lead the world in creating compelling headlines to sell news papers and magazines. The papers and magazines aren’t the least bit interested in making life better, yet I’ve never seen anybody stop by a news stand and complain about the headlines that compel us to buy. Makes you think.

In any case we made an effort to design a page that exuded real world value while compelling people to take advantage of it. That’s why we had people offering their professional time for free and you might have noticed we had plenty of video testimonials from people that had already taken the course and had the guts to go on camera.

We can’t help at least a percentage of people jumping to conclusions because they see a phrase or piece of information. But I regret that a few people that otherwise had respected Hilary, processed this salespage based on superficial cues only to arrive to negative perceptions. I don’t mind if people hated the sales page but I’m disappointed when superficial decision making leads to question Hilary’s judgment or character. You do her or yourself no justice that way.

Thoughtful caring people deserve thoughtful caring thought.

All the best

Peter

Peter Knight’s last blog post..Life Purpose Classes Start This Week!

Franis – let us know when you start that I Ching blog! 🙂

John – yes, everything you write makes a lot of sense to me. However, I think it’s important to recognise that as marketer’s we’re more than usually responsible for the impression we make. Or at least, it’s constructive and useful to take more responsibility – to make more of the effort to communicate in a way people can relate to, not to put the onus on them to ‘look past’ the hype and find the value. We may not like the context of habitual responses and associations that we have to work in, but we still have to work in it.

Of course, having said all that, I have no idea whether your sales page was an overall success. I know that if hadn’t already read the course before I saw the page, I probably wouldn’t have been inclined to recommend it. But as it was, I’d read the course, which is very good indeed, and started to get to know Michelle, whom I like very much, so it was an easy decision to make.

My big mistake was in not putting myself in the shoes of my readers, who had nothing to go on but my brief review and the sales page I hadn’t actually read. It was a failure of empathy on my part, in other words, leading to various mess-ups in communication. That’s all my responsibility – but I’m blessed with some very understanding readers, and so there’s no permanent harm done.

(In my last ‘Friends’ Notes’ email, I apologised for sending a standalone email promoting the course to people who’d only signed up with me for I Ching things. I’ve received a flood of warm, kind and supportive emails in response.)

John, there are some ‘formulas’ that work because they’re simple reflections of human nature, and that’s why people still use them. Time limits encourage people to take decisions, for instance.

As for your insistence on judging by appearances… it’s hard to know what to say. A glance at the video linked to above reveals that you shave: you’re not comfortable and at ease with your natural beard, so you feel the need to become clean-shaven. I don’t think that makes you less of an astrologer.

I’m working on getting some videos done now, and you’ll probably be pleased to see that I have undyed hair and unpierced ears. But I still don’t think you can draw any reliable conclusions about my character, integrity or expertise from this.

You might draw some conclusions about what someone is trying to communicate to the world from the decisions they make about their appearance. Such conclusions might even be moderately reliable. But I was talking about drawing reliable conclusions about character, integrity or expertise.

“Marketing” is always done, not in the best interest of the buyer, but the seller.

This is the kind of sweeping attack that I find really depressing. It’s directed against anyone who is trying to make a living from offering their gifts directly to other people, rather than offering them to an organisation that will pay them a monthly salary (while paying someone else to do the marketing).

If we – the entrepreneurs, the solo service providers, the healers and writers and diviners and artists and all – didn’t market ourselves, we would never get to serve anyone. That’s what marketing is: giving service, and communicating how you can serve. It benefits those who buy, those who sell, and those who don’t buy because the clarity of communication – ie the quality of the marketing – helped them to make their decision.

BTW.. there is A LOT of people all over the world serving others without “marketing”. So the statement “If we – the entrepreneurs, the solo service providers, the healers and writers and diviners and artists and all – didn’t market ourselves, we would never get to serve anyone” is not exactly true. I don’t have problem when people make money from Yijing or spirituality; but I do tend to suspect. And when the reaction to this reasonable suspect is to name it “superficial” or “attack”… well, what can I say?

Dear Hilary:

Hello. I know I said I’d withdraw, but I have to leap to your defence.

You are findable through the Internet, you have a site, you do readings, and you offer a permission-based newsletter from which we can opt out at any time.

This is not really marketing where you build a list, generate buzz for an offering, create emails designed to sell the product, choose a closing date to promote the idea of scarcity and therefore increased value in the mind of the reader, etc. You have to believe in the product, of course, and work to give added value to potential customers – a $632 value FOR FREE – Gasp!! – just for signing up for the newsletter!!! Don’t miss out on this one!!!

It is quite manipulative, and the starting point is profit for the seller. Not there’s anything wrong with that, and good can come from this approach.

You make your expertise available, but it’s not really marketing, is it?

What is out philosophy going to be? I like to think that if you sat patiently in your bungalow, the heavenly immortals would send enough people your way. The material at your site is just a bonus.

I think we’re getting stuck on some different understandings of the term ‘marketing’. The definition I work on – based on what I’ve learned from people like Mark Silver, whom I wholeheartedly recommend – is that marketing is everything I do to connect with the people who need what I have to offer. And my philosophy is that given that I do have something to offer, I’d be letting myself and the world at large down by not offering it.

Some marketers use their skills to sell things people would be better off without. And some sell things people do benefit from, but do so in morally suspect ways. (I’ve heard the argument that any manipulative device that gets someone to buy something they genuinely need is justified…) I imagine these are what you think of when you hear the word ‘marketing’ – whereas I think of the many hours I spent the other day trying (and failing) to create a free introductory I Ching video.

But look back and examinate your steps (10.6): you recomended a sale, without reading the sale-page;

True. But I had read and reviewed the product, which I reckon is more important.

the you advertise a non-Yijing service in emails to people that has interest mainly in Yijing;

Also true, and that was a mistake, for which I’ve apologised. I won’t be doing that again.

then, you confronted with trojan and others in defense of your recomendation;

Yes, because the product was good and worth recommending.

then you justify false statement from Pete

It is actually true that people market their products to help people decide whether to buy them. We don’t want people who won’t be helped by the product/service to buy it. Think about it for a second, just from the point of view of the seller’s self-interest: it would be a waste of the buyer’s time and energy, they’d be annoyed and tell all their friends they were annoyed, and they’d ask for a refund. So with our marketing we try to catch the attention of people who would be interested, and explain clearly what’s on offer.

Again, I think we have a difference in basic assumptions. I assume that when someone buys something they need, both they and the seller benefit. That means the marketing that resulted in that sale was done for the benefit of both parties.

; then you claim that without marketing there is no chance to serve;

…which on my definition of marketing, anyway, is self-evidently true…

(I was only talking about solopreneurs, people trying to make a living selling their own work. No marketing = no sales = having to get a job instead.)

then you read an attack… then, you have lost the Middle Way (in confucian terms) or tha Void (in doist terms): you feel hurt and thin-skinned.

Yes, you’re right. It’s not as if this were the first such attack I’ve read, and nor will it be the last. I need to be more mindful that your opinion isn’t my business.

Not long ago, I read an attack on a fellow-solopreneur, saying that because her work was an expression of a divine gift, she shouldn’t be asking for money for it. Which, of course, logically means she shouldn’t be doing the work at all (either that or she shouldn’t be eating).

I was exasperated and offended on her behalf… and she was calm and understanding and engaged in gentle dialogue without being offended for a second. That’s the kind of quiet and balance I would love to achieve more often.

Let me ask you, with a sincere intention: when you cast the 49 answer… your deep concern was to “know” what divine purpose is? or your real concern was to validate your position in the debate you were facing? “Changing to achieve gathering” was a general answer about what Divine Purpose is? or was a personal advice about your personal path?

If you look back at the question, you’ll see I didn’t ask what divine purpose was, but what it might mean to know your own divine purpose. I think I got a direct and clear answer to my question.

I asked because Trojan got me thinking when she questioned the value of the whole notion of having a ‘divine purpose’, and I was wondering myself whether it was knowable, and whether we would limit our own growth if we thought we ‘knew’ it.

So in that sense there was some personal insecurity behind the question. The course I was recommending was good in its own terms, but I hadn’t really examined those terms – I’d just gone with my own gut feeling that this kind of exploration was always a good thing. Hence the reading.

If I wanted to validate my position in a debate, the last thing I’d do would be to ask Yi; Yi is no respecter of my tender ego. I was bracing myself to write up a reading that demolished my position. As it is, I think I found myself writing one that revealed its limitations.