The best way to market my business

[millie]

well, i tried asking yi for the best approach to market my business. the answer was 59 with lines 3 and 6 changing to 48. does this mean to re-invent what i've alreayd been doing?

[rosada]

Hi Millie,
Just playing around with some ideas..could 59 mean spreading the word?
59.3 says "He dissolves his self. No remorse," and talks about putting aside all thought of self. My first thought is that perhaps the IChing is urging you to put more time into your work. But you're probably doing that already. Could this mean not charging your usual fee or maybe bartering or doing something so that there are no obstacles between you and those who could use your service? "No reasonable offer refused."
59.6 Departing, KEEPING AT A DISTANCE going out is without blame. Perhaps this is encouraging you to build your business on referals, that is, encouraging others to market your business for you. Use the testamony of satisfied customers.

48.Certainly sounds like you have something of real value to offer. The Well is a resource centrally located. Perhaps you should promote how accessible you are. Or advertise in a place where everyone gathers.

Just trying to be helpful..
R

[bruce]

Good thoughts, Rosada. What came to my head from 59 was, dispensing seeds everywhere, indiscriminately. This is mass marketing rather than niche marketing.

Line 3 is self-sacrificing, meaning dedication. But line 6 makes distance from it all, as if to say 'don't let the enterprise become you or your life'.

48 is a central source, as in a distributorship?

Not very different from what Rosada has already said.

[millie]

good ideas. i was also thinking that 59 meant to disperse my marketing efforts widely. as for not thinking so much about myself ----- i have been struggling with my bio and how much to say and what not to say, and having it all out there on the interent. perhaps yi is telling me not to worry so much about all that. you are intuitive. 59.6 is still bothering me a little. maybe it is about referrals. what other positive spin could i place on this line? you've done a good job of turning around what initially looked like a grim line to me.

[millie]

bruce - we crossed posts. i agree about 59 being dispensing seeds everywhere. mass marketing. it might also refer to the internet, yes?

line 6 again. "dont let the enterprise become your whole life." hmm. i'm still stuck on that one.

no, this business isn't a distributorship. don't sell a product. it's a service business. what i sell is my knowledge.

[millie]

p.s. i'd like to think that i do have a well full (48) of knowledge to offer. just need to get the word out there.

[hilary]

Very quick note... Mum-in-law went home today so I get to do the washing up again...

48 - think what you have to give - and about how really disastrous it would be if you failed to give it because the 'well rope and bucket' of your marketing were inadequate. (The Judgement of 48 is actually quite tough.)

59.3 - it's not about you, it's about them. (One common piece of advice is to count the occurrences of 'I', 'me', 'my' in all you write; do the same for 'you', 'your' etc. Second person should outnumber first person, a lot.) Probably best not to put energy into making a 'brochure'-type website.

59.6 - eek, indeed. Pouring yourself into your work is one thing, but... expending lifeblood, bottomless pit... careful... (Emotional investment? Paid advertising?) I would suggest a second question here, asking Yi what exactly it is that you need to get away from.

[millie]

hilary, i am honored that you weighed in on this. i love your website. you are great. good idea to pose a second question. i fear an anbiguous answer to the question however, before i've even asked. if i actually say to yi, "what should i avoid" and get an answer that leaves me at risk of poor interpreation --- scary. but i'll give it a go anyway, and we'll see what happens.

and yes, it would be disasterous if i failed to give what i have to give because of inadequate marketing. i had this happen once long ago, and do not wish to repeat the experience.

[bruce]

Millie, this is a little like shooting in the dark, without understanding the specifics.

This may mean nothing, but if I got this reading about my business venture, I'd reconsider it, or at least reconsider the present approach. Or perhaps buy a little time to think it out. The well of information and possibly experience and talent is there, true. Positive spinning aside, this reading would make me nervous about beginning an enterprise. More thought and follow up seems prudent.

[millie]

ack!! that scares me. my question wasn't about the business itself, it was about how to best market the business. but you are suggesting the reading was about the business? what do you see that i am missing? i am open to your feedback, even it i might not want to hear it.

[bruce]

Millie, on a more idealistic framework, this from my notes:

Disperse

One can not hold truth as they would an object. God is not a statue.

hmm.. have you connected this business to your highest ideals yet?

[millie]

of course, my confidence in yi is lacking at the moment, given that i recieved 19 repeatedly about a relationship when it turns out the guy has run to the hills. but go ahead ------ give me some feedback about this reading and i'll reflect on it all.

[millie]

we crossed posts again.

yes, i have connected this business to my highest ideals. i believe yes, for sure. but there may be something else here. what i have for sale is knowledge e.g. truth. it is difficult to sell and to market. it "canot be held" as an object can be held.

perhaps this is the advice yi has for me. that this will be a difficult task.

[millie]

given my business, i still think the advice with 59 is to disperse the marketing efforts in various channels. i do not think it's to disperse the business idea. but i do need to pay atention to 59.6

or, according to brad, i should read 57.6 and see what that says instead.

[millie]

oh. 57.6 doesn't look very good either.

[millie]

ok, i asked the question hilary suggested. "what am i being asked to avoid?" and got 40 with lines 1 and 4 changing to 19.

help.

[bruce]

Well, Millie, if marketing your ideals and truth is a difficult challenge, you're in some very good company here. lol

[bruce]

Hard to say exactly what this reading is speaking to, Millie. Bradford's 59.6 speaks to the danger of hot-bloodedness. That's an emotional matter, not a business matter.

Wish I could be more specific.

At least you know now what 19 does NOT mean, huh? http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/happy.gif It never means a sure thing.

Sure seeming to me that this is speaking to your inner condition, as it relates to this venture. There's both purifying and letting go, clearly in these readings.

I don't want to be a discouraging influence, but I'd give this more time before investing money or hot-blooded emotions.

[rosada]

59.6 is about having survived something, so yes it says there is a problem but it says you have survived it. Thus my suggesting personal testimonies saying, "I had this problem and Millie's service solved it." As it also does imply a danger in getting over involved, perhaps you need to alert that you don't promise more than you can reasonably deliver, no "Lose ten pounds or your money back."
If this hexagram is indeed a warning about the whole enterprize - and often the I Ching will tell us things we didn't directly ask about - it seems to be suggesting you not over comitt. Thus you might try ads in several papers to start, but then quickly drop the papers that don't produce.

[millie]

rosada, the area of knowledge i have to offer is connected with helping people solve a problem that I myself experienced and solved. perhaps that is the connection here with this line: to market by way of telling people what my experience has been?

[millie]

can someone help connect the 40 > 19 with the first reading?

[hilary]

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

Bruce:
"Well, Millie, if marketing your ideals and truth is a difficult challenge, you're in some very good company here. lol"<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>
LOL!!

Millie, why not tell us all about your work? Post a link to your site? Don't be shy...

Hm - 40 to 19 doesn't look a fat lot like anything to avoid, does it? The first moving line is even telling you there's nothing seriously wrong. Ahem. Rosada - can you say more about this idea that 59.6 is about 'having survived something'? It's new to me, but it obviously strikes a big chord with Millie.

(Pause for thought...)

[rosada]

Hi Hilary,

I was looking at Wilhelm, pg.695:

"K'an is blood. Wind dissolves. Thus occasions for the cause of bloodshed is removed. Not only does the line itself SURMOUNT the peril but it also helps the six in the third place, to which it is related."

Then, since you asked about it, I also just now checked out The I Ching on Love. His definition looks tailor made for Millie:

Guy Damian Knight, pg.302:

"This is the line of a person who recognizes a danger which threatens to consume others, but who also sees the way out with a minimum of pain and hardship. Being personally free of the danger this person is also in a position to assist others in achieving freedom."
----

Perhaps Millie would also get value from hearing what Damion-Knight had to say about 59.3:

"This is a time when your work must become more important than anything else in your life. If you wish to focus matchless energy on the task before you in order to overcome inherent difficulties, you must for a time put aside all distracting influences, including personal desires and preoccupations."

[hilary]

Umm... well, whenever I see 59.6 my first thought is that there's something to escape. But then the Chinese itself doesn't have verb tenses - it can't tell you whether this is something escaped or to be escaped.

Half a marketing-related idea in connection with 59.6. There are two big reasons people do things: to gain something good, or to avoid something bad. When designing any kind of marketing material, you have to decide which motivation to appeal to primarily.

The accepted wisdom is that more people are motivated by the 'avoiding' part, and so you have more chance of success in marketing if you start out by reminding people of a problem and how bad it is (and then show how you can solve it). Of course 'accepted wisdom' is one thing and what feels natural and comfortable to you may be quite another. It is for me.

Hm - wait - isn't that what hexagram 40's all about? Taking the path that leads to where you want to be, as against the 'accepted wisdom' path of 'things you ought to be doing'?

[bruce]

Hilary, that really comes down to a benefit statement, which may include both winning the good and losing the bad. Yes, I think 40 can assimilate this meaning.

[bruce]

(I missread your comment on 40.)

Going back to 'if this were me', I'd draw a vertical line on paper. On one side I'd write "pragmatic business question about best marketing approach", and on the other side I'd write "inner, personal matters to be aware of, concerning this business, at this time". Then I'd do one reading for each, and ask no more until I was able to conclude sufficient meaning from these two readings.

The reason this works well is that both you and Yi know that both questions will be addressed, eliminating the possibility of cross-over confusion, or of Yi's prioritizing one question over the other. Most of us know that you can ask one thing and have an underlying matter being addressed.

Right now, there's just too many uncertainties to be specific about these readings.

[hilary]

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

Most of us know that you can ask one thing and have an underlying matter being addressed<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>
Yup, true enough.

Again 'if this were me', I would be prompted by 40 to explore the question of whether I can freely follow my own natural inclinations, or whether there is marketing stuff I need to do, whether I like it or not.

Not-unrelated question: can 'pragmatic business question' and 'inner, personal matters' ever be separated? I haven't managed to yet (I'll try your parallel question approach one of these days), but the scale and/or nature of Millie's business may make it utterly different for her.

[bruce]

I would certainly hope they could be separated, and easily so. That's why I divide the question beforehand rather than as an afterthought. If it's understood that both questions will be asked, independent of one another, then Yi and/or my own mind can read the answer definitively. Otherwise the logic and emotions can become so entwined that?s it?s impossible to separate them. Quite important for a business manager to make these distinctions.

[hilary]

Lots of food for thought, here... I'll have to pick your brains on it all some time. http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/happy.gif (Restraining myself from doing that here and now on Millie's thread.)

[millie]

thanks for all these good thoughts. it makes sense to try this dual question approach. i won't do this until later tonight, but will get back to you all with the answers. i agree that it's possible yi has something to say to me personally about venturing forward in this work, that may be different from a purely technical response to how to market. maybe in the current answers i'm being told to notice things about myself within this process, and it seems worthwhile to pull those out separately. at the same time, i agree with hilary that separating ones self from work issues isn'teasily managed, i'm thinking of this as shining two different spotlights on the situation rather than an actual separation.

[millie]

hilary, we crossed posts. no problem to me in discussing this issue further on the thread. it is all inter-related.

[millie]

ok. i told yi i was going to ask two questions. i announced them upfront in order. then i asked the first: what do i most need to know about the best way to market my business? 11.6 > 26

and the second: what do i most need to know about myself in relationship to marketing my business? 5.3 > 60

[millie]

given the above, i felt it necessary to ask a follow-up: what about my pursuing this business at all? 27 unchanging.

i think the warnings and obstructions nay be connected to an office mate who's considering leaving, and there are up-in-the-air issues around sharing the space and furniture. but then again, non of that is really connected to markeing, and that's where i've recieived my difficult readings. so, i'm not sure what to make of all of this!

[bruce]

Jesus, Millie. None of this sounds very promising, or at least not very easy. One thing it does have is continuity with your original readings.

What you need to know concerning marketing? 11.6 A military-like advance ends in defeat. This is not where your work needs to focus. Marketing should not be your concern right now, according to how I read this. 26 tames large forces, brings them together, makes them content and secure.

What you need to know concerning yourself in relation to marketing? Relax, develop your work, associate with others, have fun. There's no sense in worrying or being so serious about it.

Develop yourself and your work. Nourish it and let it nourish you.

[hilary]

Agreeing with Bruce that this does not sound promising or easy.

11.6 - I think that 'using the army' sounds like marketing, or at the very least using organised advertising etc to attract new customers. The gist of the line is that there's no point deploying armies in defence of a city whose bulwarks have fallen into the moat.

Worst-case interpretation: you don't have a real, remunerative business to market.

Best-case interpretation: you don't really know what you are selling, and need to find out first.

The way forward in either case would be to focus all your attention on your existing customers and eliciting as much feedback from them as possible. (What's the most valuable thing you have done for them? What one thing would they improve? Where did you fall short? and so on.) Marketing to new prospects should go on hold until you have sorted this out.

My take on 5.3 would be different from Bruce's. I think waiting in bogs is about 'relaxing' when stuck in exactly the wrong place. 60 has to do with 'defining terms', with yourself as well as with other people.

It sounds as though you are getting bogged down in a vulnerable position. That could mean inviting exploitation by unscrupulous people, possibly by having too much faith that they will respect unwritten conventions. I would also suggest looking at the impact of work on your health and happiness. Are you unwittingly letting your business become a 'robber' of your life?

It's hard to say much more without knowing more about the nature of your business. For example, if it's a service business, I would be concerned that success in marketing, getting a lot more clients, might mean a greater drain on your energy than you are prepared for.

Is there a special reason why you haven't disclosed what your business is? You're on a tolerably well-visited and well-Google-indexed website, whose owner invited you a few posts back to add a link http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/happy.gif - and you haven't revealed anything at all.
http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/howmuch.gif
(Even I would have responded by posting a quick summary and a way to get more information - I guess a better marketer would also have posted a link to a sign-up page to get a free gift!)

Whatever the reason is for your reticence, however (apparently) minor, I think the readings may very well also touch on that.

Hexagram 27 unchanging? Stop and look at flows of nourishment (personal energy as well as money) - what you give out, what comes back to you, where it goes and where it comes from. What kind of 'ecosystem' are you creating for yourself? Looking back at 11.6 and 5.3, is it sustainable, or are there big 'energy drains'?

[millie]

i am quite disdraught about all this.

hilary, i would prefer to keep my meanderings on this site private from my professional life. the fact that this site is so well indexed on the interenet is the exact reason why i have not shared my specific business here. if you can't appreciate that, i don't what more to say to you.

i have been in school and internship for almost 5 years to prepare for this career and business. these readings have been very upsetting, and not at all what i had expected to occur.

so asked yi a couple other questions:

what about my whole life?
24.1.2.5 to 29

all i can say is, return to what? what on earth could it be that i've gone away from? i believe everything i have been doing these last few years has been working towards returning to myself, and now yi tells me not so.

what about pursuing the part-time job at ch? (this would be doing very similar work as in my business, but would be steady work for someone else to help establish in the hield and have a steady base income)
62

wow. can't expect a lesser pledge of support than that.

so i asked: what the hell and i supposed to do with my whole career?
38.1.4.6 to 7

i can't even begin to take a stab at this. but i am considering removing myself from the yi altogether. i mean, i'm a total basketbase today over a divining tool. perhaps i'm crazy.

[bruce]

Millie, you?re not crazy, just upset.

We're doing the best we can for you. Don't shoot the messenger, or the interpreters. It?s neither fun nor easy to interpret less-than-positive readings like this. We (including Yi) are just trying to help.

What you return to is yourself, your inner core. Then perhaps all of Yi?s answers will come into clearer focus for you. But your idea isn?t bad either, to walk away from the Yi for a time until things inside settle down. If you question your whole life because your future career is uncertain, then it?s certainly time to return to yourself and reestablish your priorities. Maybe that sounds presumptuous on my part, but I?m just calling it as I see it.

I just asked, on your behalf, what is the most productive course for you to take at this time? 25, lines 1 and 2 to relating 6. Without intention, one may follow their heart. It?s fruitful to undertake something if your mind is on the task and not on the results. 6 speaks for itself. Obviously there?s an inner conflict going on over this.

Let go of this thing for awhile (as in your 59 and 40), let it dissipate. If it is yours, it will return to you on its own.

Don?t know what else to say to you, except I wish you well in all your endeavors.

[millie]

don't shoot the messenger? what in the above sounds like i'm upset with you? i'm not.

i was a little mifted that hiliary nudged me about not posting a link to my website on her forum. gosh. it doesn't seem too difficult to see that marketing my business via this dialogue wouldn't be to my advantage. but i do not shoot her for interpreting my reading.

the most productive course for me? to disengage from conflict? i do not kow what the conflict is. i did just had a phone meeting with the potential emplyer of the part time position, not only did it go very well, but he referred me to someone for my business. so how is yi telling me that 62 is the path for this job?

25.2 -- Labour as an expression of yourself, not for gain only. Work to achieve quality today, not for an imagined fortune beyond the horizon. Then success will come.

this is so what i'm already about. i have done plenty of volunteer and pro-bono work. i'm not about gain only.

frustrated i am. but not at any messenger. i have worked hard to get to this place, and now finally ready to start this business, yi's feedback comes to me like a kick in the stomach. not to mention that my latest love has just disappeared before my eyes. i have no idea what's happened with him. none. doesn't match any of our conversations. i didn't need to have both my personal and professional lives in turmoil.

i do, however, have an inner anger that sometimes rubs people the wrong way. but i do not know it's happening. for example, you thought that i was shooting you. conciously, i certainly was not. but i guess i came across as sharpe. can't a woman be assertive? sometimes it seems it it not accepted to be assertive or have opinions. people think i'm angry. but i'm not. is yi telling me to work on this before i can be successful? i do not even know how to work on it. it's not pathology. it's growing up in ny and living in sf. beyond this, i can't think of what's wrong and what i'm being called to do. really. i do not want to turn away from yi, but she doesn't seemto be helping. unless i'm just not getting it?

[millie]

well, here at least is some good news.

there was an opportunity for a project that came my way a few months ago. i blew it off. not out of lack of interest, but because i was more focused on getting this other business started. i just asked yi, what about my getting back in touch with those people? 24.1.2 to 7. this sounded like the best reading i've had so far, so i called them. it turns out they were thrilled to hear from me. they have been so busy that nothing further happened with the project we'd discussed, but they would still like to talk with me about working with them.

i probably would not have called them again if it hadn't been for this situation.

[millie]

i do want to express my gratitude to those of you who have helped me here on this issue. my frustration is not with you or your message. please do not feel offended. i appreciate you all.

[bruce]

Not shooting at me specifically. I don't take your conflict personally.

62 is often working on the details or specifics. The work, not the rewards.

[hilary]

Dear Millie,

I'm sorry I upset you with my 'why not here and now?' question. Yes, of course I can appreciate that you want to keep private separate from professional. And it did occur to me, belatedly, that there are some professions where showing an interest in divination would be lousy publicity.

With 24 moving to 29, I think Yi was saying that you are Returning. That seems to me the only natural way to read it. Amidst 29, mind you - the unknown, unpredictable and altogether scary, that demands personal commitment without knowing the outcome. The moving lines are very reassuring - you are on the right track to negotiate the repeated chasms. When the oracle tells you what you already know or (even better http://www.onlineclarity.co.uk/I_Ching_community/clipart/happy.gif ) are already doing, this is a *good thing*.

62 - heh. Over the last month or so I saw this in about 60% of my own readings, and though it was all very helpful, I did wish it wouldn't. Attention to detail, getting the small stuff right, not attempting grand projects. And as you say, ensuring a basic income in a down-to-earth way. I would think that just getting this hexagram plonked down in front of you, unchanging, passes the question back to you: here's what a j-o-b would mean for you; now choose your approach.

Instinct/intuition suggests that the 38 to 7 reading had to do with taking a different view of your readings, since you were in the process of getting frustrated with the oracle - at the 'so what the hell am I supposed to think?' stage of questioning. (Which is well-known.)

The first advice - line 1 - would be to let it all sort itself out for a bit and allow the message to come to you. Like the sensible man said, how about a small Yi-holiday? Time to let the readings so far settle, relating to them not as some kind of verdict/judgement on you, but as productive suggestions for what to look at for yourself.

Oh - and I'm most definitely not offended. I have far too much in common - my annual reading is even about anger, its uses, and going beyond. Anger and frustration can be the opposite of 'settling for what you're given', and hence very useful stuff for getting change underway. More power to your elbow, I say. And congratulations on this new opening.