“You're not lucky to have this job, they're lucky to have you. Every day, you invest a little bit of yourself into your work, and one of the biggest choices available to you is where you'll be making that investment.” –Seth Godin

With some enthusiasm, we here at HSCT can say that we are fans of marketing.

You know, that thing that you do that increases web traffic, SEO optimization, public relations and advertising.

Oh, wait, you mean that you’re not a fan of marketing? Don’t feel bad, one of the many things that we hear as we talk to small business owners, fellow mediators, presenters, entrepreneurs, soloprenuers, and others who are responsible for maintaining their own destiny in the open market, is that marketing is absolutely the scariest thing ever.

It requires a person to be creative, quick-witted, timely and able to produce something so good that it appeals both to the masses and to the specific target market at which it is aimed.

However, we have been reading a lot of Seth Godin (http://sethgodin.typepad.com/) and Mitch Joel (http://www.twistimage.com/about-mitch/) lately.

And, we have probably drunk the Kool-Aid, but we think that these guys and the folks over at Hubspot (http://www.hubspot.com/) and Dave Hilton's work at Rockstar Mediation (http://www.rockstarmediator.com/) have something to teach all of us in the mediation and peacemaking fields about marketing.

Now, we here at HSCT are not setting ourselves up as gurus or the “man of the mountain,” whose job it is to “tell you how it’s going to be,” but we have noted a few things as we have been engaged in the collaborative work of building a business here in the Southern Tier of Upstate New York:

Marketing, creativity, collaboration, deadlines, and the drive to build your business are all part of the same mélange that got you up out of bed the day you decided to set aside your 9-to-5 and take up a new mission. YOU are creative! YOU are collaborative!

The tools to accomplish every single goal that you would like to accomplish as a mediator in the realm of marketing is lying around at your feet. All that you have to do is pick the tools up and move forward. And if you don’t know how, please contact us here at Human Services Consulting and Training (HSCT) (hsconsultingandtraining@gmail.com) and we would be more than willing to collaborate with you to help you get started.

Creativity does not just refer to artistic creativity. Mediators and professional peacemakers are some of the most creative professionals in the world today. It takes creativity to get people to the negotiation/mediation table and it takes more creativity to keep them there. Kenneth Cloke writes and talks about this.

YOU are a creative, no matter what area you are in and no matter what business you are starting, buying, or running. YOU are a creative because the greatest business that you will run—EVER—will be the business of YOUR life.

HSCT knows that there are a lot of elements to marketing, branding and creating a culture are two with which we are obsessed over here. But the first thing that we had to do—before we blogged one word, took one meeting, mediated one conflict, or advised one client—was that we had to believe in the power that we had to market OUR solutions, OUR way.

Get that belief and then water it, cultivate it and watch it grow.

Here are some marketing resources to help you out if you are just starting in the peacebuilding fields, or if you just want a different (and perhaps more cogently written) perspective:

Seth Godin Blog: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/

Mitch Joel website: http://www.twistimage.com/about-mitch/

Rockstar Mediation VIP List: http://www.rockstarmediator.com/

-Peace Be With You All-

Jesan Sorrells, MA
Principle Mediator/Consultant
Human Services Consulting and Training (HSCT)
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