In marketing and sales, you cannot avoid running into one of these two patterns: either you are confronted with a problem you are struggling with. Or you are sold a dream. Aspiration-based marketing, if you want the official term.
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This post is about the dream version. Because there is something in it we rarely name.
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The promise always sounds the same:
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โ ๐ ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ข๐ญ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐บ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐ช๐ต ๐ช๐ฏ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ. ๐๐ต ๐ช๐ด ๐ข๐ญ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฅ๐บ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ฆ, ๐ซ๐ถ๐ด๐ต ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ค๐ฐ๐จ๐ฏ๐ช๐ด๐ฆ๐ฅ, ๐ด๐ถ๐ฑ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ฆ๐ด๐ด๐ฆ๐ฅ, ๐ถ๐ฏ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฏ. ๐๐ถ๐ต ๐ ๐ด๐ฆ๐ฆ ๐ช๐ต. ๐๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐ช๐ง ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฑ๐ข๐บ ๐ฎ๐ฆ, ๐ ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ต๐ฆ๐ข๐ค๐ฉ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฆ๐ค๐ฉ๐ฏ๐ช๐ฒ๐ถ๐ฆ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฅ, ๐ต๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ฆ ๐ด๐ฉ๐ช๐ง๐ต ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฅ ๐บ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ธ๐ช๐ญ๐ญ ๐ต๐ข๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง๐ง ๐ญ๐ช๐ฌ๐ฆ ๐ข ๐ณ๐ฐ๐ค๐ฌ๐ฆ๐ต.โ
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Easy peasy. Just swallow a pil, red or blue, it works both ways.
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What that promise does is subtle and structural. It lowers the threshold to almost nothing. Everyone can do it. Everyone has the talent. The only thing that was missing was permission and a tool.
The democratisation of tools has accelerated this enormously. Writing, publishing, speaking, building, launching: access is there. And that is genuinely good. More people trying more things. More people starting.
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But this is where things start to flatten and to hollow out.
If everyone already has it in them, no one needs to develop it anymore. Just use the tool. Buy the product. If the technique is enough, the craft disappears. If the tool does the work, the difference between someone who has built for ten years and someone who started yesterday flattens out.
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I call it the โ๐๐ซ๐๐ง๐ฎ๐๐ค๐๐ฎโ๐จ ๐๐๐ข๐ค๐ช๐จโ syndrome.
(Everybodyโs Famous (Iedereen Beroemd) is a 2000 Belgian film by Dominique Deruddere, nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. I had a small role in it. The title aged well.)
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Donโt get me wrong โ there is absolutely nothing wrong with ambition or dreams. But words lose their meaning when everyone gets to claim them without the weight that belongs to them. Expert. Author. Speaker. Thought leader. The words are still there. The substance is not.
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And it does not only affect the people who believe too much too soon. It also affects the people who have actually built. Whose work actually stands. Because the field they operate in has become so flat that distinction is no longer legible.
Good has become good enough. And even that is debatable.
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The dream version of marketing sells access. That is its power and its damage. Because what could have set people apart -depth, consistency, time- becomes invisible in a world where everybody gets to be famous.
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So the question is not whether you have it in you, but what you do with it when no one will see the difference anymore.
I consider myself a terrible marketer because I refuse to use either approach. I donโt sell you a problem you didnโt know you had, and I donโt sell you a dream. I try to be realistic. Which is, commercially speaking, not exactly convenient. People look for recognition in the problem or in the dream. Realism offers neither.
But in the work I do, convincing someone is pointless. If you need to be convinced, we are starting on the wrong foundation. The work only works when you walk in because you decided to โ not because I made it sound irresistible. It is a collaboration, not a conversion. And collaborations built on soap bubbles donโt survive the first honest conversation.
Curious where you actually stand? The Authority Mindset Audit is not a sales funnel. It is a diagnostic tool โ seven minutes, six domains, a PDF in your inbox. No dream. No problem. Just a mirror
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