[Bruce Achterberg]

I'd like your feedback.

I'm busy working on my 15-second marketing message (read: procrastinating on doing something that's scary... but at least it's productive procrastination ).

This is the marketing message Steve was trying:

I'm a human alarm clock. I awaken people who are sleeping through life. Then I duck.

He explains why he chose that message here and here.

My old marketing message was:

I enliven people by illuminating their strengths and encouraging them to harness their most fulfilling, energising strengths so that we're all stronger.

Alas, I don't seem to do that at all, heh (well, I do... but it's not what people get out of me. To paraphrase Slade Roberson, your purpose is something that people pull out of you--it's what they get from you. You don't have to "do" anything to get it out there because it comes out naturally, although some lines of work allow it to flow out more naturally and purely than others).

Instead, I seem to be some sort of compassionate truth detector that cuts through the BS around me. There are a variety of ways I can do this, but helping people come back to the truth--or perhaps their truth--is what I seem to do.

Here's the new marketing message I'm testing:

I'm a mirror. I help people see what's true.

I find this fairly accurate (but not that exciting), since all I do is see truth (and have various ways of finding and detecting it) and express it to others. I'm just reflecting back what I see. I like the "I'm a mirror" part because it helps explain that it's people who empower or heal themselves, not me. I'm just a tool to facilitate that.

I figure most people will respond with "ok... so how do you do that?", to which I can reply with something like "most people believe in lots of things they've heard and those beliefs disempower them and stop them from creating a truly fulfilling life. I help people to see past those beliefs to what's true and give them space to connect with their power and their true desires" (or something like that. I'd need to practice that part, but at least, it's nice and authentic and skips the "... you're psychic?!" response.

I haven't tested it out in actual conversation yet (but I will!), and I don't find it as fun and exciting as Steve's (I'm not sure if I'm quite there yet in terms of a marketing message, but I'm getting better), but I figure it's a heck of a lot better than saying:

• "I'm an intuitive counselor" or
• "I'm an Akashic record reader" or
• "I can read your energy and, judging by how good you feel using clairsentience, I can tell you whether you feel good about what you're saying or not; whether what you're saying is true for you or not."

The reason I even care about a marketing message is because I get asked very often what I do. I don't have any business cards or a website I refer people to, but eventually I will, and I'd like to get better at expressing what I do so (A) my conversations flow more smoothly, (B) I can express the value I provide so people who actually might benefit from it can go check out my website, (C) like-minded people can recognise me as "one of them" and we can connect further as desired from there.

Basically, I'd like to not miss opportunities.

* * *

If we were talking and you asked "so… what do you do?" and I replied "I'm a mirror. I help people see what's true," what would you say (or ask)?

I'm trying to avoid those awkward blank stares, pauses, and "oh... that's... interesting" moments I get from other answers I use since responses like that mean I'm running into people's resistance or expressing myself in a way they don't understand (neither of which are productive).

Ideally, I'd at people to hear my message before they get caught up on the "mediums" (i.e. psychic ability, and other such strengths, skills, and talents that I find equally hard to describe) I use to deliver it.