The enchanting danger of glamour

A few years ago, I was listening to an interview with Steve Sims, CEO and owner of BlueFish - an exclusive concierge service for the super wealthy. Amongst details about the lavish events he would plan in impossible destinations, Steve discussed his company’s online and marketing presence.

While BlueFish has developed an online presence in the last year or so, at the time of the interview the one-paged static website read as follows: 

The BlueFish
Personal VIP Concierge Services

That’s it. No contact information. No list of client testimonials. Simply a company name and 4-word description.

Of course, given the high-end clientele of BlueFish, this minimalist marketing approach did support a feeling of exclusivity often associated with high-end services.

However, the larger point for everyone to consider, Sims explained, is that flashy visibility does not automatically equal success. And in fact, there are many highly prestigious and successful businesses which grow solely through their reputation - one client at a time.

In other words, he was taking a hard stand against glamour, and the lies it often sells, in favor of building his own truth. 

How strong Is your foundation?

To be clear - this is not an anti-marketing or anti-PR post. Marketing and PR are valuable tools that can significantly magnify the reach and impact of a person, project, or business.

But that’s just it - they are magnifying tools. They aren’t a replacement for quality substance. And if there is a lack of substance in the foundation of your business, marketing tools will eventually magnify those areas of lack in insidious ways you may not be aware of. It works both ways.

Ultimately, nothing can replace the strength of substantial foundation behind your work.  And a strong foundation is built on two things: how you engage with your immediate network (or loyal audience) and your high quality service or product. Period. 

Take it from someone who has been there. When you exert a ton of energy on glamorizing your work or offering without taking the time to build a strong foundation, it can feel a bit like you’re holding an empty egg shell - one wrong move and *poof* it’s all gone.  

When you place your focus on your foundation, everything becomes easier. You experience more success because you’re focusing on what matters. You experience more ease because you’re coming from a place of authenticity. You experience more confidence because the marketing added on top of that solid base doesn’t feel like an empty promise - it feels like you’re turning up the volume on an already amazing song.

It’s easy to want what we don’t have. 

Many of us were unfortunately taught how to aim high by comparing ourselves with others.

To be the best student, get better grades than your peers.

To get an orchestral job, play your excerpts better than your colleagues. 

To be the top person in your field, make more money than everyone else.

This model for seeking happiness and abundance, while extremely common, is terribly broken. 

If this line of thinking sounds familiar to you, you may think you’re running towards being exceptional. While that may be true, you’re probably spending even more energy running away from being average or mundane. And that’s not great.

Part of the reason that it’s so easy to get caught up in the pictures we see around us of the lives and businesses other people lead is that many of us don’t have a clear picture of what we are running towards. You might even just have a word like “successful” that you’re aiming for, but no clear picture of what that means.

So when you come up against the glamorized versions of other people, without a clear picture of what success means to you, it is easy to adopt what they’re selling as your new goal. Even if what they’re projecting out there isn’t the full picture. Even if what they’re projecting out there isn’t even real.

Ultimately, in this model, you lose. You blame yourself for all of your perceived shortcomings as they compare to the filtered, glamorized versions of others’ businesses and lives. And you can never quite figure out why it’s not working for you.

Don’t forget the most important ingredient.

If you want to make anything work for you - your career, your passion project, your social life - you have to make it work for *you*. 

As we covered earlier, making something truly work requires a strong foundation of substance. A strong foundation of substance comes from engaging your immediate network and focusing on quality. 

Nobody else can engage with your network for you. Yes it can be scary. Yes it can be vulnerable. However there is really no workaround here. No amount of publicity or marketing can replace the you in the equation of you+them.

And when it comes to quality - build the quality that you want to experience in the world. Trust you. Create for you. Put products out into the world that are deeply authentic to you.

Simple? Yes.

Easy? Not always.

Worth it? Every time.