Selling Without Selling Out

I’ve done it. I’ve decided to bite the bullet. A week or so ago I enrolled in a 6 month part-time crash course - is that a paradox? The course is in A.I Driven marketing with a reputable vocation-focussed company. One of my good friends in Lisbon is now successfully working as a data analyst in no small part due to a 9-week intensive course.

Now I think coding is something I would completely abhor myself. I was on the brink of signing up for a similar style reputable training company in the UK over a decade ago. And I most certainly would have signed on the line that is dotted, had I not been handed a pamphlet as the nice lady was walking out of the door. On the back “it has a couple of jokes, just to show we’re not all stuffy in the computer programming industry, we also like a good laugh”. 

After reading it, and not the slightest flicker of a smile from yours truly, I decided computer programming was not for me. It didn’t even have that “Run DOS, Run DOS Run” gag from The Simpsons! And again just a couple of years ago I attempted a C++ course on Udemy, but as suspected after a few lessons I was bored rigid, and the course fell by the wayside.

Marketing on the other hand I already have a solid grasp on. Not the jargon, or even the tools to use, but the key concepts - after all I’ve been marketed to my entire life.

Those who know me will know how much of an influence Bill Hicks is on the man I am today. Many of his routines attacked marketing and advertising. He spoke of them as if they were tools of Satan, using sex to sell and compartmentalising humans into ever more specific boxes. He felt we were entering a paradigm where the all mighty dollar was god, and scruples were at an all time low, and it was marketing and advertising that were the catalyst. 

Looking around, It’s hard not to argue that his prophecy was spot on. And we do appear to live on the 3rd Mall from the Sun too. Marketing and Advertising are even more ubiquitous than they were in the 90s. I guess I internalised that message, and what scares me most is being corruptible and losing my integrity.

I have an instinctive distrust of anyone that wants to sell me something, anything. Whether it be the Dalai Lama selling tickets to watch him speak, or Eckhart Tolle charging for his CDs. The message instantly feels sullied by the demand for money. 

Nothing will make me click away faster than a hollow promise in a 30 minute recorded video, where you can’t skip along, and the message off “I’ll tell you this magical solution for free, but first you have to listen to my entire life story”. And I get the idea that the brand, service, coach or entrepreneur is only attempting to build rapport, prove their validity, and establish trust but it just makes me feel like they think I’m stupid.

And those “sponsored advertisers” that appear at the top of your Google search. The ones that skip the organic route to leap frog to the top of the search charts? They might as well have the word ‘scam’ written in their description, as I’ll avoid them and go straight to the first non-paid result.

Logic tells me they’re legitimate businesses using sensible marketing tactics. If your aim is to sell a product or service, then it makes sense to market it as prominently as possible, especially if you’ve only a small reach to begin with. It could be I’m punishing the Mom n’ Pops of the internet landscape, but my reaction is emotional, not logical.

Am I growing up, selling out or merely joining the rat race? That’s my concern right now. The course is far from cheap, and there’s no guarantee of getting a job at the end of it, or even passing the course for that matter, but I’ve done enough standing still, and I have to have faith in myself to bring my values to the industry, instead of sacrificing at the altar of commerce.