People first, then money, then things.

—Suze Orman

For J.C. Penney, none of the conditions for a typically profitable business existed. Except in his mind. He had no perks that put him ahead, except for his passion to enrich the lives of those in his community. He knew that people deserved better, that people would agree, and that they would take advantage of what he offered them.

The struggling people of Kemmerer, Wyoming, walked into the Golden Rule store and saw fashionable, well-made clothing. Instead of immediate defeat, turning around, and walking out the door, the people could delve into shopping. They had confidence that they could afford what was in front of them. That was empowering. That gave pride. Wearing those clothes changed how a person felt walking down the street.

What's more extraordinary is that it didn't stop with what the people could purchase and how that made them feel. His employees were empowered too. Their direct involvement in the business made them enthusiastic, confident, and empowered—all the qualities the customers wanted for themselves. This created a positive relationship between the customers and the salespeople.

This is the profound power of Penney's business model. It created an overwhelmingly positive experience for those on both sides of the line: the buying side and the selling side.

We have a product, we have a service. Something good. That is where every entrepreneur's journey begins. We must get this impassioned product or service into the hands of the right people, the people who will benefit the most from it.

If we don't sell, if we don't market, if we don't promote, our business will remain in the basement, along with all our unfulfilled good intentions. Business is selling. We must sell.

Sell.

A concept perceived with demonic qualities as terrible as money itself.

Particularly for the spiritually inclined.

Too many believe that

1. Selling is sleazy.
2. Selling is sneaky.
3. Selling is dishonest.
4. Selling is manipulative.
5. Selling is unnatural.
6. Selling is ugly.
7. Selling is certainly not soulful.

These statements are too often true.

There are people who have despicably abused their selling savvy to cheat people out of their money. There are people who have preyed on the desperate to serve their own financial benefit. There are people who sell with no compassion, no understanding, no sensitivity, and no vision. There are people who lie, cheat, and steal to swing the sale. There are people who bend the boundaries of the rules to clinch the sale.

Isn't selling inherently disingenuous? Doesn't it taint the parts of our souls dedicated to a mission of giving? Isn't giving itself the ultimate expression of good with selling a tainted cousin? Doesn't it taint our passion, soil our purpose, and derail our mission?

No. That is not the case. The Awakened Millionaire knows the true nature of business.

Business is sharing.

Look at all the facets of the Awakened Millionaire's DNA—passion, purpose, mission, intuition, inspiration, spirituality, and ethics. The Awakened Millionaire wants to make it all happen, get it out in the world, and share it.

Selling, marketing, promotion—that's business. Business is how we share ourselves, our passion, and our products or services with the people who will benefit from them. It's how we manifest our mission, make it real.

Soul + Business = Sharing

We must know who will benefit. We must know where to find the people who will benefit. We must know how to connect with those people. We must know what to communicate to those people. We must know how to sell.

We could run up to strangers on the street and scream, “I can make you happy!” and they would simply ignore us, writing us off as a misguided soul secretly in search of a free dollar. It wouldn't matter what good we held in our hands. It wouldn't matter whether or not we could indeed save their lives. To scream in their faces with the hope they'll immediately understand how valuable we can be to them is profoundly ineffective.

To hem and haw and dance around the sell is equally ineffective. People distrust a lack of confidence. If we can't be compelling, they assume there must be something wrong with the product.

We live in a world rife with distraction, with bustling hustle, with people pulling for our attention, our interest, and our desires. Our senses are overloaded with input. There is very little room to communicate in a world with such noise.

So how do we talk to them? How do we communicate the benefit we offer to them? We must speak from the heart, from the soul, from the point of passion, with true understanding and empathy for the people we serve—our customer.

Few stressed this better than authors like Dale Carnegie. His 1936 masterpiece, How to Win Friends and Influence People, remains a classic today. His focus on the other person, not you, holds the key to how an Awakened Millionaire thinks and behaves. It's about understanding and serving the other person, not yourself. As a result of serving others, you will be served. He wrote, “Success in dealing with people depends on a sympathetic grasp of the other person's viewpoint.” He also wrote, “Remember that other people may be totally wrong. But they don't think so. Don't condemn them. Any fool can do that. Try to understand them.”

The famous sales teacher and author, Zig Ziglar, also pointed in this direction when he said, “You can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.”

The best copywriters know this. As I wrote in my book, Hypnotic Writing, “Get out of your ego and into the other person's ego.” Focus in your writing and speaking on what the other person gets, not on what you sell or offer.

We do not say, “I have the best solution that will ever exist. My product is packed with this feature and that feature that blows away everything else. My product will change the very way the world spins.” That'll happen about as regularly as the wheel is reinvented.

We say it differently. We say, “You have a problem. It affects you in this way. It takes away from your life in this way. It holds you back in this way. And I have a solution. It not only solves your problem, but it brings you happiness. It brings you a better life. It brings you more fulfillment in what you do.”

Bruce Barton, cofounder of BBDO, the giant advertising agency, explained the difference between selling gasoline and selling dreams when he said selling gas was selling a product, but selling the end dream of being able to go on vacation or to work because of the gas in the car was selling the benefit.

It's the difference between saying here's a new computer with new high-speed bells and whistles (a feature) and here's a computer which will enable you to get your work done more efficiently (benefit). Always focus on the benefits.

We speak not just to their rational mind. We speak to their emotional core, to their deepest interest, desires, and pains. We resonate with their innermost beings.

We do this by stepping outside ourselves. By going beyond our own personal desires. Our motives must spring from the needs and wishes of our customers.

If we speak with integrity, with honesty, with passion, and with commitment to making a difference in their lives, then we see the soulful side of selling.

We must not forget that all of us are discerning individuals. We think for ourselves. We consider intelligently. We look at the options and we all have a decent intuitive meter that tells us when something is on point or when something is off and against our self-interest.

Yes, there are times when in our most desperate moments we will cling to any solution that has the remote possibility of saving us. But if we, as Awakened Millionaires, wear our integrity on our sleeves, if we speak with respect and dignity, then we never need to worry about the dark side of selling and persuasion. The inherent authenticity you hold will stand by your communication and speak to the authentic observer in your customer.

We must be champions of our passion and we must be champions of our product. We must believe we are providing transcendent value to our customer. For if we're not, we must step back and reassess what we are doing. If we are bringing the utmost potency of our passion, purpose, and mission, then we must do justice to this. We must get our products in the right hands and we must not let a fear of persuasion and selling get in our way. We are in the business of sharing.