It’s a higher vibration

June 26, 2023
Does this Rick Rubin line apply to how you approach your work? 

“We’re making the best we can make, to the best of our ability, out of love and devotion.” Alright, so the love and devotion part might feel over the top. 

Plus he was talking about art while we’re over here dealing with B2B marketing.  

But here’s what he was really getting at in this recent interview with Jay Shetty: Other people liking what we create is out of our control.

So we don’t optimize for an outcome like that. We’re looking within and aiming higher.  “It’s a higher vibration.” While our job is to make sure our marketing resonates with our ICP, we run the risk of obsessing so much over the outcome that we don’t place enough value on the level of our input.   

So that’s super producer Rick Rubin planting a seed for us this past week.  

Then there’s Paul Annacone. Who?! “My biggest philosophy about maximizing your potential for anything you do in life is…” We’re talking about the legendary coach to tennis greats like Pete Sampras and Roger Federer.  

And here’s what he said on the grossly underrated podcast Finding Mastery:  

“You have to know your identity – who you are, what makes you work, why it makes you work and how to stay within those parameters so that you can set up a structure that gives you the best chance to reach your goals.” 

This isn’t about marketing though. This is about high performance. Oh, which happens to relate back to truly great marketing leadership. 

When times get tough, do we invest in ourselves by working from the inside out? Or do we just bury ourselves deeper in the marketing tactics?  

Back to (crazy-looking) Rick Rubin… When greats break through, it’s not about breaking through with an audience. It’s about breaking through with ourselves. Meaning:  

“To get past all the blocks and to be free in this moment in a way where we can really express our views and be heard, and people can react.”  

Now that’s really starting to sound like marketing talk.  Think about how hard it is to earn someone’s attention right now.  

You’re driving B2B marketing at a time when people aren’t buying the way they used to. They’re not even paying attention the way they used to. But you’re responsible for growth.  

We believe in our frameworks around Low Friction Acquisition and all that. But we also believe marketing leaders need to be the best versions of themselves in order to win now.  Let’s get one more from coach extraordinaire Paul Annacone. He shares this “unscientific model” for evaluating professionals:

Head – Our ability to think clearly under pressure
Heart – How well we compete no matter the circumstances
Talent – The skills and attributes we have that we can use to win

Now let’s think about our lovely world of B2B marketing: 99% of the advice we get from “thought leaders” maps narrowly to the Talent bucket above.  

Switch to demand gen, do attribution like this, un-gate your content… It’s all tactical. In many cases it’s not even all that helpful. And it certainly doesn’t get close to the Head and Heart buckets.  

There’s such an imbalance.  Look, we’re gonna keep hitting you with marketing specific growth lessons every week.  

Like the three shifts to consider right now.  And how to avoid the biggest marketing mistake in 2023.  

But we felt the need for something different this week after listening to these two excellent podcasts. Hope you enjoyed the detour. Now back to your mission.  

- Your partners in growth at Elevate Demand