Gabby B's New Book Trailer Made Me Feel Kind Of Gross

Today when I was wading through my mountains of email I came across a very short two-sentence email from Gabrielle Bernstein’s email list. It said: 

Hi Jess,Today is a big day. I'm officially announcing something that will change the way you experience your life forever.Click here to check it out...Expect miracles,Gabby

 New program?New podcast?New meditation technique? I curiously clicked the link and was taken to a trailer video for her new book “The Universe Has Your Back” that’s due out in September. I already knew the book was coming because I saw it in my Amazon recommendations last week.Here’s the trailer for to see so the rest of what I have to say has some context. 

[su_vimeo url="https://vimeo.com/171609120" width="820" responsive="no"]

 I sat for a minute after watching this and didn’t know what I was feeling. It was a weird sense of frustration. A sense of being a bit let down. That feeling of “No, not this shit again.”I would definitely say that Gabby’s book trailer was triggering for me. To me, it screams MAGIC PILL, and it makes me want to take ten Silkwood style showers to wash off the ick. 

To be fair, before I rant on...

Let me just say that I KNOW this is about the marketing and not Gabby. It’s about the utterly contrived, overly emotional, and sketchy marketing. I have nothing but love for her. This also isn't about the video itself. The production, the packaging, it's fine. It's about the marketing of the message and how marketing in the spiritual and new age industry tend to go. This video encompasses everything I hate about the new age spiritual self-help world that I’m part of. However, one thing that it did brilliantly is demonstrated all those “hook ‘em in” tactics that I’ve learned in every online business program I’ve ever taken.Find the “pain point,” that thing that makes people stay awake at night and break out into a panic attack while in line at the grocery store, and poke it. Dig into it. Pour salt in the wound. Make them really feel it.Then, when you've shown them that you know what they’re going through, and you’ve spoken their language, basically using their words against them by saying the very things they say to themselves in those dark moments, you show them “a path.” A way that you can help lead them from their pain to their bliss. Or, as is the case here, faith and joy.“I know you’re feeling really fucking shitty and like your life is going to fall apart around you, but I can show you a better way. I have the answer to help you go from being sad and disappointed in life and fearful of the world to being happy, confident, and living your bliss. Join me {insert program, book, retreat, course, etc} and I will show you the way.” 

NO! 

It’s not that easy.

 This sense of simplicity and ease, the idea that this thing, like in this case a book, is going to turn all your fear into your greatest asset somehow is the lie of false hope that always makes me cringe. But, let’s face it, it’s the thing that sells. People like when stuff is easy.When people are down and out and feeling desperate, those are the words that make them buy. Why do you think all those weight loss and exercise programs run their infomercials in the middle of the night and end up selling thousands of units each week? It’s not because the solution is so great, it’s because the solution is made to seem like a simple fix. Eat this, do this 10 minutes daily work out, and BOOM you’re a size six.I hate that these tactics are used in the spiritual world, and I really hate that they work. I hate that people who are seemingly well-meaning in their intentions and teachings choose to go the route of sleazy car salesman to sell their wares.I think of it as the new age equivalent to being a sleazy drug dealer in an alley with a windowless van with a bad fantasy scene airbrushed on the side. You see someone walking around looking out of sorts, and you say “Psst…you…come here, I’ve got what you need.”And it’s not really that bad of an analogy since so many people are like addicts looking for the next level high in the new age community. 

Honesty, integrity, and respect for the challenges that people are facing. That’s what we need in our marketing.

Let’s be honest.

Tell them they are going to have work to change years of negative mental conditioning into joy or bliss. If you’ve spent 30 years being afraid of your own voice and speaking your truth, one book or one retreat or one ANYTHING isn’t going to suddenly make you Beyonce or Oprah. 

Let’s be in our integrity. 

If we wouldn’t want to be shamed into buying into something, let’s not do it to others for the sake of sales and numbers. If you know your solution can help a particular problem, don’t exaggerate or conveniently leave out key points about what needs to be done to achieve the end goal just because it might scare someone off. And if it does scare them off, that’s better for you in the end. Think about it. 

Let’s have respect for people’s challenges.

If someone isn’t ready, they aren’t ready. If someone can’t afford it, they can’t afford it. Don’t throw their fear in their face. Don’t tell them that they are “letting fear win” when they say no. Some people’s issues and reasons for not being ready to jump on board has nothing to do with you and everything to do with deeper past trauma that they need professional psychological help with.Many people fear the stigma of seeking “professional help,” i.e. seeing a mental health professional or another counselor. Instead, they turn to life coaches or spiritual teachers because they’re more accepted. Unfortunately, the truth is we aren’t equipped to help them when they need that sort of guidance. Out of respect for them and to stay in our integrity, know when to accept “no” for an answer. And for you, the down and out seeker looking for a spiritual solution to your problem that you can’t seem to get away from, I say this...When you’re spoon-fed sentimental and emotional tripe to try and make you pay for something that you know, in your heart of hearts, isn’t the answer you’re looking for, but instead you know you’re just having your emotions preyed on, trust your gut. The only guru you need is the one inside you, and it knows far more than you give it credit for.