Not promotion, process — Kelford Labs Daily

Answering the question: “How to market yourself authentically by sharing your process”

Last week, while flipping through a book of collected Roger Ebert articles, this quote from his 1997 interview with Steven Spielberg grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me back-and-forth.

Ebert writes:

“Sometimes during an interview you have the impression that your subject is ‘doing publicity for the movie.’ When I talk to Spielberg, it’s like he has something amazing he wants to tell me. He is delighted, he is fascinated, by making movies. Talking about them doesn’t get old for him because he is not ‘promoting’ them; he is engaged in the process of understanding how his new movie came to be.”

Let’s just read that again:

“He is engaged in the process of understanding how his new movie came to be.”

You know I’ve been orbiting this idea that your process is your position. That your process is what allows you to make promises in your promotions.

And doesn’t that Ebert quote just sum the whole thing up? It immediately crystallized for me that it’s not about talking about your process. It’s about actively engaging in it, publicly.

Now, I don’t think Spielberg’s superlative success comes down to pure marketing. But we can’t kid ourselves and pretend it has nothing to do with it.

And to the extent that marketing matters for Spielberg, that’s how he’s always done it:

By engaging in his process, publicly.

It helps to be, probably, the most intuitive filmmaker to ever live, but how much of his intuition is fuelled by his curiosity?

How much of his ability to get good and get better comes from engaging in his process publicly? With peers, with students, and even with critics like Ebert?

So in those moments where I struggle to promote myself, to put myself out there, to be in the spotlight, this is what I’m going to lean back on:

I don’t have to do “publicity,” I just have to engage with my own process, publicly.

That’s all my marketing needs to be. My LinkedIn posts and videos. My speaking appearances, my networking, my newsletter.

Marketing isn’t about talking ourselves up, in that crass and uncomfortable way. It’s not about saying, “Look how great I am.”

It’s about showing, about pointing at our process and saying, “See? Isn’t this interesting? Isn’t this valuable?”

And we do that by engaging with our process publicly.

That’s how we promote.

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