I sell more books when I stop trying so hard to sell them.
No popups.
No countdown timers.
No fake scarcity.
Just a quiet offering made with care.
It’s counterintuitive, I know.
But it works.
I call it Open Heart Marketing.
OHM, for short.
Like the sound — Om.
A little hippy, maybe.
But it fits.
Because OHM isn’t a strategy.
It’s not a trick.
It’s a posture.
A way of meeting people without pressure.
A way of sharing work that’s rooted in trust rather than control.
I learned marketing the old way.
Funnels.
Tripwires.
Emotional triggers.
I spent years swimming in that world, coached by some of the early internet pioneers — John Reese, Jonathan Mizel, Yanik Silver.
Backroom seminars. Private masterminds. Endless talk about “conversion rates” and “psychological pain points.”
And I watched how easily the language of care could be weaponised.
How fast “value” became a mask for manipulation.
I heard the contempt many marketers had for their audience — the way they spoke about customers behind closed doors.
That was the moment I knew I couldn’t keep doing it.
So I walked away.
The shift wasn’t immediate.
It took years to unlearn what I’d absorbed.
To stop treating people like numbers on a dashboard.
To find a rhythm that actually felt like me.
Now I approach marketing like an art practice.
I don’t write “content.”
I make something I care about and offer it freely.
A story, a reflection, a photo, a fragment of insight — whatever feels alive in the moment.
Not what I think will perform.
What feels honest.
I want my audience to feel like they’re walking through a gallery, not a shopping centre.
I want them to be moved.
Touched.
Not hustled.
And what I’ve found is — people notice.
They share my work.
They write back.
They say things like,
“This doesn’t feel like marketing.”
And they’re right. It isn’t.
In marketing terms, they’d call it positioning.
But I’m not positioning anything.
I’m just showing up, doing what I love, and letting that speak for itself.
My inner life shapes what I share.
The work draws people in naturally — not through urgency or fear, but through resonance.
I’m not desperate for sales.
I don’t chase outcomes.
And because of that, I’ve built a sustainable business that still feels human.
Others are doing the same.
Seth Godin has written a blog post every single day for over 8,000 days.
Not to sell, but to offer.
He still sells millions of books.
Craig Mod walks Japan’s pilgrimage routes.
Then writes long, handcrafted essays for his members.
No funnels,
no bait,
just care.
Austin Kleon shares what he’s thinking and making each week.
His newsletters feel like letters from a friend, not marketing campaigns.
None of them rely on tricks.
None of them push.
They just show up.
Over and over again.
That’s the heart of OHM.
Open.
Human.
Unforced.
Marketing doesn’t have to be extractive.
It doesn’t have to be noisy.
You can build a life around the things you love by simply being honest about them…
…and sharing from that place.
People are tired of being sold to.
They’re craving something real.
Something human.
If you give them that, they’ll stay.
And you won’t need a popup to convince them.