It’s easy to keep track of what art is by what it’s not – it’s not following a manual, reading a Dummies book, looking for a map. It tends to be people who work with a compass instead – who have an understanding of true north and are willing to solve a problem in an interesting way.

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Marketing isn’t advertising – marketing is the product we make, the service we offer, the life we live. And no one ever knows the truth about anyone else – but what we notice about other people, what we notice about what organizations do, that’s marketing. If it’s noticed, it’s marketing.

So the choice is: Do we seek to push to the world an idea that doesn’t hold up to scrutiny, that isn’t true, that isn’t valid, but we can trick people into buying from us – that’s one sort of negative way to approach marketing – or do we build an organization and build a life and build a career where if someone knew the truth, they’d want to work with us. And that’s marketing, too.

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[Ethical marketing] involves weaving a story, and weaving a tribe, and weaving a network that means something – doing work that matters. Because, now, everyone has their own TV network; everyone has their own radio station; everyone has their own printing press. So what are you going to put on it? What are you going to put out to the world?

Because if we’re moving beyond “You work for me and you do what I say,” to a world where I say, “Here – here is a microphone, speak up!”; “Here – here is a connection to the internet, touch who you want!” – we are going to notice what you do.

And so, whether or not you choose to be a marketer, you are one.