The way you approach your marketing may be rooted in an intriguing piece of occult wisdom, which asks you to consider whether you are more cup or knife mind – in other words, whether you push information outwards (knife mind) or draw information inwards (cup mind).
Here, I explore the pros and cons of each approach, considering how this occult wisdom can inform your marketing efforts and help you turn occult wisdom into marketing wisdom.
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In today’s video, I talk about some interesting occult wisdom that may help you think about how you balance your marketing focus.
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Understand the Difference Between the Cup and Knife Mind
In occult wisdom, it’s thought that you have two different types of mind: you have a knife mind, and you have a cup mind. Your knife mind is the mind that pushes outwards – it’s the mind that goes out and gets things done. It pushes your will outwards. You get creative and make things happen with your knife mind.
The cup mind is different – it draws inwards rather than pushes outwards. It’s absorbing, like a vessel, so information and ideas pour into your cup mind. You absorb information –experiences, observations, statistical data – from the world around you, which your mind uses to make plans and evaluate the best course of action. You use information to invigorate and empower yourself with your cup mind.
Utilise Your Cup and Knife Minds
When I was learning about the difference between these two types of mind, I realised that occult wisdom like this underlies a lot of human psychology – and anything that’s in human psychology naturally underlies marketing too. There are different types of marketers and there’s different types of marketing, and I realised that you need both your knife mind and your cup mind if you want to maximise your marketing.
You need your knife mind because you need to get out there and do your marketing – you can’t just sit and plan, and you can’t constantly be thinking about strategy. You need to motivate yourself to make things happen – you have to create, you have to communicate with people, you have to push your knife mind out there and make your business a success.
But you also need your cup mind if you want to see great results. A major part of marketing involves stepping back, taking stock, looking at your stats and analytics, and figuring out what is actually happening – and understanding what is happening – before you go out there with your knife mind and take action.
This is the most important message from this slice of occult wisdom: it’s not that you have a cup mind or a knife mind, it’s that you have both – and you have to use both. You as a whole person need to use both your cup and your knife mind at different times for different purposes to make things happen in an informed way.
Find the Most Effective Balance in Your Marketing
If you’re a marketer or a business owner, consider whether your knife mind or your cup mind is currently dominating your marketing practice. Are you spending more time being creative and getting things done while at the same time neglecting your stats and all the information that could be guiding you? Or are you a bit of a spreadsheet fiend, so you’re too busy measuring performance rather than using that information to get creative and make things happen?
Or perhaps you have found the sweet spot for your business – the perfect balance between monitoring all the available information and statistics at your fingertips to create a plan of marketing action that you can implement. If so, congratulations!
Maximise Your Marketing Wisdom
Understanding the differences between the cup and knife minds, and their equal importance, may help you to check in with yourself regularly so you can work towards getting the balance right for your business. I find it helpful to return to this idea whenever I am working with customers or other marketing professionals who are struggling with balancing these two elements of successful marketing. It helps me with my own marketing too – we all need to take the time to check in with whether we are finding a successful balance in our marketing approach.
The concept of the cup and knife mind may be occult wisdom, but I also think it translates well to being marketing wisdom in action. If you’d like help with focusing your marketing energy in a more balanced way, please do get in touch.