In fact there was a time in my life when I actively disliked and even demonized the very concepts of Marketing and ads.

I disliked the phony-ness. The manipulation. The tearing people down just so you can convince them that your product is the only thing that can bring them back up.

Most of what I saw Marketing as was a practice in manipulating people’s emotions, chipping away at their insecurities, and using fear and scarcity to pressure them into doing things and buying things they wouldn’t otherwise.

I strongly disliked it.

And I wanted nothing to do with it.

Marketing, it seems, didn’t feel the same about me.

Perhaps appropriately, given the stage that had been set, Marketing and I first found each other by accident.

One of my early passions in this life was DJing on the radio. From 2002 to 2007, I had a live, all-vinyl show twice a month on a local station in Santa Fe. I loved it. I loved setting the auditory stage, sharing obscure music that I enjoyed, and taking listeners on a journey they hadn’t expected to find themselves on.

Come to think of it, DJing itself was really my first experience in marketing…. Maybe this relationship didn’t start out as oppositional as I thought it did?

Nonetheless, friends and connections were made, one job in radio led to another, and soon, completely unexpectedly, I found myself running production for a decent sized station.

Making Commercials.

Those things I thought I hated.

And suddenly, I was on the other side. Making ads for local, family-owned businesses. Making PSAs for community initiatives, making commercials for charities, for food banks, for community organizations.

I saw real people who were doing genuinely good things, reaching out to find the very people whose lives could be most improved by what they wanted to share with the world.

It was then that I understood the true value of Marketing for the first time.

I saw Marketing, for the first time, as more than just making money.

I saw it as making connections.

As helping people who want to help people find the very people who can most benefit from their help.

And I discovered that Marketing could be something I’d never expected it to be: an act of love.

Of giving.

Of support.

Of healing.

Throughout the rest of my time making radio commercials, one question became my guiding star:

How can I put concepts and messages out into the world in a positive, loving and compassionate way, without manipulation, greed, or harm?

When Radio and I parted ways a couple of years later, and my attention and the focus of my life shifted towards learning about Nature, I didn’t make another piece of Marketing for several years.

But I never stopped asking that question.

The next time I made an ad was on the other side of several years of ecology and wilderness education.

I made some friends who blew glass and, once again without planning to, found myself single-handedly making and running a small online glass art gallery. It was my first introduction to e-commerce, and I once again suddenly found myself making and publishing ads, albeit in a very different way and for a very different market.

And as I spent the next few years learning about copywriting, meta ads, website design, graphic design, and all the other ways that Marketing keeps an online business afloat, that same question resurfaced again and again.

How can I put concepts and messages out into the world in a positive, loving and compassionate way, without manipulation, greed, or harm?

As I’ve continued to design my own wilderness connection and mindfulness course, share my art, share my concepts around magic, and just share more of myself and my work with the world in ways that I hope will elevate the lives of those that I reach, that question seems more critical and meaningful than ever.

And as I learn, travel, and explore more of this world, I again and again encounter those who are asking the same question.

Most of them, though, aren’t in the Marketing business.

They’re in the Giving business.

They, like me, want to reach people whose lives they can improve, not extract from.

And, while they know they need to reach out to people and find those who will be most truly grateful to receive what they’re giving, they don’t necessarily know how.

And when those people realize that they need help getting their message out, that can quickly become a very real challenge.

Because it’s hard to find someone with experience in and a focus on Marketing, who sees things like they do.

Like I do.

And that’s why I’ve started offering my services as a freelance Marketer.

As this thing I never wanted to be, never dreamed I would be when I was young.

To do it differently.

To reach out to people with compassion.

To help make the world a bit brighter by helping those who have dreams of a better future make those dreams become real.

And so I find myself seeking the very clients who would seek me: those whose view of outreach and marketing come from a vision of the highest good.

Given my wide breadth of experience, I can help businesses and organizations with nearly every part of their outreach, product and business presence design, and customer journey shaping.

I can design everything from your website to your ads to your emails to the subtleties of your customer’s experiences from scratch.

Or I can meet you wherever you are.

I’m currently building websites, crafting customer journeys, designing cohesive marketing strategies, running email lists, creating meta ads, writing blogs, doing graphic design.

And if you’re one of these people I’ve described, if you’re looking to leave the world just a bit (or a lot) better than you found it, and you’re seeking to connect to and find the people you can help, I can facilitate that process for you in any or all of these ways, too.

If you’re interested in exploring the possibility of working with me, it would be my pleasure to talk with you.

Feel free to reach out to me below and share a slice of your vision with me.

Whatever you’re working towards, whatever you’re creating to put out into and elevate this crazy world we live in, I’d be honored to help you get there.

I hope to hear from you, and see whose lives we might be able to touch together.

In gratitude,

Eric C. Winter