The Heros Journey and Online Marketing

When I was teaching, one of my favorite units of the year was the Heros Journey. I loved helping students understand the Heros Journey pattern and then watch them as they applied it to all sorts of things, everything from television advertisements to sporting events to Disney movies to popular music.

The concept of the journey is very powerful, and if I had a penny for every time I come across a blog post or a video in which the word journey is mentioned, I would be a multi-millionaire.

Seriously, that is how ingrained it is within us.

The power of taking a journey, of growing and learning and developing, is uniquely human. That is why no matter what era you live in or what the opportunities are, fundamentally, each of us is on our own Heros Journey.

In case it has been a few years since you sat in an English classroom, here is the Heros Journey pattern:

Every entrepreneur I know is in the midst of his or her own Heros Journey. Here is how I see the stages of the Heros Journey breaking down for each of us that has heard and answered “The Call”:

1. The Call to Adventure: The desire for something new and better for our lives is too strong to ignore. We are thus called to venture out on our own and form our own enterprises, becoming entrepreneurs.
2. The First Threshold: This would be our first success — it could be launching our blog, getting a Facebook Fan Page set up, uploading our first video, making our first sale. Often, the first threshold makes us feel powerful, but if we aren’t careful, we can rest our laurels on it and stagnate. In fact, notice the threshold line on the diagram — it marks the difference between the known and the unknown.
3. Challenges and Temptations: Who isn’t familiar with these? Once we cross over that threshold into the unknown, we discover how difficult the journey we are on truly is. The realization that building an online business is very hard can be reason enough for the weak to quit. Temptations are everywhere — mindlessly surfing the Internet, watching TV, making excuses for ourselves, negative thought processes, etc. This is a very difficult time in the Heros Journey, and that is why it is so important to have Helpers and Mentors to keep us on track.
4. Mentors and Helpers: We would be nowhere if it weren’t for the Helpers and Mentors in our lives. An example of this would be the Tribe. For those of us who have embraced the Tribe concept, we are surrounded by well-meaning, supportive people who every day help us push past the challenges and temptations and keep us creating forward motion in our lives.
5. The Abyss: This is the darkest time in the Heros Journey and it cannot be avoided. For the online entrepreneur, it often comes in the guise of wanting to give up, thinking this is just too hard, I’ve been at it so long and have no money to show for my efforts. It is a period of heavy self-doubt. Sometimes the Hero literally removes herself from the world in order to assess things. Eventually, however, the hero emerges from darkness amd moves into the light…
6. Revelation: This is the phase when the Hero comes into the world again seeing everything differently and with a renewed sense of self and purpose. For the online entrepreneur, it is when we have complete trust that what we are doing IS working and will continue to work no matter what. Once we have let go of all the fears we held during the Challenges and Temptation Phase, building our businesses is no longer a struggle.
7. Transformation: We move triumphantly and humbly in the world, serving everyone else before ourselves. This is the point when we have completely taken our eyes off ourselves and can honestly say to anyone we meet, “How can I help you today?”
8. Atonement: We are rewarded for our actions, in the form of recognition, money, status. The irony is, at this point in the journey, these things don’t matter to us any longer and the Hero often gives much of what he’s earned away.
9. Gift of the Goddess: There is simply no way a Hero can make it through the journey without the Gift of the Goddess, which is symbolic for the power of feminine energy. Katie Freiling is a perfect example of the Goddess in the online marketing world. She has blessed so many of us with her gifts. Never ever underestimate the power of a woman to help the Hero make it. They are everywhere: our mothers, sisters, daughters, colleagues.
10. Return: We arrive at the end of one Journey only to begin anew another one. No two journeys are ever the same, but the stages of each one are. With each new journey we take, we become wiser and more powerful with less ego and need for recognition.

Where do you see yourself in this pattern? What metaphorical dragons have you slain along your way to online success? Who are the Goddesses in your world and what gifts have they given you? Please share your own story of transformation with readers if you are so inclined! And as always, Tweet and Share with others!

Onward!