Why genuine human marketing is the most powerful right now - Tad Hargrave

Marketing consultant and ethical business educator Tad Hargrave returns to examine how the world's chaos, social media fatigue, and AI proliferation are changing what ethical marketing actually requires of small business owners right now. Tad is a hippy who developed a knack for marketing (and then learned how to be a hippy again). Since 2001, he's been weaving together strands of ethical marketing, Waldorf School education, a history in the performing arts, local culture work, anti-globalization activism, an interest in his ancestral, traditional cultures, community building and supporting local economies into this work of helping people create profitable businesses that are ethically grown while restoring the beauty of the marketplace. Tad did improv comedy semi-professionally for 25 years, co-ran Edmonton's progressive community building network TheLocalGood.ca, founded streetcarshows.com and the Jams program of yesworld.org. He speaks Scottish Gaelic and helped to launch and co-facilitate the Nova Scotia Gaels Jam. He is from Edmonton, Alberta (traditionally known, in the language of the Cree, as Amiskwaciy [Beaver Hill] and later Amiskwaciwaskihegan [Beaver Hill House]) and currently lives in Duncan, BC (Quw'utsun territory). In this episode, Lian and Tad explore the questions their clients and students keep bringing lately: how (and if) to market when the world feels like it's unravelling, when social media has lost its pull, and when the proliferation of AI is changing. They begin with the question many of us are pondering: is it even okay to be marketing when the world is on fire? They move through Joanna Macy's three types of transformative work, the way social media can function as a place to hide rather than a place to connect, and what it costs when we throw our thoughts into AI to articulate things we haven't yet wrestled into words ourselves. From there, the conversation opens into the growing appetite for something genuinely human, something written by an actual person, something that only happens in a room with other bodies present, and what that might mean for how we show up, market, and serve. Listen if you're feeling uncomfortable marketing your work while the world is doing what it's doing, struggling with your social media when it's not being seen, or the AI question has become one you can't keep putting off. We'd love to know what YOU think about this week's show. Let's carry on the conversation… please leave a comment wherever you are listening or in any of our other spaces to engage. What you'll learn from this episode: Why knowing which lane your work actually belongs in changes how you think about marketing during difficult times How AI can erode the very capacities that make our voices worth listening to in the first place What happens when we stop trying to beat the algorithm and commit instead to being unmistakably, specifically human Resources and stuff spoken about: Visit Tad's Website Tad's Ethical Marketing Starter Kit Find out more about Membership for Marketing for Hippies Join Tad on Instagram & YouTube See Tad's Upcoming Events Register your interest for the upcoming Wild Sovereign Soul journey here. Join UNIO, The Community for<a href="https: