PATRIOTIC COMMERCE DONE LOCAL AND DONE RIGHT BUT NOT OVERNIGHT!
Why you simply cannot focus on the low hanging fruit of regional and national brands when building a "Conservative Marketplace"...
3-4 Minute Read…
When I get a little winded, or even overwhelmed with “life in general” - I continue to come back to my long held belief…
“If you want to ‘make a difference’ then work your ass off building something that empowers people you care about to prosper in their lives. Be prepared to take the hits along the way. Never forget those who supported you and your efforts. Forgive those who doubted or even undermined you.” - Kevin Sabbides (Founder - American Spirit Movement)
I am also reminded of a very impactful quote I see on the wall at a local restaurant I am a supporter of called MISSION BBQ - “Choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong”. If I were to venture a guess, I would bet this is a phrase from an excerpt of the Cadet Prayer at West Point - “Strengthen and increase our admiration for honest dealing and clean thinking, and suffer not our hatred of hypocrisy and pretense ever to diminish. Encourage us in our endeavor to live above the common level of life. Make us to choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong, and never to be content with a half truth when the whole can be won.”
I appreciate you reading this article. My name is Kevin Sabbides and I am the Founder/CEO of the American Spirit Movement and we have built the American Spirit MARKETPLACE. We are growing. We need personnel. We need Business Development Specialists. We need Business Networking Team Leaders. Veterans and B2B Professionals are a great fit for us as Business Development Specialists! Busy business professionals with their own professions/careers make excellent Business Networking Team Leaders as well. Who do you know? Please refer them to email me:
Info@americanspiritmovement.com
Read to learn more of what differentiates us from anyone else in this space and if this is the first you are hearing about who we are and what we do then I welcome you to also visit our main site as well!
American Spirit Movement Mission / Vision / Promise
One of my frustrations…
From time-to-time I have friends and associates send me something like this:
”Kevin, have you seen so-and-so company doing the “same” thing you’re doing with the American Spirit Movement"?”.
My typical response is that I am aware of these other entities BUT they have taken a much different approach than we have with regard to the American Spirit Movement and our American Spirit MARKETPLACE. Some even have notable investors to build their brand of a “Conservative Marketplace”. I have been contacted by several of these companies asking if I’d like to sell or merge with them and the answer is simply, “no”.
No, and here’s why…
I want to provide a little more perspective on what we’re doing with regard to the American Spirit Movement and our American Spirit MARKETPLACE as well as some clarity when it comes to the growing intrigue, popularity, and consequential confusion with regard to a “Conservative Marketplace”.
Think about it, Conservatism already operates within silos. From sea-to-shining-sea, on any given day, there are hundreds, perhaps thousands of great Conservative events, meetings, causes, etc. BUT, we truly don’t have any connective tissue that helps us to build a massive coalition based upon something we should all agree is important to do which is voting with our wallets, or, “Keeping Conservative Dollars in Conservative Pockets!”.
The idea of the Conservative Marketplace and an “overnight success”!
It seems that “overnight” there are a ton of Facebook groups, some local meet-ups, and even a few organizations flush with seed capital, popping up with their version of a “Conservative Marketplace”. My wife was even approached at a popular Conservative function by a very well-known Conservative who has national name and brand recognition and he asked her what the American Spirit Movement was about. She shared with him some information and basically we are connecting fellow Patriotic Conservatives in the areas of Commerce, Employment, Business-networking, Education, and Idea-sharing.
This man told my wife this is a wonderful and much needed endeavor within Conservatism and he’d love to get involved, SO, he went back to his “machine” and viola - within a couple of months they created a “Conservative Marketplace” website. Well, how about that? Rather than this man use his celebrity to help coordinate efforts and support what we’re doing - he’s now our “competition”.
Or is he?
There’s a HUGE difference between building a website that curates national and regional “Conservative” brands such as AMAC, MyPillow, Patriot Mobile, etc., along with digital e-commerce companies VERSUS the hard work of building local markets of Conservative businesses and consumers connected within grass-root, local market communities. I mean, I already “know” who the MyPillow guy is and who the alternative to AARP is - BUT I do NOT already know who my local florist, or auto repair, or kitchen remodel, or plumber, or AC repair CONSERVATIVE-owned business is!
LOCAL is better!
Maybe we’re just plain dumb for thinking grass-roots, local is better? No, we’re not. We’re just in for the long haul rather than the “quick” hit of monetizing an otherwise noble idea. After all, isn’t this what a true Conservative Marketplace should be? Local, small and medium-sized businesses owned by fellow Patriotic Conservatives supporting each other as well as being supported by their LOCAL Conservative consumers?
What’s their approach?
AFFILIATE MARKETING - There have been several organizations who are using the “Affiliate Marketer” approach as they curate brands together. No, there’s nothing “wrong” with affiliate marketing, BUT - these larger brands simply do not need the same “support” as your local hometown small and medium-sized businesses.
Free, Free, FREE, It’s FREE!! - There have also been a few organizations who are utilizing other tactics such as enticing “college kids” with a $25 spiff or earning points for prizes for their efforts to provide leads to “Conservative” companies to get their “FREE LISTING!!!”. It’s FREE! It only takes 5 minutes! It’s FREE! Free-Free-FREE! No matter their methods, these are simply companies, ad agencies, utilizing the “freemium” model to later go back and monetize their membership base by selling them “pay to rank” packages OR worse yet, will sell their data to other marketers who will pay dearly for membership meta-data.
What makes us DIFFERENT?
The more respectful approach is to build a platform that is private and membership-only and the ONLY revenue earned is 100% membership driven. No gimmicks. No “It’s Free-Free-FREE!” then selling PAY to rank schemes! No selling click-bait ads. No selling memberships’ meta-data. No banner ads. No BS. With the American Spirit MARKETPLACE you join as a Conservative business in your local marketplace and consumers join as well. Everyone pays. Yes, the consumers pay too. Make sure it’s affordable and ONLY earn your living from membership dues.
Yes, I’m biased.
I believe what we “do” is indeed the better way to build a “Conservative Marketplace” versus loading a database with free listings OR being an affiliate marketer by curating regional and national brands through a website.
Our approach is harder. Much harder. It takes more effort. It takes longer. And it is worth it! We will be that “overnight success” you often hear about that only took 3,5, 10 years to grow! BUT it is an honorable journey. And along the way we are going to empower more people across our Constitutional Republic to prosper in many ways through their relationships with the American Spirit Movement and our American Spirit MARKETPLACE.
Remember - “choose the harder right instead of the easier wrong”.
As I shared earlier, we are growing. We need personnel. We need Business Development Specialists. We need Business Networking Team Leaders. Veterans and B2B Professionals are a great fit for us as Business Development Specialists! Busy business professionals with their own professions/careers make excellent Business Networking Team Leaders as well. Who do you know? Please refer them to email me:
Info@americanspiritmovement.com
What does our beloved #45, a famous author, and a verifiable genius think about the “overnight success” theory?
Donald Trump - “People who think achieving success is a linear A-to-Z process, a straight shot to the top, simply aren't in touch with reality. There are very few bona fide overnight success stories. It just doesn't work that way. Success appears to happen overnight because we all see stories in newspapers and on TV about previously unknown people who have suddenly become famous. But consider a sequoia tree that has been growing for several hundred years. Just because a television crew one day decides to do a story about that tree doesn't mean it didn't exist before.”
Tom Clancy - “An overnight success is ten years in the making.”
Albert Einstein - “Try not to become a man of success, but a man of value. Look around at how people want to get more out of life than they put in. A man of value will give more than he receives.”
Thank you for reading!
Kevin Sabbides - Founder/CEO
American Spirit Movement, LLC
American Spirit MARKETPLACE