Daily Deals and Swipe and Go - What's happening to us

My commitment is that I blog when I have something to say rather than committing myself to writing a blog every x number of days.

The Daily deal sites have proliferated and in the past few months have become the primary way that we market the evolution brand. When they first launched I was incredibly excited by the concept. I thought that it made such perfect sense. It's no brainer simplicity was akin to the invention of the paper clip - simple genius.

While aspects of it are amazing I think it also brings something insidious that again proliferates all aspects of this social media facebook driven phenomenon we find ourselves in.

This is how I see it:

On the plus side, the daily deal companies promise diverse experiences to its consumer base, a chance to sample a myriad of different things from tango lessons, to fine dining, canyoning to hair removal.

From a vendor perspective we are given the opportunity to expose ourselves to a database in the hundreds of thousands and do it all within the context of a risk free advertising model, only paying a percentage of those deals sold. And then having the opportunity to expose these people to the services that we offer with the intention that they become loyal advocates and full paying users of our product or service.

The reality though is quite different and while we have created some amazing new clients through this medium I feel like we are participating in yet another variable in the slippery slide of transience.

Whatever happened to good old life long, hard earned, authentic loyalty. What happened to savouring and stopping and listening, and feeling and researching. What happened to commitment ? what happened to community and sustained togetherness?

That has become my challenge at evolution and my challenge with fulfilling a vision of creating communities of people who train together.

For these communities to exist people MUST

1/ Invest in each others lives.
2/ Be genuinely concerned and considerate about the needs of another
3/ Take the time to get to know others
4/ Become accountable to each other
5/ Go through the highs and the lows together
6/ Stick around
7/ Be a tribe

While this tribe mentality is recognised we have another opposing force that calls for many changes, many experiences, many friends. In the sphere of many there is not capacity for depth. And it is the depth that is missing.

So how does it work at evolution ? It works this way.

A group of people from a local area come together in a beautiful local park or beach and they train with a local trainer. They are respectful of the other locals who use that area. They engage in activities that are sustaining from an interest and physical challenge perspective. And those activities are constantly changing so as to keep it varied and interesting and life rich.

And those local people get to laugh together, train together, run together, stretch together. And as they do so a common bond develops and over time they start to get to know each other, enjoy each others company and support each other. They go through the cold winter mornings and the perfect sunrises, they feel the rain and the heat. They get bitten by mozzies and irritated by flies, they get to feel warm grass on their cheeks and the cold and the wet on their buttocks. And they go through the myriad of facets of a life experience together.

And into that fold, over time, come other locals. And those locals get to see and experience the same. And they do it by going through the same process. And they are at all times led by a local trainer who is truly invested in them. And so the community grows and is nurtured and it flourishes.

And all of this takes time and commitment. And it is beautiful to behold.

To maintain this sense of community when being inundated by hundreds of people looking for a 'deal' has been almost impossible and has impacted the fabric of what evolution is. Because to convert that message takes time and readiness.

But I and all our evolutionaries will stick to this vision. Despite opposing forces we will set out to create sustainable communities of people who want to be a part of something and want to contribute to that something. Who want to experience what it is like to be a part of and create a tribe through all the highs an the lows and the ups and the downs.

Authentic, vulnerable, inclusive, responsible and sustainable. It's what Mother Earth calls out for.