From Journalism to Regenerative Marketing

📰 Marketing Meets Truth: This week, journalist and copywriter Gary Spinks joins the Regenerative Marketing Movement Podcast to explore:

🌱 Why marketing and journalism need an “integrity audit.”
🛠 Lessons from Gary’s journey of unlearning manipulative practices.
🌀 How curiosity, observation, and intuition can help you align your work with your values.

✨ As Gary puts it: “Sometimes, it’s about stepping away from the noise and asking yourself, ‘What truly aligns with me?’”

🎧 Tune in to discover how storytelling and regenerative principles can transform communication into a force for good. #RegenerativeMarketing #Storytelling #Podcast #EthicalCommunication

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What does it take to unlearn an industry? In this episode, Gary Spinks, a journalist-turned-copywriter, reflects on a career that spans newsrooms, marketing agencies, and now regenerative storytelling. From the values he carried as a young journalist to the ethical questions that reshaped his work in marketing, Gary invites listeners to rethink communication as a force for positive change.

Gary Spinks, a storyteller who has moved between the worlds of journalism and marketing, shares his journey of questioning, unlearning, and rediscovering purpose in this episode. Beginning with his childhood fascination with journalism, Gary reflects on the imaginative freedom he cultivated as a child and how it shaped his approach to writing, storytelling, and connecting with others.

Key moments from his career reveal the ethical dilemmas he encountered, particularly in the marketing world where growth often eclipsed values. Yet, it’s these challenges that led Gary to regenerative marketing—a practice that aligns communication with honesty, care, and a commitment to creating impact for people and the planet.

Highlights and Key Takeaways:

1. Journalism’s Legacy and Its Role Today:
   Gary recounts his early days of observing people, asking questions, and learning the art of storytelling in newsrooms. His insights into how journalism has changed—its struggles with funding, sensationalism, and truth—are both sobering and hopeful.
   “Imagine if we funded ethical journalism with the same enthusiasm we fund PR for fossil fuels,” Gary muses.

2. The Ethical Conflict in Marketing:
   Gary opens up about his “love-hate” relationship with marketing, describing moments where tactics felt manipulative and disconnected from deeper values.
   “I started to feel like I was part of the problem. Was selling more things to more people really it?”
   His candid reflections inspire listeners to rethink what good marketing looks like.

3. Regenerative Marketing: A New Path Forward:
   Gary’s discovery of regenerative marketing introduced him to concepts like natural growth patterns, the power of storytelling for systemic change, and aligning communication with purpose. He shares examples of how this shift allowed him to reconnect with the joy and creativity of storytelling, while also contributing to solutions rather than problems.

4. Lessons in Unlearning:
   Gary offers a deeply personal account of stepping away from traditional approaches. He shares how practices like slowing down, observing nature, and reconnecting with intuition have helped him reimagine what marketing can achieve.
   “Sometimes, it’s about stepping away from the noise and sitting with the question: ‘What truly aligns with me?’”

5. Practical Wisdom for Creatives and Communicators:
   For anyone questioning their role in marketing or communications, Gary shares practical advice:

   • Be curious. “Ask questions, explore, and treat your career as an investigation.”

   • Slow down. “When you quiet the mind, the answers often come.”

   • Look for alignment. “Intuition is a guide—it knows when something feels right.”

Questions Explored in the Episode:

• What’s the difference between informing and persuading, and where do they overlap?

• How can marketing move beyond sales to focus on long-term value creation?

• What does it mean to "unlearn" harmful practices in an industry and embrace new approaches?

• How can journalists, copywriters, and marketers contribute to societal and ecological regeneration?

Key Quote:

"Marketing and journalism are both powerful forms of communication, but they often fall into mistrust. What if we reimagined them as tools for truth, connection, and positive change?"

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How to Connect with Gary:
Gary invites listeners to reach out on LinkedIn, where he shares stories about regenerative marketing, sustainability, and the outdoors. Got a story or project to share? He’d love to hear from you! Connect via LinkedIn or email at info@garyspinks.com