A Different Perspective On Failing

I fail… often.
As I mentioned yesterday,
I wrote a few stinkers in 2010
and those were the stories
I THOUGHT had worked.

Any doer has failed.
If she says she hasn’t,
she has either forgotten her failures
(good for her),
or is lying.

Jonathan Fields,
author of
Career Renegade:
How to Make a Great Living Doing What You Love
says

“The reality is that a ton of businesses fail.
Every successful entrepreneur
I’ve ever met
has failed way more than
they’ve succeeded.
In fact,
it’s almost evidence of that fact
that you’re willing to continue
to try and innovate.
If you don’t try,
what inevitably happens is
you start to move sideways.”

Don’t try to fail,
that would be silly,
but don’t be afraid of failing.

The Distribution Of Success

I wrote 13 stories in 2010
under one pen name.
This wasn’t my first year writing.
I had some experience, knowledge, and skill.
I also wrote to what I thought
the market wanted.
(i.e. I didn’t write whatever I wanted)

2 stories were never purchased.
1 was purchased, but is not yet published.
1 was published and flopped.
(i.e. had very, very few sales)
5 had average sales.
3 had better than average sales.
1 had superstar sales.

The 1 superstar story in 13
made publishing the others
worth it for my publisher.

This isn’t that much different
for entrepreneurs.
You will have failures.
You will have average or blah results.
But that one superstar
will make it all worth while.

Your 2011 Goal Recap

You have your goals for 2011.
Over a week has passed.
What have you accomplished?

No, really,
WHAT have you accomplished?

I’m not saying
you should have a big goal done
but you should have already started on
one or two or all of them.

One of my goals is to write a story a month.
I have my January story plotted.
I haven’t finished it,
but I’ve taken a step toward accomplishing it.
Next week, I should have more of the story done.

THAT is how goals get accomplished.
You work toward them daily
until they’re completed.

Work on your goals TODAY.
(Don’t make me kick your ass)

It Isn’t You…

I said something flippant
to a buddy of mine.
I was distracted by another issue,
and I wasn’t paying attention to my wording
OR my friend’s reaction.
My friend thought I was angry with her.
Her feelings got hurt.

When really,
my attitude had nothing to do
with her.

That often happens
when you try to market
or sell to someone.
You think their lack of response
means lack of interest,
or that ‘now’s not a good time’
means ‘there will never be a good time.’

There are thousands of things
happening in your prospect’s life right now.
If you/your appointment
gets rescheduled to another time
or ‘later’
(I suggest putting a time frame to ‘later’),
that may simply mean
that these other things are more important.

Sometimes it really ISN’T you.

Published
Categorized as Sales

Acting Your Age

I was watching one of those
Housewives of XXX City shows,
and shuddering.
I understand the fascination
but I find the setup more sad
than interesting.

Why?

Because many of the women
act like they’re stuck in their 20’s.
They don’t act wiser,
or more accomplished.

We all get older.
I’m not 20 any more,
and I’m glad not to be 20.
I couldn’t write like this
when I was 20.
I didn’t know half the things
I now know about business building.
Yes, there are things I miss about
being 20
but the things I’ve gained
more than make up for it.

Aging is only truly sad
when you don’t progress.
However,
while aging is natural,
gaining additional knowledge
has to be worked at.

When In The Growth Cycle To Advertise

When I first got published,
I poured a lot of precious dollars
into advertising.
Those dollars were mostly wasted.

Why?

Because I only had the single novel
and I didn’t have a production/distribution system in place.
It took me a year to get another novel published.
My small publisher had site issues
which meant my single novel
wasn’t always available for sale.

When I launched my second pen name,
I waited to do paid advertising
until I had three stories published,
and a ready buyer (publisher) for future stories.
I had my production and distribution system
solidly in place before paying to advertise.
(I went with only the free advertising routes first).

Advertising magnifies.
It magnifies production and distribution failures
as it magnifies production and distribution successes.
You may wish to consider waiting
to advertise
until your production and distribution systems
are, at the very least, functional.

Published
Categorized as Marketing

Work Through The Dry Spell

I had a talk with one of my publishers.
She said that it takes the average author
ten stories before she sees a gain in sales.
Unfortunately, most new authors
never make it to the second story.
They see the sucky sales for the first story,
and get depressed
and quit.

Writing isn’t easy
and although the barriers to entry are lower,
building that readership still takes time.

As Seth Godin writes
“Go to work on a regular basis.

Art is hard.
Selling is hard.
Writing is hard.
Making a difference is hard.”

Expect that hard.
Don’t get discouraged when it happens.
It is SUPPOSED to happen.
There will be exceptions
but you don’t count on yourself
as being one of them.

But just as hard is to be expected,
so is success
after you work through the dry spell.

Plan your work.
Work your plan.
And stick to it.

You Can’t Calm Someone Else Down

Scott Ginsberg has a great post
on being calm
in an ocean of turmoil.

My favorite tip?

“You can’t really calm people down.

All you can do is turn yourself
into a force of calm,
in the hopes that
you’ll infect people with
the energy they need
to do the same.”

Have you ever been told to relax?
How does it make you feel?
It makes me what to slug
that ‘helpful’ person.

The best way to be surrounded by calm people
is to be calm myself.
That holds true for being surrounded by…
happy people
ambitious people
grateful people,
etc.

Be the person you want others to be.
Have the attitude
you want to be surrounded by.

Published
Categorized as Marketing

Using Your Vacation To Communicate Priorities

Before I go on vacation,
I send my financial adviser
an email outlining when I’ll be away,
and how I can be contacted.
Somewhere in that email,
I say something like
‘My finances are a priority.
Contact me as often as you regularly would.’

Am I worried about a trading emergency?
No, not really.

In the years I’ve been dealing with him,
there has only been a couple of trading emergencies.

What I’m doing is
communicating what my priorities are.
I can’t expect my finances
to be my financial adviser’s priority
if it isn’t mine.
And these pre-vacation emails are damn effective.

Use your vacation to communicate priorities.
The people working with you
on your priorities
should have special access to you
while you’re on vacation
‘in case of emergencies.’

Published
Categorized as Marketing

Commercials On YouTube

I saw a brilliant commercial on TV.
I was excited about it.
I wanted to share it.
I wanted to put the link on Facebook
and email it to all my friends.
Hell, I wanted to blog about it here.

I’m not.

Why?

Because I can’t find the damn commercial anywhere.
The bloody thing is not on YouTube.

Put your commercials on YouTube.
It doesn’t matter how lameass you think it is
or how small potatoes you think your company is
or how regional the appeal.
Allow your fans to promote you.
It costs next to nothing,
and hey, you never know,
it could be the piece of marketing
that pushes your company to the next level.

Published
Categorized as Marketing