Ready, Set, and…

Havi Brooks of The Fluent Self shared a guided meditation she did with Pam Slim of Escape from Cubicle Nation in an amazing blog post this week. The outcome of the meditation is to imagine who your “Right People” are, what they need to hear, and how you are going to communicate with them.

I did an exercise similar to this a few months ago and Havi’s post reinforced in me the power of knowing your audience, understanding their needs, and helping them in the ways that best fulfills their needs.

The problem I have is that once the audience and message is defined, then what do you do? You have this amazing audience that needs to hear what you have to say, but they don’t know you exist. How do you get the message out that you are open for business?

I have been struggling with self-promotion for years and have slowly realized what it takes to make a living helping people. When you are a speaker, coach, facilitator, trailer, or general do-gooder, you have to be willing to do what others are not doing. You have to call, e-mail, and hang out with people that can benefit from what you have to offer and tell them you are open for business and have what they need.

So many people get to “Ready, Set, and…”, then they don’t do anything. They have this great content, an audience exists, but they don’t take the next step and start reaching out to people to see if they will purchase what you have to offer.

Naomi Dunford of IttyBiz  fame keeps sending me weekly e-mails to remind me of this. Every week I get a message asking me who I have e-mailed and what responses I have been receiving. This simple exercise forces me out of “Ready, Set,…” and makes me start to get up and go.

Where are you?

Are you stuck after “Set” or are you fully in “Go”?

Let me know.

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If you liked this post, then you should also check out:

1. Good is the Enemy of Great
2. How to make your speaking, e-mail marketing, and blogging more effective.