As you may or may not be aware, we do a great deal of consulting and coaching to help people build their business. And, because we've seen the value of an outside observer, we also use coaches and consultants to help us build our business too.
Last week I was being coached and had one of those "duh" experiences that was so powerful that I decided to share with you an exercise that we often use in our coaching (trust me, there is a PR application here...)
I encourage you to set aside an hour to do this exercise sometime in the next 72 hours - it may just make a huge difference in your life.
Step 1: Pull out a piece of paper. On it, write the answer to this question "what are the three things in your business, that if you were to do them, would have more potential to build your business than anything else?" (By the way, this works for lots of other things too - spousal relationships, achieving personal goals, etc., but for now let's do business).
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One may be finishing that book which will put you on the road to celebrity status.
One may be calling your top 25 best media contacts and pitching them a story.
One may be calling your top 25 raving fans, continuing to build relationships with them so they will refer you to others.
Or one may be getting on an airplane and sitting down face to face with your counterpart at your largest potential customer.
Whatever they are, write them down!
Step 2:
Now, beside each of the items on that list, I want you to write the number of hours you spent last week on each of those items.
Yes, really...
If you're like 98% of all of my clients and audiences, my bet is that you spent less than 3 hours in total on those three things in the last week. For most people it's less than 30 minutes.
Interesting realization, isn't it?
Step 3:
Now, I suggest that you take one of those issues and focus on it for these last two questions.
On a separate piece of paper, write that key thing that you're not spending much time on at the top.
Then below that, list your answers to the following question:
What are you afraid of?
Let's say that writing the book was on that list for you. Fears may include:
- It won't hit the bestseller list, in fact it may not sell at all, dashing my self-esteem
- It may not get accepted by a big publisher, again, hurting my self-esteem
- In writing it, I may find out that this great idea really isn't that great, or maybe I don't have enough stuff to support my points
(Side comment - notice how so many of these reflect back on your self-esteem? I'm convinced that's a major reason why most people don't develop the products they have running around in their head - they're afraid that their personal success vision won't be verified by the marketplace.)
Step 4:
Now, here's the whap up the side of the head question...
Now, draw a line, and answer this question:
"What is it costing you to not do this thing?" Or, stated another way "What's the opportunity cost of your not being able to get over these fears and just do what's got to be done?"
If this area really is important to building your business, the opportunity cost will be huge, and by doing this exercise, you'll realize how foolish it is NOT to be doing what you know you should be doing.
Step 5:
Repeat steps 3 and 4 on the other 2 key areas to build your business.
Can you see how this would apply to PR? I'm assuming that because you have signed up for this newsletter, that you recognize the potential power of PR in building your business, and recognize that a single positive article about you in a major media could do more for your bottom line than virtually anything else.
So why aren't you there yet?
Is there something holding you back?
What do you have to do to get over that fear and just get it done?
Think about it.
Posted July 01, 2004
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