"What Do You Do?" Contributed To The Living Library |
She was
entertained in lavish style and reciprocated in kind.
And those being my ‘green’ years, I did everything I could to hide
my terror at these functions. I felt incredible pressure to be ready with input on any
subject. New Yorkers
seem to judge everyone by certain achievements -- their schooling, their career, or their
business address. It’s been said
there’s no place like it for vocational humiliation. And sooner or later -- the
dreaded question is posed, “Where did you school?” or the fatal one, “What
do you do?” If you give
the name of your High School or the fact that you don’t do anything at the moment,
you may draw raised eyebrows or a soft, “ah-h”. These questions are a personal
measurement; a quiet pass-fail test for future social gatherings. Do you have some interest, activity, or purpose in
common with the interrogator? Looking
back on those times, I think I did a fair job of fluffing it. I had to accept that in
certain surroundings, my identity would be tied to what I did, not in what I was. Fast-forward
several years and New York is now only a memory. Yet I bring with me those valuable
lessons as I open new chapters. The Internet came into my life and while it’s been a
cruel teacher, it certainly has been thorough. It’s ringing Anthem -- Lead, follow or get out of the fast lane! The hardest
part of entrepreneurship was in marketing me. It’s not much different than my story
above because I am still judged by my achievements. The “What do you do?”
question may be silent, but it’s still there. If you expect to lead you better have
good reasons why someone should follow. Marketing
yourself on the Internet should not be a struggle, unless you make it so. Naturally
it’s a lot more rewarding if your efforts result in clients calling you ready to work
with you, and even better when these clients turn into worthwhile paychecks. Networking is a contact sport. There are
numerous ways to make your achievements visible. Start an Ezine or Newsletter to gain
subscribers. Make your weekly or monthly output full of good tips and techniques. Set up a
website and offer free items; there are plenty of these to choose from. Start a blog and
get it syndicated so many, many people read it. Write Articles. Write an Ebook and give it away. Bottom line --
get your name out there over and over again. What you do
better, faster, cheaper and with higher quality than your counterpart, is where you will
begin to stop following and start leading. Think of marketing as “giving
something” instead of “trying to get something” and this mindset will
result in word-of-mouth business. Surfers merely want to know that you understand their
situation, and next, how you will help them. Experiments
done in 1927 by Bluma Zeigarnik showed us that we remember interrupted tasks the best. Who knew? The reason
was simply that “the tension created by unfinished tasks helps us to remember”.
Let’s offer an example of this. You’re
watching the news and you hear an announcement like, “Today, the borrower becomes the
lender. More on that story later but first…” Don’t you find yourself glued
to that broadcast, even knowing that they will air the rest of the story last? That’s
an effective use of the Zeigarnik effect. You can
connect this principle with marketing, and you should. The “interrupted task” is
your advertisement that is incomplete. Because
we dislike things to be incomplete, readers will satisfy their curiosity for the
“rest of the story” by inquiring. But be aware, people will be fooled once, but
not twice. Be sure you fulfill your teaser. Today, I
write my own paycheck. What do you do? Copyright © 2007 Esther Smith Smith is an accomplished artist with two online galleries, an author/publisher and believer in residual or leveraged income. Her ebook, Invitation to Internet Success, is free to all. http://thepermanentventure.com/InternetSuccess.pdf Contact Info at the bottom of her website: http://thepermanentventure.com/2up.htm ==================================== IMPORTANT RELATED INFORMATION Click on the following links: Using humor to connect with your prospects
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