“What do you want?” I asked my client.
“I want to dream big. I want to stop waiting. I want to make things happen!” she said.
I could see her emotion and passion through the Zoom screen.
“Then let’s start to define what it means to shift from safe and wait-and-see based behaviors to brave and action-oriented behaviors,” I said.
We laid out a whole list of proactive things she could do to go from hoping that things would go according to plan to taking specific actions to help things go according to plan.
A lot of us have been in wait-and-see mode for a long time, and after awhile, it makes you feel itchy, twitchy and stuck.
Here’s how to break free of that energy and start to make things happen.
Step 1: Clarify what you want
What do you want?
A book deal?
To speak on big stages?
To have more people buy your consulting services?
To make a million dollars a year?
A good night’s sleep for once in your life?
Whatever that thing is, name it very specifically.
It doesn’t have to be a huge goal. It just must mean something specific to you.
Define why you want it
Once you define what you want, make sure you define why it is so important for you to make it happen.
- What impact would it have on others?
- How would it help you?
- Which obstacles would it remove in your life?
Get super clear about the reasons and write them down.
Gus Glasser, a “23 year-old musician living in my parent’s basement” had a dream to make music with Marc Ribillet so he got on a plane from Atlanta to New York, showed up at Marc’s concert in the park and held up a sign that said “It’s my dream to make a song with you.” See what happened next: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT82ARvdN/
Step 2: Prepare your materials
Once you know what you want, get together any materials that you need to make it clear to others what you want.
In Gus’ example above, it was a hand-lettered sign.
Maybe for you it is a pitch deck, or a PDF of your services, or a podcast pitch email, or a demo video or reel.
Don’t take forever to prep the materials, just get the basics in place.
I told a new friend Amy Gray the other day (after interviewing her on my podcast) about my long-standing desire to work with John Legend, and how we had experienced many near-misses over the decades that I have been writing and speaking about him.
“Write a blog post that tells the story about all those near misses, and why you want to work with him,” she said. “That will make it easier for him to get the whole story if someone passes on the link to him.”
I am going to do it. Look for that article September 15!
Step 3: Name your behaviors
Shifting from waiting for things to happen to activating them to happen means you need to name the specific behaviors required to activate the results you want.
As Charlie Gilkey says, behaviors have to have verbs:
I will text this contact and ask to set up a meeting.
I will send this PDF that explains my new services.
I will pitch 10 new podcasts a week for me to guest on their show.
Step 4: Set the pattern and timeline
Once you know the specific behaviors you want to activate, put them in the container of a daily, weekly or monthly plan.
You know by now I have fondness for Tiny Marketing Actions, so these actions do not need to be huge, nor exhaust you.
Just make sure you are clearly speaking to and seeding the opportunities you want on a consistent basis.
Each week, define:
1) Which actions will you take
2) How many times
3) With whom
I promise you that activating one concrete action will make you feel immediately better.
The more concrete actions you take, the more the momentum builds.
Try it.
Let me know how it goes.
And be sure to comment what you want below. You never know who might read it!
Leave a Reply