Internet Marketing requires courage
By Mike Moran. Filed in Internet Marketing |Tags: Business, Internet marketing, marketing, Marketing and Advertising
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Most of you know I named my second book, “Do It Wrong Quickly,” which is a snarky way of saying you won’t get it perfect, so you can’t let that stop you from trying. But I got to thinking about how so many of the things that we do are harder than they need to be, not because they are intrinsically difficult, but because we make them difficult by worrying about whether they will succeed—and what happens if we fail.
It reminded me of a story someone once told me. I don’t know the origination of the story and maybe someone can attribute it properly, but it is something we need to think about from time to time in Internet marketing.
Imagine that someone took a 2×4 piece of wood—a long plank—and set it on the floor, challenging you to walk across the plank without your feet slipping off the plank and touching the floor. Piece of cake, right? Nothing hard about that. It requires a wee bit of balance but nothing the average person can’t manage.
Now, suppose that we suspend the 2×4 1000 feet in the air. Do you feel as confident? No? Why not?
It has nothing to do with the task—both tasks are exactly the same. It has to do with the risk surrounding failure. Too often, we obsess about what will happen if this marketing tactic or that tactic doesn’t work. What if we try something and we fail? We “awful-ize” our situation and make the stakes higher and higher until we are paralyzed from trying even simple tasks.
Sometimes these fears are quite justified, but they often reside mostly in our heads. Especially for Internet marketing, the risks are quite low, because failure is not that costly. So, take your plank and lay it on the floor and start walking across it. If you slip, it won’t be that bad.
Thursday, March 11th 2010 at 5:25 pm |
Hi Mike:
Nice post – and it does take guts. I’d like to start doing some video blogs for my company and I am not sure on the tone/style to take. It takes a lot of courage to step out and do a video blog because you have to look at the camera and speak somewhat extemporaneously. Any advice on this?
Thursday, March 11th 2010 at 5:32 pm |
Kids would climb the sky to walk across the plank, …
What about having kids doing marketing ? ;-)
Thursday, March 11th 2010 at 6:47 pm |
It does take courage, but the only way to find out is to try it. The right tone depends on your company in part, but it mostly depends on you. What’s comfortable for you? Is it something you can do on a regular basis?
If speaking extemporaneously is scary, you can have someone hold some teleprompter like notes for you, or you can even jot down a few bullets on a card that you refer to, or (the hardest way) you could practice until you can do it by heart. What works best for you is impossible to say, but experiment to find out. Make a few practice videos and show them to trusted advisers–then you can get rid of some of the butterflies before you post your video publicly.
Don’t let your fear get in the way. If you keep working at it, you’ll be OK.
Monday, March 15th 2010 at 8:28 pm |
I remember a piece of advice someone gave to me about Internet Marketing. Get a system put together where you can produce a internet marketing idea and get it out there as quick as possible so you can quickly find out what fails and get to the ones that succeed. This is my mindset at the moment
Monday, March 15th 2010 at 11:22 pm |
You could almost say, “Do It Wrong Quickly.” Almost…
Friday, March 26th 2010 at 2:50 am |
Thanks for a great article which should help those new to this area feel confident about being on the right path. Either that or you’re saving them from a long trip down the wrong path. It’s a winner either way. seo company
Saturday, March 27th 2010 at 11:20 am |
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