Confidence. If you don’t have it, you aren’t going to make it in business. The problem is that many people – especially the creative type – lack confidence in a big way.
Creative minds want to create. They don’t want to convince people to hire them or peddle their wares. They want to love what they do, do what they love, and hopefully make a bit of money to feed their family.
Reality check: Money doesn’t fall from the sky. If you want to sell what you create, you have to have the confidence to sell in the first place. Clients won’t be magically attracted from afar to flock to your doorstep, and they won’t naturally toss their hard-earned dollars your way.
You have to have confidence in what you do to show people that they need what you have. You need to make people understand that what you create is worth good money. That’s tough stuff when you’re shy and the type not to speak up much. Even tougher stuff when you’re the humble sort that doesn’t like to brag.
If you want to succeed, you can’t be a wimp.
Want to learn how to kick wimpiness in the teeth? You can.
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They’ll teach you how to get your rocks on and get your stuff out of the way so that you can actually get something done. They’ve paired up to offer people who need the boost to stop being scared and start being confident a six-week power course:
It’s called Self-Promotion for Wimps.
Check out the course outline here: www.haviandnaomi.com – but hurry. There’s only one day left before the course begins. And if you do sign up? Use coupon code MWP save $30 off the regular price.
Now go kick some wimpy butt.
Gosh darn you Pen Men.
First, you confused the heck out of me by posting on a Tuesday. (Hold on, what day is it? Tuesday? Wait a minute, what? *confusion*)
Second, you’re attacking me from all sides! I already read Naomi and Havi’s blogs and feel sad I can’t do it. And now you! I want to sign up for the course, I really do. But I can’t justify spending the time and money on it, when I’m already working on my awesome service that will blow everyone’s minds. (But don’t quote me on that.) Is it silly that I’m disappointed about this?
Did that sound cocky? It wasn’t supposed to. *blush*
Dang it, dang it, dang it. I want to be one of Naomi and Havi’s cool kids too!
Allison Days last blog post..Santa Barbara Roll
James, can’t I just bottle you up and keep you in a corner in my office? This post alone was a nice kick.
“The problem is that many people – especially the creative type – lack confidence in a big way.”
Nail on the head again, James, though I would qualify “confidence” with the word “business” preceding it. Many of these creative types (myself included) have all the confidence in the world in their abilities. But marketing yourself, cold calling, selling your services — that’s where the confidence breaks down. Give me a project, a word count, and a deadline and I’m good to go. Tell me to create a project, sell it to a company, and prepare to get doors slammed in my face, and we’re talking a different story!
Think I’ll go check out the course…
~Graham
@ Graham – I disagree. Ask a writer if they feel they’re writing is really good, sellable, worth the money, and most likely you’ll get a thousand different replies, all with some sort of self-effacing tone put in.
Hell, I’ve admitted more than once to people that I do get stabs of, “Omigod, will they like this? Do they hate this? They hate it, I know they do. This is crap. I should start over.” (Rare, but it does happen.) I’m sure you’ve had moments (probably rare too) like this yourself. Hey. Write a piece of short fiction and then send it to me – and check to see if you feel at all nervous about my thoughts. Bet you that you’d say yes
We *all* have that as creative types, because our work is part of us. Truly. It’s no reflection of us, but it comes from our hearts and that’s something hard to put forth with 100% confidence.
Ha! If anyone can teach people how to kick but, it’s Naomi. I think she’s my alter ego in the flesh…
Jamies last blog post..9 Steps to Clearer Writing
You’re just lining these posts up for me James…!
It’s easy to lack confidence in something you haven’t done before, after all you have no idea how it’ll turn out. Going out of your comfort zone takes guts, but to be more confident you need to take risks.
The fewer risks you take, the less confident you need to be and so the less confident you become. That’s why I always say that people have the perfect level of confidence for the life they’re living right now – because it’s the right size to deliver on the level of risk you’re exposed to.
The thing to remember is that being confident doesn’t mean that you can’t not be confident (check that out for some triple negatives). What I mean is that you can still be shaking in your boots in the face of a risk or challenge, but real inner confidence is about trusting yourself to deal with whatever happens; it’s being able to choose your behaviour with implicit trust in your behaviour.
That’s where it sometimes takes a leap of faith to dive into something new and scary, and that’s where people need to suck it up and stop making excuses.
Hey, Steve! Glad you came to comment on this one… and I have to think on what you said. Wise words indeed – I need to reply to this after more coffee.
Hi James,
Oh yes, of course we all have flashes of creative self-doubt! I think we’ve discussed this before — often it is the stuff we are most worried about that gets the best reaction.
For me, I can step back objectively and say that generally speaking I have the talent and the experience to be in this business. (Perhaps not everyone can… I don’t know! You raise a good point there…) Whether or not I can “sell” those services — and sell them at the appropriate compensation level — is a completely different story.
That’s why novelists and hockey players have agents, so they don’t have to worry about selling or pricing their “services”. They can concentrate on what they do best, and let the business people sort out the logistics.
Sounds like the life for me…
~Graham
Shaking my head this morning.at this one…and chuckling….the guy has a cyrstal ball, I know it , he does…
This weekend I found a note in one of my journals to myself that I had written some time ago…maybe in Santa Fe right after the storm when I needed a big bucking up..
“You have never failed to nail a series you set out to do”.
Boom. I realized that it is actually true. Now if branding campaigns could be called a series… I am good to go…;-)
I think we creatives HAVE to have a way to compartmentalize. All those things that make us good at what we do, also leave us vulnerable.
That is one reason I reserved certain days for cold calling, or marketing and others for studio…totally different hats… you have to act as agent and remove the personal implications. It’s more of a matter of does it work? Is this a good match… here are my fees…. and lots of listening to needs of clients .
It also helps to think in percentages. If you think of Pareto, 80 percent of business comes from 20 of your clients… do the math to figure out how many calls you have to make to get that sweet 20 percent.. then set that goal up…that means yes, you may get rejected 80 per cent of the time, but those 20..ahhh.. there’s the good stuff. Just some thoughts.
Janice C Cartiers last blog post..A Tale Of Two Lists
*sigh* I want to take the course, but finances and the trip to Canada interfere…