Adam Street's Blog
The spiritual and practical path to freedom to do your art

Trapped in the Matrix of Imposter Syndrome

Yesterday this new coach was talking about getting her business going.  Ideally she was having a bit of Imposter Syndrome.  

Ah yes, I remember those days.  When I started I thought I had to be as good Denis Waitley or Mark Victor Hansen or why even bother…  Luckily, that ship has sailed!  

Like in the Matrix, I consider those red pill/blue pill moments.  Take the red pill and learn how to be a better coach, marketer, and entrepreneur or take the blue pill and live my life like Servpro, ‘like it never happened.’ 

Luckily I unknowingly applied what Richard Koch talks about in his book Unreasonable Success and How to Achieve It.  

Koch says we all must have self-belief for success.  Some folks start out with it and some of us have to develop it.  If you’re lacking in it he recommends:

  • Searching for transforming experiences. 
  • Attract well-deserved praise; develop a breakthrough achievement
  • Narrow your focus until your work is unique and you’ve defined your destination 

Even something as simple as positive feedback from others makes a difference. 

Steve Jobs was adopted.  His adopted parents made it clear to him that “we specifically picked you out.”  From that moment on Jobs’ posture was, ‘I’m special.’

And that is my posture.  We are special!  Just like Neo, Just like Luke Skywalker.  Every day we have the option of taking the blue pill but we don’t.  We take the red pill to live our hopes and dreams to the fullest knowing there will be ups and downs. 

“Magic is believing in yourself.  If you can do that, you can make anything happen.” —Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe

To learn how to stand out and connect with your clients using e-mail marketing go here and start receiving my free daily e-mails:  https://adamstreet.net

Adam

P.S.  If you’re not familiar with red pill/blue pill… https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_pill_and_blue_pill

Decision Punch Out with Mike Tyson

For years I wanted to own my own insurance agency.  The thought of networking, repeat income, and making sales at golf courses was my kind of gig.  When I started doing comics full-time I put those agency dreams behind me.  

Until one day, my phone rang…

My friend’s dad needed a manager for one of his insurance agencies.  Here’s the kicker though.  The position would turn into an ownership position in a couple of years.  The opportunity hit me in the face like Mike Tyson.

Had I received this phone call a year or two earlier I would have been ecstatic.  But now I had to make a choice.  Pursue my old dream of having an agency and do comics part-time, or decline the offer.  

I declined.  

The days I took deliberating made me realize that I never gave my art career the consistency it needed to grow into something big. 

The way I viewed my art career changed.

Which brings me to the last and final step of Seth Godin’s Marketing in Five Steps. 

“Show up-regularly, consistently, and generously, for years and years—to organize and lead and build confidence in the change you seek to make.”

You hear quotes like be the change you want to make in the world.  We hear them so often we lose touch sometimes just how powerful and important these words are.

That’s why I love helping coaches and course creators build their businesses with my Blockbuster Storytelling Method. Visit https://adamstreet.net for more information.  You can get daily tips for free when you join my e-mail newsletter too.

You can get daily tips for free when you join my e-mail newsletter.

Adam

P. S. For the other Seth Godin’s Marketing in Five Steps steps, you can find them here:  https://adamstreetblog.com/i-love-what-i-do-how-come-i-cant-sell-it/

Dueling with El Cheap-O

I went to my brother’s Mixxedfit class at his gym.  I’m in my car.  Hot. sweaty, and I could really use something cool and refreshing like a smoothie.  

I don’t buy smoothies very often anymore but I’ve been jumping around like a jackrabbit for an hour so I deserve it.  But I still hesitated…

Both smoothie pimps by my house are franchises.  They opened in the last two years and I think they’re owned by the same person.  Why?  Because they have the exact same problem.  

Unlike the other locations they don’t put enough fruit in their smoothies because  they’re cheap.  I know this because when the manager (or owner) is there my smoothies taste like blueberry flavored ice and not ACTUAL blueberries.  

I’ve even seen the El Cheap-O walk behind staff members and tell them they’re using too much fruit!  It’s sad.

Instead of making smoothies that taste like cold medicine why don’t they ask their customers what they want?  I’d gladly pay more!  But instead they water down their product to save a few nickels.

This seems like a no brainer but I see people make the same mistakes with their services and courses all the time.

 

You don’t need to be the size of Coca-Cola to do a focus group.  Ask your clients what they want. And before you come out guns-a-blazing with swiped headlines and formulas ask prospects what’s important to them too.

Doug D’Anna said, “You should first ask yourself, ‘What do these people really want?’ and never, ‘What’s the best way to sell to them?’

I heard John Carlton say that to learn what a market wanted he’d go to a bar, buy a few drinks and ask strangers a few questions. 

Surely, I could duel with El Cheap-O about their juice water but I won’t.  I vote with my dollars by not going there.  I WILL use my crappy experience to help you out though.

You’re welcome…

If you’d like help keeping your marketing from getting watered-down, join my free daily e-mail list for daily tips:  https://adamstreet.net

Adam

Don’t send Chocolate Frosted Dog crap

My wife was put on the board recently of an animal rescue.

In last meeting she learned donors were complaining about not receiving thank you’s for donations.  I’m big on gratitude so she had my attention.

Surely the donors were complaining about email messages versus thank you cards or  something.  

Nope.  They weren’t sending anything.  Nada.  Nathan.

I do most of the “sending” of donations in my house so I knew my wife didn’t understand quite how strange this was.  I told her every organization that I have donated to has told me thank you.  Even the one ran my own mama!!!!

Jim Rohn said, “Both the years and the experiences have brought me here to where I stand today, but it is the thankfulness that opened the windows of opportunities, of blessings, of unique experiences to flow my way.”

And the same is true for me.  Just like going to the gym and doing push ups, I make a daily habit of exercising gratitude.  

I read a book called Appreciation Marketing by Tommy Wyatt and Curtis Lewsey.  I recommend you read it (or listen to the audiobook).  It’s about the importance of appreciating people by sending greeting cards, hand written notes, phone calls, and messages. 

As someone who has done this religiously for nearly a decade I can tell you, your competition isn’t doing this.  Want another way to stand out?  Start appreciatin’!  

Watch out for chocolate frosted dog crap though.  This is Wyatt and Lewsey’s term for sending thank you cards with your business card in the envelope.  Or using it as an opportunity to beg for referrals. 

Don’t disguise sales and marketing as gratitude.  Give because you want to be thankful, not to get something in return.

It’s good them, it’s good for your soul, and it’s good for business.

Try it.  Send out a message, greeting card, hand written note, or call one person a day for 30 days.  It feels amazing. And when someone thanks YOU for their thank  you.  It’s even more amazing-er.  

For more fun and easy marketing tips join my daily e-mail list at:  https://adamstreet.net

Adam

P.S.  This is the book I mentioned:  https://www.amazon.com/Appreciation-Marketing-Achieve-Greatness-Gratitude/dp/B00OL8P0FM/

When hearing voices is a good thing

Before I decided to escape the insurance company I was shackled to, my first ploy was to get a promotion.  I applied for a manger position and didn’t get it.  The candidate who won was great so I said, it’ll be next time.  

I didn’t get the next one either.  And the guy who got that position didn’t exactly curl my toes.  

My manager knew I was peeved so she did some digging.  She found out ‘they’ weren’t sure I would be a good team player. I was told by the hiring director that when the company was rolling out their new computer system I didn’t get behind it.

Actually, they asked for feedback in a meeting and I politely called their app stupid and clunky.  I also told them how they could make it better.  Apparently that kind of honesty was the kiss of death to a cushy career there.

Emotionally I was done with that company.  Freelancing started calling my name like an episode of Ghost Whisperer. 

This weekend I read an article about Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller, a sitting Marine battalion commander.  He got canned Friday after he questioned the “ineptitude” of U.S. military leadership over the Afghanistan withdrawal.

Standing up for what I believe got me blackballed at my old company but this guy was risking a 17-year career and a juicy retirement plan by speaking up.  

What cojones!  That guy is my role model!!!

I didn’t get the job I wanted but it put me on my path to be here.  Al Gore didn’t get job he wanted to either but he did more for humanity by talking about the planet.

“…you want to be popular, you want people to hire you, and I have to make sure I don’t do it [being politically active] less because I’m an actor.” — Kerry Washington  

Stand up for what you believe in!  Even if it’s not popular.  It tends to work out…  And loving the person you see in the mirror is a good thing too.

For free daily tips and insights on how to expand your reach and stay true to your beliefs in your emails, Sign up for free at:  https://adamstreet.net  

Adam