Most writers are in denial about a fact that is costing them--us--a lot of money and stopping us from the level of success we could have.
It's the situation in Greece that got me thinking about the power of denial. I’m not an economist but when I look at the numbers it seems totally clear that Greece is going down and the only question is how long it will take and how much additional money will be poured down the drain to try to stop the inevitable. Maybe I’m wrong and I hope I am, but I doubt it. Denial in action.
The same thing happened in the last great dotcom bubble. Too many businesses were saying they had no way of making a profit but it didn’t matter, as long as they attracted enough visitors to their website. It reminds me of the old joke about the businessman who said, “I’m losing money on every sale, but I’m making up for it in volume.”
That leads me to the difficult question: About what are you (or I) in denial?
The number one thing that many creative types are in denial about was summarized well by copywriter Robert Phillips, a copywriter, in a recent “Early to Rise” bulletin:
“Certainly the technical skills related to the delivery of a quality product or service matter but they are not nearly as important as creating a constant flow of people interested in exchanging money for those products or services. That’s why so many 'smart' and 'talented' people are a bust in the business world. They see themselves as the doer of the thing, not the marketer of the thing.”
If you don’t mind having your creative endeavor as a hobby you don’t need to worry about marketing. If you hope to make a living from it, you can’t afford to ignore it. Phillips says:
“This paradigm shift is very difficult for some doers to accept. They’ve invested a lot of time and effort into becoming the best doer of the thing. The best butcher, baker, or candlestick maker – jeweler, chef, or computer programmer. Many doers love the doing of the thing and despise marketing so much that they ignore or worse yet even outsource the marketing to someone that doesn’t even understand their business. It’s a recipe for disaster.”
I’d say I’m now only in 50% denial on this topic, an improvement over my former 100%. I still find it much easier to help other people market their writing than to do it for myself.
How about you? If you were to stop being in denial about marketing your creative work, what would you do differently?
ps: the other day I saw that hypnotherapist and business coach Andrew Austin was looking for volunteers for a coaching session to be filmed, so I raised my hand. He picked me so we're doing the session in a few weeks and this is the key issue I plan to bring up. I'll share with you what I find out. I just hope that if he uses hypnosis he doesn't make me do the chicken dance...
(If you want some guidance on marketing your work, be inspired by the 100 case studies in my book, "Do Something Different" (Virgin Books, with a foreword by Sir Richard Branson) and "Marketing for Entrepreneurs" (Pearson). You can get both from Amazon or your other favorite book seller.)
