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I have a lot of respect for fellow marketer Robert Middleton, author of The InfoGuru’s Marketing Manual. He is truly a marketing master and small business growth expert. I read his weekly newsletters with interest. This week he wrote about a subject that I think we all have dealt with–playing it safe.

How many times have you made a decision based on what was most comfortable instead of challenging yourself to do something incredible even though it was scary? Those who do are the ones who get what they want from their business and life.

Here’s an excerpt from Robert’s newsletter: 

” Please don’t read if you don’t like being challenged. You have been warned.

If I lined up ten of your friends and associates, would they all report that you are passionate, even fanatical about the work you do and the difference you make?

My observation is quite the opposite.

Most business owners may love what they do, but more often than not, they come across as tepid, hesitant, and uncommitted. When they talk about their business they are about as inspiring as a wet sponge.

Look, I’m not out to insult you, but to challenge you.

If you are not passionate about what you do, excited by the difference you make, eager to share with others, inspired by your clients and moved by the abundance of opportunities and possibilities afforded by your business, you are missing the boat.

And what’s perplexing to me is that this is the very last thing that business owners focus on.

Many people will do very little to nothing. Others will study everything they can about marketing. Still others will work hard to make external changes to their marketing. But very few will do the thing that makes the biggest difference of all:

Expressing Authentic Excitement About Their Business!

Excitement, enthusiasm and passion are contagious. Certainly more contagious than “knowing it all” or having a perfect marketing message or even a beautiful web site.

Those things (and many more) will emerge naturally out of your enthusiasm and passion. You don’t do all of that stuff and hope that it adds up to excitement. You come from excitement and all your marketing will come together effortlessly.

But you say:

“But I can’t act excited, Robert, if I don’t feel excited! You might be enthusiastic and passionate about your business. That’s great, but my business is not inherently exciting. And besides, that’s not my style. When you talk about having marketing breakthroughs, I just can’t relate.”

I hear this kind of thing a lot. And it sounds very reasonable. In fact, most people would nod in agreement: “Yes, don’t get too excited, you might be disappointed and you’ll probably turn people off. Better to be low-key and play it safe.”

Ah yes, the mantra of the mediocre: “Play it Safe.”

What you may not realize is that playing it safe is killing your business, eliminating your future, suffocating your soul. Playing it safe has become more important than being fully alive.

When you are fully alive, you don’t think about yourself much or how good you look. You think of those you can serve, those you can make a difference with, those whom you can contribute to. And what more natural outlet to do this than through your business?

Ask yourself, “What is the deadly cost of playing it safe?”

And then ask, “What’s really the worst thing that could happen if I let myself be excited, enthusiastic and passionate about my business?”

Finally, ask, “What breakthroughs might happen in my business if I allowed myself to express this excitement, enthusiasm and passion?”

Are you ready for this kind of breakthrough?”

Kudos to Robert Middleton for making us thinking honestly about what we need to do to breakthrough to a whole new level.

Janis

I just finished reading a little book titled “The Dip” by Seth Godin, author and CEO of the social networking website Squidoo.com. My friend Jo lent me the book and told me that it was about a strange but profound topic-when to quit.

It doesn’t take long to read as it’s less than 100 pages and it was really eye opeing.. Seth’s point is that unlike what we’ve been taught (to never quite), strategic quitting is what will end up making you succeed. He says,

“All our successes are the same. All our failures, too.

We succeed when we do something remarkable.

We fail when we give up too soon.

We succeed when we are the best in the world at what we do.

We fail when we get distracted by tasks we don’t have the guts to quit.”

How can we use the “quitting strategy” as entrepreneurs? When do we hesitate to quit when we should? You’ve wanted to start a business for some time, but you still haven’t done it.

It’s time to quit being stuck and to take action. One of the symptoms business owners have when they’re stuck is analysis paralysis-researching, reading, gathering data, seeking advice, mulling over ideas and never taking action.

This can happen to business owners when they’re not sure which direction to head in, because there are so many possibilities. I’ve been there too, believe me. That’s the time when you need to revisit your long-term goals and decide which course of action will be the straightest line to those goals. Then take action. Because even if it ends up being the wrong action-it’s okay to quit! It’s better to take some action based than to never move forward at atll. Seth says we need to distinguish between quitting when things get tough but are still moving us slowly toward our goal (not a good idea), and quitting because we’ve reached a dead end or we’re spinning our wheels (a very good idea).

You can’t move forward in your business because you don’t have enough time or help.

It’s time to quit micro managing and quit overrating the necessity of controlling everything. At some point if you want forward movement, more clients, more money, more time, you’re going to have to quit your resistance to adding people to your team. That may mean an outsourced team or an employee. It doesn’t matter. Just do it.

If you’re crazy busy, then it’s time to outsource. Yes it will cost you money and yes you will temporarily decrease your profit margin, but when you begin filling up the time that’s now free with business building activities, you’ll likely dramatically increase profits. It’s like one step back, four steps forward.

You can’t seem to penetrate your market.

According to Seth, you need to be the best, the go-to company in your little niche. You also need to enter a market that you can penetrate; one that’s not so huge that your message gets totally lost because you’re the little guy without the resources to compete against the big guys who dominate that market.

Of course you could identify a small, well defined niche within that market and go for that.

And you need to keep trying to reach more and more people in your target market. If your business isn’t growing, it could be that there aren’t enough people in your market who know about you. You haven’t created “buzz”.

This is not the time to throw up your hands and quit in frustration, but to find new, creative ways to reach people who don’t know about your company now.

Your business or business model is becoming obsolete.

Technology is causing the marketplace to change so fast, it’s dizzying. If you’re a small business owner whose business or way of doing business is becoming obsolete it’s time to get out of your comfort zone, quit it, and re-invent or update yourself.

What kinds of businesses are fading fast? Seth mentions newspapers. Other types of print advertising are fading as well. CD’s and DVD’s are on their way out as downloadable music and movies become more popular. Running your business without a website or strong online presence is obsolete, yet lots of small business owners still do it.

Take a look at your business and decide, right now, what’s not serving your goals anymore and, well, quit it.

A few years back I wrote an article called “Facing the Fear Factor”. Surpisingly it’s the most widely read of any small business growth article I’ve ever written. Why?

Because everyone relates to the fear we face trying to succeed as entrepreneurs. Whether you’re just gathering the courage to strike out on your own, or you’ve been at it for a while, at some point you’re going to have to know how to prevent fear from stopping you from going after your dreams of building a successful small business.

I’ve helped hundreds of small business owners overcome fear and move toward success and I’ve faced the same fears myself. All of your fears fit into one of three simple categories.

Fear of Change

Few people enthusiastically embrace change. Change means we can never settle in and coast; we can’t decide we know all there is to know and just slide into a comfortable default mode. The ability to welcome change is what will fuel your ability to succeed in the small business game.

I’ve seen lots of owners who were afraid of technology, for example. And that fear stopped them from upgrading their websites, learning to use an autoresponder (one of the greatest, cheapest marketing tools around), or from using simple tools like e-mail properly. I’ve had clients tell me there was no way they could learn fairly simple technology systems that would give them more time and make them more money. Once I walked them through step-by-step, each one ended up admitting that their fear was unwarranted.

Fear of change can also stop you from leaving a dead end job and starting a business. It can stop you from outsourcing tasks you shouldn’t waste your time doing. We all tend to talk ourselves into accepting what is so we can avoid making profound and often uncomfortable changes.

Where is fear of change stopping you? The truth is that stagnation is boring and constant change is the reality of life whether we like it or not, so why not learn to embrac it. Figure out where change is in your best interest and in the interests of your future success and do what’s beneficial rather than what’s comfortable.

Fear of Failure

This is a big one that can manifest in many ways. It could appear as fear of not having enough money to start a business, or fear of not being able to make a substantial living as an entrepreneur. It could manifest as a fear of looking bad to family and friends if the business doesn’t make it. It could manifest as a fear of lacking financial security.

There is always some risk inherrent in owning a business. If you’ve weighed the risk and it makes sense to take it, then you need to look at you fear of failure, write down the worst that could happen, decide how you would deal with it, then go all out for your dream, knowing that the worst is unlikely to happen. I’ve experienced a failed business, and the failure was painful, but less so then the fear I indulged in before it happened. And what I learned from the failure was priceless.

Are you spinning your wheels, not moving forward with plans to start or grow your business because you’re afraid to fail? Are you going to let that fear keep you stuck with unfulfilled dreams for financial freedom and living the life you choose?

Fear of Success

You might be thinking, “that’s crazy–who’d be afraid to be successful?” Many people are and they don’t even know it. Here are some of the “fear of success” comments I’ve gotten from clients:

“No one in my family has ever made a lot of money.”

“I just can’t find the time to grow my business”

“If my business grows, I’ll be overwhelmed and have no time for my life”.

“I’m analyzing different ideas and don’t know how or when I’ll actually start”.

“I have to be careful not to take any action that might end up being a bad decision or poor choice.”

If any of these sound familiar, you may be afraid of success.

Look, it’s hard to admit you’re afraid, but everyone is, so you’re in good company.

Remember that fear is very often False Evidence Appearing Real. Fear is usually just a string of negative thoughts that repeat over and over in your head. Once you become aware of them, you can change them, or move forward anyway because they will loose their power to determine your actions.

Remember, if you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got.

Ready to boot those fears out the door and free yourself to achieve something great?

I welcome your comments and thoughts.

Janis