October 20

Solving a Problem – Day 16 of the 31 Day Challenge

0  comments

A friend wrote to me recently complaining about having several projects “almost finished.”

Sound familiar? I’ve been in that situation once or twice myself. 😉

Fortunately, all this person needed done was editing. This is something I happen to do well – so now those “almost finished” projects are complete. (I wonder if they mentioned it hoping I’d have some available time.  😉  )

And the answer, fortunately, is always that simple. Yes, always.

It’s even simpler than talking to friends and colleagues to see if they know someone with the skills you need. The answer is as simple as deciding to take action.

That’s what my friend did when he sent an e-mail. He took action.

Listen, I know how frightening it is to be almost finished a project. You can see the finish line, but you’re afraid to cross it because you don’t know what to do next. That’s how I felt when I was finishing the 2010 Social Media Directory.

But I did finish. And even though it took a couple of months, I eventually plucked up enough courage to send the manuscript to Morgan James Publishing.

Taking action has given me an acceptance letter to be framed.

That extra little push from inside yourself takes you to amazing places. Yes, they’re places you’ve never been before – and it might even be a little scary. And my experience tells me you’ll be happy once you get there.

The “what do I do next” question seems to answer itself, too.

Now that MJ Publishing has accepted the manuscript, I feel much more secure going ahead with what I want to do for marketing.

We’re going to give away a big piece of the book with no strings attached. The purpose is to give the solution to what Equation Research says is the biggest barrier for businesses using social media: they don’t know where to start.

So we give away a big, extremely useful part of the book. Then we’re going to let people buy a digital copy at a huge discount. We’re even trying to set up a special discount for Technorati readers because I’m now writing for Technorati.

Then the hardcopy of the book goes into the bookstores. When people have read and used the digital copy, the hardcopy becomes a sort of souvenir.

You probably recognise this as Seth Godin’s marketing model. It helped him send 10 books to the bestseller’s list, so I’m quite happy to give it a try.

Just so you know, we’re setting up the give away landing page now. It should be live by Monday of next week.

Of course, being accepted by MJ Publishing has also given new life to the Reviewers project. I’m lining up 200 reviewers for the book and asking them to talk about the book to their audiences – assuming they like it of course.

The Voices of Influence has also taken on a new dimension. That’s going to be a great project. Unfortunately, the deadline has passed to get it as a free bonus with the directory. Maybe we can set the interviews up as conference calls instead of private interviews.

Hmmm…we’d probably charge for that. I’ll have to talk with the folks at MJ Publishing. Feel free to drop me comments or suggestions.

Can you see how taking that last step really is worth facing your fear of success?

I don’t want to say it gets easier, or clearer. It sort of does, but there’s still lots of work to do. And I can even say you’ll feel better when you try and it doesn’t work.

Keep in mind that I’ve had quite a few things blow up in my face over the last two years. Heck, I once sent an e-mail to Nick Usbourne and he turned around and blasted me for it on his blog. You can bet that smarted.

But I tried, got results and learned how to do things better. All because I took action.

So if you have some editing you need done, let me know. 😉

Take action. Letting projects sit in that “almost finished” state just drags you down. Trust my experience – take action to get them finished.

Thanks for reading.


Tags


You may also like

Short Copy vs Long Copy

Short Copy vs Long Copy
Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

{"email":"Email address invalid","url":"Website address invalid","required":"Required field missing"}

Get in touch

Name*
Email*
Message
0 of 350
Translate »