Lesson Two: Commitment is the Easy Part

I recently started a six week self-directed course in marketing and self-promotion. We're well into the third week and I have to admit, it's not going quite like I'd imagined. I'm out here learning all the hard lessons so that you don't have to, so here is my second of six key lessons from this experience, along with some other useful things I've picked up along the way.

We'll get into those marketing-related learnings in a moment, but first...

The Tattoo Myth

I've lived in Las Vegas for quite some time and getting a tattoo is very much a part of the Las Vegas experience. The initial resistance I hear from most people on their way to the chair is the huge commitment a tattoo represents. Barring some expensive removal process, that mark is going to be with you for the rest of your life and that decision, they say, is not a one you make lightly.

The reality of the situation, though, is that getting a tattoo requires almost no commitment at all. Your typical Vegas tattoo experience... have a wild weekend out, make a one or more, possibly ill-informed choices, do a tequila shot or three, sit in a chair for a few minutes (or hours, depending) and voila, you've got a tattoo. Super easy, barely an inconvenience.

So what does real commitment look like? Instead of a tattoo, imagine going to a "bruise parlor" and paying someone to leave a very specific mark on your arm via some sort of legalized and consensual blunt-force trauma. The bruise takes mere moments to get and you barely have to do anything except bravely take the hit. The difference is that your cool, new bruise will fade over time and eventually heal completely.

The question, then, is do you let the bruise heal and move on with your life, or do you return to the bruise-a-torium every few weeks and pay your artist to give you the same bruise in the same place again, over and over and over? To do that would be, in my estimation, a real commitment.

Following Through is the Hard Part

Week one of my marketing course was easy. I bought books, I did exercises, I read as much as I could (which turned out to be a lot less than I'd thought I would) and I received some new (to me, at least) wisdom.

Week two? A bit slower. I still read... but it got harder to find the time and I didn't get the books for week two as I was still trying to catch up with week one's material. I did keep notes and I made posts and went to events and talked to new people... but I fell behind.

And here we are in week three and I still haven't finished the third book from week one.

So what now? Do I double down and try to catch up? Do I re-structure the course so that it's doable within the realistic amount of time and attention I can give it? Do I throw up my hands and call the course a failure? Actually, none of the above. What I plan to do is keep working... this will be a six week course, I just won't be doing all six weeks in a row.

That's the lesson for week two: if you're going to commit to something, make sure you've got the time, effort and energy to keep up the work. I'm getting great insights from this effort, I just can't dedicate the hours I'd imagined to reading and I refuse to play an audiobook in the background and call it study. When the plan meets reality, it's a lot easier to adjust the plan (visibly and with humility) than it is to alter reality... and far better than giving up and hiding the evidence that you ever tried starting in the first place.

As Austin Kleon would say: show your work, even when it's not as good as you'd hoped it to be.

Field Notes from Week Two

Three useful things I picked up this past week, two of which were confirmed for me in the real world:

The people who need what you're offering are looking for you and want to talk to you. They're out there, it's just a matter of talking to them... which means it's really a matter of talking to whoever will listen (within reason, of course). This definitely doesn't jibe with the whole "marketing and self-promotion are annoying to people" image I came to this project with and it's one of the most heartening parts of my experience so far. I met a guy yesterday who is into permaculture and who makes his own planters using sodium silicate "water glass" sealer. That's someone I want to talk to and I'll absolutely be telling other people I know who would be interested in his work.

Building relationships is the first step to building a business. I have seriously and tragically neglected to build and maintain the types of relationships that can help sustain me. Because I chose to travel and focus on the places and things that interested me in life, I have found it too easy to let people drift away and only now am I discovering the price, both in terms of opportunities and in connection. The good news: it's not too late. I have a new friend who is also re-starting his connection journey, if you will, and his efforts are an inspiration.

Don't be the smartest person in the room. This is kind of a corollary to the one above... even though it may be very comforting or even feel kind of good to be the smartest, kindest, most experienced or whatever person in your peer group, but you have to connect with people you can look up to, just as you would like to be there for those who look up to you. Respecting elders, recognizing the skills and experiences of others, finding mentors and, most importantly, asking questions and listening to the answers is all part of the same equation, just looking in a different direction than I have tended to in the past.

What's Coming Up Next

I've still got some work to do on my positioning and messaging from week two... I know who to talk to and what they believe but I'm still working on the other two parts. I also know that my approach feels better and is more productive in person and that using an AI web scraper to find potential customers to cold call is not going to work for me.

Week three is going to be a lot of combing through the content I've already produced and mining it for things I can offer to the world, and probably a lot more regular posting. There's a guy I follow on Instagram who seems to have a new video out every time I pick up my phone. Consistency matters, but so does relevance. The aim is to do both.

The Final Word

If you're on your own marketing journey, I'd love to hear about it. Have you struggled with keeping up with the reading, or with communicating your gifts to the world? Whatever it is, I can promise you that showing up for the work day after day is more important than arbitrary timelines and "commitments" that are easy to make and even easier to forget.