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Talk to Yourself for Fun and Profit!
We've all seen them.
The brilliant marketing consultant that doesn't test their own
campaigns. The professional remodeller with an unfinished
basement. The accountant with sloppy records for their own
business.
People that do quality work for their clients, and neglect to
do the same level of work for themselves.
It's called "Shoemaker's Kids Syndrome." The name is based on
a story about a shoemaker who is so busy cobbling up pairs for
his customers that his own children go barefoot.
I have yet to meet a single person who wasn't guilty of this
in one way or another. There are a lot of reasons you might
fall into this trap.
Any one of dozens of reasons might apply. All of them trace
back to one central issue.
Perspective.
.............
I'm certainly guilty of this myself. I once spent 36 hours
straight working on a sales letter for a client. He got the
material to me two weeks late, and I had 2 days to get the
letter back to him by the deadline.
The client certainly didn't expect me to meet the deadline
based on their having been 2 weeks late. *I* expected me to
meet the deadline.
On the other hand, I've been known to leave projects of my own
sitting unfinished, within one day's work of completion, for
as much as a year.
Why? The creative part was done. All that was left was
administrivia. I HATE administrivia.
Does any of this sound familiar?
There's a very good chance you suffer from this problem to
some extent yourself. You know that a thing should be done,
you know how it should be done, and you have the ability to do
it.
And it's STILL not done.
It's probably happened more than once. And gone on for much
longer than it should.
So. What do you do about it?
Let's look at it from a different perspective for a moment.
When someone comes to you with a problem that relates to your
business, do you usually have good advice for them?
Suggestions based on your experience, or creative ideas that
seem certain to solve the problem for them?
Do they usually listen to you?
I'll bet the answer is yes.
The reason might surprise you: They value your experience much
more than you probably do yourself.
Sound familiar?
This is a common phenomenon. And, despite the vague musings of
pop psychologists and moms everywhere, it has nothing to do
with your self-esteem.
It's so simple that most people never think of it: You
acquired that expertise a tiny bit at a time, and never really
realised just how much you were learning. To you, it's just
"stuff you know."
It's common sense - except that it's not common at all.
Example: I was talking with Jason Potash the other day. Jason
is the developer of Ezine Announcer, a desktop tool to
automate the process of getting listed in ezine directories
and submitting articles to publishers.
Jason spent years researching the directories and announcement
lists that were available, writing the software, developing
the best systems for using it, maintaining the database etc.
To him, it's a matter of learning one bit of info at a time.
To everyone else, it's an impressive range of hard experience.
And it resulted in the only tool of its kind that's currently
available.
He was surprised when I mentioned that he was the world's
leading expert in his field, and one of the top experts in the
newsletter promotion game.
He was surprised because becoming a "leading expert" wasn't
his goal. His goal was to create the best piece of software
possible to get things done.
He was doing stuff, and became an expert along the way, as
sort of a by-product. He just didn't realise it.
Sound familiar?
Expert status is a matter of two things:
It's interesting to me just how many people that truly are
experts don't know it. And how many who call themselves
experts don't know beans.
But that's another article.
You are probably something of an expert in your field. If
people ask you for advice, act on it, and get results, it's a
definite "Yeah."
So, if they take your advice... why shouldn't you?
Who knows your business, your style, your methods and your
goals better than you do?
Why not ask yourself for solutions to your problems?
Yes, I mean literally ask yourself. Out loud.
Talk to yourself.
Now, many of you may be thinking that I've lost my mind. Or
that others will believe you have if you follow this advice.
I am not suggesting that you do this in an airport, or the
lobby of your favorite restaurant. That will just make people
think you're either poor and psychotic or rich and eccentric.
Depending on your wardrobe.
Let's take this one step at a time.
First, write up a description of the business situation you
want to address. If you're doing okay and are looking for some
breakthroughs to help you boost things to the next level,
write a brief description of your overall situation.
Be as specific as you think you'd need to be to prepare a
consultant to help you. No more, no less.
Next to each section, write down the questions you want to get
answers for.
When you're done, sign it. With someone else's name.
No, I have NOT lost my mind.
Just play along with me here.
Now set that aside for a day or so.
When you're ready to get back to it, set up a tape recorder,
and make sure you'll have at least an hour of uninterrupted
time.
No phone calls. No email. No kids barging in. Just you and the
person you're pretending to talk to.
Read over the summary you've prepared, as though it came from
a complete stranger who called you for help. You want to
develop the mindset that you have no personal investment in
these issues at all.
No stress. It's just conversation.
Turn on the tape recorder.
Take your time, and answer each question one at a time. If you
feel you'd need more information to answer it, just make a
note of that and go on.
Brainstorm. Play. Make jokes. Toss around ideas like they were
just that - ideas.
After all, the person you're talking to doesn't have to use
any of them, right?
Don't shy away from the big questions. Treat them as an
intellectual exercise. A challenge.
And don't rush. If you don't get through the whole set of
questions in the first session, that's okay. Do them later.
The key here is to be thorough.
When you're done, put away the tape recorder for a day or so.
Then go back and listen to it, taking notes as you go.
Now is when you evaluate the ideas. List the good ones, and
the ones that might be good, and start to develop an outline
for making them happen.
You'll be surprised at what you come up with.
It DOES work.
There are a lot of reasons for it, but explaining them in
depth in an article like this would be like answering the
question "What time is it?" by explaining how a watch works.
For those who are interested, they boil down (a lot) to two
main concepts:
A third factor applies to only a few people, but for them it
can be critical: some people simply learn best when they hear
things.
Enough of the psychology.
If there were questions you didn't get to, do another session,
and keep doing them until you have the answers you need.
Then comes the tough part. Follow-through.
Well, it seems tough, anyway. What you actually need to do is
easy:
Break down the steps you have to complete into mini-steps,
until each one is something that can be done in a relatively
short period of time.
Then simply make it a point to do at least one of those
mini-steps each day. If you make them small enough, that won't
be a challenge.
The interesting thing is what happens after a couple of weeks
of doing them on a regular basis. You start to get excited
about your progress, and find yourself doing more than one a
day.
You'll actually get excited about crossing each of those steps
off your list.
Before you know it, you've accomplished what you set out to
do.
All because you were smart enough to take the advice of an
expert.
You.
As you do this more and more often, you'll find that it
becomes easier. You'll develop a tendency to talk things out
as they come up.
And you'll dramatically reduce the amount that you
short-change yourself and your business.
After all, maybe there's a reason for the old cliche about the
rich talking to themselves.
Ya think maybe?
Paul
You might be spending all your time on work for clients, and be tired of dealing with that specific
thing when you're done.
You might not find it as challenging to do for yourself.
You might believe that you're so good at what you
do that you can afford shortcuts that you'd never
let your clients take.
Your sense of responsibility for your clients might
exceed the responsibility you feel for yourself.
Paul Myers is author of "TalkBiz News".
.. Hardcore "How To" for Business and
"The Amazing List Machine".
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