The surprising power of doing something to advance your brand every day
Starting a small business, whether it’s becoming a business consultant, mindfulness coach, yoga instructor, manufacturer, reseller or retailer of goods, or something else such as in my case becoming an author and public speaker, can seem overwhelming. This is probably because many people do this while working a full or part-time job or have other responsibilities.
Time is limited and if your experience is anything like mine, as you seek advice from experts, business coaches, well-meaning friends as well as online sources like websites, articles and blogs, the recommendations can be endless.
These included: write a business plan, do market research, analyze competitor’s offerings, be active on social media, build a website, pursue marketing opportunities, recruit customers, build a mailing list, write newsletters, blogs and articles, and so on. Not to mention of course the writing of the book in the first place. It seemed like everywhere I turned there was more advice – much of it good, but who has all the time to assess all these actions and determine which is best for your business? Which do you tackle first, second, third?
It can be so daunting that I was getting overwhelmed. At the time that I was co-writing my book about the life-and-death decisions made by the early Antarctic explorers (When Your Life Depends on It: Extreme Decision Making Lessons from the Antarctic), I was working in a full-time job for a high-tech company and had little time to commit to any of the recommendations everyone had. I decided upon a different, simpler approach.
I called it “doing something” and the idea was that I do something, no matter how small, every day including Saturdays and Sundays, to advance my brand. My theory was that tons of small actions, even very small actions, can lead to bigger results. The “doing something every day” idea also focused on doing the things I like doing on that particular day.
Often these might be really small things, like sending an email or connecting with an influencer on LinkedIn. Other times they could be bigger, such as searching for a book editor or contacting a podcaster to be on their show, but that depended upon both my mood and interest at that moment.
The “doing something every day” worked to get me off the rollercoaster of feeling overwhelmed with advice. I have yet to fully achieve my goals, but I have co-written two books and achieved some modest marketing success. I’ll be the first to say there’s a lot more to do. Perhaps this approach will work for you.