I was reading Seth Godin’s book, This is Marketing, over the weekend, and stopped short when I came to this page:
“It takes a small amount of energy and guts to be authentic. You need to feel confident enough to let your true feelings be exposed, knowing that if you’re rejected, it’s personal.
But there’s a lot of hiding involved as well—hiding from the important work of making change happen. If all you do is follow your (make-believe) muse, you may discover that the muse is a chicken, and it’s steering you away from the important work.
And if the authentic you is a selfish jerk, please leave him at home. If you need to be authentic to do your best work, you’re not a professional, you’re a fortunate amateur. Fortunate, because you have a gig where being the person you feel like being in the moment actually helps you move forward. For the rest of us, there’s the opportunity to be a professional, to exert emotional labor in search of empathy—the empathy to imagine what someone else would want, what they might believe, what story would resonate with them. We don’t do this work because we feel like it in the moment. We do this work, this draining emotional labor, because we’re professionals, and because we want to make change happen.”
The use of the word authentic here is arguable; on his blog, Seth Godin defines real authenticity as “consistent emotional labor.” So I’m going to take the liberty of assuming that in the book, he is referring to the lazy version of authenticity, which is simply what feels comfortable and natural to someone.
Many entrepreneurs (or wanna-be entrepreneurs) use the excuse “it’s just not me” when it comes to marketing their businesses. I am including myself in this generalization! For example, putting myself on social media does not come naturally to me; but I have accepted that this is simply an EXCUSE, not a valid REASON not to be doing so, and am actively working to come out of my comfort zone. I’m definitely not saying that everyone has to be doing the same things to promote their businesses; in fact, that is the opposite of what you should be trying to do. To differentiate yourself successfully, you have to find what works best for your particular strengths, but don’t limit yourself to the confines of what feels comfortable. True marketing, as Seth Godin says, is “emotional labor” – it isn’t supposed to be easy!
What have you done lately to come out of your comfort zone? Comment below!