Friday, we talked a little bit about Market Positioning, and how some people are reluctant to position themselves where they need to be.
If you missed the post, you can read it here
You know, positioning is much more than “boasting” and in fact, boasting and bragging, isn’t positioning, at all.
However, what do you do, if… you’re either not that confident, or you’re too shy… or, you’re just not comfortable holding yourself out as an expert?
If you feel “awkward” about positioning yourself like this, yet you’re willing to try and get out of your comfort zone and change, there are a few things you can do, and I’ll share them with today.
To figure out the best direction to move in, you’ve got to uncover where your source of discomfort comes from.
Sometimes it comes from negative or religious messages you heard over-and-over again, when you were younger. Things like:
“Don’t brag — be humble.”… or… “Money’s the root of all evil.” Or…
“Why can’t you just be thankful for what you have?”… or, at the very extreme end, things I heard, like…
“You’re no f-in good.”
But regardless of which of these messages you heard, each one of them… especially when heard repeatedly, “programs” you into feeling uncomfortable with self-promotion. Because genuine self-promotion is rooted in self-confidence.
And messages like this tend to minimize your self-confidence.
Sometimes, overcoming this programming so you can start touting yourself as an expert, well… frankly, it’s just not that easy.
But remember, if you don’t anoint yourself as an expert today, who else is going to do it for you?
So here are a few of the things that helped me early on in my career, to overcome my initial discomfort with positioning myself as an expert:
1. Realizing that looking backwards never really helps you
Lamenting over what you once had, what you used to be, what you lost, or how you were treated, doesn’t really help you today. In fact, it sucks the life out of you and it takes a ton of time and mental energy to manage all that anxiety living in the past causes you.
All that crap isn’t going to help you get the stuff done you need to do, TODAY So leave it on your mental shelf and just move on to today’s business.
Literally, do NOT look backwards as it relates to this stuff.
If you can’t focus on the moment at hand, you’re going to have a tough time doing anything, anyway. No matter what you’re trying to accomplish.
2. Really considering the source of these messages
Just the same way you wouldn’t seek out advice on heart transplants, from your neighbor who works for the phone company… consider the source.
Were the people who “fed” you this programming really credible when it comes to things like your self-worth, marketing, positioning, or your business acumen and success?
What did they do in their own lives? What inherent dysfunctional “edge” were they really getting from these messages or from their criticisms?
Or were they merely feeding you the same party line someone sold them, years ago? Most people are incapable of looking deeply into things “they were told” as kids.
Which is what makes new ideas so difficult to accept.
Chances are outstanding, whatever they told you was 100% about THEM, and had absolutely nothing to do with YOU.
Their inability to deal with their own demons — this forced them to make their problems, your problems, which isn’t cool in any scenario. Personal, or business.
3. And lastly, for me, anyway… a great book about this, which sort of “freed me up” about — specifically about money, was the Science Of Getting Rich”
If you haven’t read this book, I’d encourage you to check it out. We have it here in the store for ten bucks, or you can find it elsewhere online, I’m sure.
As I say in How To Make Maximum Money With Minimum Customers, the “Expert Fairy” isn’t going to come flying in through your front door, with her wand in her hand and her crown on her head, to appoint you as an “Expert,” any time soon.
There’s only one person responsible for how you’re positioned or how you’re NOT positioned — and that person is you.
So start positioning yourself as an expert right now, and you’ll see a noticeable shift in how you’re perceived (and how you’re treated) by your customers and clients.
Comments? Leave ’em below
Now go sell something, Craig Garber
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Not Fragile – BTO (1979)