A few weeks ago, I mentioned a social group experiment that I decided to participate in called the START experiment. The experiment is based on Jon Acuff’s new book START. Basically, as a group, we are “punching fear in the face” and taking steps to pursue a dream or risk – writing, creating, growing a business, getting fit, growing spiritually, going back to school, seeking employment, you name it. Each group member (there are now 3400 or so) was instructed to pick a risk to work toward and report to a subgroup and partner for accountability.
I wasted no time coming up with my risk – I wanted redesign and update my website. This project was already on my summer “to do” list, and given that I somehow erased my former web site with the click of a mystery button, I was poised and ready to go!
I eagerly began working and found that designing a website with WordPress and iThemes is kind of like riding a bike. You may be a little rusty if you haven’t done it in a while, but it comes back pretty quickly. Don’t get me wrong. There have been plenty of challenges along the way. I happen to enjoy designing my own site but there are definitely learning curves.
During this process, however, I found that while I was supposed to be taking a risk, in reality I was just checking off a relatively easy “to do” list (an important one though – gotta have a website!).
Fast forward to this week.
I reevaluated and asked myself, “What are the things you want/need to do for your business but have been putting off because of fear??” I came up with two items both related to the marketing process.
1) I had avoided distributing marketing materials to local children’s therapy centers (speech, occupational therapy, physical therapy, etc).
2) I had avoided setting up a Facebook page.
So what did I do this week? I bit the bullet and had my husband Ben drive me to three local pediatric therapy centers. I forced myself out of the truck and walked into the building. After introducing myself, all three locations were very friendly and 2 immediately agreed to let me place the materials in their lobby. A third place had to check with the office manager who was not there at the time.
Grand total of time spend for all 3 visits = 25 minutes. I seriously needed the “that was easy” Staples button. I will probably add a few more places to my list, but overall it was a great start!
The other thing I did this week was set up a Sound Starts Facebook page! I have to say that I needed the easy button again. After a day I have 30 likes. Of course I want to increase that number (share the love friends!), and I’m still learning the in’s and out’s of having a page , but so far so good!
I have to say that “punching fear in the face” this week was exhilarating. Also I have now experienced firsthand that fear is a liar (Jon talks about this in START). Fear says, “You can’t do that because…..” or “The time isn’t right for …….” or “Just wait until you get to point A, B, or C before getting started on……” None of these statements is true. You CAN start. You can start NOW!
Recent Comments