Day 18 - Connections

When I hired a coach 6 weeks ago, I did it because I was stuck in a coaching rut that was quickly turning into an I Can't Coach rut, and a coach friend of mine wanted a logo design. I bartered cash plus a bit of coaching for the logo, and think I've come out ahead of the game. I HATE promoting my coaching, as it means I have to promote ME, and that's incredibly hard for me to do. I can't show a logo and say "I'll make you one till you like it", nor can I churn out pretty word .docs and .ppt files in record time, making people wonder how I did it, and willing to pay nice bucks for it. I have to sell someone the idea that a conversation with me can change their life, and they should pay me handsomely for it. That terrifies me.

I think I've helped prove my own point in the last month ... that a coach can make a difference. I'm not full of connections, as my coach seems to be (I'll get to that) but I can help people see what's possible, and that it's certainly not as impossible or scary as it looks. You just have to break it down, at least most of the time. In the last month, I've started co-hosting a weekly radio show, been introduced to the editor of an online Family magazine with the thought that I might like to write for them, and talked to about 40 people and counting about donating money and/or stuff to the race in december. I've shifted my focus I guess from "where's my next client" to having fun, doing what I like to do, and seeing what comes of it. The knocking on doors part I hate, but it's getting me to what I DO like in that it's making the race possible. Nothing much happens when I sit home and hope that somebody somewhere will stumble across my website and want to hire me on the spot.

The radio show was a direct result of my coach telling me to contact this woman she knew, and the possible writing thing came out of joining yet another networking site and having someone see my biz name and get intruiged, introduce themselves, and offer to intro me to this editor. No idea if anything will come of it, but it's better than not having the chance.

Speaking of connections ... M's got a gallery owner who's agreed to look at his work this week, so he's off to the studio tonight to pull together some pieces to show. In typical Michael fashion, he was at a packed gallery opening in Soho, left and saw this gallery was open but empty, so went over to check it out. He got talking to the man who owned it, and as the guy needed to run out for something he offered Michael $20 to watch the door for a few minutes. He countered with "I'll do it for free if you'll look at my work" and hence the opportunity :)