You may be wondering what does fear have to do with PR? It has everything to do with it because if you don’t acknowledge/embrace it, PR won’t help your business grow
I did an interview recently with SmartChic Cynthia Bazin (a fellow expert on Today’s Innovative Woman), Wanda Baader, of Strategize Your Success, and Gail Foley, from One Awesome Community and we talked about why women are so often held back by fear.
I shared with them 5 ways to conquer it so your business can grow. The full interview is posted below.
- Know Your Why/Ideal Client — If you know your why and who you serve, and make sure it aligns with your core values, you will be so confident that you will be unstoppable. Imagine you’re standing on the shore and you see someone drowning. You’d throw them a life preserver. Your ideal client is drowning in whatever challenge is keeping them stuck. Your service is their life preserver.
- Acknowledge and embrace your fear — We don’t go into business knowing how to go into business. You have your skillset as your expertise, but there’s a lot more that goes into running a business and that’s scary. But, remember this: You only have to be one step ahead of your ideal client to be an expert. They don’t care how many years of experience you have. All they care about is that you have a solution to their problem!
- Ask for help — I know. This is so hard for some of us to do. But, when you reach out to learn from someone else’s expertise, that’s when the magic happens. It opens you to a new network of people you wouldn’t otherwise have met. It creates opportunities for strategic alliances/collaborations. It paves the way for speaking opportunities and much more.
- Make your story part of your brand — Often the thing we’re most passionate about is born out of the challenge we were able to overcome. Use that to your advantage! A friend and colleague is a confidence coach and best-selling author. A few years ago, an abusive relationship had taken its toll on her self esteem and robbed her of the ability to believe in herself. When she took control and decided she wasn’t going to be defined that way, her life turned around. Now, she uses her life experience to teach others. And, it doesn’t mean she doesn’t still have days that rock her confidence, but instead of being consumed by it, she uses it to help others see how they can triumph over their challenges.
- Pull the trigger — The day you’re not afraid is the day your business is not growing. That’s the reality, my friend. Every successful entrepreneur is scared out of their mind. Perhaps you want to write a book, but you’re afraid that if you devote the time to it, your business will suffer, your clients will leave you, you won’t have any income, etc. At some point, you just have to pull the trigger. Take a deep breath, tell your clients that you’re taking a couple of weeks to focus completely on your goal that will make your business even better. You can keep everyone in the loop with updates on social media detailing your progress, and when you return, you will have the satisfaction of knowing you have conquered your fear.
The full interview is below with a lot of discussion among the four of us. I’d love to know your thoughts. Feel free to leave me a comment and share this with anyone who will benefit.
Thanks for sharing this space with me!
Robin Taney, (aka the “Get R.E.A.L Girl”) is the owner and founder of Studio 4 PR. She works with creative, independent, and “kitchen table” entrepreneurs who are highly motivated to be found by their perfect client. You can connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, and sign up for mailing list You are welcome to use this post on your blog, provided you do not alter it in any way and include a link to this blog.
Robin is also a co-author of the bestselling book, Navigating Entrepreneurship: Secrets to Put You on an Unstoppable Course, which hit #1 in Hot New Releases less than 12 hours after launching on Amazon.