No, not that one. I’m talking about a different “f-word” – failure. Our culture shies away from the failure label. Some folks even refuse to use it, preferring euphemisms like “challenge” or “issue.” There’s something even more powerful than pretending failure doesn’t exist. That is embracing it as evidence of growth and a crucial pathway to success.
After all, failure and success are two sides of the same coin. You often must persevere past setbacks before you reach your goal. Most high achievers will tell you they’ve failed plenty of times. What set them apart is they didn’t let it stop them.
To take the sting out of this f-word, try looking at it head on – “That approach was a failure.” “I failed at producing that result using that method.” Big deal. Now you know something you didn’t know before – namely one approach that doesn’t work.
There’s a story that when a reporter asked Thomas Edison how it felt to fail 10,000 times in trying to invent the light bulb, he replied, “I have successfully found 10,000 ways it will not work.” But the question gave him a light bulb moment. He realized that to succeed he was going to need to fail faster, so he hired assistants and got busy attempting even more approaches until he finally hit on the one the did the trick.
Maybe it’s time to reframe failure. Instead of seeing it as a painful and embarrassing calamity, view it as an inevitable part of the success process and even cause for celebration. Failure means you put something out there. You tried, you learned and you probably got further than 80% of others. That’s nothing to be ashamed of. You might even set a goal to fail even bigger and faster, knowing that bigger success awaits you on the other side.
© 2011 Barbara Wayman, APR, BlueTree Media, all rights reserved
Barbara Wayman, APR, president of BlueTree Media, LLC, publishes The Stand Out Newsletter, an award-winning monthly ezine for people who want to know how to leverage the power of marketing and public relations. Get your free subscription today at http://BlueTreeMedia.com
Showing posts with label Growing Business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Growing Business. Show all posts
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Should You Be Famous? How Editorial Calendars Can Help
“It is just the little touches after the average man would quit that make the master’s fame.”
--Orison Swett Marden
Those of you who would welcome media coverage of your company but are not sure how to get started, let me give you a great tip: editorial calendars.
What's an editorial calendar? Simply a written plan of topics a media outlet will be covering in a given year. Many of the publications you read most often have editorial calendars they work from, as it gives them a structure to plan their content.
What can this mean for you? Well, if you can get your hands on a media outlet's editorial calendar, you can scan it to see where a story that mentions your company would best fit. So if you manufacture silk, you'd be a good candidate for planned coverage under manufacturing companies, home décor or maybe a fashion feature.
The media is generally more receptive to story ideas that fill their needs. If you can call and say, "I've got an idea for your June issue on fashion about special silks being manufactured here in Pittsburgh, Kansas," you will stand a better chance of capturing their interest than if you called and said “Hi I run a silk manufacturing firm here in town and think you should do a feature story on my company.” Remember the old adage, WIIFM, or “what’s in it for me?” Editorial calendars give you a shortcut to exactly what a media outlet is looking for, so that you can help provide it.
Many publications post their editorial calendars online. If you don't see it there, call and ask if they can email or mail it to you. Look for places where an upcoming topic matches your product or service and make your pitch.
Barbara Wayman, president of BlueTree Media, LLC, publishes The Stand Out Newsletter, an award-winning ezine for people who want to know how to leverage the power of marketing and public relations. Get your free subscription today at www.bluetreemedia.com/ezine.html
This article may be reprinted when the copyright and author bio are included.
©2010 Barbara Wayman, BlueTree Media, LLC.
--Orison Swett Marden
Those of you who would welcome media coverage of your company but are not sure how to get started, let me give you a great tip: editorial calendars.
What's an editorial calendar? Simply a written plan of topics a media outlet will be covering in a given year. Many of the publications you read most often have editorial calendars they work from, as it gives them a structure to plan their content.
What can this mean for you? Well, if you can get your hands on a media outlet's editorial calendar, you can scan it to see where a story that mentions your company would best fit. So if you manufacture silk, you'd be a good candidate for planned coverage under manufacturing companies, home décor or maybe a fashion feature.
The media is generally more receptive to story ideas that fill their needs. If you can call and say, "I've got an idea for your June issue on fashion about special silks being manufactured here in Pittsburgh, Kansas," you will stand a better chance of capturing their interest than if you called and said “Hi I run a silk manufacturing firm here in town and think you should do a feature story on my company.” Remember the old adage, WIIFM, or “what’s in it for me?” Editorial calendars give you a shortcut to exactly what a media outlet is looking for, so that you can help provide it.
Many publications post their editorial calendars online. If you don't see it there, call and ask if they can email or mail it to you. Look for places where an upcoming topic matches your product or service and make your pitch.
Barbara Wayman, president of BlueTree Media, LLC, publishes The Stand Out Newsletter, an award-winning ezine for people who want to know how to leverage the power of marketing and public relations. Get your free subscription today at www.bluetreemedia.com/ezine.html
This article may be reprinted when the copyright and author bio are included.
©2010 Barbara Wayman, BlueTree Media, LLC.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)