Summit: Take Two
As you all may have read, I recently wrote a post that: A. Talked about why I’m out here writing this blog, and B. Gave me a shot to win a free ticket to the Social Media Success Summit which was offered by the very kind Chris Garrett.
Well folks, I did not win the aforementioned ticket. Sigh. I did get a shout out on Chris’s post when he announced the winner- which has got me feeling pretty good. It’s nice to feel like my story resonated. The good news is that the gracious winner, Charles of Wordful, has offered the additional free ticket to someone who can answer these questions for him. Yay! Here you go Charles:
1. What’s your single greatest challenge with blogging?
Writing is one of those activities for me where, as Chris Garrett said in a recent post, “Time seems to distort, my brain turns to sweet mush, and the words just arrive on screen.” Writing this blog is a great joy where I’ve finally found the marriage between my love for writing, and my long-time passion that there needs to be a bigger spotlight for the wild world of wellness; And that if we’re ever going to reach a tipping point where people line up at their local wellness center like they do at Starbucks, then practitioners are going to need some tools to thrive in their practices (and avoid experiencing what my first three years in practice were like). I’ve got the love, I’ve got the passion, and I’ve got the why.
What I don’t have is a very good social media strategy for how to get this blog to reach its tipping point. I’ve spent the last few years learning a lot about marketing. However, almost a year ago I decided to intentionally boycott all the classes and strategies. I started to feel the potential to become one of those people who is endlessly taking classes while postponing the doing of the thing. I decided that instead, I’d do the thing and strategize later. I knew this wouldn’t get my blog on the home page of Digg, but I wanted to take a step back. The result is that I’ve gotten boatloads of clarity about what marketing means to me, namely that all marketing actions can be heart-based, transparent, and rooted in integrity. However, I’m just emerging from my ‘no more classes’ hibernation, and I’m ready to take my own advice: No matter how wonderful you are at what you do, if you can’t connect it to the people who need what you have to offer, there’s no point. It’s time to be more conscious about connecting the thing to the people.
2. How will the Social Media Success Summit help you with that challenge?
That said, the Social Media Success Summit would be a wonderful way for me to emerge from hibernation by diving deeply into the Summit, and coming out with the best possible plan to take the blog from being a blip, to being of service. I know there are a boatload of things I need to do to get this blog on the radar, and hopping into the Summit would allow me focused time and education on how best to get it happening. I’ve greatly admired many of the teachers who will be presenting at the summit, and I would be honored and delighted to learn from them.
3. How do you envision your success online?
I decided a while back that I have no interest in being a guru. My intent with this blog, my book, whatever it is I do isn’t to build a platform so that I can demand exorbitant fees for speaking gigs. I don’t have all the answers and I never will, but what I do have is a natural love for connecting people to resources. Nothing makes me happier than seeing people thrive. My marker of success will be when I start hearing from large numbers of people that my work here helped them to grow thriving wellness practices with less of the pain we helper types normally go through with this process. I’d been over-the-moon-happy if this blog could grow/help a readership large enough that wellness schools need to sit up and take notice and- gasp!- give us the tools we need to succeed in our practices as a part of our educations. Until schools give us a bonafide education in more than just our modalities of choice (hello! We’re small business owners too!) there won’t be any Starbucks-esque lines outside local wellness centers.
Tags: Charles Bohannan, Chris Garrett, Social Media Success Summit, Wordful
