Dear Friends,

What does it mean to sell your soul?

Do you know what you're willing to say and do—or not say and do to get what you want? These are questions I ponder a lot. Partly because I'm really ambitious and partly because I'm torn between wanting to read and think and make lazy Sundays in bed and wanting to create more products and art and learn to cook tasty Thai food. Balancing the active and the passive, yin and yang, ambition and relaxation, focus and dreaming, is a challenge for me. I want to make more time for poetry and lollygaging so this past week I did.

I went to "A Poetics of Peace" talk by storyteller and mythologist Michael Meade, someone whom I greatly admire. In between reciting poetry, drumming and telling stories about working with inner-city gang kids, Meade also injected much of his own sentiment about the state of politics today.

Something he said struck me. That we must know ourselves before we can know what kind of candidate we want to vote for. In today's busy world many of us are forgetting to take the time to think and ponder what is most meaningful to us.

This became apparent to me again when I participated in an online conference with facilitator Diane Fleck and lots of other talented people. In the teleseminar I gave, learning to sell yourself as an entrepreneur, was a hot topic. It inspired this week's tip sheet. I hope it gives you something to ponder in your quiet moments.

Warmly,

Susan

HOW YOU CAN SELL YOURSELF WITHOUT SELLING YOURSELF SHORT

A woman in my teleseminar presentation at the conference called "How Did They Do That?: 8 Strategies for Today's Business Success" said, "I'm bad at selling myself. I think that the only thing I'm good at is selling myself short." Many of us are. But that can change. Here's how.

1. Tell stories with emotional zing.

The most poignant stories come from people with broken hearts. Those who haven't suffered can be entertaining and witty, but often even the funniest stuff comes from pain. You can create drama with quiet intensity by downplaying the emotion versus hyping it up.

Michael Meade told this story to his audience at the "A Poetics of Peace" evening in San Francisco and it left us silenced. I'm paraphrasing it to the best of my memory:

"I went back East to confront my mother. I got up my nerve and planned to tell her about the mistakes she made raising me. About how she had done wrong by me. In the middle of the conversation she said to me. 'What makes you think you were wanted?'

I felt my knees buckling. Somehow, I always knew this, but it was never spoken. It was a kind of relief to finally hear it."

2. Don't puff up, calm down.

A well known movie director, who shall go nameless said, "I may not be right. I may not know what I'm talking about. But if I say something loud enough, with enough passion and conviction enough times, people believe me."

I don't deny that loud gets credit in our culture. Coupled with passion and conviction it's pretty potent. But there is another way. I call it quiet dignity. Speak more softly so people have to lean in to hear you. Pause and wait for interest in the middle of a sentence that you know people will want you to finish. Say something starkly. Strip it down to its essence. Make yourself like a tree that's lost all it's leaves preparing for winter.

3. Be bold.

"The meek will inherit the earth, but they won't get stock options." I don't know who said it, but it's true. Be humble, but for God's sake speak up. Especially for the important things (stock options aside). You've just got to get over yourself.

Make a pact with yourself that if you think it, you'll do it. Start small. For example, when I saw a man hitting his dog with unabashed fury, the dog cowering and yelping, I said, "Please don't." The man was startled, but he stopped.

Think of it this way. Do you want to live a life of regrets or do you want to say, "I did it all in the little time I had?"

I have fears about almost everything. If I'm driving in Big Sur, I'm sure one of those boulders will come loose and crush me flat in my car. But I won't die instantly, I'll suffer for a long time and then, just when I've made peace with dying someone will rescue my crumpled self. Stuff like that.

I could fill a book with my heinous scenarios, both professional and personal, but I look for the antidote to my overly active imagination. Mark Twain noted, "My life has been filled with terrible misfortunes, most of which never happened." Mine, too. What about yours?

IS YOUR PRESENCE HURTING YOU?

Listen to an interview with me and Romanus Wolter, The Kick Start Guy, on Entrepreneur Magazine's radio show where I discuss the importance of presence—and how you can be sure you're conveying the right message to your audience.

Here is the main show page: http://www.wsradio.com/entrepreneurshow/

INCREASE YOUR WEB TRAFFIC

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ARE YOU SELF PUBLISHING?

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QUOTE

There is no way I can impact the world unless I pay attention to the inner voice.

~ Anwar Sadat