Internet Marketing Fears - Are Yours Real?
It's been 35 years since I earned a Master's Degree, entered the workforce, and began dealing with small businesses on a daily basis. I've spent nearly a half century helping business owners to be profitable, to expand, and ultimately to create jobs in the local economy.
I only say this so you'll know what I'm about to tell you is not a guess, or a hunch, or just something I've read somewhere. It comes from years of daily exposure to small business owners and the personal struggles they have had to overcome. My own challenges in Internet marketing include most or all of these same fears that they have had and that you may have right now.
Every business owner has fears! Fears serve a purpose. But fears are mostly irrational. Fears hold us all back and must be controlled.
Here is my list of very common marketing and business owner fears:
Nearly all of us react to our fears in one of two ways. We confront the fear and try to overcome it ("fight") or we flee from the fear thinking it might go away ("flight"). You be familiar with the phrase "fight or flight."
Well I'm here to tell you there's a third reaction to fear in Internet marketing. Let's call it "freeze" and add it to "fight" and "flight." We become paralyzed by our fears ("freeze") to the point that we simply stop and do nothing. You know, the "deer in the headlights" effect.
My advice to you is that most of our business fears are unfounded. We worry and fret and stew over the fact that we might be ridiculed if we put ourselves out there, or a few customers will reject us (ask for a refund), or that we don't know how to do something.
I have seen, first hand, businesses being flushed down the toilet simply because the owner froze when he met a technological challenge. Others have been stopped in their tracks because they didn't believe their product was good enough or they were afraid to write on topic because they weren't an expert.
You are not alone in your fears. Confront them. Get help if you need to in order to move on. There is no danger to justify your fear. Persist. Figure out a way around, through, or over your business obstacles.
Here are two hints on how to overcome your fears from Ralph Waldo Emerson:
"Always do what you are afraid to do."
“That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our power to do has increased.”
Master your fears or they will certainly hold you back.
The best to you in your business careers,
Steve
I only say this so you'll know what I'm about to tell you is not a guess, or a hunch, or just something I've read somewhere. It comes from years of daily exposure to small business owners and the personal struggles they have had to overcome. My own challenges in Internet marketing include most or all of these same fears that they have had and that you may have right now.
Every business owner has fears! Fears serve a purpose. But fears are mostly irrational. Fears hold us all back and must be controlled.
Here is my list of very common marketing and business owner fears:
- Fear of failure
- Fear of the unknown
- Fear of technology
- Fear of being ridiculed
- Fear of being rejected
- Fear that your advice, product, or service isn't worthy or "good enough"
- Fear of breaking rules or conventions (accepted methods and practices)
- Fear of success (yes, this is very real to some people!)
Fears are simply an emotional response to a perceived threat. They are the brain's natural answer to warn us of potential danger in our environment. Some fears are rational and justified. The fear of heights, for example, is very common and serves to warn us that extra precaution may be important to our safety.What I want to tell you is that nearly all the fears (related to doing business) that I have had myself, and that I have observed in thousands of business owners, are very real to them but no danger actually exists!
Other fears are irrational. Fear of being struck by lightning is very common yet the National Safety Council gives the odds of a human lightning strike during your lifetime as 1 in 126,158. (BTW, only about 20% of those struck by lightning die from that cause.) The odds of death due to heart disease is 1 in 7 (that's a fear that can motivate you to change), death by firearm is 1 in 7,059, death by hornets-wasps-bees is 1 in 71,107, and death by dog bite is 1 in 122,216.
Nearly all of us react to our fears in one of two ways. We confront the fear and try to overcome it ("fight") or we flee from the fear thinking it might go away ("flight"). You be familiar with the phrase "fight or flight."
Well I'm here to tell you there's a third reaction to fear in Internet marketing. Let's call it "freeze" and add it to "fight" and "flight." We become paralyzed by our fears ("freeze") to the point that we simply stop and do nothing. You know, the "deer in the headlights" effect.
My advice to you is that most of our business fears are unfounded. We worry and fret and stew over the fact that we might be ridiculed if we put ourselves out there, or a few customers will reject us (ask for a refund), or that we don't know how to do something.
I have seen, first hand, businesses being flushed down the toilet simply because the owner froze when he met a technological challenge. Others have been stopped in their tracks because they didn't believe their product was good enough or they were afraid to write on topic because they weren't an expert.
You are not alone in your fears. Confront them. Get help if you need to in order to move on. There is no danger to justify your fear. Persist. Figure out a way around, through, or over your business obstacles.
Here are two hints on how to overcome your fears from Ralph Waldo Emerson:
"Always do what you are afraid to do."
“That which we persist in doing becomes easier to do, not that the nature of the thing has changed but that our power to do has increased.”
Master your fears or they will certainly hold you back.
The best to you in your business careers,
Steve