Carlon is Humiliated! You Benefit!

A few weeks ago I pulled a lat muscle. Now, if you’ve never pulled a lat muscle, let me tell you something:

…you are lucky!

It hurts like heck, and you use it to lift, while you're sitting, and it hurts every time you twist your body.

Well, after taking it easy for the past few weeks (treadmills are boring) and with the break that the big bad ice storm of 2007 gave us, I was ready to get back to some weight training.

But not wanting to take any chances, I was pretty much on light weight training (and for full disclosure, my gym activities do NOT include lifting heavy weights...I have no intention to be the next wannabe Schwarzenegger.)

Anyway, so I was hitting the weights. Pumping the 8-pound dumbbells. All the while, I had a small Asian woman half my size pumping 12-pound dumbbells on one side of me with these two extremely ripped guys curling 65-pound dumbbells in their hands on the other side.

Both small Asian woman and extremely ripped guys were doing quite well while I was grimacing in pain from the 8-pounders. All the while, they would glance at me with a "what-the-heck-is-your-problem-8-pound-lifitng-boy" face. I’m not sure how other people saw this when viewing this scene, but let's just say that my "coolness" factor at the gym probably took a hit.

But guess what? It’s better to work your way up slowly than to re-injure yourself. And I know that the ripped guys and the short Asian woman probably won't even remember who I am next time I hit the gym.

Why am I telling you about my humiliating experience at the gym?

It’s to teach you a very valuable marketing lesson. Here it is:

It’s OK to embarrass yourself.

What I mean is that most people are so afraid that their marketing will fail, they either do nothing or wait so long until it’s “perfect” that they miss out on an opportunity.

I know it’s hard for some of you to think like this, but marketing is not a reflection upon you as a person. If your marketing fails, it's not because you failed. You just have to pick yourself up and try again (all the while learning why you failed...which is why it is important for you to be testing while you market so you can measure results). The best marketing lessons I learned was from campaigns that failed. It’s all part of the process.

And just like the short Asian woman and the ripped guys at the gym will forget about me…

…if you fail, no one will remember your failed campaign, except you.

But trust me they will remember the ones that succeed.

So, if you get anything from this, remember this:

It’s better to put out something good today than to put something “perfect” out tomorrow.

So, get out there and get marketing...start a Google AdWords campaign, work on a direct mail piece, go network…do anything; do something…just don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Don’t be afraid of being embarrassed. It'll pass. It always does.

Get out there and get marketing,

Carlon Haas