The Power of Marketing

A funny thing happens to most of us when we think about marketing ourselves. We shudder at the thought. We're suddenly shy. We're modest. We're embarrassed to talk about ourselves. But think of it this way: If you owned a business, would you simply open a store, sit there, and wait for customers to come to you? If you did, you'd go out of business in a very short time. To succeed, you have to tell people about your product. You have to get the word out. And if you, as the owner of the business, are reluctant to sell, who else will do it for you?

Marketing, selling, advertising, and promotion—they're all part of the same overall concept—getting the word out. They're all part of the process of getting an idea across. It's all marketing, and marketing is an art that, once learned, can benefit you in every area of your life. What marketing really does is tell people how you can help them solve particular problems. Because of your special skills, knowledge, invention, or innovation, you can make life easier for someone else. Marketing is getting your message out to people in a way that's stimulating enough to get them to act.

If you want to be successful in the 21st century, you have to become a good marketer. You have to promote your life and your life's work, whether you work for a large company or work for yourself. You'll need an entrepreneurial spirit, managing yourself as if you were running a small business. You have to have a marketing plan, just as any small business would. You have to know your "product" inside out and how to bring that product to the buying public. You have to know where your industry or field of interest is headed so that your product remains a marketable commodity in a rapidly changing world. And you need to have the skills of salesmanship to convince the buyer of the value of the product.

You don't become successful by sitting back and waiting for great things to happen to you. Marketing yourself is the only way to get the word out there. Everyone at the top of his or her profession—from CEOs to movie stars—had to sell themselves to get where they are today. You don't have to be a braggart or a show-off to sell yourself. What you really need is a positive attitude and a belief in yourself and your abilities. Selling yourself to others only proves that you have confidence in yourself and are willing to stand behind your beliefs. When you don't believe in yourself, you're only selling yourself short.