Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Leaning On Experience Can Make You Successful

Last year I began writing a book that was published this past March.  Although writing a book was a bigger challenge than I anticipated, promoting the book has been even more of an adventure into the unknown than I anticipated.  When the publicist told me they would be promoting me and the book at the same time, I guess I didn’t hear the “me” part of that statement.  So when she called to setup my first radio interview last month I was a bit stunned.

I was given the phone number, and told to call in a few minutes before the interview time, and then I noted that the whole interview was only 10 minutes long!  What could we possibly discuss in 10 minutes?  Thankfully the DJ was a skilled interviewer and immediately put me at ease and we covered so much more territory than I thought possible.  I also noticed that after hanging up the phone I was still breathing and I had survived!

Although I get bored with routine very easily, I also approach everything new with a tremendous amount of caution.  Actually to be truthful, I ask a million questions of anyone that I can find that has experience in the area I am about to enter.  In this case, a friend of mine used to host a radio talk show and understood my anxiety and prepared and coached me through the process ahead of time.

Too often I see people struggling to get through an experience that is new to them with out any outside help.  When if they reached out to friends, peers, managers, staff or consultants they could reduce a lot of stress and perform at a higher level.  I have no fear in telling someone I could use their help, advice and experience to make me perform at a higher level.  Or in the case of the radio interview, get through it and not come across as completely incompetent.

So the next time you are faced with a new challenge, take a moment and look around your world and find someone that knows more than you do about the task at hand.  Give them a call and lean on their experience to make you successful!

Jim Hopkins – JK Hopkins Consulting

Posted by Jim Hopkins at 12:27 pm