Okay, so Holly high-jacked my Wednesday post slot because she gave hers to our lovely guest blogger Julie, and I don’t at all mind because she had this wonderfully written post on risk taking and why you should always press the proverbial “send” button, even when you’re scared. Even when you feel you aren’t ready or prepared for it. She has also high-jacked Ittybiz today, so go check it out!

Also, a friendly reminder, we are still selling our website packages in celebration of our partnership at an extremely discounted rate. 5 pages of Cottage Copy goodness all rolled into a WordPress website (with a custom header, sidebar, and security configuration). Don’t be afraid to email us if you’re interested in learning more.

Photo credit: Bern@t on Flickr

In our free time, Laura and I like to have numerous discussions about the nature and application of risk taking in business (because well, we’re not nerds enough already). These discussions are generally lengthy due to the fact that I believe pretty firmly in risk-taking, and Laura feels that one should generally measure how far down you can fall before you do the leaping part.

I firmly believe that to be good at running a business (and to lead a fulfilling life in general) you have to open yourself up to the risk of failure.

As much as it sounds like a fortune cookie, you can’t really figure out what success means to you before you screw it up once or twice.

That said, this is a pretty difficult life philosophy to follow, even for those of us who actively seek out calculated risks to take. This is mostly because even the ballsiest among us have moments where we stop and run through all the “what-if’s” of a given situation, and come out feeling like it’s easier to just stick with the status quo.

When someone says, “I don’t like marketing.”, it’s not really what they mean. They could mean “I don’t want to fail at this in public.”, or they could mean, “I’m not sure I’m really good enough to do this.”, or “If I market this thing I’ll have to commit to whatever consequences it brings.”, but none of those are really about marketing. They’re really the pure fear of the unknown.

I had an experience last week when I was struck with the almost pathological need to connect with an old friend. Now, this wasn’t just some old acquaintance, it was a good friend who I’ve known for ten years. We somehow fell out of touch three years ago, despite spending most of our formative years together.

So, I did something I pretty much never do: I did a google search to track them down.

Due to the power of google, I found enough contact information to know I had a pretty good shot at reaching them. I wrote out the email, and got ready to press send, and I just froze. Like everyone else when faced with a risky situation, all I could think of was all the terrible things that could happen.

What if it was the wrong email address?

What if he was so pissed off I’d disappeared three years ago that he hated me?

And really, worst of all, what if he didn’t care enough to respond?

And then that little safe voice kicked in, like it does for everyone. “Well,” it said, “he didn’t care how you were for three years. You don’t have to do this; he could always look you up.”, and that awful little monster voice that says, “Maybe he never really cared anyway.”

I was torn, and I felt stuck. I pressed send anyway.

I had a response back by the time I work up the next morning. Not just a response, but a positive one. The coolest thing of all is that this friend of mine is getting married in a year; if I hadn’t emailed, I never would have known.

We’re now back in contact, and there was nothing weird about it at all. No guilt, no awkwardness over this three year absence, just happiness that we’d finally managed to figure out how to contact each other. And even better than that, the realization that we’d missed the presence we had in each other’s lives very much in three years, and that we were grateful to have found that again.

When you connect with your Right People, this is what it’s like. All that guilt you feel over selling a product, and all that worry that people don’t really care, it just goes away.

Finding your Right People when you market isn’t about numbers, and it isn’t about money at the core. It’s about finding people who appreciate you for who you are and what you do; most importantly, these are people who needed something like you and your business in their lives desperately, and many have been searching for it for a long time.

And really, denying that feeling to people because you’re afraid the population at large won’t care is just an act of self-protection. The act of marketing, and the act of getting your stuff out there to go change the lives of your Right People is an act of giving. And of joy.

Here’s the trick though: taking risks is how you find those right people. Opening yourself up to the silence that can come as a response, or the difficulties of dealing with running a business, or the piles of laundry it can create; well, those come with the territory.

Marketing, when you do it well, and when you do it honestly, is a gift to your Right People. And when you find those Right People, you’ll realize that no matter what the risk, you have to do it to keep that feeling going.

A few posts ago, I mentioned that I was adding consulting to my repertoire. I’ve finally added it to my Services page, and in order to kick things off, I’m running a giveaway here on the blog.

I’m giving away two one-hour consulting sessions.

Each session gets you an hour with me, on the phone or over an instant-messaging client – your choice – to talk about the best way to create new copy for your website, blog, etc., or to massage your existing writing to better suit your needs and wants. You don’t even have to be a small business – as long as you’ve got something you want written or edited, you’re good to go. Each winner and I will set up a time within the next two weeks when we’re both available; all you have to do is have an idea about what you want to talk about.

Here are the rules:

1. Leave a comment on this post. You can introduce yourself, talk about how you’d use a copy consultation, or just say hi – the only requirements are that your post be in English and that you leave a valid email address.
2. The giveaway ends at 11:59 PM EST on December 26. (I’ll use the comment time to determine eligibility.)
3. On December 27, I’ll randomly select two of the eligible comments and send out emails with more information. I’ll also post the winners’ names (or preferred pseudonyms) in another blog post this weekend.

That’s it! Good luck, and have a great day!