Wouldn’t it be great to get lucky and stumble into someone who could change your life for the better, forever?
Or maybe to be introduced to someone at a party who needs what you’re selling? Or to sit on a plane beside the national sales manager of a company that has been looking for the services you offer?
Wouldn’t it be great to get asked to be a guest on a podcast, or interviewed on TV, or to be asked to share your comments in The New York Times? How about being asked to keynote an important conference?
How great would it be to have an agent who wanted to find you gigs? On Monday, you’re nobody but by Tuesday, you have been discovered and all of a sudden, your world will never be the same.
You have very little chance to ever be discovered. You have to hope to be discovered, and if “hope” is any part of your business plan, then you’re in trouble.
The alternative is to be sought after.
Instead of hoping to be discovered, try being the sort of person people will go looking for. Getting people to seek you out isn’t easy, but it’s a lot more likely than you being discovered. To be sought after means you have to be willing to try some things that might not work out. You might have to lean out over the edge away from the ordinary in order to make something (do something) that is truly remarkable and worthy of someone’s attention.
To be sought out means that you might have to be generous when you feel like being selfish. To be sought out means you have to try something that everyone else will say isn’t part of the job. You have to go the extra mile, but not in a predictable way. You have to reimagine your role, position and responsibility.
I know. Being discovered sounds like a lot more fun (even to me) but … working to be sought after is your best strategy.
Be generous. Be your best. Give your audience a story that’s easy to share.
Your work is worth it.