Every time I turned around this week, I was hit by another reminder of how important it is to ASK for what you need and want, both personally and professionally.
And it isn’t just about ASKING that matters. It is also about how you create opportunities for people to say YES and give you what you are asking for.
She Asked Her Way to $1MInstead of my own video this week, I wanted to share an extraordinary TED Talk that Amanda Palmer gave. She is a musician, punk meets cabaret (by her own admission, not for everyone.) She has traveled all over the world giving concerts and connecting with people. The coolest part is that she learned early on that one of the keys to asking and receiving is connecting with another person and “seeing” them as they truly are.
She actually began her career standing on a street corner in New Orleans as a living statue. In fact, for 5 years, she was known as the 8 foot bride and made money only by donations. What she learned about ASKING is here, WATCH IT!
When the record label she signed with deemed her album a flop because it only sold 25K copies, she decided to do something radical. From there on out, she gave away all of her music. The result proved extraordinary. When she needed funding for her next album (remember she was dropped by her first label because she didn’t sell enough copies), she turned to Crowd Funding. She needed to raise $100K, well if you watch the video, you’ll know what happened . . .
There are 3 Extraordinary Lessons in Creating a YES Environment for Your Ask, that I took from her work.
#1 Give your best content and material away for free.
Whether it is performing a song, providing a webinar, hosting a teleseminar, providing a radio show with expert interviews, blogging, publishing an ebook or creating video and podcasts, don’t be stingy. Stop with the teases and give your best away always. Your audience will come back for more and support you when the time is right. This also creates a priceless sense of reciprocity so that your market wants to support you.
#2 Connect with your market (audience).
Being real, authentic, and genuine will give you the market connection you are looking for. In the age of technology with high tech and high distrust, the more you reveal of yourself, the more your market (audience) will connect with you. Don’t try to be perfect, be the awesome imperfect human that you are.
#3 Trust in yourself and your market (audience)
When you become vulnerable and trust that your expert content, your unique talent, and your genuineness are enough, that trust will be rewarded by an unshakeable connection to your market who will be there when you need them most. (If you doubt this, WATCH THE VIDEO!)
Please share both your experiences and your comments with ASKING for what you want in life and business!
