So said Daniel Wagner on a recording I was listening to yesterday. Have to confess - I burst out laughing!
This is typical of Daniel's humour and the skill he has with getting your attention! It worked! Daniel was using the power of humour linked to the power of association and emotion - a powerful cord of three strands. Like most people from my age group, the song, "Don't Worry, Be Happy!" has positive emotional resonance. Here is it for your delight...
Daniel effectively used what I call a 'Remora Strategy' to hitch a lift on those positive emotional highs, and then did an elegant Lateral Thinking twist like a linguistic Fosbury Flop to reframe it to land a very powerful point...
...and the point is?
TAKE ACTION!
I rarely use CAPITAL letters in any form of messaging - after all, it's a kind of textural SHOUTING! In this case, however, the message Daniel was sharing is worthy of a SHOUT OUT!
Way too many people are waiting...
...waiting for their work to reach some invented standard that matches the story in their head that it is finally good enough. Well, this simply isn't good enough!
No! It's time to
TAKE ACTION!!
There, I've said it again!
Daniel's comment was particularly powerful for me because I really didn't agree and I really did agree at the same time!
I agreed with his assertion that, when it comes to Internet Marketing, it is better to get your message out there working for you, even if the audio and your website is a bit crappy. How many gems are hidden in people's heads because they are afraid or unwilling to 'ship' their 'art'? I don't want to die with my best work left unsaid, unpainted, unpublished!
If you ask Neil Gaiman or Seth Godin about writing, they will say,
"WRITE!"
...and Karen Carpenter sang,
"Sing, sing a song... don't worry if it's not good enough for anyone else to hear, just sing..."
Write, sing, dance, paint, but above all things PUBLISH! Ship your art! Neil and Seth emphasise the importance of writing a lot before you can really expect to find your flow. There is no shortcut to this discovery, you must take massive, consistent action. And Karen's point is that there is value in the singing itself, whether or not it is good enough in anybody else's opinion - you sing for yourself first and foremost!
So what part of Daniel's, "Don't Worry, Be Crappy!" don't I agree with? Simply that compromise is not necessary anymore. Producing professional audio and a professional website is no longer prohibitively expensive or technically difficult. I don't think there is any excuse for amateur looking or sounding work. The key is to release that work, so ship that art, to publish that genius that, today, is still trapped inside you.
LET IT GO!
Lex
A Moodscope member.
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