Do you fail to sell what you believe in?
In 2011, I wrote a guide – Build Your Own WordPress Site and Blog Brilliantly.
It was exactly the product I’d needed when I built Knit-a-square.com in 2008, which kick-started a worldwide community. They have since sent over 2 million knitted squares for blankets to warm orphaned children in South Africa.
Isn’t this how many of us create products? Replicating exactly what we needed before we put in years of sweat equity to work it out for ourselves?
I’ve asked others, ‘Do you believe in what you know and that it can change people’s lives for the better?’ A coach once asked me, ‘Aren’t you doing a disservice then by not selling your knowledge?’
I sat on this guide, unable to convince myself that it could be of service. I asked the question too often, ‘who am I to write about this? — even though at the time, people were clamouring to know how to do both.
By the time, I came to think differently about my value and how I could tell the stories about it that would make a difference, you could build a site with a click of a button, long form posting (as in blogging) had been surpassed by updates and videos, and no amount of organic Search Engine Optimisation would bring hoards of interested folk to your site. It felt like the product was redundant.
It may be, but the principles remain —clarity of purpose and principles, deep curiosity about those you aim to serve, clear intentions and knowing how to pass on your value. These are the essential ingredients for purpose-driven contextualized storytelling.
Today, I’m delighted to promote this message.
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