When the world conspires against you, you distract yourself with trivia, and you’re afraid to be seen

No esoteric tax stuff this week. This is an Exhortation: an explicit exhortation to work on your marketing and a whispered exhortation to chase your dream.

The world will pull you away

Give to Grow (Amazon–not an affiliate link) is a book about sales. It’s written by an actuary who learned how to sell his own (and his firm’s) services. Recommended.

Mo Bunnell talks about Doing the Work and Winning the Work. Anyone in professional services knows client projects don’t drop out of the sky as a gift from some benevolent deity. Winning the Work is the highest order bit in your career.

From Give to Grow:

First, winning more and higher-order work will be the best correlation to your future success. Those who bring in the work have more control and impact. Second, the world will naturally help you improve your Doing the Work, but the world will distract you from improving your Winning the Work.

The first point is self-evident. Those who get more and better work own their own lives. I want you to own your own life.

The second point is subtle, yet self-evident upon reflection. The world is eager to help you become a better technician. (Even me–The Friday Edition shares technical knowledge with you).

If you run your own firm, it’s easy to revert to technical work–it generates short-term revenue. This is a recipe for long-term “stuck.” If you work for a big firm, billable hour goals matter more to the firm than your dream of becoming a rainmaker.

And the better you become as a professional, the greater the pressure to Do the Work: the opportunity cost is greater.

You must fight the centrifugal force that draws you away from Winning the Work.

Your own brain will pull you away

The second point is from Stephan Joppich’s newsletter. He writes about his search for the perfect desk–when he finds it, he will be able to write.

So what’s going on here? Why do I – and many other people in this world – spend my time chasing empty promises rather than getting around to doing what matters most?
​
For one thing, my sanity is at stake. For instance, if I truly faced up to the fact that I could just write right now – no matter my desk situation – I’d need to accept that this is it. I’d need to accept that this is how I’m choosing to spend my limited time. * * * *
​
Conversely, if I spend my time optimizing resources – finding a better desk, ordering books I’ll never read, and shopping for keyboards – I can pretend that life will only begin somewhere down the road, somewhere in the future. What happens now is only the dress rehearsal. The real spectacle will start tomorrow. Tomorrow, the show can begin. Tomorrow, my life can finally unfold.

Have the courage to be seen

Again from a newsletter subscription, this time an email from Tim Stoddard (I have a paid subscription).

[Y]esterday, my therapist showed me the difference between being noticed and being seen.
​
The truth? Hardly anyone really knows me.
​
That might sound strange, considering how much I write and publish. But if you look closely, none of my writing is vulnerable. I don’t share anything that leaves me exposed. I’ve built a persona that lets you “know” me while keeping the real me hidden.
​
And it worked. I’ve gotten ahead without ever being vulnerable.

He continues, after wondering why he viscerally resents online gurus:

On the drive home, I had an epiphany: my resentment toward online business gurus isn’t about them—it’s about me.
​

• Gary Vaynerchuk
  ​
• Codie Sanchez
  ​
• Anthony Pompliano
  ​
• Even Tony Robbins
  ​

Whenever I see their content, I get this visceral ugh reaction. It’s not them; it’s my insecurity. I envy their courage to be fully seen. It’s a quality I deeply want for myself.

Have the courage to be seen. Not noticed. Seen.

Exhortation

I’m telling you this because I launched the International Tax Pros membership community in September, after more than a decade of hesitation and perfectionism and “less-than”-ism. (Maybe you want to join us?)

The result? More than I dreamed possible.

I’m telling you this because this is what I will tell the people in the first marketing mastermind cohort that is about to start in the International Tax Pros community: I want each of them, too, to go for it. I want them to offer their gifts to the world and see what happens.

You have an aim. Maybe you know it, maybe it’s just a vague sense. My wife always felt she had something creative in her, but held back all her life. Look what she launched when our youngest was a senior in high school: Tuck Pasadena.

Only you know Your Heart’s Desire. Yes, you are imperfect. Yes, you might fail. Do it anyway. (YouTube. OK, that link is for me only, probably).

And by “do it anyway” I mean everything, not just marketing your professional services.
Happy Black Friday, Happy Thanksgiving. Thank you for being a subscriber, thank you for emailing me with questions and comments, thank you for the gentle corrections when I’m off track and make mistakes.

Phil.