In the beginning of his career the comedian Robin Williams couldn’t hang on to money and he made lousy business decisions.
In fact, he didn’t want to be bothered with the business end of anything. He didn’t even want to hear contract details, didn’t know how to publicise himself and despite growing fame he still took every job that came his way – even birthday parties. Can you image having Robin Williams perform at your birthday party? Holy cow. He was continually borrowing from friends and there were days when he wouldn’t have eaten if not for some kind soul inviting him to dinner.
As his fame began to grow he partied until the sun came up and did copious amounts of recreational drugs; yet he is considered one of the greatest performers of all time. How did he do it?
Two things:
First, while people think his performances were spontaneous and off the cuff, most of it was not. He practiced. He worked and honed his craft like a madman. He came up with new bits, tested and tweaked them, and then tested them some more. If it worked, he reused it over and over again. If it didn’t work, he either fixed it or threw it out.
Second, he surrounded himself with people who handled the business side of everything. All he had to do was be the world-class performer he was building himself into.
What the heck does any of this have to do with marketing?
I’m so very glad you asked.
To make your business look as easy as Robin Williams spontaneously throwing out the perfect line, you’ve got to work as hard as he did. Whatever your specialty is, you’ve got to perfect it until you are one of the very best in your field. Once you do that, you can be a star in your niche and sell your products or services for enormous fees and enjoy the love and adulation of your followers. But first, you’ve got to do the work.
Second, you don’t need to be an expert on every facet of your business. Instead, you simply need to bring in people to handle things for you. Robin had an entertainment lawyer, managers, publicity agents and a host of other people who did their jobs in order to allow Robin to do his job. If your specialty is creating information products but you’re terrible at writing sales letters, recruiting affiliates and doing social media, then hire those things out to experts who can do it for you.
Focus on what you do well. Become the best at it. And build a team to handle the rest of it for you.
Read our full February Newsletter here
