Don’t Wait to Help Your Clients

The year of chaos triggered a lot of things in my personal and business life, some good some not so much. One thing I will do less of this year is waiting to help my clients. It sounds a bit strange to say out loud, but the common response to everyone running around with their hair on fire was to watch and wait.

After the initial disruption of the ever-evolving pandemic, political campaigning, racial unrest, economic distress, and 24/7 media coverage created a space where good people wanted to talk but found public dialog a volatile place to tread. It was exhausting.

I saw and read about clever businesspeople leaning in and creating that just-right service or product that filled an immediate need of their audience. They found a way to put out at least some of the hair fires out there. I tried a few things but didn’t catch the wave.

So, I waited to help my clients and potential clients. I wrote a several articles, made some blog posts, and commented on several LinkedIn posts, but waited until I had a new project or client request to serve my clients. I was still looking at creating content as an extension of marketing, because that’s how the marketing firm I hired talked about it. It’s all part of the funnel to attract people to our website and drive in-bound sales.

Plan themes, campaigns, schedule, trim for optimum response and persona, edit for key words, measure response rates, etc. Writing something or posting a video commentary was supposed to be helpful in some way. But somehow showing up to actually help people every day and serve them as if they were already a client was lost to me, and so was the joy. It was marketing.

Fortunately, I invested time and focus on a few key podcasts, video blogs, and interviews with Seth Godin. His basic message is don’t worry about perfecting all the things you’re supposed to do to please the market and social media. Instead, Seth quietly and confidently encourages creative people to just show up every day to do meaningful work that helps people in your audience today. Ship it today, because no matter how perfect it is, if it doesn’t ship, it doesn’t count.

Most importantly, don’t wait for a client project you get paid for to help people with your best work. Help a stranger today with writing, video, and personal interaction that may or may not turn into revenue. That’s the risk we take, which also makes it more enjoyable and satisfying. Anything of value takes time to build momentum. That’s where the showing up part matters, even if it’s just average work sometimes. At some point something great will find a way into the persistent effort and that’s when you level up and even cash in at times.

Instead waiting longingly for someone to answer my call, download a call to action, or sign a contract to begin serving them, I’m taking a fresh view of writing and recording as a way to serve my tribe now, today, every day. It has already changed how I wake up in the morning. Instead of reviewing my task list or checking to see if anyone opened my email campaign, I’m thinking about what I’m going to write or record that will help someone today.

Those who discover my writing or recordings and want more were part of my client community all along, we just hadn’t met yet.