Hot Air & BS: The LIARS that don’t GET Small Business Marketing!

I love Mark Finch and his Entrepreneurial Views. A Top Small Business Marketer so watch this space!

“Ed you suck, I am better”.  “Ed, you are so not creative”. “Ed I am going to be so more successful than you” – these are words that I heard many times when I started my business three years ago from people who I don’t keep in contact with anymore that are still in the workforce.

I was spending some awesome time with the amazing Mark Finch today who is a Martial Arts Guy that really knows his stuff and we were talking about this topic.  What I find very refreshing about him as an Entrepreneur is that he understands that it takes hard work, intelligence and focus to succeed in business.

Where we were going, was that I was telling the story a few years ago to Mark and Jude Dowsett earlier today of when I did a course in Life Coaching.  Even though I am a Small Business Marketing Mentor who is a far cry of a Life Coach, I felt that doing a course in that area was very helpful to my own understanding of how “People Work”  so I can better function as Face to Face Marketing Consultant.  The college I went too (The Coaching Institute) did a great job of teaching me the technical in’s and out’s of One-on-One Consulting and I was very happy with the study I did with them.

What was quite funny about the whole experience was the amount of “Fluff” and “Hot Air” from people in the room.  I was actually working full time when I started the course in a Marketing Job that paled in significance compared to what I did in my old life in the Pre-GFC world.  I was keen to start my new business at that time.

Whenever I would speak to most others (except for an awesome few who I keep in contact with to this day), I would get a strange level of negative energy directed towards me.  With exception of Mark of course and a few of my other friends (Mariane, Jude, Emma – yeah you girls rock!) – I found many of the students studying there were strangely “Over-Competitive” and didn’t seem to be that interested in my own welfare (but the college itself the TCI were extremely supportive – even though they liked trying to upsell me heaps into more of of their courses).

I had a shocking experience about 1.5 years into my business when I was Full-Time as a Consultant for myself.  I was kindly invited to speak at a “Coach and Connect” event which is full of Coaches from this college in a monthly support group.  At the time, there was 80+ I was speaking too and it was a great event – where I was telling them how I did it and talking Small Business Marketing. As sheepish as I was then, I asked how many people were full-time in the room of 80+ life coaches (about 15 I did my original course with).

I thought, “Yeah – About 5 hands should go up?”.  Guess how many did? Zero besides me! Yes, out of 80+ people, I was the only one Full-Time in business.

What? Some of the people in the room were offenders pushing me around in the early days saying how much I suck and how “Awesome” they were.

As I look back with the benefit of success and experience, I realize that when it comes to starting businesses most can talk the game, but very few can play it.  The reality is regardless of your strategy when it comes to being an Entrepreneur and in particular mastering Small Business Marketing – it’s usually the quiet awesome hard working ones like Mark Finch that make it.

The people that are all talk? Have no results? Just say you are hopeless and they rock? They almost always fail and I love it.  The meek shall inherit the earth and it’s great seeing awesome quiet good guys & girls win the race!

My advice? If you are in your own business starting up, or about too – please go in there with both eyes open willing to work hard.  It is not easy, BUT boy it’s rewarding and one awesome life of achievement and success (and of course if you love achievement and success, check out my Awesome Marketing Vault – one powerhouse online course!).

Thank you for the kind read from Edward Zia – Marketing Mentor and Lover of people that work hard at their Small Business Marketing (like Mark Finch!).