Being Called a “Successful Entrepreneur” and thinking “Who, What, Where?”

It was great meeting the Finance Expert Marcus Roberts today and talking anything from Entrepreneurship to Marketing!

I had a great meeting with the Wealth Expert Marcus Roberts today in the Finance District of Sydney CBD.  We were talking everything from Business Networking, to Selling, to Marketing and the pure “Street Realities” of starting a business.

As we shared stories and insights I recalled a very funny experience I had during some Public Speaking / Education on Entrepreneurship to 200+ Awesome Students at Macquarie University.  This was quite early last year and remember getting ready to speak and my contact there was treating me like a “Business Expert”.  As my article will reveal soon, this felt quite odd and then she got up and introduced me to the audience.

She got up and really worked up the audience and said something to the effect of: “We are very lucky to have a prominent speaker join us today.  Successful Entrepreneur, High End Marketing Consultant, Business Networking Leader and a man who has done over 20,000+ Consulting Hours helping Small Business Owners succeed in Sales & Marketing – give the amazing Edward Zia a hand everyone!”.  Everyone was cheering me and I didn’t register for a second.

It was quite a funny moment – and in a very “Mr. Bean” way I got up with a smirk, thanked my contact and I looked quite out of it and said “Wow, I’d love to meet this guy called Edward Zia – he sounds amazing”.  The audience immediately got my humour and I started telling the story of what I have been through to become a so called “Successful Entrepreneur”.

It was only say about 6 years earlier I lost everything I had, I was homeless for almost a month living out of my car and during the Global Financial Crisis I spent a good 2 – 3 years living from month to month often feeding myself and paying for housing with my credit card.  I was not long from being fully homeless and was lucky I dodged that bullet yet again.  I can’t remember the words exactly, but as I told my story I confessed that deep down I still feel like a “Homeless Washed Up Guy” – even though that is not the case anymore.

Besides being totally funny, as I spoke to Marcus about it today it got me really thinking on the way we see ourselves and how we can be out of sync with our own success.  Many consider me as quite successful and quite an emerging business leader – whereas deep down, I kind of see myself as the “Washed Up Homeless Guy who used to work for the Government”.

THIS MAKES NO SENSE WHATSOEVER and my insights today was more psychological in nature when it comes to our own “Self-Image”.  Again, without pretending to be my awesome colleague Joel Curtis the Psychologist – the way we see ourselves I think is critical when it comes to business.  Such as in my case, the reality is that I am a very successful entrepreneur / consultant and I don’t quite believe I am deep down.  Sure, I am working on it – but the truth of the matter is that our own self-views can be very limiting.

Quite often, we are way more brilliant than we give ourselves credit for.  The problem of going too far in this “Modesty” is that it totally stuffs up our Sales & Marketing! If we are raving experts in what we do with impressive track records, THEN WE HAVE TO FEEL AND BELIEVE IT DEEP DOWN to help us totally kick butt with confidence and drive in our businesses.

My advice? I am not suggesting you do a Kanye West and make out you are “Genius” and all that.  I am saying that you should really view yourself for what you are.  If you are doing a bad job then kick your own butt.  If you are doing a great job then pinch your own butt.

I trust that helps and hope you enjoy the read! Thank you from Edward Zia – Small Business Marketing Mentor.

P.S. If you love my work, you will so love my Online Course the Awesome Marketing Vault – Right Here, Right Down for Instant Digital Access!