It’s Ok To Be Vulnerable In Your Marketplace

If we are ever looking to make our stamp in our marketplace, lets become a bit more vulnerable. No doubt you see this type of content everyday. Lets face it; the world is now full of this…

 Or this…

Why not this…

And my personal favourite from a LinkedIn direct message…

The world is awash with confident messages where your choice will be a sound one if you plump for ‘product/service x’ because we are relentlessly shouting our own merits and the reason companies use these channels to shamelessly self-promote is because they can. Shouldn’t we become a bit more honest, a bit more vulnerable and not take ourselves too seriously?

The Transparency Of Our Journies

There are always going to be companies who can provide a similar service and take to the same stage as yourself, but one thing that they cannot take away is who you are. Lets not forget that we all started our businesses with something that we believed in to make others (and our own) lives better. The way that we stand in our own space away from the competition is to have the courage to make a more honest connection with people in a more accessible and transparent way. The secret is to let our personalities come to the surface and show our warmth that no social channel can take from us, even if that means showing our vulnerable side. We’ve got to show others that we have a soul, not a meaningless foghorn in an empty tunnel. Whilst we are encouraged to share our messages with as many people as possible, lets flip that and become more meaningful to those that we connect with. This is what gives purpose to our businesses (and also our lives) by including others and not excluding them. What makes us vulnerable is the willingness to make a stand and to do something where there are no guarantees and invest in something that may or not work out (vulnerability has got nothing to do with not being worthy). There is nothing wrong with starting a project that doesn’t deliver commercial success, but at least follow it through (I’ve done many of these). We live in a vulnerable world (fear of rejection, fear of non gratitude, fear of being unhappy), but what we do does have an affect on people. Lets be seen by our audience and love what we do, even if it may not be perfect.

An Example Of Something That Didn’t Work

An example of what wasn’t perfect, frankly didn’t work, but made a change was an ebook we created called ‘If You Could Go Back.’ The whole intention was for a local audience who were looking to start up their own business to read what local business owners would say to their younger selves when they started their own ventures, with the intention to learn from those who have ‘been there, done that.’ Time was spent on interviews, creating the ebook and also creating a microsite to build a database. The end result was the intention for a local charity to print the book (and collate a further 25 interviews) and all proceeds to go to that charity (and sell within the local area). The buy in from local charities was minimal and the intention to have a printed version slowly came to a halt. Rather than thinking this became a failure, the ebook is now available on our website and has become one of the most downloaded pdfs in the ‘library‘ section of this website. The time invested in the project was pretty substantial and something that I won’t get back, so on a ‘being resourceful with time’ aspect I failed miserably. But to make the final PDF available as a free download with no need to leave details, made the project the popular download.

And The Moral To The Story

The whole point I’m trying to emphasise is that it’s ok to fail. So lets stop over planning, worrying or taking the easy route from ready-made paths. We have to get out there and make things happen and if we do it in an honest and transparent way, makes a whole lot more sense than doing nothing at all. Vulnerability is about being meaningful to others, so lets get better at it. Be good to hear from you and the things that you started off with the best intentions, but didn’t seem to hit that sweet spot but a change was made.   Image: Courtesy from Flickr by Polaroid Joe