Are You Ready For The Big Time?

What do you say?

The first impulse is to stammer an amazed "yes".

However, when this happened to one of my friends yesterday, her answer was "thank you, but no thanks."

Now why would a well-spoken expert in her field, who has built several successful companies from the ground up, who I have interviewed for a show and know that she would do a great job, say no to Oprah?

She gave three main reasons, which I believe supply some great thinking points for all of us:

1. The business they were asking about is not her mainline business. She knows that it's difficult to have the big-time media consider you to be an expert in more than one field, and she didn't want to expend her "expertise capital" on an area that wasn't central to her "real" business.

2. She didn't feel properly media-prepared. Though she's a very able interviewee, she realizes that if you blow a pre-show interview, the chances that you'll ever be invited back is virtually nothing. She wanted to bone up on her media skills before jumping into a situation she might regret later.

3. Given these two reasons, she saw this as a great opportunity to create a relationship with the Oprah producer by giving him some great information and leads of other people in the industry that could go on the show. Thus, her "no" answer turned into a foundation for the future, as she is now being seen as one who is a helpful source.

I applaud her and her decision.

Don't take me wrong, I'm a huge fan of Oprah and the other big media players. But it's vital that you know yourself, and don't say yes until you're ready, sort of like the high school girl who accepts an unexpected date from the captain of the football team, only to discover that sometimes life isn't all that it's cracked up to be.

As I've thought more about my friend's experience, I believe there are two other major lessons that can be learned from this experience:

1. Be Prepared:
I'm an Eagle Scout, and even though it's been over 30 years since those green-shirted days, I still have vivid memories of my scoutmaster preaching the advantages of "being prepared". "Preparedness," said he, "is much more than carrying an emergency tool kit in the trunk of your car. It means that you constantly live your life at a level so that you're prepared to deal with whatever issues life brings your way."

As a 12-year old, I believed that I had to be prepared for everything, from being able to administer first aid to how to defend myself in case of attack by rabid wolverines.

Now that I've grown up, I realize that I don't have to be an expert in everything (though it's still good for everyone to know first aid - how's your ability to save
someone's life through being CPR certified coming along [I've had to use that skill twice so far in my lifetime]?), but I certainly do need to gain expertise and
keep it in place in the key areas that apply to my family and my work.

One of those areas that should be a constantly-maintained skills for every reader of this newsletter is the ability to, at any time, turn around to find an unexpected microphone thrust into your face, and still be able to give a great interview.

Here's some tools to help you do that:

Oprah-Specific:
The Ultimate Guide to Getting Booked On Oprah

Our 3-CD Oprah Media Prep Set

Talk-Shows:
How to Get Booked on Radio Talk Shows, Give a Great
Interview and Get Invited Back

Questions You Can Expect Reporters to Ask During an
Interview

2. We need to understand the real focus to our lives and businesses.
I've just gone through a very interesting strategic planning process that I'll tell you more about in a future newsletter. The net result of that process was that I
came to understand that much of what I'm doing isn't what I really want to do.

So I now have a new focus to my business (rather, it's the focus that I've always thought I had, but never really did much to make it happen...)

This is causing me to make some hard choices. One set of choices comes in choosing which projects I want to work on. So I'm now pickier in the projects that I bid, and making sure that I will earn enough money on those projects I win to allow me to move my business where I want it to go.

When's the last time you really looked at where you are versus where you want to be, then actually put together a plan (with timelines, action plans and people assigned to make it happen) to get you there?

And while we're at it, developed a set of controls to keep you on track to keep you from dropping back into the well-worn paths that lead you to areas you want to avoid.

And a tracking system to tell you how well you're doing in hitting those new goals.

It's powerful, because it focuses you on what you want to do, instead of just taking what you're offered.

Try it. It really makes a difference!

Tags: Being Prepared