Blogging is a funny thing. Those of us who do it relate well to each other. It’s hard to talk about it to someone who doesn’t without hedging and making a few self-deprecating snarky remarks.
I’m good at that because I sell insurance for a living, and since insurance has been a second career, I had to spend a little time getting over similar hedging and self-deprecating snarky remarks.
Both blogging and insurance sales are supremely honorable pursuits. But they are made most honorable when they have a purpose.
Blogging without a purpose is public journaling (still a small purpose, but then you have to be super witty or engaging or kind of a train wreck to be worth reading – or a family member).
Selling insurance without a purpose outside of straight-up raking in the cash can become smarmy and sleazy (although if one is going to be in sales, then making money isn’t a bad motivation at all – it just can’t be the only motivation.)
Having a purpose mitigates self-deprecation. It gives some meat and bones to what we do as either salespersons or bloggers (or both).
Having a Purpose
I’m walking through Jeff Goins’ ‘Intentional Blogging Challenge’ at the moment (to join up, check out the Facebook page he set up for the 15 day challenge).
Day 2’s challenge was all about giving your blog some focus. Identify a subject, theme, and objective for your blog.
So I considered those three items for this particular website. It can easily fall into a little business journaling exercise (a worthy thing, indeed, but not entirely useful for anybody else).
Here were my responses:
- SUBJECT: Sales success
- THEME: Learning how to find your ‘sales voice’ – especially for those who came to sales or a marketing career as a second career after slightly more romantic pursuits like ministry or some other liberal arts career didn’t pan out.
- OBJECTIVE: To find and clarify my own sales voice while developing coaching tools and methods to help other individuals and organizations do the same thing.
I put myself through this exercise for my day job:
- SUBJECT: Commercial insurance sales
- THEME: Helping my clients protect their nonprofit visions
- OBJECTIVE: To be a consultative partner with my clients, helping them to identify the operations, people, and assets that are vital to moving their nonprofit’s mission forward, matching appropriate insurance tools to protect those three things.
I spent some time today filtering newer opportunities as I want to work with people who have a vision (mostly nonprofits) and that value having a mission and being committed to caring enough about the people they serve to be wise about protection.
Having a Focus Filters Opportunities and Gives Us an Editorial Perspective
I love the exercise in focus because it helps filter opportunities. We can’t do everything for everybody and maintain effectiveness over the long haul. Even in our writing, the more laser-focused we are, the more easily we can identify topics to write about (as contradictory as that seems).
In sales, the more laser-focused we are, the more expertise we develop and the deeper we can dive into our chosen niche.
What’s Your Focus?
I won’t bore you with listing the reading and listening for today.
I’ll leave you with a question: What is the subject, theme, and objective of your work life right now? Can you define it? Would it help you to sit for a moment and do so? Give it a shot…
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