Find those who are
One of my colleagues does reef keeping.
Think of it like an aquarium that focuses on coral.
He started it up during the pandemic, and shelled out thousands of dollars before figuring out how to keep things from dying.
It’s an expensive hobby when you do know what you’re doing.
So I offered to help him
I found out he did reef keeping through a talk at work.
I chatted with him after the talk, and told him that a YouTube channel could help him pay for his hobby.
I offered to help. He said sure.
I figured if I could help him, I could figure out some things about how to be an online presence coach.
I knew from the first email it would be uphill
He got an email from me that I thought was a simple assignment:
Create a YouTube channel and upload a Short.
Should have been easy.
I waited a few days. Then a few more.
I nudged him. I said not to worry about quality, or anything (because very few people would see it.)
The exercise was to ship it.
Still no respose.
I began to think: “This may not be for him now.”
After a couple of weeks, I left it alone. I left the ball in his court and the door open.
The core of the matter: Developing an income stream then wasn’t on his list.
It gets to something Mark Thompson wrote:
“You can’t make people listen. But you can make them curious.”
I was probably hoping that my colleague would listen to me.
I at least realized at the time that I couldn’t make him listen to me.
At least I made him a bit curious at the time. Even if he didn’t pursue further.
He may come back to me about it later, which would be awesome.
If he doesn’t, that’s all right!
No dead coral, no foul.
My key takeaway from this
The one thing I learned from the experience with my colleague is that waiting, pushing, hoping someone takes your offer is just a waste of energy.
I’ll make others curious about monetizing their passions.
There will be plenty of people who will hear from me about it. I can’t help myself!
Now, it’s easier, because I’m not investing myself in getting people to listen to me. And I’m not tying up energy waiting for a response, or thinking what else I can do to get them to take action.
I’ll broach the subject and leave the ball in their court to let me know if they’re interested.
The people who are actually interested will speak up, take action, respond, make the call.
It’s a much better way to build something!
I’ll let you in on a secret.
I’m still finding my way.
If you’re finding your way too, let’s do this together!
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