By: Bruce Wawrzyniak
From time to time you see guest blogs posted on this site, generally identifiable as such by someone’s byline other than my own, and usually a brief (italicized) intro paragraph letting you know who the writer is.
You might do a double take and look up at the byline to see
if this week’s post was written by someone else because it’s not going to sound
like me. Generally, in these blogs and
on the weekly “Now Hear This Entertainment” podcast you read/hear a chipper,
positive Bruce Wawrzyniak. Don’t get me
wrong, I appreciate the compliments and every thank you I get for the work that
I put in for the creative community. But
maybe I’m fed up with nice guys finishing last and/or I’ve shown that I am
human and let the weight of the world influence me for this week’s blog. It’s time I spoke up and practiced a little
tough love here.
Over the weekend I had brunch with a client who said – despite
being a singer, not trying to directly reference the song from the mid-1960s – “What
the world needs now is love.” And she is
completely correct on that. To me love
and selfishness do not go together unless you consider ego to equate to love
because it means you’re full of yourself.
Whether you’re in the entertainment business or you’re an author
or you work in retail or you’re unemployed, no one is better than anyone. Anywhere.
Period.
So, when you decide to promote only certain appearances of yours but not others, shame on you. Don’t your fans, your loyal followers, deserve to hear what you’re doing? We see a bigger push these days to support small businesses. By extension, aren’t you also hurting the little guy when you decide not to promote his or her venue or show? Get off your pedestal.
Similarly, if you share something in a public forum and then
someone contacts you to follow-up on that business, product, or service that
you mentioned, you have an opportunity to be of further service. You can show your willingness to help. You can provide information that the person
contacting you can now benefit from. And
again, you’re helping a business that you’re giving a referral to. So, if you ignore that incoming inquiry, it
not only reflects poorly on you, but is shutting out other people in the
process.
A third example of behavior that doesn’t reflect well upon
your character is this. Without putting
a lot of thought into it, I know of three different people who have told me directly
that they were going to sign up to the Patreon for my weekly podcast. To use a baseball analogy, that batting average
is at .000 because none of them did.
People forget, circumstances change, those folks might have it on a To
Do list somewhere, and those all, to me, are excuses. Or, since there are too many signs of
cockiness showing up these days, maybe it was all just to try to look good in
the moment and there never was any follow-through intended in the first place.
My father used to work for an employer where it was said
that one “Awe s—t” equals ten “Atta boy” compliments. At a time when there are some individuals and
organizations who are trying to do right, it’s sad to see that others are
carrying on with a “me, me, me” take-no-prisoners attitude.
In the United States numerous attempts are being made for
change, and people will look back on the events and the individuals that
presumably will result in such. Do you
want people to look back on actions you took – or didn’t take – and remember
you for those disappointments? Not only
are we here for just a short time, but it really is a small world and you’re
going to be in for a big surprise when those slights come back to haunt you as
something comes around to bring you back together with someone you passed over
before. Be careful. Think twice.
Look in the mirror. If your
personal infrastructure is not something that leads to a desire to collaborate
and cooperate, you’re probably in a competitive posture and that’s not going to
serve you or many others well. While so
many others are trying to, I suggest you hit the reset button.
Share your struggles with me by tweeting to @NHT_tweets. Alternatively, continue the conversation via
Facebook or LinkedIn, or even via email.
• • •
I am a manager and publicist, running Now Hear This, Inc., an agency that has served clients across the U.S. ranging from music artists to authors to small businesses and even an Olympic athlete. Since February 2014 I have also hosted a weekly podcast (“Now Hear This Entertainment”), which has gotten listeners from 153 countries around the world. Find more about the company and the podcast at www.NowHearThis.biz. I am also a national speaker. Visit www.SpeakerBruceW.com for more information.
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