My birthday comes around every year. Another year gone by. Fast. Every year creates a marketing reason why my business exists.
I started my own small business marketing consulting company in 2008. I was afraid. I was excited. At first it was tough and I inched along but I kept moving forward. Month by month and client by client and idea by idea and content by content it happened. Some months were tough and some months were fantastic. Some months I almost threw in the towel. I also started teaching in the largest school of business in California. Teaching accomplished two things: it allowed me to develop my passion for communicating and enhance my skills. Teaching allows me to give back to the community by accelerating student learning curves. It also allows me to enhance my skills and knowledge. In one sense, as I teach I also go back to school. They learn. I learn. We all learn. And, just in case, it provides another revenue stream as I build my client and follower base.
As all this blends together, the thought leadership starts to grow. My website; my speaking; my teaching; my content; by book; and my blog. Together they all work in unison to create the brand called Stu. That Stu, short for Stuart Atkins and Atkins Marketing Solutions.
And what are the reasons? It’s the brand called you, as Tom Peters once wrote about. Each year it gets better and I learned one key lesson: take some risks and don’t look back. Marketing is ALL about risk. No risk, no reward. We are still in the great recession and I just had my best year. Not bad for a a bald guy.
Now go risk…you have my permission.
Thoughts?
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