Well it's been a good Christmas this year, I didn't do so much work on Hire an Artist today, spent the day with the family. I did do some work today but I'll get to that soon. Yesterday I made a mix of good progress and more brick walls, or so I thought would be brick. What I mean by this is that I made some progress on client orientated marketing, in which I put up 6 free classified adverts. This isn't going to produce a goldmine of results but it's still getting the word out there and getting exposure. Being seen is the first step to getting a customer.

But the brick wall, or what I thought was a brick wall, is that I felt rather small in this world. This happened when I was looking at ways to get articles made on me and my company. I read the articles they have done on other people and I felt like I'm nothing like these people, these people have done all these great things, achieved so much and yet I'm here trying to put myself aside them when I've done nothing in comparison. This was my brick wall, I did believe (Or rather still do) that I'm not newsworthy.

But today I managed to spend some time to myself and get reading on Entrepreneur (An incredible site, highly recommend it). And on particular article was something I found challenged this problem I faced yesterday called '5 fundamentals successful entrepreneurs build into their strategy' by Kimanzi Constable. The point he made was that you don't let self limiting beliefs stunt your business. Well unfortunately I'm having this belief, but it's incredibly helpful that I'm aware this is a problem because I now won't let it get in the way. Tomorrow I'm going to be looking into getting me and my business put onto articles, especially from those Leeds based, because it'll be much easier establishing personal relations with the clients the articles attract and the people who make the articles. Which brings me onto my next point.

I'm going local and personal to try and attract my first clients, I can't do this online with no credibility, no reputation and no chance of a personal connection with early adopter clients. If I'm going to be getting early adopter clients, it's by getting out there and talking with people, seeking out the early adopters. I came to this realisation after doing some reading on Entrepreneur today, alongside some seeds of thought for great ideas and new opportunities, all centered around personal face-to-face communication with people.

I need to go where the people interested in art are, I need to find local art establishments. I need business cards, so I can drop them to anyone who could be a early adopter client. I need to use my social networks, family, friends, are all people who are most likely early adopter clients. I need to see my old boss! He's a powerful person, involved in networking. Not to mention he's more credible and trusted than me, people are more likely to listen.

These all of course simple and actually more obvious routes I should be taking. For me personally though I'll find this difficult. I've grown up as a generally quiet and reserved person, I've rarely actually talked about myself to anyone since I've never really needed to. Thankfully I do have the confidence to do this though and I have done this twice recently because I'm making it goal to be more open and get awareness around my company. The first being to my Granddad who asked what I've been up to and the second to and Enterprise Officer which I mentioned in an earlier post.

Both experiences were greatly beneficial to me, I was really happy afterwards, but this has been in small party conversations. I'm an introvert and interacting in large groups naturally tires me out, so consider this. I'm 20 years old now and I've rarely talked about myself to others and second I can't remember the last time I've directly interacted in a large group in person. It's inevitable I'm going to be at the head of a conversation in a large group of people to talk about my company. It's going to hit me like an absolute ton of bricks, my energy is going to deplete quickly and I have the extreme task of talking about myself and leading the conversation for what will be way over 5 minutes.

This probably sounds really stupid to most people (Center of attention? Large group of people interested in you? Lots of talking about yourself?), to most it must be absolutely easy. But for me, this is nothing short of extraordinarily difficult. I'm probably going to hate it, but it's down right necessary. I'll be a better man out conquering my fears and taking on my problems head on. These future scenarios will test if I can sink or swim, I have every intention of swimming.