Business Finds

Cultivating a Position of Strength

Instead of subscribing to the slush pile frame, consider how you might cultivate a position of strength. This won’t happen overnight of course, but perhaps it’s something you could build over time. In order to achieve a position of strength, you’ll need to find a backdoor that allows you to leverage your personal strengths in an area where everyone else is weak. This will take time and patience, but strategically it’s a much saner approach, relying more on skill than on luck. Now you’re in the driver’s seat instead of hoping to get lucky.

When I moved into the self-help field, I recognized that I couldn’t jump straight onto the speaker/author success track because I had no credibility and no platform. Some of my friends were trying to build their speaking careers by doing tons of free speaking, but their careers seemed to be advancing at a snail’s pace, if at all. I quickly ruled out this option because it seemed like another variation on the slush pile. If I tried to build my speaking career this way from the beginning, I’d just be one more voice in a crowded field. I’d also be competing against speakers with a lot more skill and experience than I had at the time. I couldn’t compete well on those terms.

I realized that if I wanted to establish myself in this field, I needed a backdoor. I had to find a way to do an end-run around the crowds of other people trying to break in. I asked myself, “What is a strength, talent, or skill I possess that others in this field don’t generally have, and how can I leverage it to the hilt? How can I change the rules of this game into something I can win?”

One key strength was my computer/Internet skills. Most people in the self-help field don’t really “get” the web. They use their websites as flashy business cards. The only reason they get any serious web traffic is because their hit books and seminars drive traffic to their websites. I quickly saw that there was a potential backdoor for me here. I couldn’t hope to compete in the bookstores or on the speaking circuit, at least not right away, but given enough time, I was sure I could carve out a strong position online. Maybe it would take a few years, but if I worked this strategy consistently, I could see that it would likely work. And obviously it did work — faster than I originally anticipated.

I didn’t need to be a computer genius to make this strategy work for me. I only needed to implement a slightly smarter Internet strategy than most of the other peak performers in the field. Perhaps the best decision I made was to take advantage of blogging technology. When I started blogging, many speakers and authors in the self-help field didn’t even know what a blog was. Or if they did know, they thought a blog was only for personal journaling. Some seemed to think it was a cutesy fad. They left the door wide open. I simply walked through it.

So basically, I cheated. Okay, I didn’t really cheat. I just changed the rules of the game. I couldn’t win if I played by everyone else’s rules, so I approach my goal from a different angle. I redefined the game so I could win. I used a strategy that leveraged my personal strengths in an area where everyone else was weak. I avoided the slush pile entirely.

When I finally secured a book deal last year, it was almost too easy. Although my publisher requires that first-time authors submit their book proposals through literary agents, I never needed an agent because the publisher approached me directly. Unlike most first-time authors, I had direct access to a large online community, meaning that the publisher’s risk was substantially reduced. I was no longer a slush-pile beggar looking for a handout, nor was I a common fish in an ocean of many similar fish. The position I’d carved out was unusual for someone in this field, and not everyone was able to comprehend what I’d done (I had to reject offers from some book publishers who clearly didn’t understand blogging), but it eventually gave me the leverage I needed to open new doors.

Don’t play in a game where the rules make it too hard for you to win. Change the rules to take advantage of your unique strengths. Avoid the slush pile at all costs.

I should caution you that finding a backdoor doesn’t mean randomly trying lots of different angles until you hopefully stumble upon something that works. That kind of shotgun strategy may get you a few lucky breaks here and there, but it’s not very intelligent. You won’t build any serious career momentum if you keep shifting around. It’s fine to experiment when you want to explore different career options, but don’t expect to build a strong position in a given field if you derail your career-building strategy every few months.

A backdoor strategy is something you invest in consistently over a period of time. It is a highly focused building process. It may be non-traditional, perhaps even a bit wacky, but it isn’t random and haphazard. If you’ve been working hard on a creative career path for a year and have little to show for it, you aren’t using an effective backdoor strategy. After a year you should definitely see evidence that you’re building momentum. If you aren’t getting anywhere despite working hard, your strategy is probably a poor fit for your strengths.

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