At any given time, I have about 23 different companies sponsoring what I do with my websites. And each month, I have to give them the opportunity to renew their relationship with me or to discontinue it.
Every month I get this pit in the bottom of my stomach. What if one of them doesn’t renew? Or worse, what if a bunch of them decide my sites offer no value to their company’s marketing strategy.”
So every month I send out emails asking for them to renew. I hate that part. And every month there’s at least one advertiser I need to replace. This is the worse part.
When I ask my 23 sponsors to renew, I’m pretty sure most of them will say “yes”—they want to renew. But when it comes time to replace an advertiser, I have to approach at least 20 potential sponsors. And I know the majority of them will say “no”.
My temptation is to just not ask. I can hope one of my old advertisers will decide to email me again or that a random person will contact me through the contact form on my site. (But that almost never works.)
So I ask. I email. I sell. And almost every month I get the sponsorship sold.
Every month it feels impossible. So every month I’m tempted to stop trying. But I have to keep trying. My ability to roast my own coffee depends on me doing this.
There are things in your dream and in your business you might feel impossible. It might feel dreadful. It might feel like it’s not worth trying.
But I want to encourage you to go for it. Do what it takes. Hustle a little bit. Force your way through the fear and make it happen.
The worst someone can say is “no”. The worst thing that can happen is nothing. Not bad consequences.
Enjoyed your commentary, everyone has things they have to do that are the least favorite activities in their work. Mine is making cold calls, but it has to be done, I started a process to turn cold market into a warm market and that is working more effectively. Thanks for the encouragement, we all need it especially if you work for yourself.