Hi again…
Forbes is doing a series called “The Restaurant Diaries,” in which they’re talking to food service workers because they’re deemed essential workers—even if most of them don’t get paid like they’re essential.
I read an interview with a 62 year old woman who’s been working at McDonald’s for almost 15 years. Being a Mickey D’s associate at 62 wasn’t her life goal. It never is.
Sometimes life works like a game of dominoes and at 40-something she found herself caring for both her aging parents and raising 2 boys by herself, one severely autistic.
Find a job, find a job and McDonald’s was the first place to offer her one. Hard to find another once you’re working full time and care-giving and parenting and cooking and cleaning and trying to make ends meet. It paid the bills. Barely, but it did.
She’s terrified, she said, because she has bronchitis and they don’t have PPE and she doesn’t get sick pay, so she can’t afford time off because she needs the money.
Here’s the kicker.
At her salary, it would take over 3000 years to earn what the CEO earns in one year.
That’s the kind of thing we (mostly) think of as selfish. Corporate greed. Stepping on people on the way up. Hurting others for personal gain. Being oblivious to the human condition and the results of our actions.
This week, I got to think of that word a different way.
Selfish.
Self-ish.
Self. Ish.
As in, the focus on self.
Hang with me, this will make sense in a minute.
I’ve been doing a project with authors who want to build an audience.
Seems to me that a thing I see really often is that we tend to focus on self. What we do. Who we are.
Which makes perfect sense for a creative, except that it doesn’t work so well if we’re trying to promote our work or build an audience.
It’s not just you, btw. I spotted my own mistakes doing this study.
You know what they say... If you want to really learn something — teach it.
Here’s an example…
Let’s say you’re a vegetarian that writes about vegetarian eating and recipes. Which opt in do you think would convert better?
—I am a vegetarian and a dietitian. Get my recipes here.
—Going vegetarian? Get free recipes from a dietitian here.
See what I mean? Do you see the difference between an approach that focuses on the writer vs. an approach that focuses on the readers?
Here’s another one.
—I’m chasing the American dream. Get my free blog posts here.
—Chasing the American dream? Get free help along the way, here.
Turns out there’s more than one kind of self-ish…
The worst and most insidious kind (of course) is when one person hurts others because of self focus. Corporate greed is at the top of that list right now given the number of people in financial dire straits.
That’s the kind of thing we associate with the word selfish.
But there’s another kind. The kind that really only hurts you, and that’s the one authors and writers tend to do.
Please understand that I don’t mean your writing.
Your writing — that’s all you—and that’s as it should be. Writing can be a magical thing. Words and thoughts come straight through you from somewhere out there in the the cosmos. Through you and out your fingertips.
And we? We feed on your bounty. On your creativity. We need creative people more than ever. What would the world be without writers and books and movies and music?
But when it comes to promoting said work?
There’s no room for self…ish.
Because it’s a noisy world out there and if you don’t tell them what’s in it for them, they won’t stop long enough to figure it out. When it comes to promoting your work, building your list, that’s when it needs to be about them, not you.
Make sense?
This is a little off the beaten path for me…
Note — it’s an open link so everyone can read, even if you’re not a Medium member.
What Do You Do When the World Rolled Up the Sidewalks and Hung Out a Closed Sign? Yesterday, I read about a real life angel.
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Have a good weekend, take care and stay safe out there.
:)
Linda