Growing your business with marketing, week 49: Growing pains

This is Week 49 of a 52-week project/experiment in DIY marketing. Armed with nothing but a copy of the 2009 Grow Your Business Marketing Plan + Calendar and my bare wits, I’m applying the skills you need to grow a business in real time, day by day, and reporting on them week by week here, on the podcast, and at the Marketing Mix blog.

A couple of notable things happened this week.

First, as I reported on my main blog, I had a weird (in that it was unusual and unexpected) and disruptive (in that it was quite vitriolic) thing happen in response to the marketing column I have been writing for actors courtesy of Casting Networks, Inc. for the past 3+ years: hate mail.

I received two anonymous emails after publication of my latest piece railing against me for all sorts of perceived transgressions; that I bothered to email back an obvious bully and coward to address the points merely underlined how stupidly earnest and new to these problems I am.

A natural result of putting oneself out there more and more is blowback. I’m more visible than I used to be, which means more and more people will see me, which means (apparently) that the absolute number of people who disagree with me will grow, and that a subset of them will be angry and frustrated enough to come at me with harsh words.

So be it.

I’m pretty clear about my intentions, and equally transparent. What’s more, I work diligently to remain honest and on-track, spending lots of time with accountability partners, groups of peers and in therapy to assure that I’m getting plenty of reasoned, objective counsel and feedback. In other words, I’m good, thanks. Whatever issues someone has who takes issues with mine are theirs to sort out. Er, or something. You catch my drift.

Second, I had a few new and different opportunities floated my way, marketing-wise.

One of them was an offer from a new and very respected collaborator to join a mastermind group devoted to supporting the launch of each other’s information products. I’ve long been toying with the idea of releasing something, and the person who asked me is someone I both very much respect and would really like to foster a deeper relationship with. But this didn’t feel like the right thing: I’m full up with projects right now, and unclear on exactly what I want to turn my attention to in 2010. So, possibly right idea at absolutely the wrong time.

The other was the opportunity to give a short commencement speech at the graduation ceremony of a local trade college. It’s hardly Harvard, in other words, and it comes at a time (the holidays) when time is at a premium. But I had very clearly identified that speaking was a priority for me, and this was an opportunity to practice in a meaningful way a shorter type of talk (they only want me babbling for about 15 minutes). So it made saying “yes” clear and easy, as did my schedule, which I’d kept, in true Pareto-adherent fashion, clear of the 80% stuff that might get in the way of the 20% I was aiming for.

I’m not sure I’ve ever enjoyed this level of maturity and understanding about my boundaries, and I’d like to think it’s at least partially due to such careful attention to time over the past 11+ months. There are ancillary benefits to regular practice, and this is one of them.

Now it’s your turn: if you’ve been working a calendar of some kind, what other benefits have you reaped besides actually getting done what was calendared in.

And while we’re at it, what, if any, sort of negative feedback have you had to deal with, and how have you done it? (I REALLY want the answer to that one!)

“Marketing” round-up for this week:

• 6 blog posts (five at the main blog, one here)
• teleclass on marketing for voice-over actors
• presentation on branding to mastermind group of creatives
• email! email! email!
• morning and afternoon checkins with Facebook and Twitter