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Straight from my own playbook.
1. See the box? Go way, WAY outside of it.
Why It’s Bold: Boldness takes innovation and without thinking beyond the box, you are doing yourself a disservice.
How to Cultivate It: Bookmark articles about new ideas, new technology, and when something really inspires you, think about the foundation of the idea. Is it something irreverent? Is it something silly? Is it something eye-catching? Think about why it inspires you and then think about how you can expand that idea beyond the box to fit your needs.
2. Read advice about your niche and then throw it out the window.
Why It’s Bold: Reading advice is what everyone does. Whatever innovative ways to market yourself are advised have already been done. If you don’t take everyone’s advice, then you’re already bolder than the majority.
How to Cultivate It: Read some advice and do the opposite. Or, expand on it. Just, don’t take it at face value, because you don’t boldly stand out when you’re using someone else’s advice on creativity.
3. Do something most people warn you not to do.
Why It’s Bold: Being disagreed with, for me, was tough. However, I knew I was doing something bold when other people were warning me about my approach and how potentially damaging it could be. You know you are doing something bold when other people are worried for you.
How to Cultivate It: If you’re scared to put something out there, then you are cultivating the right aspects of yourself. If you feel like most other people would be too afraid to go at your approach, then you are on the right track. You can’t be bold if you are following the same path as most other people.
4. Go with your gut.
Why It’s Bold: Being logical always feels safer, but following your gut is a bold thing to do. Most of us believe that if we can logically make a move, then we’re doing the right thing. We talk ourselves in and out of situations all the time, but listening to your gut is a leap.
How to Cultivate It: When you get an idea that seems random, write it down or explore it. Don’t let your logical mind get in the way by telling you it won’t work or that it’s too bold or that you’ll fail. Those voices are the ones that you need to ignore when your goal is to be bold. Boldness isn’t usually a very logical trait.
5. Be very clear on your goal.
Why It’s Bold: Many people choose to keep their goals vague, because that leaves room for interpretation and then less disappointment if the goal isn’t achieved. Yet, when you’re striving for boldness, the more clear the goal, the better chance you have at being noticed.
How to Cultivate It: Most of you have a good idea of what your goals are, so just specify them. Find the next step. Look for the way to get noticed that pertains to achieving your goal. For example, I wanted to get noticed within social media, so I developed a bold social media marketing campaign.
6. Forget needing approval or validation.
Why It’s Bold: If you’ve ever done something that most people wouldn’t approve of (or advise you to do), then you know how bold this action is. A lot of us rely on approval and validation in our lives and when we don’t get it, we either stop or mold ourselves to get it. Without needing approval or validation, you take a bold step towards what you want.
How to Cultivate It: For the most part, keep your ideas to yourself. Once you start telling people, you will have an endless swarm of critics who are usually just projecting their own fears onto you. Brainstorm on your own or…
7. Brainstorm only with people who are just as bold as you.
Why It’s Bold: You may feel like you want to talk to everyone about your bold marketing ideas, but that’s actually the worst thing you can do. The only people I brainstorm with are the ones who I know are as bold or bolder than I am. I can’t afford to be pulled down by people who are too afraid to go the extra step that I will go.
How to Cultivate It: Take inventory on what people in your life have done in the past. Do they have a lot to say, but not a lot of action? Those aren’t your bold friends. Do they talk the talk, then walk the walk? Yeah, talk to those people.
8. Walk the fine line of confident and arrogant.
Why It’s Bold: You cannot be bold while struggling with insecurity. Your boldness will eat you alive. So, you need to be confident enough to execute your bold idea and almost to the point of arrogance, so as not to let other people’s opinion of you affect your marketing effort.
How to Cultivate It: You have to get to a place where you are absolutely certain that you stand behind your bold effort. There can’t even be any doubt, because you’ll ruin it by second guessing yourself. If you’re doubting if you’re ready to do something bold, then, unfortunately, you’re probably not ready. You would know.
9. Stay true to who you are, no matter what.
Why It’s Bold: Being who you are and not apologizing for it is one of the boldest things I can think of doing. Your bold marketing effort should be 100% in line with who you are, otherwise it won’t be received as well as you might hope.
How to Cultivate It: Don’t just do something bold for the sake of being bold. Make sure you follow your gut (#4). And, also make sure that whatever bold marketing move you do, it’s paralleled with your passions. It will be extremely difficult to see the project through the end if you are not passionate.
10. Do not be afraid of failure.
Why It’s Bold: The safest thing to do in life is to avoid failure. It won’t get you anywhere. When I started my Twitter campaign, it didn’t even occur to me that I wouldn’t get a job at Twitter or that I wouldn’t benefit from the effort. I wouldn’t even let the thought cross my mind.
How to Cultivate It: The fear of failure is completely mental and however you interpret a failure is your responsibility. In order to avoid being afraid of failure, you’ll need to do some work mentally by changing how you internalize failure. Believing that failing is not indicative of who you are or what you’re capable of is a great start.
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Number 10 hits home with me. Failure is the KEY to success. Something we all ask ourselves is 'should I try and (maybe) fail, or not try at all'? The people who can step outside of their comfort zone, be bold, and take some risks, are the ones that will ultimately receive the greatest pay-off. It's easier said than done, to put yourself out there, to set yourself up for potential failure. But it's those people who take the risk that will come out on top, where they want to be, without regrets, in the end. Good post Jamie.
Great post. I learned about point #6 the hard way. I am the uplifting type of person and used to share everything because I assumed people would be just as excited for me. However, as you pointed out there are dream crushers out there and the quicker you identify who they are you will be much better once you put them on what I refer to as my “ignore" list.
There have been many times that I have taken actions that others have not agreed with and it turned out to be the best thing in the world. No one knows you better than yourself.
Matt: Failure is like anything else you just have to get used to. Most people have a fear of failure that is irrational, since they may have never failed before. Because, once they do fail, it is 9 times out of 10, not as earth-shattering as they had been thinking it was.
LaTosha: Aaah, yes, the "ignore" list. It's hard to do that to a friend, but you need to do what works for you. I definitely know that I thought of you when writing this in terms of being bold. You're awesome!
The way I approached goals from an early age was always, "I want to do X, what are the steps to get there?" It never even occurred to me to be afraid of failing until I heard about it from other people. I have to say it's definitely not something to go along with he crowd on. I think a lot of people spend so much time worrying about failing, because they don't spend any time at all figuring out what the necessary steps are to get to their goals. From that perspective, I suppose it would be an anxiety-ridden path aimlessly pursuing something with no plan or idea how you were going to get to the end goal. Once you have a more realistic idea of what it takes to achieve your goal you just have to decide if it's worth the time/resource investment to you and then either commit or not.
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