Guest Post: Marketing really is like exercise

Today, Jennifer Neal of K9 Design challenges herself (and you) to not let yourself off the hook. Will you take the challenge?

On Mondays and Fridays I set my alarm for 6:30 a.m. to be at the gym by 7:00 so that I can work out for 30 minutes and get home before my kids get up. For some 30 minutes of lunges and squats is a breeze, but for me it's still a challenge and I pretty much hate it!! I can think of a million better reasons to set my alarm for 6:30 a.m....Why inflict the pain, especially at that hour of the day?

You know why? I am addicted to the RESULTS...mental and physical.

Once I start to feel the results I know the pain is worth it. I find myself working through the pain to get to the results. Sometimes I actually say out loud, "Come on Jennifer...just 10 more minutes and then you don't have to do this again until Friday."

Recently I realized I need to take that same approach to my cold calls and marketing in general. And so I have.

For the last week or so, I have adapted the "DON'T LET YOURSELF OFF THE HOOK" approach with my cold calls.

No matter what happens in my day, I do one hour of cold calls -- every day. Sometimes I do more if I have the time, but never any less. I might have 3 great conversations and leave a lot of voice mail, but I commit to one hour of outbound marketing daily starting at 10:30 a.m. And yes, I still say out loud to myself "Come on Jennifer only 15 minutes left and then you don't have to do them again until tomorrow." But unlike with squats, the pain in cold calls goes away after a while.

We can all come up with great excuses as to why we're not doing them...I think I have a particular skill in this area...some of my favorites are..."I'm busy enough working on a client's cool project"...or ..."How can I cold call when I have 3 proposals to write?"...or my all time favorite - "I've already had a bad day so instead of inflicting the pain of cold calling today I'll check out people.com first” and then, of course, I never get to it.

Whatever the reason, try not letting yourself off the hook.

I find that when I'm too tired to get up and work out, or my day is so busy I can't squeeze in my work out, it’s that much easier for me to rationalize the next time - then, the next thing I know - I'm not working out anymore. Sometimes when I look back on my day, I think "Wow, I made it to the gym today and it seems ages ago" - I remind myself of how little time it really took and how great it made me feel.

So I say...try not letting yourself off the hook for anything! Not unless hospitalization or resuscitation are required.

Try it!