Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning. This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is to create more at bats. None of
Speaker 1: us bats a thousand, so if you want a reasonable
Speaker 1: number of hits, you need more opportunities to get them.
Speaker 1: Today's tip, like several, this week, is inspired by Dorry
Speaker 1: Clark's new book The Long Game, How to be a
Speaker 1: long term thinker in a short term world. Dory tells
Speaker 1: a lot of stories from her own career. As she
Speaker 1: speaks and runs courses and writes books, she needs to
Speaker 1: be constantly raising her profile. Making a name for yourself
Speaker 1: requires some big publicity wins. By all accounts, nineteen had
Speaker 1: that going for Dorry. For instance, she was named to
Speaker 1: The Thinker's fifty list of the top business thinkers in
Speaker 1: the world. Sounds great for landing clients, right, But as
Speaker 1: she talked about in the book, she also had several
Speaker 1: other ideas that year for raising her profile. She wanted
Speaker 1: to co author a book with a famous writer. She
Speaker 1: wanted to launch a column for one of the world's
Speaker 1: most prominent media outlets. She wanted to speak at a
Speaker 1: particular high profile industry conference, and land on the Thinker's
Speaker 1: Fifty List. All of these were very specific goals. She
Speaker 1: thought through exactly how they might come to be and
Speaker 1: the steps she would have to take. The last one happened,
Speaker 1: the other three did not. She wrote a proposal with
Speaker 1: the famous author and then had him decide that he
Speaker 1: needed to focus on another project instead. She wrote several
Speaker 1: pieces for the particular publication she tried out for a
Speaker 1: column this spot for and she didn't get it. She
Speaker 1: applied to speak at the industry conference and they never
Speaker 1: even responded. By the time she got named to the
Speaker 1: Thinker's Fifty List, she had gone through a lot of rejection.
Speaker 1: But so it goes, As Dory puts it, sometimes our
Speaker 1: bets pay off, and sometimes they don't. We have to
Speaker 1: make them anyway. Success is about being excellent at what
Speaker 1: you do, but inevitably there's a subject development. The editor
Speaker 1: thought my writing was strong, but it just wasn't what
Speaker 1: he was looking for. So, says Dorry, you have to
Speaker 1: be excellent and you need at bats because in the
Speaker 1: short term you may be rejected for a million reasons
Speaker 1: that have nothing to do with you. In the long term, though,
Speaker 1: the statistics are on your side. Success comes when you
Speaker 1: make enough attempts. I have definitely seen this in my
Speaker 1: own career. I have had a handful of articles go
Speaker 1: completely viral, which is awesome, but I have also written
Speaker 1: thousands of articles in my lifetime. Hopefully at least one
Speaker 1: or two would get some clicks. Many years ago, when
Speaker 1: I was trying to land a book contract to write
Speaker 1: my first time management book, I had the completely serendipitous
Speaker 1: experience of having a book editor reach out to me
Speaker 1: after seeing a book review I wrote somewhere else. He
Speaker 1: asked if I was under contract somewhere and if not,
Speaker 1: would I want to talk ideas. I did want to
Speaker 1: talk ideas, and one sixty eight hours, my first time
Speaker 1: management book was the result. I have told that story
Speaker 1: many times and people have said, wow, it must have
Speaker 1: been quite the book review. I can tell you it
Speaker 1: was not. But I was writing articles daily for various places.
Speaker 1: I didn't know who was going to see my writing,
Speaker 1: but somebody was going to have to see my writing
Speaker 1: just because it was all over the place. So get
Speaker 1: yourself more at bats, keep trying things. Don't pin all
Speaker 1: your hopes on one at bat, because you know maybe
Speaker 1: the picture is on fire. But when you try lots
Speaker 1: of things. Eventually you are going to get a pitch
Speaker 1: that hits your sweet spot. You will not get out
Speaker 1: of the park and it will look like that's what
Speaker 1: you were aiming for all along. In the meantime, this
Speaker 1: is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making the
Speaker 1: most of our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear
Speaker 1: from you. You can send me your tips, your questions,
Speaker 1: or anything else. Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook,
Speaker 1: and Instagram at Before Breakfast pod that's b E the
Speaker 1: number four, then Breakfast p o D. You can also
Speaker 1: shoot me an email at Before Breakfast podcast at i
Speaker 1: heeart media dot com that Before Breakfast is spelled out
Speaker 1: with all the letters. Thanks so much, I look forward
Speaker 1: to staying in touch. Before Breakfast is a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my heart Radio,
Speaker 1: visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.