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A Confession About My Own Shiny Object Story
The Allure of Shiny Objects: When we fall for distractions because it's hard work!
In the previous blog, I wrote about those pesky "shiny objects" that lure us away from what truly matters in our entrepreneurial journey. You know, those distractions that pop up when we’re avoiding really hard work, like drumming up more sales.
But even when we’re not avoiding anything, and we ARE doing the work, shiny objects still show up. Especially when it's a big project. Take me, for instance. I set this ambitious goal to secure $40,000 or more in sponsorships for 2024 Business Sisters activities.
I’ve been "pounding the pavement," connecting local partners like the United Counties of SDG and ACCFutures (which thankfully have both agreed to sponsor our activities again this year), and wooing bigwigs like Intuit, Canva, and Shopify.
Let’s just say it’s been a marathon, not a sprint. Last week, I hit a low.
Cold calling on a big corporation, looking for their support in DOLLARS is tough!
Despite sending more emails and making more calls than a telemarketer on Red Bull, all I got was crickets. To soothe my hurt ego, I went down the rabbit hole of shiny objects: clicked on a quiz to find out my money archetype (super fun and informative, but still) and browsed for new event tablecloths… Like, seriously?!
Luckily, I have an accountability partner. She reminded me: when the going gets tough, trust the process. Double down and do the thing anyway!
Guess what? It worked! Someone agreed to a last-minute meeting, and now we’re exploring ways to fund our activities. It’s far from a done deal, but it gave me hope to continue.
Have you ever had something like that happen? I’d love to hear your thoughts on how you keep going when the road is long and unrewarding. Leave a comment below and let me know your secret!
The Allure of Shiny Objects: When we fall for distractions because it's hard work!
In the previous blog, I wrote about those pesky "shiny objects" that lure us away from what truly matters in our entrepreneurial journey. You know, those distractions that pop up when we’re avoiding really hard work, like drumming up more sales.
But even when we’re not avoiding anything, and we ARE doing the work, shiny objects still show up. Especially when it's a big project. Take me, for instance. I set this ambitious goal to secure $40,000 or more in sponsorships for 2024 Business Sisters activities.
I’ve been "pounding the pavement," connecting local partners like the United Counties of SDG and ACCFutures (which thankfully have both agreed to sponsor our activities again this year), and wooing bigwigs like Intuit, Canva, and Shopify.
Let’s just say it’s been a marathon, not a sprint. Last week, I hit a low.
Cold calling on a big corporation, looking for their support in DOLLARS is tough!
Despite sending more emails and making more calls than a telemarketer on Red Bull, all I got was crickets. To soothe my hurt ego, I went down the rabbit hole of shiny objects: clicked on a quiz to find out my money archetype (super fun and informative, but still) and browsed for new event tablecloths… Like, seriously?!
Luckily, I have an accountability partner. She reminded me: when the going gets tough, trust the process. Double down and do the thing anyway!
Guess what? It worked! Someone agreed to a last-minute meeting, and now we’re exploring ways to fund our activities. It’s far from a done deal, but it gave me hope to continue.
Have you ever had something like that happen? I’d love to hear your thoughts on how you keep going when the road is long and unrewarding. Leave a comment below and let me know your secret!
Speaking of shiny objects, I created the above image using DALL·E 3, an AI system that takes a text prompt as input and generates a new image as output. My prompt was: Create an image that is 1920 by 540 pixels. At the center of the image is a business woman sitting at her desk, in front of a computer. She is looking confused because shiny objects of various sizes are floating around her. Objects include a couple of stars, a squirrel, a question mark, an exclamation mark, a cell phone, a hashtag, a dollar sign. All objects should be golden in colour. Cool, right?
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