A Message To Fellow Dreamers (Part 5)

Dec 26, 2024

“So many of our dreams at first seem impossible. Then they seem improbable. And then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.”

Christopher Reeve

Around the time I was finishing up The Evolution of A Leader I was introduced to a movie producer. We exchanged pleasantries. She told me that she’d heard about the work I’d done through the non-profit, and I shared that I’d heard about the film she’d recently produced called We Are Stronger. We went our separate ways and I continued my writing. One thing I learned about being an entrepreneur—doing anything unique—is you have to be your own biggest ambassador.

Be Your Biggest Ambassador

When you set out on your new adventure, whether that’s writing your memoir or starting a foundation in Botswana, you have to become your biggest ambassador. No one will believe in you until you believe in yourself and show that to the public!

Now, there’s a difference between being a blowhard full of braggadocio and genuinely believing in yourself. You can learn how to promote in a classy way. Because without a doubt, anyone starting a new venture will have to either pay for promotion or promote themselves. Many brilliant inventions and books have been buried with their creator because they were never discovered.

Fortunately, today, it’s easier than ever to become discovered. There are media platforms that pay talking heads around the clock for being interesting. For better or worse, we all live in the attention economy, so if you can get and keep attention, you can get paid for your efforts.

Below are a few examples of promo videos that caught some attention; they may seem juvenile, but they were very effective.

My point here is YOU have to promote whatever it is you’re doing before someone else will buy or promote your service or widget. So, when you make a decision to write your book or start your banana stand, you also have to commit to self-promotion, and that’s not a bad thing.

Getting Noticed

A really neat benefit of this type of promotion, also known as guerilla marketing—look it up if you need help getting started—is sometimes you get noticed. By the way, this is the whole point, getting yourself or whatever it is you’re promoting noticed; that’s the entire game. Thinking of it as a game can be very helpful in detaching our identities from what we’re doing/selling/promoting. We can tell ourselves we’re just playing a game to get attention.

When we (this has always been a team effort) were promoting books and events, we put out tons of these videos, and because they got attention, we filled up rooms, sold hundreds of event tickets, and sold many books.

While getting attention for the events and books we were promoting, the movie producer I’d met five months prior called me out of the blue. It turns out she was casting a television series that was in development. She saw my crazy social media promos and thought, he seems comfortable on camera and looks the part.

We had a conversation over the phone and three days later I was with a dozen other actors at my first script reading.

Now, back in Part 2 of this writing series, I mentioned that I began praying for God to use me to shine his light. I believe this was an answer to that prayer because later I found out the anchor verse for the TV series we were about to start filming was John 1:5 “Light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”

I ended up working on this TV series for more than four years. It was a wild time of growth for me. I’d never acted on screen, and I have to tell you there’s a massive difference between doing one-minute social media videos and character acting.

Not only did I become the lead actor in this series, I took on the role of fundraising and marketing for the production company. We raised more than $500,000 for the project. It was an exhilarating ride that did not come without challenges.

The best part about this journey was the mission we were on. The TV show is a mystery drama that addresses serious cultural issues. You can watch the first four episodes on Amazon.

Watch The Show

We are nearing the end of this series, and here is the most important thing I can tell you with all sincerity.

If I can do it, you can do it.

Below is a picture of me a few years back when I visited my childhood home. This is the monument sign in front of The Mountain View Trailer Park. Below the sign is a flower box surrounded by brick, where at one point they planted flowers to attract new tenants.

The day I visited, I knelt down to take this picture and noticed something in the flower box behind me. It was an abandoned pair of underwear.

It was disgusting and hilarious. This is where I grew up.

Below is a picture of the trailer I lived in, custom fence and all. I have many memories in this trailer park, a lot of which are very bad ones … but I didn’t let this place or the memories define me.

It doesn’t matter where you came from, the mistakes you’ve made, or where you are now. It matters where you’re going.

If I can do it, you can do it.

I truly believe this. So, where are you going?

For the rest of this writing series, I’ll share how I published four more books and produced a feature film. Stay tuned; it’s gonna be fun and motivating.