SOLD. . .To The Highest Bidder!

There’s one thing in life you can truly call your own – with no payments, mortgages, interest or finance charges.  Just straight-up yours from the day you’re born.

However, with this gift comes a responsibility.  Some people choose to throw it away while others choose to guard it like one of their most valued possessions.

Have you figured out what I’m talking about yet?

It’s your name.

And it’s one of the most important assets you can possess in business.  Your name [and its close counterpart, your reputation] can have a tremendous impact on your ability to get a job, a client, a referral – or even a date!

The responsibility that comes with managing your name and reputation is something I don’t take lightly.  I never give an employee recommendation for anyone I don’t believe in, and I have never delivered or endorsed a product or service I wouldn’t use myself.

That’s why I’m taken aback when I see marketers who show no obvious regard for their names or reputations.

Let me get to the point.  One of the latest trends I’m seeing is marketers ‘selling’ their endorsement [i.e. name and reputation] to the highest bidder on eBay.

These same marketers have lists of tens of thousands of people who, for the most part, trust and respect what they have to say.

They email their throngs of followers and proudly announce, “Buy This Product!” – solely because they have pimped out their name on eBay and not because they think the product will truly help their readers.

Think about it.  Their names and reputations are their livelihood.  Don’t you think prostituting their names will have an adverse affect on their reputations?

Sure it will.  What I can’t understand is how they haven’t figured this out for themselves.

So I ask you…are you managing your reputation?

Reason Why

I don’t usually watch television in the morning.  But my husband is a real news junkie and he would have it on 24/7 if I didn’t threaten that my head would explode.  He compromises because I’m guessing he doesn’t want to clean up the mess.

This morning was one of those compromises.  We settled on The Today Show (instead of CNN or MSNBC) as I was running around getting ready to start the fun part of my day – yes, work!

Matt Lauer, Ann Curry and Natalie Morales were chatting about an upcoming segment concerning starting a business in today’s economy.  They asked each other if any of them had ever considered starting their own business.  Each one chimed in with an immediate and resounding “NO!”  I was stunned.

I can’t remember a moment in my life when I didn’t want to run my own business.  Maybe it’s because I grew up with parents who were small business owners.  Maybe it’s because I don’t like playing the games in business.  Maybe it’s just in my DNA.

What I do know is that I love being an entrepreneur.  The whole ‘the buck stops here’ mentality and all that.  When things go well, you can put systems in place so you can repeat your success.  When things go wrong, you can figure out why and fix it.

No finger pointing, no credit stealing, no sabotaging.

You do it until it gets done – right.

We all have our ‘reasons why’.  You just need to make sure your ‘reason why’ is sustainable.