My Starting a Business Class, challenged me to do the paperclip trade. This is where you take an item of very little value and ask people to trade something better for your item. Then you trade again, and again. (The first man who did this traded fourteen times, over more than a year, eventually ending up with a house).
I’m not trying to get a house, although if you want to give me one, I won’t turn it down. I would like to get some more followers on my social media. I’m trying to learn more about marketing and networking. And I want to spread a little love and romance.
I do write romance novels.
I started my trade by offering a bookmark. For fun, I put the bookmark in my first novel and put it up on my social media and the local online classifieds and Craigslist.
After three days, I now have a $20 gift card from Crumbl to trade.
One of my classmates took the challenge and started with a mechanical pencil. Then he went door to door in his neighborhood and asked people what they would trade. A week later, he has a TV. It didn’t even occur to me to ask the neighbors. Why not?
And this is what I’ve discovered so far in this challenge. I don’t like to ask people to give to me. This isn’t really a strength for writing or for business. I can’t write books in a vacuum. I need other writers and readers. I need to build a community. Luckily, I have also found that the writing world is a generous and supportive culture. and my readers have been AMAZING!
Writing books and learning how to run the business of getting them out there to be read, all of this is outside my comfort zone, but outside your comfort zone is where most of the good stuff is. So, I will start asking. How about you? Is this your challenge, or do you feel comfortable asking for help or for what you need? I’d love to hear your story.