“Sell the sizzle, not the steak” – some readers may know of this famous phrase from the world of sales and marketing; and attributed to the master American salesman of the 1930s, Elmer Wheeler.
It precisely summarizes how advertisers appeal to human nature – they sell through the senses (“hmm, steak smells good!”) and to our emotional triggers.
If coaching’s taught me anything, it’s that accountability is a formidable tool for personal change when wielded constructively. People often hire coaches to hold their proverbial feet to the fire – and that can be well worth the cost.
Another approach is to follow the ’success crumbs’ of someone who’s already doing what interests you. That’s my current approach when it comes to adding freelance writing to a mid-career change repertoire.
As regular readers may know, my current mid-career strategy follows a multi-pronged approach – and includes roles from my professional past, such as school teaching. It’s still very much a work-in-progress and I’m making things up as I go along – trusting that the serendipity goddess will put in an appearance from time to time 
So what exactly is a prepared mind?
Well, here’s an example of one half prepared…
Having coded and launched my new web content writing site (http://samuraiwriter.com) a few weeks back, I was shocked to discover my contact page looked like this on Monday morning:
I’ve just come back from a New Year feast at my Japanese relatives’ house.
Fish (sashimi), various meats, vegetables and an endless supply of beer, wine and sake were the highlights – along with sundry side dishes and snacks. All elaborately prepared over the previous couple of days.
Every year my In-laws seem to outdo their previous [...]
With Christmas now receding into the distance, the rush is on in Japan to (literally) clean things up before 2008 ends and 2009 (the year of the Ox) begins.
I too have been busy – starting with a review of my own vision-roles-goals and then drilling down into what worked and what didn’t in [...]
