Baby Elephant Syndrome

Are Limiting Beliefs Keeping You From Becoming a PR Star?

I came across a great story on the Internet that I want to share with you this week:

An adult elephant can easily uproot huge trees with its trunk; it can knock down a house without much trouble. When an elephant living in captivity is still a baby, it is tied to a tree with a strong rope or a chain every night. Because it is the nature of elephants to roam free, the baby elephant instinctively tries with all its might to break the rope. But it isn’t yet strong enough to do so.

Realizing its efforts are of no use, it finally gives up and stops struggling. After the baby elephant tries and fails many times, it will never try again for the rest of its life.

Later, when the elephant is fully grown, it can be tied to a small tree with a thin rope. It could then easily free itself by uprooting the tree or breaking the rope. But because its mind has been conditioned by its prior experiences, it doesn’t make the slightest attempt to break free. The powerfully gigantic elephant has limited its present abilities based on the limitations of the past- Baby Elephant Syndrome.

Human being are exactly like the elephant except for one thing-we can choose not to accept the false boundaries and limitations of our past.

How many of us have done this? We talk ourselves out of success. We’re too afraid to pick up the phone and call a reporter because a voice in our head tells us, “The media won’t like this. They’ll probably laugh at me. I’m not even sure if it’s newsworthy.”

Often you end up turning on the news later and watching someone else being featured in a story that you came up with first.

You could have a story that’s ready for Oprah. What’s stopping you? The last time I checked they had phones in Chicago. Call up the show and start pitching your segment idea. The worst thing they can do is say “no.”

Isn’t it time you stopped acting like a trained elephant? The next time you find yourself at the end of your rope, break the rope, uproot the tree and be free!

Tips to Becoming a Radio Star

I like to listen to music as much as the next guy, but when I’m in my car, I’m constantly surfing stations listening to talk radio. Why? It’s one of the easiest ways to get my clients on the air.

There are many times when I’ll be driving somewhere and listening to a topic that I know one of my clients is an expert on. I’ll grab my cell, call my client and 5-minutes later, they’re on the air.

You don’t need a PR person to do that for you. You can do it yourself. The first step is to overcome self-doubt.  How many times have you been listening to the radio and said to yourself, “I know more about that subject than they do!”

What stopped you from calling in? It was probably that little voice inside your head that said, “Who am I to give an expert opinion? I’m no expert.”

Trust me, if you do it for a living, you’re an expert. When I’m listening to the radio and they’re talking about something legal, I can guarantee you my lawyer clients are getting a phone call from me. It may not be the area of law that they specialize in, but I’m certain my attorney clients will know more about the law than the host or some of the “Joe 6-packs” who are calling in.

I have a challenge for you this week. If you’re listening to music or CDs, try listening to some talk radio for a change. In order to be your own publicist, you have to know what’s going on in the news.

And if they get into a topic that you happen to know something about, call in. Don’t be afraid. It may end up being the first step in a beautiful journey.

Dr. Laura began her very successful radio career as a call-in guest. And Dr. Phil began his multi-million dollar TV career as a guest on Oprah. It’s just a matter of putting yourself out there. What do you have to lose except your anonymity?

P.T. Barnum — The Father of Publicity

He’s often given credit for having said “There’s a sucker born every minute,” but the truth is P.T. Barnum probably never said those words. He was one of the most successful entrepreneurs of the 1800s and you don’t get there by disrespecting your customers. What he probably said was something like “There’s an opportunity born every minute.”

That’s the way I look at publicity and you should too if you want to market without spending money.

Barnum was always looking for ways to capture people’s attention. At one point he had an elephant plowing the field on his property. The reason? The field was near the train that took people into New York City. Instead of seeing passengers, Barnum saw potential customers. He knew an elephant would grab their attention and act as an unforgettable publicity stunt. It worked. “Newspaper reporters came from far and near, and wrote glowing accounts of the elephantine performances,” Barnum wrote. “The six acres were plowed over at least sixty times before I thought the advertisement sufficiently circulated.”

Barnum was a genius at generating publicity. He became globally famous and incredibly wealthy by knowing how to befriend the media. In his last known letter, written five days before he died in 1891, he wrote, “I am indebted to the press of the United States for almost every dollar which I possess.”

The Barnum & Bailey Circus still carries his name. Of course, a lot has changed since Barnum traveled the world with his outlandish curiosities, but his passion for publicity should be an inspiration to anyone who wants to be extraordinary. My favorite Barnum quote is still as true today as it was a century and a half ago: “Without promotion something terrible happens… Nothing!”