We all need attention. No attention means no business, and that’s bad for us as well as our clients.
Generating attention is therefore top of the list when it comes to marketing. Which means it should be top of your list if you want to be successful.
There are a million ways to do that, which is a good thing since we’re all different and need different ways to get attention.
One stressful way to do this is to be controversial. What’s interesting is that for those who like to get attention this way, it’s not stressful at all, it’s the opposite. They thrive on it.
And guess what, it’s not just the simplest way, you’ll find success after success doing it.
Self-help gurus call it being courageous – moving out of our comfort zones to do things we’d never normally dream of doing.
But that’s not how this works. You can be controversial just to be controversial, but if you don’t really believe it, you will be found out eventually (it’s hard to contain a lie for life).
Being controversial is not controversial at all if it’s just you being you. So what the gurus are really saying is “be you” (and if being you means you hide in a corner and keep things to yourself, then that’s fine too – as long as you’re doing it because you want to).
The crucial thing about controversy is having the guts to tell the world what you think, why you think it, and why they should too.
Do this in everything you put out there and watch what happens. It will surprise you.