Online Visibility Equals Potential Criticism

One of the greatest concerns I hear from emerging entrepreneurs is the fear of criticism. In order to avoid criticism, they will often downplay who they are and what they offer.

The reality is, the more visible you are the more you open yourself up to the judgment of others.

As you emerge into the arena of creating information products, this is yet another arena that you will set yourself up to criticism. You cannot avoid it.

No matter how stellar your products are, there will be those who will pass judgment. Yet, it is in the production of digital products you can create an incredible revenue stream.

When it comes to digital products and online marketing, decide right now that you are willing to take some criticism, because it’s going to happen. Don’t delude yourself into thinking you will never set yourself up for criticism. The fact is, the more visible you are, the more risks you take, the more you put yourself out there, the more of a moving target you are for anyone sitting behind a computer screen to shoot at any type of message that person chooses.

It’s likely someone right now is saying, “Wow, you’re being so negative.” Then there are those who are smiling because they may have recently had something like this happen to them. I’m not writing this to be negative, but to provide a reality check to those people who think they will never receive criticism. When they do, they wonder what they could have done differently to not receive a nasty email, Facebook wall posting, or tweet.

It’s not so much finding a way not to receive criticism. It’s more about handling the criticism in a productive way. To assure you are on track with what you are doing as you gain visibility, here are a few simple guidelines:

Know who your market is and is not. The clearer you are on this, the better. This way if someone who is not in your market lets off some steam, and you get the butt end of things, it really doesn’t matter because they would never buy from you anyway.
Give everything your very best. At the end of the day, when you know in your heart of hearts you’ve done the best you can, criticism is not going to have that much of an impact on you.
Continue to study, learn, grow, and risk. Never, ever let a few bozos stop you from doing what you are passionate about.
Surround yourself with others who will raise you up and at the same time push you to be even more than you currently are.
Know what drives you. What is your big why? When you are clear on your why, it helps you to deal with adversity and frustration.
Realize there are people who NEED what you have. To play small because of someone else’s opinion, values, and beliefs is not only doing yourself a disservice, it’s doing your tribe a huge disservice.
Play big. Today we have opportunities to impact our markets like never before. The playing field has been leveled. What you do is determined more by your state of mind than by anything else.