Do Your Beliefs Trip You Up?

A while ago, a friend of mine published a really great book. The cover art was fantastic, the content was well-written, relevant and useful.

As an experienced marketing manager, I saw that a couple of small changes in her title would have made it way more compelling and would attract tons of her perfect clients, but she decided not to do it, because her designer “had already made lots of changes and I don’t want to bother her, or pay for more changes.”

What beliefs sabotaged her?

That, 1. it was “too much trouble” for the designer, and 2. that it would “cost too much.”

As an artist and book designer myself, I can tell you that, yes, it can be a pain to make one more change … but so what? It’s a lot better to get it right before you go to print than to not do it and regret it later.

Regret it she did. Later on, she did a test, using the changes I had suggested. The modified version sold 58% better than the one she had decided not to change. She told me that it cost her more in the long run from lost sales to not do the changes. A huge loss, considering the mere $25 fee she’d have paid to change it.

Don’t allow yourself to be held hostage by limiting thoughts like hers. Grit your teeth and look ahead at the advantages to be gained by making scary decisions, even if it seems to cost more right now.

Know that if you don’t do everything you can to make it so that the people who are meant to find your work … they won’t!

Believe in yourself and your work, know that your art and your message have real value, and that it really is  worth every effort to get your creation optimized before you release it to the public eye.

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Angela Treat Lyon is a professional artist specializing in stone carving, oil painting and illustration; a best-selling author; host of an inspirational radio show for entrepreneurs; and a Success Mentor for business people.

You can find her artwork here: AngelaTreatLyonART.com
Selected books here: AngelaTreatLyonBOOKS.com
Her radio show, Daring Dreamers Radio, is at IDareYouRadio.com