Bharat S. M. Karavadra

Launching Yourself From Being Unknown to Being Known.

Thursday, July 17th, 2008

I received an email with a video attachment of Ronaldo doing some football tricks for a video in a studio.

Now, Ronaldo is an internationally famous footballer, isn’t he? So you’d expect him to be great with the ball, and he is. But would you ever think that someone else apparently just there for the video shoot could match or even do better than Ronaldo and especially without apparent planning.

Take a look at the video below and you will see what I’m talking about.

The other guy in the video (I’ll call him Jon as I don’t know his name), who seems to me to be a helping hand on the shoot, in my opinion outperforms Ronaldo outright with football controlling skills.

Even though Jon may be the non famous person (as far as I am aware) he still has great skills and courage to perform as he does in front of such a great footballer and also in front of the camera. It may be that this is a practice session and that only the camera recording the video is switched on is the one that recorded this video and the “real” cameras are on not on. However and whether or not the footballer and Jon know which cameras are actually recording the fact of what is happening on this video tells the truth, which is that Jon has talent and is comfortable doing what he does in front of Ronaldo.

Would Jon perform so well on an actual football field? Perhaps not, because he may not actually be a good footballer (he may just have good football control skills as in the video). Putting this point aside, the fact is that Jon evidently has good football skills.

Now let’s say Jon was not actually interested in football but he wanted to launch himself further into his career or into a career or lifestyle that he did not have at the moment. Would it not be good for Jon to expose himself doing his football stuff? As I said, whether or not Jon was interested in football the fact that he has performed as he did and especially in front of a renowned footballer would certainly be a point of discussion, as it already seems to be by the number of people the email was sent to.

You may be thinking “What’s this got to do with me?” Well, if you’re good at something then do it and get it out to the world. Who knows where it may lead? I believe that if this video got in front of the correct person, Jon could be asked to do his stuff on a TV show, and perhaps just for the fun of it, but such an appearance could take Jon to levels he had never thought about or even dreamed about, or even a direction he had not thought about.

In the same way as Jon you should find your comfort zone where you are good at what you do. In the video Jon seems to be comfortable to do what he does in a studio environment as perhaps that’s his current working environment. When anyone has been in a certain environment for a while it becomes more comfortable to be yourself and start doing and saying things that you perhaps were uncomfortable with when you first entered the environment.

For yourself, whether it be your home (your bedroom, your garden, etc), your work place (your room, your corridor, etc) or your travels (car, bus, train, cycle, walking, etc), do what you do and get the story, your name and your contact details out there to the rest of the world and more specifically to appropriate people and organisations who may be interested in what you do/

How do you do this? Well there seem to one of two scenarios that me be relevant to you:

1) You may be good at doing or creating something on your own (i.e. without the reliance of another person apart from an audience).
For example if you believe that you are a great singer but can only sing well in your bedroom on your own, or you may believe that you are a great model but you can only “strut your stuff” walking down that long corridor at work when there’s no one else there. Whatever it is that you are good at and whether or not you can do it in public, just keep doing it but NOW start thinking about being recorded. What I actually mean when I use the word “recorded” is that you need to consider having what you do when you do it well actually being memorised. This may be in the form of a person or group of people who experience you directly, or in the form of media whereby you’re audio and or video is recorded. Once the experience of what you do has been recorded, whether it be in the minds of people or on audio/video, it needs to get out to the world.

If it’s people that remember the experience then “perform” in front of them and ask them how you could improve your talent before making a recording. Take on the suggestions that feel right for you and improve yourself accordingly by practicing the improvements over and over again until you are confident with the changes. Then perform again – invite the people back and see what they think and what suggestions they have now. Do this re-inviting and improving what you do only a few times (two or three times). Once you’re comfortable with your new performance ask the people back one last time and this time make a bit more of an effort and a show of the event, and ask the people to keep you in mind and also ask them to tell other people about you. It doesn’t matter who they tell because even if they tell someone who may not have any obvious interest in what you do the thought will be lodged in their head and they perhaps may tell someone else who has interest in what you do. It all works like a viral marketing campaign but in the form of thoughts and memory.

If it’s media that is a memory of you (e.g. audio/video recording) then get the media into a digital format if it is not already and then make as many copies as you can. A media recording without an invited audience may be easier for you to forget that the audio recorded or video camera is not there in comparison to forgetting their is an audience in front of you. Make many copies of the final recording and I recommend at least 25 copies. Then spend some quality time thinking about who may be interested in what you do. Write what comes to mind down so that you don’t forget it. So for example, if you record a song in MP3 format you would perhaps think that local community or social clubs may be interested and at the other extreme record labels. Find a good range of contacts from local organisations/friends/family to unknown and larger organisations or people. Find the precise names of people you need to send your recording to and get their full address details. Once you have these send the recorded media to them with a covering letter (make it short and to the point). If you are a singer, you could write something like “Dear CONTACT, I am interested in singing and I believe I am a good singer (see enclosed recording), and I would really like to forward my career and/or life. I would appreciate it if you could find a moment to listen to my recording and let me know if you can help me and if you think that you can advise me on what I should do. Thank you, YOUR NAME”. That’s it, and remember to keep it simple.

2) You may be good with people (i.e. you do something for people).
For example if you are good at massaging people, or good at listening to people’s problems and giving them advice that they take up then you are good on an intimate or interpersonal level with other people. Carry on doing what you do but NOW start getting feedback on what you do from who you do it to and improve yourself with the feedback that feels right for you.

With intimate and interpersonal skills it may be difficult to create a memory or recording of what you do in media format. The best recording or memory of the experience of what you do will be in the mind and body of the person you do it to. So when you’ve done what you do always give them some advertorial information about your self (such as a leaflet or brochure) and put your photo on it, a menu of what you do, what you use and the benefits of what you do, and finally your contact details. My reasoning for having a menu of what you do can be explained by the example of someone going to an restaurant (let’s say an Indian restaurant) and you may like Indian food. There are probably many Indian restaurants out there and the only way you could tell if you like the food and experience is by actually going to them and trying them out, and you are most probably not going to go to all the Indian restaurants to find out which one’s you like. You would usually go to one by a good feeling you got from walking past the restaurant or by seeing their advertising. This aside, the other reason you would go is if someone you knew went to the restaurant and recommended it to you. You like Indian food and if someone you know has experienced the restaurant and recommended it to you then you are most likely going to go to the restaurant. Why? Because you trust the person that you know and they have gained trust in the restaurant in what they do. Does that makes sense? So the person you do what you do to will have a good experience, you give them something about everything that you can do. That person may actually come back to you for the same thing or even something else on the “menu”, and they may recommend you to someone else and also give them your “menu”.

Go Online:
Whether you are good or creating something on your own, or you are good on an intimate or interpersonal level with other people, the other and more contemporary way is to create a website about yourself. Creating websites is a huge topic in itself but to keep things simple for now I recommend using a service which will allow you to put up text, graphics, photos and even audio and video about you. Try using some of the following services:

Google Page Creator:
This allows you to create and publish web pages within minutes. Click here for more information.

Blogger:
This will allow you to create a Blog (an article based website). Click here for more information.

A Custom Website:
Contact me with your requirements.

The Video:

I hope the above information and is useful for you in launching yourself forwards in life and even in business. If you would like to discuss anything I’ve said above then please Post a Comment below or contact me. Thank you.