Why being unknown is costing you big opportunities

A wise man once said that this is a PR world. A public relations world. It is an interesting viewpoint. Public relations means you have done something good and people know about it. Good works, well known. That is what allows people to think highly of you.

Now here is my confession. I am a cocky bastard. I have a tendency not to care what people think of me. I am a free thinker, I keep my own counsel, and I am not sitting around worrying about what the rest of the world thinks, especially about me. Sound familiar? Plenty of capable people carry that exact attitude around like a badge.

Here is the honest truth. If you want to do better in life, if you want to be more successful, if you want to be more helpful, you have to knock that attitude off. I am telling you, I struggle with this myself. I want leadership roles. I want to help take things up to a better state. But people have to believe in their leader before they will follow. So it is a PR world, whether I like it or not.

The conversation that changed my mind

The senior partner at a marketing agency I invested in sat me down one day. He said, Tom, you have certain groups where your PR is really good. But the rest of the world does not know who you are, what you are, or what you are capable of. You have to get your message out there.

And I dug my heels in, man. Why? What do I care? I do not do social media. I am not that guy. I have a dear friend who is a giant in that world, and I have enormous respect for what he and his wife have built, but that was never me.

He kept going. You have something to communicate. You are not always going to get people onto a stage or into a room. But I can bring you into their living room, into their home, into their business. I can open a communication line with them. And for that to work, they are going to have to believe in you. They are going to have to find something about you that they like. That, my friends, is PR. You know that moment when you know somebody is right and you still hate it? I sat there and finally said it. Damn it, he is right. And I will tell you, it is working. This lesson you are reading right now is exactly what he was talking about.

Try being a stranger at a bank

People ask me where home is and I say planet Earth. I have places to stay in Florida, in England, in Europe, in South Africa. Sounds great, right? Let me tell you what a pain it is. Show up in another country and say, hi, I would like to open a bank account. Hi, I would like to buy a car. It does not matter that you can pay. They need to know who you are and what you are about. They simply do not let strangers walk in and buy things.

They have a thing called KYC. Know your customer. Translation: prove you are legitimate, that your money is clean, that you pay your taxes. It is a pain in the neck, and it taught me something. So we put together a story pack about me. It walks through my business activities over the last few decades, the work I support, my philanthropic projects, my family life. It gives me substance. When someone needs to know who they are dealing with, the answer is already written down.

Cutting through the noise

Understand the world you are operating in. There is a lot of noise out there, an incredible volume of communication coming at everybody all day long. Even I am subjected to it. What do I believe? What do I trust? What is worthy of my time and my involvement? With that much volume coming my way, I have to be selective. And everyone you are trying to reach is doing the same math about you.

That is why your PR value matters so much. I do not necessarily like it. I am still cocky, and maybe that is part of what makes me effective and a pain at the same time. But I know the truth. Good PR opens doors. More people follow you, more people get interested in you, more opportunity comes your way. That friend of mine puts one thing online and within seconds tens of thousands of people see it. He has empowered himself with open communication lines to an enormous number of people, instantly. It is a thing of beauty.

Famous first, then rich

A lot of people talk about becoming rich and famous. They have it backwards. You become famous first, then you become rich. You have to get the attention first, and then you get the money. That is the correct sequence, and public relations is where the sequence starts.

So do what I had to do. Swallow the independence, knock off the attitude, and start letting people know about the good work you are already doing. Good works, well known. That is the whole formula. This is just me talking to you about PR. That is the story, and I am sticking to it.