Have you ever ridden the business crush roller coaster?
Come on. Don’t act like you haven’t had a business crush or two in your day.
I get them all the time, and they always start so innocently.
You stumble across a new blog, maybe after seeing the gal behind it featured on another site or interviewed on your favorite podcast. You peruse her content, read her posts, investigate her offerings.
Wow! This chick is really cool. I LOVE what she’s doing. She’s awesome. I wish I could hang out with her. I want to be her friend!
You’re totally smitten.
You sign-up and read every email she sends, feeling like it’s a personal note just to you and not a mass mailing to her thousands of subscribers.
You follow her on Twitter, like her page on Facebook, stalk her online whereabouts and daydream about attending her live event or taking her online program, just for the chance to befriend her.
There’s no denying it. You’re crushing hard.
For now, you’re still in the safe zone, but it could turn ugly fast. Watch out. I know, because it’s happened to me.
What do I mean?
One day you’re casually crushing, and suddenly there’s a shift.
You start comparing your stuff to hers.
She’s so much more innovative than me! I never would have thought to include that in my program.
That blog post was amazing - like she read my mind. I could never write something that spot on.
She’s so ridiculously good at what she does. I’ll never get to that level. Ugh.
Comparison is deadly. It makes you feel like crap and totally trashes your energy.
It’s just like that middle school crush on the hottie a few grades above you, when you went from being high-as-the-sky when he smiled at you to a mopey puddle of mush feeling sorry for yourself when you realized he didn’t know your name.
Business crushes turned bad can wreck your spirits.
But don’t worry, I’m not just going to leave you there, beating yourself for having the occasional business crush.
It’s perfectly normal -- and natural -- to admire the amazing work other awesome-preneurs are doing out there, but when you let it affect you negatively, that’s where we need to pump the brakes.
So, instead of allowing business crushes to turn ugly, I challenge you to harness that crushing power for good!
Here are some ideas:
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Send your crush a little “love note” telling her that you admire the work she’s doing. (Who knows, maybe you’ll become actually friends with the gal you’re crushing on!)
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Be inspired by her. If you love the way she writes, the look of her website, the head shots she has, the sales page for her signature program, ask yourself in what ways can you up your own game to appeal to your ideal client the way she’s appealing to you.
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Spread the love. Remember how fun it was talking about your crush with your BFFs? Same goes for business crushes! If that gal you’re ga-ga for is inspiring/helping/motivating you, chances are her work will uplift your biz friends, Twitter followers and social media pals. Do her a solid and share her good work around! (Plus, you’ll be putting money in the Good Business Karma Account when you do :-)
