My biggest block to marketing - ever - is my fear of rejection. 

Five years ago when I was first opening my private massage therapy practice in Ohio, I created a plan to take baskets of cookies and a free gift certificate for a massage to some local physical therapists and other health providers from whom I wanted referrals.  Baking the cookies was easy.  Creating the gift certificates took about an hour.  Making the baskets was fun.  Getting into the car and actually delivering them was one of the hardest things I've ever done.

Just thinking about going door-to-door with the gift baskets sent me into an anxiety attack.  It was only through focused breathing and a lot of self talk that I managed to accomplish my task. 

What I found was that my fear was false.  Everyone received the gift baskets gladly.  I was greeted warmly and at one location I had a very enjoyable conversation with the physical therapist.  I didn't die.  No one threw me out the door.  No one laughed at me.

Even now as I pull myself up by the bootstraps in a new location, I can still suffer from that enemy - fear of rejection.  It can keep me from writing.  It can keep me from networking.  It can keep me from doing anything productive at any given moment. 

The only way I have found to get through it is to lower my expectations of myself just a little.  I try not to set a goal so big that it appears impossible to reach.  I set my sights on accomplishing one small thing and then congratulate the hell out of myself for doing it.

Like writing this blog post . . .

What do you do to overcome your fear of rejection in marketing?