A Conversation with Steve Harrison about Living Your Dream
Last week, Dusty Staub, best selling author of The 7 Acts of Courage, spoke with Steve Harrison, Partner in Bradley Communications about what it really takes to live your dream and get your message out into the world.
This is their conversation…
“When you have grown still on purpose while everything around you is asking for chaos, you will find the doors between every room of the interior castle thrown open, the path home to your true love unobstructed after all.” – St. Teresa of Avila
What is it you do in your work that makes a meaningful contribution to others, society, and the world?
Steve: I help people take a message that is in their hearts, something that they believe in, some wisdom or guidance and experience and help them put it in a form that gets it effectively out into the world. This leads to helping people make more of an impact in the lives of others while also increasing their income. This can be the form of helping to finish a book, speaking on national media, giving speeches or helping to launch books such as Chicken Soup for the Soul or Rich Dad, Poor Dad or Men are From Mars, Women are From Venus. To date our organization has helped to launch more than 15,000 people into living their dreams and actualizing their message and gift in the world.
One example: Jack Canfield and I created a program called Best Seller Blueprint. Using this program and expert guidance we have helped people through trainings and services take effective short cuts to get their books published. We help them to write it faster and then to sell more books than the majority of writers. After all, it often comes down to what you know how to do and what you actually do.
We have created services to get people on radio talk shows and to introduce them to the national media. It is a great pleasure helping to get people on national TV appearances like Good Morning America and The View to mention a few. We customize what we do to meet the to individual and her or his specific goals. It often starts with a free consultation on the phone to look at their goals and current situation and then we offer them a customized package that really fits them in order to help them move forward.
Typically we work with someone for a year or two to help them achieve theirs goals. There is a team of experts, a cabinet of advisors that helps people in editing, media relations, speech making, story telling, etc. giving expert guidance and support in making their dreams into reality.
Where have you most needed courage in your service to the world? How did you come to that?
Steve: When we fist started our business we were paid to get people publicity using our magazine Radio TV Report where they could advertise. I would talk at conferences and saw that there were additional services that people needed and would buy. For example, I was often asked questions and as I gave advice I saw the value people took. It turns out we were even writing the copy for them for media exposure.
I had to find the courage to own a new and different identity that went beyond selling a single service. I had to realize that in essence I was a consultant on how to achieve a life dream. I had to own it and step up to see myself as a life-consultant who had real value to offer. I had to go ahead and own that as a consultant, when people bought our package they were also purchasing expert advice and counsel. This meant really stepping up and saying that I had something of real value, something worth paying for beyond the magazine.
After all, even a brain surgeon has to step forward after all the training to actually do the surgery for the first time. I had to recognize that I had tremendous skills and talents to offer to those who had something to say and do in the larger world.
For me, the key act was the courage to take action and the courage to see current reality. I needed to own the value I had to offer and then to act to engage in a larger way in the world. After all, I was selling an intangible service at the beginning.
It was also the courage to really listen to others, to learn and grow and find out why people weren’t buying what we were offering. I realized I needed to help them by offering the services that would meet them were they were versus blaming them for not stepping forward. After all, as my brother and partner in the business will say, “Everyone’s behavior makes perfect sense to them.” We just need to find out what it means and then help them make the required changes to turn a dream into reality.
Where do you feel your clients most need courage?
Steve: I think it is several of the Acts of Courage that you teach: to let go, to dream, to take action and to assert yourself.
First, it is the courage to let go of the old identity and to own their real value in the world. Most people dream of writing a book or of speaking – this means that they have something of value to offer, their story, their message, some wisdom by virtue of their life experience – even when it is a message heard before but not from this messenger and perspective or voice.
Yet, if the book is still in the computer or locked in your head – if you have the ability to speak and teach but don’t refine them or put them out there – you will NOT be helping people or making the difference you would like to make in the world.
To walk into the new identity at first you will probably feel like a fraud. Even people who have sold millions of copies of books have their existential doubts. The courage to let go of the old identity along with the courage to dream of being out there in a larger way, of making a difference is key.
Then you have to have the courage to act. You never can know the difference you can make in the lives of others. It is like throwing a pebble in a pond and the ripples reach out far from the shore to touch many. We have heard more than a few stories of people sharing how a radio interview, or an appearance on media or reading a passage in a book had helped them to step back from a planned suicide and / or changed the course of a life.
Then there is also the courage to assert yourself and to charge money for what you do. Most of the people with whom we work want to help others, and that is what makes them great speakers and authors and coaches. Yet, like anyone, they have bills to pay and they need to build a business around their advice and they help others. Helping people learn to ask for money, what to charge and how to brand their work really helps. It means overcoming the fear of self-promotion and how to, as I expressed it in my TEDx Talk, how to sell without selling your soul.
What is the best Advice you could offer to those interested in living their dream or being their best self?
Steve: I think the best advice about living your dream and achieving it in the world would be the two things that have most helped me and that keep on supporting me in life:
- Praying and asking God for help – the courage to be vulnerable and open to a higher power – being able to ask for help and assistance
- Coming from a place of Love and Service – make that your default position. Focusing on loving and serving people helps you find your footing and your true voice.
Any last thoughts or parting wisdom you would like to share?
Steve: I would simply say to take action even a few minutes each day to begin a streak of momentum going. Just get a calendar out and make a commitment each day to work on something that matters, a few minutes to focus on the dream will help you achieve it.
For more information about Steve, please visit his website: www.steveharrison.com
For a free consultation call 1 -800-989-1400 ext 130