As a candidate for public office, the #1 question you’ll be asked is, “Why are you running?” It’s also the hardest to answer in a compelling and persuasive way.
In developing your 30-second or less response, the main thing to keep in mind is that your reason(s) should be about what you want to DO, not what you want to BE.
And if your response is, “I want to give back to the community,” you’re doing it wrong.
That’s what everybody else who hasn’t thought seriously about this question says. You’ll sound like every other hack politician – even if you’re running for the first time.
Which brings me to Benny Johnson…
Benny is a podcaster, grassroots activist, and conservative journalist. And he recently ripped a page right out of Robert Collier’s marketing book and “entered the conversation already taking place in the customer's mind.”
His “customers” are obviously conservative activists. And last week the conversation many were having was over the Biden administration’s failures in responding to the train derailment and chemical spill in Palestine, Ohio.
But rather than just talk about it, he did something. Click here to see the video (might wanna grab a tissue first).
Granted, you – unlike Benny – probably don’t have $20,000 sitting around that you can hand out to strangers. But that’s not the point.
The point is, you need to be constantly looking for opportunities to promote your candidacy or organization based on current events that your targeted voter market is already talking about…
And then pull your brain-trust together and come up with something you can do to help people in their situation or with their problem.
And I’m not talking about ladling gruel in a soup kitchen on Thanksgiving. That’s what everyone else does, and you’ll get lost in the crowd of once-a-year monkey see/monkey do politicians looking for a photo-op.
You need to be looking for something unique…and timely.
And while some of you might be a bit uncomfortable about self-promotion, you need to do it. If no one knows of your good deeds, it’s akin to the proverbial tree falling in the woods with no one around to hear it.
Just keep this in mind: Whatever it is you do, you want to make it about THEM, not YOU…like what Benny did for the victims of the train wreck. Be a good-deed doer, not a good-deed talker.
FAMOUS LAST WORDS
“Talk is cheap. Let’s go play.” – Late NFL quarterback Johnny Unitas