This is one of the coolest and most frustrating mornings of the year. I’m blogging from the set of a comedy called Grassroots that’s filming this summer in Seattle. We’re on location in South Lake Union at a bar called Paddy Coyne’s. In order to get this location, I had to make friends with the owner, an amazing Irishman named Pat, who isn’t involved in the film industry and has never had a production crew in his bar before, ever. Pat was generous, trusting….and late to set! Unable to reach him by cell and faced with a crew of 35, standing around their equipment and sweating bullets, I hustled down the block to the nearest other restaurant, The Southlake Bar & Grill, and convinced the cleaning crew to let me inside. Then I convinced the cook to raise the manager (it was 6am) and suddenly we had a new place to shoot, a block away from Paddy’s.

Just as we started to move our production down the block Pat arrived with the keys, 45 minutes late, extremely apologetic. We loaded in and now we have been filming here for hours. Soon we will stop rolling, load up our trucks, and head to the next location (#4 of 27).

Did I screw up this morning? Not really. I had made the deal, confirmed the details, and showed up on time ready to load in. Was it my responsibility to solve the problem of Pat not showing up on time? Absolutely. 100% my job. And I did it. Within 30 minutes of not getting into our location I had convinced a group of strangers to cancel all their other plans for the morning and host our crazy indie film crew. I did it without hesitation. With total humility and confidence that what I was offering these strangers was solid – a chance to be part of something rare and memorable. A story to tell their friends. An opportunity to help artists in need.

So, I end up with this question: Why was I able to sell the opportunity to help Grassroots so quickly, and yet I am so miserably slow and klutzy when it comes to selling myself?Answer to this question: It doesn’t matter. It really doesn’t matter WHY I am bad at selling myself. It is a simple fact that has been proven time after time and the sooner I embrace this fact and form the plan to GET BEYOND IT, the sooner I will find the success and professional excellence that I know I can achieve.

We all have this secret. I am better at some things than anybody else in the world. For instance, as I proved today and have proved in the past, I can convince anybody to try something new and break out of their usual routine, and by the end of the experience we will all be friends with an amazing shared memory.

What I am not best at is doing my own social networking or marketing. I have asked Lauren, who is my friend, to give me some advice. In exchange, I am sharing my honest feedback on the process of going from someone with sloppy and entirely personal online presence to someone with a viable brand that lives and breathes online with only minimal need for occasional CPR.

I suspect that Lauren will teach me how to use tags, soon. Her first bit of advice to me was to create a Facebook page for my company, Steal this Event. Here goes….