The Hard Work of Mussels

Recently, my husband and I were gifted a date night. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, the kids are off having their own fun while we go have dinner I don't have to cook.

We found ourselves sitting at a restaurant offering all you can eat mussels (with four different sauces to choose from. Including gouda....yum!)

So I started with 3lbs. Because if you're going to go all you can eat, might as well start big.

When I got my first bowl shellfish yummy-ness, I started to drool. And continued to as I worked those little shells open just to get a tiny piece of meat that was barely enough to taste.

This is where most people probably would have just worked through, possibly complaining over the work it took to actually eat the meal for such small reward at the end. But me? I reminded myself of a lesson I'm constantly relearning.

Mussels do take a little bit of work to eat. In fact, most shellfish does. And in my world, shellfish is the most delicious of all the foods. So even though it takes effort to get to that food, it is by far worth it.

And isn't that true in other things, too? The harder the work, the nicer the payoff.

That includes your business.

Sometimes I see new small businesses open up with bright-eyed bushy-tailed owners. They are so caught up in the excitement of starting their business the reality of the workload hasn't caught up to them yet. Once it does, that excitement slows down a little. We run into the "here and now" mentality want want that business to succeed. Here. Now.

But that business takes work. Hard work.
It takes building your brand.
It takes finding your voice.
It takes creating and recreating, editing, improving, and growing painfully day in and day out.

It takes testing and analytitics.
It takes making customer connections and language to do that.
It takes marketing and copy and social media and all the things to reach out to customers to make the kind of connections you want.

It takes building relationships and righting wrongs.
It takes learning from mistake after mistake, correcting errors and righting wrongs.
It takes understanding from perspectives other than yours.

It takes literal blood sweat and tears that get poured into your products or services.
It takes hearing "no" a thousand times until you might hear a "yes."
It takes falling and getting back up again and again and again.

It takes pulling that shell open wide and digging through to get to the mussel of things.

And at the end? At the end, you get a sale. A customer. A "thank you." and a bit of satisfaction.
But oh, that tiny bit of satisfaction? That's a reward worth working for.

Keep at it. Keep cracking open the shells. Keep peeling apart at the ends. Before you know it, you'll find yourself opening up a goldmine end up reaping the unlimited rewards just like an all you can eat mussels fest.

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To learn more about copywriting and my business, please visit: www.amandabjaeger.com