Are you close enough to be picked?

“When it’s your turn to be picked, you’ve got to be within pointing distance.”

There was a time when this quote by comedian Steve Martin scared me.

It scared me because I know he’s right. Proximity is why I always sat in the front row in college. Its why, when I was a park ranger, I was a member of the Ranger Safety Team and the Employee Communication Team.

When it is your turn, you’ve got to be in front of the right people, or you will not get picked. So I always tried to put myself in front of the right people

And here I live on the edge of the country in a small town in Washington State.

I’m not in Orlando, close to the people I work with from Disney. I’m not in Nashville, where every online entrepreneur seems to be.

Way out here where I live, I’m not within pointing distance of many people.

Not physically, anyway.

But we live in a beautiful new world now.

By starting a podcast, I was able to put myself in front of the right people. A podcast put me in rooms I could not physically be in. Through podcasting, my voice has reached more than 3 million people around the world, places I could never reach on my own.

I’ve had the chance to work with people from Disney, government executives, and professional athletes, all while never being close enough for any of them to point at me physically. I doubt they could even find my small town on a map.

Nothing beats physical proximity. But if you rethink how you do what you do, virtual proximity can be powerful, too.

The most important thing is people know where to find you.

It’s up to you to create a place for people to find you. Start a podcast and put out a weekly episode. Write a blog post every week. Put out consistent content on LinkedIn.

Show up often, so people know where to find you. When people know where to find you, you are going to be within pointing distance, no matter where you live.