I loved a recent article by the Daily Mail’s columnist Jan Moir about the X factor.

She essentially wrote how it’s cliched, tired and has had it’s day.

BUT there was one line that really jumped out to me, and that was

‘Especially when smart kids today don’t actually need a creaky-kneed croaker to discover them anyway. Developments in technology mean that they can get noticed in a million ways that weren’t available when X Factor launched in 2004.’

Anyone who reads my blog regularly will know this is something that I feel every more strongly with every passing day.

I’m never going to say coverage in major media outlets and on tv isn’t important, and that it isn’t important to be taken under the wing of someone like Simon Cowell and propelled to stardom. You know what, in my teens and 20s, I’d have died with delight if someone like Simon Cowell had ever ‘chosen me.’ (not that I could sing but that’s a different matter!)

Publicity and getting people on TV, and in the media, is what I do, it brings huge credibility and it can transform the fortunes of businesses and profiles of individuals.

It always makes me think of the national lottery advert

You remember that big finger that goes over the heads of people, sitting there really like ducks, powerless apart from to chance that it might be them who gets chosen.

It’s not like that anymore. We are not powerless.

If you want to be a pop star, Simon Cowell or any other record executive is not the only way.

Nobody in today’s world, with a laptop and an internet connection, is powerless unless a a big wig saying ‘yes’ and choosing them. Noone has to wait and wait and wait for lady luck to make it their turn to go into a magazine or on radio.

Everyone can type, write, create, publish and start building their own audience.

In my new upcoming book (ahem, yes I am talking about it A LOT at the moment), I talk about how the first step on a journey is making a choice, the choice to become a highly-regarded, well-known influencer in your chosen topic or field.

However, the vital part is to make this choice for yourself. The American entrepreneur, author and podcaster James Altchuer talks about this in his wonderful book ‘Choose Yourself’. He describes how the world has changed, and ‘no longer is someone coming to hire you, to invest in your company, to sign you, to pick you. It’s on you to make the most important decision in your life: Choose Yourself.’

It might be blogging, it might be another field. For my clients, it might be to become the best private health care clinic, the most popular brand of luxury cashmere…..

But once you’ve made this choice, you just use all the wonders of modern technology and communication that is now available to all of us to make your dream a reality.

Now, maybe you think this sounds a little farfetched.

Well, believe me it’s not – and it’s all thanks to the way the internet has changed and is democratising the world. Now anyone can 3 things: a laptop, electricity and their fingers, to slowly but surely, drip by drip, tell and show and prove and demonstrate to the world they are an expert, authority, talent or personality. So, in the past we were programmed to wait for opportunity or recognition to be granted to us, now we can choose to make this happen.

So just as Jan Moir says, yes, some might believe it’s a dream come true to win the X factor, but why put your destiny in the hands of a crinkly kneed croaker. Others just get on and make it happen for themselves.