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Overcoming Obstacles to Your Success

Guest post by: Mary McKay

Article Overview: An obstacle is something material or nonmaterial that stands in the way of literal or figurative progress. As an expert who speaks, you're paid to teach others what you know so that they can overcome obstacles and impediments to their own progress.

Overcoming Obstacles to Your Success

An obstacle is something material or nonmaterial that stands in the way of literal or figurative progress. As an expert who speaks, you're paid to teach others what you know so that they can overcome obstacles and impediments to their own progress. How effective are you in overcoming obstacles in securing paid speaking engagements? Let's identify some obstacles that you face, look at the common responses and talk about proven solutions for getting more bookings.

Obstacle: Lack of confidence in making contact with prospective buyers in your target market

Common response: Call reluctance, an emphasis on internet marketing only, refusal to identify one target market, trying to be all things to all people; compromise your expertise by accepting engagements and creating programs for organizations that aren't in your target market -therefore fragmenting your expertise and avoiding creating high content pieces based on your needs analysis. Not the least of natural responses is the tendency we all have to blame the economy, time, money and others for your insecurities.

Solutions: Take at least 98% responsibility for your results. After that, you can begin with four specific action steps: Analyze your value in your target market, identify your relevant marketing message, position your expertise with compelling copy and introduce yourself to decision-makers in your target market. Learn what to say and do in as few words as possible.

You can make contact in dozens of ways. Some examples are through your ezines, article marketing, surveys, ask campaigns, social media and new product launches to name a few. If you're properly positioned and you know the benefits of your expertise, pick up the phone.

That bi-directional device that Alexander Graham Bell created to transmit voice between two people still works the same. You know-- the one you use throughout the day with your friends, but rarely in productive ways. You should stop relying solely on search engine optimization which may or may not work. Even if you've already been hired in your target market, it's time to build those referrals, get more third party endorsements and actually have a conversation with another human that is responsible for speaker selection.

You can do this yourself or you can delegate the task. The more you've positioned your expertise and the better you know your market and your ideal clients' challenges, the more you'll begin to pull clients towards you so that your telephone will ring with invitations to speak.

Obstacle: Lack of relevant information

Information about what? Your ultimate claim, your value to your target market, their challenges, needs and problems and what differentiates your expertise from your competitors.

Common response: The most natural response is to refuse to make contact with prospective buyers. If you cannot state your expertise in one to two sentences, if your expertise isn't positioned, if you haven't taken the time to design daily marketing activities that reach out to your target market, you can't and shouldn't reach out until you get clear about your relevance because decision-makers are only interested in what's in it for them. Oh, and another natural response is to blame the economy, time, money and others for lack of information.

Solutions: Take at least 98% responsibility for your results. After that, respect your talent and gift for speaking enough to analyze your expertise, get positioned in all of your copy, research and know your target market, -what they struggle with, why they fail, how they can overcome their top three challenges and what you offer them that no other industry expert does. You have to know their industry, their business, their productivity and their trends, not just your expertise. Help your clients get what they want so that you can authentically make your claim as a problem solver. If you generate compelling marketing activities based on their needs, organizations in your target market will begin to call you!

Obstacle: Ignorance about how to secure paid speaking engagements

Common response: You continue your mantra of saying you don't know how to price your expertise, you don't know how or when to quote your fee, you don't know how to negotiate when asked to reduce your fee, don't know how to write a contract, you don't know who to call, you don't know how to attract bureaus. And the list goes on. Oh, and you blame the economy, time, money and others for not informing you.

Solutions: Take at least 98% responsibility for your results. After that, educate yourself. Learn how to get bookings from someone who has done it successfully. I, for one, give a high content tip or strategy every single week from my website for those who optin to my website. I host free teleseminars loaded with suggestions and examples for emerging and under-booked speakers. Find all of the free strategies that you can from information marketers and make a decision at some point to hire coach.

Join Business Network International and learn how to interface with the buying public. Their cool tagline is Givers Gain. Engage other members from various businesses, sit with those you do not know, interact by asking how you can help others, show up with your business cards and a call to action in your mind. They'll even teach you how to network effectively. If you learn how to work a crowd, you'll open yourself up to paid speaking engagements.

Turn off the television. Sit quietly and write down all of the reasons that someone should hire you to speak. That one exercise will be revealing.

Say this to yourself intermittently throughout the day: "I keep productive, creative, profitable and fun ideas in my mind at all times."

As you can see from the examples above, all of them are nonmaterial and they stand in the way of your progress unless you become proactive in removing or diminishing them. They relate more often than not to your mindset. I've asked you to take at least 98% responsibility for your results. That way, you can do something to change your circumstances. The remaining 2% covers material and literal obstacles that you cannot control, but that said, there are super extraordinary experts who speak who have figured out how to get over, under and around all impediments.

If you're only interested in overcoming obstacles, you do what's convenient. If you're committed to overcoming them, you do whatever it takes.

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Article Tags: overcoming obstacles, paid speaking engagements, speaking engagements, target market, turn key speaker



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