My first blog sucked. I was a high school dropout who never understood grammar. I started a blog to help the workingman but my skills needed a lot of practice and polishing. The first time I got on stage to speak, I was terrible. I was not prepared, I didn’t know the audience and I was super nervous. The first time I did most things in my lifestyle business were not a good experience.
It took some time to learn and grow. Today, I travel the world speaking at conferences and companies. My books are selling as I write this and I’m selling my programs. I operate a lifestyle business that gives me freedom and has led to a happy life. It feels good to be in control of my time and decisions.
I post pictures from different countries on social media. I post wins from my clients and myself. As you can imagine, I get a ton of people reaching out. They want to do the same things; they want to grow a lifestyle business that supports them. The first thing I do is check out their “foundation.”
Your Foundation is Everything
When I say foundation, I think of it as your website, your social media presence, and your email list. It’s natural to want to travel the world as a speaker or sell thousands of books as an author, but you’ll never get there without a proper foundation. If event organizers, HR managers at companies, or regular people who might do business with you come back to your website and don’t see certain things, you won’t get the opportunity.
You have to crawl before you run. You have to get a solid foundation in place and then start stacking your social proof. Without both of these, you won’t book the opportunities that pay.
More than anything, your branding has to be clear. When people come to your foundation, they have to understand how what you do is practical and what the tangible takeaway will be for them. For example, if an event organizer is thinking about booking you, they will check out your website. When they come to your website, they have to understand what you do. If they see you’re the “social influence strategist.” They probably won’t understand it and will not hire you for the gig. Why? Because they can’t see how what you do is practical for their audience.
Your branding needs clarity, not a cute name that you think will make you different. Being clear is much better than being different. Clarity gets you the opportunities and helps someone feel comfortable doing business with you. People spend money on things they understand.
The #1 reason you aren’t booking opportunities is because your foundation isn’t in place or it isn’t clear. I get that you want to be out there traveling or out here making money, but you have to do the prep work first. Think about the building of a house. You know what happens when there’s a bad foundation.
The New Year can be the year you build your lifestyle business to the point of supporting you. If you are going to get there, you need to spend the rest of this month getting your foundation in place. Make sure it’s practical, tangible and clear.
Would we understand your foundation?
I have 14 speaking/consultant gigs in 14 countries booked for 2017 (so far). 11 out of those 14 gigs came to me organically through some different strategies I’m using, three were repeat customers.
I often get asked how to start or how to jumpstart the speaking/consulting side of a lifestyle business. Tomorrow, I’m teaching a masterclass on booking paid speaking and consulting. If you can’t make it live, the class will be recorded.
You will walk away with the exact steps you need to book paid speaking and consulting gigs. I will show you exactly how I’ve booked gigs on six continents, how much I’ve charged, and all the details of a speaking/consulting business.
There is a special one-time price of $150. You will never see this class at this price in the future. Registration closes at 12 pm CST tomorrow (December 13th). Details here.
Photo Credit: Flickr/ Sean Malloy
