Me talking about the Facebook with a phantom Diet Coke that seemed to appear on my podium despite the fact I don't drink it.

Me talking about the Facebook with a phantom Diet Coke that seemed to appear on my podium despite the fact I don’t drink it.

Part of this year which is making it really different from previous ones is that, now that I have a functional, profitable business, I now have the luxury… and responsibility… to steer this ship even more intentionally than I have been. And this means taking the time to ask some basic questions:

What do I WANT to be doing more? Where do I see myself in the next five years?
(These become much easier questions to ask after you have passed through the ‘desperate’ years of asking for work and taking for whatever you could get so you can pay the rent.) 

I have decided that, in 2014 and beyond, I want to do more speaking gigs. I enjoy them, people seem to enjoy coming to them, and it is something that can actually make money.

What I realized in looking at my site is this desire doesn’t seem very strong. Other than the ‘speaking’ slide in the slideshow, who would really know that I am a dynamic person who can make a three hour workshop seem like a few minutes? (An attendee’s words, not mine- felt like three hours to me. Three good hours but still three hours!) Who would know I was a ‘valuable professional development opportunity’?

No one. Because of this recent truth bomb I’ve figured out: no one is going to book me to speak for their group if they haven’t seen me speak.

The fact it took me this long to figure this out is sad.

Part of my ‘Year of Doing More Speaking’ is to put myself out there more, in the way of a weekly video.

I’ll post this short weekly video on my Youtube channel (feel free to enjoy my ‘dinner party’ and other music mixes there too), and also on social media channels. I haven’t decided where all the videos will go on the site yet and I am also toying around with an email list just for people who want to get the new videos.

I have some other goals too (personally and professionally) but this one I thought was an important one to mention that might interest you if you read and like this blog!

And if you have a question you want me to address in this video series, please send it in to me or leave a comment on this post.

While the idea of editing a seemingly rounder version of myself weekly for the next year doesn’t excite me, I hope me putting myself out there brings more speaking gigs into my life. Because until people can virtually meet me, they are not going to let me meet 100 of their conference attendants in real life. If I sound like I’m doing this mainly because it’s good for me, I am. But I am hoping it turns out that I’m going to enjoy this more than I thought.

Here I go…

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