Patience.
It’s not my strong suit. Is it yours?
I have a few clients who want things to happen quickly. I’ve always thought that I completely lacked patience in my business, but when I look back over my dozen years as an entrepreneur plus nearly 20 more in this industry, I realized I’ve always been in it for the long haul.
One example of patience is our podcasting efforts. I’ve been interviewing people for 7 years. Putting them out as podcasts for 3 or 4, but only committed to podcasting weekly about a year ago. And guess what…
That’s when we saw the numbers surge.
The same principle applies to blogging. Once I committed to a weekly approach, we started to gain more traction. I had been slowly making progress but the committed approach helped us crank up the numbers.
Even social media is a long haul game. We know now that it’s a “pay to play” situation. So some might roll the dice and test some paid advertising. But, I’m willing to bet that it’s the people who are consistently spending are the ones to getting big results. I know that as soon as I go all in on this idea with a long-term approach, I’ll see another bump in my numbers. And in turn, overall revenue.
I once did a Focus 40 session with a woman who wanted to see some results in the form of paid speaking engagements within 2 months of us working together. I told her that her expectations were unreasonable and would not take her on as a private coaching client.
There is nothing short term about the speaking industry. Either you are ready to do the work, plant copious amounts of seeds and wait for your harvest, or you are not. Doing the right things, year after year consistently will pay off.
If you want to be more in control, perhaps you build a fan base and run your own events. Either live or virtual, this type of approach puts you in the driver’s seat. When you compare that to the long lead times of speaking to corporations or associations, it might feel like a better bet. But here’s the thing. Even with this approach, you will still require a slow steady build of fans and patience to get your revenues where you desire.
Are you in it for the long haul?
See you soon, Wealthy Speakers!
6 Responses
Oh gosh this is something I really struggled with in the beginning when I first started working with Jane. When you have that vision of where you want to be, sometimes the desire to push the “easy” button is great as we want our business to flourish right now!! The good thing on looking back from where I have been is to know that often times it was the patient route that was the one that paid off the best when it came to investing time, money and efforts. The times I took the “shortcuts” and just “splattered” things such as all social media sites before really investing the time to see where my audience hung out ended up to cost a lot in time and energies with no payoff. Today, I still struggle with patience, but know that in the end, it is good to look at the overall ROI of doing anything that requires my time, money, enerigies, and efforts.
Thanks for posting Jane – this was awesome!
Jen, it’s so true that the shortcuts rarely work. Thanks for the feedback, I’m glad this post was meaningful.
Consistency, it’s boring and it works. Doesn’t matter if it’s how you eat, exercise, think or market and build your business.
One of those $5.00 tarot card readers once told me that I would struggle with consistency my entire life. Boy, did she nail it!
As someone new to the speaking industry this is such a valuable post. Would it be great if it all happened right away, well my bottom line would appreciate it. However I know that over time my speech will get better, and so will I. I care a lot about bringing real value to my audiences and it will take time to get there. Thanks for this post Jane, it is encouraging, even when money is going out rather than coming in. 🙂
Frances, so many have gone before you and made it happen. I have faith that you will get there too. You’re working hard, and doing the right things consistently! Keep moving forward.