Hi friend,
Right now, I am sending this email to a handful of people:
All of whom I have spoken to in person about my goal over the last week AND
Who have expressed their unabridged support, interest and enthusiasm about my goal.
Thank YOU for being one of them.
Please don't hesitate to respond, share your thoughts or just say hi. Or let me know you want no more updates. Two-way communication is always much more fun 🙌.
The purpose of this 100-day challenge 🚀 is to get me to say“I speak for a living, I am a professional speaker” by Dec 20, 2024.
Let’s see how it goes!
When I used to work as a manager in consulting, it was my job to send an email to all project stakeholders (partners, associates, clients, support staff) at the end of week - called End Of Week Summary.
For my 100 Day Challenge, you - the recipients of this email - are my stakeholders.
I do have an ambition to get into the full “Build In Public” mode and let whoever is interested in my updates join this mailing list (e.g. by posting a link to it on my Linkedin)...eventually. I am just not there yet, it feels too scary right now.
For now, you are my closest circle of supporters - my insiders - and I can’t express how grateful I am for you believing in me 💕.
My EOW Summary in consulting used to have this outline:
The Good - what went well
The Bad - what didn’t and why
Next Steps - what we are doing next
Extra - what doesn’t fall into any of the above.
So let's give it a try & let's go! ➡️➡️➡️
😃 The Good (3 points)
1. 😃 I made my goal public at Golden Gate Toastmasters meeting on Wednesday night (09/11),
formalized it as a 100-day challenge and I received plenty of heart-warming support.
Here are just some of the super nice feedback I received 🙏:
“ Infectious energy. Great body language and gestures. Being vulnerable in front of so many people is an act of courage! I can definitely see her as a successful motivational speaker - the next Tony Robbins!”
“Terrific speech! You were super engaging as always, and you inspired me to get off my ass and do the uncomfortable to achieve my goals. “
“Such a passionate speech!! You are doing the world a big favor by exploring your gift! You can do it, and in fact - you are already there, Katka-duckling!”
2. 😃 I committed to 3 months coaching to help me stay on course
Doing something on your own is hard, y’all.
I realized I can get too up in my head, seeing the big picture of everything that needs to get done and eventually getting absolutely paralyzed, not knowing where to get started.
This week, I had a one-off session with a person I look up to for how she has built her own business (career coach) with a heavy element of public speaking and media appearances, she feels like a great match for me.
One-on-one coaching ain’t cheap but I hope this investment in myself will pay off - it definitely ups my commitment.
It’s like getting an expensive gym membership; it makes you reconsider that extra dessert on Friday night 😋🍰...
3. 😃 I did my first pitch as a speaker for hire.
This is something my coach kept emphasizing in our first session: You cannot become a professional in unless you start selling yourself. Things just don’t happen to good people. You need to take the initiative. I drafted my speaker’s bio, pitched what I can speak about and reached out to an event organizer (a warm connection) where I felt I could be a great fit.
The Bad: 💡Lessons Learned (2 points)
In the spirit of 🌱 Growth Mindset, I am rebranding The Bad as The Lessons Learned.
I hope this will be a reminder for all of us to be
LESS UPSET about the things that don’t go as we wish and
MORE CURIOUS and reflective on what we can get out of that experience.
1. My first pitch was a failure: 💡Events agenda gets set months in advance
That event organizer got back to me today saying the agenda has been set weeks in advance (the event is in 2 weeks). She said she liked me speaking previously (at one of those nonchalantly accepted opportunities), noting down I work as a speaker and suggested we connect in the Spring to loop me in early for the next year’s event. I am starting a flywheel here - a lot of effort to get started, much easier to keep going later on.
2. I have barely any evidence from my past speaking engagements: 💡Document, record and keep organized everything (!!!) going forward
I’ll need to put together my “”sizzle reel”, a short, highly-edited video, showing the speaker at their best. Basically this is your marketing material.
Although I spoke as valedictorian at my Master’s graduation (2012), delivered opening remarks at a conference to an audience of hundreds in Kyrgyzstan and Tyumen, Russia (2016), did large audience presentations in consulting (2014-2022), did dozens of stand up sets (2018 & 2023)...
...but barely anything is recorded, let alone usable to showcase my experience 🙁.
If YOU even slightly think of ever speaking professionally, start recording, taking pictures & organizing your speeches NOW.
You don’t even have to watch it now, just keep it in one folder.
🏃🏼♀️Next Steps (for the coming week)
Keep practicing & getting Stage Time:
On Sept 18, I will MCee 2 events in one dayAt noon, Bricks @ Embarcadero Plaza, programming to bring life back to public spaces, it will be a Showcase of a Toastmasters meeting
At 6p, Open House session in Downtown
Focused work across 3 buckets
1. Content creation: Outline 3 speeches (title + rough draft) based on my area of expertise
2. Marketing: Create 3 versions of my speaker bio, corresponding to the topics of those speeches; finalize the list of all my public speaking engagements over the years + gather videos/ pictures where available
3. Selling: At least one more explicit pitchKeep catching up with friends and become comfortable to share (even if briefly) my public speaking career pursuits
💥 EXTRA:
4 books on Public Speaking I have recently read.
As you can see, I own copies of all of them so if you are interested in reading any of them, feel free to ping me and I’ll bring you the copy next time we see each other.
xoxo, Katka
