The foundation has been laid, now let’s see more results! Yes?? YES!!
Hi friend!
early this week I hit the wall 🧱.
My progress ground to a halt as everything non-this-work related suddenly screamed for my attention (my kids, our tenants, my parents, even my health). I was fully in a reactive mode and by Wednesday morning I was seriously questioning if I ever be able to achieve anything 😩...
Looking back, I realize - yet again - I tend to be quite dramatic 🙀.
A little setback is not the end of the world, but yes, it sucks when you feel you are losing the momentum. But such is life, you lose it, you keep working and you regain it again.
Meanwhile, not dropping my other “life balls” makes this path more sustainable. I guess I got some lemons and squeezed them into some zesty 🍋 Lesson Learned Lemonade 🍋.
“The effort compounds in an unpredictable way and the progress through the unchartered territory is rarely linear.“
Add now, before I jump into the actual updates, the usual note: I still send this weekly email only to a handful of people
All of whom I have spoken to about my goal over the last month or so AND
Who have expressed their unabridged support, interest and enthusiasm about my goal.
Thank YOU for being one of them.
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.
***
✅ #1: I FINALLY published my speaking & interactive workshop session & it’s ready to go & Asking For Your Help 📣 🙏
I managed to finalize the content, logistics and the promo materials for my speaking session and interactive workshop on networking. For a few weeks I just couldn’t get it finished and …now it’s finally done!
But I don’t want to just do an event.
I want to deliver knocking-your-socks-off level of experience - both through the insights AND participants interactions. And that requires practice - I am willing to work for it!
📣 🙏 Do you happen to know any company or organization that would be interested in an ~1-hour session for the employees/ members on how to build better professional connections - both within their current organization and outside in the broader industry? I can think of a Lunch & Learn or a similar format within some Employee Resource Group.
Excerpt from the event description on Eventbrite - FINALLY OUT & PUBLISHED
I am okay to do the first few runs in the coming weeks for whatever price works, just in exchange for the ability to take pictures/ videos and/or collecting testimonials and/or detailed feedback from the participants.
📣 🙏 If you think you know of someone who could be a good fit, feel free to share the Eventbrite link with them for a quick reference - I am also happy to provide more details, answer questions or look into covering specific deep dives! Let’s go :)!
✅ #2: I realized I need great workflows in order to deliver great outputs - CONSISTENTLY
By now you are familiar with my ebbs and flows of posting on LinkedIn, Twitter and such. For a few weeks I managed to post regularly, then I lost my focus as something else took precedence… And that’s all okay and part of the learning process.
However when I reflected on what those consistent role models have in common…BOOM… they don’t Create, Publish & Repeat.
Every single consistent content creator I spoke with (I went to the Podcasting 101 by Bay Area Video Coalition on Wednesday night) works with the concept of a content shelf/ bank: having always 2 weeks worth of posts for my LinkedIn active friend Tamara, 4 episodes of weekly podcasts for the astrologer Isa.
You don’t create to publish, you create for the shelf - that’s THE workflow! It removes the immediate pressure and professionalizes the entire process.
Creating for the content shelf is the #1 prerequisite for consistency and consistency is the #1 prerequisite for the long-term success aka becoming relevant in your niche.
📋 So the next week I won’t be writing LinkedIn posts to publish… it’s time to build the inventory (10 posts in my case) first!
✅ Update #3: My potential TV/YT show is shaping up - yet some hesitations linger
The top question on my mind: who’s the audience for this show? You don’t want to create for the sake of creating, screaming into a void.
If I want to watch a show, I have “jobs to get done”: be entertained, get informed, get inspired…and educate myself.
As I was walking home from the recording studio this week I felt bad I don’t spend more time in my Toastmasters club, helping new members, explaining meeting roles, sharing my tricks and hard-won lessons. And then it clicked.
What if I used this TV show platform to be more effective in my leadership role in the Toastmasters club?
I could get the broader community involved, get cameos from different members, regular segments, guest interviews, popular speeches reactions.
Maybe an 8 episode limited series, weekly aired & released - maybe starting in January when the interest for Toastmasters predictably peaks every year.
Covering the basics I know - something standalone and ideally relevant for at least a few years (= content with long shelf life)
Creating bingeable content for any information-hungry prospective or a new club member (= very well defined audience), making Toastmasters more interesting, relevant and relatable
All that with minimal extra research needed in pre-production, as on the majority of the topics I can speak off-the-cuff and share relevant tips and good stories
😈 Yet, on the other hand…
But is this worth the effort or a just a shiny distraction testing my focus?
As I would likely not be paid for it (at least to start with), would it help me with my goal to get to speak for living?
Or would this actually showcase me as an effective communicator AND speaker, serving as a proof of my capabilities (remember I still need a good video)?
Shouldn’t I rather narrow down and become very specific on my social capital and networking topics?
Could these two seemingly distinct topics intersect somewhere:
people tend do dislike/ be afraid of public speaking AND networking;
facing your fears and doing the scary stuff is worth it;
social skills (public speaking) and social capital are what will keep us as humans relevant and value-adding professionally in the age when AI is smarter intellectual problem-solver that 99.997% of us..
Please reply with your opinion or a way how you would address this dilemma - aka is this an opportunity worth pursuing?
🎃 EXTRA: Happy Halloween! 👻
Left to right: Sad Basic Unicorn, Cat(ka) In The Hat, Puff The Magic Dragon & Minnie Mouse Ladybug
Have a great weekend & off to the November sprint!
xoxo, Katka
PS: If you want to refer back to any of my previous updates, I put them online here 👇 (you need to be on my list to see the whole updates, this is still in a closed beta 🤐).
