It has been my concern over time that I spend far too much time on things that may not move my dial. Things that may not move my bank numbers in an encouraging direction. I am not referring to lazing around or spending many hours on social media. By the way I love Facebook and Tiktok. I do spend enough time there. What I am referring to here is the things I actively engage myself in regarding my speaking and my books, thinking that they add value to my business but they don’t translate to cash.
For example, I love working on my several websites. It’s something I could spend all night doing. Sometime back I used to market the service and helped several people build their websites. I then got busy with my day job and my marketing for that service died. I love practical things, so, to get website creation jobs, I would go door to door in business premises and ask them whether they had a website and if not, whether they’d want me to make one for them. Be sure that there’s a lot of businesses out there who don’t have websites and could be waiting for someone who would offer them the services. I did it. I had done several websites before I got busy elsewhere and the idea waned. Last week a fellow author asked me to work on her website to move just a few things here and there and add some links. A few hours job on it earned me some good tip.
Back to my story of things I do that don’t move the dial in a more desirable way. Other than just consuming content online, I love sharing content too. I share positive posts and videos with my many followers. Sometimes I post my books and also indicate my speaking availability but I guess I don’t do it well enough. Posting alone may not bring in results by themselves. From my experience in other areas of life, direct contact with the target audience is what brings results. Preferably a contact that has been a relationship in building and not necessarily with the intention of selling. In fact, when business comes this way, it doesn’t seem like a business. It seems like a wealth producing friendship. And it is.
Referring to my experience above with web design, if I had just posted posters in every street corner, I am not quite sure I would have got business. If any business would have come from that, the number of successful sales would not compare with my direct contact with the business owner. I guess it would be in a very incomparable ratio. I have done other things before that could prove this.
So, again, what would bring great results in the speaking and authorship journey?
Direct contact with people who would book speakers, refer a speaker or buy books. Not merely posts and videos online. These add value yes, but moving the dial would need you going to inboxes and calls.
When this reminder hit me this hour, I went to my inbox and reached out to Sam in Kenya. He does corporate trainings and workshops. I had contacted him some years back, connected on Facebook and we had coffee the last time I was in Kenya. We had talked about collaborating but nothing has come up yet. This time I am being very intentional and have sent him a reminder about my desire to get speaking leads through him for my intended visit soon. I am contemplating going there next month but haven’t laid a concrete plan. A confirmed speaking engagement will have me booking a ticket. I sent the request on January 6th. Facebook Messenger indicates that he saw it but did not respond. Let me hope he will respond positively.
As I continue to document this journey, I will reach out to more people directly with a clear intention of moving the dial in a positive direction. More than I have been casually doing.
On the other hand, I have just posted on Facebook that I am doing this. Documenting my speaking and authorship business journey. I’ve asked whether there’s anybody who would be interested in having a copy of this diary of mine. Within the first hour, I have two interested people.
Sam has responded. He says if they’ll have an event, he will update me.