I’m writing this blog from Vegas because I'm attending a two-day mastermind later in the week. A part of my sanity for being able to run my business and do all the things I do is having a little bit of an escape. So this week, I get to be here by myself until my friend arrives who is going to the mastermind with me. That is one thing for leadership success is to have some downtime. I've been coaching a couple of clients this week who have a lot of heaviness in their lives. I think good leaders know when they're overwhelmed. Good leaders know when they need to just take some downtime, and I needed that, which is why I'm here. I asked the following question to my Dynamic Women Global Community: “What are some key leadership skills you believe are crucial for success in the business world?” There were a lot of different answers. I know there are so many books on leadership skills, how to win as a leader, how to do servant leadership, types of leadership, and many more, but let's focus on what some of the women in my online community have said. 1. Flexibility Robyn said, “Flexibility” as a leader. Now, I have met some people who have been inflexible and they come across as a control freak. If you are controlling with your company and the people you work with, they're going to stop giving you their ideas, they’re not going to chime in, and they're not going to want to work with you for very long. You’ll find yourself losing staff if you can't be flexible in your opinion or flexible in how you run the business. Plus when leaders go for goals, if you're not flexible in how you reach that goal in the timeline, there's a chance you're not going to be reaching your goals at all. Flexibility in relation to others’ ideas, your timelines, your goals, and how things are executed is really important. 2. Managing Expectations Deborah said, “managing expectations”. There are a lot of expectations in business.
That's not even mentioning the expectations of society on you. People who don't even pay your bills or aren't engaged with you at all who are deciding that they have an opinion on what you should do. Let's talk about managing your own expectations. Things don't always go as planned, you've heard that before. But…
A lot of times before things happen, I will have myself and others talk about what their intentions are for something or what they would like to happen in a specific situation, goal, or event. The reason for that is, if you have an idea of how it will be, that's your expectation of how it will be. Asking others what the intention is helps everyone to be either on the same page or at least respectful of other people's expectations. Now, overpromising is not necessarily a good thing in business. What I rather do is underpromise and overdeliver. That way, the clients and the customers will have specific expectations, and then you go above it. If you have a really high promise and you're not truthful about it, you're definitely not going to be able to honor your client or customers' expectations. Then, your company or employees have specific expectations. I can remember my husband in one of his jobs, basically just getting a gift pass to use for services at his company; however, it wasn’t even for him to use, but for him to give a friend. That was a terrible Christmas bonus that was not well received. There were expectations for things to continue on as they had been done years before with gift cards to restaurants and things changed and so a lot of the staff were very upset with what ended up happening that Christmas. 3. Encourage others to shine Lisa shared about “encouraging others to shine”, so they can lead too. This makes me think of the synergy piece of geese flying in a “V”. When you have someone flying in the lead being your leader, it is important to encourage them. That’s why the geese honk because that leader has an important, yet hard job to do. We need to encourage them to lead when they're there with positive reinforcement, acknowledgments, and cheer them on. But it’s also important to have the leader move out of the way so others can step in by giving them specific roles, specific tasks, where they get to make the decisions and use their talents and skills to shine and have a great outcome. By doing this, the whole group moves up, and the culture, the skills, and the confidence of everyone can rise by each individual getting their own chance to lead, their own chance to shine. It's really beneficial for your customers and your clients when there's a higher level of talent and confidence in the whole team. 4. Be humble Paula’s input about a good leader is, “The ability to be humble, to consider not oneself as the crucial or critical link to success, but to enable others to develop their unique skills which will contribute to the success of the whole.” Leaders, don't think that they’re the reason why the success happened. You led the success, yes, but if you’re too much of a crucial link, your business cannot go far because you are far too important for its success and it won’t succeed without you. Because what's going to happen is, you are the cog in the wheel. You are the one holding things up. If you are sick, does the ship go under? I love that Paula is mentioning the ability to be humble. One of the very successful members of CAPS (The Canadian Association of Professional Speakers), Tom Stoyan, teaches this program every year on referrals and leveraging your unfair advantage. He's teaching sales skills. In his course, and after decades of being in the sales industry, after so much success, financial as well as compliments from his clients, he still asks in the training that he's providing, “Would it be helpful if I shared that with you? Would it be helpful if I gave you some ideas? Will it be helpful if I give you some feedback?” Rather than other people who've just said, “Well, Diane, you need to do this. And this is your problem.” He comes across in such a humble way by modeling it in his actions which taught me and so I use that all the time. That has helped me to tone down in my confidence level as a leader, and so I really appreciated that. 5. Positive Leadership Lindy said, “Joy-based leadership”. I'm not sure which way Lindy meant this, but what I see is a leader being positive, optimistic, and happy. I hire a lot of virtual assistants from the Philippines and what I hear from them the most is that they were in a toxic work environment where their boss yelled, where their boss was cutting employees down, and embarrassing them in front of others. I've also heard stories of a boss that didn't believe in the direction the team was going, and so negativity is not the way to do it. The leader needs to show the vision for the whole team sharing, “This is where we're going, and we can do it”, and to provide that hope. I don't know how many times as a captain of a team, we're in a final against a team that is far better than us or who has fewer injuries than us and I had to be the positive one. If everyone on my team thinks that they're going to win I have to, for the sake of my team, believe that we can win. Sometimes I did it. But I had to be in that place of, as Lindy said, joy, optimism, or positivity saying, “Come on, guys, we can do this!” Because that elevates everyone and really, the leader sets the tone for the culture of everyone. If you're a negative leader, there's going to be a lot of negativity in your culture. 6. Lead by example Jackie shared, “Lead by example, if you aren't showing the way, why would others follow?” I also want to put in there around servant leadership, not to say that the leader serves everyone, but the idea that no job is beneath them and that they will get in there with others.
This is where we as leaders need to check in on ourselves. Where can we improve? Sometimes that might be by doing a 360 feedback survey with people in our lives, people at our work, to see if we're actually stepping into that role that is best for the company. If you have never done a 360 feedback survey, what happens is you send out a survey to a bunch of people you trust, who you think will give you straight answers, maybe some people who really know you well, and some people who don't know you as well, both personally, professionally in the past and current. Then you go through that feedback after all the questions are answered, and you get some really great insights. This is something I do for my clients because it kind of is awkward to send this out yourself and then I can provide a filter for the answers, and we talk through the different responses. If you want to know more about doing that or if you're just like, “Let's just do a Diane”, send my team an email at team@dianerolston.com and say you want to do a 360 survey. 7. Empathy, diplomacy and integrity Rita added in a few, “Humility, empathy, diplomacy, and integrity. Demonstrate consistency between words and actions. Be an encouragement to others. Be joyful.” I’ll go through a bunch of them starting with empathy because it stands out to me. Stuff happens in people's lives. Sometimes there are deaths. There are mental struggles, and there are people not being able to be at their full capacity. Having empathy for your staff and also empathy for clients is important. We're all just people trying to live this life, and not everyone is running on full cylinders 100% of the time. That also means that the leader needs to be empathetic to themselves, to honor where they're at or what they need. Then that comes into diplomacy, and I want to take it from the angle of equality and treating everyone similarly. Not having favorites, trying to bring everyone up equally. I found that being certainly A-type and strong in school and in a lot of the things I do, I often got overlooked. I never got the extra help or support or encouragement because “Oh Diane's good”. Well, I think that in your workplace, even the people that don't need a lot of support and help, you still need to give them acknowledgement and cheer them on and encourage them and challenge them too. Then integrity. You need to run your business with integrity if you want to have a long-term business because as soon as you start messing with integrity, your staff and your employees, they’re going to see that and it’s going to allow them to not be in integrity when they work for you. Then your business won't be running on integrity. There'll be stuff that is happening that is not best business practices, and then it'll be trickling down to your clients. Wrapping Up These are all the things that people in my Dynamic Women Global Community Facebook group said are important leadership skills to have success in business. Do you agree? Did they miss some? Let me know. Share this with a friend who is a leader and see their opinion as well! P.S. Feeling too busy to be the leader you want to be? Grab your “Top 5 Tasks Busy Business Owners Should Pass Off Immediately” Guide. Read my other blogs here:
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When life is hard, it’s important to create space for yourself. I had to do that when my cat died last month. You maybe haven’t had this experience; however, you maybe have stuff coming up in your life like:
It could be some other trouble that is just causing stress in your life or making you not feel 100%. Anytime you don't feel 100%, you have permission to create space for yourself. My cat’s passing Basically, my cat was sick with lung and kidney issues. We didn't know exactly what it was, but she wasn't doing well. Then one Wednesday night, she acted strangely and then passed away. My husband and I were upset and we didn’t know what to do because the kids were in bed when she passed. Then, Thursday morning, we woke up, and we had to tell the kids. It was sad, especially because my son was calling her name and looking for her, “Kali! Kali!” We then had to wake up my daughter and tell them both. Death is never easy, especially if you're with your loved one as they die because then you have that memory as well, which I did with my cat. I cried Wednesday night, and then I cried again on Thursday morning, telling my children. She was part of our family. My daughter and my husband brought our cat to a vet clinic to be cremated because I couldn’t handle doing it myself. It was a work day, so I looked at my day, and I saw Pilates, clients, a two-hour Q&A session, another meeting and more. I immediately knew after looking at my face that I was not ready to go on camera, and I was not ready to be in Pilates facing other people because they’d see my face and would ask me, “What's going on? Are you okay?” and I would probably burst out crying. And I wasn’t wrong because a week later, I cried in Pilates when they asked how I was doing. Even if I looked fresh and normal, I still had permission to create space for myself. Space to not be “on”. What creating space means You might be thinking, “What does it even mean to create space?” Well, to take off pressure and stress from yourself to breathe. Create space in your life, time for the grief, for the stress, for whatever it is so that you can move past it. One of them is to not have to be on, where you're like “Hey, everybody, life is good. I’m awesome” and a lot of times you think, “Just don't be fake”. Well, it's not that you're fake, but in my case, since I'm going to coach people, I'm not going to come to my coaching session crying with my clients. I have to be on as a coach. I have to be ready to go, and I have to be ready to give my best and use all of my skills. I knew I couldn't do that. Creating space also means not pushing that feeling of, “Oh, I've got to muster up the energy, the motivation, the ability to be able to do this thing”. That's pushing. When you're already taxed, you don't want to be pushing. That's what creating space means as well. Another thing is, if you're going to create space by not being on, by not pushing, it also means that you're allowing the feelings to come in. I ended up being outdoors and cleaning my patio, tending to my plants, and just doing something physical because I knew mentally I couldn't handle it. My Q&A session was rescheduled, my clients were postponed, and I didn't go to Pilates. Now, could I have done all of these things? A hundred percent. The old me, the A-type, super-driven, perfectionist-type version of me would have done them anyway. But at what cost? Now, I'm at a point where I give myself permission to not have to push and do things. What does that allow for me? It allows me to work through the emotions of grief a lot faster. It allows me to feel so much better. If you’re going through a hard time, I encourage you to create some space for yourself. You don't have to be on. You don't have to do it all. I get that there are some requirements. I still had my VA team meeting at the end of the day because I felt like I could do it and that meeting really needed to happen. But for my Q&A session where I would need to brainstorm strategies for my clients, give ideas, and maybe do wordsmithing and some marketing, I thought, “I know, I can't give it my best” and so it was the smart thing to do. Here are some ways you can create space for yourself 1. Limit your commitments If you're going through a stressful period, you can limit your commitments to other people. Rather than attending a lot of meetings or events, or doing things for others, like taking care of someone's dog, you decide, “Okay, I'm going to limit. I'm not going to commit to all these other things because I don't know what my bandwidth is: my mental bandwidth, my physical bandwidth, my emotional bandwidth”. I know that my capacity has decreased, and so I wanted to make sure that I limited my commitments during that time. 2. Reschedule Limiting commitments means don't take on anything else, and rescheduling is for the things you already have. Do you need to move them, reschedule them or cancel them? My clients are so important to me, I didn't want to show up 50% and a two-hour Q&A session would have drained me. That would have meant the rest of my day would have been a write-off. As much as I could have done it, you have to ask yourself this question: “To what cost do you do it? To what cost do you push yourself? At what cost do you stick to what you said you’d do?” Commitment is one of my number one values, and I am not a suck. I go, I do things and I push through. Physically, I've played sports with broken fingers, broken toes, sprained ankles, and not being able to bend over because of back pain. I've pushed through. I have shown up for a speaking event, and been the first one to arrive even though I was hugging a toilet bowl all night from food poisoning. I have pushed, and I have led a two-day training with headaches. I have pushed. I have shown up for clients when my father was in palliative care. There are times that I've pushed, and there are times that it worked for me. I'm not saying that you just give up everything and have poor commitment, but that you create that space for yourself. 3. Delegate The last thing to do is delegate. There are a lot of things happening in your life, even down to things like laundry, cooking, and cleaning. I know that's why meal trains are a big thing that we do for people in times of need. I delegated stuff to my team. I delegated to one of my VAs, Kristine, for her to set up an email to go out to all of my clients so that we could move the meeting. I also delegated other work to them so that it wasn't on my plate because I knew I just couldn't handle it. Wrapping Up I'm curious as to which part of these will help you the most in creating space when you're having a hard time. You need to have that opportunity to have the space for your emotions, for your feelings, for your brain capacity, all of the pieces. I hope you never have to use these, but let's be honest, this is how life is. If you're feeling overly stressed or overwhelmed, create a little bit of space in your week. Look at your schedule and say,
Share this with a friend, especially someone who you feel needs some help creating space in their life. Maybe they're overbooked or overwhelmed, whatever it may be, share this with them. P.S. Do you need help in delegating? You can go from overwhelm to ease with the help of a virtual assistant. Go here to know how Virtual Assistant Made Easy can help you. Read my other blogs here:
In my last blog, I talked about the benefits of lead magnets. Check that one as well, so you have a little more information on what they are and the importance of them. Examples of Lead Magnets You’re going to read about some examples of lead magnets and their pros and cons. This is just a few options and so don’t be limited by it. I hope this inspires your lead magnet creation. Example 1: E-books and Guides E-books and guides are very comprehensive resources and can be seen as something somebody really wants. However, we want to make sure it's not too big or too dense where the reader doesn’t read it. Create an e-book that's pretty short and has maybe interactive activities in it or has a video that goes with it. Rather than just an e-book, maybe call it a mini-course because people are often more willing to go through a mini-course where it's broken down into different pieces, that comes out on different days, rather than just a full-blown big e-book. Now, it's up to you, though. If your e-book is something that people really covet, then you can give it to them because that's going to have them say maybe “Yes” more quickly to get your e-book, but just know that they might not read it. If your strategy is just to get the lead and get the email address, please know you have to nurture after in order to turn this lead into an actual purchasing client. Example 2: Templates and Worksheets I really like this one because Templates and Worksheets are practical tools that can assist your leads with specific tasks and activities. If you're in finance, you could give a budget template. Maybe you think, “Oh, everyone's giving that.” Well, it's because it works! If you're in project management, you could have a checklist. If you’re in social media, you can give a content calendar. These are all things you can give where people could just start plugging things in and using them right away. The cool thing is, if it's something they're going to use over and over and over again, like a journal template or checklist, or something used more often, like a content calendar, they will constantly be seeing your material and your name. They're going to continue to use it, and you're going to be lying around their office or house. An important tip is to make sure that your branding is on it somewhere. It doesn't have to be massive. It can be discreet, but enough that when they ask themselves or someone asks them, “Where did I/you get this?” They will say your name. Also, if they lose it, hopefully they remember your name and can get it again. Plus, if it’s six months down the road, and they need another copy of it they’ll ask themselves, “Where did I find this? And where did I get this from?” They're going to see your name, your brand name, and maybe your website there. Example 3: Webinars or Online Courses Webinars, courses or masterclasses depending on what you want to call them, are all lead magnets where you teach something. Think about what you want to eventually offer and create a course to position it. So at the end of this lead magnet what do you want them to “be”, “do” or “have” and then reverse engineer it. They can be interactive sessions or are at least engaging and as I said, they provide educational content or training on different topics. Ask yourself:
Make sure that this really does establish your credibility and provides value to these potential customers because they're going to be thinking about,
If their experience with it is confusing, hard, takes too much work, they're going to think that everything you sell is that way. Example 4: Exclusive Access or Trials With these, it gives them access to some premium content. It could be a membership site. It could be early access to new features or products you're offering. It could be a free trial of services or software you're offering. This can cause them to not only jump in and get the Early Access, but could then move them from a trial or early access into actually purchasing it. One-month membership free could then push them to purchase it afterwards because they start to see the value. I was given a month’s access to something for a dollar and another time I was gifted a month’s access after finishing another course and I’m still in the membership. Example 5: Quiz Quizzes are wonderful to offer, and there are many ways that you can do this. A quiz is going to give them some questions where by the end of answering it, it gives them some insight about them. Some ideas from what we've done in the past are:
Another type is to buy access from a quiz site, and it automatically tallies their quiz and gives them a response. Another option is to have it where it will email them the response directly. Sometimes this really bugs me because they weren’t upfront that I would need to give my email to get my results. I don't want them to contact me. I just want the answer to the quiz. You have to really think about how this is going to be, and I like to give them the quiz after the email then results right away as well as emailing it to them. Ways you can do the lead magnet Here are some ways you can share a lead magnet:
There are all different ways to do this, but the key thing is have it someplace where they give you your email address and a way to deliver it. It could be the platform you're on that is delivering it. It could connect to your CRM, where you email from, and it could trigger that which then emails it off. Or you know, in the old days, I used to have people just message me “I want that”, and then I would start emailing them out from my email address. There are so many different ways you can do this. Just make sure if they're giving you their email, you actually deliver on the thing you promise them. Wrapping Up Lead magnets are really important for business. They are a great tool to have and help you attract leads, engage with those leads, and convert them to potential customers. You get to offer value, resources, and incentives. This helps you to capture leads, nurture relationships, and establish yourself as a trusted authority in the industry. I encourage you to have not just one lead magnet. Instead, have many lead magnets because it's going to help you with lead generation, higher conversion rates, and personalized marketing. It gives you the opportunity to build that long-lasting customer relationship. All leads don't have to be people you haven't met yet. You can put out your lead magnets to your current network and see where they're being drawn in again. I encourage you to harness the power of lead magnets. It will propel your marketing efforts forward. It'll drive substantial growth for your business, and they're quite fun because it helps your client or potential client to have a win and you as well. P.S. Speaking of lead magnets, here’s one that you should take advantage! Download the “3 Simple Steps to Figure Out What You Want” booklet. Read my other blogs here:
Are you looking for more strategies for capturing and converting leads? Lead magnets could be the solution. What is a Lead magnet? At its core, a lead magnet is a valuable resource that's going to pull in potential customers because you offer some sort of service or a gift in exchange for their contact information, typically an email address. We don't see as many that go straight for the phone number or straight for a mailing address. Lead magnets are designed to attract and capture leads, leads being potential clients or customers in your business. They are people who may have shown an interest in your business, product, or service, and it gives them a taste of who you are and what you do. It's kind of like having a sample at an ice cream shop. It helps you to decide which ice cream choice you want to have or in the case of some places like Costco, having a sample of something you maybe didn't even know you wanted causes you to buy it. Usually lead magnets are digital assets: ideally something you give online that is passive (you don’t have to work more to give them), and something that doesn't cost you money every time like a physical book. In the case of the ice cream and Costco, they're giving you a sample of an actual product. But oftentimes for coaches, speakers, trainers, facilitators, and experts, what you want to do is give them a taste of working with you. It could be things like ebooks, white papers, templates, webinars, checklists, a 5-day challenge, exclusive access to different resources, or a set of videos. It can even be you giving them a month into your membership or access to a mini course. Why lead magnets? Well, you may feel how fast-paced this digital marketing world is, and we need to capture the attention of potential customers. We need to convert them from a lead into a customer. That is our top priority in marketing. This is where lead magnets come in. It is a gift you would give in response to them giving you their email address. Lead capture, lead magnet, or maybe a gift is what you want to call it. These are very powerful marketing tools. Sometimes, depending on how you put it together, they can offer irresistible incentives. They can also give valuable content in exchange for that contact information. Benefits of Lead Magnets Here are some benefits of a lead magnet, and I would love for you to think which one is most important to you. If you're having any of these as opposite problems in your business, then you definitely want to bring in lead magnets because not everyone likes marketing and not everyone is good at marketing. If you can have a good lead magnet in place, this is going to help you to really build out your marketing strategy, your list and it will work for you while you are not working or you're doing other things. Benefit 1: Lead generation Lead magnets serve as a powerful tool to generate leads by enticing your visitors on your website, social media platforms or even when you're speaking at an event to take the next step with you. There are so many different ways to present this lead magnet and that helps you to get their contact information, so you offer this valuable content or incentives and businesses can expand their pool of potential customers and that's what you're wanting. There was this one time, I was looking to buy some specialized veterinarian cat food for my cat because she was having some kidney troubles. I went on the company's website, and obviously, a lead magnet pops up and offers me a coupon of $5 off when I purchase from their company. Benefit 2: Increase your conversion rates Many people think, “Oh, I'm just getting this because you want to get clients.” Don’t all businesses want clients? It’s the way the economy works. Lead magnets increase your conversion rate because well-crafted lead magnets have the potential to bring in more leads and position what you do for the sale. When those prospects are presented with this valuable content, you're giving them your good stuff or these exclusive offers (key thing: addressing their specific pain points), they're more likely to engage in that material. They're more likely to then provide their contact information to get it, and it helps them to get a taste of what you're about and then you can nurture them afterwards in your sales funnel and guide them toward your sales conversion. They're going to think something like this, “Wow, I got this (insert lead magnet name here). This was really amazing. I used it. It helped me. I want more from this person”. You're starting to build trust in that relationship. Benefit 3: Builds customer relationships Lead magnets help build customer relationships because it provides an opportunity to build trust and credibility with these potential customers. You're offering valuable resources, so businesses can establish themselves as an expert, and a trusted adviser in their industry or field. Having regular follow-ups through email marketing or other channels allows for ongoing communication. You don't want to just give them a lead magnet and then be quiet. You want to be fostering that deeper connection, and then that will help with conversion. Benefit 4: Target marketing Here’s an example. One of my lead magnets is, “The Three Dangerous Trends Professional Women Face that Keep Them Overworked, Overwhelmed, and Pulled in a Million Directions.” Now I can change out the label of “professional women” to coaches, speakers, or whoever I'm wanting to promote to. This lead magnet allows you to segment your audience. If you give a specific lead magnet, and then they say, “I want that lead magnet”, it means they spoke to them. Then you can put them as,
When they say yes to the lead magnet, it shows that they're interested. When you know that they're interested, it helps you to tailor your communication and your offers to them, which enhances the engagement and the conversion rates. If you give your list or even if you go back to your list, and you offer these lead magnets, then they’re self-selecting which ones they want. In particular, you can do this in your Facebook group or other groups online. Benefit 5: Establishing authority When you offer these high-quality lead magnets, it actually makes the person say, “Oh, I'd be stupid not to take this”, and then it positions your business as an authority in the industry or the niche. You get to have valuable insights and information from them, and then they get your expertise from you. You're also able to differentiate yourself from your competitors. If you're showing your material, it could be a checklist or a white paper, but it's really playful and really colorful, and it’s in your voice. Or there are little videos that go with it, you're showing your personality. Maybe when someone else shows themselves as someone who's giving lots of stats or super professional with graphs, you can show what makes you special - your unique positioning can come across. We want people to consume your lead magnet. We don't want to give them something too big and crazy to complete because they won't use it. When your leads consume this valuable content, it really helps them to have that deep sense of trust and confidence in your business, which then influences their business purchasing decisions. We want them to purchase from us and if they see us as the authority then they'll only want to come to us. Even if they were only looking to have a few choices, or they didn't even know they wanted this, as soon as they realize you're the authority, it's really hard for them to pick some other company to go with. Wrapping Up These are five benefits of having lead magnets. If you don't have one, I encourage you to make one. If you have one and it's not converting well, I encourage you to go back through those five and just see what piece you can tweak. In my next blog, I will share examples of lead magnets and ways you can create a lead magnet. P.S. Here’s a lead magnet you wouldn’t want to miss! Grab your copy of “The 5 Critical Problems to Avoid When Delegating.” This will help you maximize your time and increase your profits! Read my other blogs here:
Have you been thinking of writing a book or being in a book, but some things are holding you back? They could be one of the five myths that you've been led to believe that are stopping you from being an author. The reason why I want to cover this is because I keep meeting people who are so impressed that I put out four books on my own and I've also been in six books that other people published. It's not that hard. In the beginning, I felt it was hard, so I really want to share this because you have a story and you have a message that needs to be heard. You actually have multiple messages that need to be heard. I want to make sure you don't get stuck by these myths because they're lies. They're not the truth. I'm going to tell you what the truth is and the solution as well. Myth #1: “You’re not famous, and you don’t have a big network, so you shouldn't write a book.” Actually, it doesn't matter if you have a big network or a big following. If you're trying to get pre-paid to write a book, then yes, you need a platform, meaning you need a lot of people who will buy the book once it is published, so that the publisher is guaranteed you’re going to get the sales they really need to be able to pay you for it. But you don't have to do a book through a publisher just to get paid. The solution is that the book itself is going to bring you opportunities and help you to grow your business. It will give you:
Those are 10 different ways that you can grow your business with a book. You don't need to have your own platform right off the bat. Having the book can help you to build your platform. Myth #2: “You don’t have a good enough story or expertise.” That is just a lie. All you need is great questions to pull out these answers and great stories. A lot of times, especially when we're writing non-fiction, in that case, it is about our expertise. It's about our own stories, rather than writing like we're going to write a professional development or personal development book. You are the expert on your own topic. For a moment, think about your business, your career or your life and answer these questions:
Usually the answer people give me is “Yes, of course. I've done that for social media” or “I've done that for my website.” Right there, you’ve been able to write and publish something. Also, look at the ideas you have written on social media. Those posts you've done are opportunities for content or opportunities to expand out.
It could be something as simple as, how have you been able to have the habit of going to bed at a good time? How have you developed that habit? That could be something you teach or share. Another example is how you were able to get out of a sticky business partnership, that in itself has lots of learning in it.
The answer to these are solutions that really need to be shared.
Where in your life have you had success, and now you have the story, the expertise and the learning to share. Just from those five questions, I'm sure you have lots of things you can write about. You don't have to have a Masters Degree. You don't have to have been in business for 40 years. You just need a starting point, and maybe a new perspective on something you already know. Myth #3: “Writing, editing, and publishing a book takes such a long time. I don't know how I would fit it into my already busy life.” I'll be honest here. For my first book, Dynamic You, I did almost everything myself. I came up with the topic and book outline. I wrote the timeline. I figured out the word count, layout, and formatting. I had three different editors edit it and paid for them. I figured out the cover design then had it made. I did the publishing, shipping, PR, promotions, social media, marketing, sales, and the list goes on. Yes, there is a lot of stuff to do. BUT the solution is there are many done-for-you options out there. Plus, you could already have the content created. You just haven't used it yet or used it in a way that can be published in a book. You can take the things I was saying before about social media or maybe an article, and you can repurpose it. These done-for-you options by publishers or maybe even collaborative books like anthologies are out there. We have our own series, the “Dynamic Women Secrets Series”. We did Success Secrets and Confidence Secrets. Next is Trailblazer secrets. You can be part of one of these collaborative books where all you do is write your piece that goes in the book, and then we take care of everything else for you. That makes it doable. My team and I take care of all the formatting, editing and the publishing. We give you all the PR materials once the book is done. We throw the party, so we do all the heavy lifting, and you just get to write something and enjoy the celebration. That's always an option. Myth #4: “Publishing is so hard, I don't think I could figure it out. How do I even get published?” You have a few options. 1. You can go with a publishing company where you put forward your ideas or your manuscript that's already done. You see if that publishing company will take you on. You might have to go through hundreds of different publishers to see who will take you. 2. You could self-publish. You could go to something like Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing, which is how I published my first book through Amazon, and then subsequently the other books have been put on there, too. When you choose option 1, your publisher takes care of so many things like formatting your material, adding your bio and your headshot, doing the layout, editing the book, designing the cover, and they are going to then get the publishing done, submit the book for printing and so on. But when you self-publish, you need to do all of those things yourself. There are ways to do that. I've done that myself. I've also helped other clients to be able to do that. 3. In a compilation/anthology/collaborative book, you are not getting a publisher and you’re not the publisher. Someone else does all those pieces for you and really walks you through the process. Yes I do my own collaborative books, and have coached clients to write and publish their books, so you may think I'm a publishing company, but I'm not. Instead, I love offering a solution for how my clients can easily be a published author. The benefit is my team has already ironed out all the kinks. And since we cover all of those details, it's really, really simple for you. It's a breeze because you just submit your piece and we do the rest. You get your piece published without having to pay heavily for a publisher, without having to schlep your book or your ideas all over the place to try and get a publisher, without having to do all of the work yourself by self-publishing. All you really need to do is decide to be part of it and decide what you'll write about. Then my team or the collaborative team, they take it from there. Myth #5: “It’s really expensive to publish a book.” It can be really expensive. If you do it all yourself, then you're paying for editors, designers, PR people, and a marketing team. You're paying for all the people separately. If you pay a publisher (because you can pay a publisher if they're not going to take you on and pay you), then you're paying them to do the whole process for you. If you are getting brought on by a publisher, then they are taking the chance that you’re going to sell enough books and if in the end, you don't sell the number of books they need you to sell, then you’ll find yourself with a bill. When you join an anthology or collaborative book, they're doing everything for you. Yes, you are investing in the opportunity because they're doing all the work for you. However, without it being a solo book (a book that's just you), you're going to share the investment with the other authors, which takes away a lot of the risk because it's not just you trying to sell the book. Everyone will be selling the book. That also reduces the time it takes it to be done because you're not trying to find everyone. It takes away the overwhelm. I know, because when I did my first book, there were a lot of learning curves. You don't have to feel overwhelmed about getting your book published. It will just be taken care of for you. Wrapping Up At this point, maybe some of you think you’re not going to fall into those five myths and that you’re going to self-publish. For those of you who are thinking, “Well, I like that collaborative idea of someone else doing it all for me, and a smaller investment of time, energy, and resources.” We do have a few spots left in the Trailblazer Secrets Books that is coming out in 2023. I'm also happy to answer any questions you have, you can email me at diane@dianerolston.com, and I will talk to you about it. The key thing is don't let someone else's myths or society's myths or false truths be the thing that holds you back. Your story is important. Your expertise is really important. It's crucial to get these things out there because so many people go through life wanting to do a book and don't ever get the chance. That moment where you get to hold that book in your hands is amazing. I have seen the faces of the authors when they hold their first copy. I can remember when publishing Dynamic Women Success Secrets, and I dropped off books to one of the authors. They held it, and they joyfully said, “Oh my goodness, I'm really an author, like it's real.” To look at the book and to see their photo on the book and to open it up and to see their story, and what they're teaching in the book. They said, “Wow, I'm really an author.” Then that moment where they autograph their piece, and they give it to someone or they sell that book, and they hold that money in their hand, that is such an amazing experience. Having a book opens up so many doors. Read other blogs here:
Do you know that you can design relationships and partnerships? If you’re in a relationship or partnership, whether personal or professional and you think it’s not going well or it’s not what you had imagined it to be, then it may be time to design it. When you hear the word “design”, you might think, “How do I design a relationship? What does that mean? We MAKE friendships or we START a partnership, and so how is there this thing called designing?” In coaching, we talk about designing relationships because we have the ability to talk about how we want things to be in our relationship. It's better to design it from the beginning. Now, for those of you who have the Dynamic You book, this is some of the stuff that I cover in the Dynamic You Pillar called “Collaborate”. Designing Relationships Imagine this: You're at a pool. You're going to go swimming, and this is your second day at the pool. Maybe you're on vacation, and on the first day you got a really bad sunburn. What do you do? Well, if you're anything like me, maybe you cover up and rather than just putting sunblock on, you actually put on a t-shirt. You jump in the pool, and you feel the relief from the heat. Then all of a sudden the lifeguard starts yelling at you, blowing their whistle, and kicking you out of the pool. They say, “You can't wear a shirt in the pool.” Now, if you had already looked at the rules, and it didn't say that there, or you didn't see the rules, and it did say it there, you now feel embarrassed. Because if you knew that was a rule, you wouldn't have done it. There wouldn't need to be this whole show of whistling and kicking you out of the pool. It's the same in relationships. When you don't know what the other person expects, it's so easy to mess up their rules, their guidelines, and their expectations. What could happen is they completely end your partnership or your relationship. It could cause a massive fight or embarrassment, shame, and guilt on your part. What about if you're on the other side? What if you have these internal rules or guidelines for relationships and partnerships? Maybe you think it's so obvious. Why would the person ever do that? Of course, they should never do that. Well, you'd be surprised, right? By you stating these things up front, it's so much easier and less uncomfortable for you than to have to be that lifeguard blowing your whistle and yelling at them to get out of the pool. You can just say, “Hey, remember when we talked about this? That's not happening right now” or “You went and did that thing that has gone against how we've designed things to be.” If you remember back to when you were a kid, maybe in a classroom or on a team or club, the teacher or the coach would set up guidelines and rules for the classroom, practices and games. For example:
There are certain rules and maybe you were involved in making the rules of the classroom or wherever you were. That's what we want to see in relationships. We want that ability for each person coming to the relationship to be able to say what they're wanting. Coming from that place of ideal: What is ideal for this relationship, partnership, collaboration, affiliate, whatever it is. In the collaboration pillar, it explains a little bit about what a collaboration is. I want you to just think of two people working together or two groups of people working together. It can be called a collaboration, a relationship or a partnership. In designing relationships, it's important that each person answers these in advance of meeting:
Also answering,
Now, there's even more that comes into it. I design with my clients how they want things to be. We talk about the best way to communicate with each other and how coaching sessions are going to go. There's even a “What do we do if someone doesn't like how the other person's being in the relationship? How do we redesign that?” These types of questions or statements are more so with collaborations and partnerships, involving a project or business of some kind. But in a relationship, in a friendship, in a romantic relationship, how do you design it? Let me give you an example: You meet someone out. It could be through a mutual friend. It could be at the playground because you have kids that are playing together, wherever it may be. You hang out a few times. Then maybe you want to get clarity on what type of relationship you have. This often happens in love or romantic relationships where you want to know:
You talk about those things. The same in a friendship. You can just ask simple questions like, “Hey, I love that we're hanging out. Is this working for you? Do you want to hang out more or do other kinds of things?” Start off by saying these things above rather than, “Hey, new friend, let's design the relationship.” You can also give some positive feedback, “Hey, I like that we're hanging out more. I love that we do active things together. Let's do that more.” Or “I love how we're open, and we can talk with each other. Let's continue that.” Or maybe you suggest things like, “Hey, I love that we're meeting up and we chat. But I’d love to jump on the phone with you every now and again and have more of a conversation.” Rather than sitting there hoping and wishing for something positive in that relationship to develop more, why don't we say it when we talk about it. Then other things like, “Hey, you know how I often say a lot of personal things to you. I trust that it's in confidence and that it's not leaving our conversations, and I appreciate that you're always showing up on time, that's really important to me.” Expressing these things in the beginning, in a relationship, a friendship, whatever type of relationship, really helps to start to lock in how things are. The key thing is just thinking about designing from the beginning. Designing Partnerships Let's go into partnerships because I think that's where more naturally we make this happen, especially in business relationships. I set some of the statements that you can ask yourself. You might want to go back, pause, and write your answers down. It's really nice that you give them a heads-up, “Hey, I want to talk about these things. I want to go through some expectations for our collaboration or our joint venture”. Or asking them to have a set of guidelines that you'd like to work by when doing this type of partnership or this type of affiliate, collaboration, project, or whatever it is. Let them provide you with their needs and wants and then you provide feedback. Having a set amount of time to be able to do this is also crucial. Having a half an hour conversation where each person writes down and then shares the answers to those statements or questions. Then also ask yourself, “What's ideal for this relationship?” Having that exit strategy is also vital. For example saying, “Let's set this up for the next three months, and then at that time, let's have a conversation about how things are going. If either of us doesn't want to continue at that point, then we have the easy way out to part.” You don't want to lock yourself into an infinite partnership or collaboration. That's awkward when someone has to break things off. If you say, “Let's just try this for three months” or "let's try this for one event”, or “for one joint venture”, you have that opportunity as an out without it being uncomfortable or burning any bridges. Anytime I go traveling with someone, I always make sure to design the relationship for that trip. The first time that I went away with someone I didn't really know, we were staying in the same hotel room. Some of the things I asked her where:
All of these questions help to make it less uncomfortable. Otherwise you might feel annoyed that your roommate is getting up at five in the morning to do exercises in the room. Or that your roommate is staying up until 2-3am talking on the phone or doing work. This way you can help each other to have the right expectations and respect what each other needs. The example I gave of the person I stayed in the same room with for the first time all those years ago is now a very close business and life friend of mine. Yes, when I asked her those questions, she thought it was a little bit strange. But we had the most amazing time and found out things that each other likes. One bonus was, she likes to get up early, and I hate getting up early. So she got up early and went and grabbed us breakfast. She got us muffins, fruits, and coffees and I got to sleep in. By then, I wasn't so grumpy, and I was ready to go. But I don't mind at night being the one to kind of tidy up in the room or make sure I shower at night so that in the morning, she has enough time to do what she needs to do. We've been able to really coordinate this because I've had times where it's been very uncomfortable traveling with someone I didn’t do this with and did not work out well at all. But this was before I knew about designing relationships and before I had my coaching certification. I'll give myself a little bit of grace for not knowing about it. But now that I know, I'm always designing relationships, partnerships, and collaborations. This is the way that you have more success from the beginning. Wrapping Up As you develop more and more collaborations and partnerships, you're going to think about, “What do I now need to add in?” Because maybe you thought, “It’s so obvious that we'll both promote.” You say, “Yes, yes, we'll both promote”, but what's the definition of promotion for both of you. Is one of you thinking, “I'm just going to post this once on my social media platform, my personal one?” And for the other person, does it mean emailing your list three times, going live about it and posting on every single platform plus stories multiple times? You don't want to be resentful that you're promoting more. You also don't want to be ignorant to the fact that you're not promoting enough. That's what breaks really great potential partnerships. I can go on and on and on and on for a long time about this, but I’m guessing you’re already thinking of how people have ticked you off in a relationship. Having the honesty to be able to say things in the beginning will give you the opportunity to really hit the ground running with that partnership or relationship. P.S. Do you want to know the three dangerous trends professional women face that keep them overworked, overwhelmed, and pulled in a million directions? If yes, then download my free ebook today! Read my other blogs here:
Have you been thinking about:
You can do both of those through speaking. There are three keys to getting off to a fast start in growing your audience and building your income. As I go through these three keys, I will also share dos and don'ts and some tips. Key #1: Find Win-Win Opportunities You may have heard of this before: a win-win situation where both people in the partnership or relationship benefit. It's good for both of them when you follow these tips: 1. When you're looking for hosts of summits, events or podcasts, you want to find ones whose target market aligns with yours. It's much easier to have a win-win when the target market is the same. For example, if you're both serving female business leaders then their audience will appreciate your content which is a win for you. Then when you share the event with your network and invite them, it’s a win for your host since your guests will be in alignment with their audience. 2. Work with a host who understands this is a business opportunity. If you're speaking on their stage, it's because you see it as a business opportunity to build your audience, attract leads and market yourself. Maybe you have a legacy and just want to share your message, but usually, it's because you want to build your business. Make sure they know it's a business opportunity for you so that they take it seriously.
These specific actions will position you in the best way possible. I have been on other people's stages before when these things didn’t happen, and eventually, audience members found me and said, "Wow, there was no promotion of where to find you and how to get in touch with you." The sad thing is, I gave them all my social links, my website, everything, but they decided not to share any of it. I even shared a free gift with their audience, but they edited it out. Since I understand it’s a business opportunity, this is what I do when I have people speak on my Dynamic Women Podcast, my YouTube channel, and my summits.
3. You want someone who will actually promote you before and/or after the event. For example, someone who will:
Whenever I have guests on the podcast, I always make sure their headshot is on the episode's image. I think that's only fair, right? It shouldn't just be my face and then their name. It should include their face too. Look for these things before you say "Yes" to an opportunity because you want to make sure it is a win-win. Key #2: Use the PSA Strategy 1. P stands for Prepare: "Prepare the questions you want to be asked." When you prepare these questions, the interviewer is more likely to read or ask them, giving you the best opportunity to present your top content to their audience. Again, it's part of the win-win approach. 2. S stands for Script: "Script what you're going to say." This doesn't mean you should read it word-for-word. Instead, have a script you practice or bullet points you refer to, so you are prepared, aware of what will be discussed, and know what points you want to convey. By scripting it out, you’ll be familiarized and intentional about what you want to say because you really want to script the right words so you can bring business back to you. Picture a boomerang going out and coming back to you. That’s what you want to do with your answers, send them out and when it comes back in, it brings you business. For example, leads want to come talk to you or you get invited to speak at another event. That's one of the key messages I get from one of my coaches James Malinchak. He says, “You always want to be bringing business back to you with the boomerang method.” I encourage people to do that as well. 3. A stands for Attract: "Attract with a lead magnet." Every time you speak somewhere, offer a free gift as a lead magnet. This gift can be a mini-course, a handout, a checklist, videos, or audio content, preferably something that doesn't cost you anything to provide. It may require a little time to create and send, but it should not involve sending physical products through the mail, as postage would increase your costs. Key #3: Do your part If you're going to be on someone’s stage, they've already put in all the effort to make that show, podcast, YouTube channel, event, or summit happen. Do your part. 1. Jump in early. Be the first to say yes to being a speaker. Then be proactive by being the first to announce your involvement and excitement for it. By promoting it early, the host will take notice of your enthusiasm and effort. They will appreciate your quick promotion and be more inclined to promote you more in return. (I hosted a summit last April 2023 called “Dynamic Women's Online Summit”. If you're like, “Bummer, I missed it and want the replays,” then reach out to team@dianerolston.com.) Jump in early in your promotion of it, but also jump in early to the opportunity because you will be first on their promotion list. When we promote a summit or an event, we put out a “speaker announcement” post and we announce each speaker on all of our social platforms. We're obviously going to announce the people we have first rather than the people that come a week later. Also, that gives you the opportunity to not only be promoted now, but be promoted again because they want to continually run through their speakers. 2. Continue to promote your upcoming appearance. Share it on your social media platforms, website, or newsletter. This not only generates anticipation but also serves as social proof for other event hosts, podcast hosts, or YouTube channel owners who may come across your promotion. They might see your pre-promotion and be interested in having you on their show as well. 3. The last piece of “Do your part” is repurposing. You can repurpose what you put out there by editing it out for social media, YouTube, your podcast etc. It was probably an amazing interview. They usually are, and so why wouldn't you want to repurpose the information that you've been creating? What I actually do is I offer all of my guests the opportunity to repurpose what they've created with me with a Speaker’s Promo Package. An interview on video can then be turned into an audio, long-form video, short-form video, stories, reels, YouTube shorts, regular posts, audiogram. My virtual assistant team does all that. That's a really amazing opportunity because you now not only have this one amazing opportunity to share and promote yourself, you have so many and it doesn't take you any more time if you have someone else do it. Wrapping Up Those are the three keys for getting off to a fast start to grow your audience and build your income: find win-win opportunities, show up and shine with a PSA strategy, and then do your part. If you want to be on the Dynamic Women Podcast, part of one of our future Summits, or part of the Dynamic Women Secrets book series, then email team@dianerolston.com and my amazing Virtual Assistant Kristine will email you about those three opportunities. Read my other blogs here:
The 7 MYTHS You've Been Led to Believe that are Costing You Speaking Opportunities (Part 3 of 4)6/14/2023 Have you ever wanted to be a speaker? Or are you already a speaker who desires more opportunities to speak on different stages? Well, there are a bunch of myths that you may have been led to believe, and these myths could be preventing you from securing the speaking engagements and achieving the business results you desire. It may be making you feel a little frustrated, like you're a spinning top or spinning your wheels. This is part three of a speaker series. The first blog is about three ways to speak without being a professional speaker. It's also beneficial for those of you who are professional speakers. It discusses different ways to speak, get your message out there, attract more clients, generate leads, gather testimonials, and find opportunities to speak in other places, among other benefits. The second blog is about the top 10 benefits of speaking on other people's platforms, which you may not have considered before. It shares those 10 ways, along with some bonus methods. Additionally, I offer opportunities for you to speak on my stages, so make sure to check those blogs. Myth #1: You need to host your own podcast or summit. I often hear this from clients, "Oh, I should do that. I should host one." Well, here's the fact: it's actually a lot of work. You don't have to do it. Instead, you can participate in other people's summits or podcasts. But why do I do it? Well, I believe that I've been blessed with a platform, a community, and a network. I already have a podcast. It makes sense for me to do a summit to be able to bring all of these women in my community together, including my female clients, and also to build more connections. There are benefits to it. However, I also have a team of two virtual assistants from the Philippines. They handle everything—social media messaging, speaker onboarding, promo material creation, scheduling, and providing back-end support on the day of the summit. I have the necessary tech support thanks to these two team members. If you don't have a team or all of that support, here's your solution: find summits, podcasts, and other opportunities that other people are organizing. The key thing is to ensure alignment. For example, in my last summit, the “Dynamic Women Online Summit 2023,” I sought female speakers who wanted to address mainly female business owners. When you're looking for podcasts or summits to be on, please ensure that your message aligns with what the host is looking for. You don't need to host them yourself. Instead, you can join other people's stages, virtual summits, and podcasts to reach more people. Myth #2: Just email that podcast host or summit host and they'll put you on their podcast. Here's the fact: They are bombarded with guest requests. How do I know? Because I receive two or three guest requests every single day. Now, the problem is that people reach out to me in a way that sounds like this: "Hey, I'm so amazing. You should put me on your podcast. I am an incredible speaker with a great topic that your audience will love." However, they don't mention anything about my podcast, or I can see that they've simply copied and pasted "Dynamic Women Podcast" in their email. There's no acknowledgement of my podcast or a genuine reason why they want to be on it, apart from thinking they're amazing. Here's the solution. I learned this from one of my coaches, James Malinchak. He says, "You need to lead with a napkin first." Many times, people approach others with a bib on, demanding to be served. When you email someone and say, "Hey, I'm amazing. Put me on your podcast or summit," you are leading with yourself. But in reality, you need to lead with a napkin and ask, "How can I serve you?" The best emails I receive start by saying, "Hey, I love what you're doing with the Dynamic Women Podcast for these reasons… I've listened to these episodes… and I really enjoy these aspects…" They may even go the extra mile and say, "I wrote you a review. Here's a screenshot of it." I absolutely love receiving those kinds of emails, where they also mention what they can do for me, how they will promote it, and other ways they can contribute. So, don't just say, "Hey, it's me. I'm amazing. You should put me on." Don't simply email them. Approach it strategically and with a giving mindset where you prioritize serving them first. This approach increases your chances of receiving a 'yes'. (If you want to be on the Dynamic Women Podcast, the Dynamic Women Trailblazers Secrets book, or be a summit speaker, just click those links.) Myth #3: You must be a speaker to speak. That's just a myth. The fact is, anyone can speak. However, the key here is to have a specific topic. You can't simply go on stage and blabber for 25 minutes or however long your speaking slot is. You need to have a well-defined topic, a message, or a story. You need to provide something of value. What I love, and most likely what other hosts would appreciate as well, is if you came to us with an amazing topic, a captivating title, and a compelling description that clearly outlines the benefits for our audience. It should be something different, fresh, and exciting. Don't make us work to figure out what you'll bring to the table. You don't have to tell me that you've spoken on 100 stages, but please don't approach me with a generic statement like, "I want to talk about marketing." Be specific. What aspect of marketing will you discuss? What's your description? What's the title of your talk? Put in the effort so that when you provide the material, the host can say, "Great, you're on." Don't make them work to extract the necessary details from you. Myth #4: You need an email list to be invited. Now, there are often instances where people say to me, "Oh, you can only be on our podcast or summit if you have a list of 10,000 people." I don't believe that is very inclusive to those who are still growing their business. The fact is, you don't always have to possess a large email list. However, when you do have one, it's essential to consider the mutually beneficial aspect: you are helping them, and they are helping you. That's a great arrangement. But the solution we're seeking is a win-win situation. We don't want to solely focus on building their lists while neglecting our own. I always strive for a win-win approach. If you don't have a substantial email list, think about what else you can offer. Do you have a significant following on social media? Do you have numerous connections where you can personally invite them? Podcasts and summits often have guest guidelines. For example, one of my summit guest guidelines is to have a minimum of 20 people register for a free ticket. I believe that's a fair requirement, don't you? If you adhere to their guidelines, you don't need a million people on your list. Maybe you only need a hundred people to get 20 registrations. It depends on the responsiveness of your list or connections. If your email list is small, you can make commitments like:
All we're looking for is for you to meet the guest requirements, so having a massive email list isn't always necessary. Myth #5: You should never pay to be a guest. As a paid professional speaker, I used to believe in this myth as well. The fact is, many podcasts, summits, events, and conferences offer opportunities with paid spots or refundable deposits. These can be great opportunities too. The solution for you is you need to see what's being offered and to see what you get with it to see if it's a match. We often do a refundable deposit because for so long, I was just trusting of people. When individuals have some "skin in the game," they are more likely to fulfill their commitments. A lot of the refundable deposits like we have for our summit, it's just like:
It's kind of a no-brainer. It's the things you should be doing anyway. See what is being offered. It's perfectly acceptable to pay for these opportunities if you believe the return on investment will be worth it. I have personally invested in being a guest at various events, whether virtual or in-person, but I always evaluate if it makes sense for me. Consider it this way: Have you ever attended a conference where sponsors were given the chance to speak on stage as part of their sponsorship benefits? This has been happening for decades. It's just being presented in a slightly different format now. Myth #6: You can't make money if you don't sell Well, that's a common misconception. In reality, selling is usually not allowed when you speak on someone's podcast, events, or summits. Some will allow you to offer, but they will take an affiliate commission. Instead, it's more effective to offer a gift or lead magnet, in exchange for someone's email address, allowing you to build a connection with the audience over time. This gift provides value and helps the audience get to know, like, and trust you. By nurturing them through your emails and providing valuable content, you can build a strong relationship with your audience. Eventually, if they remain on your email list, and you make an offer, you can generate revenue from these speaking engagements. It's important not to restrict your mindset and think that you can't make money. However, when you have a speaking slot of less than 45 minutes, it can be challenging to deliver a proper sales pitch within that time frame. I'm not suggesting that you can't sell at all, but rather emphasizing that it's not always necessary, and you can still generate revenue even without direct selling during your speaking engagements. Myth #7: Creating a lead magnet gift is a lot of work. Lead magnets can be a list, a quiz, a recipe, or a four-step process. There are very simple options that you can create in about an hour. I know with my virtual assistants, I can give them a Word doc with the text on it. They'll whip it up in Canva. Then they'll make it a fillable PDF. Now, I've got my checklists, my audit, and my formula that people can fill in. Other solutions for this are:
There are so many easy ways to do a lead magnet or a free gift. I encourage you not to do a free gift that costs money, like one of your books that you then also have to mail. Give lead magnets that are a little bit of a taste of what you do. It can be a mini course or a set of videos. You want them to have a quick win and be able to consume it in around 15 minutes and to be like, “Wow, that was good. I did it and I feel good about that.” Then be hungry for more. Bonus myth: All hosts will promote you. This is a key one I have learned as a speaker on podcasts, summits, and other events. This is something you really have to look out for. The fact is everyone has a different process. I was invited to be on someone's podcast. I wanted to send them my questions. They replied, “No, we have our own process.” I trusted it, “Okay, fine.” Then I did the show, and I provided my free gift and I provided all the links to my social. everything they requested. In the end, my free gift which I talked about was cut from the episode. None of my links were in the show notes. Even worse, not even my website or my social media links were included. That meant that no one was able to easily go and reach out to me. That's hard, right? Now the audience would miss my gift and have to google me to connect or have to type in my name and find me out on social media. That is not ideal. When you are going to one of these opportunities, please see that you will actually be promoted. It was kind of disappointing and I was very surprised. The solution is to listen to their show. Listen to previous summits or events. Check their show notes or the copy that gets put out. See what's happened with other guests or speakers. I was absolutely shocked because in my process for my podcast and summits, I allow the speaker or the guest to provide the title because I know they know their material really well. Their title is going to probably be more magnetic when they write it themselves. I also allow them to write their own description (if they want) and their questions. Now, why would I have them do the questions? I don't know all the content they want to share and that my audience would appreciate the most. When I allow them or give them the chance to write all the questions, then I know we're getting the best possible content for my audience. That's what I want. I don't want to frustrate my listeners either. I put in the show notes all of their links, all of the things that were mentioned, their website, and their social. It's all in there because it's important the listener can easily go and get what they're wanting. I don't want you to have to work for it. Also, before my summits, I promote my speakers and then for the podcast, I promote them after. I promote so that my guests get traction to their episode and can build relationships with my audience because that's how business works. That's how the world works. If there are great people out there who can serve my audience, and my audience is looking for them, why wouldn’t I put them together? Wrapping Up If this has inspired you now to get over one of these myths, let me know which one. If you're thinking, “Oh, I need to be on a podcast or I need to be in a book”, great! I have three opportunities for you: the Dynamic Women Podcast, the Dynamic Women Trailblazers Secrets book, or be a summit speaker. Read my other blogs here:
Are you a professional speaker, but you're not getting on enough stages? Or are you wanting to be a professional speaker and you're looking for places to speak so you can grow your audience and your income? In this blog, I will talk about the top 10 benefits of speaking on other people's stages or platforms to grow your audience and your income. When I say other people's platforms, I mean their summit stages, event stages, podcasts, YouTube channels, or IG stories. It could be any place where you are going to be on their platform, and they are going to broadcast you out to their people. Now while I'm speaking about other people's platforms, I also want you to know that the top 10 benefits I will talk about can be done in any type of speaking – fee-paid speaking, free speaking and speak-to-offer (that's when you speak and then you offer your services or products). Anyone of them can give you these different benefits. But I want to focus on speaking on other people's platforms. Now, oftentimes I talk about this like, “Benefits of Being a Paid Speaker.” However, these are benefits of any type of speaking. (Check out my last blog where I shared the three ways to speak without being a professional speaker. Maybe if you are a professional speaker, you still want to tap into these other ways.) As I go through the 10 different benefits, I invite you to think about the following:
At the end, I'll ask you, “which is your absolute favorite benefit of being a speaker?” Benefit #1: You will be seen as an expert Who is an expert? An expert is someone who has comprehensive and authoritative knowledge. If you are an expert at what you do or on the topic in your industry, then people are more likely to go to you to hear about that topic. Once you start talking about it in different places, you're going to be seen as that authority. They're then going to hire you to do work with them on that topic if you’re the go to. Benefit #2: Credibility Credibility means you're trusted and you're believed in. This is especially helpful for people who are newer in their business because you want other people to feel like you are credible in the work that you're offering and the services or products you're offering. Credibility comes from being a speaker. If you can show up in different places, other people's platforms, and say, “Hey, I'm a speaker, and I speak on this topic”, that’s the expert piece. Then if someone is promoting you to their network, that gives you credibility to their network as well: “If this host believes in Speaker A, then I can believe in and trust Speaker A, too.” By being affiliated with someone in their summit, podcast etc., it will give you more credibility. Benefit #3: Connections This is such a benefit. Some people think the connection they're looking for when they're on other people’s stages is just the connection to the audience, attendees, or potential clients who are there as a form of revenue from them being a lead. However, the connections don't just stop there. There is connection also to the host and connections to the other speakers. Are you tapping into all these three types of benefits underneath this connection piece? When you speak on other people's platforms or stages, they've already curated a group of amazing speakers who are experts and who have credibility, and now you're one of them. By association, you're also going to increase your credibility with these other people. Benefit #4: Expanding your network When you speak on other people's platforms, then you have the opportunity to grow your audience and to grow your network. Again, it's with the host, the other speakers, past speakers, and guests, future speakers and guests, plus all the attendees. You have the option to grow or expand your following, your network, your email list, or whatever you want to call it. Benefit #5: Getting leads and clients While speaking doesn't guarantee you to get leads and clients, it definitely helps to get leads and clients. That comes in how you speak, what you speak on, what questions you give to the person who's interviewing you, and really positioning your product without being salesy. Especially when you're on another person's platform, unless they give you permission to be able to go and make an offer to their audience. As we move into the idea of leads and clients, it continues from the one before, which is expanding your network and connections. Because when you're expanding your network, you're expanding your email list. Therefore, you may have the opportunity to get leads and clients onto your list. Benefit #6: Sales Sometimes, on someone else’s platform, you can sell a program, book, product, or services you have. That's a great opportunity you have when you speak on other people's platforms. They bring the people to you. You're building connections, expanding your network, being credible, being an expert, getting leads and clients, and then hopefully, sales come from it. Hopefully. Key pieces for sales, always focus on providing value and nurture the people that stay connected with you. Benefit #7: Authority Speaking can make you an authority and/or an influencer. Now, you may be thinking, “I don't want to be an influencer like on Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat. However, when you have authority or you're an influencer, it's also a little bit like being an expert. However, with these, you have the ability to:
Whatever it may be. You have the power (and responsibility). If you have a movement, a cause, mission or something you're passionate about, you have the ability to move your audience into action, in the right direction for them to succeed. That is such a great benefit, right? Because also, if they're being moved, oftentimes they will become clients or leads for you in the future, and sales will come from it. Benefit #8: Level up and bio depth Being a speaker on other people's platforms helps you to level up and gives you bio depth. I mean, biography depth – lots of things to share in your biography for a book, website, podcast, or wherever you put it. If you're not a speaker yet, then all you need to do is line up speaking on someone's stage, and then you can put in your bio that you are a speaker. Isn’t that great! This is a great option if you can’t lock in a paid speaking engagement yet. This also gives you the opportunity to even level up your speaking by getting on someone else's BIGGER stage. On your social media, you can share, “Wow, so excited to be invited to speak on so and so’s summit or so and so’s podcast”. By promoting it, people will notice, “Oh, cool, look at her doing great things or look at him doing great things.” Now in your bio, you can say,
This takes me to number nine. Benefit #9: More speaking requests The idea is if you speak in one place, you should be able to get another speaking engagement from that. If you haven't been able to do that yet, let's have a conversation. Feel free to email team@dianerolston.com and say, “I'd like to have a free chat with Diane.” They'll send you my booking link. You should get more speaking requests because as you speak in one place, they'll like what they see, and then they'll invite you. I've seen this happen by them being in the audience and sometimes it’s just from them seeing your info on the summit page or on social media. Here is some evidence: often, after I'm on a summit, I get this flood of requests for me to speak at other summits, on podcasts, at events, and for different opportunities. It's because they heard me, and they already see me as credible and an expert. They already know the host worked with me. They see my connections. They see how I've leveled up. They see how all this has happened. They feel confident saying, “Let's give Diane an invitation to speak at our event.” You have that opportunity. Maybe the first one isn't the greatest one, isn't the best, and doesn't give you the best results, but there's that benefit of opening doors for more speaking requests, maybe even paid ones. Benefit #10: Opportunities you never know You never know what it's going to do for you to be able to speak on someone's stage. You might have an opportunity to do more training for them or their clients. You might be invited in to be a guest speaker. You may be invited to do other cool joint ventures, affiliate deals, or collaborations based on you being on that summit or on that podcast. Maybe it's from a host. Maybe it's another speaker. Maybe it's even from one of the attendees. You never know, right? You could even have the opportunity of putting your book somewhere on someone's platform for sales, or someone being an affiliate to sell your program because they really like what they see. Wrapping Up Those are the ten benefits of speaking on someone else's platform. If you're already speaking and you want to speak on someone else's platform, then these are also benefits for you. You can ask yourself, “Are these things happening in my life?” I'm curious, write me a comment, send me an email at diane@dianerolston.com. Let me know which of these 10 benefits you think is the biggest benefit for you that you would love to bring in. As I said, if you want to talk any of them through, please reach out to my team to book a call with me. If you've never spoken before, think about the places you could go and speak. A couple of opportunities that I'll let you know about are (1) the Dynamic Women Podcast. We have guests on some of our episodes. (2) We also have our different series of Dynamic Women Summits where you can apply to be a speaker. The key is, get out their and speak! Read my other blogs here:
Have you been thinking about being a professional speaker and growing your business? In this blog, I’m going to share three different ways that you can speak to…
Who is a professional speaker? I'm part of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers. In the US, there's the National Speakers Association. There are also many other professional speaking organizations, including the Global Speakers. The key thing is, speakers are people who get paid to speak. Whether you are a keynoter, workshop leader, facilitator, group coach, professor, emcee, (and there are many more), you are a speaker. For CAPS, you have to have made $50,000 from speaking, minimum in the previous 12 months to be a member. Different organizations or associations have different criteria. Plus, ethically, you have to be a good speaker. Now, there still are professional speakers out there who are being paid to speak, who are amazing, who don't have a designation, who aren't part of an association, that's up to them. When you are part of an association, it does give you credibility. It also can connect you with the right bureaus, the right opportunities, and you're professionally part of a group of your people, your peers, or your colleagues. I'm sharing this so if anyone does want to go that route, there's that option. Also, if you're wanting to practice your speaking and you're new, I do suggest you go and join Toastmasters. That is something I did in order to refine my speaking ability, to be able to practice, and to get feedback in a professional setting. But that doesn't necessarily teach you how to grow a speaking business. The 3 ways to speak without being a Professional Speaker How can you be brought in to speak even if you are not a professional speaker? I have already shared with you about fee-paid speaking, where you would get paid to speak. Now I’m going to share more about speak-to-offer, where you don't necessarily get paid to speak, or you get an honorarium or you don't get your full fee, but you get to make an offer. There are also many opportunities where you speak and talk about yourself, promote yourself by providing education, answering questions, and maybe a presentation. Some of them are free and some of them have an investment by you to speak, but you get to make an offer or promote yourself and capture emails with a lead magnet. Think of these 3 different opportunities as marketing and sales opportunities. When people come to my free online community, Dynamic Women Global Community on Facebook, I ask them, “What's something you want to learn about?” A lot of times, people are saying marketing, so speaking is one really amazing way to do marketing for your business. As I go through these opportunities, I will also share some really conservative results that I got. I've had way bigger results, but I'm going to keep it super duper small so that you can think about what is realistic for you. I'm not guaranteeing these numbers, but they are possible. They are showing the reality that even if you don’t have a very big audience, there are many opportunities and really great results you can get from other people’s audiences. #1: Speak at events Sometimes, there are networking groups who will invite someone to come in and speak for 5-12 minutes about themselves. It might even be lunch with a speaker, but the speaker is going to be actually giving a proper talk for 45 minutes to 90 minutes. For those, you’ll want to prepare and practice, so you can build some confidence and some experience in speaking. At these events, you can definitely have the smaller speaking spots. I'll speak about the virtual world, but know that these can definitely be done in-person. This way, if you're thinking virtually, that expands the number of people you can speak to. It also expands the number of opportunities that you have. Here’s an example of me being given a 10-minute speaking spot: I was talking about life balance. At the end of it, I said that I'm giving away a free audit of what you need in order to be balanced in life. There were only 10 guests at this event. One of them was the host. One of them was me, so there were only eight guests. I had two of those people (that's 20%) ask for audits with me. Out of those two, one of them became a sale. One of them bought a program for $997. Me going and speaking at that event got me one client at $997. That's pretty good, right? Of the 10, 20% came to connect with me. One of those, so 10% of the people, I was able to turn into a client from the lead. (Remember this was a poor result compared to numbers I have done.) If you could make $997 from 10 minutes of your time, would you grab the mic? Events are great because I also got to know the host better. The other cool thing is one of the people there reached out to me later about speaking to her group. It's not always about marketing to a client, it could be marketing to another host of another event, or to another opportunity. Plus, it’s relationship building with the event host. The key thing is you want to do your best to educate them in that 10-25 minutes. You're not going to pitch to them. You're going to give them something like a gift, which is your lead magnet. It could be a report, checklist, audit, blueprint, templates, etc. Listen to this Podcast episode to learn more about Lead Magnets. #2 Summits Summits can be a day, two days, or it could be longer. Think of it more like a conference where there are multiple speakers. Some of these are going to be interview style or some of these will be you taking the stage to talk about your topic. If you're not a professional speaker, it's really great when these are interviews as it takes the pressure off of you preparing a talk. Those are going to be ones to look for. When they're interviews, you also want to look for ones where you get to provide the questions so it takes the conversation to a place you want to go and can help you to prepare better. You're not going to read your answers, but you’ll know what will be asked and what you want to share. It’s going to give the audience the best content. For me as a host, I want my guests to be able to provide the questions so I can ask the best ones to make them look good, and my audience gets the best content. Here’s an example of when I spoke at a summit: In the audience for my talk (because there were multiple talks happening at the same time) there were only six guests listening to my interview. At first, I was disappointed because there were supposed to be hundreds, if not 1000s of people on the summit because every speaker was supposed to promote it and so I shared the summit info with my list. I tried not to be discouraged by this. I gave away a lead magnet at the end, I don't remember which one it was. But from that, I had two leads. Those two leads became two clients, each of them purchasing something for about $1250, so the total profit was $2497. If there were six guests there, that was a close rate of 33%. Now, they both didn't happen at the same time. One happened pretty soon after, and then a while later another happened, which was a great surprise. (Again, remember this was a low result compared to numbers I have done.) If you could make $2497 from a 30-min interview would you do it? The other benefit of summits is all the other people there speaking. You can connect with them, you can go and see where they have spoken at, and you can then potentially go and speak at the summit for the next year of this talk if it goes really well. You might also have the opportunity in summits to provide a VIP gift. Now, the VIP gift is usually something you will normally charge for, but you're going to give it for free to the VIPs. The VIPs at the summits are the people who have paid to be there and paid to get the recordings, or paid to be able to get extra bonuses. These are really great people to be offering to because the VIPs are already comfortable paying for things. These are the people you want to give a VIP gift to. If you're asked at a summit if you can provide a regular gift plus a VIP gift, say yes, and figure out what to give them. I encourage you to give something that is going to be passive for you. For example, a mini course, a group session, a recording, or something really good that would position you as an expert. #3: Podcast Guesting The third opportunity is to be on someone's podcast and usually it’s interview style. Here’s an example of when I was a guest on a podcast: Since no one was there live with us, I had no idea how many guests, or how many people would listen to it, and how many potential buyers there were. No idea. Absolutely no idea. However, I gave a gift - another lead magnet. I had a bunch of people sign up for the gift. As time went on, more people have been signing up for the gift because a podcast lives on (it’s evergreen). An event is only for the people who are there. A summit is for the people that are there and the people that paid for the recordings or are getting the recordings. But a podcast lives on and lives on. The even better podcasts are the ones that also promote it on their YouTube channel. For example, every time I do one of my Dynamic Women podcast episodes, it also goes on my YouTube channel, Diane Rolston YouTube channel. That gives you two opportunities to be heard. If you're going to be interviewed on a podcast, wouldn't it not be amazing if you could be on both platforms, as a podcast and on YouTube? Now just like the summits where I talked about being interviewed, that's the common way to do it, podcasts also have interviews. Now, if the podcaster has some sort of special way they do it, you want to be listening to a bunch of episodes to see:
Providing your questions for a podcast host is really beneficial. When I have people as guests on my podcast, I ask them, “What questions do you want me to ask you?” For a 25-minute podcast, think about offering maybe five-seven questions. It also depends on how long your answers are. You want it to feel like a tennis match back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. They'll ask you the question, you give an answer, but don't drone on for 10 minutes because they're not going to be able to ask you all the questions, and the audience will get bored. Let’s get back to my example. (Reminder: These are all super minimum examples, not my best results. I'm giving you almost the worst results so that you can just see what the opportunities are.) Again, one of the podcasts I was on, I had no clue how many people were listening to it or have listened to it. I received one phone call from someone who left me a message and said, “Diane, I just heard your podcast episode with so and so. I'd like to talk to you about coaching.” Great. We jumped on a phone call so that was just an investment of my time. Then they signed up for one of my coaching packages. That was a value of $8,820. Would you say yes to a podcast, then a sales call so you could make almost $9000? I’m guessing yes! Wrapping Up When we add this up, I did three separate talks, which you can easily do even without being a professional speaker, other than an outline or some basic questions. I did not practice them. I did not create a PowerPoint slideshow or a presentation of any fashion, no handout, nothing. I was able to bring in about $14,000, from let's say, an average of 90 minutes of being either interviewed or speaking. There are ways to be more professional or to do a better job for sure, but I was not a fee paid speaker in this case. I made money on the back end by marketing myself very wisely in these opportunities. I have some speaking opportunities where I’ve made $80k on the back end. What do you think? Do you think you could take on one of these opportunities? Could you go and look for events to speak at? Could you look for summits to speak at? Could you look for podcasts to speak on? You totally can, and I encourage you to do so. If you want to be a guest on the Dynamic Women Podcast, just go to this link and apply. Now, if you want to be a speaker at one of our future events, you can apply here. So what's the next step for you? Is it to reach out to me and my team and to be part of these opportunities? Is it to go out into the world and see what else is out there for you? I hope so because one amazing way to market your business is through speaking. Watch out for my next blogs! I will talk more about the benefits of speaking on other people’s platforms, the myths you’ve been led to believe that are costing you speaking opportunities, and the keys for you getting off to a fast start to grow your business and build your income with speaking. Read my other blogs:
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