Learn a secret to being successful – Guest Post from Gretchen Breuner

This week, I am thrilled to have Gretchen Breuner writing for us; “Learn a secret to being successful” and because I am so excited I am going to go straight into her article and tell you more about her at the end of the post and more importantly how you can join Gretchen for some free training specifically for Virtual Assistants. 

I hate goal setting. Feels like a set-up for failure, which is right up there with rejection. For some, goal setting is easy. It’s just a factor of being and remaining disciplined, and that discipline will get them where they want to go. I envy that.

But the majority of people are not disciplined. How many of us have made New Year’s resolutions, “I’m going to work out, lose weight and be healthy,” only to wind up at the end of January already bored with that goal and fully ready to abandon it?

I know I have. We’ve all made some internal goal and not achieved it.

Why?

If you had asked me in the beginning of my business as a speaker producer, why I wasn’t able to get a client a speaking gig, you would have heard one of the following responses:

  • My client didn’t have the right credentials
  • The event host didn’t answer my questions
  • The submission process was too complicated
  • The other speakers on the panel were “big names”
  • My client’s speaker reel was too short
  • This process is too hard
  • I don’t have time to follow up
  • I didn’t find the right event
  • I didn’t have the right speaker

And if you ask anyone about why they didn’t or grow their business, or lose weight, or have enough clients, or achieve a certain goal, they’ll likely say one of the following:

  • I don’t have enough time
  • I don’t have enough money
  • I didn’t have the knowledge, I didn’t know enough
  • I didn’t have the right contacts
  • I didn’t have the right technology

These reasons, these explanations (or excuses) are nothing more than claims about lacking resources, and they actually may be accurate and true. But they are not the defining factor.

The defining factor for success for you, for any client, for any goal is always resourcefulness.

So what determines your resourcefulness?

Your decisions – what will you focus on and how does that focus make you feel? It’s that feeling, that emotion, which will either help you create and innovate, or get stuck, become anxious and unproductive. Positive emotions will fuel your resourcefulness. Are you focused on what’s not working with a client or moving ahead with what is working? Perhaps that event was already booked. What’s the next opportunity?

Then ask yourself, “What am I going to do next? How am I going to move forward?”

For me it became the question of, “What’s the next stage to pitch?”

When trying to be your most resourceful self, the self that can solve any problem, rise to any challenge, achieve any goal, it’s critical to be in the right state, the most resourceful, emotional state.

If you have charged, resourceful, human emotions, you can reach any goal. Why? Because you’ll be able to get through to anyone – your emotion will charge your drive, your conversations, your connection with others. For me, that emotion can drive any conversation with an event host. THIS speaker is THE best one for your event.

When you work with your clients, be that a speaker, an expert, an author or entrepreneur, your resourcefulness will be your most coveted quality, above all other desirable experience.

When you’re frustrated with a client, how you handle the situation is dependent on how are you feeling. Are you happy, sad, mad, angry, energetic, or curious? Get in a positive state and you’ll be more resourceful.

Your success is never a lack of resources. Success comes from resourcefulness. How will you face today? How will you be resourceful? How can you best serve your client?

Where have I been resourceful in my business that may help you? Research! While I may be researching for speaking gigs, you may be doing research for your clients’ on their market.

Becoming a sleuth, I would get extremely curious (which fuels resourcefulness) and begin to really dig around the speaking industry. I’d ask myself, “How can I use LinkedIn or other forms of social media to find speaking gigs? Where do event planners hang out, online and offline?”

LinkedIn is a fabulous tool to find more speaking opportunities for my clients, and maybe for yours too! For example, I put in “speaker” up in the search field to see what popped up. Not only did LinkedIn give me a long list of speakers, but when I clicked on “Groups,” I now had 722 results of speaker groups! These speakers and these groups are a perfect way to work backwards, keeping the end goal in mind.

What do I mean?

I would click on the speaker’s name, and that took me to their profile. From there, I could often find the speaker’s personal/business website. On a speaker’s website is a list of where they have spoken in the past. Now I have great leads on a number of different events. Each speaker may list every event or appearance they’ve recently completed.

Cross-checking this LinkedIn list with my clients’ markets gave me a whole new crop of targets for pitching.

I also went back to that list of groups, the one where LinkedIn gave me 722 speaker groups. Looking at how many members are in each group, I decided which groups to join, which groups to engage with and which groups attracted event planners.

I did the same thing with Facebook and got equally valuable results.

All this from being resourceful. You can do it too!

Learn more:  After working with a number of private clients on how to get on stages, Gretchen Breuner figured out that it was the Talent’s support person, or VA, that should be trained on how to find speaking gigs. This way, the Talent could get on stage, and the Team knew just what to do to make that happen. Finally, everyone was happy. By helping many VAs grow their business, stand apart from their competition and make more money, Gretchen knows she can help you too.

When she first started as a speaker, Gretchen spoke nationally and internationally, appeared on San Diego’s TODAY show and other local TV programs, was featured in newspapers and PARENTS magazine and also appeared on KPBS radio.

On 30 May 17 at 8pm (UK)  Gretchen will teach you how offering speaker support to your clients will help you make more money, more easily find and attract new clients, and put you in-demand as a VA.  From what I have seen so far, you will not want to miss this opportunity.