Saying YES to People’s Requests – What You Can Learn
A quote from Connie Wimer, Owner of Business Publications Corporation in Des Moines Iowa. This quote was shared during the recording of a Business Leader Highlight Segment, a segment used in the upcoming podcast Fostering Change In America.
It was a challenge to step outside of the box of what I was told I “should” be in life, but saying YES to my own desire for living life on a higher level brought just the opportunities I needed to push me from “just getting by” to actually LIVING life.
It started when I realized that my opinions about myself mattered more than anyone else’s and that if I wanted to pursue a childhood dream of being on stages then I shouldn’t let anyone stop me.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned from making the move from full time Health Care Professional to full time Entrepreneur and Public Speaker it’s the importance of always learning, growing, and developing, both personally and professionally.
When I worked in the hospital I was required to go through skill-specific training each year, but the long shifts and mandatory education left me drained and failed to inspire a deeper sense of who I am. I struggled to stay inspired and every other aspect of my life was failing; relationships, health, wellness, social life, and most importantly PASSION.
I experienced true passion for the first time while chaperoning a group of young people to a national youth empowerment conference in Atlanta, Georgia. The energy of such a lively conference alone is enough to inspire, but reflecting on that experience showed me that what stuck with me was the experience of collaboratively learning with others. We were challenging each others’ thought processes and sharpening our minds.
I never wanted that feeling to end so I made the difficult decision to give up the easy path of grad school and a guaranteed 6 figure income so that I could build my first web site (in iWeb on my 2007 iMac) and establish a platform as a public speaker.
Over the past decade I’ve discovered there are certain aspects of public speaking that I love and some that I don’t. It has required that I take an honest look at the past decade of building my speaking career and be real with myself about what’s working and impacting the most and what’s not.
What’s NOT Working
- Trying to be everything to everyone. Having a niche market is where it’s at.
- Tackling multiple business ventures at once. Just because you have a vision for what you’re capable of doesn’t mean it’s realistic for you to do it all at the same time…it often takes a decade or longer.
- Being the “Famous” person. When something you do changes someone’s life it’s easy to feel too important and act like a famous person who should be treated a certain way. Don’t buy into it.
What IS Working
- Specific Programs for Niche Markets. You can see these outlined here.
- Helping others. Being willing to give of your time so that others can succeed even when you don’t get anything in return. I now do this through volunteering to speak for smaller non-profit programs and at-risk youth programs at no charge. I also say “YES” to people when they ask me for advice. This doesn’t mean that I give all of my consulting services away for free, but I choose specific people to spend time with at no charge based on their situation, character, and needs.
- Interviewing. I’ve found that I really enjoy interviewing people and others have told me I’m highly skilled at asking questions that help people better explain difficult concepts so that audiences can have a deeper understanding.
I’ve been providing Strategic Interviewing on stages across the U.S. for the past three years. It took a long time to put two and two together to realize that since I enjoy interviewing people and I’m skilled at it then I should find a way to do it more often. (Passion + Strength = Happy)
After finally realizing that interviewing is something I need to do more of, saying YES to myself helped me make the decision to create a podcast that would compliment my already existing brand that is focused on creating positive change and encouraging personal and professional development.
I spent three months studying podcasts and writing, and crossing out, several dozen podcast title ideas. Finally, I settled on Fostering Change In America. Here’s the video about the program in case you haven’t seen it yet:
I spent several thousand of my own dollars investing in high quality podcasting equipment and building a recording studio in my basement where I can perform the majority of the show’s production. I then put together a great team of people to help develop this project and we decided to do a Kickstarter campaign to cover the remaining expenses of post-production and brand development for the podcast.
Here’s a link so you can review the Kickstarter campaign page that took us nearly two weeks to write, edit, and produce media content for.
Our Kickstarter campaign was fully funded and gave us a great excuse to make noise about the upcoming podcast program Fostering Change In America. It was a challenge, to say the least, but well worth it and we are forever grateful that we had a community of people to saying YES to this vision!
If there is a lesson to be learned through this process it’s this:
- Give yourself credit for how far you’ve come, but continue to challenge yourself by taking an honest look at where you are and where we plan to go.
- Plan your next steps based on the things you are really good at (Strengths), but that you also enjoy (Passions). When you pair the two together you’ll have the tenacity to push through long and grueling challenges such as spending two weeks building a Kickstarter campaign.
Another valuable lesson to be learned is that of the quote about saying yes which is listed in the image at the top of this post:
“It’s amazing how much you can learn when you say YES to people’s requests.”
This quote was taken from a recording that I did with Connie Wimer for the Business Leader Highlight Segment which is a segment that will be included in the upcoming program Fostering Change In America.
If you, or someone you know, would like to be featured in the podcast Click Here to sign up and be notified about opportunities and upcoming shows!
If you would like to air a commercial in the program feel free to call 646-535-TRAV.
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Bring Me to Your Event! –> 646-535-TRAV
Travis@TravisLloyd.net
Host: Fostering Change Podcast
Author: Overcoming Emotional Trauma
Vice President: Foster Care Alumni of America
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