I’m stuck. I, CrisMarie, want to be a successful professional motivational speaker, and I hold back. It’s a dream I’ve had for over 20 years – 20!
Here’s my vision. I want to be speaking to 1000’s of woman inspiring them to own their own beauty, power, talent, and aliveness. I want them to feel motivated, to learn, to laugh, to gasp in surprise, to be touched. I want to be shining, sharing stories, and having a genuine good time.
Oh, and I want to be paid well for doing this. How well? Good question. I’ll work on those specifics.
You might say, CrisMarie, you and Susan speak all the time. What’s the big deal? It is true, we’re regularly in front of groups, corporate leaders, and teams. We present models, tell stories, and facilitate groups.
It’s a bit different to market yourself as a speaker, which is what I want to do.
Here’s where my resistance comes in. I haven’t always liked the speakers I’ve met.
It stems from an experience I had over 15 years ago (obviously I haven’t let go of this! I trust Susan won’t let me hold onto this in the next Get Unstuck when I was a breakout speaker at a women’s event. I developed a talk related to my rowing experience. I was soooo excited to be able to speak.
We arrived, and women speakers were everywhere. Each had a table full of their books, products, cards and pretty much anything that could be sold. I couldn’t get by a table without one of them grabbing me and shaking my hand and wanting to talk to me. Wow, I didn’t want to do that!.
Even worse…at the kickoff of the event, all the speakers (including me) had to get up on stage in a line. Then, one-at-a-time, we each stepped forward and gave a marketing pitch for why you should come hear us. OMG! You’ve got to be kidding?! I hadn’t prepared that!
I don’t even remember what I said, but I know it felt pretty weak. Somehow, I still managed to get 75 women in my break out room. Yay for me! I was nervous but I did it, and I actually enjoyed it. Yay for me again! Then, about a week later I got the feedback. Most of it was good, but one woman, whoa, she did NOT like me. I thought she was so mean in her feedback. I fell to the floor in a puddle of tears. (To read that story, go to Are You Beating the Costco Odds.
I walked away from that event, deciding I was not good enough to be a speaker. So now I pine away for speaking. I’m stuck, stuck, stuck. I could but don’t take the steps to:
Research and apply for speaking events regularly
Develop a signature talk on my rowing experience to inspire woman
Redesign our website to make it speaking focused
Get a good speaking video made
Sooo this is what I’m bringing to my next Get Unstuck experience. Sure, I teach one of the modules in Get Unstuck, but as you gals know who have taken it, I ALWAYS have an area of focus that I’m stalling in, afraid of, putting low on the priority list – even though it is soooo special to me.
One time it was writing my personal blogs. Hey, even from this blog you can see I cracked that nut.
Another time it was bringing more pleasure and fun to the work week. Now, we regularly take dance breaks, and I painted our office red! It’s colorful, vibrant, and fun!
Still another time was getting acting, after not getting a part in our community theater. I got picked for the very next Black Curtain production!
This time in Get Unstuck I’m going to be working on unraveling this speaking stuckness, and getting my mojo back to move me forward.
Why I think the program works so well for me is that I thrive in a group of woman who are sharing this journey and supporting me. I love getting coached too, because Susan often sees what I don’t see.
Does this sound like you? So where are you stuck? Do you:
Have a desire to launch into a new career? But don’t do anything to make a change.
Want to kick off a healthy lifestyle? But don’t know where to start – so don’t do anything different.
Maybe you want a relationship? But think that’s impossible.
Want to get your finances in order, but go foggy just brining it up?
Check out Get Unstuck, and join me – we’ll unravel our sticky, stuckness together. You won’t be alone.
Need more support? Susan is an awesome coach. Work with her.
Take Care,
CrisMarie
CrisMarie Campbell and Susan Clarke
Coaches, Business Consultants, Speakers and Authors of The Beauty of Conflict
CrisMarie and Susan work leaders and teams, couples in business, and professional women.
They help turnaround dysfunctional teams into high performing, cohesive teams who trust each other, deal with differences directly, and have clarity and alignment on their business strategy so they create great results.
Check out their website: www.thriveinc.com. Connect with CrisMarie and Susan on LinkedIn. Watch their TEDx Talk: Conflict – Use It, Don’t Defuse It! Find your copy of The Beauty of Conflict: Harnessing Your Team's Competitive Advantage here.