Prioritizing Your List: How Do I Know Where to Focus My Efforts?

photo © 2007 sunshinecity | more info (via: Wylio)
I’m an ideas person. When an idea strikes me, I get so excited about it! Unfortunately, about five minutes later I’ll get another idea, and I’ll get excited about it, too!

So which should I do first? And how do I decide?

Over the years that I’ve been trying to build my speaking ministry, one of the hardest things was feeling guilty about all the things I COULD be doing, but wasn’t. I knew blogging would help my name recognition, but it took me years to start. I knew I could self-publish a book, but it took a long time to get around to it. I knew I should join more networks online, but I didn’t have time.

The more ideas I came up with, the more guilty I felt.

Then I developed a tool that helped me rank my ideas to see which ones were actually worth pursuing. After all, not all ideas are equally good. I decided to rate everything on four different scales, based on how much time they would take to completion, how much money they would cost to complete, how much money they would bring in, how much they would add to my name recognition/platform, and how much they would contribute to expanding God’s kingdom.

I added a few more metrics in there, and then weighted each category. Thus, something that cost no money and was relatively fast to do would rank higher than something that cost a ton of money and took a ton of time, if each contributed to name recognition roughly the same.

When I filled out the sheet, I was initially surprised. I thought I should be self-publishing a book; what this sheet told me was that I should start speaker training instead (which is why I’m here, on this blog!). I thought I should do more with LinkedIn; it turned out that blogging was more effective for me.

I decided other people may find that worksheet helpful, so I turned it into an Excel spreadsheet, and I include it with my audio download, “Treating Speaking as a Business“. When you order that talk, you get the tool free.

And recently Julie Chandler, one of my “speaking students” whom I also met while I was on tour in Alberta recently, sent me an email explaining how it had helped her. She says:

This is what I did with my list on the Time Management worksheet…I’m a visual person, so after I numbered them in order of importance, I put them in this form and printed it out.  I also put sticky notes on each section from an average of 35 minutes/day to the bottom average of 5 minutes/day.  It helps me to remember what to focus on…for results.
 
What I learned:  I’ve been spending too much time on twitter for the results.  (I purchased a tweet program a while ago, so I’ll just automate many of tweets…)  I was also sure I should/would go to one or two conferences in the States this year.  But, now that I look at this (I’ll need to pray, but…) I’m thinking it may be better to focus on a little networking here in Calgary, work on an e-book and possibly start up my show on blogtalkradio again!!!
 
Thanks so so much!  I feel much more settled now.  That Time Management chart is a great way to organize all the thoughts I have had about what I could/should/want to be doing.

 Julie, who wrote Orphans and the Fatherless, has now redesigned her priorities. Here they are from 1-15 (some tied):

1.  create cds (of talks)
2.  speaking
3.  prayer page – facebook or…
4.  radio interviews
5.  write talks
6.  podcast interviews
7.  TV interviews
8.  telephone calls to libraries etc…
8.  go to conferences in Canada (Calgary)
9.  create my website
10.  strategic alliances
11.  get in Christian newspapers
11.  write “how to” e-book — ie. fundraising
12.  speaker training
12.  update O. website
13.  Networking ie. breakfast
13.  host a podcast
14.  write book (takes some research)
15.  do contests
15.  “blog tour”

If you’re struggling with where to focus your limited time, this tool is so valuable! It puts things right there in black and white for you, so that you know whether something is worthwhile or not. And it helps you focus on the areas that can be most effective for the least amoung of money/time.

You can get all of that for free when you order the download, “Treating Speaking as a Business“. So check it out! And I hope it helps you as it helped Julie.

Use Your Words: Clarifying Your Goals

Every Tuesday I’m on the Christian Women Affiliate radio network on BlogTalkRadio to talk about building your speaking ministry! You can listen for FREE, so do tune in, or listen after the fact to the archives.

You can find this week’s show here.

Here’s the low-down on this week’s show!

Basically, you need to know where you’re going, or what you’re aiming for, before you launch, or it’s hard to measure how you’re going to get there.

And we can measure our goals in three areas: financial, professional, and spiritual. Let’s take them one at a time.

1. Financial Goals

There is nothing wrong with having to make money. Many of us need to contribute to the family income simply because the economy is bad. We’d love to speak, whether or not we were getting paid, and we’d love to just serve God, but we need money. And we can’t dedicate the kind of hours we need to to have an effective speaking ministry unless we’re making an income. Otherwise we’ll have to get a job elsewhere.

So understand what you do need to earn in terms of income, and then figure out how many speaking engagements this represents. And a little warning: it’s very hard to make $50,000 a year speaking, especially when you’re just starting out. If you charge $300 for an evening, and $600 for a Saturday, you’re going to have to speak every single Saturday during the year, and then 60 more evenings, to even reach that goal. Nobody can do that. It’s too much and it will burn you out.

You can make that kind of money if you’re selling a lot on your book table, and if you get good enough to raise your fees. But just be careful that you’re not launching into speaking thinking that it can deliver an income to you which is unrealistic. Some people think, “if I can charge $300 for an evening, then it’s like I’m making $300 an hour!” Don’t think of it like that. That $300 has to cover your prep, your travel, your networking, and your speaking.

Also factor in expenses, and charge them separately. If you have to pay for a hotel, or pay $150 for gas, driving four hours there and back, then $300 isn’t enough. You’ll start to wonder why you seem to be making no money at all (and that’s because you’re not!).

If income is an issue, think of easier ways to make it! Write magazine articles, or write for websites. Write for parenting magazines. Write for charities, or write on contract for non-profit organizations. It’s okay to need to make money!

2. Professional Goals

I decided early in my writing career that I wanted to write a book. But I knew that finding a publisher was going to be difficult, especially since I didn’t have any published credits to my name. So for four years I invested in writing magazine articles for some of the biggest Christian publications. Then, when I approached book publishers, I had something to share with them.

If you want to reach a certain niche, or if you want to publish a book or start speaking at a certain conference, remember that there are often several steps you need to take first in order to get there. If you want to speak for women on depression, for instance, it’s easier to speak to women in general for a few  years first, and get well-known, before you try to hit that target niche. Speaking to a niche market is hard enough; you won’t get hired until people have heard of you first.

Similarly, if you want to publish a book eventually, it’s better to take three or four years to build your platform. Get well-known on the internet. Start speaking. Invest in the kind of things that give you name-recognition.

Note that this building period may be not what you envisioned. It may feel as if you’re not pursuing your goals; but you are. Just break them down a little bit.

When I made the decision to write a book, my income actually dropped. I was making more money writing magazine articles than I ever did writing my first few books. But I wanted to go in that direction so that I could build a speaking ministry. So I sacrificed a little bit, for a few years, so that I could get where I wanted to be.

3. Spiritual Goals

Always keep in mind the REASON that you are speaking and writing. God may bless some of us to become wildly well-known; most of us will not. In the end it’s His decision. But what you don’t want to do is to spend a lot of time and energy being tremendously successful at something that doesn’t matter.

There are ways that we can speak and write that may make us more popular. We can compromise on certain issues. We can become flashier or edgier. We can become more politically correct.

Don’t water anything down. Certainly we need to be culturally relevant, but always keep in mind the main reason that God has put you in this ministry. What is the message that He wants you to share? And then keep coming back to that message. Let it resonate out of every pore of your being. When you are doing that, your ministry will be so much more effective!

If you want to listen to me dive deeper into this subject, listen in to the radio show here.

And if you want to go even deeper into how to think about goals, and how to clarify where you should be putting your efforts, my download “Treating Speaking as a Business” will help you tremendously! It comes complete with a handout that helps you clarify your goals, and assign them priority numbers (in fact, it does it for you!). It couldn’t be easier, and it will save you time and money. Find the download here.

Use Your Words: How to Stand Out in a Crowd

Sheila Gregoire speaking at Girls Night Out

In today’s Use Your Words BlogTalkRadio show I got kind of riled up. Passionate. A wee mite upset.

So listen in! It’s a 30-minute radio show that is totally free to listen to! Here’s the gist of it: I think we are far too focused on imparting information than we are on actually inspiring change.

I was reading in my devotions today about wisdom in Ephesians 5, and the book I was using as a guide said this:

A fool is not a fool because of what he knows. He is a fool because of what he does.

That’s so true! In Proverbs, when God talks about what a fool is, it’s someone who actually does something stupid. It’s not someone who believes something stupid (although our actions do stem from our beliefs); it is the actions that matter.

Yet what do we focus on when we speak and write? I have heard far too many talks that are focused on getting people more information, but information is not what we need. We need to be encouraged, inspired, exhorted to change. We need to be invited to go deeper with God. Part of that involves teaching from Scripture–and all of our talks must be rooted in Scripture. But I fear that a big reason that the church is losing so many people is that we are not focused in making God real in our lives; we are focused in making sure people believe a certain way or know a certain amount.

Knowledge is important because it leads to action; it’s not an end in itself. Information is not life-changing; God is life-changing. We need to teach so that people know how to get in touch with God and understand what God wants. But if our teaching is just so they know more ABOUT God or know more ABOUT the Bible, but they don’t do anything, then all we’re doing is contributing to the noise.

I’ve talked a ton on this blog and on my radio show about how to grow word of mouth for your ministry. But I really should have started at first principles, which is what I’m trying to do today:

Word of mouth will only grow if people have had a real encounter with God through listening/reading you. And then you will stand out, and they will want to share it.

So if you want to stand out, here’s how:

1. Encourage Change and an Encounter with God

When you speak, don’t only teach. Don’t tell people the 15 things they need to understand about the book of Ruth, or what all the fruits of the Spirit are. Show them how to get those fruits of the Spirit. Show them why they should want to. Show them what the Holy Spirit can do for them. Show them why living as they are, without fruit, is horrible. Lead them to a change where they go deeper with God. That, in and of itself, makes you different, because the majority of Christian teaching in North America today is predicated on the belief that if we just tell people enough stuff, they’ll change. No, they won’t. Our church loses young people faster than children go through Hallowe’en candy, because we’re not authentic and we’re not real. We’re just engaging in an intellectual and emotional exercise, and they know there’s more to it than that. Be part of that “more to it”.

2. Be Transparent

People also yearn for authenticity. They want to know, not just what God says, but how you have walked the walk. How did God work in your life? Did you wrestle with this? Did you ever resist God? How did God bring you around?

When you are transparent and share your story, rather than just spout facts or Scripture indiscriminantly, you have authority to teach. So be transparent!

Remember 1 Peter 3:15, which says in part:

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.

We are to give an answer about OUR hope. We are to make it personal. Do so, and you will stand out from the crowd because you are authentic.

3. In your writing, teach a skill, don’t just give information

We live in an information overload world. And sadly, when speakers sit down at their keyboards and try to update their web presence, they tend to contribute to this. We think that if we simply write out on our web pages and our blogs all that we know about a certain subject, then we show that we are knowledgeable and important.

But do people even care about posts like that anymore? The web is full of posts that answer the questions “What” and “Why”: what God wants in marriage. Why you should submit to your husband. Why you need to forgive. Why bitterness is bad. What God wants from a mom. These posts tend to be quite dry and rather depressing. You read them and it’s all a list of why we should be perfect and why everything we’re doing is wrong. And they don’t stand out, because this is the vast majority of posts on the internet. It’s explaining what God wants.

That’s not enough. If you want to stand out, don’t JUST answer “What” and “Why”, but concentrate first and foremost on “How”. It’s the “How” posts that get shared on Facebook: How to make worship part of your everyday experience; how to speak more gently to your toddlers; how to find God in housework; How to rejuvenate a dying marriage; How to find more friends.

People want to know how to actually do something. Tell them that, and you will stand out. They will want to share what you have written.

I can write on and on about specific ways to build word of mouth, like writing newsletters, recording yourself, putting up videos, starting a Facebook Page, and I have done all of this. Just click on the marketing category on the right and you’ll find lots of practical posts. But remember: you can’t build word of mouth for something boring or not really useful. Word of mouth only builds if you actually are useful and if you invite people to have a real encounter with God. Do that, and put your marketing plans in place, and people will come. Try to just teach and impart knowledge, and you will bore people.

God is not about just teaching people things; He is about teaching them so that they change. Our role on this earth is not to learn everything about God; it is to learn how to serve Him. In your ministry, are you teaching stuff about God, or are you teaching people how to follow Him? That makes all the difference.

Listen in to this radio show right here!

And if you’re afraid you don’t know the difference between teaching to impart knowledge and teaching to inspire change, check out  my download: Crafting an Effective Signature Talk!