We’re speakers, right? So, what we love is to do is speak to an audience, whether in-person or virtual. However, if you want to make a business of your speaking, it requires a whole other set of skills.

A few years ago, I stumbled onto the Product Launch Formula (PLF). The Product Launch Formula is a method for starting an online business, increasing revenue for your existing online business, or taking a non-online business online.

The Product Launch Formula is detailed in a book by Jeff Walker entitled, Launch: How to Sell Almost Anything Online, Build a Business You Love, and Live the Life of Your Dreams. I am not going to detail the Product Launch Formula in this article. However, I highly suggest you get this book, read it, and apply its principles.

If you have a speaking business already, what’s in this book can still significantly accelerate your bottom line: more revenue.

This article will cover overcoming your hesitancy to launch your speaking business idea. Nothing happens in your speaking business until you take action on your speaking business idea (your launch).

We will explore how to overcome your fears of failure and success, set priorities, and keep your speaking business momentum going.

Overcoming Your Fears of Failure and Success

When you think of starting a new venture, what immediate thought comes to mind? Perhaps it is the fear of failure. We have all experienced failure. Brian Tracy, the self-development expert, views failure as simply a practice shot. You get to try again. So expect failure sometimes and learn from it.

Another fear you may be feeling is the fear of success. So, what is your fear of success?

Your fear of success is if you succeed, what will you have to do next? You may have thoughts of what if I fail again. Your fears are normal.

Someone once said courage is not the lack of fear; it is feeling the fear and still doing what makes you fearful.

We live in a complicated world. So many things are vying for your attention.

You can do anything; you just can’t do everything. This leads us to the second way to overcome your hesitancy to launch your speaking business idea – setting priorities in your speaking business.

Setting Business Priorities

You may have seen the movie “Up.” Remember the ostrich who was constantly distracted by the next shiny object. There will be many shiny objects in your speaking business. Your job is to decide which shiny object to concentrate on to completion.

I use the term “to completion” because if you are like most other people, the things that excite you at the moment over time will be less exciting and shiny. Because of this, you may tend not to finish what you started. However, setting priorities and having the discipline to follow through will cause your speaking business to advance.

Of course, completing an activity that does not “bear much fruit” will not cause your speaking business to advance. This is where setting priorities comes in.

One method of setting priorities is mind storming. Below is the mind storming method applied to setting priorities:

• On a clean sheet of 8 ½ x 11 lined paper, write down all the things you want to do in your business in one minute. Stop when you have twenty items or the minute is up.

Then take another minute to rank order these twenty items.

• Take the top three items from your list, and then, on another three clean sheets of paper, spend a minute each writing down how you can implement each of the three items.

• Then take three more minutes to rank order each of these three implementation lists.

At this point, you should have three of the most important things you can do in your business plus three implementation steps for each of these three most important business activities. You now have a plan to improve your business bottom line – significantly more revenue.

However, even with these specific plans to significantly improve your business, because we are all human, there will be times when you will not want to do one or more of the implementation steps.

How can you keep your business momentum going?

Keeping Your Business Momentum Going

The key to keeping your business momentum going is to assign a positive business outcome to your three priorities.

In other words, if you do a specific positive Activity in your business, what will result is a positive Outcome. Here are a few examples:

• If you delete the e-mails from e-mail bounce backs and those belonging to people who haven’t opened your e-mails in the last year (Activity), your e-mail list will increase in quality and, therefore, increase the percentage of your e-mails being opened (Outcome).

• If you send e-mails to your best clients every week (Activity), your best clients will react positively and give you more repeat business (Outcome).

• If you deliver above and beyond for your clients (Activity), they will repeat their business with you and refer you to other prospective clients (Outcome).

You get the idea. Document all your business activities and tie them to a positive business outcome. Look at this list daily. It will remind you of the payoff of why you are doing your business activities.

There are other ways to keep your business momentum going.

• Read business books that have content for where your business is

• Become a member of a mastermind of business owners at the same point in their businesses you are in

• Recite affirmations aloud to yourself every morning, mid-day, and nighttime like “My business is earning more revenue than at this time last year,” “I will convert five leads into customers every week,” and “In six months, I will be able to quit my day job because my business will sustain my way of life.”

Keeping your business momentum going is challenging because you are your own motivator the vast amount of the time.

As Stephen Covey, in his famous book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, says, “Start with the end in mind.” So keep in your mind the positive end outcome of your business activities. This has kept business going for a long time. It will work for your speaking business also.

Remember, nothing happens in your speaking business until you make plans for your speaking business idea and then take action (your launch).

We explored how to overcome your fears of failure and success, set business priorities, and keep your speaking business momentum going.

A devil on your left shoulder tells you your business idea won’t work. An angel on your right shoulder tells you your business idea will work.

Listen to the angel!

Call to Action

• Have the courage to work through your fears of starting that business

• Use mind storming to set priorities for your business plans and then implement those priorities

• Positivity in business is a choice – choose to be positive to maintain your business momentum

Frank DiBartolomeo is a retired U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel and award-winning speaker, presentation and interview skills coach, and Professional Member of the National Speakers Association. He was awarded Toastmasters International’s highest individual award, Distinguished Toastmaster because of his outstanding work in public speaking and leadership.

Frank formed DiBartolomeo Consulting International (DCI), LLC (www.speakleadandsucceed.com) in 2007. The mission of DCI is to help technical professionals to inspire, motivate, and influence their colleagues and other technical professionals through improving their presentation skills, communication, and personal presence. Reach Frank at frank@speakleadandsucceed.com and (703) 509-4424.

Don’t miss Frank DiBartolomeo’s latest book!

“Speak Well and Prosper: Tips, Tools, and Techniques for Better Presentations”

Available now at Amazon.com and BarnesandNoble.com