I have always known persistence was key and have always believed that in order to succeed you have to persist!
Well after much persistence I achieved a major goal last week that has been on my list for a few years.
On Monday 23rd March I travelled to Birmingham for The Chairmans Dinner of The Academy For Chief Executives. I have been delivering my signature workshop ‘The World’s Best One Page Action Plan’ with them for a few months now. I have received excellent feedback and refined my delivery based on that feedback. As we finished dinner the Chief Executive of ACE Andrew Morris addressed everyone and then announced the most influential speakers of 2014. I was delighted to to learn that I had been awarded the “Best New Speaker Award”. This is a great honour and goes to show how far persistence can take you.
On Thursday 26th March I travelled to London for Vistage’s Annual Speaker Award in the lovely Sky Bar right next to St. Paul’s Cathedral. After having a nice Champagne reception (I broke a little rule and drank on a school night) I spent the next hour or so of the evening talking with the other speakers and Chairs in attendance. Then at about 9pm the official speaker awards began. I have been speaking with Vistage for over a year now and absolutely love being a motivational keynote speaker on focus with them. The last awards of the evening was for the few speakers who consistently ‘out-perform’ the expectation and receive scores overall of over 90% in most of their talks and workshops. Vistage awarded 5 such speakers for 2014 and I was amazed to be named as an “Out-Performer 2014.” That was 2 speaking awards in the same week, what a result! To put this in context when I first joined Vistage I attended their awards evening in September 2013. I saw 6 speakers that year win an ‘out-performers’ award and realised they were the top of tree. Again with persistence, and taking on board feedback, my current workbook is version 7.7, I joined those at the top of their profession and became an ‘out-performer’ myself!
I’d like to say that it was a straight road to get here, it wasn’t. I’d like to say that every step was easy, it wasn’t. I’d like to say that everyone I asked to help me did, they didn’t.
The key thing is that if you believe in what you do, genuinely want to help others and be of service and value and you demonstrate persistence you can achieve what you set out to achieve. It is not always easy or straightforward but it is possible.
Remember persistence is key.
Another factor to consider is that you should check the quality of your team. These are the people around you that help you to be your best. I have a great team, everyone is an A player. Plus I have to say that although I am all over the country at present flying into Southampton and Birmingham zooming over to Belfast and then into London its great to have a professional base in which to reflect and work ‘on’ my business. Clavering Business Centre is where I’m based and receive excellent value and support so I can concentrate on being the best motivation keynote speaker on focus that I can be.
Make sure you look at your team and operation and ensure they deliver for you!
Lastly never, ever give up, persistence is key!