Write Beside You

Cheri Gregory

Interview with Amy Carroll, Part 2: Find Your Platform in Community

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Continuation of my interview with Amy Carroll on building a successful platform.  Cheri: So, the secret to building a successful platform is becoming a speaker for Proverbs 31 or another major ministry. Right? Amy: Well, I can’t deny that being a speaker for Proverbs 31 grew my platform exponentially without me doing anything. That’s just the reality. However, as I found when I released my own book it’s not really enough, because the market is so flooded with books and … [Read more...]

Interview With Amy Carroll, Part 1: Why My Platform Isn’t about Me

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I sat down with my speaking coach Amy Carroll to talk platform. In the first part of our interview, we tackle the subject of creating a platform that doesn't seem "all about me" or self-serving. If you are are wrestling with platform or why your platform isn’t about you, read Amy’s wise words! Cheri: Amy, what does “platform” mean to you? Amy: The idea of platform made me break out into hives from the very beginning. It felt so self-serving. My lightbulb moment came when I heard a … [Read more...]

How to Avoid the 4 Worst Lead Magnet Mistakes

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It sounds so simple, doesn’t it? Create a fabulous freebie. When someone gives you their email address, you give them your fabulous freebie. Everyone lives happily ever after. Sadly, there are many ways this process can go south. (I know because I’ve made pretty much every mistake possible.) Do any of these feel familiar? Which of these common lead magnet* issues feel familiar for you? ___          I don’t really understand what a lead magnet is. ___          I feel … [Read more...]

How Strong Speakers Can Learn to be Great Writers

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“You write just like you speak!” It’s the Ultimate Compliment. And for over a decade, I’ve heard people say it to Kathi. They told her so often, and I agreed with them so completely, that I accepted it as fact. So when it came time to write our most recent co-authored book Overwhelmed, I was feeling pretty smug about my fail-proof plan for this book to “write itself.” Kathi and I would schedule multiple Skype sessions to talk through the content. We’d have the audio files … [Read more...]

How to Improve Your Communicator Conference Experience

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My regrets began before the conference even ended. I didn’t take enough pictures! I was so tired today, I’m sure I looked unfriendly. I meant to have lunch with Jane, but never did. By the morning after the conference, my mental list of Things I Didn’t Do But Wish I Had — along with Things I Did Do But I Wish I Hadn’t — had grown at an exponential rate. Determined to learn as much as possible not just from my own regrets but the collective reflective wisdom of others, I asked my … [Read more...]

8 Things You Need to Know Before You Collaborate + Free Download

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I had chickened out all evening. But right before midnight, on April 14, 2016, I finally hit send on a Facebook message: “I’m starting a podcast. Would you consider being my co-host?” The next morning, I awoke to a welcome, one-word reply from Amy: “Yes!” Fifty episodes later, Grit ‘n’ Grace: Good Girls Breaking Bad Rules is celebrating its first birthday. One reason our collaboration is still going strong is that we didn’t rush right into it. Instead, we spent several weeks talking, … [Read more...]

What You Need to Know About Audience Evaluations

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She hated us. After the workshop Kathi and I co-presented, more than one hundred feedback forms had been turned in on the spot. 97% of the attendees loved our content, loved our takeaways, loved us.  Ahhhh … so much fun! A few shared some concerns about whether or not we had fully covered all the topics listed in our workshop description. Fair enough. And lesson learned: Next time, we’ll be sure to use our workshop description as a content checklist when developing a new … [Read more...]

How to Make Audience Evaluations Productive

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“My problem is that all of my topics are so negative.” I was at the StoryBrand Workshop, trying to explain to Donald Miller why his marketing methods wouldn’t work for me. Ignoring my baditude, he smiled — the kind of smile you give when you’re trying to be extra patient with a whiny child. And he said, “I don’t think it really matters whether your topics are positive or negative. What matters is that you offer people solutions to their problems.” That was not what I wanted to … [Read more...]

Weeding Out Criticism You Shouldn’t Pay Attention To

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In my early years as a speaker, I passed out a simple speaker evaluation form to all audience members after each message, asking them to rate my content, preparedness, delivery, etc. Those evaluation forms almost caused me to quit my speaking ministry. Not the forms themselves, of course. But the way I interpreted and internalized the input given on the forms. Back then, I didn’t know that I could — and should — carefully choose whose input to invite and whose feedback to forget. The … [Read more...]

To the Strong Speaker Who Wishes to Be a Better Writer + Free Download

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It wasn’t Mary Lou’s fault that I snapped. She’d told me, “You know, Cheri, I’m a speaker, not a writer!” many times before. As had other speaker friends and coaching clients. Most notably (and most vociferously) the founder of Communicator Academy: Kathi Lipp, author of seventeen books. But at 9:42 AM on January 12, I’d had it up to here with hearing “I’m a speaker, not a writer” from smart, accomplished, connected people — people with strong, unique voices who kept talking themselves … [Read more...]