Someone at a National Speakers Association meeting once told me that I’d have to pick a single focus if I wanted to build a successful career. Having more than one thing is too confusing for people to comprehend, he advised.

At the time, I scoffed. Limit myself to one thing, even when I know I have expertise in other arenas as well? I thought I could do it all. I could speak, publish, coach, teach, and run a business incorporating all of my passions and skills in cooking, healthy eating, natural health, multiple sclerosis, and publicity.

Ok, so it’s that last one that might seem a little incongruent. Truth be told, everything I know about getting free publicity I only learned because I had to if I wanted to promote the rest of what I was doing. But I learned it and I became pretty good at it, so it seemed to me to be a shame not to share my knowledge with others. I’ve taught blogged, taught workshops, given seminars, and spoken at national conferences about publicity, and I’m even a private publicity coach, helping people increase their exposure and influence to spread their message more effectively.

So, I was very excited when one of my mentors, Susan Harrow, Author of Sell Yourself without Selling Your Soul: A Woman’s Guide to Promoting Herself, Her Business, or Her Cause with Integrity and Spirit, approached me about doing a teleseminar on Sound Bites with her. Susan knows her stuff when it comes to helping people get more attention. What she teaches will not only help people who want to get in the media to sell their books or products, but will work for anyone who is promoting  anything, be it a fundraiser for the elementary school, your business, or your favorite charity.

In today’s webinar, Susan will teach us how to get anyone intrigued in what you want  in 60 seconds.

But, I bumbled when I sent out the promotional emails over the last week. For some reason my system sent out each email twice (once in draft form), which was annoying to everyone, myself included, and an alarming number of people simple unsubscribed from my newsletter list in response. Some who wrote me directly were angry because they had signed up to hear about cooking, not about media training.

The thing is, people follow me for any of the reasons I listed above, and more, but there may not be much crossover between the foodies or health nuts and the publicity seekers. I alienated part of my list by talking only to some of them. Maybe I should have listened to that advice long ago.

Please forgive me: I’m still learning.

If you’re interested in knowing more about what I’ll be talking about with Susan Harrow today, go on over to my Recipes for Publicity blog to see how to register. If you can’t make the 12 pm MDT call, registered people will receive a link with the recording for later.

Otherwise, I’ll be back to my regular topics in the next post. Thanks for your patience with me.