Guest Post: How I got a speaking gig in a market I've been targeting

NY-based feng shui and organizing expert Ann Bingley Gallops saw a lot of similarities between her field and that of the professional real estate stager. Here's her story on how she got her foot in the door of a local stagers' association meeting.

I am a Feng Shui and professional organizing expert. I recently taught a workshop on “Feng Shui in the Bedroom” which had several attendees from my association, the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO). One of the workshop attendees is an organizer as well as a professional “stager”. Let’s call her Linda.

Staging and real estate in general are markets I am targeting. I provide Feng Shui and organizing insights that help these professionals create an environment that looks great and has good “chi energy flow” so they’re more appealing to potential home buyers.

The next time I saw Linda, a few weeks later at a NAPO chapter meeting, she told me she’d implemented some of the tips she had learned at my workshop and that her clients had been thrilled.

We got into a conversation and I offered to put her on my newsletter mailing list. It just so happened that the newsletter I’d sent out a few days prior had been about the similarities between staging and Feng Shui, so I sent her that one to start off with.

The very next day she wrote to ask me if I’d like to speak to the local association of Real Estate Stagers! So I am on the calendar for one of their upcoming chapter meetings!

P.S. I also asked her for a testimonial for my website, which she was happy to provide :)

Comments

[Jezra Kaye, Communicate with Power and Ease]

Sounds like the really smart thing Ann did was to think in advance about how she can help people in her target audience (the stagers). Since she'd already done that thinking, and written an article about how staging + feng shui go together like... well networking + new biz, she was all set to engage Linda at a deeper level when the opportunity arose.

[John Trosko]

Ann and I run around the same circles of people-- however, she's in New York and I'm in LA. She's a top notch business woman, and knows her stuff. Not only is she knowledgeable about the world of Feng Shui, but she knows how to deliver the service in an exceptional way. So it's not surprising to hear she is coming across lots of business opportunities.

John