Why Being Told ‘You Are Sooo Good’ Is Killing Your Speaking & Business

DATE: February 4, 2019

BY: Jacqueline Nagle

Why-Being-Told-‘You-Are-Sooo-Good-Is-Killing-Your-Speaking-Business

In literally thousands of conversations in the past 20 years of my career – As CEO, General Manager, Consultant, Confidant, Advisor, sometime Devil’s Advocate and now Mentor – one thing has become startlingly clear as I work more and more closely with smart people who want nothing more than to elevate their ability to speak, pitch and sell from a position of strength.

No matter the driver, no matter the sector – but particularly for professionals, consultants, and speakers – the urgency that builds in this desire is usually due to one thing.

A state of total confusion.

You know you are SOOO good at what you do. In fact, you are damn good at it, and your experience priceless. The people who know you and work with you will constantly reinforce you are SOOO good at what you do. You’ve invested heavily in courses, frameworks, mentors, advisors, marketing collateral and strategy development, and everyone agrees.

You are SOOO good at what you do.

Yet Nirvana is elusive. You lose work to the lesser experienced, noisier competition. You are not getting the traction you deserve. And whilst your digital footprint is strong, sometimes even enviable, your business is yet to reach a threshold where you can breathe comfortably, where you know it is both viable and sustainable.

So now it is time to strip it back.

To get up close and personal with what is really going on. Because until you do, the sentence ‘You are SOOO good at what you do’ may well kill you, your speaking, your business, and your dreams.

When we step out, from the market perspective we are asleep – outside of our own circles, the market is actually oblivious to our existence. And yet from our own perspective we are literally FIGHTING for attention.

We then reach a stage where we feel a tipping point is starting; people are starting to notice who we are and the work that we do. From a digital perspective, our content is starting to get noticed. We are getting asked to speak – inconsistently, and not always from the right stage or in the right room – but it has finally started.

And then comes the dopamine hits. People are telling us ‘You are SOOO Good’. When we are speaking for free. Or not enough. When we have incredible products and services but no-one quite tips over to buying from us. When there are increasing requests to help people out with their events, their strategies, their own business. When quite frankly it feels as though the more exposure we get, the more people tell us ‘You are SOOO Good’, the lower the standard of opportunity, and the faster the rate of decline in inbound work.

And it’s because when we get to ‘You are SOOO Good’ we take a breath. We literally melt into the dopamine hits. We feel as though the recognition we deserve is finally gathering speed.

And we don’t push through to the real tipping point.

Because as a speaker, or in any knowledge-based business, we have not reached the tipping point until people are coming to us and saying ‘It is as if you are in my head’. When they feel you have entered their world, when they resonate so strongly with you that you have their complete and undivided attention.

The tipping point is when you start hearing this MORE than how good you are. When people ask you how they do business with you. When they are literally only one to two small steps away from saying ‘here’s my cheque’.

We quite literally shift from the red zone to the green zone.

But how do we push from the Red Zone, into the Green Zone.

It’s both complex and simple.

It takes willingness and commitment.

You must invest in your ability to speak, pitch and present. You must understand how to enter the world of the people you are speaking with. You must decide that influence and persuasion – the sophisticated cousins to speak, pitch and sell – are critical parts of your toolkit.

Because until you do, until you are willing to invest as heavily in those skills – speak, pitch, sell, influence and persuade – as you are in other elements of your business the fatigue created by milling around in the ‘You are SOOO good zone’ will mean nirvana remains firmly out of reach.

With love,

Jacqueline x


Jacqueline Nagle has forged a successful career dependant on redefinition, evolution and left of centre thinking. Conceptualising and deploying strategies and projects which have driven rapid multiple 7 and 8 figure growth, selling business to ASX Co’s, taking on hostile installation as CEO in traffic control, an expert enterprise agreement negotiator with a 100% success rate with experience in recruitment, labour hire, mining services, industrial relations, construction, events and advisory. A speaker, facilitator and strategist, Jacqueline works with founding owners whose work is based on deep lived experience, deeply held expertise, or a unique perspective to drive sustainable impact through the creation of mental, positional and commercial strength