How did you hear about Juanell? How did you make the decision to work with her as opposed to working with someone else?

I heard about her through NSA. We talked the first time before the annual NSA convention in 2002. Also, somebody I knew worked with her.

What kind of credibility do you think Juanell has in the speaking industry that gives her the right to do what she does?

Her Zig Ziglar connection was important, but that was not the most important thing to me. It was the exact need that she fulfilled. It was a need that I didn’t see other people fulfilling. She wants to bring out people's natural brilliance. At the time, I wasn’t looking for speaker coaching. I didn’t want to be like anyone else. I wanted to bring out what was unique about me. I knew that I was already an expert in my field, and I wanted to know more specifically what made me unique that would help me accomplish the goal of being an effective presenter.

When you started with Specialize or Die, at what point do you feel you were at in your career?

In my private practice, I had several successes that I was proud of and comfortable with. In terms of speaking, I had already achieved success in a small market. In the past, my professional speaking was to bring clients into my private practice. So when I came to the Specialize or Die, it was in an effort to make my speaking a separate product, instead of use it as a marketing tool.

Did the Specialize or Die program meet your expectations?

Yes it did. When I was involved in Juanell’s process, I had the tendency to want more time with her. Although, I don’t think that it would have been possible to process any more than the two days that I spent with her. During the time I was working with her, I saw the potential of what I was gaining. What I know now is so much more comes from yourself after you leave the process.

What was the best feature of the program?

I think that it would be sitting down physically. The intensity of the one-on-one process is the best feature. I am not going to say anything about the content, because it is all-good. I think the fact that you have her full attention, and she has your full attention, for an extended period of time is the best feature. A lot of people call me before they commit to working with her because she gives my name out. I will give you hands down what everybody says, "Is it worth me flying there? Can’t she just do it over the phone? What if I just read her book?" They are looking for ways to gain the information with less of a commitment. There is no possible way on earth to gain that information with any effectiveness if you don’t sit down one-on-one in her presence, she having your full attention, and you having hers.

What are three major obstacles or concerns you had with your career before you worked with Juanell?

I did not want to be another psychologist out there doing presentations with ordinary self-help content. One of my major concerns about my speaking career was that I didn’t feel I had developed topics that would set me apart from the masses. I was having trouble “specializing” on my own. I had gone to marketing people in the past and used professional marketing firms. It just wasn’t enough for me, because it seemed to be more about spinning my content. What Juanell does is not spinning your content. It is pulling out your natural brilliance.

Explain what you walked away with that you would not have had if you did not worked with Juanell.

What I walked away with was a new topic “Smart Zone”. I walked away with an organized topic, with flexibility for different target audiences. Smart Zone is a natural accumulation of what I have always had to offer. Juanell packaged it, not in a marketing way, but in a way that allowed me to show my passion. I had a hard time getting it from the inside out on my own. The topic that I developed after working with her is a natural progression of my passion.

Did you eventually develop a branding that was uniquely yours?

Yes

How much of this happened during your session with Juanell? How much of this happened as you continued to work through the process that she had defined?

We developed a set of materials that reflected my natural passion in a form that I could then continue to develop into my topics. If you were to compare what I walked out with at the end of the second day (the emphasis areas, and the four subtopics) you would see that I am so far from that now. The material I am presenting now has continued to develop over the last year since I worked with her. What has developed is just a natural progression from what I walked away with. People are fooling themselves if they think they are walking away with the end product when they are done at the end of the two days. That is a mistake. If people get mad at Juanell because they did not have an end product, then they are negating their own contribution to the process. I had a wonderful start from her. I think that I walked away with a good skeleton. I just had to fill in the rest.

Did working with Juanell shorten your learning curve? How much? How did it do that?

Yes. It is immeasurable. I worked with her in September; within five months I had done about three times as many presentations. In that time I didn’t even have the content of my new presentation on my website yet. I hadn’t even developed the promotional materials on my one sheet. Word of mouth, from previous presentations was enough to give it momentum. I don’t know if I could have accomplished that without Juanell’s assistance. I believe my learning curve was shorted after working with Juanell. In fact, it shocked me how quickly I was getting spin-off business. It happened quickly because it was a good topic and the content was presented in a way that made it appealing. Obviously I showed more passion for it than what I had done in the past.

Is it possible to do this work by yourself?

All right, here I am a psychologist and I believe that everybody is capable. Not everybody needs a Juanell, not everyone needs a psychologist or a therapist to help them with something. I don’t want to say that people can’t do it themselves. Working with Juanell is an efficient way to cut the learning curve at least in half, because she takes you by the shoulders and she moves you from left to right. When I was done with her program I knew which path to take. Its like she held me by the shoulders and then she pushed me off. I think that I would have spent too much time surveying the field if I had not gone to see her. I think that I would have gotten there, but it would have taken me a longer period of time and with more money spent on marketing, branding, and coaching.

What would you change in the Specialize or Die program, if you could do it over again? What would make it better?

I would tell people to make sure they are rested before they start her program. By the end of the two days, I was exhausted because of what we worked through. I also would make sure that I was more prepared in advance, because she gives you so much to do in advance.

What would you say the bottom-line benefit is of Juanell's program?

Developing your natural brilliance.

Do you believe 100% that your message has been defined and is uniquely yours? And do you believe that it will make a major difference in those lives that you touch?

Yes, and the trademark that will come through in the next couple of months will prove that. The topics and content I developed was such a logical progression for me. It was uninterrupted by the influences of marketing spins. It was a logical progress. I did not go to Juanell to be a Zig Ziglar or a Tony Jeary or a Valorie Burton. I wanted to be me, Susan Fletcher. In referring my friend Trudy Bourgeois to her I didn’t feel at all like I was in jeopardy because she was not going to develop Smart Zone. After working with Juanell, Trudy taped into her own natural brilliance: Hybrid Leader. Trudy developed what was a natural progression for Trudy. I could see myself in a couple of years working with Juanell again because I will be in a different stage in my life, a different stage in my career and my needs will be different. There will be some things that I have not taped into that Juanell will help me do.

Are there career concerns you have not addressed in Juanell's program? How can Juanell improve what she's doing?

I have been asked if her program is worth it, because it is a lot of money. You have to be wiling to invest and wait to recoup that amount. I wouldn’t say that at this point I have [recouped the amount], but I see the growth of my income accelerated because of it. Juanell helped me figure out what my fee should be. One of the mistakes I was making before I worked with Juanell, was that I was undercharging people. I was leaving money on the table previously. I don’t do that anymore.

But if there were a way to simplify it, would that be your advice?

I think that simplifying it would be a disservice to the customer. The people that are going to work with Juanell are highly motivated and she cannot afford to work with people who aren’t.

Does her program give you the confidence that you're on the right career path?

I felt confident before I went to work with her, but it just filled in the blanks for me.

What long-range returns do you think you'll receive, not necessarily just financially, but overall from having participated in this program?

I am currently writing a book. I do plan to have a book called Smart Zone at some point and that never would have occurred without Juanell.

When Juanell is speaking about her program, what part of her program would you recommend that she concentrate on?

This is an investment. People are going to ask about the money and what they get for the money. They are going to look for what is different about you. They are going to be concerned about the price. This is what everybody says to me. I met Chandler George and a couple of other people at the 2002 NSA convention who had already worked with Juanell when I hadn’t committed yet to work with her. They said it is a lot of money but it is worth it. None of us has money just to throw around all over the whole world. I think that if you focus on the fact that this is an investment and it accelerates the learning curve. That it is an efficient way to sum up your uniqueness rather than coach you to be like someone else. What I love about Juanell is that she didn’t give me a bunch of tapes on other people. If you look, coaches, marketers and people that are doing branding tend to give you a lot of tapes. It was really clear to me up front that Juanell really wanted to get to know me and wanted me to know myself well enough that I could do this. She didn’t benchmark me to other people. I appreciated that and I feel confident that I got what I needed.