What does bravery look like in your business?
Last week I took a big step for Confluence Business Solutions. I hosted my first live webinar. For those of you in attendance, thank you and read on for the behind the scenes courage that made that possible!! For those of you that have done this before, do you remember what that was like your first time? Was it intimidating to you? I’d like to share with you my experience and what I learned from it.
As a people person with an overly bubbly personality, most people think it would be no big deal for me to host a webinar, but in reality, it was terrifying…and something I swore I would never do. You see, when I first launched this business back in 2014, I had an idea of how I wanted to serve. I knew I wanted to work 1:1 with clients and transform their businesses from behind the scenes. I liked being invisible and low profile, but the reality is, that strategy doesn’t lend well to growth.
So, after a much-needed vacation and a serendipitous mastermind, I made my mind up, I was about to do something scary! In a few short hours, I had mapped out a funnel that would fit with my values of continuing to be of service to prospects and customers alike and the first step was a live webinar. I knew I needed to take it one step further and not only set a date, but an aggressive date, otherwise it would never get done. So, in two short weeks, I had created my content, cashed in every favor with my strategic partners, and I had a great group of people poised and ready to join me live.
The night before the webinar, Building your Ideal Customer Journey with Lifecycle Marketing (if you missed it, don’t worry, there will be another soon!), I actually dreamt that before the webinar had started, I left and went to lunch…really…who does that! While I woke up laughing at myself, the only thing I had left to do was present. I had practiced and tested everything out, but when the time came and there were actually people in the room, I found I could not see my notes. All the smiling faces of the attendees were all over my screen, just waiting in anticipation for what I had to say AND were sitting on top my notes. I knew where to start, I had practiced many times, but in that moment, I panicked…what if I say something that isn’t supposed to be said until later. For those few seconds, I was stuck in time and perfectionism. Fortunately, after a few seconds of fumbling, I was able to get my head in the game and do what I came there to do; teach. I was able to be of service, I had a great experience and I made A LOT of mistakes. Some mistakes that were visible to others and some that probably were not, but I survived and even felt so exhilarated at the end, that I forgot to stick around and see if I could answer any questions.
While I was creating the content for this webinar and getting all my pieces organized, my sole focus was on creating a great experience for the attendees. I really had no idea how transformative the experience would be for me personally.
Last week, I did one of the scariest things I’ve done yet for Confluence Business Solutions. I made the business and myself visible. I took the advice I share with my clients about how to build relationships and grow leads. I took a risk and I learned some really valuable things. First, urgency works! It doesn’t matter if you’re talking about a countdown timer on your offer, a short timeline to organize an event; urgency wakes us up and makes us pay attention. I gave myself two weeks to pull it off and I did so because it didn’t give me time to dilly dally or flounder. I immediately created a project timeline, wrote copy, made phone calls and practiced. I did all the things I knew needed to get done and didn’t waste time worrying. There wasn’t time for anything but results.
My second aha, I’ll do it again, because practice makes perfect and even though I felt there were a lot of mistakes, I got wonderful feedback and encouragement and even requests for the replay the following day. I reached people ton this day and I know that the topic is relevant to what my ideal client is working through and now I have a platform to build relationships from.
Will it be scary the next time I host my webinar, Building your Ideal Customer Journey with Lifecycle Marketing? Probably, but it’s all part of the learning.
Now, it’s your turn…what are you doing that’s brave and makes waves in your business? Message me, I’d love to know.
