Hello blogger world!! I know... I have been way off the radar for almost a month now... SHAME on me! I had some very frustrating technological issues over here! My "day job" has been a little crazy and I have been hosting events for my Plexus biz and then my computer crashed.... multiple times in just under 3 weeks. It's slightly challenging to write a blog without a computer or internet connection! LOL But here I am! I am back and ready to roll!
So while I was out of the techno loop I hosted a few meetings/tastings for my business. Let me ask y'all... have you ever hosted a meeting or gathering, planned and planned, advertised and invited your little hiney off, and the no one showed up? I have! It was so very, very frustrating and disappointing through those first few months. I would try and fail, try and fail. I scheduled 5 or 6 meetings. I got so excited. I rehearsed my little speech. I played my videos over and over til I almost had those memorized. I even planned out how I would set up my display table. I spent hours working on make the flyers like JUST right. I spent even more hours driving around posting those flyers places. I made event pages on Facebook and invited everyone on my friends list. I tweeted about it. I sent out email "newsletters" about it. And all 6 times I spoke to an empty room.
But all 6 times I held my head high as I packed up my things, paid the bill for the room I was renting, and left. I held my head high all the way home. I held my head a little lower as I made some generalized status update or tweet about the meeting and 'if you missed it come on out next time' etc, etc. The first 2-3 I was still happy and excited. 'Oh they will be there next time', I said. 'It's okay, I just will put out more flyers next time', I said. But by the 5th and 6th time I would close down my computer, put my things away, and then sit and cry. I felt so defeated. I would question my partner 'why don't people come? they come to everyone else's meetings, what am I doing wrong? what is wrong with me?' I was starting to take it personal.
So I took a few months off from events. I focused on going to convention, getting better on my social media pages, learning more about how the pros did it. I read 'Go Pro' by +Eric Worre [excellent book btw you should all read it]. I focused on making myself a better networking professional for a while. Now I am still far from being the pro that I want to be, that I WILL be, but I have learned to pack it away and not take it personally. This is business. Sometimes things are not going to go my way. In face, most times, things are not going to go exactly as I planned or envisioned they would go. But you know what.... that's okay! That will be another opportunity to learn. Every failure is another opportunity to grow and get better.
Samuel Beckett once said "Every tried? Every failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better."
Now when I host meetings, sometimes people show up, sometimes they don't. When they don't, I keep my chin up. I sent them each a text or email or contact them however I can and say "Hey, you missed a great meeting but don't worry, we're having another one! See ya then!". The key here is consistency and don't take it personally. Just keep scheduling them. Keep doing the meetings. Keep talking to an empty room [yes, even if no one is there still go through your presentation, practice is invaluable]. Just keep going because every time you're tempted to give up, your breakthrough could be just around the next corner. The more times you schedule a meeting and then message those 'no-shows' and saying 'ya missed a great one' eventually they are going to think to themselves, "Wow he/she must really have a good turn out, people must be showing up or they wouldn't still be doing it, no one is that crazy, right? I might as well go." So just keep trying! Don't give up!! The breakthrough is coming!!
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