Well it’s two weeks since we moved house and I’ve made all kinds of excuses for not writing any Facebook blog posts since then… But they’re just excuses. So here I am again :-)
I don’t think I’d fully realised how many people read my posts (even though I do get lots of comments and messages) until today, when I had the pleasure of meeting Suzanne Dibble for the first time and she gave me some lovely feedback on what I’ve written in the past… thank you so much for that Suzanne, you gave me just the push I needed to get writing again.
I should have had a photo taken today, as I doubt if many of you would have recognised me… first of all I was wearing a suit (the dress code was Smart to Glamorous, which could have been interesting if I’d have opted for a dress!) and secondly, I’ve not had time to shave since moving two weeks ago so I seem to have grown a beard! And since I’ve had more positive comments than negative so far, I think it’s going to stay for the time being. The last time I had a beard was when I was 18, I grew one in the summer holidays and went off to uni sporting a fairly thick full beard, which led many people to think that I was a mature student! It lasted nearly 4 months, at which point I shaved it off and raised money for charity. Let’s see how long this one lasts…
Today I was lucky enough to be at the Athena Network Inspire Conference, organised and hosted by the amazing Jacqueline Rogers. It was a rather interesting event for me, because I was one of five men in a room full of more than a hundred wonderful women. But I had to be on my best behaviour, as Insa was there with me :-)
The main reason that Insa and I were there was because we had a stand in the Business Village with an out-of-this world Infusionsoft offer for anyone attending Inspire. I could tell you what it was, but I’d have to shoot you if I did ;-) All that I will say is that we had several people saying “wow, that’s an AMAZING deal”! So a few people to follow up with next week… anyone know of any software that’s good for helping with that? ;-)
A massive bonus was being given the privilege of being able to listen to the speakers and ladies on the two panels, none of whom I’d ever heard speak before, even though I knew several of them rather well! Every single speaker inspired me in one way or another, and now I know why Jacqueline calls the event Inspire – I left feeling very much inspired and I’m sure everyone else did as well.
So what did I get personally from today’s event? I can’t list everything here because I’d be up until 1 in the morning writing everything, but that means that I’ve got lots of things I can write about in the future! One highlight for me was making some wonderful new connections with people, as well as reconnecting with lots of friends who I hadn’t seen for way too long.
I do want to mention something that I’m particularly grateful for as well – I had the opportunity to speak to someone who was a former client who we just didn’t do a good enough job for last year… no excuses, with hindsight I should have managed things differently and I hope that I’ve learned from that. The reason that I’m so grateful is because she very graciously accepted my apology and we were able to talk openly and honestly about what had happened and what I should have done.
The only other thing that I’ll talk about for now was the quality and the amazing content that every single lady on stage delivered (and over-delivered). I’ve been left with quite a lot of food for thought (I forgot to mention that the lunch was amazing as well!) and will be writing about some of the things that I’ve been left to reflect on over the next few days.
Some of the things that I learned or re-learned included:
- I need to focus a lot more on the things that I’m best at!
- I need to let go even more of the things that I’m bad at! (Remember me talking about firing myself? I seem to have got back into some bad habits…)
- I must get myself back into a decent routine. (Remember me walking the dogs every morning? What’s happened to that?!)
- I have to look after myself first! I’m normally pretty good at looking out for other people, less good at looking out for myself.
- I need to worry less about being liked. If I had to choose between being respected or liked, I’d probably go for respect… but the voice in my head still tells me that I need to be liked!
- I need to get my workload under control – I’m a workaholic and it’s bad for me!
I think that’s enough for now – plenty to write about in my next few posts though :-)
One thing that I’d love to ask for help with from my Facebook community though, is a very important thing – please can you hold me accountable if I relapse into bad habits? If I don’t post for a few days, or if I don’t get back into a good routine, or anything like that, please call it out!
This is probably one of my longer Facebook blog posts, so I hope you’ve made it through to the end! I’d like to thank everyone who I met or reconnected with today, including (in no particular order, and sorry if I’ve omitted anyone!!) Allison, Catherine, Julie, Carmen, Sylvia, Sophie Bennett, Catherine Stoker, Marie, Vanessa Stottor, Jo, Emma Watkins, Nicola, Lynsey Cowan, Sue and Suzanne Dibble.
And a massive thanks to Jacqueline and Patrick and their wonderful helpers for organising such a great event and giving me the privilege of being part of it!
Night everyone :-)
This is a copy of my original Facebook post, please go there if you’d like to add a comment.
