I’ve started attending live events again.  I didn’t for a few years: since I wasn’t sure of the direction I wanted to go, it didn’t make sense to spend a lot of money to attend, let alone adding air fare and hotel and meals.

Since the first of this year, I’ve attended several. Some were better than others.  One was a complete waste of time for me, although I know of others who attended the same one and raved about it (believe me, I won’t be attending that one again next year!).

I recently had the pleasure of attending the Extreme Income Explosion Summit in Salt Lake City. I heard about this one from Michele Scism of Decisive Minds  (note: that’s my affiliate link), as I recently completed her Take Actions Get Profits Mastery program (note: another affiliate link).

She was one of the event hosts.  The other host was Buzz Booster, a Small Business Marketing Advice, Relationship Management & Social Media Marketing Agency run by Shahar and Nashlah Boyayan.

Wow. What. A. Weekend!

Amazing, engaging, approachable speakers. Outstanding, in-depth content. “No fluff,” as Shahar kept repeating. And she was right.

We had sessions on legal issues for small business owners, how to use speaking to build your business, mind mapping, mindset, online marketing especially with video, social media, thinking bigger, attracting your niche, public relations, and direct response marketing. I took something like 40 pages of notes. It was incredible.

Given that the last conference I attended before this one was such a bust for me (and cost a lot more, too!) I was tremendously pleased with this one.

And it made me think about the reasons I attend live events, and what I get out of them.

Content. Connections. Confidence. Clients. Clarity.

Content.

That one’s pretty self-explanatory. I love it when it’s there, and really resent when it isn’t. Some conferences, some events, are meant to be more motivational than technical, but I still want to walk away having learned something. If I don’t get at least one AHA moment, one realization, one new something learned or old something remembered and re-evaluated, out of each session, I feel as if I’ve wasted my time.

Connections.

I work at home, and I usually work alone.  There are some days when I don’t see anyone but my husband before he goes to work or when he gets home. I’m quite comfortable being alone for long stretches (which is good, because he travels some) – but I do like interacting and connecting with people.  That’s one reason why I do a lot of local networking: nothing beats face-to-face contact for getting to know people. Yes, you can get to know people through online connecting such as social media, but at least for me those connections are not as deep or as lasting as the ones I make in person.

So when I go to a conference and I find I have to struggle to connect with anyone, when I end up eating meals alone because the folks I’ve approached have been so wrapped up in their own stuff – or the friends they came with – to be open to sharing a meal or a drink with another attendee, I feel cheated. Although it probably doesn’t look like it from the outside, I really am an introvert.  It’s hard for me to walk into a room where I don’t know anyone and ask my seatmate to have lunch after the session. When that happens, as it did repeatedly at the one waste-of-time conference, it’s tough not to take it as a personal rejection.

Then there are the events where solid connections are the norm. I sit in sessions surrounded by like-minded people, I have meaningful conversations that continue after the sessions to meals and drinks in the pub, and I head home from the conference knowing that I’ve got a collection of people with whom I know I’ll stay in touch. Priceless.

Confidence.

Working on that. Knowing that I want to start speaking more in my business, at my own events or on other people’s stages, I’m quite happy to stand up and give a testimonial from the floor, or do one on camera. The more comfortable I can become in front of an audience, the better speaker I’ll be.

And the more I can make those connections easily and comfortably, the more confident I am about taking the first step in approaching people – other attendees and the conference presenters – next time.

Clients.

Sometimes those connections become so solid, so fast, that a real business relationship forms.  I have left an event where I had the opportunity to either speak briefly, or in one instance do some laser coaching in a coaching round-robin, with a client or two.  What a great opportunity!  I know in advance we’re on the same wavelength, because we’re attending the same event. They get to see me in action, however briefly. We have a discussion and decide to move forward, either with a strategy session or some coaching. Yay!  Getting new clients isn’t my primary purpose in attending events, but it sure is a nice bonus.

Clarity.

This one is probably the most important. I do have a business coach (Rosemary Bredeson, the Scientific Mystic http://www.rosemarybredeson.com/ – hi, Rosemary!), and we work together on all sorts of issues both professional and personal to move me forward.

But getting other opinions, other viewpoints, is invaluable. Clarity is related to content, but it’s really the application of content.  Content is great, but if I don’t know what to do with it or how I can use it, it’s not worth much. I always try to tack a travel day on after the event so I have some time to decompress and journal about the experience. It’s during that downtime that the clarity comes.

I also know myself well enough to know that my tendency is to play small.  Attending conference with visionaries helps me step outside myself and my limiting, limited vision to see bigger possibilities. And I get the clarity to see how to adapt those possibilities to my own business and my own life.

Content. Connections. Confidence. Clients. Clarity.

That’s why I attend live events.

Do you attend live events or conferences?  Which ones?  What impact do they have on your business or your life?

Usually, these folks are tremendously well spoken. They have powerful stories that need to get out, and they’re good at TELLING their stories – they’re just not comfortable WRITING their stories.

So I usually recommend that they TALK their blog posts, their articles, their stories, and then get the audios transcribed.

I just watched a video interview of someone whose blog I follow. The neat thing was the transcription of the interview that appeared right below the video — and the link to SpeechPad, the service that did the transcription.

I’ve never used them, but the transcription I read was very very close to the video I watched (which was here).

So if you’re looking for a transcription service, or you’ve been putting off posting to your blog or writing that article, check them out!

I like lists.

I have a whiteboard in my office, and just about every Monday morning I sit down and write a list, of tasks I want to accomplish and scheduled events (meetings and phone calls and webinars and whatever), and any other reminders. Yes, I have a smartphone, and I live in Outlook, but there’s something about writing out that list that imprints it in my brain.

And I take great satisfaction out of stroking items off that list when I’ve completed them. I think when you work alone at home most of the time, you are responsible for recognizing your own achievements on a regular basis – because no one else will if you don’t.

I like maps.

I like road maps that take a certain amount of manual dexterity to fold up, globes on stands that you can spin around, Google maps that I can fly around and see what a place looks like as well as how to get there.

I like to play navigator on road trips. I rarely watch a movie when I’m on an airplane, because I bring my own music and my ebook reader, but I keep the map on the screen on the seat back in front of me and follow along as we fly.

I like instruction manuals.

I’m one of the few people I know who actually reads the instruction manuals for things that I buy. I used to attribute that to having written instructions for a living for a number of years, but it’s more deeply seated than that.  I think IKEA and LEGO manuals are sheer genius, for showing with just pictures how to put something together.

Managing change

Lists and maps and instructions manuals have one thing in common, for me: they allow me to maneuver through change while feeling in control.

I like change. In fact, I think I have a low boredom threshold, because when things stay the same for too long I get a little antsy.

But I don’t like chaos. And too much change, too fast, feels chaotic. Trying to cope with a really big change all at once can cause me to freeze in my tracks and not accomplish anything.

So I need plans. I need lists and maps and instruction manuals. I’m an entrepreneur because I like MY OWN plans and lists and maps and instruction manuals/systems/processes. But I do need them.

When I’m moving in a new direction, though, I don’t have any lists or maps or plans or instruction manuals in place. I do a few things, then, to keep me moving through chaos into manageable change:

I talk to my coach.

While I originally hired her as my business coach, we really spend a whole lot more time on personal development than business development. I’ve learned that my business growth is dependent on my personal growth. It’s really easy for me to live and work in and from my head; Rosemary helps me live and work in and from my heart. When I can do that, through a specific period of change or in a specific direction, I have far better results.

I talk to my peers.

I have two accountability partners, both of whom I am in contact with regularly. Pam and I try to touch base every Monday and Friday by phone; Bonnie and I use Groove, an instant message system of sorts, to chat more briefly but more regularly, almost every day. I can bounce ideas off them, get support as I work through stuff, or just vent if that’s what I need to do that day.

I talk to my husband.

Tom isn’t an entrepreneur, so some of the challenges I face he can’t relate to. But he has terrific people skills and is a natural leader and a good speaker/presenter. When I run into people issues, the occasional and inevitable personality conflict, he’s my go-to guy.

I talk to myself.

Which sounds a little weird, I know – but I find I journal more often and in more depth when I’m working through a change. It’s stream of consciousness writing, a brain dump that gets the junk out of my head and out of my way. I can test how things sound to me before I talk to even Bonnie or Pam or Rosemary about them.

I read.

I read a lot anyway, but when I’m faced with a change and a challenge I’ll go looking for resources (online mostly) and read articles and blog posts and books, to see how others have worked through similar stuff. (I’ll lump watching videos and attending webinars and teleclasses in with reading, here. It’s still looking for ideas from outside sources.)

And I start my lists and plans.

Thinking about big changes can throw me into a space of overwhelm, and I freeze. When I can break the big block into smaller bite-sized bits, I can see through or around them to where I want to go – and start figuring out a plan for getting there.

Plans change. No one knows that better than I do. Believe me when I say that where I am now, and where I think I’m going, is not something I could have anticipated even a couple of years ago.

But having a plan, a list, a map, gives me direction. And then I can take the first step, and the next step, and the next one…  As Valerie Young says, “There is only one next step.” The plan, the list, the map let me see that next step.

It’s up to me to take it.

What do you do?

Are you a planner, a list maker, a lover of maps and instruction manuals?  Where do you go, who do you turn to, for help when you’re stuck?

And how can I help you get to where you want to go?

As it happens, I was on a coaching call yesterday with a client who asked about using music on her site.  We talked about the copyright implications: how you can’t just take a track from your favourite CD and plunk it on your website!  And I mentioned that just like stock photo sites, there are sites that provide stock audio and video tracks and loops.

Lo and behold, what pops into my inbox this morning but an email about a site called Video Blocks offering for 7 days of free downloads of audio and video and backgrounds and more!

You do have to give them a credit card to sign up for the free 7 day trial.  And pay attention: because it’s $79 per month after your free trial.  If you aren’t going to use the service beyond the free trial, make sure you cancel in time before the paid subscription kicks in.

But if you’ve been thinking about adding music to your website or to a presentation, or you want an intro clip for a webinar, take advantage of their 7 day offer — because you have unlimited downloads during that time.

I’m a list maker, always have been. I get great satisfaction out of crossing items off of a list. I have a two-sided rolling whiteboard in my office.  While the back is for my annual planning calendar, the Big Picture stuff, the front side that always faces me is split into two lists: This Week and Longer Term.  Every Monday morning (well, almost every Monday morning) I scrub off last week’s lists and write out this week’s lists.  If I don’t get to my planning session till partway through the morning, and I’ve already accomplished some of the tasks for the week, I’ll still write them on the list — just so I can have the pleasure of stroking them off.

It’s a rare week indeed that I get everything crossed off my This Week list. Sometimes that’s deliberate: I’ll put a project phase on there, to remind me that I have to work on it this week — but the individual tasks in that phase are too small and too many to break out.  Sometimes it’s not deliberate: I fully intend to Get This Thing Done, but business — or life — gets in the way, and I don’t finish the entire task.

The funny thing about overwhelm, though? Between one day and the next, my list doesn’t change much. But some days I head into my office first thing, and I look at the list, and I think, “oh, okay, I’ll be working on that today” and I feel good about what I accomplish that day, that week.

Then there are days when I walk into my office first thing, and I look AT THE SAME LIST, and I get this panicky feeling in my chest that no matter how fast I run, no matter how hard I work, I am falling behind and I will never catch up.

It’s the same list! Only my perception of it has changed.

My business coach has a mantra for me to work on: “Everyone is doing the best they can’ with the resources they have, at any given moment — including me”.  I’m learning, honest.  It’s a challenge for me, some days more than most.

I’m learning to acknowledge and celebrate what I DO accomplish, and calmly and dispassionately and without guilt inform the folks who need to know when a date has slipped.  I’m learning to prioritize better, to recognize the difference between the urgent and the important.  And I’m learning to ask for help and to outsource where and what I can.

I don’t believe, I CAN’T believe, that I am alone in this.  So how do YOU deal with the ever-growing list?   Tell me YOUR strategies for coping with overwhelm!

If there’s one consistent message my clients have been sending me, it’s that they need me to help them through the entire process of getting their business online.  It’s not enough to simply build their website: we have to first plan the project, then do the project, and then follow up on the project.

So I now offer a continuum of services, to help you at each step along the way!

The “before you talk to a web developer” step

Let’s start at the very beginning
A very good place to start

“Do Re Mi”, from The Sound of Music
lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein, 1959

Before you set out in your car on a roadtrip, you need a map and a plan.  Before you build a house, you need a blueprint.  Before you bake a cake, you need a recipe.

And before you commission a web developer or a marketer to build you a website, you need a strategy.  I used to do this step as part of every web development project anyway: I need to get your branding and market and content structure out of your head so I know what to build!

Now I offer that step as a stand-alone session. Right now I’m doing them one on one, but I can reach more people if I deliver the same material in front of a roomful of people, or online as a series of webinars.

The “let’s build it” step

So once you have your strategy nailed down, the next step is to build what you planned.

I love WordPress.  I love not having to reinvent the wheel every time I build a website.  I love how powerful and how flexible it is.  I love how my clients can maintain and update their websites themselves.  Did I mention I love WordPress?  These days I use WordPress almost exclusively when I build a site.

Because I’m doing more and more strategy sessions with more and more people — and that will increase, of course, once I figure out the best way to deliver to a larger audience — I can’t possibly build for every person who goes through a strategy session.  I’m very pleased to be able to announce that I am partnering with a branding expert who has a team of designers and developers that can make your branding vision a reality.

The “now that I’ve got it what do I do with it” step

And once you have your website (and your email newsletter, and your blog) you have to fill all those content buckets with stuff.  Add in social media and audio and video, and that’s a whole lot of content buckets!

I help folks figure out how to fill those content buckets without losing their sanity.

The “I’m stuck” or “I need a nudge” step

Sometimes we need a fresh set of ideas, or a gentle nudge to keep moving in the right direction.  So I also help people work through their sticking points, and then help them stay on track with their plans.

It’s all good

Whew!  That’s a lot of pieces.  But you know what?  It’s all connected, and it’s all fun.

Rise again, rise again, that her name not be lost
To the knowledge of men.
Those who loved her best and were with her till the end
Will make the Mary Ellen Carter rise again.

“The Mary Ellen Carter”, by Stan Rogers, copyright 1979

There are days, weeks even, when my business feels like the Mary Ellen Carter.  And yes, I’m rising again!

So many changes.  So many different options to explore and figure out What I Want To Do When I Grow Up.

I’ve been in business since 1992, and developing websites for small businesses since 2000.  I still love doing that.  Over the years I found myself doing a lot of coaching, of sorts: helping my website clients BEFORE we build, with branding and web strategy, and AFTER we build, with content planning and general business issues.

I’ve learned, oh boy have I learned.  I’ve joined coaching programs, most notable Ali Brown’s Millionaire Protege Club in 2011 and her Elevate in 2012.  I became a certified coach myself in 2010, as a Profiting From Your Passions Coach (program by Valerie Young).

I wrote a book!  OK, part of a book.  But I want to do more, because that one was so much fun. (And I can’t WAIT to get my hands on the copies when they get her in late March/early April!).

And I found that it’s all of a piece, what I do.  Sort of an online business continuum if you will.  It took a while to figure out how to package and price the various bits — and I’m still sorting some of that out, as these things tend to take on a life of their own and go in unanticipated directions — but I now feel both comfortable and really excited with what I offer.

So join me on my journey. I promise I won’t sink the ship!

This is a WordPress website based on a free template and customized for her.

Visit the Reality Dreamer website

This site is built around a little content management system called PHPSeeds which is not as flexible or as powerful as WordPress. The product catalogue is a custom-built database application.

Visit the Urban Salt Box website

This is a custom WordPress site, created as a child theme of the Builder framework from iThemes.  It contains full e-commerce using the MarketPress plugin from WPMU.  Bonnie maintains the content herself.

Visit the Taylor Made Time website