A web designer moved to a new town with no contacts and joined a local networking group, speaking despite severe anxiety. Twenty years of practice transformed her trembling 10-minute talks into confident presentations that directly generated clients for her business.
So I started business about 20 years ago and I knew no one. I had just moved to a town that I had not grown up in, had not lived in for very long. And I decided to start a business and I had no contacts at all. So I connected up with a local networking group, similar to BNI, but on a much smaller scale and just local to my area. And my group had roughly 6 to 10 people that would attend every week for the meeting. And we were supposed to take 10 to 15 minutes and just tell everybody what we're about, what we're doing, what our business is, and who is a great referral for us. I was there probably 6 months before I got the courage to speak in front of these 10 people. And when I stood up, my voice quivered. I was sweating profusely. It was a very unpleasant experience, but I did realize it was very important for growing my business. So this local company, they're called I Take the Lead. Um, they're here in Portland and Seattle. They would allow you to go to any meeting as long as you were a member and there wasn't somebody else in your industry in the meetings that you're attending. As a web designer, there was nobody else in any meetings, at least when I started. I literally went to a meeting every day of the week to different ones so that I could start meeting people, getting connections and all of that. And then I graduated to being one of their speakers that would go around to different meetings and speak to a larger group of people. And they would use these speaking events for recruitment for the group. The first time, again, there was probably maybe 20 people. And I stood up and I was just like, I just have to know a little bit more than everybody else. And since I was talking about websites and online marketing, I knew a ton more than everybody else in the group because there wasn't anybody else that did what I did. Even though I logically knew that, it was still terrifying. Like my voice would quiver. I would hang onto a piece of paper and I was probably shaking like this, but I eventually got over that. And it was just doing the same thing over and over and over. And I would always have a handout. And it had an outline of what I was going to say so that I would not get lost. Other people would write whatever notes they wanted on the handout and could take it with them. And it was great because then they could contact me with their questions. I did get clients from that. It was the perfect way for me to get local clients. And it took me a long time. I will say a very long time to get over the fear of just standing up in front of a small group of people. If I can do it, you can do it. And if you're already there, fabulous. Start scheduling appointments to speak in groups. I then graduated to like their, I think they called it a quarterly event, something like that, where all of the groups would come together in one location. And they would have a speaker and I was on a panel and I couldn't even tell you what the panel was about. I invited my friends to this just to give me support for sitting on a panel of about 6 people. So I wasn't even speaking myself and I got through it. I got through it. Everything that came up. I got through it. It still is not my favorite thing in the world to do. This last fall, I was invited to speak at a conference the very first time, and I could sell something from the stage again for the very first time I've ever done that. I got through it. That's all I can say. I got through it. I think I did pretty well. I certainly did better than myself 20 years ago. So if speaking's not a favorite thing of yours, figure out a way to work through that anxiety because it really has paid off tremendously for me in my business over the last 20 years.
