It’s been a full week from June 18 to 23. Writing this on Friday I am tiired. 😔 On top of my usual schedule I attended 5 events (shout out to anti-hustling and pleasure!)
One event was happy hour networking for coaches from Christie Mims at Coach Pony. I was really surprised at how lit up and energizing socializing in the multiple breakout rooms was for me. And another event with Tara Robertson and Christina McFadden ended up having breakout rooms as well, and it was fantastic! I joked about whether I still have my introvert card. (Yes, I sure do.)
It was interesting to delve into what I was finding I needed to recharge from then, and I was once again surprised. I realized that I wasn’t drained from the face-to-face connecting; I was drained from the follow up conversations - the emails and LinkedIn DMs that I felt the need to urgently do right after exiting zoom. To explore websites/LinkedIn profiles after the event and then drafting an email with recs and other things… is too much for me to do right after the event.
I need to incorporate my trust and slow/steady practice in this as well as an antidote to that fake, manufactured urgency. Aligned connections won’t time out. I can take my time and follow up with people within a couple of days (since I still like it relatively timely).
I also realized that I was letting a few events into my calendar on top of care/recharge events, like the daily meditation sit I enjoy. I wasn’t incorporating rest throughout my day. So I was debriefing in my head at night when I was ‘supposed’ to be sleeping and feeling overwhelmed or overstimulated, and not taking enough time for myself. Too much work, too much input and screen time. This whole week I was overworking on my business, learning, thinking, mindmapping, testing things out…
Speaking of, in creating offers I’ve been getting distracted by all the options of what I could do, and what people might need/want, and not checking first with me about what's exciting and fun and energizing. Or, I was getting confused with what I want to offer people as a service and what I need for myself. What’s of utmost importance is time freedom/flexibility while meeting my financial baseline.
As of writing, I’m now down to 2 main service offers from 4 (excluding what I’m leaving separate, on the freelancing/independent contractor side). I’ve gotten more clear on who my offer is for, what I’m helping them with, and how. I’ve archived a few things that maybe I’ll incorporate later, but aren’t quite aligned with my current tagline and so have gotten cut.
I’ve practiced 1 service offer with someone twice now and would like to trial the other. And then repeat with different people. I have scheduled chats to interview potential clients to do market research and drafts of emails to send other people to ask for who I should talk to for interviews and trial runs. It’s really exciting!!
After reviewing my week, I’ve started a spreadsheet for connections I’m making from one-off events with a breakout room or in-person side chat opportunities. I want to determine what events are repeaters (and fun for me!) and see if I want to invest into any more regularly with what it might lead to (peer support, trade, practice, client, coach, contractor, friend, etc.). I also want to tighten up my ecosystem (or a “tested sales funnel”) to prepare for future ads so I know my ratio of discovery calls to clients (and time frame/turnover). And to streamline my onboarding journey and staying/feedback loops.
That’s for later… I’m playing the long game. As I remind myself, this is my first iteration of many future versions. I’m taking the time I need to make sure it’s right for me.
As I wrote on LinkedIn the other day, may [my desired impact] be so.
As mentioned above, I’m working on something around project development accountability partnering and coaching.
The overall gist so far is that it's accountability partnering for project development, works in progress, or what's been on the backburner. It’s specifically for coaches, facilitators, trainers, or educators who are changemakers working independently on their own thing who want someone to talk it out with and get feedback.
Do you know anyone who that might apply to and who might be interested in talking with me about it for 30 minutes?
Feel free to share widely! Thank you for reading :)