Confession time! I get nervous over seemingly stupid stuff.
I was at SXSW 2022 as a featured speaker which was a huge honor and so much fun. I love being on stage with a microphone, a powerful message and (oh how, I have missed) a live audience. That fuels me! But it might surprise you to know that I am strangely shy sometimes when I’m one-on-one.
The day after my talk, I was waiting for a friend at the SXSW bookstore in the Austin Convention Center and I couldn’t help but notice and get excited whenever I saw anyone pick up my book.
I, of course, didn’t want to pressure them to buy it if they picked it up, but if I saw them walking to the cash register with it I felt compelled to go and talk to them and tell them how much it meant to me that they were buying my book. I wanted to know what about my book resonated with them and what they hoped to gain from reading it.
As a closeted introvert, my face was beet red from nerves and embarrassment when I approached the first person. But I am so happy that I pushed through that.
I ended up connecting with so many people from all over the world who each had a different reason for purchasing. One was transitioning from an intrapreneur to an entrepreneur for the first time; another had just graduated with their MBA; there was a woman with a very traditionally confined role who wanted to expand her job description and stop underestimating herself; and many more who had just seen my talk the day before.
I offered to sign their books – and even had one guy who did not believe that it was mine! I had to flip to the back cover to show him my picture to prove that I did write the book he was holding in his hand which really made me laugh.
These chats in the bookstore became a cherished memory of mine from SXSW 2022. The momentary awkwardness has completely faded and their stories and the connections we made have remained and inspired a lot of new work I’m producing. And I almost missed out on that out of momentary fear.
My challenge to you today is to do something that scares you a bit that is connected to your personal development and helps you establish deeper human connections. You never know what might follow!
And if you want your own copy of “Bet On Yourself,” it’s available on Amazon via my affiliate links: https://amzn.to/3Qyo7V7 (for the US) and https://amzn.to/3wFlqa0 (for the UK/Europe) or anywhere you like to buy books! (I even recorded the audible version myself too!)
