Make it Count
01/8/2011

I had a call recently from a former client inviting me to speak at her Business Women’s Networking Group.  She had seen me deliver a twenty minute presentation four years before.  The audience was a group of aspiring business women about to complete their business studies degrees at Cambridge Anglia Ruskin University.  My client commented that my recommendations about “Buying Cycles” had had a profound effect on her – positively influencing the way she did her marketing. I was, of course, flattered that my presentation had such an impact; the problem was I couldn’t remember the presentation or the key message which she had taken away from it.

The presentation was on Monday morning after a fashion show on Saturday night, with all the clearing up on the Sunday. I had been working around the clock to produce a huge fashion show in Cambridge for Teenage Cancer Trust, which was the culmination of two years work and had been a huge success, raising £25,000 for a new cancer unit for teenagers at Addenbrookes Hospital in Cambridge.

Networking and business is something I’m pretty comfortable with, the presentation would have been written and learned in advance, so I guess I was on autopilot, promptly forgetting all about it.  Still I can’t find the speech or the notes for it.

So, in true Co-Active Coaching style … what’s the learning?

When given the opportunity to share expertise, make it count.  It is generally understood that people sometimes take away only two key points from a training course.  This is why, incidentally, to maximise results from training, follow-up coaching is such a great idea and a really positive investment, but I digress …

1. My Dad once said that we are influenced by everyone we meet.  That chat you have at the coffee machine tomorrow morning could change someone’s life …  Be willing to share;  however disposable your thoughts may be to you, to another it could be something they carry with them always.
2. I could have refused the booking … “I’ll be too tired” … but then my message would not have reached my client (and she perhaps would never have become a client!)  So, no matter what your self-limiting beliefs say … if you have something that will make a positive difference to people, don’t hold back. Don’t let “too tired”, “too scared to do public speaking”, “no-one will listen to me” stop you.  Just do it!

What action will I take from this?

No matter how short the presentation, keep the notes and file them carefully – in four years time you might want to look back and find out the exact words that counted.