I want to be raw and vulnerable with you for a second.
One of my core values in business is about being totally open and transparent.
I want my people to see me for who I really am.
I show up as my whole self, and I take responsibility when things go wrong.
I hope by sharing my story about the day I made a howler of a mistake, it’ll help you when times get tough.
To not be so hard on yourself when things don’t go according to plan. Because in business it does happen.
We don’t always get things right. And I want you to know that it’s ok.
We’re resilient. We learn from it, and we go again.
The time I dropped a clanger
Last year I made a huge blunder in my business.
I hosted a live workshop that totally flopped. In fact, everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong.
I wish I could say it was a complete success. I wish I could say everyone loved it. But I can’t.
There were countless technical glitches, and for a couple of the attendees, the workshop wasn’t what they expected.
And to be honest, the various tech troubles threw me off my game.
The workshop didn’t go into the detail I’d planned. I fumbled, and missed important steps that would have brought more clarity to the training.
But I have to accept I’m human – I too make mistakes and these things do happen.
That’s no excuse for what happened, but I know I’m not alone in the many mistakes and challenges we all encounter as business owners.
But when someone chooses to buy from me and puts their trust in me, I don’t take that lightly.
I want to delight people. My aim is for my customers to come away with clarity, and feel energised to put that training into action.
Every customer, subscriber and follower matters to me.
The workshop was a beta round before an official course launch. The aim was to gather feedback so I can improve and tweak the content.
That way I could ensure it was the best it could be before it was available to buy. That feedback is always invaluable.
Putting things right is what counts
To put things right with the attendees that signed up, I offered them the very first spots on the mini course when it went live a couple of weeks later. At no extra cost.
I couldn’t have lived with myself if they only had access to the dodgy workshop replay. My integrity wouldn’t allow it. And I hoped it would go some way towards making things better.
When something like this happens, only we can choose what to do about it.
Yes, a big part of me wanted to crawl under a rock and hide away from the world. Be the host of my very own pity party for one.
And sure, that unwelcome mind monkey that screamed ‘you’re not good enough!’ did rear its ugly head again. But I chose not to let the doubt take over.
For many of us we can let that fear, that one failure consume us.
We start thinking we’re not cut out for entrepreneur life and maybe it’s time to jack it all in.
I’m the first to admit I’ve struggled over the years with hang ups and mindset issues, and after such an almighty cock up, the thought had crossed my mind.
But ‘failures’ like this are never the disaster we first believe. They make us stronger. They’re an opportunity. A chance to accept responsibility. To put it right for the customers involved, and learn so you can make it even better next time around.
Yes, we all make mistakes.
And yes these challenges can trigger those old fears and stories we have about ourselves. But it’s what you choose to do afterwards that counts.
For me, I brushed myself off, picked myself back up and put that mind monkey back in its box, where it belongs.