Taking Action for Your Business Means You Have to Get Uncomfortable

If I were comfortable with technology I wouldn’t really be on my game! Technology, you know…the tools, apps, platforms, devices…and even the strategies involved to make them proficient change so rapidly you can’t possibly know all there is to know. So why do we make ourselves crazy and get overwhelmed before even trying…it’s just our nature, or perhaps it’s just an excuse.

I recently met an amazing speaker named Craig Zablocki who was extremely spontaneous onstage. He read the crowd well and rolled with their responses naturally. And being a lifelong learner you know I had to pick his brain! So after his presentation I asked him if he could give me some tips as I’m always looking to raise my game. He of course said sure…little did I know he was looking for some social media marketing help. So we decided to meet after our event and trade knowledge!

After an hour of coaching him on social media strategy….Craig shared some suggestions to help me become a more spontaneous speaker.  And the end of our meeting we decided to give each other a checklist of actions. Actions each of us could take to dive in to the skills we wanted and needed to learn. And trust me…his list for me was far worse than mine!  He suggested actions like (1) wear a plastic boogger while shopping at Nordstrom and (2) the next time I fly (which was this last weekend) I should get my entire row to sing a nursery rhyme with me. (By the way…I used the intercom to accomplish that action! Thanks @VirginAmerica)

Clearly these are things outside of my normal comfort zone. But that was the point. To Craig, sending a tweet with a shortlink sounded like something you feed a bird. But in that moment both of us realized that in order to become more confident with the tools and concepts we wanted to learn…we had to practice using them.

So when I was asked by the Women’s Council of REALTORS – California Chapter to give a keynote sharing some technology trends for 2012 I couldn’t very well give them concepts without ACTIONS! The 12 I suggested are in my slides below! And here’s hoping you’ll take some ACTION with something that makes you uncomfortable today…but gives you a little more confidence each time you give it a try!