A few months ago, I received an email from my local news station to do a segment on our first annual vision board conference.
This was a great opportunity for the conference to FINALLY get some coverage on a large scale. Of course, I was happy to get this type of interest for our first event, but instead of jumping for joy, I panicked.
We'd need to find a location to shoot for the entire morning. I had to set up four different shoots, organize to have some volunteers to help, and have our speakers and sponsor ON SET AT 8AM... and we had about a week to pull it together. If I could describe how I felt in that moment, it was:
10% excitement,
10% headache (thinking about all the new items to add to my ever-growing to-do list)
80% panic
By the time the camera crew was ready to shoot, we'd somehow made it happen... and went on national TV looking like we had our lives together.
Opportunities don't present themselves all the time, but when they do, you'd better be ready for them. Here are my best tips for taking advantage of life's greatest opportunities.
call your go-to Girlfriend that helps you dream big
This works best when you're in panic mode. Call that one friend that you admire most. You know, the one that's always managing to pull off the most amazing events, create the most high profile partnerships and moves mountains... all while looking like a runway model.
When I called up my go-to girlboss panicking about all the things on my to-do list she was calm and gladly offered advice and ideas. Then, before getting off the phone, she uttered words that stuck with me to this day:
You're doing this.
She reminded me that I am going to do this news segment. I just have to figure out the how. And just like that, the panic went away and I drifted off into strategy mode.
Call in the your personal #ThriveTribe
You will need help creating girlboss magic, especially when you're on a time crunch. Calling your trustworthy friends and family to help you pull things together will take some things off your plate.
With some additional help, you can worry less, work less and things will still get done. This also clears your mind to be more creative and thoughtful, ensuring you don't miss anything important.
While I was busy creating the press release, communicating with the news team and creating the layout for the segment, my #ThriveTribe was hard at work. I didn't have to worry about contacting the speakers or volunteers because they took care of it. After one chat with my aunt, she agreed to let us use her restaurant for the shoot and she also provided some early morning eats for everyone on set. (At this point, I'm like... Panic? What's that?)
Keep Showing Up.
Have you ever wondered why the same influencers, bloggers and Rockstar employees keep getting all the BEST opportunities? They simply keep showing up and keep doing the best they can NO MATTER WHAT.
If a huge project fails. They show up ready to work.
If they are losing money in their business. They show up for work.
When their web traffic is down AND they're getting no love on social media... they keep showing up for work.
I'm going to let you in on a little secret. That show was months in the making.
I'd been calling friends and family for months letting them know how excited I was to be creating the first Vision Board conference in DC and keeping them up to date on each new milestone.
My Dad saw first-hand that I was very serious about this event. I was investing money and a significant amount of time, securing sponsors and booking speakers. Eventually he started to talk to his friends about what his "baby girl" was doing (as parents often do) and one of his friends said she'd be interested in covering the event on her show.
Before we had web traffic, speakers or sponsors, ticket sales or news coverage, it was just an idea. All of those things came because we started showing up EVERY. SINGLE. DAY... ready to work.
What are your best tips to take advantage of opportunities?
If you enjoyed this article, then you might like my book:
Goal Doing: Practical Advice For Goal Setting, Action Planning and Achieving Your Dreams
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Cyrene is a fun and accomplished workshop facilitator, learning and development guru and Human Resources professional. Being at the helm of Thrive Lounge has been a long-time dream. Through vision board workshops she plans to accomplish two-way learning. Sharing her vast years of knowledge to motivate and encourage others; while simultaneously getting the reward of great energy, ideas and questions to ponder back from each group. A super win-win. Please join our Thrive Lounge community so you too can benefit!
