Shoot For The Moon

Allow me to start by expressing my deep hatred for my iPhone right now. I took a lot of notes today upon said phone and somehow, half of them were deleted. I can't imagine I deleted them but I also don't want to accept that my small piece of modern technology is plotting against my ability to blog about all of the wonderful things I heard today. This might be an important lesson in good, old fashion note taking. Get out your pens and notepads people, technology can fail you.

Thankfully, most of the major points that I wanted to take with me after the conference have stuck with me. For my first blog post today, I'd like to concentrate on a couple of areas. One will be my attempt at making a theme out of last night's wallflower heavy post. Another I touched on with the title of this post.

You might as well shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars. This isn't something I recite at my reflection each morning (actually, positive affirmations have never been my thing). However, this is something I practice in almost everything I do without even realizing it. Some people call me a perfectionist, some call me anal (such a nice word, no?), but I prefer to consider myself committed to the end result. Do whatever it is you're doing with amazing passion and consideration for the end result and even if you miss the moon, you'll land among the stars.

This saying could not be more evident in my life than what happened this morning. For a couple of weeks, I have been working on my 2nd Year Testimonial speech for the Venue Connect First Timers Breakfast. I wanted what I was going to say to stick with someone. I wanted to make the difference for anyone listening that someone made in me last year. I wanted to be inspirational but also real (not always easy). I also wanted to make an impression. Humans are somewhat self serving creatures, and while I wanted to help ignite sparks amongst the audience, I also wanted to show those listening what I can offer. I'm passionate about what I do, I'm one of the hardest workers you'll ever run across, I'm smart, well spoken and darn it, I can write a speech! Reciting the speech was another thing - but I've never claimed to be the world's greatest public speaker (if a cute, shakey voice does it for you then I'm sorry you missed the breakfast, I was full of cute, shakey voice).

This speech, my 2.5 minutes in front of a brand new group of peers, was a success beyond what I could have imagined. While standing up in front of the crowd, with my shakey voice and written speech, my eyes met with nods of approval, agreement, and empathy. I saw realization in the eyes of people sitting where I sat last year. After the breakfast, I was met with words of encouragement, appreciation and congratulatory remarks. I was also met with the opportunity to take my words, refine them, and potentially have them printed in an industry publication.

I shot for the moon and just might have landed there. I can't even imagine today happening any other way. It's just not in me to sit back and let things pass by me. Life is an amazing gift - live it your way!

Now, as promised, to get back to that wallflower topic from last night. I'd like to spin that from a negative to a positive. Is it so bad to be one that stands back and observes? Am I searching out the right opportunity to insert myself before jumping into the first opportunity I see? What if my immediate and exuberant insertion blocks my ability to see another less prominent but amazing opportunity just waiting in the wings? My leadership style is definitely a "go get them" style but I'm overly conscience about my team and how the team works together. I am successful in what I do because hang out on the sidelines playing coach instead of quarterback. This isn't a bad thing, it's my thing.

At least I made it a point to meet new people today and also jumped all over the opportunity to take someone up on a lunch invitation. It's still the old Erin (she's too valuable to leave behind), just one trying to play a braver role.

(this is the third in a series of blog posts written while attending IAVM Venue Connect 2011 - let's see if I can keep this up all week)

follow me on Twitter @WoolyHands and keep up with my conference tweets with a #venueconnect search