So, as a solopreneur, a woman, in a relatively small community of 175,000 with 25 years experience outside the city, I come up with a new concept for the city in the way of a Home Show kind of concept. I have complete faith in my ability to put together an amazing package that is based on faith in the first year because I know in my heart of hearts that it will work, and if I get the following in the first year it will just take off on its own in the next four years because it just takes the first one.
The event is cutting edge in its communications strategy. It hasn’t been done before in our city, and as the leading specialist in the region, having been described as the ‘driving force behind getting [the city] into social media’ in the local daily, I know that I am backing up the promises with hard and fast data to show the exhibitors where their investment went.
It is the most expensive exhibiting rate for a show in our region.
Businesses have been signing up without question from the minute the concept was released and some serious players in the region joined me in sponsorship deals and two year agreements because they too can see the value of what I’m trying to do.
I had a business ring me and say “if you drop your prices, I might think about joining you.”
Pfft…really?
Because I was so caught up in my own excitement for this concept, I had not prepared myself for that kind of a response.
Did it put me into the fluster bucket? Yep.
Did it make me angry? Nope.
The gratitude I felt for being put on the spot and then going and making the HUGE list of what value this will be providing a participant was a good exercise for me to do. It was such an abrupt exchange I didn’t expect to hear back from them.
Wrong.
Three more points of contact from them with the final one being a phone call getting all accusatory towards me and my concept that what I was doing was not going to work.
Guess where I went? Straight to my prepared, speaking my truth and conviction voice without being intimidated and my voice only shook once when this person said “how dare you….” to a part of the reporting I am promising exhibitors which I KNOW I can provide at the end of the campaign.
I don’t lie. You only tell the truth because then you never have to remember what you’ve said.
This person questioned everything I said and was just in it for an argument, even though I gave them an option that would suit them within 30 seconds of the phone call starting.
The call went on for over 15 minutes. I got to put everything into practice that I had learned in the last 12 months. I asked loads of questions which kept steering this person back to stabbing themselves in the foot. In my mind anyway.
Point of this blog. Do NOT let someone try and railroad you into something if it is stepping away from your core set of:
- Values
- Belief systems
- Business plans
- Concept integrity
- Pricing structure that is measured
People have their own agendas, their own egos, their own stories. If it does not fit with yours, then it’s a case of hitting that next button.
Truth, conviction and trust in yourself and what you are capable of is paramount for a person in business. If you do not fully trust what you are doing or capable of, then you are in the wrong business. If you do not fully trust what you are doing or capable of then you will spend your whole self-employed life back peddling and questioning if you need to diversify or change things.
All that does is equal anxiety.
Speak your truth even if it makes your voice shake. Where have you experienced this level of feeling before?
Loading ...
Pingback: BizSugar.com