Sometimes when people ask me about eating raw, I joke that eating vegan wasn’t “out-there enough.” When you’re part of a tiny – albeit fabulous – minority, it’s easy to worry that people think you’re a little strange. And even to wonder if maybe you are. Or maybe you’re comfortable with being raw, but feel pressure from others that you’re not “raw enough.”

Are you stuck with any negative thoughts about what you’re doing with your diet or your work? Or maybe you have concerns that you go about things very differently than others do. Read on to see that your outside-the-mainstream lifestyle, very special business and unique way of doing things are absolutely terrific exactly because they’re not the same-old, same-old!

Today’s post comes from my business partner Sherry Essig, who helps professionals get unstuck. She and I have worked together as Priority Ventures Group for 15 years.

Normal is a Cycle on a Washing Machine

It’s also a town in Illinois and a style-setting in Microsoft Word.

But beyond that? Really, what exactly is normal?

Roget’s New Millennium™ Thesaurus suggests these synonyms: usual, regular, ordinary, typical, commonplace, and run-of-the-mill.

I don’t know anyone who aspires to be any of that!

Yet at some point most of us have found ourselves thinking, “I’m weird for doing, thinking, saying, wanting [fill in your word] … I need to be more normal.”

But it never works.

You really, truly think it’s important to change. So you keep trying. And now you’re really stuck because you’re trying to be someone you’re not.

Now what?

One of the keys to getting unstuck is acknowledging and embracing who you are – quirks and all. In this case, you got stuck trying to be someone different, but it’s applicable to almost any case of stuck.

It doesn’t matter what works for anyone else; they aren’t you!

My client Barbara got caught in this trap a few years ago when she mentioned she’d been working on self-discipline and miserably failing. She is smart, successful, motivated, energetic, and extremely creative: not the typical profile of someone suffering from self-discipline issues.

“What has you feeling undisciplined?” I asked her.

“I look around at my peers and my boss, and they are all so much more disciplined. They come in, decide what they’re going to do when, and then do it. I need to be more like that; it’s a much more effective way to be.”

Who hasn’t fallen into the trap of thinking you’d be better if you were more like the super-organized, easy-going, or charismatic person down the hall?

Don’t get me wrong. I believe change and personal growth are critical to success and happiness – that’s why I do the work I do. But change is good only when it’s in service of being the best version of you. Otherwise, you become a square squeezing into a circle.

When Barbara actually visualized a more structured day, she blurted out, “If I scheduled my time that tightly, it would wring the creativity right out of me. Now that I think about it, I do get done what needs to be done, and maybe it’s okay that I do it differently.”

In fact, it’s more than okay; it’s what helps her thrive.

I recently came upon this quote from author Alice Walker: “In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they’re still beautiful.”

Not only are they still beautiful, they wouldn’t survive if you straightened them out to look more normal.

The same holds true for you.

About Sherry Essig

Sherry Essig helps professionals move from stressed and stuck to happier and more successful.

Executives, business owners, entrepreneurs, and service professionals such as attorneys and CPAs reach out to Sherry to get immediate relief and to continually live and work in a way that’s more fulfilling and centered.

Visit http://www.PriorityVenturesGroup.com to learn more and to get your free copy of “Ten Tips to Get Unstuck.”

In my last post, I discussed lessons learned from my first teleclass, “3 MUST-DO Steps for Websites that Get Results: How to Get MORE CLIENTS, Achieve MORE IMPACT and Earn MORE MONEY with Your Raw-Inspired Business“. Despite these missteps, response to the class was amazing and the recording is a fantastic tool for inspired businesses.

So what went right to get such great results despite some problems?

Value-packing the agenda
One of my mistakes was OVER-packing the agenda. But too many teleseminars deliver too little value, in my opinion. Although people may not pay money for a free class, they’re investing precious time. So I planned very meaningful content and communicated that clearly when promoting the class.

Making it Interactive
This can be scary if you haven’t done it before, but getting participants involved brings energy and realism to the call. The people who spoke on my call also offered some really helpful ideas that I wouldn’t have covered. And even if people don’t speak, or they’re listening to the recording, having them do something along with the class such as an activity or exercise increases the amount they retain.

Day-of Reminder
Because I’d mentioned the class often to my list members, I wondered if a day-of standalone email would be overkill. Hardly! I got numerous sign-ups from people who then benefited from the in-depth info the class provided. It makes sense. With busy schedules, often we don’t want to commit to something until the last minute. And I reminded everyone that they’d get access to the recording if the timing didn’t work.

Friending the Facebook RSVPs
Another mistake I made was not following up with the Facebook RSVPS early and often enough to make sure they’d registered via my site. But I did salvage the situation by sending friend requests to everyone who RSVP’d “yes” or “maybe” that wasn’t already a friend. This would be a great place to use a virtual assistant or maybe even a young neighborhood friend.

Listening to and Editing the Recording
Do you like to hear yourself on audio? If you’re like most people, probably not. But especially if you’re just starting out with teleclasses, listening to the recording is well worth any pain. I was able to identify important ways to improve delivery in future classes. And even more satisfying was using the free audio editor Audacity to smooth out a few of the bumps and produce a tighter, easier-to-listen-to recording that will really help people with their websites and their businesses.

Perhaps one of the best things I’ve done with this teleclass is recap the lessons learned with you! By thinking about what worked well and what could be better, I’m in a great position to maximize the impact of what I do in the future – not just classes, but events, launching new products and more! And since I’ve already received an interview to be a guest on another call (details soon), I’ll be putting my new findings to work right away.

How about you? Do you regularly recap lessons learned from your classes, events and products launches? Do you have any tips you can share?

In the future I’ll have a blog post about lessons learned from transferring my Website across hosts. But one I just caught was updating the source on your blog feed if it impacts your url! So subscribers may have missed a few recent posts. They’re all still  available at http://www.InspiredRawBlog.com.

Last week I offered my first teleclass, 3 MUST-DO Steps for Websites that Get Results: How to Get MORE CLIENTS, Achieve MORE IMPACT and Earn MORE MONEY with Your Raw-Inspired Business. The response greatly exceeded my most optimistic expectations! And now I’ve got a super free recording available to share.

In my next post, I’ll talk about some of the steps I took to create these exciting results, so you can apply them to maximize response to your teleclasses and other events. But first, let’s look at a few of the bumps I hit, so that you can avoid the time, stress and lost opportunity that come with them.

1. Over-packing the agenda
Trying to introduce myself, explain 3 steps, review two Websites and share a special offer in 60 minutes was, quite frankly, nuts. As a result, some of the presentation was rushed. More is not always better, especially when people are learning something new. And faster is rarely better! Fewer steps or a longer call would have helped.

2. Not including a source field to assess my marketing
About 3/4 of the sign-ups were not from my current list. I would have loved to learn where they came from: Facebook, Twitter, Karen Knowler’s Professionally Raw ezine, Give it to Me Raw, referrals or other places. I‘m sorry I didn’t include the optional field “How did you learn about the teleclass?” While such information is rarely complete or 100% accurate, it’s does suggest which promotion efforts are paying off.

3. Missing the Facebook RSVPs
My Facebook event listing drew an amazing response. But even though the post said that people had to register at my Website, very few did. By the time I noticed and got out a reminder the day of the class, my conversion rate from Facebook to the class wasn’t very strong.

4. Leaving some things until the last minute
Both Facebook and Aweber were intermittently uncooperative the day of the teleclass. All critical communications should have been completed the day before to allow a contingency for such problems.

5. Testing only part of the system
I very diligently checked and double-checked how to use the teleconference line and record the session. I even downloaded a test recording and found the software to edit and create an mp3. But I stopped short of testing the upload to my site. Imagine my surprise when I learned my new host doesn’t accept audio or video! I was able to sign-up for Audioacrobat, but then had to learn it on the spot (see point 2: Faster is rarely better). The extra time put me farther behind in getting the recording out when promised.

Fortunately none of these mistakes was fatal. People still registered in large numbers. The call recording is  a powerful tool for any raw-inspired business and a great marketing piece for me in the future. But these bumps made the process less professional looking and more personally painful.

How about you? Are there things you’d do differently in your next teleclass?

Subscribe to the blog or check back to catch the follow-up on lessons learned from success in creating a great teleclass.