#30YearsRolling – Day 17/30 – Reflections on the 30th Anniversary of my Injury

 

 

 

In the years leading up to the work in Solomon Islands I had found myself seeking out personal development material.

 

It might surprise you to hear, I felt I had a motivation issue.

 

I’d been doing online courses and buying a bunch of products around online marketing and investment but found myself just dabbling.

 

A lot of knowledge was being acquired and I had put my lack of execution down to a mindset issue, so I set out to solve that.

 

It started with books and there was one book in particular that had me knowing that I needed to work in more depth with the author.

 

That book was Opportunity Knocks by Pat Mesiti.

 

As I was finishing the book, I got an email announcing that Pat was running a one day workshop in Adelaide and I knew I had to be there.

 

When I looked up the date in my calendar though, I found it was the day I was due back at work after four weeks leave.

 

Without a moment’s hesitation I emailed my boss and let her know that I needed one more day off.

 

I decided before I got to the workshop that whatever he was offering as a way to work in more depth with his programs I was going to buy.

 

As soon as the workshop started, I knew I was in the right room.

 

I loved the passion, the storytelling and I was frantically taking notes as idea after idea resonated with me and I knew I was discovering ways to shift the mindset issues I had been experiencing.

 

I did at the end of the day I did buy what was on offer – a big pack of books and audio programs on CDs and a couple of bonus 3 day events that were being held at Gold Coast early the following year.

 

One of those events was the first time was going to travel interstate to go to an event.

 

In the meantime, I listened CD by CD in the car every day on the way to and from work.

 

When I did go to the Gold Coast event I found not only the content to be useful, some of the  people I met there went on to become great friends.

 

There was one particular session that did capture my attention more than the others and it was about writing books, speaking and getting your message heard.

 

At that time, I was curious about writing as many people had said that my story would make a great book.

 

I wasn’t convinced that my story would, but I was curious about learning how a book could be written and marketed so I enrolled for the workshop which was to be held in Sydney later in the year.

 

By the time the workshop came around I had already been to Solomon Islands, had started the part time Community Engagement role so I planned on doing the workshop with the intention of seeing how I could apply it to that work.

 

The workshop was fast paced and super practical. It was a pretty small group of around 30 people, many I already knew from previous events so it was a warm room to be in.

 

When it came to the speaking sessions I felt completely out of my depth and struggled to string a sentence together.

 

I chose to speak about either home business or the Solomon Islands trip.

 

By the end of the three days I had improved a bit but I wasn’t sharing anything about myself personally.

 

When feedback was being given at the conclusion of the workshop Pat said I needed to be sharing my own story.

 

I replied that I didn’t want to talk about myself because I thought everyone would think I was a total wanker!

 

Pat quickly challenged me by telling me that I had to get over myself, it wasn’t about me it was about the audience, and with a story like mine and what I’d learned that if I didn’t share it I was being selfish.

 

It hit me hard as I’ve always wanted to help others.

 

During the workshop Pat spoke about another event he was running, his premium event of the year and said that if any of us were to come to it that he would run a speaking contest, each person gets 5 minutes on his stage, the winner would get a slot at another of his big events the next year along with some other prizes. The audience would be the judges.

 

I knew I needed to be there so I said yes and then scrambled behind the scenes to pull together the funds and set about putting together my 5 minute talk.

 

I reflected on Pat’s comments about it being selfish not sharing my story as I decided on the theme for my talk.

 

And I decided to take a massive leap into the unknown and do a 5 minute version of my story.

 

I was terrified.

 

So terrified that I struggled to remember what I was going to say so I had a little piece of paper on my lap with the first word or two of each sentence in case I lost my words.

 

The five minutes went so quickly and as terrified as I was, I loved the feeling of energetic connection as I made eye contact with people around the room, seeing them go on the roller coaster of emotion with me.

 

There were tears, there was laughter and at the end a thunderous applause.

 

The applause and the love I felt from that room firstly had me feeling relieved, and it helped me feel that it was a good thing to be vulnerable in sharing myself and that had me feel that there might just be something in this story of mine that could be helpful to others.

 

For the rest of the event I was stopped constantly by people sharing just how much my story impacted them and inspired them.

 

The following day I sought out Allan Pease, who had spoken earlier that day, for a photo and to let him know what I took away from his talk.

 

When I saw him he told me he had seen me speak the day before and asked if I was speaking professionally.

 

When I replied it was the first time I’d ever done that he was incredibly generous in pulling up a chair for a great chat where he told me how well I had done with the highs and the lows.

 

He gave me advice on how to teach using my story and let me know that an amazing story would only get me so far. He gave me recommendations of other speakers to watch their keynotes to see how they do it and said if I did similar with the personal story I already had that I could be a speaker for life.

 

That conversation was everything. Someone I’d admired sharing that gave me the desire to really find my voice and message.

 

Finding out that night that I had tied for first place in the speaker contest cemented that and I knew I had a big stage that I needed to prepare a keynote for so I got into action.

 

I worked closely with Judeth Wilson, who I was working with to learn corporate training, on finding what was my core topic and my angle on it.

 

It was Judeth who put the word Resilience to what I do and got me out getting speaking gigs, at first for free, then bit by bit bumping up my fee and working with bigger clients.

 

By May 2012 I left employee land for the last time to commit fully to being a Keynote Speaker.

 

The elusive 22 year search for a career path had been solved and I was excited to give it everything.

 

 

 

 

 

The song that represents this time for me is “A New Level” by Pantera.

 

#rebirthday #ToMyYoungerSelf

 

Follow hashtag #30YearsRolling on social media to read this series as it is published. You are welcome to comment on and share these posts

 

 

Stacey Copas, Author of “How To Be Resilient”, helps shift the way people perceive and respond to uncertainty, change and adversity, helping them to see opportunities where they once saw only obstacles.

To be fulfilled and successful in embracing the uncertain and changing world, it is essential to develop resilience to see and act on the opportunities that uncertainty and change present.

Stacey is available to present or coach online/remotely/virtually across all time zones. Book via bookings@staceycopas.com